5 min. read
by SitelogIQ
From working around your educational and athletic schedules, to implementing safety precautions – construction at K-12 school districts may involve additional considerations and planning to ensure work progresses safely without disruption to your curriculum. Limiting your construction schedule to the summer months may be the best option for your district. Our experts are breaking down the pros of summer construction and what to consider when selecting your school construction timeline.
The Pros of Summer Construction
1. Ensure Safety of Students and Staff
The safety of your students and staff, and community as a whole is of the utmost importance while construction activities are ongoing. With limited students and staff on campus during the summer months, it’s easier to ensure safety on site. In addition, school summer activities may be able to be scheduled away from the construction site for continued protection of your students and staff.
2. Minimize Disruptions
By completing construction during the summer months, K-12 districts can help minimize disruptions to their learning curriculum, sports schedules, extracurricular activities, traffic patterns, and so on. In addition, holding construction activities during summer also helps avoid disruptions during peak exam periods, graduations, back-to-school nights, parent-teacher conferences, assemblies, and other significant school events.
For the construction crews, summer construction also allows them to work more efficiently without the need to schedule around these daily school activities. The summer may also allow for an easier process for utility shutdowns when buildings aren’t fully occupied.
3. Avoid Weather Delays
Extreme temperatures, heavy rain or snow, and strong winds can affect the quality and pace of construction work. By scheduling a project during the summer when the weather is generally mild or more stable, may help to reduce delays from inclement weather.
4. Improve Scheduling
As mentioned earlier, construction during the summer helps to minimize disruptions but it also makes it easier for construction crews to schedule construction activities such as deliveries, equipment staging, etc. as they don’t need to schedule those around planned school activities.
Darcy Brenner-Smith, one of SitelogIQ’s Senior Business Consultants who previously served as a K-12 School Business Official also shared that “School administrators and staff have more time to plan for occupancy of a new or renovated facility over the summer.” This includes coordinating furniture and equipment installations, communicating with internal and community stakeholders, updating or configuring traffic patterns, completing systems training for new technology, and implementing maintenance plans and safety protocols.
While summer break may be a favorable time for construction activities, it’s important for school districts to keep in mind that these projects need to be planned far in advance to allow the compacted construction schedule to be completed in time before a new school year begins. Permitting, labor shortages, and supply chain issues are all obstacles that need to be worked out ahead of a project to ensure that it remains on schedule. Mike Rubino, SitelogIQ Senior Project Manager, shared that summer construction projects ideally should be under contract by the end of the previous summer. That means now is the time to begin your preparations for next year’s summer project.
“Planning well in advance and consulting with your district’s design professional on optimal bid timing will go a long way to mitigate unforeseen delays and ensure a smooth transition into occupying your new or renovated facility.”
– Darcy Brenner-Smith, SitelogIQ Senior Business Consultant and former School Business Official
Your K-12 Construction Partner
At SitelogIQ, we partner with our customers in K-12 public and private schools to enhance the learning environment. We have spent several decades partnering with school districts throughout the U.S. to bring comfort, functionality, and efficiency to the classroom through our K-12 school construction and related solutions.
We believe that every district is unique. That’s why we will take the time to thoroughly understand your district and community needs to best develop a project plan that fits your educational goals, both now and well into the future. Contact us today to learn how we can help deliver your next project.