Need to Fix School Roofs Reach the Saturation Point

Supt. of Schools James Agostine says barrels are brought into the Stepney Elementary School cafeteria to capture water from a leaky roof — sometimes three to four days after a rainstorm. Rather than obvious holes, Agostine says the source of the leak is insulation that is completely saturated.

"We've had repairmen trying to find the leak," he told Board of Education members at their meeting at Masuk High School Monday night. "We will never find a leak. It's the entire roof. It will be a problem until the water is removed from between the roof and the deck."

Steve Botelho, roof asset manager of The Garland Company, a firm hired to assess the conditions of all school roofs in the district, made a presentation on findings at Stepney, Fawn Hollow Elementary School and Masuk High School.

The building of additions at Masuk from 2002-2004 meant new roofs is those areas, but the roofs in the older sections are more than 30 years old, and Botelho said those are the areas with the highest saturations.

The roof membrane over Fawn Hollow Elementary School is still "in good shape", according to Botelho, but he added that small areas of saturation over the entire roof could soon cause a need to replace it if the problems are not addressed.

Urgency on a Scale of 1-10 ...

Agostine asked Botelho to rank the level of urgency to repair schools' roofs on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being "no urgency" and 10 being "urgent".

Botelho said Masuk is an 8 and Stepney is a 6 to 7. When Agostine asked about the roof over the Stepney cafeteria, Botelho said, "That's a 10." For Fawn Hollow, he said, "Small areas of leaking can grow quickly and you can lose the roof. In my opinion, that's a 10."

Agostine said he initially thought the town could take care of one school roof per year, but now he worries that conditions are so poor, one or two school roofs could go while waiting their turn.

Saturation of insulation are not the only problems with school roofs. Masuk has a wind blown membrane, flashing separation and voids that Agostine says are actual holes.

A 1993 section of Stepney's roof has poor sloping and not enough drains causing moderate ponding, according to The Garland Company's study.

Some other problems at Fawn Hollow include "dry and brittle flashing with numerous penetrations" and "wood fascia falling off and in disrepair," the study says.

A Variety of Options

Options to address problem sections of roofs include repair, replacement (in which a saturated section of roof is cut out and replaced) and restoration.

Botelho said there can be significant cost savings with repair and replacement over a restoration, but added assessments would have to be made to determine if a roof is a candidate for those less costly options.

Agostine said a combination of the three solutions can be performed along the area of one roof.

The only solution that can receive financial reimbursement from the state is restoration, but Agostine said a state requirement to raise the roof pitch from a quarter-of-an-inch per linear foot to a half-an-inch — which is far more costly — has made a number of other school districts decide to forgo state funding so they can go with the quarter inch pitch.

Agostine said the Connecticut Legislature is addressing the issue now, adding he believes the state will switch back to allowing a quarter-inch pitch.

Support from Town Officials

On Monday night, The Garland Company performed a thermal roof scan test at Monroe Elementary School. 

Botelho said the sun heats up a roof during the day before the area cools at night. Water saturated areas store heat, so Botelho said an infrared camera is used for a thermal scan and saturated areas appear as bright spots.

The school district is still awaiting results from scans at other schools and Agostine told school board members he wants them to discuss the roof issues at their next meeting, before a joint meeting is scheduled with the Town Council, Board of Finance and first selectman.

Agostine invited town officials to see the presentation Monday night.

Town Councilwoman Debra Dutches noted how any funding request for repairs to school roofs must be made by October to be considered for state reimbursement.

Town Councilman Tony Unger said, "I would suggest that we not wait — that we get the people together before the summertime when it's harder to get people together."

Unger also asked for cost projections. Jack Zamary, the school technology director, said he would get that information to all of the boards on Tuesday morning.

First Selectman Steve Vavrek, who watched much of Monday's presentation, later sent an email to the media expressing his support for getting the roof work done:

I was saddened to see the results of much higher BoE increases that passed over the years yet never really addressed our infrastructure as the priority it should have been.

Tonight's presentation showed some areas of roof had not [been] touched since 1986. Masuk's old roof was hardly touched when the building was redone and this study showed us how ... band aiding and nickel and diming things over the years are now costing us.

Flash forward to today and the fact that people are still looking to cut building maintenance. Same kick the can down the road mentality that we now must fix a little at a time.

I am very happy this Superintendent, staff and current BoE want to work with us to make our infrastructure a priority.