The Office of Environmental Health & Safety and Central Custodial Services operate as a self-directed work team. While the organizational structure reflects a typical “chain of command”, the team member’s work together collaboratively to accomplish the mission. Decision making is pushed to the lowest level reasonable, and all members provide high quality services. 

Ideally positioned within the Facilities Services Division, with access to manpower and financial resources, the team is responsible for a large, diverse group of programs. Staffing and funding levels are reviewed each year and are appropriate in light of one important distinction that sets us apart from other public school safety programs. Our team is not only responsible for identifying issues that need to be addressed, but also for coordinating and/or performing many of the corrective actions.

In-house personnel are involved with every aspect of each practice area. Contracted services are used where necessary to support in-house staff with each discipline and associated practice area. The District’s Purchasing Department, Facilities Services Department and ultimately the Finance Department are instrumental in providing funding and contract administration support. There is a competitive advantage in utilizing in-house personnel that have a working knowledge of district facilities, have a sense of ownership, and can respond in a rapid and efficient manner. Where specialized contracted services are determined to be most cost effective and customer service will not be compromised, they are utilized. 

The Team supports the schools and ancillary facilities from a central office. Practice areas of responsibility are assigned to staff based in part on individual; strengths, passion, and ability. In some cases, the division of work is based on geographic assignments (or work zones) which loosely match-up with individual employee’s place of residency (hometown/community). These match and balance techniques of work loading, coupled with cross-training for depth in support, result in a copasetic and efficient work environment. In addition to working closely with other departments in the Facilities Services Division, the Team supports other BPS departments such as; Risk Management, Human Resources, Security, etc. Unlike the Security Department, the EH&S Office does not address safety issues which are the direct result of criminal or deviant acts. For the sake of clarification, BPS uses the word and phrase ‘security’ and ‘public safety’ to label and identify BPS safety issues associated with the threat of deviant behavior. In addition to handling all Security issues for BPS, the Security Department is responsible for updating and maintaining BPS Critical Incident Response Manual which addresses some natural disaster scenarios as well as some human-made disasters (i.e. discharging a bomb or fire arm on campus). The Security Department also updates the Emergency Preparedness Plan for BPS each year. This Plan addresses hurricane storm preparation. The EH&S and Central Custodial Services Team directly supports the Security Department in preparation, response, and recovery of natural and other disaster scenarios and situations. 

The Team touches every aspect of the school district’s operations and is committed to its organizational values, vision for student achievement, and mission to serve every customer with excellence as the standard. 

• EH&S Administrative Procedures; 

• EHS Service Summar

• Furnishing & Safety Powerpoint

• Comprehensive Safety Plan

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