The Better Schools Partnership™ Solution Model The Better Schools Partnership™ Solution Model is a custom-made framework that puts "Best Practices" tactics into school renewal strategies. It is the result of re-thinking the strategic mission and the role that facilities play in the overall education quality and fiscal health of the board. The BSP™ goals are to:

• Leverage facility resources to provide improvements to academic program content and IT infrastructure that will enhance test results and program competitiveness;
• Maximize the conversion of energy costs to school renewal;
• Maximize cost avoidance in the face of increasing energy rates;
• Improve service productivity by 20-25% and achieve customer satisfaction scores of 90%;
• Fully understand the magnitude of facility renewal backlog and find ways to improve funding;
• Improve employee morale to reduce absenteeism and improve service productivity;
• Improve public perception of the educational program and facility quality;
• Improve management leverage to increase output while concentrating on core business.

The creation of a Solution Model is a two-step process. The first step is to develop the strategy for creating partnerships between the school board and identified key suppliers, and the community. The second step is to create a working model that puts these partnerships into action.

The best private and public-sector organizations have learned that they can't cost cut their way to success. They have learned to create new value for their customers by leveraging existing internal resources for greater returns. They are learning how to acquire new resources and new capabilities by partnering internally and externally. The same process works for school boards. The Better School Partnership™ performs a strategy review with the management team to determine its situation, its needs and objectives and to determine which mix of strategies and solution components best fits the needs of its board.

The major outcome of this review is a one-page partnering Vision and Goals Model that identifies and adopts the partnering strategies that will maximize value. This is supplemented with an operational solution model resulting from a comprehensive strategic review of the operational situation and needs of the facilities department.

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The Vision and Goal Model ensures that top management and trustees have a clear and concise understanding of program enhancements and improvements to the learning environment that result from the Better Schools Partnership™. It also helps operational managers align with senior management's most compelling needs and obtain the needed resources to improve facilities and service quality.

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Throughout the whole BSP™ process, board members, trustees, facilities managers and others with a vested interest in better schools are in control: they are the architects and managers of the new Solution Model. Partnering Designs Inc. acts as catalyst for the solution design and Ameresco Canada implements the solution and oversees, evaluates, and rates the effectiveness of suppliers and other stakeholders to ensure maximum efficiencies. Ameresco Canada guarantees the performance of the energy savings component of the solution, which is the funding source and thus the enabler for the whole solution.