Harvey High School partial roof replacement scheduled for June
Jun. 2—A partial roof replacement at Harvey High School to address leaks is set to begin on June 6, said Painesville City School District Operations Director Ivan Salgado.
The district's school board approved a $303,000 project bid from RJK Roofing in May. Salgado said that the replacement will include the flat sections of the school roof that now cover the gym, cafeteria and art wing.
The new roof will be thicker and include fewer seams than the current structure, he said. Additional insulation will contribute to lower utility costs.
The roof's warranty has a value of $18,166 and will last for 30 years, according to the board resolution. Salgado said that the new roof is expected to last for 30 or more years.
He added that the project is expected to wrap up on June 23.
The project follows what Salgado described as years of leaks and repair jobs on the nearly 15-year-old roof during a March board meeting. He said that there were "probably a good dozen repairs" to the roof before he joined the district in January 2022 and "a handful of roof leaks" in his first six to eight months.
The district had part of the roof repaired in summer 2023 after an inspection found impact damage, he said. It paid around $20,000 to $25,000 for the portions that were not covered by warranty.
Salgado said he believes that 95 percent of the leak issues were dealt with at that time, though the district had "probably a dozen or so leaks" between then and March.
"One of the major concerns is obviously the gym, being that we have the athletic department playing basketball, sports events in there," he added in March. "From June 2023 till now, we've had to postpone some games, move some games to other venues."
Salgado initially estimated that the roof replacement work could cost $300,000 to $500,000 if there were "minimal" costs related to insulation.
The work will only apply to two of the school's five roof sections. Salgado previously told the board that the other three sections of Harvey's roof are sloped.
He added that there can be challenges with finding leaks in flat roofs. The water may be visible in a different part of the building than where the roof is damaged, and hairline cracks may be difficult to see.
Salgado estimated that switching the other two sections to pitched roofing could have been "well over $1 million."
