HOWLAND – Discussions between SAD 31 Superintendent Jerry White and insurance adjusters will result in an insurance agency paying almost entirely for the estimated $50,000 repair of the Penobscot Valley High School gymnasium floor.

“We had a nice chat” was the way White put it Wednesday.

Heavy snow, ice and water helped create a groundwater leak that damaged a portion of the floor at the newly renovated high school and the interconnected Hichborn Middle School over the last month.

A New Jersey-based claims adjuster employed by the property and casualty insurance trust of Maine School Management, the school’s primary insurer, initially quoted a $100,000 deductible on the policy covering the floor and water or flooding damage, White said.

But the “nice chat,” in which White said he would dispute the company’s quote, resulted in the company saying Tuesday afternoon that the floor was covered by a $500 deductible. This vastly decreased cost has allowed school officials to start looking for contractors who could repair the gym floor, White said.

He plans to brief the SAD 31 board of directors on his progress when the board meets Wednesday at PVHS. He e-mailed board members this week, he said.

The water that damaged the gymnasium floor seeped through an old section of foundation or cement slab to the high school – not a portion recently renovated, along with Hichborn, for $3.9 million, school officials have said. The renovation was finished earlier this year.

If all goes well, floor repairs will be finished by the fall, at the latest, White said. School officials have tentatively planned to move summer recreation activities held at the high school to the gymnasium at Enfield Station School in Enfield to accommodate the repairs. “We want those programs to continue because they are very popular,” White said.

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