Ask any K-12 facilities director what keeps them up at night and you’ll hear the same thing. It isn’t the roof or the boiler. It’s people. The HVAC tech position that’s been posted for eight months. The electrician who left for the private sector. The night custodial crew that turns over every year.
Most districts treat this as a pay problem. Pay matters, and if you’re way below market you better fix it. But plenty of districts give raises and still lose people, because pay was never the only thing driving them out the door.
The real problems
- There’s no pipeline. Skilled tradespeople don’t walk in off the street. Every district in the region and every private employer is fishing in the same small pond. If you start recruiting the day someone gives notice, you’ve already lost.
- Nobody has a future here. A custodian hired today can see exactly where they’ll be in ten years: in the same job, at about the same pay. Good people leave dead ends.
- Supervision is an afterthought. We promote the best technician to supervisor, give them no training, and then wonder why the crew quits. People leave bosses, not districts.
- The work keeps getting harder. More buildings, more systems, more technology, the same headcount and less training time. Burnout isn’t a feeling. It’s math.
You can’t hire your way out of a staffing problem you keep creating. Fix why people leave before you spend another dollar on why they should come.
Build your own pipeline
The districts that solve this start years before they need the people. A few moves that work:
- Partner with your local community college or career and technical program. Offer paid internships and summer jobs to students in HVAC, electrical and plumbing programs. Let your senior techs teach a class. You’re recruiting your next hire before anyone else knows they exist.
- Grow your own. Some of your best future technicians are already on your custodial crew. Find the ones with mechanical aptitude and pay for their training in exchange for a commitment to stay.
- Look into a registered apprenticeship. Your state may help fund training and wages for apprentices. Plenty of districts never ask.
- Hire your own graduates. Your high school has students who don’t want a four-year degree and would make great tradespeople. Show them the path in your own buildings.
Then keep them
- Build a real career ladder. Custodian I, II and III. Maintenance tech I, II and III. Each step tied to skills and certifications, with a raise attached. Now there’s a reason to stay and get better.
- Separate the technical track from the supervisor track. Your best electrician shouldn’t have to become a manager to earn more. And the ones who do supervise need actual training to lead people.
- Invest in tools and training. A small annual training and tool budget per tech tells people you see them as professionals. Taking it away tells them the opposite.
- Protect the schedule. If you can’t pay shift premiums, give predictable schedules. Night crews that get yanked to cover days every other week don’t stay.
- Listen when people leave. Do real exit interviews, write down what people say in their own words, and have leadership read them. The patterns will jump off the page.
In-house or contracted?
This is the question every board eventually asks, usually right after a tough budget year. The honest answer is almost never all one or the other. Here’s how I think about it.
Keep it in-house when:
- The work happens every day or every week, like custodial, routine repairs and basic HVAC.
- Response time matters more than hourly rate. A no-heat call at 6 a.m. on a Monday can’t wait for a contractor’s dispatch queue.
- The work builds knowledge of your buildings. Somebody has to know which unit ventilator always trips and where the shutoff for the science wing really is. That’s your Dave, and you can’t contract out a Dave.
Contract it out when:
- The work is specialized and infrequent, with licensing or certification you can’t justify keeping on staff: elevators, fire alarm testing, controls programming, roofing, chiller overhauls.
- The demand comes in surges, like the summer deep clean or a big lighting retrofit.
- It takes equipment you shouldn’t own for a few days of use a year.
Most districts land on a hybrid.
A strong in-house core for daily work and building knowledge, plus contracts for specialties and peaks. The real question isn’t in-house or contracted. It’s where the line sits this year, and whether you’re moving it on purpose or by accident.
Before you outsource custodial
Custodial is the service districts most often look to contract, because the savings on paper can be real. Before you sign, be honest about what you’re giving up:
- You’re outsourcing knowledge, not just labor. Your custodians know your buildings better than anyone. That walks out with them.
- Watch year three. Contracts usually look great in year one. Quality and scope tend to drift once the contractor knows you’re unlikely to switch.
- Your custodians are part of the school. Students see them every day. A crew that changes constantly is a different school culture than one that knows the kids by name.
- Write the contract like you mean it. If you do contract, spell out staffing levels, turnover reporting, inspection standards and penalties, and then actually inspect.
Track it so you can see it
Keep one simple record for every trades and custodial role: how long the last posting stayed open, how many qualified applicants you got, who left this year and why, and what the market pays. Review it with your leadership once a year. Within a couple of years the pattern is obvious, and the plan practically writes itself.
Staffing is a slow problem that turns into an emergency the week you can’t open a building. The districts that get it right start years ahead. The best time to start was three years ago. The next best time is this fall.
Where is your district losing people right now? And do you know why?
