Spring storm causes high school roof to spring a leak

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The north hallway of the Charles City High School was blocked off on Thursday due to leaks in the roof made apparent by the overnight rain.

As part of a planned refurbishing project at the high school building, the north end roof has been undergoing a series of power washes throughout the week. According to Director of Operations Jerry Mitchell in a social media update, the power washing resulted in some unnoticed separation of seams along with some small holes.

Following Wednesday night’s storms, the staff arrived to school on Thursday to morning to discover significant leaking in the north hallway.

Closing down the hallway and setting up a series of tarps to collect and direct the water into buckets, the staff worked quickly to clean up and control the incoming water.

While the leaks resulted in wet ceiling tile needing to come down and the operations staff is monitoring the inside for other water damage to the interior, it was noted that the leaks are not indicative of serious structural damage.

“The roof is completely intact,” wrote Mitchell. “We are controlling the water that is coming into the building and the contractor is on their way back to patch and temporarily fix the roof as they continue to prep to seal the north end.”

Superintendent Dr. Anne Lundquist emphasized that while they are not thrilled with the situation, outside of being struck by an errant drop of water there is no danger to the students.

“Our kids are sweet, but they aren’t made of sugar,” said Lundquist.