Tai Davis is a go-to leader and mentor in the educational facilities space. As past president of NCAPPA, APPA’s North Carolina chapter, he helped the organization completely revamp its website and conference development tools.
In December 2024, after nearly a decade at Fayetteville State University as Director of Facilities Operations and Maintenance, Davis decided to tackle a new challenge. He became the Director of Operations for Cary Academy, an independent private school for grades 6-12 in Cary, North Carolina.
We’ve had the pleasure of working with Davis for years and seeing firsthand how his leadership helps NCAPPA thrive as a regional organization.
Recently, he spoke with us about introducing new quality control strategies at Cary, getting the team on board with new technology, and the transition to a private, independent school.
A Culture of Innovation
Davis proudly calls Cary Academy “one of the best independent schools in the state of North Carolina.” The school serves grades 6-12, with a separate middle school and upper school. Curriculum includes a focus on both technology and arts, with hands-on discovery encouraged at all levels.
The school’s campus includes both academic and athletic facilities. It operates as a day school, without a boarding component.
Davis was drawn to the school for its culture of innovation.
“It’s the willingness, it’s the culture here, that allows you to think outside the box and be yourself,” he said. “If the students say, ‘We wanna try beekeeping,’ they let them. That trickles down as well.”
Introducing OrangeQC at Cary Academy
When Davis took over as Director of Operations, he noticed that the team didn’t have an inspection or quality control platform. He brought in OrangeQC soon after starting.
Creating a regular, digital inspection process has improved accountability on the team. “Folks know that they’re being held to a standard,” he said. “It has definitely increased the level of clean around campus, and folks have noticed that.”
The team isn’t limiting their usage to cleaning inspections. They now use OrangeQC for inspections during inclement weather, such as checking for ice patches, as well as environmental safety inspections like mold and fire extinguisher checks.
“Anything you can put into a form, I use OrangeQC for,” Davis said.
Loading the security team’s incident report forms into OrangeQC has helped streamline many of those processes, too.
“Before, it was a very manual system,” Davis said. “If there was an accident in the parking lot, they would have to run back to the office to grab a paper incident report form.”
Now, security staff can fill the form out in the app right on their phones, and the information is automatically routed to HR. That saves time, streamlines information sharing, and keeps security staff where they need to be.
Getting the Team On Board
Introducing new technology can be a challenge, but Davis said that Cary’s forward-thinking culture made introducing a digital inspection platform easier.
“This campus is very innovative and embraces technology,” Davis said. “When they see [OrangeQC], when I get it in front of them, it’s a no-brainer.”
Involving the team in the process has helped everyone get on the same page about what they’re doing, as well as the reasons behind the new processes. “It’s about explaining the why,” Davis said.
To help with inspector training, Davis has recorded some of his own videos showing specific processes on campus. He’s also done onsite training and walkthroughs for on-the-ground experience to get everyone on the same page.
Transitioning to Private K-12 Education
Davis said the school’s private status can also make it “a little easier to do things” than at a public institution, where there can be more procedures and red tape to navigate.
But he emphasized that there’s lots of overlap between higher ed and K-12.
“Education is education,” Davis said. “The way we clean things, look at things, and the standards are similar.”
That overlap creates fertile ground for sharing best practices between all kinds of institutions. True to form, Davis is already working to help bring more industry collaboration to the regional private education space.
One opportunity is coming up soon: in July 2025, the school will host a NCAPPA on-site visit for professionals from K-12, universities, public, and private schools to share knowledge and best practices.
Conclusion: A Flexible Tool for a Forward-Thinking School
At high-performing organizations, every team helps advance the overall mission. Cary Academy’s operations teams embrace the school’s values of innovation and creativity to create a clean, safe environment for children to learn and grow.
A huge thank you to Tai Davis for sharing the best practices his team is using at Cary Academy!
Looking for a quality control platform that’s flexible enough for the demands of educational facilities? Schedule a one-on-one demo to see our tools at work.
