Facilitron Announces Santa Ana Case Study
LOS GATOS, Calif., June 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Facilitron, a data-driven facilities management platform that streamlines the rental process of school spaces, today announced a case study with Santa Ana Unified School District that details the benefits gleaned by the district through a partnership with the platform. Facilitron offers a unique, holistic approach to building and managing a facility use program and provides direct cost analysis insights and access to real-time data revealing inefficiencies, policy exceptions, financial losses and opportunities for improved revenue recovery.
Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) serves the city of Santa Ana, located in Orange County, California. As the seventh largest school district in the state and the second largest in the county, it's comprised of 56 schools, serving over 58,000 students. Santa Ana is one of the most densely populated cities in the country and roughly two out of three families are apartment dwellers. The city has few parks and recreational areas, resulting in a severe lack of public community space in the region. Combined with the overcrowding issue, this leaves limited space for community, sports and civic engagement organizations to utilize. As a result, school facilities and fields have become a significant and essential resource for nearly all community activities.
SAUSD holds the responsibility of hosting a large number of community groups and with that comes a vast amount of district-wide facilities management, operational and scheduling demands. Functioning with a facilities management staff of less than three employees, SAUSD was inundated with facility use requests from school and community organizations alike.
"Given the sheer number of inbound inquiries, accurately coordinating these facility use requests with existing school calendars proved to be extremely challenging," shared Orin Williams, assistant superintendent, Facilities and Governmental Relations at SAUSD. "Ultimately, these circumstances resulted in our district facing an overwhelming backlog of over 600 facility use requests."
Among the benefits SAUSD saw from partnering with Facilitron was greater transparency and accessibility of utilization data. Using the platform, SAUSD district administrators found that an organization leasing the district's facilities for both a non-profit and commercial entity had been incorrectly using its tax-exempt, non-profit designation for both of its organizations. Taking action on the discovery, the district was able to bill the commercial organization the difference in the non-profit and commercial rate backdated for two years, which allowed the district to recoup $160,000 in revenue. The recovered funding has been directed back into improving the quality and safety of school facilities. It has also helped the district open wellness centers where it sponsors student and community programs and education, including ESL courses, tax preparation support, parenting classes and more.