RC board hires engineer to roof high school
By BILL RICHMOND
City editor
The Randolph Central School Board in a special session meeting Wednesday approved hiring engineer Chuck Howard to design and place a metal retrofit roof on Winchester Community High School.
The board also approved the purchase of 14 air purifiers for use in upper A-wing classrooms. The majority of the roof leaks were in this area.
Howard, a licensed professional engineer specializing in metal retrofit roofs, explained for the board, parents, students, teachers and school staff how his system works. Retrofit means over fitting the building with a light gauge metal roof, giving pitch to a flat roof so water runs off. Local examples of such a roof were recently installed at the Randolph County YMCA and Driver Middle School.
Howard said he invented and developed the metal retrofit roof procedure. He inspected the high school earlier in the afternoon and presented a slide show illustrating some of the school's problem areas.
"All (the high school roofs) are dead flat and drain to the middle," Howard said. "Most appear to have two roofs on. Most are pretty well worn out and you've got about all of the value you will get out of them."
Howard said the gymnasium roof is "pretty well worn out" and he found standing water in areas over the auditorium and the administrative wing.
"I'm not saying everything is ready to fall apart," he said. "But it's old and it's splitting apart and that's not a good thing."
He said the A-wing, in his opinion, has the worst roof. He said the recently completed repair to that area will last one or two freezing cycles, but is not a long-term solution.
Howard said the roof area will be vented to dry out the existing roof. Extremely wet areas will be cut out and removed.
"I've never torn one off," he said. "I've only ever patched wet areas."
He said although he could not check the entire roof on Wednesday, he is comfortable with saying the entire high school roof would not have to be taken off.
"We're not going to take anything off except the rock (-gravel that holds the rubber membrane in place)," he said.
Board member Fred Pries asked how the wet roof and insulation underneath would dry out once the metal over roof is installed. Howard said the moisture will rise in the heat and be pulled out by the airflow. A series of 12-inch aluminum fans will circulate air in the space created by the metal sloped roof.
"I've had completely saturated roofs before and we've never had a problem with this," Howard said. "I've never had mold, I've never had rust and I've never had mildew. I'm not an expert on flat roofs, but just because we have some wet areas doesn't mean we need to tear off the entire roof.
"A metal roof will last as long as this building. It will be the last roof that you put on this school. I'm very confident it can be done. There's no reason you can't have a retrofit roof."
He said metal retrofit roofs often cost less than the price to tear off an existing flat roof and replace it with a new one. The process, including design drawings, takes 9-10 months. He said he would first address the A-wing roof, then the auditorium roof and lastly the gymnasium roof.
Howard said he will do the job himself with help from local professionals. He will regularly report to the board on its progress as the project develops.
He quoted a price of $1.2-1.5 million total costs for the roof replacement, noting "This is not an exact science, I'm doing this estimate in my head."
He said the metal roof will pay for itself in 10-12 years through energy savings and a lack of repairs.
"It's a zero cost roof after you pay to have it put on," he said.
Superintendent Phil Wray gave a detailed report on money the corporation has available to pay for the roof. He said the corporation has $1.5 million that can be assessed through an anticipated tax warrant, but it would mean spending every dollar available for repair and maintenance, as well as emptying the rainy day fund.
"The question is, does the board want to spend everything we have for all repairs and our rainy day fund on a new roof at the high school," Wray asked.
Some board members suggested possibly borrowing approximately $600,000, to allow a reserve be kept in the rainy day fund.
Board member Dana Cox asked if the money could be borrowed through a line of credit at a local bank, instead of going through a bond issue and securing approval by the State Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF).
The board unanimously approved a motion to move ahead with hiring Chuck Howard to install a metal retrofit roof on the high school.
