After a school building is constructed and turned over to a school district for educational use, it is imperative for the school district to initiate a comprehensive school maintenance program. New buildings begin to deteriorate because of inclement weather and routine wear and tear almost immediately, and lack of or deferred maintenance can lead to damages that require substantial repairs. The U.S. General Accounting Office indicates that $112 billion is needed to complete all the repairs, renovations, modernizations, and deferred maintenance that are required to bring U.S. schools up to good overall condition (Lewis 1995). The deplorable conditions of our school buildings were further reported by Ennis (1998) and a special facility team formed by the Association of School Business Officials (Honeyman 1999).
