By Benjamin Snidman-Stren
The roof here at JPCI is being redone, leaving many students to ask “Why”. We conducted an interview with our principal, Mr. Santos, to get the inside scoop on the recent construction -and destruction- of our school.
You may have noticed ceiling tiles falling and hallways flooding, recently. This is a result of the wear and tear on the roof. To avoid incidents and other safety hazards in the future, the school has had no choice but to go under construction. Mr. Santos and the construction crew is doing their best for this to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The extensive roof work started in October and will hopefully be done within the next few weeks. There is now only a very small portion above the shop section to finish. After they’re done re-tarring the roof, they will complete the siding, which is weather protection for the exterior walls and roof. Thankfully, there is no tar involved in this process, though you may hear some drilling. This roof work was needed, because water used to leak though the tiles, which caused some floods. The school has flooded in the same spot multiple times, though the flood that took place over winter break did the most damage. Mr Santos says he believes that us students deserve a well maintained and safe school, which is why they made the roof their top priority. You might ask why they didn’t just work on the roof during the summer break to avoid students from being exposed to the smell, sound, and construction zone environment. If they only did roof work during the summer, it would take 4 summer breaks to complete. That is four years of flooding, tiles falling, and more safety hazards. So, it turns out that the roof work isn’t just the admin punishing us! It is work that needs to be done so that our school can continue to run as a safe environment for staff and students alike. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like it’s worth a bit of tar smell.