Tigard High roof needs quick repair

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Tigard High roof needs quick repair

Leak - The district may forgo its bid requirement for the work,

which forces a charter school to move

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

MAYA BLACKMUN

OregonLive.com - Portland,OR,

http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouthwest/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/me

tro_southwest_news/115077393563740.xml & coll=7

Tigard High School has a roof leak that might take $400,000 for the

Tigard-Tualatin School District to repair, forcing the school's

language wing into temporary buildings and making it impossible for

Mitch charter school to use the portable classrooms.

Rob Saxton, the district's superintendent, said his estimate of the

costs includes probable replacement of external siding on the

building, insulation and chemical treatment to kill mold.

But he has no clear idea about the extent of any damage: " Nope, not

until we open it up. "

The Tigard-Tualatin School Board will decide at its meeting Thursday

night whether to consider the building under emergency need of

repairs so that the district should forgo its usual competitive bid

contracting policy to get workers in quickly to assess the damage

and fix it.

Saxton said this spring teachers noticed a patch of moisture on a

wall in a first-floor hallway of the wing.

He said further inspection revealed that the siding outside had

begun to fail from water intruding into the building. Damage appears

to be at all building levels in the wing and on all four sides,

affecting eight classrooms. Air samples were taken and the results

indicated air-borne mold spores.

If the district kept its competitive bidding policy, work probably

wouldn't start for about 10 weeks or the end of August, Saxton said.

Meanwhile, he said, damage and mold growth would continue to worsen,

posing health and other risks. Plus, he said, the best time to do

the work is in summer so the repaired walls can be completely dried

out before a moisture barrier is installed. Even if work starts

soon, Saxton expects it to last into late September.

Fortunately, he said, portable classrooms are still on site from

2004 and 2005 when students used them during extensive renovations.

Saxton said the leaks were unrelated to the renovations.

But shifting language classes to the portable classrooms completely

eliminates the prospects of the Mitch charter school from returning

in September. The charter school had a one-year lease through June

30 to use them.

Since it opened in 2002, Mitch -- which stands for Multisensory

Instruction Teaching Children Hands-on -- has been on the go and

must find its fourth location by September as charter school

officials have not secured a permanent site.

Saxton said he has alerted the charter's school's director and board

chairman about the needed move.

Maya Blackmun: 503-294-5926; mayablackmun@....