Yahoo News Lockport High School officials share timeline of Central Campus ceiling repairs
The Lockport High School District 205 Central Campus ceiling repairs will extend into spring 2024 as the district would like the repairs to include an inspection of the building’s roof.
Since a classroom ceiling collapsed last month at Central Campus, where the district’s freshmen attend classes, officials found that about 3% to 4% of the school’s ceilings pose a high risk, 22% to 25% pose a medium to high risk and 7% of the ceilings are ranked as a medium risk, said Eric Sickbert with DLA Architects.
Superintendent Robert McBride said district officials decided to have the building’s roof inspected as the ceiling repair work is done. This would extend the project timeline about three weeks, Sickbert said.
“While we have the roof structure exposed, it’d be a great time to be able to take a look at things and see what’s going to have to take place up there to reinforce it or repair it,” Sickbert said. “A lot of those areas are closed off and unaccessible unless you take down the ceiling, which we’re going to be doing anyway. Let’s take advantage of that.”
McBride said the district has time for the work as the 900 freshmen who attend there have been learning at Lincoln-Way North since Nov. 15.
“It almost feels like we should take advantage of that and measure twice cut once,” McBride said.
The school board unanimously voted on a memorandum of understanding Monday with DLA Architects, the district’s architects, to create bid specifications for ceiling repair. The board voiced support for allowing structural engineers complete a visual inspection of the roof, which will likely take place in late January, McBride said.
The construction work will require replacement of 37,000 square feet of ceiling area and cost between $2 million to $2.5 million, not including architectural fees and other owner’s costs, officials said.
The district will seek bids for the ceiling repair project because the cost is more than $50,000, McBride said. The process will take time, he said, because the bid specifications have to be written up, companies need time to respond and the board has to approve the bids before construction can begin, he said.
The timeline is still in the works, Sickbert said, but the plan is to seek bids in January and have construction completed in the spring.
Board President Ann Lopez-Caneva said she supports doing a thorough construction project at Central Campus.
“I think we should just take the time ... and do it right,” Lopez-Caneva said.
Lorie Cristofaro, assistant superintendent of curriculum, said the district used all five emergency e-learning days for the 2023-2024 school year in the aftermath of the ceiling collapse. While the sophomores, juniors and seniors attended school at East Campus, the emergency e-learning days were used because not all district students had the opportunity to learn in-person after the ceiling collapse, she said.
When freshmen had no school Nov. 14 so teachers could set up at Lincoln-Way North, that day counted as a not in attendance day for the whole district, Cristofaro said. To address that absence, the district will change the March 4 holiday to a parent-teacher conference day which counts as a learning day and allows the district to end the school year as planned, she said.
Central Campus Principal Kerri Green said the buses have been running smoothly to and from Lincoln-Way North so district officials will consider changing the bell schedule to give students and teachers more time in class.
After the district’s winter break, McBride said he will hold tours of Central Campus at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, as long as there aren’t any other schedule conflicts or construction taking place, to let the public come see the building ahead of the March referendum vote to renovate the building. The board approved in November asking voters March 19 to fund $85 million in renovations to Central Campus.
The board also approved a 6.28% tax levy increase, above the tax cap with the home of capturing $40 million in new construction. The board also approved two separate resolutions abating 2017 and 2019 debt service levy bonds, which will return about $1.3 million to taxpayers, McBride said.
For a $240,000 home, the tax increase with bond and interest levy abatement would increase the property tax bill by about $50 for the 2023 tax year, said Stefanie Croix, director of business services.
