Roof work to be done in time for school year

BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

SPOTSWOOD — The Appleby School is expected to open in time for school next month after receiving emergency roof repairs.

After sustaining damage due to the massive rainfall of July 17, the school faced the danger of not being ready to open on time this September, Superintendent of Schools Anthony Vaz said. However, the school district appealed to the county superintendent, arguing it should be allowed to perform an “emergency repair.” Such repairs allow districts to bypass normal procedures for bidding.

The county granted that request, and the roof should take no more than four to five days to fix, Vaz said.

“If [the project] holds firm, I’m confident we’ll be [open] by September,” he said.

However, it is expected that the rest of the roof will have to wait another year before it can be replaced, he said. The project, estimated to cost at least $750,000, involves replacing a roof that became a topic of controversy in the borough.

Board of Education President Alan Bartlett said the district wanted to replace the roof last year and tried to do so via a budget transfer made after the budget was voted down. However, a new state law voided that transfer and required that the funds be used for tax relief, leaving the district with no money for the work.

The project was then budgeted for this year, but the budget was voted down and later cut by the Borough Council.

Vaz said the new roof cannot be done during the winter months of December through March, so the district will likely wait until school is out next summer. Bids will have to be solicited for the project, and it is possible the cost will come in even higher.

The roof is about 30 years old, with the exception of a portion built in 1996 over the media center.

“I don’t think it will be replaced before next summer, with all the paperwork that needs to be done,” Vaz said.

In the past, the district got through by patching the old roof, he said. That eased the leaking problems, which never caused real damage to the school.

“We had garbage cans collecting the rain,” Vaz said.

However, last month’s storm did cause damage to the inside of the school, in part because the roof was in poor shape to begin with, he said. The rain damaged rugs, tiles and other items.

An L-shaped portion of the roof requires emergency repair due to the storm.

“That portion wound up in worse shape after the storm,” the superintendent said.

The weak roof allowed the rains to overflow, and water seeped into the walls of the school, he said.

“It was like a waterfall,” he said.

“Some materials that were new were destroyed,” he said.

At one point, the rain even made the school’s alarm system inoperable, he said.

The emergency repairs will cost the district about $12,000, he said.