Independent schools across California are quietly facing a growing operational crisis: the inability to build and retain reliable, high-performing facilities teams. Rising costs of living, workforce shortages, and increasing compliance demands are making it harder than ever to maintain consistent, quality campus operations.

We strongly believe facilities management isn’t just about buildings, it’s about people. That’s why we've launched our Humans Building Momentum initiative: a forward-thinking approach to staffing that elevates local talent, strengthens campus culture, and gives independent schools a smarter, more sustainable way to support their operations.

Combined with our Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) and shared resources model, this initiative delivers a long-term, mission-aligned solution for schools ready to future-proof their campuses.

What’s Fueling the Crisis?

Several forces are converging to make facilities staffing one of the most difficult challenges facing school leadership today:

• High Turnover & Short Staffing – Aging labor forces, limited pipelines of skilled workers, and inadequate wages compared to rising costs of living make retention challenging.
• No Path to Advancement – Without structured development, employees stagnate, leading to disengagement and high replacement costs, often accompanied by loss of critical institutional knowledge.
• Leadership Disconnect – When Facilities Directors silo themselves or fail to communicate effectively, staff morale and can clarity suffer. Poor direction and isolated management styles create disengagement, knowledge gaps, and operational breakdowns. When Facilities Directors operate in silos or lack clear communication strategies, team morale, accountability, and day-to-day operations suffer.
• Overreliance on Contractors – Third-party vendors often offer inconsistent quality, higher costs, and no long-term accountability to the school community.
  

Investing in People, Not Just Positions:

The Humans Building Momentum(HBM) Initiative

At the heart of our model is a simple idea: grow people, and you grow campuses. Through our Humans Building Momentum initiative, HBM actively seeks partnerships with nonprofits that train and support career-minded individuals, many of whom are displaced workers or come from underrepresented backgrounds.

These individuals often live in the very communities our partner schools serve, which fosters:

• - Stronger commitment to campus success
  • - Increased staff longevity and engagement
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We provide structured onboarding, hands-on technical training, qualifications, and long-term leadership development, all of which turn entry-level roles into future-ready careers.

Jorge Garcia is one of many examples of how upward mobility and on-the-job development at HBM lead to real, long-term impact.

"Based on what I have learned at each level of my career, and the opportunities that HBM has provided, I am now the Director of Facilities supporting a prestigious San Francisco school.”
“I'm incredibly grateful to be employed by HBM and consider them family”.

Jorge Garcia

Director of Facilities with HBM

Career Pathways That Drive Retention

In many independent schools, facilities roles are treated as static. We see every position as a stepping stone.

• - Staff receive continuous upskilling in technical trades, compliance, and operations.
• - Leadership development includes monthly roundtables with peer managers across California, fostering best practice sharing and growth.
• - Employees see real upward mobility, reducing turnover and improving service consistency across campuses.
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Financial and Operational Payoffs

Our staffing approach isn’t just people-first, it’s results-driven. Here’s how our IFM model generates long-term value:

Lower Turnover Costs:  Replacing a single team member can cost thousands in recruitment and onboarding. By offering clear career paths and aligning hires with your school’s mission, we reduce churn and protect your investment.

Reduced Contractor Spend: Cross-trained, self-performing teams can handle everything from light plumbing to carpentry, keeping work in-house and avoiding contractor markup.

Smarter Capital Planning: Our teams are trained to read and act on Facilities Condition Assessments (FCAs) and Reserve Studies, turning static reports into prioritized, actionable plans. That means your school gets real ROI from assessments you’ve already paid for.

Predictable Budgeting: Preventive maintenance becomes the norm, not the exception, leading to fewer surprise expenses and more accurate long-term planning.

Collaborative Strength, Site-Specific Service: While each school we serve has a dedicated team, our strength lies in our collective scale. When appropriate, we strategically deploy shared resources - skilled tradespeople, equipment, and even Facilities Directors across campuses. This means schools can access a broader pool of expertise and resources without compromising the personal, site-specific care their campuses require.

Additionally, schools benefit from cost savings through our statewide vendor relationships and bulk purchasing power for supplies and equipment—advantages that wouldn’t be possible independently.

Cultural Alignment That Sticks

When your facilities team is a revolving door of unfamiliar faces, it’s hard to build trust. Integrated Facilites Management offers a site-dedicated team model ensuring consistency, dependability, and mission alignment:

• - Our employees become trusted, visible members of your community.
• - Long-term placements align team values with school values.
• - This fosters better communication, stronger collaboration, and smoother
•    day-to-day operations.
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When culture and operations align, everything from classroom comfort to stakeholder confidence works better.

A Moment of Strategic Change: Turn Staffing Gaps into
Strategic Gains

Facilities challenges like vacant positions, rising vendor costs, or growing maintenance backlogs rarely resolve themselves, they tend to escalate quietly until they create visible strain on your campus and community.

Whether you’re managing vacancies, juggling rising contractor costs, or simply seeking more consistency in day-to-day operations, our tailored approach to each school we serve combined with our systems offers a sustainable, mission-aligned path forward, designed to help your facilities team thrive, your school community feel supported, and your budget stay on track.

Building the Facilities Team Your Campus Deserves

If your school is facing staffing gaps, rising contractor costs, or inconsistent operations, now is the time to explore a brighter path forward.

Through IFM and Humans Building Momentum, we help independent schools build high-performing, mission-aligned facilities teams that support long-term success.

Let us deal with the Headaches. Book a Complimentary 15-Minute Strategy Call

In one conversation, we’ll walk through your current challenges and outline how a fully integrated, campus-aligned facilities model can reduce risk, cut costs, and strengthen your school’s long-term operations.