District achieves rare Gold Award for facilities

The PASBO award, won by Director of Facilities Rob Christine, recognizes exceptional school facilities’ best practices.
Posted on 02/17/2020
Rob Christine, QCSD's director of facilitiesBy Gary Weckselblatt

Rob Christine, Director of Facilities for the Quakertown Community School District, has won the Gold Award in the PASBO Award of Excellence in School Facilities for 2020.

Mr. Christine’s entry in the PASBO program met all seven of the required core competencies as well as scoring at least 19 additional points. The award is designed to recognize local education agencies with exceptional school facilities’ best practices. It is sponsored by PASBO and SchoolDude.

Of more than 100 entries this year, only two districts were Gold Award recipients.

“This shows the district is right on track with where we need to be from a facilities perspective and our processes moving forward,” Mr. Christine said. “After you look at the numbers and statewide statistics, it confirms that what the district has set in place is working.”

The seven core competencies are Facilities Maintenance and Management; Facilities Capital Improvement and Construction; Grounds Management; Housekeeping; Staff Management; Environmental and Safety Issues; and Benchmarking and Data Management.

Applying for the PASBO Facilities of Excellence certification was one of the Superintendent Goals for the 2019-20 school year. The year-long project requires the facilities, finance, and purchasing departments to work together to analyze all aspects of the facilities’ operation. The objective was to complete a thorough analysis of the Facilities Department, the bonus was winning the award.

Mr. Christine estimated it took him 150 to 200 hours to gather the data, adjust some current procedures and implement new procedures.

“In his first year as director, Rob has shown himself to be a leader and an expert in the field of facilities,” said Zach Schoch, the district’s Chief Operating Officer. “We’re very appreciative of his work and dedication in this enormous undertaking.”

The award comes with a $1,500 scholarship that Mr. Christine will receive at the PASBO Annual Conference on March 20. The money will be used for professional development.

Mr. Christine, an employee of the district for 25 years, began his QCSD career in 1994 as a part-time custodian and became head custodian a year later. He transferred to the maintenance department in 1996, and was promoted to lead maintenance in 2011. In 2016 he was named maintenance supervisor. On January 10, 2019, the School Board unanimously approved Mr. Christine's promotion to Director of Facilities.

Gary Weckselblatt, QCSD Director of Communications, writes about the people and the programs that impact the Quakertown Community School District. He can be reached at 215-529-2028 or [email protected].
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