Roof repairs under way at Deer Isle school

DEER ISLE – Although there are still a few more weeks of classes left in the school year, crews are already busy with a million-dollar renovation project at the Deer Isle-Stonington High School.

Roofing crews are well into the job of replacing a portion of the roof at the high school. According to Superintendent Robert Webster, the section of roof over the gymnasium and the library has had problems since the school was built. Both areas have vaulted ceilings, but do not have the typical plywood decking. The asphalt shingles are nailed into the 6-inch rigid insulation.

“The nailing and shingle system has always performed fairly poorly,” Webster said Friday. “The roof leaks, especially when we get a wind-blown rain.”

Last summer, voters from Deer Isle and Stonington approved a local bond issue of $250,000 to address the problem.

Crews will remove the old roof and insulation over the gym and library, install new insulation, strapping and a plywood deck. They then will install new asphalt shingles along the entire front portion of the high school, covering about 60 percent of the roof with new shingles.

That project should be completed by the end of the month.

In a separate project, crews have begun working on renovations of the heating system and the fire safety system at the high school.

That project is funded through an $866,525 loan through the Maine Department of Education which voters also approved last summer. Under the department’s revolving renovation loan program, the state will forgive 30 percent of the amount of the loan, $259,958. The district will repay the remaining 70 percent with no interest.

The crews have started work in the vocational end of the building. The project calls for replacing the heat control and distribution systems and installing new fire alarm and sprinkling systems, and a new ceiling throughout the building.

Most of the work is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 15. Work on the sprinkler system in the gymnasium, where equipment from the rest of the school is being stored during the project, should be done before the start of school in September.