For years, the skylights on top of Sampson Middle School, along with the condition of the entire roof, has long been an issue for the Clinton City Board of Education.
On Monday, they took steps to resolve it, approving Phase One of roof repairs for the school.
In a special-called meeting Monday, the city Board of Education gave the go-ahead for a bid to allow B&M Roofing to begin placing a new roof on Sampson Middle. The first step of the plan will see the roof portion of the academic wing and outback building replaced.
“We’ve had issues with our roof for a while now, and the county commissioners were so gracious to help fund that project,” Clinton City Schools Board Chair Dr. Linda Brunson told her colleagues.
“Mr John Lowe and Superintendent Dr. Wesley Johnson have been working on getting this bid and everything together in order for us to begin that project as students get out of school on May 22, so we can have most of it done by the time they return in August.”
Lowe, the system’s executive director of Technology and Auxiliary Services, detailed a breakdown of bid costs for Phase One of the roof project, along with how the funds were obtained.
“It’s approximately just under $1.3 million for what we would call the academic wing,” he explained., “which is from the breezeway of the center 0f the school toward Indian Town Road. The bid includes replacing the roof on the outback building as well as removing the skylights, which has been a source of leaks for a very long time. All funding for capital projects generally comes from the county commissioners for all school systems across the states. In this case, this funding is coming from the Sampson County commissioners. The only time we’ve been able to get extra funding for the roofing, was through the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund, where they allow for renovation, not just new school construction. Years ago, I applied for funding and received about $900,000 there to shore up some roofs at L.C. Kerr Elementary, one small one at Butler Avenue Elementary, and there were some issues in Sunset Avenue Elementary several years ago.”
Roofing projects are generally tackled through funding from the county commissioners’ capital outlay.
The timeline of when B&M Roofing will begin staging materials is May 25.
“That’s when students are out of the building, and we’re in staff workdays,” Lowe explained. “Then on June 1, they can start the construction. The vendor that was just selected by the board is listing 112 days total for substantial completion. But they’ll have all interior work completed, well before staff and students return. They’re aware of those days, and they’ll work with us to make sure they’re not interrupting staff work days and not interrupting instruction when students return.”
The new portions of the roof will help stop leaks from substantial rain around several areas of the building, as well from the skylights.
“We have multiple areas, every time it rains a substantial amount, we have to put out 30-gallon trash cans to collect the leaks, particularly around skylights, where it leaks and stains ceiling tiles,” Lowe told the board. “Then we have to replace those. We can’t leave them because it might create mold and mildew issues … so it’s just gonna shore up a lot of areas that have been constant leaks, anytime we get a substantial amount of rain.”
Johnson explained that he, along with Lowe, had been planning since as early as 2018, 2019 to start renovations to the roof.
“We’ve known that the roof has had some deteriorating conditions for several years,” he recalled. “We did a roof audit around that time and it revealed that the roof received an F grade. So we knew it was one that had to be taken care of quickly. Trying to find the investment to be able to put forward $2 or $3 million (for the entire project) was difficult. As Dr. Brunson said, our county commissioners were able to provide some additional funding that was earmarked for this roof. That has been more than helpful. We received a million dollars this year to assist with the roof project, and that really kind of gave us the go-ahead to start finding the vendors.”
Every project that costs over $300,000 has to be approved by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI).
“There’s only two or three people that work in that division, and they’re approving all projects that are greater than $300,000 for the whole entire state, so it took a little while,” Johnson said. “Thankfully, we received that information back and we were able to move forward. The timeline for that, I’d say, was probably six months.”
Johnson said they were told by Wolf Trail Engineering that it would take $3 to $4 million to fix the entire roof. Phase Two for the project has been submitted to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
“Hopefully they’re going to be able to review that very quickly and get that back to us, so that we can move forward with phase two days or weeks after this project has started and begun” Johnson said.