Emergency roof work planned at Southford Hills; district estimates cost will not exceed $150,000

Operations staff told the committee an additional, emergent roofing repair is required at Southford Hills after crews removed hard ceilings and discovered damaged lightweight concrete/gypsum decking in sections over the kitchen and cafeteria.

Mike Taylor, operations staff, said the kitchen area has decking panels that are cracked or spalled and are not structurally sufficient; while the district is not aware of active leaks, the condition could fail if disturbed. "We didn't want to wait till September approval," Taylor said, and gave the committee an estimate that the cost "will not exceed $150,000." He said the district will return in September with an amendment to the Giza for Southford Hills for formal approval after the emergency work is done.

Taylor said existing project plans already called for re‑roofing the new addition and a 2,000‑wing section, while other sections were slated for a coating to extend life by roughly 10 years. The emergent decking replacement affects a relatively small portion of the building and is being scheduled now because the kitchen is already demoed for renovation; doing the decking work now avoids redoing finished interior work later, Taylor said.

District staff described steps to reduce disruption: food service will use a temporary serving line in the cafeteria while the kitchen is unavailable; the library collection will be available on carts during construction; and the district does not expect any delay to the start of school. Taylor said about half the building will receive a new roof with a 25‑year warranty while the coated portion would be expected to last roughly 10 more years.

Board members and the public asked questions about warranty terms, why the condition was not detected during earlier inspections, and whether other buildings had similar hidden damage. Staff said hard ceilings had concealed the decking and that the defects became visible only when ceilings were removed; an engineering inspection identified localized spalling and recommended removing and replacing affected panels in the kitchen and a handful of other locations.

Taylor gave the committee a working cost window of $100,000 to $150,000 and reiterated the district's statement that the expense "will not exceed $150,000." The administration said it will proceed with emergency work next week and bring a formal amendment for the roofing contract (referred to in the meeting as the Giza addendum) to the board at the September meeting for approval.

Next steps: emergency decking removal and reroofing in the affected area will start immediately; the district will present a formal contract addendum for board approval in September.