News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
This valley in the Sisters High School roof has been a point of problems. A fix seems to be working effectively to prevent water intrusion.
As the Sisters School District seriously considers seeking a $10.7 million bond in May, one of the elements that looms largest in the equation is the state of the Sisters High School roof.
Voters rejected a $14.5 million bond request in November 2014. A post-mortem on that failure turned up a number of voter concerns, and key among them was frustration over the portion of the bond - about $1.3 million - that was to be dedicated to replacing the now 12-year-old roof on the high school. The three-tab roof was part of the "value engineering" that attempted to push down costs of the 2003 construction of Sisters High School. The freeze-thaw conditions of Sisters Country have hammered the roof. Now there are cracks that run the length of the roof and spots that leak.
Superintendent Curt Scholl addressed the issue of the roof at a public information meeting in late January. He noted that the failure of the roof is the result of a combination of factors, none of which are readily resolvable.
"I don't know that there's one entity that's responsible," he said. "Maybe it's a combo of all. The reality is, we've got to replace that roof."
The district has invested quite a bit of effort and money into mitigating problems with the roof. In the school's multipurpose room, there was significant water damage from leaks under a valley in the roof.
"It would run down and take the paint off the wall," facilities manager Leland Bliss told The Nugget.
The general contractor and subcontractor on the roof stripped back shingles for 10 feet around the valley.
"They went in and put a membrane material in the valley so that it will shed water faster," he said. "We haven't had any water intrusion in any of that valley since."
There are also condensation issues, Bliss said. That condensation has stained masonry in at least one hallway, and it has created precipitation from a skylight in the commons.
"It doesn't have a lot of big vents on it," Bliss said.
There is some cracking and curling of shingles, but that is not an extreme problem, Bliss said.
One concern expressed by voters - and one that was raised at the recent public meeting - is how the district can be sure that a replacement roof won't run into the same problems.
"I've already contacted a roofing consultant," Bliss said. "We would have that consultant design that roof so that it works the way it's supposed to."
Bliss noted that the district worked with a consultant on the elementary school roof, replaced several years ago, and that roof has had no issues other than one quick warranty repair.
Bliss later told The Nugget that he will work with a consultant on dealing with the roof whether the district seeks a bond or not. Expertise is required to identify problems and mitigate them.
"You get a lot of opinions from all kinds of people on what you should and shouldn't do - and none of them are experts," Bliss said.
Bliss said it would be the district's intention to keep the current roof functioning as long as possible, thus extending the horizon for a replacement roof. That, however, can pose a similar kind of problem as working to keep an old truck on the road: At a certain point, you're spending money only to limp the rig along till the next problem crops up.
The district had applied for potential matching funds to enhance a potential $10.7 ask from the community. Sisters was drawn 15th out of 19 potential districts, so the likelihood of receiving any matching funding is vanishingly slim.
The district will decide in March whether to seek a bond in May. Bliss will continue to deal with the issues posed by the roof, and look forward to the day when they're dealt with once and for all.
"What we don't want is for this to ever happen again," he said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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