SCS has ‘busiest summer’ for facility fixes

Sampson County Schools started a major maintenance overhaul this summer, much of it federally funded, allowing them to fix some issues just in the nick of time, according to Mark Hammond, maintenance director. The school system is dealing with national shortages to bring significant benefits to local school children.

“There are a lot of big projects that we’re taking on,” Hammond stated. “This is by far the busiest summer that we’ve ever had.” This uptick in improvements is possible because of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds from the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress last year. “These are projects we wouldn’t normally be doing if we didn’t have that ESSER funding,” he said.

No Republican senators supported the American Rescue Plan. North Carolina senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr both voted against the bill that has provided to this funding.

All spending of ESSER funds must be tied to improving the air quality and improving environmental factors for schools, noted Maria Rose, Sampson County Schools Plant Operations Office Manager.

The major get under ESSER is roof replacements for ten schools. “Roofs are one of the most expensive parts of upkeep on a building,” Hammond said.

Clinton City Schools needed several million dollars in roof repair funding last year.

Each of the ten Sampson County schools have roofs that are well over 25 years old. They have been maintained by patching over the years, but there’s nothing left to patch to. If let go for a few years more, they could become a security risk, the maintenance director said. “We’ve been fortunate that the patches have worked. We’ve also been very fortunate that right here at the end of the life cycle of these roofs, we’ve got the funding to be able to replace them.”

The schools receiving roofing improvements are Roseboro-Salemburg Middle, the Learning Center at Charles E. Perry, Lakewood High, Midway Elementary, Sampson County Early Childhood Development Center, Clement Elementary, Hobbton Middle, Hobbton High and Union Middle School.

The maintenance director notes that the older schools that we built in the ’50s and ’60s are getting a lot of work, including new windows.

Some of the materials needed for the roofs will require a nine-month wait, causing this summer work project to become a year-round project. “We’re fighting some serious supply chain issues and labor issues just like everybody else in the nation is,” Hammond said.

Hammond assured that the roofing work done during the school year won’t interfere with the instructional day for the kids. Even the painting, which is normally done throughout the school year as well as the summer, is being delayed. “It’s crazy,” Hammond commented. “Who would ever think you would have an issue with paint? But they do.” There’s a shortage of the specific types of paint that the schools need, particularly for use on latex floors.

“It’s just like everything else,” he remarked. “Lumber shortage. There’s a shortage of truck drivers to deliver stuff to us.”

Mobile units have been built for classrooms —10 at Lakewood High and four each at Salemburg Elementary and Midway Elementary —but are sitting on site because there’s no one to deliver them to the schools. The schools will have to make other arrangements for the students until the units are delivered and operational, Hammond declared.

However, some projects are completing on schedule. A new chiller has been installed at Hobbton Elementary, and the one at Clement Elementary should be in by next week. Both of the previous chillers were as old as the roofs being replaced. The county has also been replacing a lot of air conditioning units throughout the school system.

“That goes to the air quality. Hopefully some of these measures that we’re taking are going to cut down on a lot of contaminants in the building,” Hammond announced. “Not necessarily Covid but Covid included.”

Fortunately, the chillers were ordered in advance, as the wait time for those has extended from one month to ten, Hammond pointed out. “I asked the guy, I said, ‘I don’t understand. Ya’ll manufacture these things all the time.’ He said ‘man, it’s everything. It’s the control boards, it’s the circuit boards, it’s the people who build the compressors for us, it’s the screws to put the thing together with. We have a shortage on every little thing.” Even some of the wires, Hammond explained. “It takes three weeks to get the wires. It’s everything from top to bottom. Fan, motors.”

The national shortage is bringing a delay to the aspect of the work that the office enjoys the most — play. Rose recalls surprising the students and teachers at Hargrove with a new playground after Christmas break. “One of the guys was out there, he said ‘you should have seen their faces when they went out there and saw the new playground,’” she reminisced. “So I love it when we can do things like that, that can be seen.”

The maintenance director also knows the importance of playtime. “I can only imagine being in the third grade, I wanted as much playground equipment as I could get ‘cause I lived for recess and lunch, as I’m sure all of the kids do,” Hammond said, eliciting chuckles from the other staff. “So we’re trying to add in a few pieces of new equipment to give them more options on the playground, but at the same time have a safe and operational playground for them as well.”

They want to replace some of the equipment on a couple of the aging playgrounds, but are waiting for it to arrive. “By the time the equipment will get here, they’ll probably would have forgotten about it, and they will be surprised again,” Hammond jested. The equipment is a year out after the order date, as opposed to the usual couple of months.

Certified playground mulch has already been put out at several locations, however.

Some work is being done to improve the athletic surfaces at many of the schools as well. Many gym floors will be refinished — sanded down and recoated — to extend the life of the floors and the building by many years. “It is suggested to be done every ten years, but that is a very expensive process,” Hammond emphasized. “And typically we put it off and don’t do it.”

Lakewood High is getting new light poles on a couple of its athletic fields, which will serve as a tremendous safety benefit for students, staff and spectators, Hammond stresses. The old wooden poles, damaged by woodpeckers and the elements and rotting at the base, are holding 800 to 1200 pounds of lights at the top. “Several years down the road, it may present a dangerous situation,” Hammond observed. “Gravity at some point is going to take over.”

The big undertaking doesn’t do away with the run-of-the-mill tasks the department has to contend with to ensure schools are in shape for the first day of school and maintained throughout the year. “It’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Hammond remarked. Last year, they handled more than 2500 work orders ranging from changing light fixtures to fixing plumbing.

County schools have also looked into green energy savings. They determined it would be too expensive to try to upfit the old buildings, but they are planning to replace motors in equipment to improve efficiency and to lengthen life span. “We are doing the small things that we can do,” Hammond declared.

The projects underway are fairly comprehensive, despite the many demands of maintaining schools, according to the maintenance department. “There’s so many things that could be done,” Hammond said. ” You got to make sure you work within the budget because we don’t have an open-ended check, that’s for sure. You’ve got to use your money wisely and make sure that what you are spending on is close to what’s needed the most.”