The rainy fall has aggravated leaks in the Hildreth Elementary School roof while also delaying the repair work to reduce those leaks. The plop, plop, plop of drips falling into barrels and buckets even punctuated a recent visit by “Louisa May Alcott” to the elementary school cafetorium when Jan Turnquist, director of Orchard House in Concord, played the role of Alcott in a one-woman performance for students.
In late September, the School Committee reluctantly approved spending up to $24,000 from the Devens fund to take up the roof’s rubber membrane, resecure as much of it as was reusable, replace as much as necessary, and redo its flashing. The goal, according to School Superintendent Linda Dwight, was to allow the school to “limp through the next three years” until the new elementary school is built. The Devens fund is money the Harvard school district receives from MassDevelopment for educating students who live in Devens.
In the weeks since the School Committee vote, HES Principal Josh Myler said the school had requested and received bids for the roof work. The successful bidder was Rockwell Roofing of Leominster with a bid of up to $19,500 for the project, including both materials and labor. But efforts to get the work underway have been frustrated by the persistent bad weather. Myler said work is now scheduled to begin in a week or two, weather permitting. “While we would rather not put additional money into the current building,” he wrote in an email, “it is necessary to be able to use it for the intervening years until the new building is completed.”
