The Board of Education accepted bids to repair a damaged roof at Highland Home School on Monday night at an emergency meeting.

The roof, which covered several classrooms in the old gym, was damaged during a storm last week, but the problem was exacerbated by continuous heavy rains on Friday.

Superintendent Randy Wilkes told the Board that personnel worked all day Friday on the problem.

“We lost over 200 ceiling tiles on the first and second floors,” Wilkes said. “There was three inches of rain that just literally fell through.”

Despite the damage to the underlying ceilings, Wilkes said he felt like the carpet could be salvaged.

After declaring a statement of emergency, the Board accepted a bid from Interstate Roofing to repair the roof for $88,300.

While the previous roof was flat and composed of felt and tar, the new roof will be what’s known as a “single-membrane” roof.

“A single-membrane is like a very, very thick pool liner,” Wilkes said.

The new roof will also be built with a slope to meet new state specifications.

Wilkes also said that insurance should cover much, if not all, of the cost of the new roof, but also that he was in the process of talking to the insurance company.

“In the event that it’s not covered and we have to pay out of our pockets, we have some capital purchase money that is handed down from the state every year,” Wilkes said.

The system received $360,000 this year, and $61,000 is set aside to finish work at the LHS cafeteria.

Wilkes said that to the best of his knowledge, the rest of the money hasn’t been earmarked.

Overall, Wilkes said that many people from the school’s administration, community and even students helped with cleanup.

“I can’t tell you how many people have worked hard to keep this from being worse than it was,” he said.
The regularly-scheduled Board of Education meeting is set for Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 5:30 p.m.