On December 10 the Saugerties school board approved a $105,900 bid for roof repairs at the Cahill Elementary School. School officials said the expenditure was part of an effort to prevent more costly emergency repairs later. The bid was awarded to S&L Roofing & Sheetmetal, Inc., a roofing contractor in Voorheesville, roughly an hour’s drive north of Cahill Elementary.
According to district superintendent Kirk Reinhardt, replacement of the entire roof would have been much more expensive. “It’s flashing and gutter work and drainage work on the roof component,” Reinhardt explained. “It’s not like a full roof. It’s more than just gutter work because there’s a drainage and seepage and coating and runoff and all that kind of stuff.”
The project has already been approved by the state. The next step will be to add it to the school calendar in such a way as to disrupt as little class time as possible. Reinhardt said that could mean work on nights and weekends. Or the work might have to wait until summer break.
Reinhardt, in his first year as superintendent, is working to get a sense of district facility needs. Facilities committee meetings are held in a different school each month.
“The facilities committee meets with the administration and the custodial staff and actually say, ‘Okay, what are some concerns you had at your building?” he said. “That’s the fastest learning curve for me to get to know. I can have them send me a list, but the list isn’t the same as new walking around a school. That’s part of the reason why we started this process, so the next time we do a five-year study I’ll have been in every building. I’ll have met the principal and I’ll have met the head custodian, and when they I hear about an issue, like with windows, I’ll know what they’re saying. I’m getting to know the needs and the layout of all the different buildings, and they’re all unique.”
Reinhardt said the greenhouse being built at Saugerties High School is going well. That project, funded by a nearly $750,000 state education grant, was approved in January 2016.
Reinhardt said the next challenge for the facilities committee would be to look to the future of district facilities. “We’re at that point now where, you know, we should really be looking at our five-year plan,” he said. “What’s not a small job like this one, but what is the district per se doing? And I think that those conversations that are going to have to start happening now.”
The next meeting of the school board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 14 at the Riccardi Elementary School. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m., a half-hour after an informal Meet the Board session.
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