Shelby County Schools update: What we learned in year one

Like Alice Cooper said in his hit song back in 1972, school’s out for summer! While the students and teachers are away, our service partners are hard at work across the 45 Shelby County Schools ServiceMaster by Stratos services.

From deep cleaning classrooms from top to bottom, to stripping and waxing all floors to make them shine, there’s a lot to be done this summer. And, when we say summer, we don’t mean June-August. We’re on a much tighter schedule. Let us explain. Eighteen of the schools we service host the Superintendent’s Summer Learning Academy, while others hold summer school, summer camps or are under construction. Because of this, our deep cleaning had to be done quickly yet efficiently at many of the schools we service. All summer work must be completed by July 27.

With the 2017-2018 school year behind us, we have all learned a great deal – like how to hire more than 200 service partners in a crunch when your business grows 72 percent practically overnight. Or, how to train those 200 new team members to ensure their work consistently meets the client’s expectations. We certainly learned how to put our trademarked phrase, Logistical People Business, to use by assigning service partners to positions and locations in which they would thrive.

Looking ahead to the 2018-2019 school year, we’re excited that we will not be experiencing as many “firsts” this go round. Our service partners are now familiar with the facility they clean, as well as their school’s administrators and teachers, giving us the opportunity to build on the relationships we forged last school year. We are in it for the long haul and investing in our relationships each school year, which helps us get better and better at providing a healthy learning environment for the leaders of tomorrow.