Arthur Rann Will be the First to See Roof Replacement Work

Of the three Galloway Township elementary schools in need of roof replacement, Arthur Rann is most in need of renovation, and it has already partially been fixed.

According to Galloway Township School District Business Administrator Tim Kelley, the roof on the school was already peeling back from the flashing, and it needed to be replaced. The additional repairs cost about $5,000, Kelley estimated.

“Arthur Rann is the oldest of the roofs and it has the most problems,” Kelley said following the Board of Education’s meeting at the middle school on Monday night, Nov. 19.

Board member Bob Iannacone broached the subject during the meeting, when he said architect Ted Hopkins said he believed roof replacement at Arthur Rann was more pressing than replacements of the Smithville and Roland Rogers elementary school roofs.

“He confirmed our thoughts,” Iannacone said. “It needs to be done as soon as possible.”

Board of Education President Ernest Huggard said he would like to see the project begin as soon as possible.

“Sooner is better,” Huggard said. “Our last project finished in October and we started in June.”

However, both Kelley and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Annette Giaquinto spoke of the need for school to be dismissed for the summer before the project could begin, and Iannacone concurred.

“When you think of the space you need, the staging area for all the equipment and all the different things, I just don’t know if it’s physically doable while school is in session,” Giaquinto said. “When we were doing the Reeds Road project, there was stuff all over the place.”

“It’s safer to do it when children are not in the building,” Kelley said. “It would be disruptive to instruction.”

“I have no problem with the work being done over the summer,” Iannacone said. “If you’re taking off a whole roof and replacing it, it’s not wise to do it while school’s in session.”

At the conclusion of the discussion, Huggard said he would “yield to the professionals” as long as the project didn’t go “off track.”

A lot still needs to be done before the project can begin, including going out to bid.

The roofs at the three school have been the subject of public discussion for over a year, as the district went out to referendum twice in this issue, as well as the need to replace fire alarms at the three schools, as well as Reeds Road.

The referendum was defeated in both December of 2011 and March of this year. In March, approved a $56,123,664 budget that saw alterations to its initial proposal, setting aside $500,000 into a capital reserve for improvements to the schools.