The roof replacement project at Sidney Glen Elementary School is the biggest of the summer for the South Kitsap School District.
But that is far from the only facilities upgrade in the district.
Tom O’Brien, director of facilities and operations for SKSD, said there are three other roofing projects in SKSD.
Olalla Elementary School, which is about 44,000 square feet and opened in 1954, will undergo a partial roof replacement. O’Brien said that will encompass 12,000 square feet that was blistered and leaky.
That is not the only work taking place this summer at Olalla. Mike Riley, SKSD assistant director of facilities and operations, said a new well will be installed at the school to complement the one that has serviced the school since 1966.
Olalla is the only school in the district that has its well managed by SKSD. All others are run by local water districts. Because of that, they looked into refurbishing the existing well, which Riley said provides 2 to 7 gallons per minute. But Riley said that might only increase water production to 12 gallons per minute and “there is no guarantee” that would occur.
The new well, which will service the school along with the old one, is expected to produce 25 gallons per minute, according to Riley.
“It was the proper time,” said Riley, who expects that project to finish in time for the start of the school year. “You don’t wait until you can’t provide enough water to adequately manage the building.”
There also will be a significant roof project at South Kitsap High School. Other portions of the school’s roof have been repaired or replaced during the last decade. The latest project, O’Brien said, will restore an 80,000-square-foot section of the roof. He said the roofers will “re-coat” the surface to add an additional “10 years of service life” to it.
“The area we’re doing today will put us in a situation where the high school essentially is done,” O’Brien said. “It’s sound and it’s in good shape.”
Along with that project, O’Brien said the fire curtain in the school’s theater will be replaced. He said the curtain, which was installed in 1978, is on a rope system.
“The fire marshal had been telling us that we need to be able to raise and lower that system on a daily basis,” O’Brien said. “We weren’t sure that fire curtain and that method of doing it was going to last for the long haul.”
SKSD’s other roof project, along with the replacement of the leaky tile roof at Sidney Glen, is at Sunnyslope Elementary School. That one encompasses the covered playground area. O’Brien said it was in such poor condition that children did not “bother to go under that roof in the rain.” Despite that, he said it was one of the last projects that was approved.
“That is one we threw in late in the game as we were looking at our budget,” O’Brien said. “We determined we had enough money to pick up a smaller project.”
The district, which has myriad smaller summer projects, also will replace the carpet at Orchard Heights Elementary School.
“The carpets there were among the worst in the district,” O’Brien said.
Again, he added, it was all about timing. Because a company in Georgia had a surplus of carpet from a canceled order, O’Brien said SKSD was able to purchase it for a $16,500 discount. To re-carpet the school, SKSD will send a little more than $25,000.
