For the second time in recent years, the Harvard School Committee has taken emergency measures to deal with dangerous loads of snow on school roofs. And while the threat to the roofs appears under control, the threat to the school budget remains. The costs for staff overtime and outside contract work climbed toward $80,000 last week, with much snow yet to be cleared.
Third storm overloaded roofs
The first two major storms of 2015, on Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, brought snow that was staggeringly deep but also surprisingly light and fluffy. Not until the third storm, which began on Sunday, Feb. 8, did the total weight of snow on the schools’ flat roofs become a problem.
Workers shovel off the roof of the Cronin Auditorium, Feb. 17. Though school is not in session this week, the snow clearing continues. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
While students were enjoying yet another snow day on Monday, Feb. 9, Building Commissioner Gabe Vellante sent an email to Superintendent Linda Dwight, warning her that the third storm was adding more weight than the Bromfield roof could safely support. School Committee Chairwoman SusanMary Redinger said that school custodians had worked all night through the storm, but they could not get ahead of the snowfall.
In an emergency meeting while snow was still falling, the School Committee approved Dwight’s request to hire an independent contractor to remove the snow. With the committee’s OK, she brought in Rockwell Roofing of Leominster. The firm put a 30-man crew on the job for two days, clearing a section of the Bromfield roof above the seventh-grade wing, library, and cafeteria, at a cost of about $36,000.
Valiant volunteer effort availed little
Dwight said she hoped that volunteers would be able to clear the rest of the Bromfield School roof. She put out a call for help on Nextdoor Harvard, but only three shovelers showed up to work on Thursday, Feb. 12. Dwight herself and two school custodians also put in two-hour shifts on the snow-covered roofs. Janice Papazian helped the cause by bringing the shovelers homemade bread.
One of the volunteers, former School Committee member Keith Cheveralls, described the scene: “When you’re up there, it’s a sea of white roof, just daunting.” Cheveralls said the roof, though flat, was very slick, making it hard to keep one’s footing.
The volunteers used “snow sleds” with which they scooped up the snow, dragged it to the edge of the roof, and tipped it over—and over and over. “We did not make significant progress,” Dwight said, and a large part of the roof remained snow-covered.
With another storm predicted, the School Committee met again on Thursday at Dwight’s request and approved bringing the Rockwell crew back for two more days. Dwight said the crew worked Presidents Day and Tuesday, while students were on vacation.
The Department of Public Works helped the schools by plowing parking lots and removing piles of snow. The DPW also provided a front-end loader to remove snow that the Rockwell crews cleared from the roof, Dwight said. But DPW workers did not have the time to help shovel Bromfield’s roof, as they have in the past, because they were battling to keep roads open.
Source of funds uncertain
Between the overtime costs for regular custodial workers and the bill for the outside contractor, snow removal may again cost the schools close to $100,000. That was the amount they hit five or six years ago in similar circumstances, according to Redinger.
Much of that earlier $100,000 bill, however, was paid with state and federal emergency funds, not by Harvard taxpayers alone, Finance Director Lorraine Leonard said. If the state does not declare the most recent storms an emergency, she said, the town will not be reimbursed. Leonard told the Finance Committee on Saturday, Feb. 14, that costs were running around $75,000 at that point—an unhappy valentine for FinCom.
Because snow removal is an unpredictable cost, it is the only part of their budgets that towns are legally allowed to exceed. Leonard explained that in this case, the schools should be given the same flexibility as the town because they are doing the same job.
Dwight said she did not yet know how the unexpected expense would be covered. “Our school budget will be stretched with the overtime of our own crew, let alone this Rockwell expense,” she said.
As to possible emergency funding, Redinger said, “We are hopeful.”
