4 | SCHOOL PLANT MANAGER MAGAZINE | FALL 2026 Note from the MSPMA President MSPMA School Plant Manager is published by COLIBRI Northwest for MSPMA. COLIBRI Northwest PO Box 13130 Des Moines, WA 98198–1003 PUBLISHER Peter Philips 206-779-2746 peter@colibrinw.com ADVERTISING SALES Katie Higgins 206-914-4248 katie@colibrinw.com By Casey Housman, President, Missouri School Plant Managers Association “The memories didn’t stay with the building. They never had.” A few days after moving two complete elementary schools into their new home, I found myself walking through two schools that had suddenly fallen silent. Only days before, those hallways had been filled with students, teachers, custodians, maintenance staff, and the activity that comes with preparing for a major move. Now they were empty. The silence caught me off guard. The move had been one of the biggest milestones in a transition unlike anything our district had experienced. This summer, we consolidated three high schools into two, converted one of the former high schools into a middle school, consolidated two elementary schools, and repurposed a middle school into their new elementary school. The amount of planning, coordination, construction, moving, and problem-solving was unlike anything I had experienced. Even today, the work is not finished. There are still classrooms to prepare, equipment to relocate, and projects to complete before students return. The Memories Don’t Stay With the Building Like every district across Missouri, we have a date on the calendar that isn’t going to move. The first day of school. For those of us in school operations, summer isn’t a break. It’s when the real race begins. Roofs are replaced. HVAC systems are repaired. Floors are refinished. Classrooms are moved. Problems are solved. Every day brings another opportunity to prepare our schools for the students and staff who will soon return. One major milestone, however, was behind us. We moved two complete elementary schools into their new home in just three days. It took a tremendous amount of coordination, teamwork, and hard work from everyone involved, but together we got it done. With the move complete, two schools that had been filled with life only days before now sat vacant. A few days later, I decided to walk through both buildings. There wasn’t any grand reason behind it. I wanted to check temperatures, close blinds, make sure nothing had been left behind, and start thinking about what came next. What I wasn’t prepared for was how quickly a school could change. The classrooms were empty. The bulletin boards were bare. The desks, books, artwork, and decorations that had given every room its own personality were gone. Even my footsteps sounded different. As I continued walking, I noticed something else. Apparently, the spiders had already decided the buildings belonged to them. Cobwebs had started forming in the corners of the hallways and, in true Murphy’s Law fashion, I walked directly into one. Within seconds, I had a cobweb wrapped around my head and face. After making sure the spider hadn’t come along for the ride, I laughed, brushed it away, and kept walking. A little farther down the hallway, I stopped. For the first time during that walk, I wasn’t thinking about temperatures,
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