Council of the Great City Schools, 2014. The report describes how school districts, financially squeezed over long periods of time, made economic decisions that reduced the most cost-effective types of maintenance work: preventive and predictive maintenance. The result of those decisions “to save money” will, in the long term actually increase the amount and frequency of much more expensive breakdown repair and replacement work.
As funds continued to be inadequate, the higher costs of breakdown repair work are forcing districts to make fewer repairs, which accelerates the deterioration of buildings and component systems. Ultimately, districts experienced and will continue to experience premature failure of buildings and systems, and are forced to borrow large sums of capital funds (with their accompanying debt service costs) to upgrade and/or replace facilities. Sadly, new buildings are likely to receive the same lack of preventive and predictive maintenance, thereby repeating the cycle of deterioration.
The report contains contemporary references that link the conditions of school buildings to student achievement and a variety of other issues. It also provides information and references to a variety of strategies that have proven successful in reversing the cycle of deterioration.
