By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com
Seventeen buckets sit in the auxiliary gym at Arkadelphia High School, but they’re not holding the tears of Badgers opponents.
They’re catching rainwater from 17 separate leaks in the roof.
The Board of Education was made aware of the leaks during a meeting Tuesday, and gave unanimous approval to spend $70,065 on repairs. Frequent rain of late had kept roofers from being able to properly inspect the roof.
The auxiliary gym is used daily for physical education classes, but also for basketball practice, volleyball practice and games, and testing.
“I wish I could say that this would solve all of our problems,” Jimmy King, director of support services, said of this round of roof repairs. “This solves one problem.” Other leaks are still present: “We’re still looking at what to do with the English hallway and the front hallway,” King said.
Leaky rooftops are an ongoing issue for Arkadelphia Public Schools. The school board spent roughly $62,000 on AHS roof repairs in 2022 when a similar emergency, above the basketball gym’s dressing room area, was brought to its attention. The district is using the same Little Rock company that fixed the repairs in 2022. All Spec Roof Corp. submitted two bids for the current round of roof repairs.
A higher bid of $82,000 would have included the materials used in past repairs. Those materials have since doubled in price, King said.
The lower bid buys thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) waterproofing material that is heat-weldable and resistant to ultraviolet rays. “It’s basically a rubber membrane just like what’s on the flat roofs on the rest of the high school,” King said.
There are also leaks in the music room and art room at Perritt Primary School, he said, but a temporary fix will suffice there since all of the district’s elementary students will be housed in the new Peake campus at the beginning of the fall semester.
King said the rooftops at Perritt and the high school are the same: experimental roofing systems from 50 years ago that are no longer used in construction. “You can’t patch it or repair it; nothing will stick to it,” King said.
King said the company has agreed to make temporary repairs at the high school until the materials arrive in 3-4 weeks.
In other school board business:
• At a cost of $386,250 the board approved a MOU with Dawson Education Service Cooperative to provide Alternative Learning Environment services for the district during the next school year. Arch Ford had been the provider at a cost of $231,750.
• A student-led presentation was given on career and technical education.
• There were no findings in a legislative audit for 2022-23.
• The March school board meetings were rearranged to accommodate for spring break.
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