The Rensselaer City School District is asking voters to approve a nearly $29 million capital project on Tuesday.
The four-wing district building houses the elementary, middle and high schools. A leaky roof dating back to the buildings’ construction resulted in water and mold damage that needs to be remedied. City School Superintendent Joseph Kardash says years passed before the construction errors were noticed.
“When the roof was installed, there was some gaps at the top of the walls which allowed a little too much moisture to get behind the walls of the EIFS," said Kardash. "That was compounded by the drainage behind the EIFS not being installed correctly, and the weep holes at the bottom of our brick also weren't visible, so they were not allowing moisture out correctly. And with all of these issues, it created a moisture issue on the exterior of our school. And you know, moisture over time creates some mold issues. If you look on our website, we have a bunch of pictures showing some of those issues, but really what we can see on the outside is just symptomatic of what we have between the exterior walls. We haven't really found any significant issues in the school at this point, but now is the time to remedy this before it becomes a health hazard.”
EIFS stands for Exterior Insulation and Finish System.
During a November 20 public hearing on the project, Scott Duell with BCA Architects & Engineers addressed related problems.
“The roof is out of warranty, unfortunately, and then all that water has to come and down and go someplace, and it goes down into your building, and that's led to differential settlement around the building, and it's made the sidewalks heave in certain places and degrade in certain places. So we're trying to look at this project, this is really an envelope project, looking at protecting and repairing the exterior of the building and the site around the building," Duell said.
Andrew Schreyack with Fiscal Advisors & Marketing said the district will likely maintain the tax levy at a 0% increase.
"When you look at the numbers, we're actually assuming that 98% of the project is going to be eligible for state building aid. As you can imagine, just dealing with New York State, they're probably going to find something small here there and say, 'Hey, we're not paying for that.' It's just a little extra caution for the district. Maximum cost allowances. These are very important. For every school building in New York State, there's a maximum cost allowance, which is the maximum amount of work you can do in the building that's going to be eligible for aid within a five-year window,” said Schreyack.
The district says the original contractor cannot be held responsible for the installation issues because the statute of limitations was exceeded before the problems really emerged.
Kardash underscores that there will be no change to the tax rate and thinks voters will see the project as an opportunity to protect their investment in the building.
Voting runs from noon until 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Rensselaer City School District Auditorium Foyer.
If approved, planners expect the project will be completed no later than autumn 2027.
