With the exception of a couple of auditorium chairs, we haven’t experienced anything more than damage ceiling tiles throughout the school.”

George Simmons, facilities director

PORTSMOUTH — There are buckets catching drips in the hallways, tarps protecting computers and precious sound equipment, and ceiling tiles at Portsmouth High School that have either turned brown or removed entirely.

The culprit is a leaky roof which made for such a mess recently that the high school canceled in-person classes on Friday, Feb. 14, with students learning remotely instead. The school’s Kate Grana Auditorium, a state-of-the-art theater that was opened in 2019 after a major private fund-raising effort to renovate the original hall, has been temporarily closed due to wet ceiling tiles.

The roof is so severely damaged, school officials say, it will need to be completely replaced. However, there’s nothing currently budgeted for the work since the damage took the district by surprise. 

Superintendent Thomas Kenworthy told the School Committee Tuesday night the district has requested an “emergency request” of $500,000 from the R.I. Department of Education (RIDE), which grants such “one-time” annual requests to schools for projects that don’t fall within their current five-year capital improvement programs (CIP), as in this case. (The district’s current five-year CIP is coming to an end this year.) The town would be eligible to receive up to 40 percent of housing reimbursement for the work, he said.

Replacing the roof, however, will surely cost more than $500,000, officials said. The school department will look for any available funds it may have in its budget — Kenworthy said the district also has a small capital reserve — but will need to work with the town to find additional funding, the superintendent said.

While giving the Town Council an update on the situation Monday night, Kenworthy faced questions from council member David Reise, who said the problem should have been identified before things got out of hand.

“Roofs just don’t go,” Reise said. “I’d like to see a report on what has happened over time, because this should have been inspected and replaced prior to this. If it was a priority, it should have been moved up in the queue.”

“We have had regular inspections; there just wasn’t an indication that it was at that point,” Kenworthy said, adding that “warning signs” such as leaks coming through the interior hadn’t been identified.

“You don’t wait until it leaks,” Reise responded.

On Tuesday, Kenworthy told the school board that as best as he could gather, renovations were made to the PHS roof about 25 years ago, and then additional fixes were completed in more recent years.

“In 2020, we were informed that a section of the roof over the cafeteria of PHS needed to be addressed,” he said. “We worked with town officials at that time to fund those repairs. Then in 2022, another section of the PHS roof over the library area was addressed. To date, it’s important to note, neither of those areas has been affected by the current leaking situation.”

At no time before this winter was the school district informed the rest of the PHS roof was in critical need of repairs, he said. “If we had received that information, we would have brought it to the attention to town officials and initiated a process to address those needs as we are currently doing,” Kenworthy said.

What happened

George Simmons, director of facilities, explained exactly what happened with the high school’s roof. Water leaks started saturating the insulation, which froze during the winter, then expanded and caused leaks in other areas, he said. 

“We had the issue when we did because the weather had warmed up. Everything thawed and that’s where the majority of our leaks just popped out,” Simmons said.

When his staff got on the roof, they could see the deterioration. “The rubber in the roof has lost its elasticity and is now splitting in so many areas,” he said.

Staff members have installed tarp drains and worked to repair punctures, tears and other openings as best they can. More rain is expected Thursday but they’ll be on top of it, Simmons assured the committee.

However, it’s clear the roof needs to be replaced, he said. “You’re talking about a roof that’s 25 years old that had a 30-year life expectancy,” Simmons said, noting that roofs typically have a shorter lifespan than what’s estimated.

Asked about interior damage, Simmons said PHS has been fortunate. “With the exception of a couple of auditorium chairs, we haven’t experienced anything more than damage ceiling tiles throughout the school,” he said. (Kenworthy said while the roof damage isn’t covered, the district has put in an insurance claim for the interior damage.)

Still, the auditorium has been shut down for now, and anyone who has booked its use has been informed. The PHS Drama Club’s musical planned for this spring may have to be moved to Portsmouth Middle School, for example. The room’s ceiling tiles are roughly 25 to 30 feet above the floor, Simmons reminded the committee.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to be in that space (if they fell),” he said.

What’s next?

Besides requesting emergency funding from RIDE, Kenworthy said the district invited contractors to submit quotes for the needed work, and six have expressed interest. The district hopes to receive those quotes within the next few weeks and then school administrators will work with Town Administrator Richard Rainer Jr. on selecting a bidder and a repair plan.

Asked by Committee Chair Emily Copeland whether the roof can be replaced before the end of the school year, Kenworthy said it’s possible but too early to say for sure.

Simmons added the outside temperature would have to be at least 40 degrees for a roof replacement. “It will be a disruption. There will some people upset because they’ll lose their parking space, but it can be done,” he said of any work taking place before school lets out.

PHS Principal Jeffrey Heath praised the work of the maintenance staff, custodians, and teachers. “It could have been a catastrophic problem but it’s not, thanks to George and his team,” said Heath.

The principal said he doesn’t expect any need to call for long-term distance learning due to the leaks, although there could be a virtual learning day called before April break depending on the weather. The school also has a contingency plan for up to 13 classrooms if there’s any need to find alternate learning spaces, he said.