Leaky roof at Archer should prompt major call to action

(N&R)

Pictures like this represent an abomination of our public schools. One has to wonder where we as a county school system went wrong.

This is Archer Elementary School in Greensboro, where after five days of rain, trash buckets dot the hallways collecting the rain water because the rook leaks. It is not scheduled to be replaced until 2011.

The lack of money, both locally and from the state, has now put this issue at center stage.

Today's N&R:

Leo Bobadilla, the school system’s chief operations officer, said what the parents expect is more than reasonable. But meeting those expectations costs money, money Bobadilla is struggling to find.

“The reality is the funding is not keeping pace with the needs of our schools,” he said.

About two-thirds of the county’s 120 schools are more than 30 years old and have never undergone a major renovation. Archer, on Four Seasons Boulevard in Greensboro, was built in 1962. That, Bobadilla says, works out to a lot of leaky roofs and other major facilities concerns.

It will cost an estimated $375,000 just to replace Archer’s roof.

The bond passed by voters last year will pay for some of those needs, including a new boiler unit for Archer. But the school system had to reprioritize the projects on the bond list earlier this year when, fearing the full bond amount would not sell, they lowered the amount they placed on the market.

I wonder if the HVAC at Andrews has been fixed yet. You see, when I taught there four years ago, I had to buy fans to keep the air circulating through my classroom because the A/C in the middle of the building remained inoperable. Only I had the crown jewels to complain about it. Suffice to say, I wasn't at Andrews for very long after voicing a complaint, but I have no regrets. Because our children are in conditions that are similar all over this county.

E.C. :)