Comptroller recognizes North Point for superior facility maintenance
Silver Hammer Award presented to building services Thursday
Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) said North Point High School’s building services is a shining example to other schools in the state Thursday morning as he presented the school with the 2016 Silver Hammer Award.
“This is a beautiful school, and it is a feather in the cap of the state of Maryland,” Franchot said.
Franchot created the Silver Hammer Awards in 2016 to recognize schools that demonstrate fiscal prudence through superior school facility maintenance.
“We have state inspectors, they go around, pick out a selection of schools each year, they go in and apply 37 different engineering criteria, there’s nothing subjective about these inspection reports,” Franchot said. “The fact that this school received an
almost unprecedented score of 96 percent in the state inspection — I cannot make that up. There are counties across the state that would give their right arms to get above 90 percent for just one of their schools.”
Franchot said that taking good care of the school will help extend the life of the building and defer the need to build a new school in the future.
“You save the state of Maryland hundreds of millions of dollars by the work that you do on a daily basis,” he said.
This year, the award was presented to one school in each of Maryland’s 24 school districts, according to the comptroller’s office.
Franchot presented the award to school staff during a brief ceremony attended by school system officials and county elected officials.
Franchot commended local leaders for the level of cooperation between the school system and county government.
“I love Charles County because it is functioning, it is cooperative,” Franchot said. “When a county functions well, it’s noticeable, and when it doesn’t function well — and, unfortunately, there are a few counties around the state that are like that — it doesn’t look so good.”
Charles County Public Schools Superintendent
Kimberly Hill said that facilities maintenance is an important part of education.
“Teaching and learning cannot take place without an environment that is clean and welcoming and inviting,” Hill said.
Alice Makele, North Point’s building services manager, accepted the award on behalf of all the school’s building support personnel.
“I don’t know what to say, but thanks, I really appreciate this award,” Makele said. “On behalf of my co- workers, thank you so much.”
The work the building services department has done at North Point has not gone unnoticed by its students, either. Senior Elge Stevens worked with school administrators to make this week “Building Services Week” and has created an “Unsung Heroes” T- shirt for all of the school’s building services personnel.
“I just want to appreciate you all, because you all are the true unsung heroes of our school,” Stevens told support services staff. “I just wanted to show that the kids of the high school do appreciate you all.”