Maintenance and operations (M&O) requirements dominate the life-cycle cost of a school facility. Historically, facility managers have struggled to secure funding to meet these requirements. Many deferred-maintenance issues result directly from M&O underfunding. However, new approaches and technologies now enable facility managers to use cost-effective and repeatable models to project accurate and defensible M&O requirements. When a facilities manager can articulate needs clearly and can describe the financial impact of preventive-maintenance tasks that were not accomplished, the result can be a favorable response to budget requests. This article discusses steps in developing an M&O model. (Contains 2 tables.)