Being a school district facility director in today’s world is not for the faint of heart. Health and safety challenges are higher than they have ever been, long-tenured facility directors are retiring- leaving stacks of paper and poor documentation for successors to muddle through and figure out, budgets are only getting tighter, and managing and hiring staff is a constant challenge. But despite all of these hurdles, there’s a new generation of facility directors that are stepping up and thriving; finding creative solutions to today’s problems and leading teams across their district’s buildings at a point in time when building maintenance is under a microscope in every community.

These facility professionals are what we call Next Generation Facility Managers (NGFMs) and this paper examines the traits, tools, and strategies that these leaders use to push school facility management into the future.