Aging Claymont school building in need of costly repairs
DENNISON (WJER) (Jan. 23, 2023) – The Claymont Board of Education will be spending at least $340,000 to address structural issues with the Intermediate building.
Operations Manager Beth Lint says that’s what it’s going to cost to replace all of the beams above the front windows and rebuild an exterior wall that’s tilting inward.
“They would pull [the roof] back and shore up the building in those areas, take the walls down to the top third-floor window, bring the cranes in, set the beam, rebuild that back up, and then resecure the roof.”
The issues came to light during a recent inspection by the company that will be putting a new roof on the building. Lint says the repairs could take up to 90 work days to complete, which means some of the preliminary work would need to start before the end of the school year.
“There would be no deconstruction done while any students or staff were in the building. It affects sidewalks, road closure. It affects recess.. [it’s] a lot of just building the stuff to be able to start as soon as the kids are out of the building.”
Lint is finding out how much more it would cost to have the company remove the steps leading into the building, which she says are starting to crumble and would be expensive to replace. The finance committee will review both quotes at its next meeting and make a recommendation for the board to vote on.