Usurping Operational Constraints: Innovations from Optimize Virtual 2026
'Optimization, revolutionary, and efficiency,' are all commonly used when describing business operations. However, what does that look like in practice?
Under traditional guidelines, facility managers — particularly in the K-12 and higher education spaces — must utilize an often short staff, tight budget, and continuously growing expectations to simply provide a healthy space for the community. In a sense, the demand is almost always just ‘do more with less’ and ‘figure it out’.
Is that optimal?
The answer, of course, is no, but what does it mean to ‘do more with less,’ by definition is that not efficiency? But discussing this topic requires expert level experience and insight.
That is why Optimize Virtual 2026 brought together five thought leaders to share strategies that use technology to relieve some of the daily pressures on managers. The end goal is to create more optimized, revolutionized, and efficient procedures that provide students and faculty members with a seamless day and healthy space. Here’s the breakdown of what was said:
Eric Graham: The Impacts of ‘Do More With Less'
To begin Optimize Virtual 2026, CrowdComfort CEO Eric Graham broke down what it actually means to do more with less, and the unintended consequences of that philosophy.
“Investments in technology do help you do more with less,” he said. “But in many cases, [...] when you've exhausted resources and you're not investing in technology, you are cannibalizing human free time. You're cannibalizing your employees' time, and or making them more stressed, working harder, which leads to all kinds of other issues.”
Overextending facility teams does not only impact quality, it has a much larger impact on student and teacher output as well. At a baseline, 80% of teachers value having a clean environment. In fact, 48% of teachers would consider leaving their school if the facility conditions graded out at a “C or below.” When facilities are neglected it becomes increasingly harder for institutions to retain premier instructors.
However on the student side, the consequences can be just as, if not more, drastic. Often student absenteeism directly correlates with inadequate facility management. Research shows that major maintenance delays lead to a .4-.5% decrease in student attendance. Conversely, well kept facilities have the opposite outcomes — studies in the K-12 field point to a 35% improvement in overall illness-related absenteeism when building hygiene interventions are implemented.
Beyond the health implications for students and faculty members, there is a financial incentive to optimizing facility operations. As enrollment rates in public school systems continue to decrease by hundreds-of-thousands yearly, budgets also diminish. Yet, the infrastructure remains largely unchanged or expand. The strain on facility teams can be insurmountable without technology intervention.
“The building footprint doesn't shrink at the same rate at which the enrollment reduces,” Eric explained. “You're increasing the cost per square foot per student to provide that healthy environment. So that's where it's an equation that is almost impossible to deal with.
“It's really about optimizing your outcomes, moving from being reactive to being proactive,” he continued. “Who's doing what? Where? And when? And, having an honest discussion around the scope that is being deployed. [...] Once you have data, that gives you the agility and the ability to react and change your dynamics in real time.”
Optimization at scale gears facility teams with the necessary tools and processes to help academic institutions achieve their goals in the most effective way possible without ravaging workers’ time.
Sara Porter: Environmental Health Trends & Navigating the New Education Landscape
Health is paramount for all organizations but particularly educational institutions. Keynote speaker Sara Porter of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the disconcerting trends caused by poor attention paid to creating a healthy environment, and the steps that systems have taken to create clean spaces.
“There is a connection between the space that students and staff show up to [daily] and their long-term health,” Sara explained. “This never ceases to blow my mind. There was a review of 20 years of data that [provides] strong evidence of the potential to improve children's health [through] improving the quality of the air they're breathing, by reducing concentrations of harmful pollutants.”
Sara went on to explain that in Los Angeles, once air purifiers were implemented in schools, student performance actually increased at a similar rate that would be expected if class sizes were reduced by a third. She noted that it shows how technology can directly improve student output.
“There's evidence that [changing] and cleaning the air really does have an impact on student performance,” said Porter. “Researchers at the University of Tulsa found that fifth-grade students' math scores increased along with increasing ventilation.”
Her overall point was that this information is well-known and studied. The next challenge will be using it to create better environments for students and instructors alike. But Healthy Green School & Colleges’ strategies do not only make better students, Sara believes it can lead to overall cost savings as well.
In fact, institutions like Chicago Public Schools — who aspired to meet HGSC’s standards for certification — actually found that some of the non-compliant, sub-par products they had purchased were costing the organization thousands-of-dollars more weekly than the HGSC compliant alternatives.
Rob Lamecker: Fireside Chat: People First, Data Closely Second
Director of Facilities at Stillwater Schools Rob Lamecker has a unique way of inspiring change whenever he speaks. He was joined by CrowdComfort’s David Gailey for a fascinating fireside chat to discuss Rob’s leadership style, unregulated challenges of managing facilities, the benefits of technology on his daily job, and most importantly, how to keep people first whilst using technology to improve their lives.
Unlike many other facility directors, Rob’s background was in IT, so when he took the promotion at Stillwater he knew that technology could provide benefits. However, what resonates most is his persistence to avoid replacement of human labor. Although technology has benefited his teams and provided him greater transparency, he uses it to protect, optimize, and inform his janitors rather than replace them.
“Who I am as a person? I'm an IT person, I'm a data person, but also I'm a galvanizer,” said Rob. “So, the primary thing that I use is: I use data, and I want to make sure that the teachers and the principals and the superintendent [all] understand that we have 1.4 million gross square feet of buildings, [and] we have 325 acres of property.”
Using the raw data, Rob has an easier time explaining to stakeholders the sheer pressure his team is under on a daily basis by comparing their job to cleaning an average home. He highlights that to adequately clean 1.4 million square feet he would need about 70 custodians to disperse work effectively at 20,000 square feet per worker.
Unfortunately, at its peak Stillwater only had about 60 janitorial staffers and following major budget cuts he's down to just 51. After factoring for a 10% absentee rate, he’s often left with around 40 employees to clean the 1.4 million square feet that should require 70.
In the end, custodians in Stillwater need to clean close to 34,000 square feet to meet goals — about 70% more than the recommended 20,000 square feet.
“That's about 12.5 houses every day that we're expecting this custodian to clean,” he explained. “When something's dirty, [teachers] don't care about all of the other things that go into it: [our staffing models, numbers], or any of that stuff. They just know it's dirty and it needs to stop.
“I ask people, especially in the school world, that have an understanding for this,” Rob continued. “‘How many of my custodians do you think had an Individualized Education Plan or a 504? [How many do you think] were in our special needs program, or [one elsewhere]?’ That number is probably going to be greater than the average of other people in these roles. That's another way that I can speak to the teachers to give them an idea of who [we are working with].”
The goal is shared understanding and overall positivity. Although teachers and administrators may become upset by outcomes when things are unkept, Rob stresses the most productive ways to communicate grievances with custodians:
“[I] try to keep it positive and to say, ‘If you go and you are mean to that custodian, they're going to remember that, and it's going to affect them negatively. It's not going to go well for the custodian, and it's not going to go well for you. You're better off hiding pieces of candy around your classroom and [see] if they can find them all.’ [...] Really, the people that are in the buildings are just doing the best job they can.”
At the end of the day, Rob strives for the best, most effective student experience, but he knows the struggle.
Chris Brablc: Enrollment & Budget Crisis: Redefining Capital When Funding Drops
To address primary budgetary concern, particularly in relation to enrollment rates, CrowdComfort’s VP of Market Insights Chris Brablc joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the trends.
The Covid ‘19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on both school enrollment and potentially birthrates across the nation. Between 2019-2024, K-12 public school enrollment dropped 3.8% (~1.5 million students), but unanticipated factors will continue to force those declines. As aforementioned, birthrates in the United States are at a historic low (~1.6 child per woman), so at a baseline the amount of available students to systems will continue to diminish.
However, the perception of public school systems, in general, has also worsened. Studies show that charter school enrollment has grown roughly 7-9% since Covid and homeschooled students has also increased by around 50%. For public school systems this means continued budget cuts.
Chris noted less student enrollment leads to budget cuts for all school systems (urban, suburban, and rural). However, the greatest decline is seen in urban and rural districts — urban school districts have seen a 37% drop in funding due to enrollment, suburban just a 25% decrease, and rural areas having the highest average (around 39%).
“[The districts] being most impacted by the enrollment, especially when it comes to their budgets,” Chris reported. “[Are within] urban [and rural] school districts as opposed to suburban school districts, where also there are [still] funding challenges, but from a student movement standpoint, urban and rural are being hit the hardest.”
To combat this cycle of less students = less money = less staff, whilst still managing the same infrastructure, Chris offered a few “radical ideas.” For one, communication is paramount, and with that comes calculated staffing (i.e. rather than one large sweep for all facilities, use data to send staff to the buildings / rooms that need to be cleaned when they must be cleaned). He also emphasized the importance of understanding what goals administrators in a given district actually want to achieve for cleaning.
However, the overall point that Chris emphasized is optimization is not possible without technology enabling effective tracking. Communication and goals can be great, but without transparency to what is actually happening, they are mostly nebulous.
If you wish to hear more on Chris’ “radical ideas” and more detail on the trends that we face, check out his entire Optimize Virtual 2026 session.
Ryan Alu: Embracing Technology & AI: Improve Your Team's Effectiveness and Efficiency
Artificial Intelligence has taken over almost every industry, FMX’s Ryan Alu joined Optimize Virtual 2026 with ideas and metrics to show how AI can help facility operations as well. The ultimate goal, of course, is to save energy, time, and money for facility teams. Ryan believes FMX’s platform can help do so.
“I think the term AI right now means different things to different people,” he said. “The honest answer there is: AI has been around for a long time — LLMs, data tables, being able to pull from, being able to reference in an automated way. It's just become a lot more accessible and a lot more advanced.”
Through FMX’s “pinwheel” process to make data-driven decisions, they have noticed that “less than 10% of the organizations that utilize FMX have a complete, reliable view of their assets across their schools, buildings, [etc.].” From initial assessments within FMX, they can plan, manage, and in the end optimize operations.
“I can say for certain," Ryan declared. “[That] 98% of our customers that have utilized those reporting in a good way have saved jobs and even added jobs [during] budget cuts.”
FMX’s system is designed to support facility worker output and promote informed decision making, not replace human labor. When facility management has clarity on what is happening daily, the question is no longer “how do I identify what I need to solve for,” the opportunities are already known and easier to solve swiftly and efficiently because as an organization; you are optimized.
Final Takeaways
Clean data and informed technology allow for efficient operations. Optimizing isn’t always about being the best; it is about using what you have and leveraging it in real-time to accomplish the goals you have set.
Optimize Virtual 2026 is designed to help you take a step back and look at your current situation with a critical eye.
Eric Graham showed you how to best avoid "cannibalizing" your work force. Sara Porter illuminated how you can directly enable better student output through a push for health and potentially improve spending. Sometimes it can be hard to value the person with so much outside pressure, Rob Lamecker reminds you that the person is always first. With budgetary concerns coming due to various factors — enrollment rates included — Chris Brablc gave you the facts of the times and “radical” ideas to fight back. But in close, what it all comes down to is making use of technology like CrowdComfort’s and FMX’s; Ryan Alu keyed to how one can practice what’s learned.
Put it all together and you’ve optimized.
To watch any of the recordings or view resources from Optimize Virtual 2026. Please use the following link: https://www.crowdcomfort.com/lp/optimize-k-12-virtual-conference-recordings
Usurping Operational Constraints: Innovations from Optimize Virtual 2026
'Optimization, revolutionary, and efficiency,' are all commonly used when describing business operations. However, what does that look like in practice?
Under traditional guidelines, facility managers — particularly in the K-12 and higher education spaces — must utilize an often short staff, tight budget, and continuously growing expectations to simply provide a healthy space for the community. In a sense, the demand is almost always just ‘do more with less’ and ‘figure it out’.
Is that optimal?
The answer, of course, is no, but what does it mean to ‘do more with less,’ by definition is that not efficiency? But discussing this topic requires expert level experience and insight.
That is why Optimize Virtual 2026 brought together five thought leaders to share strategies that use technology to relieve some of the daily pressures on managers. The end goal is to create more optimized, revolutionized, and efficient procedures that provide students and faculty members with a seamless day and healthy space. Here’s the breakdown of what was said:
Eric Graham: The Impacts of ‘Do More With Less'
To begin Optimize Virtual 2026, CrowdComfort CEO Eric Graham broke down what it actually means to do more with less, and the unintended consequences of that philosophy.
“Investments in technology do help you do more with less,” he said. “But in many cases, [...] when you've exhausted resources and you're not investing in technology, you are cannibalizing human free time. You're cannibalizing your employees' time, and or making them more stressed, working harder, which leads to all kinds of other issues.”
Overextending facility teams does not only impact quality, it has a much larger impact on student and teacher output as well. At a baseline, 80% of teachers value having a clean environment. In fact, 48% of teachers would consider leaving their school if the facility conditions graded out at a “C or below.” When facilities are neglected it becomes increasingly harder for institutions to retain premier instructors.
However on the student side, the consequences can be just as, if not more, drastic. Often student absenteeism directly correlates with inadequate facility management. Research shows that major maintenance delays lead to a .4-.5% decrease in student attendance. Conversely, well kept facilities have the opposite outcomes — studies in the K-12 field point to a 35% improvement in overall illness-related absenteeism when building hygiene interventions are implemented.
Beyond the health implications for students and faculty members, there is a financial incentive to optimizing facility operations. As enrollment rates in public school systems continue to decrease by hundreds-of-thousands yearly, budgets also diminish. Yet, the infrastructure remains largely unchanged or expand. The strain on facility teams can be insurmountable without technology intervention.
“The building footprint doesn't shrink at the same rate at which the enrollment reduces,” Eric explained. “You're increasing the cost per square foot per student to provide that healthy environment. So that's where it's an equation that is almost impossible to deal with.
“It's really about optimizing your outcomes, moving from being reactive to being proactive,” he continued. “Who's doing what? Where? And when? And, having an honest discussion around the scope that is being deployed. [...] Once you have data, that gives you the agility and the ability to react and change your dynamics in real time.”
Optimization at scale gears facility teams with the necessary tools and processes to help academic institutions achieve their goals in the most effective way possible without ravaging workers’ time.
Sara Porter: Environmental Health Trends & Navigating the New Education Landscape
Health is paramount for all organizations but particularly educational institutions. Keynote speaker Sara Porter of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the disconcerting trends caused by poor attention paid to creating a healthy environment, and the steps that systems have taken to create clean spaces.
“There is a connection between the space that students and staff show up to [daily] and their long-term health,” Sara explained. “This never ceases to blow my mind. There was a review of 20 years of data that [provides] strong evidence of the potential to improve children's health [through] improving the quality of the air they're breathing, by reducing concentrations of harmful pollutants.”
Sara went on to explain that in Los Angeles, once air purifiers were implemented in schools, student performance actually increased at a similar rate that would be expected if class sizes were reduced by a third. She noted that it shows how technology can directly improve student output.
“There's evidence that [changing] and cleaning the air really does have an impact on student performance,” said Porter. “Researchers at the University of Tulsa found that fifth-grade students' math scores increased along with increasing ventilation.”
Her overall point was that this information is well-known and studied. The next challenge will be using it to create better environments for students and instructors alike. But Healthy Green School & Colleges’ strategies do not only make better students, Sara believes it can lead to overall cost savings as well.
In fact, institutions like Chicago Public Schools — who aspired to meet HGSC’s standards for certification — actually found that some of the non-compliant, sub-par products they had purchased were costing the organization thousands-of-dollars more weekly than the HGSC compliant alternatives.
Rob Lamecker: Fireside Chat: People First, Data Closely Second
Director of Facilities at Stillwater Schools Rob Lamecker has a unique way of inspiring change whenever he speaks. He was joined by CrowdComfort’s David Gailey for a fascinating fireside chat to discuss Rob’s leadership style, unregulated challenges of managing facilities, the benefits of technology on his daily job, and most importantly, how to keep people first whilst using technology to improve their lives.
Unlike many other facility directors, Rob’s background was in IT, so when he took the promotion at Stillwater he knew that technology could provide benefits. However, what resonates most is his persistence to avoid replacement of human labor. Although technology has benefited his teams and provided him greater transparency, he uses it to protect, optimize, and inform his janitors rather than replace them.
“Who I am as a person? I'm an IT person, I'm a data person, but also I'm a galvanizer,” said Rob. “So, the primary thing that I use is: I use data, and I want to make sure that the teachers and the principals and the superintendent [all] understand that we have 1.4 million gross square feet of buildings, [and] we have 325 acres of property.”
Using the raw data, Rob has an easier time explaining to stakeholders the sheer pressure his team is under on a daily basis by comparing their job to cleaning an average home. He highlights that to adequately clean 1.4 million square feet he would need about 70 custodians to disperse work effectively at 20,000 square feet per worker.
Unfortunately, at its peak Stillwater only had about 60 janitorial staffers and following major budget cuts he's down to just 51. After factoring for a 10% absentee rate, he’s often left with around 40 employees to clean the 1.4 million square feet that should require 70.
In the end, custodians in Stillwater need to clean close to 34,000 square feet to meet goals — about 70% more than the recommended 20,000 square feet.
“That's about 12.5 houses every day that we're expecting this custodian to clean,” he explained. “When something's dirty, [teachers] don't care about all of the other things that go into it: [our staffing models, numbers], or any of that stuff. They just know it's dirty and it needs to stop.
“I ask people, especially in the school world, that have an understanding for this,” Rob continued. “‘How many of my custodians do you think had an Individualized Education Plan or a 504? [How many do you think] were in our special needs program, or [one elsewhere]?’ That number is probably going to be greater than the average of other people in these roles. That's another way that I can speak to the teachers to give them an idea of who [we are working with].”
The goal is shared understanding and overall positivity. Although teachers and administrators may become upset by outcomes when things are unkept, Rob stresses the most productive ways to communicate grievances with custodians:
“[I] try to keep it positive and to say, ‘If you go and you are mean to that custodian, they're going to remember that, and it's going to affect them negatively. It's not going to go well for the custodian, and it's not going to go well for you. You're better off hiding pieces of candy around your classroom and [see] if they can find them all.’ [...] Really, the people that are in the buildings are just doing the best job they can.”
At the end of the day, Rob strives for the best, most effective student experience, but he knows the struggle.
Chris Brablc: Enrollment & Budget Crisis: Redefining Capital When Funding Drops
To address primary budgetary concern, particularly in relation to enrollment rates, CrowdComfort’s VP of Market Insights Chris Brablc joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the trends.
The Covid ‘19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on both school enrollment and potentially birthrates across the nation. Between 2019-2024, K-12 public school enrollment dropped 3.8% (~1.5 million students), but unanticipated factors will continue to force those declines. As aforementioned, birthrates in the United States are at a historic low (~1.6 child per woman), so at a baseline the amount of available students to systems will continue to diminish.
However, the perception of public school systems, in general, has also worsened. Studies show that charter school enrollment has grown roughly 7-9% since Covid and homeschooled students has also increased by around 50%. For public school systems this means continued budget cuts.
Chris noted less student enrollment leads to budget cuts for all school systems (urban, suburban, and rural). However, the greatest decline is seen in urban and rural districts — urban school districts have seen a 37% drop in funding due to enrollment, suburban just a 25% decrease, and rural areas having the highest average (around 39%).
“[The districts] being most impacted by the enrollment, especially when it comes to their budgets,” Chris reported. “[Are within] urban [and rural] school districts as opposed to suburban school districts, where also there are [still] funding challenges, but from a student movement standpoint, urban and rural are being hit the hardest.”
To combat this cycle of less students = less money = less staff, whilst still managing the same infrastructure, Chris offered a few “radical ideas.” For one, communication is paramount, and with that comes calculated staffing (i.e. rather than one large sweep for all facilities, use data to send staff to the buildings / rooms that need to be cleaned when they must be cleaned). He also emphasized the importance of understanding what goals administrators in a given district actually want to achieve for cleaning.
However, the overall point that Chris emphasized is optimization is not possible without technology enabling effective tracking. Communication and goals can be great, but without transparency to what is actually happening, they are mostly nebulous.
If you wish to hear more on Chris’ “radical ideas” and more detail on the trends that we face, check out his entire Optimize Virtual 2026 session.
Ryan Alu: Embracing Technology & AI: Improve Your Team's Effectiveness and Efficiency
Artificial Intelligence has taken over almost every industry, FMX’s Ryan Alu joined Optimize Virtual 2026 with ideas and metrics to show how AI can help facility operations as well. The ultimate goal, of course, is to save energy, time, and money for facility teams. Ryan believes FMX’s platform can help do so.
“I think the term AI right now means different things to different people,” he said. “The honest answer there is: AI has been around for a long time — LLMs, data tables, being able to pull from, being able to reference in an automated way. It's just become a lot more accessible and a lot more advanced.”
Through FMX’s “pinwheel” process to make data-driven decisions, they have noticed that “less than 10% of the organizations that utilize FMX have a complete, reliable view of their assets across their schools, buildings, [etc.].” From initial assessments within FMX, they can plan, manage, and in the end optimize operations.
“I can say for certain," Ryan declared. “[That] 98% of our customers that have utilized those reporting in a good way have saved jobs and even added jobs [during] budget cuts.”
FMX’s system is designed to support facility worker output and promote informed decision making, not replace human labor. When facility management has clarity on what is happening daily, the question is no longer “how do I identify what I need to solve for,” the opportunities are already known and easier to solve swiftly and efficiently because as an organization; you are optimized.
Final Takeaways
Clean data and informed technology allow for efficient operations. Optimizing isn’t always about being the best; it is about using what you have and leveraging it in real-time to accomplish the goals you have set.
Optimize Virtual 2026 is designed to help you take a step back and look at your current situation with a critical eye.
Eric Graham showed you how to best avoid "cannibalizing" your work force. Sara Porter illuminated how you can directly enable better student output through a push for health and potentially improve spending. Sometimes it can be hard to value the person with so much outside pressure, Rob Lamecker reminds you that the person is always first. With budgetary concerns coming due to various factors — enrollment rates included — Chris Brablc gave you the facts of the times and “radical” ideas to fight back. But in close, what it all comes down to is making use of technology like CrowdComfort’s and FMX’s; Ryan Alu keyed to how one can practice what’s learned.
Put it all together and you’ve optimized.
To watch any of the recordings or view resources from Optimize Virtual 2026. Please use the following link: https://www.crowdcomfort.com/lp/optimize-k-12-virtual-conference-recordings
Usurping Operational Constraints: Innovations from Optimize Virtual 2026
'Optimization, revolutionary, and efficiency,' are all commonly used when describing business operations. However, what does that look like in practice?
Under traditional guidelines, facility managers — particularly in the K-12 and higher education spaces — must utilize an often short staff, tight budget, and continuously growing expectations to simply provide a healthy space for the community. In a sense, the demand is almost always just ‘do more with less’ and ‘figure it out’.
Is that optimal?
The answer, of course, is no, but what does it mean to ‘do more with less,’ by definition is that not efficiency? But discussing this topic requires expert level experience and insight.
That is why Optimize Virtual 2026 brought together five thought leaders to share strategies that use technology to relieve some of the daily pressures on managers. The end goal is to create more optimized, revolutionized, and efficient procedures that provide students and faculty members with a seamless day and healthy space. Here’s the breakdown of what was said:
Eric Graham: The Impacts of ‘Do More With Less'
To begin Optimize Virtual 2026, CrowdComfort CEO Eric Graham broke down what it actually means to do more with less, and the unintended consequences of that philosophy.
“Investments in technology do help you do more with less,” he said. “But in many cases, [...] when you've exhausted resources and you're not investing in technology, you are cannibalizing human free time. You're cannibalizing your employees' time, and or making them more stressed, working harder, which leads to all kinds of other issues.”
Overextending facility teams does not only impact quality, it has a much larger impact on student and teacher output as well. At a baseline, 80% of teachers value having a clean environment. In fact, 48% of teachers would consider leaving their school if the facility conditions graded out at a “C or below.” When facilities are neglected it becomes increasingly harder for institutions to retain premier instructors.
However on the student side, the consequences can be just as, if not more, drastic. Often student absenteeism directly correlates with inadequate facility management. Research shows that major maintenance delays lead to a .4-.5% decrease in student attendance. Conversely, well kept facilities have the opposite outcomes — studies in the K-12 field point to a 35% improvement in overall illness-related absenteeism when building hygiene interventions are implemented.
Beyond the health implications for students and faculty members, there is a financial incentive to optimizing facility operations. As enrollment rates in public school systems continue to decrease by hundreds-of-thousands yearly, budgets also diminish. Yet, the infrastructure remains largely unchanged or expand. The strain on facility teams can be insurmountable without technology intervention.
“The building footprint doesn't shrink at the same rate at which the enrollment reduces,” Eric explained. “You're increasing the cost per square foot per student to provide that healthy environment. So that's where it's an equation that is almost impossible to deal with.
“It's really about optimizing your outcomes, moving from being reactive to being proactive,” he continued. “Who's doing what? Where? And when? And, having an honest discussion around the scope that is being deployed. [...] Once you have data, that gives you the agility and the ability to react and change your dynamics in real time.”
Optimization at scale gears facility teams with the necessary tools and processes to help academic institutions achieve their goals in the most effective way possible without ravaging workers’ time.
Sara Porter: Environmental Health Trends & Navigating the New Education Landscape
Health is paramount for all organizations but particularly educational institutions. Keynote speaker Sara Porter of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the disconcerting trends caused by poor attention paid to creating a healthy environment, and the steps that systems have taken to create clean spaces.
“There is a connection between the space that students and staff show up to [daily] and their long-term health,” Sara explained. “This never ceases to blow my mind. There was a review of 20 years of data that [provides] strong evidence of the potential to improve children's health [through] improving the quality of the air they're breathing, by reducing concentrations of harmful pollutants.”
Sara went on to explain that in Los Angeles, once air purifiers were implemented in schools, student performance actually increased at a similar rate that would be expected if class sizes were reduced by a third. She noted that it shows how technology can directly improve student output.
“There's evidence that [changing] and cleaning the air really does have an impact on student performance,” said Porter. “Researchers at the University of Tulsa found that fifth-grade students' math scores increased along with increasing ventilation.”
Her overall point was that this information is well-known and studied. The next challenge will be using it to create better environments for students and instructors alike. But Healthy Green School & Colleges’ strategies do not only make better students, Sara believes it can lead to overall cost savings as well.
In fact, institutions like Chicago Public Schools — who aspired to meet HGSC’s standards for certification — actually found that some of the non-compliant, sub-par products they had purchased were costing the organization thousands-of-dollars more weekly than the HGSC compliant alternatives.
Rob Lamecker: Fireside Chat: People First, Data Closely Second
Director of Facilities at Stillwater Schools Rob Lamecker has a unique way of inspiring change whenever he speaks. He was joined by CrowdComfort’s David Gailey for a fascinating fireside chat to discuss Rob’s leadership style, unregulated challenges of managing facilities, the benefits of technology on his daily job, and most importantly, how to keep people first whilst using technology to improve their lives.
Unlike many other facility directors, Rob’s background was in IT, so when he took the promotion at Stillwater he knew that technology could provide benefits. However, what resonates most is his persistence to avoid replacement of human labor. Although technology has benefited his teams and provided him greater transparency, he uses it to protect, optimize, and inform his janitors rather than replace them.
“Who I am as a person? I'm an IT person, I'm a data person, but also I'm a galvanizer,” said Rob. “So, the primary thing that I use is: I use data, and I want to make sure that the teachers and the principals and the superintendent [all] understand that we have 1.4 million gross square feet of buildings, [and] we have 325 acres of property.”
Using the raw data, Rob has an easier time explaining to stakeholders the sheer pressure his team is under on a daily basis by comparing their job to cleaning an average home. He highlights that to adequately clean 1.4 million square feet he would need about 70 custodians to disperse work effectively at 20,000 square feet per worker.
Unfortunately, at its peak Stillwater only had about 60 janitorial staffers and following major budget cuts he's down to just 51. After factoring for a 10% absentee rate, he’s often left with around 40 employees to clean the 1.4 million square feet that should require 70.
In the end, custodians in Stillwater need to clean close to 34,000 square feet to meet goals — about 70% more than the recommended 20,000 square feet.
“That's about 12.5 houses every day that we're expecting this custodian to clean,” he explained. “When something's dirty, [teachers] don't care about all of the other things that go into it: [our staffing models, numbers], or any of that stuff. They just know it's dirty and it needs to stop.
“I ask people, especially in the school world, that have an understanding for this,” Rob continued. “‘How many of my custodians do you think had an Individualized Education Plan or a 504? [How many do you think] were in our special needs program, or [one elsewhere]?’ That number is probably going to be greater than the average of other people in these roles. That's another way that I can speak to the teachers to give them an idea of who [we are working with].”
The goal is shared understanding and overall positivity. Although teachers and administrators may become upset by outcomes when things are unkept, Rob stresses the most productive ways to communicate grievances with custodians:
“[I] try to keep it positive and to say, ‘If you go and you are mean to that custodian, they're going to remember that, and it's going to affect them negatively. It's not going to go well for the custodian, and it's not going to go well for you. You're better off hiding pieces of candy around your classroom and [see] if they can find them all.’ [...] Really, the people that are in the buildings are just doing the best job they can.”
At the end of the day, Rob strives for the best, most effective student experience, but he knows the struggle.
Chris Brablc: Enrollment & Budget Crisis: Redefining Capital When Funding Drops
To address primary budgetary concern, particularly in relation to enrollment rates, CrowdComfort’s VP of Market Insights Chris Brablc joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the trends.
The Covid ‘19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on both school enrollment and potentially birthrates across the nation. Between 2019-2024, K-12 public school enrollment dropped 3.8% (~1.5 million students), but unanticipated factors will continue to force those declines. As aforementioned, birthrates in the United States are at a historic low (~1.6 child per woman), so at a baseline the amount of available students to systems will continue to diminish.
However, the perception of public school systems, in general, has also worsened. Studies show that charter school enrollment has grown roughly 7-9% since Covid and homeschooled students has also increased by around 50%. For public school systems this means continued budget cuts.
Chris noted less student enrollment leads to budget cuts for all school systems (urban, suburban, and rural). However, the greatest decline is seen in urban and rural districts — urban school districts have seen a 37% drop in funding due to enrollment, suburban just a 25% decrease, and rural areas having the highest average (around 39%).
“[The districts] being most impacted by the enrollment, especially when it comes to their budgets,” Chris reported. “[Are within] urban [and rural] school districts as opposed to suburban school districts, where also there are [still] funding challenges, but from a student movement standpoint, urban and rural are being hit the hardest.”
To combat this cycle of less students = less money = less staff, whilst still managing the same infrastructure, Chris offered a few “radical ideas.” For one, communication is paramount, and with that comes calculated staffing (i.e. rather than one large sweep for all facilities, use data to send staff to the buildings / rooms that need to be cleaned when they must be cleaned). He also emphasized the importance of understanding what goals administrators in a given district actually want to achieve for cleaning.
However, the overall point that Chris emphasized is optimization is not possible without technology enabling effective tracking. Communication and goals can be great, but without transparency to what is actually happening, they are mostly nebulous.
If you wish to hear more on Chris’ “radical ideas” and more detail on the trends that we face, check out his entire Optimize Virtual 2026 session.
Ryan Alu: Embracing Technology & AI: Improve Your Team's Effectiveness and Efficiency
Artificial Intelligence has taken over almost every industry, FMX’s Ryan Alu joined Optimize Virtual 2026 with ideas and metrics to show how AI can help facility operations as well. The ultimate goal, of course, is to save energy, time, and money for facility teams. Ryan believes FMX’s platform can help do so.
“I think the term AI right now means different things to different people,” he said. “The honest answer there is: AI has been around for a long time — LLMs, data tables, being able to pull from, being able to reference in an automated way. It's just become a lot more accessible and a lot more advanced.”
Through FMX’s “pinwheel” process to make data-driven decisions, they have noticed that “less than 10% of the organizations that utilize FMX have a complete, reliable view of their assets across their schools, buildings, [etc.].” From initial assessments within FMX, they can plan, manage, and in the end optimize operations.
“I can say for certain," Ryan declared. “[That] 98% of our customers that have utilized those reporting in a good way have saved jobs and even added jobs [during] budget cuts.”
FMX’s system is designed to support facility worker output and promote informed decision making, not replace human labor. When facility management has clarity on what is happening daily, the question is no longer “how do I identify what I need to solve for,” the opportunities are already known and easier to solve swiftly and efficiently because as an organization; you are optimized.
Final Takeaways
Clean data and informed technology allow for efficient operations. Optimizing isn’t always about being the best; it is about using what you have and leveraging it in real-time to accomplish the goals you have set.
Optimize Virtual 2026 is designed to help you take a step back and look at your current situation with a critical eye.
Eric Graham showed you how to best avoid "cannibalizing" your work force. Sara Porter illuminated how you can directly enable better student output through a push for health and potentially improve spending. Sometimes it can be hard to value the person with so much outside pressure, Rob Lamecker reminds you that the person is always first. With budgetary concerns coming due to various factors — enrollment rates included — Chris Brablc gave you the facts of the times and “radical” ideas to fight back. But in close, what it all comes down to is making use of technology like CrowdComfort’s and FMX’s; Ryan Alu keyed to how one can practice what’s learned.
Put it all together and you’ve optimized.
To watch any of the recordings or view resources from Optimize Virtual 2026. Please use the following link: https://www.crowdcomfort.com/lp/optimize-k-12-virtual-conference-recordings
Usurping Operational Constraints: Innovations from Optimize Virtual 2026
'Optimization, revolutionary, and efficiency,' are all commonly used when describing business operations. However, what does that look like in practice?
Under traditional guidelines, facility managers — particularly in the K-12 and higher education spaces — must utilize an often short staff, tight budget, and continuously growing expectations to simply provide a healthy space for the community. In a sense, the demand is almost always just ‘do more with less’ and ‘figure it out’.
Is that optimal?
The answer, of course, is no, but what does it mean to ‘do more with less,’ by definition is that not efficiency? But discussing this topic requires expert level experience and insight.
That is why Optimize Virtual 2026 brought together five thought leaders to share strategies that use technology to relieve some of the daily pressures on managers. The end goal is to create more optimized, revolutionized, and efficient procedures that provide students and faculty members with a seamless day and healthy space. Here’s the breakdown of what was said:
Eric Graham: The Impacts of ‘Do More With Less'
To begin Optimize Virtual 2026, CrowdComfort CEO Eric Graham broke down what it actually means to do more with less, and the unintended consequences of that philosophy.
“Investments in technology do help you do more with less,” he said. “But in many cases, [...] when you've exhausted resources and you're not investing in technology, you are cannibalizing human free time. You're cannibalizing your employees' time, and or making them more stressed, working harder, which leads to all kinds of other issues.”
Overextending facility teams does not only impact quality, it has a much larger impact on student and teacher output as well. At a baseline, 80% of teachers value having a clean environment. In fact, 48% of teachers would consider leaving their school if the facility conditions graded out at a “C or below.” When facilities are neglected it becomes increasingly harder for institutions to retain premier instructors.
However on the student side, the consequences can be just as, if not more, drastic. Often student absenteeism directly correlates with inadequate facility management. Research shows that major maintenance delays lead to a .4-.5% decrease in student attendance. Conversely, well kept facilities have the opposite outcomes — studies in the K-12 field point to a 35% improvement in overall illness-related absenteeism when building hygiene interventions are implemented.
Beyond the health implications for students and faculty members, there is a financial incentive to optimizing facility operations. As enrollment rates in public school systems continue to decrease by hundreds-of-thousands yearly, budgets also diminish. Yet, the infrastructure remains largely unchanged or expand. The strain on facility teams can be insurmountable without technology intervention.
“The building footprint doesn't shrink at the same rate at which the enrollment reduces,” Eric explained. “You're increasing the cost per square foot per student to provide that healthy environment. So that's where it's an equation that is almost impossible to deal with.
“It's really about optimizing your outcomes, moving from being reactive to being proactive,” he continued. “Who's doing what? Where? And when? And, having an honest discussion around the scope that is being deployed. [...] Once you have data, that gives you the agility and the ability to react and change your dynamics in real time.”
Optimization at scale gears facility teams with the necessary tools and processes to help academic institutions achieve their goals in the most effective way possible without ravaging workers’ time.
Sara Porter: Environmental Health Trends & Navigating the New Education Landscape
Health is paramount for all organizations but particularly educational institutions. Keynote speaker Sara Porter of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the disconcerting trends caused by poor attention paid to creating a healthy environment, and the steps that systems have taken to create clean spaces.
“There is a connection between the space that students and staff show up to [daily] and their long-term health,” Sara explained. “This never ceases to blow my mind. There was a review of 20 years of data that [provides] strong evidence of the potential to improve children's health [through] improving the quality of the air they're breathing, by reducing concentrations of harmful pollutants.”
Sara went on to explain that in Los Angeles, once air purifiers were implemented in schools, student performance actually increased at a similar rate that would be expected if class sizes were reduced by a third. She noted that it shows how technology can directly improve student output.
“There's evidence that [changing] and cleaning the air really does have an impact on student performance,” said Porter. “Researchers at the University of Tulsa found that fifth-grade students' math scores increased along with increasing ventilation.”
Her overall point was that this information is well-known and studied. The next challenge will be using it to create better environments for students and instructors alike. But Healthy Green School & Colleges’ strategies do not only make better students, Sara believes it can lead to overall cost savings as well.
In fact, institutions like Chicago Public Schools — who aspired to meet HGSC’s standards for certification — actually found that some of the non-compliant, sub-par products they had purchased were costing the organization thousands-of-dollars more weekly than the HGSC compliant alternatives.
Rob Lamecker: Fireside Chat: People First, Data Closely Second
Director of Facilities at Stillwater Schools Rob Lamecker has a unique way of inspiring change whenever he speaks. He was joined by CrowdComfort’s David Gailey for a fascinating fireside chat to discuss Rob’s leadership style, unregulated challenges of managing facilities, the benefits of technology on his daily job, and most importantly, how to keep people first whilst using technology to improve their lives.
Unlike many other facility directors, Rob’s background was in IT, so when he took the promotion at Stillwater he knew that technology could provide benefits. However, what resonates most is his persistence to avoid replacement of human labor. Although technology has benefited his teams and provided him greater transparency, he uses it to protect, optimize, and inform his janitors rather than replace them.
“Who I am as a person? I'm an IT person, I'm a data person, but also I'm a galvanizer,” said Rob. “So, the primary thing that I use is: I use data, and I want to make sure that the teachers and the principals and the superintendent [all] understand that we have 1.4 million gross square feet of buildings, [and] we have 325 acres of property.”
Using the raw data, Rob has an easier time explaining to stakeholders the sheer pressure his team is under on a daily basis by comparing their job to cleaning an average home. He highlights that to adequately clean 1.4 million square feet he would need about 70 custodians to disperse work effectively at 20,000 square feet per worker.
Unfortunately, at its peak Stillwater only had about 60 janitorial staffers and following major budget cuts he's down to just 51. After factoring for a 10% absentee rate, he’s often left with around 40 employees to clean the 1.4 million square feet that should require 70.
In the end, custodians in Stillwater need to clean close to 34,000 square feet to meet goals — about 70% more than the recommended 20,000 square feet.
“That's about 12.5 houses every day that we're expecting this custodian to clean,” he explained. “When something's dirty, [teachers] don't care about all of the other things that go into it: [our staffing models, numbers], or any of that stuff. They just know it's dirty and it needs to stop.
“I ask people, especially in the school world, that have an understanding for this,” Rob continued. “‘How many of my custodians do you think had an Individualized Education Plan or a 504? [How many do you think] were in our special needs program, or [one elsewhere]?’ That number is probably going to be greater than the average of other people in these roles. That's another way that I can speak to the teachers to give them an idea of who [we are working with].”
The goal is shared understanding and overall positivity. Although teachers and administrators may become upset by outcomes when things are unkept, Rob stresses the most productive ways to communicate grievances with custodians:
“[I] try to keep it positive and to say, ‘If you go and you are mean to that custodian, they're going to remember that, and it's going to affect them negatively. It's not going to go well for the custodian, and it's not going to go well for you. You're better off hiding pieces of candy around your classroom and [see] if they can find them all.’ [...] Really, the people that are in the buildings are just doing the best job they can.”
At the end of the day, Rob strives for the best, most effective student experience, but he knows the struggle.
Chris Brablc: Enrollment & Budget Crisis: Redefining Capital When Funding Drops
To address primary budgetary concern, particularly in relation to enrollment rates, CrowdComfort’s VP of Market Insights Chris Brablc joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the trends.
The Covid ‘19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on both school enrollment and potentially birthrates across the nation. Between 2019-2024, K-12 public school enrollment dropped 3.8% (~1.5 million students), but unanticipated factors will continue to force those declines. As aforementioned, birthrates in the United States are at a historic low (~1.6 child per woman), so at a baseline the amount of available students to systems will continue to diminish.
However, the perception of public school systems, in general, has also worsened. Studies show that charter school enrollment has grown roughly 7-9% since Covid and homeschooled students has also increased by around 50%. For public school systems this means continued budget cuts.
Chris noted less student enrollment leads to budget cuts for all school systems (urban, suburban, and rural). However, the greatest decline is seen in urban and rural districts — urban school districts have seen a 37% drop in funding due to enrollment, suburban just a 25% decrease, and rural areas having the highest average (around 39%).
“[The districts] being most impacted by the enrollment, especially when it comes to their budgets,” Chris reported. “[Are within] urban [and rural] school districts as opposed to suburban school districts, where also there are [still] funding challenges, but from a student movement standpoint, urban and rural are being hit the hardest.”
To combat this cycle of less students = less money = less staff, whilst still managing the same infrastructure, Chris offered a few “radical ideas.” For one, communication is paramount, and with that comes calculated staffing (i.e. rather than one large sweep for all facilities, use data to send staff to the buildings / rooms that need to be cleaned when they must be cleaned). He also emphasized the importance of understanding what goals administrators in a given district actually want to achieve for cleaning.
However, the overall point that Chris emphasized is optimization is not possible without technology enabling effective tracking. Communication and goals can be great, but without transparency to what is actually happening, they are mostly nebulous.
If you wish to hear more on Chris’ “radical ideas” and more detail on the trends that we face, check out his entire Optimize Virtual 2026 session.
Ryan Alu: Embracing Technology & AI: Improve Your Team's Effectiveness and Efficiency
Artificial Intelligence has taken over almost every industry, FMX’s Ryan Alu joined Optimize Virtual 2026 with ideas and metrics to show how AI can help facility operations as well. The ultimate goal, of course, is to save energy, time, and money for facility teams. Ryan believes FMX’s platform can help do so.
“I think the term AI right now means different things to different people,” he said. “The honest answer there is: AI has been around for a long time — LLMs, data tables, being able to pull from, being able to reference in an automated way. It's just become a lot more accessible and a lot more advanced.”
Through FMX’s “pinwheel” process to make data-driven decisions, they have noticed that “less than 10% of the organizations that utilize FMX have a complete, reliable view of their assets across their schools, buildings, [etc.].” From initial assessments within FMX, they can plan, manage, and in the end optimize operations.
“I can say for certain," Ryan declared. “[That] 98% of our customers that have utilized those reporting in a good way have saved jobs and even added jobs [during] budget cuts.”
FMX’s system is designed to support facility worker output and promote informed decision making, not replace human labor. When facility management has clarity on what is happening daily, the question is no longer “how do I identify what I need to solve for,” the opportunities are already known and easier to solve swiftly and efficiently because as an organization; you are optimized.
Final Takeaways
Clean data and informed technology allow for efficient operations. Optimizing isn’t always about being the best; it is about using what you have and leveraging it in real-time to accomplish the goals you have set.
Optimize Virtual 2026 is designed to help you take a step back and look at your current situation with a critical eye.
Eric Graham showed you how to best avoid "cannibalizing" your work force. Sara Porter illuminated how you can directly enable better student output through a push for health and potentially improve spending. Sometimes it can be hard to value the person with so much outside pressure, Rob Lamecker reminds you that the person is always first. With budgetary concerns coming due to various factors — enrollment rates included — Chris Brablc gave you the facts of the times and “radical” ideas to fight back. But in close, what it all comes down to is making use of technology like CrowdComfort’s and FMX’s; Ryan Alu keyed to how one can practice what’s learned.
Put it all together and you’ve optimized.
To watch any of the recordings or view resources from Optimize Virtual 2026. Please use the following link: https://www.crowdcomfort.com/lp/optimize-k-12-virtual-conference-recordings
Usurping Operational Constraints: Innovations from Optimize Virtual 2026
'Optimization, revolutionary, and efficiency,' are all commonly used when describing business operations. However, what does that look like in practice?
Under traditional guidelines, facility managers — particularly in the K-12 and higher education spaces — must utilize an often short staff, tight budget, and continuously growing expectations to simply provide a healthy space for the community. In a sense, the demand is almost always just ‘do more with less’ and ‘figure it out’.
Is that optimal?
The answer, of course, is no, but what does it mean to ‘do more with less,’ by definition is that not efficiency? But discussing this topic requires expert level experience and insight.
That is why Optimize Virtual 2026 brought together five thought leaders to share strategies that use technology to relieve some of the daily pressures on managers. The end goal is to create more optimized, revolutionized, and efficient procedures that provide students and faculty members with a seamless day and healthy space. Here’s the breakdown of what was said:
Eric Graham: The Impacts of ‘Do More With Less'
To begin Optimize Virtual 2026, CrowdComfort CEO Eric Graham broke down what it actually means to do more with less, and the unintended consequences of that philosophy.
“Investments in technology do help you do more with less,” he said. “But in many cases, [...] when you've exhausted resources and you're not investing in technology, you are cannibalizing human free time. You're cannibalizing your employees' time, and or making them more stressed, working harder, which leads to all kinds of other issues.”
Overextending facility teams does not only impact quality, it has a much larger impact on student and teacher output as well. At a baseline, 80% of teachers value having a clean environment. In fact, 48% of teachers would consider leaving their school if the facility conditions graded out at a “C or below.” When facilities are neglected it becomes increasingly harder for institutions to retain premier instructors.
However on the student side, the consequences can be just as, if not more, drastic. Often student absenteeism directly correlates with inadequate facility management. Research shows that major maintenance delays lead to a .4-.5% decrease in student attendance. Conversely, well kept facilities have the opposite outcomes — studies in the K-12 field point to a 35% improvement in overall illness-related absenteeism when building hygiene interventions are implemented.
Beyond the health implications for students and faculty members, there is a financial incentive to optimizing facility operations. As enrollment rates in public school systems continue to decrease by hundreds-of-thousands yearly, budgets also diminish. Yet, the infrastructure remains largely unchanged or expand. The strain on facility teams can be insurmountable without technology intervention.
“The building footprint doesn't shrink at the same rate at which the enrollment reduces,” Eric explained. “You're increasing the cost per square foot per student to provide that healthy environment. So that's where it's an equation that is almost impossible to deal with.
“It's really about optimizing your outcomes, moving from being reactive to being proactive,” he continued. “Who's doing what? Where? And when? And, having an honest discussion around the scope that is being deployed. [...] Once you have data, that gives you the agility and the ability to react and change your dynamics in real time.”
Optimization at scale gears facility teams with the necessary tools and processes to help academic institutions achieve their goals in the most effective way possible without ravaging workers’ time.
Sara Porter: Environmental Health Trends & Navigating the New Education Landscape
Health is paramount for all organizations but particularly educational institutions. Keynote speaker Sara Porter of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the disconcerting trends caused by poor attention paid to creating a healthy environment, and the steps that systems have taken to create clean spaces.
“There is a connection between the space that students and staff show up to [daily] and their long-term health,” Sara explained. “This never ceases to blow my mind. There was a review of 20 years of data that [provides] strong evidence of the potential to improve children's health [through] improving the quality of the air they're breathing, by reducing concentrations of harmful pollutants.”
Sara went on to explain that in Los Angeles, once air purifiers were implemented in schools, student performance actually increased at a similar rate that would be expected if class sizes were reduced by a third. She noted that it shows how technology can directly improve student output.
“There's evidence that [changing] and cleaning the air really does have an impact on student performance,” said Porter. “Researchers at the University of Tulsa found that fifth-grade students' math scores increased along with increasing ventilation.”
Her overall point was that this information is well-known and studied. The next challenge will be using it to create better environments for students and instructors alike. But Healthy Green School & Colleges’ strategies do not only make better students, Sara believes it can lead to overall cost savings as well.
In fact, institutions like Chicago Public Schools — who aspired to meet HGSC’s standards for certification — actually found that some of the non-compliant, sub-par products they had purchased were costing the organization thousands-of-dollars more weekly than the HGSC compliant alternatives.
Rob Lamecker: Fireside Chat: People First, Data Closely Second
Director of Facilities at Stillwater Schools Rob Lamecker has a unique way of inspiring change whenever he speaks. He was joined by CrowdComfort’s David Gailey for a fascinating fireside chat to discuss Rob’s leadership style, unregulated challenges of managing facilities, the benefits of technology on his daily job, and most importantly, how to keep people first whilst using technology to improve their lives.
Unlike many other facility directors, Rob’s background was in IT, so when he took the promotion at Stillwater he knew that technology could provide benefits. However, what resonates most is his persistence to avoid replacement of human labor. Although technology has benefited his teams and provided him greater transparency, he uses it to protect, optimize, and inform his janitors rather than replace them.
“Who I am as a person? I'm an IT person, I'm a data person, but also I'm a galvanizer,” said Rob. “So, the primary thing that I use is: I use data, and I want to make sure that the teachers and the principals and the superintendent [all] understand that we have 1.4 million gross square feet of buildings, [and] we have 325 acres of property.”
Using the raw data, Rob has an easier time explaining to stakeholders the sheer pressure his team is under on a daily basis by comparing their job to cleaning an average home. He highlights that to adequately clean 1.4 million square feet he would need about 70 custodians to disperse work effectively at 20,000 square feet per worker.
Unfortunately, at its peak Stillwater only had about 60 janitorial staffers and following major budget cuts he's down to just 51. After factoring for a 10% absentee rate, he’s often left with around 40 employees to clean the 1.4 million square feet that should require 70.
In the end, custodians in Stillwater need to clean close to 34,000 square feet to meet goals — about 70% more than the recommended 20,000 square feet.
“That's about 12.5 houses every day that we're expecting this custodian to clean,” he explained. “When something's dirty, [teachers] don't care about all of the other things that go into it: [our staffing models, numbers], or any of that stuff. They just know it's dirty and it needs to stop.
“I ask people, especially in the school world, that have an understanding for this,” Rob continued. “‘How many of my custodians do you think had an Individualized Education Plan or a 504? [How many do you think] were in our special needs program, or [one elsewhere]?’ That number is probably going to be greater than the average of other people in these roles. That's another way that I can speak to the teachers to give them an idea of who [we are working with].”
The goal is shared understanding and overall positivity. Although teachers and administrators may become upset by outcomes when things are unkept, Rob stresses the most productive ways to communicate grievances with custodians:
“[I] try to keep it positive and to say, ‘If you go and you are mean to that custodian, they're going to remember that, and it's going to affect them negatively. It's not going to go well for the custodian, and it's not going to go well for you. You're better off hiding pieces of candy around your classroom and [see] if they can find them all.’ [...] Really, the people that are in the buildings are just doing the best job they can.”
At the end of the day, Rob strives for the best, most effective student experience, but he knows the struggle.
Chris Brablc: Enrollment & Budget Crisis: Redefining Capital When Funding Drops
To address primary budgetary concern, particularly in relation to enrollment rates, CrowdComfort’s VP of Market Insights Chris Brablc joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the trends.
The Covid ‘19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on both school enrollment and potentially birthrates across the nation. Between 2019-2024, K-12 public school enrollment dropped 3.8% (~1.5 million students), but unanticipated factors will continue to force those declines. As aforementioned, birthrates in the United States are at a historic low (~1.6 child per woman), so at a baseline the amount of available students to systems will continue to diminish.
However, the perception of public school systems, in general, has also worsened. Studies show that charter school enrollment has grown roughly 7-9% since Covid and homeschooled students has also increased by around 50%. For public school systems this means continued budget cuts.
Chris noted less student enrollment leads to budget cuts for all school systems (urban, suburban, and rural). However, the greatest decline is seen in urban and rural districts — urban school districts have seen a 37% drop in funding due to enrollment, suburban just a 25% decrease, and rural areas having the highest average (around 39%).
“[The districts] being most impacted by the enrollment, especially when it comes to their budgets,” Chris reported. “[Are within] urban [and rural] school districts as opposed to suburban school districts, where also there are [still] funding challenges, but from a student movement standpoint, urban and rural are being hit the hardest.”
To combat this cycle of less students = less money = less staff, whilst still managing the same infrastructure, Chris offered a few “radical ideas.” For one, communication is paramount, and with that comes calculated staffing (i.e. rather than one large sweep for all facilities, use data to send staff to the buildings / rooms that need to be cleaned when they must be cleaned). He also emphasized the importance of understanding what goals administrators in a given district actually want to achieve for cleaning.
However, the overall point that Chris emphasized is optimization is not possible without technology enabling effective tracking. Communication and goals can be great, but without transparency to what is actually happening, they are mostly nebulous.
If you wish to hear more on Chris’ “radical ideas” and more detail on the trends that we face, check out his entire Optimize Virtual 2026 session.
Ryan Alu: Embracing Technology & AI: Improve Your Team's Effectiveness and Efficiency
Artificial Intelligence has taken over almost every industry, FMX’s Ryan Alu joined Optimize Virtual 2026 with ideas and metrics to show how AI can help facility operations as well. The ultimate goal, of course, is to save energy, time, and money for facility teams. Ryan believes FMX’s platform can help do so.
“I think the term AI right now means different things to different people,” he said. “The honest answer there is: AI has been around for a long time — LLMs, data tables, being able to pull from, being able to reference in an automated way. It's just become a lot more accessible and a lot more advanced.”
Through FMX’s “pinwheel” process to make data-driven decisions, they have noticed that “less than 10% of the organizations that utilize FMX have a complete, reliable view of their assets across their schools, buildings, [etc.].” From initial assessments within FMX, they can plan, manage, and in the end optimize operations.
“I can say for certain," Ryan declared. “[That] 98% of our customers that have utilized those reporting in a good way have saved jobs and even added jobs [during] budget cuts.”
FMX’s system is designed to support facility worker output and promote informed decision making, not replace human labor. When facility management has clarity on what is happening daily, the question is no longer “how do I identify what I need to solve for,” the opportunities are already known and easier to solve swiftly and efficiently because as an organization; you are optimized.
Final Takeaways
Clean data and informed technology allow for efficient operations. Optimizing isn’t always about being the best; it is about using what you have and leveraging it in real-time to accomplish the goals you have set.
Optimize Virtual 2026 is designed to help you take a step back and look at your current situation with a critical eye.
Eric Graham showed you how to best avoid "cannibalizing" your work force. Sara Porter illuminated how you can directly enable better student output through a push for health and potentially improve spending. Sometimes it can be hard to value the person with so much outside pressure, Rob Lamecker reminds you that the person is always first. With budgetary concerns coming due to various factors — enrollment rates included — Chris Brablc gave you the facts of the times and “radical” ideas to fight back. But in close, what it all comes down to is making use of technology like CrowdComfort’s and FMX’s; Ryan Alu keyed to how one can practice what’s learned.
Put it all together and you’ve optimized.
To watch any of the recordings or view resources from Optimize Virtual 2026. Please use the following link: https://www.crowdcomfort.com/lp/optimize-k-12-virtual-conference-recordings
Usurping Operational Constraints: Innovations from Optimize Virtual 2026
Usurping Operational Constraints: Innovations from Optimize Virtual 2026
'Optimization, revolutionary, and efficiency,' are all commonly used when describing business operations. However, what does that look like in practice?
Under traditional guidelines, facility managers — particularly in the K-12 and higher education spaces — must utilize an often short staff, tight budget, and continuously growing expectations to simply provide a healthy space for the community. In a sense, the demand is almost always just ‘do more with less’ and ‘figure it out’.
Is that optimal?
The answer, of course, is no, but what does it mean to ‘do more with less,’ by definition is that not efficiency? But discussing this topic requires expert level experience and insight.
That is why Optimize Virtual 2026 brought together five thought leaders to share strategies that use technology to relieve some of the daily pressures on managers. The end goal is to create more optimized, revolutionized, and efficient procedures that provide students and faculty members with a seamless day and healthy space. Here’s the breakdown of what was said:
Eric Graham: The Impacts of ‘Do More With Less'
To begin Optimize Virtual 2026, CrowdComfort CEO Eric Graham broke down what it actually means to do more with less, and the unintended consequences of that philosophy.
“Investments in technology do help you do more with less,” he said. “But in many cases, [...] when you've exhausted resources and you're not investing in technology, you are cannibalizing human free time. You're cannibalizing your employees' time, and or making them more stressed, working harder, which leads to all kinds of other issues.”
Overextending facility teams does not only impact quality, it has a much larger impact on student and teacher output as well. At a baseline, 80% of teachers value having a clean environment. In fact, 48% of teachers would consider leaving their school if the facility conditions graded out at a “C or below.” When facilities are neglected it becomes increasingly harder for institutions to retain premier instructors.
However on the student side, the consequences can be just as, if not more, drastic. Often student absenteeism directly correlates with inadequate facility management. Research shows that major maintenance delays lead to a .4-.5% decrease in student attendance. Conversely, well kept facilities have the opposite outcomes — studies in the K-12 field point to a 35% improvement in overall illness-related absenteeism when building hygiene interventions are implemented.
Beyond the health implications for students and faculty members, there is a financial incentive to optimizing facility operations. As enrollment rates in public school systems continue to decrease by hundreds-of-thousands yearly, budgets also diminish. Yet, the infrastructure remains largely unchanged or expand. The strain on facility teams can be insurmountable without technology intervention.
“The building footprint doesn't shrink at the same rate at which the enrollment reduces,” Eric explained. “You're increasing the cost per square foot per student to provide that healthy environment. So that's where it's an equation that is almost impossible to deal with.
“It's really about optimizing your outcomes, moving from being reactive to being proactive,” he continued. “Who's doing what? Where? And when? And, having an honest discussion around the scope that is being deployed. [...] Once you have data, that gives you the agility and the ability to react and change your dynamics in real time.”
Optimization at scale gears facility teams with the necessary tools and processes to help academic institutions achieve their goals in the most effective way possible without ravaging workers’ time.
Sara Porter: Environmental Health Trends & Navigating the New Education Landscape
Health is paramount for all organizations but particularly educational institutions. Keynote speaker Sara Porter of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the disconcerting trends caused by poor attention paid to creating a healthy environment, and the steps that systems have taken to create clean spaces.
“There is a connection between the space that students and staff show up to [daily] and their long-term health,” Sara explained. “This never ceases to blow my mind. There was a review of 20 years of data that [provides] strong evidence of the potential to improve children's health [through] improving the quality of the air they're breathing, by reducing concentrations of harmful pollutants.”
Sara went on to explain that in Los Angeles, once air purifiers were implemented in schools, student performance actually increased at a similar rate that would be expected if class sizes were reduced by a third. She noted that it shows how technology can directly improve student output.
“There's evidence that [changing] and cleaning the air really does have an impact on student performance,” said Porter. “Researchers at the University of Tulsa found that fifth-grade students' math scores increased along with increasing ventilation.”
Her overall point was that this information is well-known and studied. The next challenge will be using it to create better environments for students and instructors alike. But Healthy Green School & Colleges’ strategies do not only make better students, Sara believes it can lead to overall cost savings as well.
In fact, institutions like Chicago Public Schools — who aspired to meet HGSC’s standards for certification — actually found that some of the non-compliant, sub-par products they had purchased were costing the organization thousands-of-dollars more weekly than the HGSC compliant alternatives.
Rob Lamecker: Fireside Chat: People First, Data Closely Second
Director of Facilities at Stillwater Schools Rob Lamecker has a unique way of inspiring change whenever he speaks. He was joined by CrowdComfort’s David Gailey for a fascinating fireside chat to discuss Rob’s leadership style, unregulated challenges of managing facilities, the benefits of technology on his daily job, and most importantly, how to keep people first whilst using technology to improve their lives.
Unlike many other facility directors, Rob’s background was in IT, so when he took the promotion at Stillwater he knew that technology could provide benefits. However, what resonates most is his persistence to avoid replacement of human labor. Although technology has benefited his teams and provided him greater transparency, he uses it to protect, optimize, and inform his janitors rather than replace them.
“Who I am as a person? I'm an IT person, I'm a data person, but also I'm a galvanizer,” said Rob. “So, the primary thing that I use is: I use data, and I want to make sure that the teachers and the principals and the superintendent [all] understand that we have 1.4 million gross square feet of buildings, [and] we have 325 acres of property.”
Using the raw data, Rob has an easier time explaining to stakeholders the sheer pressure his team is under on a daily basis by comparing their job to cleaning an average home. He highlights that to adequately clean 1.4 million square feet he would need about 70 custodians to disperse work effectively at 20,000 square feet per worker.
Unfortunately, at its peak Stillwater only had about 60 janitorial staffers and following major budget cuts he's down to just 51. After factoring for a 10% absentee rate, he’s often left with around 40 employees to clean the 1.4 million square feet that should require 70.
In the end, custodians in Stillwater need to clean close to 34,000 square feet to meet goals — about 70% more than the recommended 20,000 square feet.
“That's about 12.5 houses every day that we're expecting this custodian to clean,” he explained. “When something's dirty, [teachers] don't care about all of the other things that go into it: [our staffing models, numbers], or any of that stuff. They just know it's dirty and it needs to stop.
“I ask people, especially in the school world, that have an understanding for this,” Rob continued. “‘How many of my custodians do you think had an Individualized Education Plan or a 504? [How many do you think] were in our special needs program, or [one elsewhere]?’ That number is probably going to be greater than the average of other people in these roles. That's another way that I can speak to the teachers to give them an idea of who [we are working with].”
The goal is shared understanding and overall positivity. Although teachers and administrators may become upset by outcomes when things are unkept, Rob stresses the most productive ways to communicate grievances with custodians:
“[I] try to keep it positive and to say, ‘If you go and you are mean to that custodian, they're going to remember that, and it's going to affect them negatively. It's not going to go well for the custodian, and it's not going to go well for you. You're better off hiding pieces of candy around your classroom and [see] if they can find them all.’ [...] Really, the people that are in the buildings are just doing the best job they can.”
At the end of the day, Rob strives for the best, most effective student experience, but he knows the struggle.
Chris Brablc: Enrollment & Budget Crisis: Redefining Capital When Funding Drops
To address primary budgetary concern, particularly in relation to enrollment rates, CrowdComfort’s VP of Market Insights Chris Brablc joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the trends.
The Covid ‘19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on both school enrollment and potentially birthrates across the nation. Between 2019-2024, K-12 public school enrollment dropped 3.8% (~1.5 million students), but unanticipated factors will continue to force those declines. As aforementioned, birthrates in the United States are at a historic low (~1.6 child per woman), so at a baseline the amount of available students to systems will continue to diminish.
However, the perception of public school systems, in general, has also worsened. Studies show that charter school enrollment has grown roughly 7-9% since Covid and homeschooled students has also increased by around 50%. For public school systems this means continued budget cuts.
Chris noted less student enrollment leads to budget cuts for all school systems (urban, suburban, and rural). However, the greatest decline is seen in urban and rural districts — urban school districts have seen a 37% drop in funding due to enrollment, suburban just a 25% decrease, and rural areas having the highest average (around 39%).
“[The districts] being most impacted by the enrollment, especially when it comes to their budgets,” Chris reported. “[Are within] urban [and rural] school districts as opposed to suburban school districts, where also there are [still] funding challenges, but from a student movement standpoint, urban and rural are being hit the hardest.”
To combat this cycle of less students = less money = less staff, whilst still managing the same infrastructure, Chris offered a few “radical ideas.” For one, communication is paramount, and with that comes calculated staffing (i.e. rather than one large sweep for all facilities, use data to send staff to the buildings / rooms that need to be cleaned when they must be cleaned). He also emphasized the importance of understanding what goals administrators in a given district actually want to achieve for cleaning.
However, the overall point that Chris emphasized is optimization is not possible without technology enabling effective tracking. Communication and goals can be great, but without transparency to what is actually happening, they are mostly nebulous.
If you wish to hear more on Chris’ “radical ideas” and more detail on the trends that we face, check out his entire Optimize Virtual 2026 session.
Ryan Alu: Embracing Technology & AI: Improve Your Team's Effectiveness and Efficiency
Artificial Intelligence has taken over almost every industry, FMX’s Ryan Alu joined Optimize Virtual 2026 with ideas and metrics to show how AI can help facility operations as well. The ultimate goal, of course, is to save energy, time, and money for facility teams. Ryan believes FMX’s platform can help do so.
“I think the term AI right now means different things to different people,” he said. “The honest answer there is: AI has been around for a long time — LLMs, data tables, being able to pull from, being able to reference in an automated way. It's just become a lot more accessible and a lot more advanced.”
Through FMX’s “pinwheel” process to make data-driven decisions, they have noticed that “less than 10% of the organizations that utilize FMX have a complete, reliable view of their assets across their schools, buildings, [etc.].” From initial assessments within FMX, they can plan, manage, and in the end optimize operations.
“I can say for certain," Ryan declared. “[That] 98% of our customers that have utilized those reporting in a good way have saved jobs and even added jobs [during] budget cuts.”
FMX’s system is designed to support facility worker output and promote informed decision making, not replace human labor. When facility management has clarity on what is happening daily, the question is no longer “how do I identify what I need to solve for,” the opportunities are already known and easier to solve swiftly and efficiently because as an organization; you are optimized.
Final Takeaways
Clean data and informed technology allow for efficient operations. Optimizing isn’t always about being the best; it is about using what you have and leveraging it in real-time to accomplish the goals you have set.
Optimize Virtual 2026 is designed to help you take a step back and look at your current situation with a critical eye.
Eric Graham showed you how to best avoid "cannibalizing" your work force. Sara Porter illuminated how you can directly enable better student output through a push for health and potentially improve spending. Sometimes it can be hard to value the person with so much outside pressure, Rob Lamecker reminds you that the person is always first. With budgetary concerns coming due to various factors — enrollment rates included — Chris Brablc gave you the facts of the times and “radical” ideas to fight back. But in close, what it all comes down to is making use of technology like CrowdComfort’s and FMX’s; Ryan Alu keyed to how one can practice what’s learned.
Put it all together and you’ve optimized.
To watch any of the recordings or view resources from Optimize Virtual 2026. Please use the following link: https://www.crowdcomfort.com/lp/optimize-k-12-virtual-conference-recordings
Usurping Operational Constraints: Innovations from Optimize Virtual 2026
'Optimization, revolutionary, and efficiency,' are all commonly used when describing business operations. However, what does that look like in practice?
Under traditional guidelines, facility managers — particularly in the K-12 and higher education spaces — must utilize an often short staff, tight budget, and continuously growing expectations to simply provide a healthy space for the community. In a sense, the demand is almost always just ‘do more with less’ and ‘figure it out’.
Is that optimal?
The answer, of course, is no, but what does it mean to ‘do more with less,’ by definition is that not efficiency? But discussing this topic requires expert level experience and insight.
That is why Optimize Virtual 2026 brought together five thought leaders to share strategies that use technology to relieve some of the daily pressures on managers. The end goal is to create more optimized, revolutionized, and efficient procedures that provide students and faculty members with a seamless day and healthy space. Here’s the breakdown of what was said:
Eric Graham: The Impacts of ‘Do More With Less'
To begin Optimize Virtual 2026, CrowdComfort CEO Eric Graham broke down what it actually means to do more with less, and the unintended consequences of that philosophy.
“Investments in technology do help you do more with less,” he said. “But in many cases, [...] when you've exhausted resources and you're not investing in technology, you are cannibalizing human free time. You're cannibalizing your employees' time, and or making them more stressed, working harder, which leads to all kinds of other issues.”
Overextending facility teams does not only impact quality, it has a much larger impact on student and teacher output as well. At a baseline, 80% of teachers value having a clean environment. In fact, 48% of teachers would consider leaving their school if the facility conditions graded out at a “C or below.” When facilities are neglected it becomes increasingly harder for institutions to retain premier instructors.
However on the student side, the consequences can be just as, if not more, drastic. Often student absenteeism directly correlates with inadequate facility management. Research shows that major maintenance delays lead to a .4-.5% decrease in student attendance. Conversely, well kept facilities have the opposite outcomes — studies in the K-12 field point to a 35% improvement in overall illness-related absenteeism when building hygiene interventions are implemented.
Beyond the health implications for students and faculty members, there is a financial incentive to optimizing facility operations. As enrollment rates in public school systems continue to decrease by hundreds-of-thousands yearly, budgets also diminish. Yet, the infrastructure remains largely unchanged or expand. The strain on facility teams can be insurmountable without technology intervention.
“The building footprint doesn't shrink at the same rate at which the enrollment reduces,” Eric explained. “You're increasing the cost per square foot per student to provide that healthy environment. So that's where it's an equation that is almost impossible to deal with.
“It's really about optimizing your outcomes, moving from being reactive to being proactive,” he continued. “Who's doing what? Where? And when? And, having an honest discussion around the scope that is being deployed. [...] Once you have data, that gives you the agility and the ability to react and change your dynamics in real time.”
Optimization at scale gears facility teams with the necessary tools and processes to help academic institutions achieve their goals in the most effective way possible without ravaging workers’ time.
Sara Porter: Environmental Health Trends & Navigating the New Education Landscape
Health is paramount for all organizations but particularly educational institutions. Keynote speaker Sara Porter of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the disconcerting trends caused by poor attention paid to creating a healthy environment, and the steps that systems have taken to create clean spaces.
“There is a connection between the space that students and staff show up to [daily] and their long-term health,” Sara explained. “This never ceases to blow my mind. There was a review of 20 years of data that [provides] strong evidence of the potential to improve children's health [through] improving the quality of the air they're breathing, by reducing concentrations of harmful pollutants.”
Sara went on to explain that in Los Angeles, once air purifiers were implemented in schools, student performance actually increased at a similar rate that would be expected if class sizes were reduced by a third. She noted that it shows how technology can directly improve student output.
“There's evidence that [changing] and cleaning the air really does have an impact on student performance,” said Porter. “Researchers at the University of Tulsa found that fifth-grade students' math scores increased along with increasing ventilation.”
Her overall point was that this information is well-known and studied. The next challenge will be using it to create better environments for students and instructors alike. But Healthy Green School & Colleges’ strategies do not only make better students, Sara believes it can lead to overall cost savings as well.
In fact, institutions like Chicago Public Schools — who aspired to meet HGSC’s standards for certification — actually found that some of the non-compliant, sub-par products they had purchased were costing the organization thousands-of-dollars more weekly than the HGSC compliant alternatives.
Rob Lamecker: Fireside Chat: People First, Data Closely Second
Director of Facilities at Stillwater Schools Rob Lamecker has a unique way of inspiring change whenever he speaks. He was joined by CrowdComfort’s David Gailey for a fascinating fireside chat to discuss Rob’s leadership style, unregulated challenges of managing facilities, the benefits of technology on his daily job, and most importantly, how to keep people first whilst using technology to improve their lives.
Unlike many other facility directors, Rob’s background was in IT, so when he took the promotion at Stillwater he knew that technology could provide benefits. However, what resonates most is his persistence to avoid replacement of human labor. Although technology has benefited his teams and provided him greater transparency, he uses it to protect, optimize, and inform his janitors rather than replace them.
“Who I am as a person? I'm an IT person, I'm a data person, but also I'm a galvanizer,” said Rob. “So, the primary thing that I use is: I use data, and I want to make sure that the teachers and the principals and the superintendent [all] understand that we have 1.4 million gross square feet of buildings, [and] we have 325 acres of property.”
Using the raw data, Rob has an easier time explaining to stakeholders the sheer pressure his team is under on a daily basis by comparing their job to cleaning an average home. He highlights that to adequately clean 1.4 million square feet he would need about 70 custodians to disperse work effectively at 20,000 square feet per worker.
Unfortunately, at its peak Stillwater only had about 60 janitorial staffers and following major budget cuts he's down to just 51. After factoring for a 10% absentee rate, he’s often left with around 40 employees to clean the 1.4 million square feet that should require 70.
In the end, custodians in Stillwater need to clean close to 34,000 square feet to meet goals — about 70% more than the recommended 20,000 square feet.
“That's about 12.5 houses every day that we're expecting this custodian to clean,” he explained. “When something's dirty, [teachers] don't care about all of the other things that go into it: [our staffing models, numbers], or any of that stuff. They just know it's dirty and it needs to stop.
“I ask people, especially in the school world, that have an understanding for this,” Rob continued. “‘How many of my custodians do you think had an Individualized Education Plan or a 504? [How many do you think] were in our special needs program, or [one elsewhere]?’ That number is probably going to be greater than the average of other people in these roles. That's another way that I can speak to the teachers to give them an idea of who [we are working with].”
The goal is shared understanding and overall positivity. Although teachers and administrators may become upset by outcomes when things are unkept, Rob stresses the most productive ways to communicate grievances with custodians:
“[I] try to keep it positive and to say, ‘If you go and you are mean to that custodian, they're going to remember that, and it's going to affect them negatively. It's not going to go well for the custodian, and it's not going to go well for you. You're better off hiding pieces of candy around your classroom and [see] if they can find them all.’ [...] Really, the people that are in the buildings are just doing the best job they can.”
At the end of the day, Rob strives for the best, most effective student experience, but he knows the struggle.
Chris Brablc: Enrollment & Budget Crisis: Redefining Capital When Funding Drops
To address primary budgetary concern, particularly in relation to enrollment rates, CrowdComfort’s VP of Market Insights Chris Brablc joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the trends.
The Covid ‘19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on both school enrollment and potentially birthrates across the nation. Between 2019-2024, K-12 public school enrollment dropped 3.8% (~1.5 million students), but unanticipated factors will continue to force those declines. As aforementioned, birthrates in the United States are at a historic low (~1.6 child per woman), so at a baseline the amount of available students to systems will continue to diminish.
However, the perception of public school systems, in general, has also worsened. Studies show that charter school enrollment has grown roughly 7-9% since Covid and homeschooled students has also increased by around 50%. For public school systems this means continued budget cuts.
Chris noted less student enrollment leads to budget cuts for all school systems (urban, suburban, and rural). However, the greatest decline is seen in urban and rural districts — urban school districts have seen a 37% drop in funding due to enrollment, suburban just a 25% decrease, and rural areas having the highest average (around 39%).
“[The districts] being most impacted by the enrollment, especially when it comes to their budgets,” Chris reported. “[Are within] urban [and rural] school districts as opposed to suburban school districts, where also there are [still] funding challenges, but from a student movement standpoint, urban and rural are being hit the hardest.”
To combat this cycle of less students = less money = less staff, whilst still managing the same infrastructure, Chris offered a few “radical ideas.” For one, communication is paramount, and with that comes calculated staffing (i.e. rather than one large sweep for all facilities, use data to send staff to the buildings / rooms that need to be cleaned when they must be cleaned). He also emphasized the importance of understanding what goals administrators in a given district actually want to achieve for cleaning.
However, the overall point that Chris emphasized is optimization is not possible without technology enabling effective tracking. Communication and goals can be great, but without transparency to what is actually happening, they are mostly nebulous.
If you wish to hear more on Chris’ “radical ideas” and more detail on the trends that we face, check out his entire Optimize Virtual 2026 session.
Ryan Alu: Embracing Technology & AI: Improve Your Team's Effectiveness and Efficiency
Artificial Intelligence has taken over almost every industry, FMX’s Ryan Alu joined Optimize Virtual 2026 with ideas and metrics to show how AI can help facility operations as well. The ultimate goal, of course, is to save energy, time, and money for facility teams. Ryan believes FMX’s platform can help do so.
“I think the term AI right now means different things to different people,” he said. “The honest answer there is: AI has been around for a long time — LLMs, data tables, being able to pull from, being able to reference in an automated way. It's just become a lot more accessible and a lot more advanced.”
Through FMX’s “pinwheel” process to make data-driven decisions, they have noticed that “less than 10% of the organizations that utilize FMX have a complete, reliable view of their assets across their schools, buildings, [etc.].” From initial assessments within FMX, they can plan, manage, and in the end optimize operations.
“I can say for certain," Ryan declared. “[That] 98% of our customers that have utilized those reporting in a good way have saved jobs and even added jobs [during] budget cuts.”
FMX’s system is designed to support facility worker output and promote informed decision making, not replace human labor. When facility management has clarity on what is happening daily, the question is no longer “how do I identify what I need to solve for,” the opportunities are already known and easier to solve swiftly and efficiently because as an organization; you are optimized.
Final Takeaways
Clean data and informed technology allow for efficient operations. Optimizing isn’t always about being the best; it is about using what you have and leveraging it in real-time to accomplish the goals you have set.
Optimize Virtual 2026 is designed to help you take a step back and look at your current situation with a critical eye.
Eric Graham showed you how to best avoid "cannibalizing" your work force. Sara Porter illuminated how you can directly enable better student output through a push for health and potentially improve spending. Sometimes it can be hard to value the person with so much outside pressure, Rob Lamecker reminds you that the person is always first. With budgetary concerns coming due to various factors — enrollment rates included — Chris Brablc gave you the facts of the times and “radical” ideas to fight back. But in close, what it all comes down to is making use of technology like CrowdComfort’s and FMX’s; Ryan Alu keyed to how one can practice what’s learned.
Put it all together and you’ve optimized.
To watch any of the recordings or view resources from Optimize Virtual 2026. Please use the following link: https://www.crowdcomfort.com/lp/optimize-k-12-virtual-conference-recordings
Usurping Operational Constraints: Innovations from Optimize Virtual 2026
'Optimization, revolutionary, and efficiency,' are all commonly used when describing business operations. However, what does that look like in practice?
Under traditional guidelines, facility managers — particularly in the K-12 and higher education spaces — must utilize an often short staff, tight budget, and continuously growing expectations to simply provide a healthy space for the community. In a sense, the demand is almost always just ‘do more with less’ and ‘figure it out’.
Is that optimal?
The answer, of course, is no, but what does it mean to ‘do more with less,’ by definition is that not efficiency? But discussing this topic requires expert level experience and insight.
That is why Optimize Virtual 2026 brought together five thought leaders to share strategies that use technology to relieve some of the daily pressures on managers. The end goal is to create more optimized, revolutionized, and efficient procedures that provide students and faculty members with a seamless day and healthy space. Here’s the breakdown of what was said:
Eric Graham: The Impacts of ‘Do More With Less'
To begin Optimize Virtual 2026, CrowdComfort CEO Eric Graham broke down what it actually means to do more with less, and the unintended consequences of that philosophy.
“Investments in technology do help you do more with less,” he said. “But in many cases, [...] when you've exhausted resources and you're not investing in technology, you are cannibalizing human free time. You're cannibalizing your employees' time, and or making them more stressed, working harder, which leads to all kinds of other issues.”
Overextending facility teams does not only impact quality, it has a much larger impact on student and teacher output as well. At a baseline, 80% of teachers value having a clean environment. In fact, 48% of teachers would consider leaving their school if the facility conditions graded out at a “C or below.” When facilities are neglected it becomes increasingly harder for institutions to retain premier instructors.
However on the student side, the consequences can be just as, if not more, drastic. Often student absenteeism directly correlates with inadequate facility management. Research shows that major maintenance delays lead to a .4-.5% decrease in student attendance. Conversely, well kept facilities have the opposite outcomes — studies in the K-12 field point to a 35% improvement in overall illness-related absenteeism when building hygiene interventions are implemented.
Beyond the health implications for students and faculty members, there is a financial incentive to optimizing facility operations. As enrollment rates in public school systems continue to decrease by hundreds-of-thousands yearly, budgets also diminish. Yet, the infrastructure remains largely unchanged or expand. The strain on facility teams can be insurmountable without technology intervention.
“The building footprint doesn't shrink at the same rate at which the enrollment reduces,” Eric explained. “You're increasing the cost per square foot per student to provide that healthy environment. So that's where it's an equation that is almost impossible to deal with.
“It's really about optimizing your outcomes, moving from being reactive to being proactive,” he continued. “Who's doing what? Where? And when? And, having an honest discussion around the scope that is being deployed. [...] Once you have data, that gives you the agility and the ability to react and change your dynamics in real time.”
Optimization at scale gears facility teams with the necessary tools and processes to help academic institutions achieve their goals in the most effective way possible without ravaging workers’ time.
Sara Porter: Environmental Health Trends & Navigating the New Education Landscape
Health is paramount for all organizations but particularly educational institutions. Keynote speaker Sara Porter of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the disconcerting trends caused by poor attention paid to creating a healthy environment, and the steps that systems have taken to create clean spaces.
“There is a connection between the space that students and staff show up to [daily] and their long-term health,” Sara explained. “This never ceases to blow my mind. There was a review of 20 years of data that [provides] strong evidence of the potential to improve children's health [through] improving the quality of the air they're breathing, by reducing concentrations of harmful pollutants.”
Sara went on to explain that in Los Angeles, once air purifiers were implemented in schools, student performance actually increased at a similar rate that would be expected if class sizes were reduced by a third. She noted that it shows how technology can directly improve student output.
“There's evidence that [changing] and cleaning the air really does have an impact on student performance,” said Porter. “Researchers at the University of Tulsa found that fifth-grade students' math scores increased along with increasing ventilation.”
Her overall point was that this information is well-known and studied. The next challenge will be using it to create better environments for students and instructors alike. But Healthy Green School & Colleges’ strategies do not only make better students, Sara believes it can lead to overall cost savings as well.
In fact, institutions like Chicago Public Schools — who aspired to meet HGSC’s standards for certification — actually found that some of the non-compliant, sub-par products they had purchased were costing the organization thousands-of-dollars more weekly than the HGSC compliant alternatives.
Rob Lamecker: Fireside Chat: People First, Data Closely Second
Director of Facilities at Stillwater Schools Rob Lamecker has a unique way of inspiring change whenever he speaks. He was joined by CrowdComfort’s David Gailey for a fascinating fireside chat to discuss Rob’s leadership style, unregulated challenges of managing facilities, the benefits of technology on his daily job, and most importantly, how to keep people first whilst using technology to improve their lives.
Unlike many other facility directors, Rob’s background was in IT, so when he took the promotion at Stillwater he knew that technology could provide benefits. However, what resonates most is his persistence to avoid replacement of human labor. Although technology has benefited his teams and provided him greater transparency, he uses it to protect, optimize, and inform his janitors rather than replace them.
“Who I am as a person? I'm an IT person, I'm a data person, but also I'm a galvanizer,” said Rob. “So, the primary thing that I use is: I use data, and I want to make sure that the teachers and the principals and the superintendent [all] understand that we have 1.4 million gross square feet of buildings, [and] we have 325 acres of property.”
Using the raw data, Rob has an easier time explaining to stakeholders the sheer pressure his team is under on a daily basis by comparing their job to cleaning an average home. He highlights that to adequately clean 1.4 million square feet he would need about 70 custodians to disperse work effectively at 20,000 square feet per worker.
Unfortunately, at its peak Stillwater only had about 60 janitorial staffers and following major budget cuts he's down to just 51. After factoring for a 10% absentee rate, he’s often left with around 40 employees to clean the 1.4 million square feet that should require 70.
In the end, custodians in Stillwater need to clean close to 34,000 square feet to meet goals — about 70% more than the recommended 20,000 square feet.
“That's about 12.5 houses every day that we're expecting this custodian to clean,” he explained. “When something's dirty, [teachers] don't care about all of the other things that go into it: [our staffing models, numbers], or any of that stuff. They just know it's dirty and it needs to stop.
“I ask people, especially in the school world, that have an understanding for this,” Rob continued. “‘How many of my custodians do you think had an Individualized Education Plan or a 504? [How many do you think] were in our special needs program, or [one elsewhere]?’ That number is probably going to be greater than the average of other people in these roles. That's another way that I can speak to the teachers to give them an idea of who [we are working with].”
The goal is shared understanding and overall positivity. Although teachers and administrators may become upset by outcomes when things are unkept, Rob stresses the most productive ways to communicate grievances with custodians:
“[I] try to keep it positive and to say, ‘If you go and you are mean to that custodian, they're going to remember that, and it's going to affect them negatively. It's not going to go well for the custodian, and it's not going to go well for you. You're better off hiding pieces of candy around your classroom and [see] if they can find them all.’ [...] Really, the people that are in the buildings are just doing the best job they can.”
At the end of the day, Rob strives for the best, most effective student experience, but he knows the struggle.
Chris Brablc: Enrollment & Budget Crisis: Redefining Capital When Funding Drops
To address primary budgetary concern, particularly in relation to enrollment rates, CrowdComfort’s VP of Market Insights Chris Brablc joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the trends.
The Covid ‘19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on both school enrollment and potentially birthrates across the nation. Between 2019-2024, K-12 public school enrollment dropped 3.8% (~1.5 million students), but unanticipated factors will continue to force those declines. As aforementioned, birthrates in the United States are at a historic low (~1.6 child per woman), so at a baseline the amount of available students to systems will continue to diminish.
However, the perception of public school systems, in general, has also worsened. Studies show that charter school enrollment has grown roughly 7-9% since Covid and homeschooled students has also increased by around 50%. For public school systems this means continued budget cuts.
Chris noted less student enrollment leads to budget cuts for all school systems (urban, suburban, and rural). However, the greatest decline is seen in urban and rural districts — urban school districts have seen a 37% drop in funding due to enrollment, suburban just a 25% decrease, and rural areas having the highest average (around 39%).
“[The districts] being most impacted by the enrollment, especially when it comes to their budgets,” Chris reported. “[Are within] urban [and rural] school districts as opposed to suburban school districts, where also there are [still] funding challenges, but from a student movement standpoint, urban and rural are being hit the hardest.”
To combat this cycle of less students = less money = less staff, whilst still managing the same infrastructure, Chris offered a few “radical ideas.” For one, communication is paramount, and with that comes calculated staffing (i.e. rather than one large sweep for all facilities, use data to send staff to the buildings / rooms that need to be cleaned when they must be cleaned). He also emphasized the importance of understanding what goals administrators in a given district actually want to achieve for cleaning.
However, the overall point that Chris emphasized is optimization is not possible without technology enabling effective tracking. Communication and goals can be great, but without transparency to what is actually happening, they are mostly nebulous.
If you wish to hear more on Chris’ “radical ideas” and more detail on the trends that we face, check out his entire Optimize Virtual 2026 session.
Ryan Alu: Embracing Technology & AI: Improve Your Team's Effectiveness and Efficiency
Artificial Intelligence has taken over almost every industry, FMX’s Ryan Alu joined Optimize Virtual 2026 with ideas and metrics to show how AI can help facility operations as well. The ultimate goal, of course, is to save energy, time, and money for facility teams. Ryan believes FMX’s platform can help do so.
“I think the term AI right now means different things to different people,” he said. “The honest answer there is: AI has been around for a long time — LLMs, data tables, being able to pull from, being able to reference in an automated way. It's just become a lot more accessible and a lot more advanced.”
Through FMX’s “pinwheel” process to make data-driven decisions, they have noticed that “less than 10% of the organizations that utilize FMX have a complete, reliable view of their assets across their schools, buildings, [etc.].” From initial assessments within FMX, they can plan, manage, and in the end optimize operations.
“I can say for certain," Ryan declared. “[That] 98% of our customers that have utilized those reporting in a good way have saved jobs and even added jobs [during] budget cuts.”
FMX’s system is designed to support facility worker output and promote informed decision making, not replace human labor. When facility management has clarity on what is happening daily, the question is no longer “how do I identify what I need to solve for,” the opportunities are already known and easier to solve swiftly and efficiently because as an organization; you are optimized.
Final Takeaways
Clean data and informed technology allow for efficient operations. Optimizing isn’t always about being the best; it is about using what you have and leveraging it in real-time to accomplish the goals you have set.
Optimize Virtual 2026 is designed to help you take a step back and look at your current situation with a critical eye.
Eric Graham showed you how to best avoid "cannibalizing" your work force. Sara Porter illuminated how you can directly enable better student output through a push for health and potentially improve spending. Sometimes it can be hard to value the person with so much outside pressure, Rob Lamecker reminds you that the person is always first. With budgetary concerns coming due to various factors — enrollment rates included — Chris Brablc gave you the facts of the times and “radical” ideas to fight back. But in close, what it all comes down to is making use of technology like CrowdComfort’s and FMX’s; Ryan Alu keyed to how one can practice what’s learned.
Put it all together and you’ve optimized.
To watch any of the recordings or view resources from Optimize Virtual 2026. Please use the following link: https://www.crowdcomfort.com/lp/optimize-k-12-virtual-conference-recordings
'Optimization, revolutionary, and efficiency,' are all commonly used when describing business operations. However, what does that look like in practice?
Under traditional guidelines, facility managers — particularly in the K-12 and higher education spaces — must utilize an often short staff, tight budget, and continuously growing expectations to simply provide a healthy space for the community. In a sense, the demand is almost always just ‘do more with less’ and ‘figure it out’.
Is that optimal?
The answer, of course, is no, but what does it mean to ‘do more with less,’ by definition is that not efficiency? But discussing this topic requires expert level experience and insight.
That is why Optimize Virtual 2026 brought together five thought leaders to share strategies that use technology to relieve some of the daily pressures on managers. The end goal is to create more optimized, revolutionized, and efficient procedures that provide students and faculty members with a seamless day and healthy space. Here’s the breakdown of what was said:
Eric Graham: The Impacts of ‘Do More With Less'
To begin Optimize Virtual 2026, CrowdComfort CEO Eric Graham broke down what it actually means to do more with less, and the unintended consequences of that philosophy.
“Investments in technology do help you do more with less,” he said. “But in many cases, [...] when you've exhausted resources and you're not investing in technology, you are cannibalizing human free time. You're cannibalizing your employees' time, and or making them more stressed, working harder, which leads to all kinds of other issues.”
Overextending facility teams does not only impact quality, it has a much larger impact on student and teacher output as well. At a baseline, 80% of teachers value having a clean environment. In fact, 48% of teachers would consider leaving their school if the facility conditions graded out at a “C or below.” When facilities are neglected it becomes increasingly harder for institutions to retain premier instructors.
However on the student side, the consequences can be just as, if not more, drastic. Often student absenteeism directly correlates with inadequate facility management. Research shows that major maintenance delays lead to a .4-.5% decrease in student attendance. Conversely, well kept facilities have the opposite outcomes — studies in the K-12 field point to a 35% improvement in overall illness-related absenteeism when building hygiene interventions are implemented.
Beyond the health implications for students and faculty members, there is a financial incentive to optimizing facility operations. As enrollment rates in public school systems continue to decrease by hundreds-of-thousands yearly, budgets also diminish. Yet, the infrastructure remains largely unchanged or expand. The strain on facility teams can be insurmountable without technology intervention.
“The building footprint doesn't shrink at the same rate at which the enrollment reduces,” Eric explained. “You're increasing the cost per square foot per student to provide that healthy environment. So that's where it's an equation that is almost impossible to deal with.
“It's really about optimizing your outcomes, moving from being reactive to being proactive,” he continued. “Who's doing what? Where? And when? And, having an honest discussion around the scope that is being deployed. [...] Once you have data, that gives you the agility and the ability to react and change your dynamics in real time.”
Optimization at scale gears facility teams with the necessary tools and processes to help academic institutions achieve their goals in the most effective way possible without ravaging workers’ time.
Sara Porter: Environmental Health Trends & Navigating the New Education Landscape
Health is paramount for all organizations but particularly educational institutions. Keynote speaker Sara Porter of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the disconcerting trends caused by poor attention paid to creating a healthy environment, and the steps that systems have taken to create clean spaces.
“There is a connection between the space that students and staff show up to [daily] and their long-term health,” Sara explained. “This never ceases to blow my mind. There was a review of 20 years of data that [provides] strong evidence of the potential to improve children's health [through] improving the quality of the air they're breathing, by reducing concentrations of harmful pollutants.”
Sara went on to explain that in Los Angeles, once air purifiers were implemented in schools, student performance actually increased at a similar rate that would be expected if class sizes were reduced by a third. She noted that it shows how technology can directly improve student output.
“There's evidence that [changing] and cleaning the air really does have an impact on student performance,” said Porter. “Researchers at the University of Tulsa found that fifth-grade students' math scores increased along with increasing ventilation.”
Her overall point was that this information is well-known and studied. The next challenge will be using it to create better environments for students and instructors alike. But Healthy Green School & Colleges’ strategies do not only make better students, Sara believes it can lead to overall cost savings as well.
In fact, institutions like Chicago Public Schools — who aspired to meet HGSC’s standards for certification — actually found that some of the non-compliant, sub-par products they had purchased were costing the organization thousands-of-dollars more weekly than the HGSC compliant alternatives.
Rob Lamecker: Fireside Chat: People First, Data Closely Second
Director of Facilities at Stillwater Schools Rob Lamecker has a unique way of inspiring change whenever he speaks. He was joined by CrowdComfort’s David Gailey for a fascinating fireside chat to discuss Rob’s leadership style, unregulated challenges of managing facilities, the benefits of technology on his daily job, and most importantly, how to keep people first whilst using technology to improve their lives.
Unlike many other facility directors, Rob’s background was in IT, so when he took the promotion at Stillwater he knew that technology could provide benefits. However, what resonates most is his persistence to avoid replacement of human labor. Although technology has benefited his teams and provided him greater transparency, he uses it to protect, optimize, and inform his janitors rather than replace them.
“Who I am as a person? I'm an IT person, I'm a data person, but also I'm a galvanizer,” said Rob. “So, the primary thing that I use is: I use data, and I want to make sure that the teachers and the principals and the superintendent [all] understand that we have 1.4 million gross square feet of buildings, [and] we have 325 acres of property.”
Using the raw data, Rob has an easier time explaining to stakeholders the sheer pressure his team is under on a daily basis by comparing their job to cleaning an average home. He highlights that to adequately clean 1.4 million square feet he would need about 70 custodians to disperse work effectively at 20,000 square feet per worker.
Unfortunately, at its peak Stillwater only had about 60 janitorial staffers and following major budget cuts he's down to just 51. After factoring for a 10% absentee rate, he’s often left with around 40 employees to clean the 1.4 million square feet that should require 70.
In the end, custodians in Stillwater need to clean close to 34,000 square feet to meet goals — about 70% more than the recommended 20,000 square feet.
“That's about 12.5 houses every day that we're expecting this custodian to clean,” he explained. “When something's dirty, [teachers] don't care about all of the other things that go into it: [our staffing models, numbers], or any of that stuff. They just know it's dirty and it needs to stop.
“I ask people, especially in the school world, that have an understanding for this,” Rob continued. “‘How many of my custodians do you think had an Individualized Education Plan or a 504? [How many do you think] were in our special needs program, or [one elsewhere]?’ That number is probably going to be greater than the average of other people in these roles. That's another way that I can speak to the teachers to give them an idea of who [we are working with].”
The goal is shared understanding and overall positivity. Although teachers and administrators may become upset by outcomes when things are unkept, Rob stresses the most productive ways to communicate grievances with custodians:
“[I] try to keep it positive and to say, ‘If you go and you are mean to that custodian, they're going to remember that, and it's going to affect them negatively. It's not going to go well for the custodian, and it's not going to go well for you. You're better off hiding pieces of candy around your classroom and [see] if they can find them all.’ [...] Really, the people that are in the buildings are just doing the best job they can.”
At the end of the day, Rob strives for the best, most effective student experience, but he knows the struggle.
Chris Brablc: Enrollment & Budget Crisis: Redefining Capital When Funding Drops
To address primary budgetary concern, particularly in relation to enrollment rates, CrowdComfort’s VP of Market Insights Chris Brablc joined Optimize Virtual 2026 to discuss the trends.
The Covid ‘19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on both school enrollment and potentially birthrates across the nation. Between 2019-2024, K-12 public school enrollment dropped 3.8% (~1.5 million students), but unanticipated factors will continue to force those declines. As aforementioned, birthrates in the United States are at a historic low (~1.6 child per woman), so at a baseline the amount of available students to systems will continue to diminish.
However, the perception of public school systems, in general, has also worsened. Studies show that charter school enrollment has grown roughly 7-9% since Covid and homeschooled students has also increased by around 50%. For public school systems this means continued budget cuts.
Chris noted less student enrollment leads to budget cuts for all school systems (urban, suburban, and rural). However, the greatest decline is seen in urban and rural districts — urban school districts have seen a 37% drop in funding due to enrollment, suburban just a 25% decrease, and rural areas having the highest average (around 39%).
“[The districts] being most impacted by the enrollment, especially when it comes to their budgets,” Chris reported. “[Are within] urban [and rural] school districts as opposed to suburban school districts, where also there are [still] funding challenges, but from a student movement standpoint, urban and rural are being hit the hardest.”
To combat this cycle of less students = less money = less staff, whilst still managing the same infrastructure, Chris offered a few “radical ideas.” For one, communication is paramount, and with that comes calculated staffing (i.e. rather than one large sweep for all facilities, use data to send staff to the buildings / rooms that need to be cleaned when they must be cleaned). He also emphasized the importance of understanding what goals administrators in a given district actually want to achieve for cleaning.
However, the overall point that Chris emphasized is optimization is not possible without technology enabling effective tracking. Communication and goals can be great, but without transparency to what is actually happening, they are mostly nebulous.
If you wish to hear more on Chris’ “radical ideas” and more detail on the trends that we face, check out his entire Optimize Virtual 2026 session.
Ryan Alu: Embracing Technology & AI: Improve Your Team's Effectiveness and Efficiency
Artificial Intelligence has taken over almost every industry, FMX’s Ryan Alu joined Optimize Virtual 2026 with ideas and metrics to show how AI can help facility operations as well. The ultimate goal, of course, is to save energy, time, and money for facility teams. Ryan believes FMX’s platform can help do so.
“I think the term AI right now means different things to different people,” he said. “The honest answer there is: AI has been around for a long time — LLMs, data tables, being able to pull from, being able to reference in an automated way. It's just become a lot more accessible and a lot more advanced.”
Through FMX’s “pinwheel” process to make data-driven decisions, they have noticed that “less than 10% of the organizations that utilize FMX have a complete, reliable view of their assets across their schools, buildings, [etc.].” From initial assessments within FMX, they can plan, manage, and in the end optimize operations.
“I can say for certain," Ryan declared. “[That] 98% of our customers that have utilized those reporting in a good way have saved jobs and even added jobs [during] budget cuts.”
FMX’s system is designed to support facility worker output and promote informed decision making, not replace human labor. When facility management has clarity on what is happening daily, the question is no longer “how do I identify what I need to solve for,” the opportunities are already known and easier to solve swiftly and efficiently because as an organization; you are optimized.
Final Takeaways
Clean data and informed technology allow for efficient operations. Optimizing isn’t always about being the best; it is about using what you have and leveraging it in real-time to accomplish the goals you have set.
Optimize Virtual 2026 is designed to help you take a step back and look at your current situation with a critical eye.
Eric Graham showed you how to best avoid "cannibalizing" your work force. Sara Porter illuminated how you can directly enable better student output through a push for health and potentially improve spending. Sometimes it can be hard to value the person with so much outside pressure, Rob Lamecker reminds you that the person is always first. With budgetary concerns coming due to various factors — enrollment rates included — Chris Brablc gave you the facts of the times and “radical” ideas to fight back. But in close, what it all comes down to is making use of technology like CrowdComfort’s and FMX’s; Ryan Alu keyed to how one can practice what’s learned.
Put it all together and you’ve optimized.
To watch any of the recordings or view resources from Optimize Virtual 2026. Please use the following link: https://www.crowdcomfort.com/lp/optimize-k-12-virtual-conference-recordings