While students are out for Spring Break next week, repairs will begin at Washington Elementary School with ceiling plaster and temporary floor installation.
“I’m ecstatic,” Principal Cheryl Cook said today as she reviewed the updated repair timeline. “To have plastering happening at the same time as the floor comes up is going to take some impressive coordination between those working since much of the repairs are in the same areas.”
Transportation and Facilities Manager Darrell Prim shared with the Marietta City Schools Board of Education Monday that WW Plaster, out of Buffalo, W.Va., and River Valley Flooring, out of Marietta, will begin work to repair the damage inflicted in the 111-year-old elementary school next week.
“Plastering will start on the Washington Street side of the first floor to repair the holes in the ceiling while the flooring is first pulled up on the breezeway side,” Prim described today. ‘’And to prepare, I’ll work with my guys on Friday to move furniture out of Emily Hopp’s classroom and the hallways. I don’t want anyone to get hurt trying to move those heavy pieces.”
River Valley Flooring will focus on the removal of the warping wood floors and then the installation of temporary flooring at this time.
“So the floors will be plywood for the rest of the school year, then after school’s out we’ll have new floors installed,” explained Prim.
He described to the Board of Education that next week’s work will allow teachers to open doors more smoothly and patch all of the holes in the ceiling.
“I’m just excited to get all of those humps out of my room,” shared Emily Hopp, a Title 1 teacher at the elementary school. “Every time I have new students in here for intervention they’re asking why I have yellow lines on the floor.”
The yellow safety tape holding together separated planks was a temporary measure during early mitigation of the damage, alongside the use of dehumidifiers and air purifiers with HEPA filters.
“We’ve had the dehumidifiers and air purifiers running constantly, but with the warming weather they have their work cut out for them,” added Cook.
Prim explained that whatever temporary flooring work is not completed during the student break will be completed in the evenings when students are not in school thereafter.
“Then this summer, our paint crew will also repaint the ceiling,” he added.
Marietta City Schools thanks its Washington Elementary School employees and families for their continued patience during this process.