As a facility manager of the landscape at an educational institution, you have a lot to worry about.
From interior school building issues to ensuring parents and students can easily and safely navigate your property on a daily basis, it’s easy for landscape maintenance to drop to the very bottom on your to-do list.
A well-maintained educational facility with attractive, usable exterior spaces; vibrant and even themed blooms throughout the year; and tidy and trimmed trees, shrubs, plants, and turf can improve the entire commercial site for all involved.
Positive site elements like this can enhance property safety and security, project a better brand image and reputation, keep things running smoothly, and even improve student attention spans and test scores.
An attractive landscape plays a more significant role than you think in reducing students and parents emotional pressure when attending school. A school surrounded by attractive landscaping is an inspiration to everyone on the property – teachers, school employees, students, and their parents. But landscaping doesn’t only beautify the environment, it actually assists the learning process by providing shade, cooling the nearby environment, encouraging students to love and appreciate the environment, and easing stress.
A relaxed mind, in fact, can improve student behavior, boost positive thoughts, and make the learning process that much more beneficial.
For Trinity High School in Garfield Heights, Ohio, the administration wanted to make a positive first impression on parents and students and wasn’t happy with the appearance of its grounds. They wanted to outsource its commercial landscaping to a crew that focused on quality and could maintain a presentable and positive image.
Commercial Landscaping Challenges at Trinity High School
Trinity High School is a coeducational, Catholic school. Its vibrant community of faith and learning combine with an innovative block schedule, emphasis on technology, and focus on students and their success.
Serving 320 students in grades 9 to 12, Trinity High School embraces a rigorous college preparatory curriculum, advanced placement coursework, and a transformational pre-professional internship program.
Trinity High School teachers have an average of 12.5 years of service at the school, and nearly 50% have completed advanced degrees. Students can join award-winning athletics and co-curricular activities in addition to their studies.
With a 26-acre campus that includes a main school building and several athletic fields, Trinity High School landscaping needed attention. Prior to the 2013 school year, the school contacted Turfscape to see what they could do.
Trinity High School Landscaping Solutions
The unkempt grounds at Trinity High School were giving off a poor first impression. To help solve this issue, Turfscape drafted a three-year grounds maintenance plan to help the grounds get into shape.
The Turfscape crew began their work on Trinity High School landscaping with a mid-season clean-up of the property to get the grounds presentable for teachers, students, and their parents for the beginning of the school year.
They also suggested long-term solutions to assist in the health and appearance of the educational facility’s grounds, creating a three-year plan focusing on high-quality maintenance and enhancements to keep the campus relevant, thriving, and highly functioning.
1. Refocusing Maintenance Personnel and Reprioritizing Tasks
First, Turfscape took over the exterior Trinity High School landscaping responsibilities.
This ensured that Trinity’s maintenance personnel could now focus on keeping the inside of the high school functioning and looking well, taking away any chance of the outdoors falling to the bottom of their to-do lists.
2. A Weekly Grounds Maintenance Plan
Weekly attention on such a highly visible and well-trafficked high school educational facility is essential to maintaining consistent quality, a professional appearance, as well as securing a sound, solid reputation that matches its history that began in 1926.
Turfscape crew members provide this high school with a full-service grounds maintenance program that includes lawn care fertilization, mowing/maintenance, pruning trees and shrubs, trash patrol, annual installations throughout the year, and spring and fall cleanup.
Everyone on Trinity High School’s maintenance team is aware of daily and weekly plans so they know what’s happening and can work in tandem. This amplifies commercial landscaping job quality, in addition to efficiency.
3. Additional Personnel for Special High School Events
As a prominent high school in the region, Trinity High School holds special events – everything from graduations to alumni get-togethers to school visits.
In addition to taking care of Trinity High School landscaping, Turfscape knows that a high school commercial landscape needs to look presentable during events – even more so than on an average day. Turfscape has the manpower needed to send several workers to the high school prior to special events to ensure they can spruce up the grounds, preparing them for the additional people and attention. This amplifies Trinity High School landscaping’s attractiveness, as well as security and safety.
4. Relieving Trinity of Storage Space and Unused Equipment
Trinity’s maintenance crew no longer needed to spend time maintaining and using its landscaping equipment.
Turfscape helped Trinity personnel sell its commercial grounds maintenance equipment, freeing up storage space and resulting in unexpected income for the high school.
5. Commercial Landscape Design Plan: Redesigning Entranceways
Trinity High School landscaping includes two main entrances.
Over time, commercial landscapes evolve and change. To keep high school grounds looking attractive and growing healthy, landscape enhancement plans must be put into place.
Turfscape redesigned and landscaped Trinity High School’s two main entrances as part of a giving back project. This improved the image of the school in the community and helped positively impact visitors’ first impressions. The landscape was transformed from archaic to modern, Trinity representatives raved.
Turfscape, as a result, has become ingrained in Trinity High School’s community, creating a deeper business partnership through these efforts to beautify the school and surrounding area.
6. Seasonal Color
Each season, Turfscape crew members dedicate time to developing an annual color display for Trinity High School’s front entrance.
This brings color and light to the space, brightening the high school’s grounds with lively, brilliant blooms.
Since the high school has a lot of traffic throughout most of the year, this extra color as part of their commercial grounds maintenance helps them look presentable and showcases the fact that they care about student and teacher life on their campus.
Trinity High School Landscaping Impacts
Trinity High School and Turfscape have developed a strong partnership since 2013 as a result of the commercial grounds maintenance program.
Outsourcing the landscaping has positively impacted the health and playability of the athletic fields, the school's overall image, and eliminated the juggling and hassles of making sure exterior maintenance was a continued focus with an overloaded maintenance team that already had limited time available to dedicate to the grounds.
Restructuring the team’s priorities, clarifying maintenance tasks, clearing up space of unused equipment, and giving the property a much-needed boost has elevated the high school to the image it hoped for.
A Comprehensive Commercial Landscaping Program for Educational Facilities
Turfscape’s new maintenance and enhancement plans have positively impacted the overall health and appearance of Trinity High School landscaping.
And the relationship between the two companies has deepened beyond just commercial grounds maintenance. Turfscape supports the Trinity High School internship program by employing two Trinity interns each year. This helps the two companies feel like they have a win-win partnership that is continually strengthened annually.
Want to learn more about our commercial landscaping services in Northeast Ohio? Get started today with a free quote. We’ll review your options together so you can make a great choice.
