Despite overcrowding issues at the school, Room 312 at Vicksburg Junior High School sits vacant.

The roof above the classroom has become so compromised that the classroom on the seventh grade hall can no longer be used. When the door is opened, the smell of mold and mildew wafts into the hallway. Desks have been pushed up against the wall as standing water creates puddles throughout the room.

Room 312 is just one of the classrooms throughout the Vicksburg Warren School District’s 13 buildings to have been deemed unusable due to failing roofs.

Replacing many of the roofs throughout the district would be one of the first major projects undertaken under the district’s proposed facilities plan if the $83 million bond referendum passes March 27.

“$12 million worth of reroofing,” said Gary Bailey, with Dailey/Bailey Architects who performed the facilities study. “It is literally almost every school. There are one or two that have been reroofed recently. It is a major undertaking. We would have to do that in a couple different bid packages just to find adequate roofers to do that much work. It would be a priority.”

From leaking roofs, to overloaded electrical systems, rusted out windows and mechanical issues with intercoms and fire alarms, many of the projects included in the $131.5 million facility plan are not merely cosmetic, but critical for the district’s aging buildings.

“Mechanical systems are a big deal,” Bailey said. “The heating and cooling systems are worn out in many of the buildings. There are some life safety issues of intercoms and fire alarms that are needed at most of the schools. That relates to building security as in active shooter issues. Those are critical for their safety plans.”

Nine of the district’s 13 buildings were built pre-1970 including Bowmar Avenue and Redwood elementary schools, which were built in 1939, and Vicksburg High in 1957. No new schools have been built since the two mega-schools — Dana Road and Sherman Avenue — in 1999 and no education capital improvement bond has been voted on in Warren County since 1966, with the last draw taking place in 1969 to in part build Building B at Warren Central High School. 

Bailey said the district has gotten to the point where a capital project bond has to be passed or the education quality will begin to suffer as money is taken from academics to fix critical issues at the schools.

“What happens in those situations is you end up going back and looking at crisis management versus proper management,” he said. “I say that from a planning point of view. If you are wanting to focus on education and you end up spending education money to fix buildings, it starts to impact your education plan.

“Facilities end up taking away from operations of schools and education. That is the huge compromise they make. It is not that they can’t get them done. They’ve got to create a safe environment for kids. It’s just they’ve got to rob Peter to pay Paul.”

District maintenance supervisor Bill Sanderford said, “It is eight hours a day every day just to keep up with patching it,” as he and his team work to fix roofs, keep HVAC systems running and respond to the myriad of other issues plaguing the schools.

Many of the schools, including Vicksburg High, Vicksburg Junior and the Academy of Innovation, also fail to meet guidelines for accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“ADA compliance, we are in a constant fight with that,” Sanderford said. “With these old multi-level buildings without elevators and without ramps, ADA issues are a major concern. Safety is a major concern with our multiple exits. Our electrical systems, most of these buildings built in the 40s still have the original electrical services going to them.”

Of the proposed $131.5 million plan, nearly $53 million of it is slated to fix the structural and mechanical issues present throughout the district. That includes $12 million on roofs and money spent on electrical systems, restroom renovations, making schools ADA compliant, window renovations, new ceilings and floors as needed and more. 

“It (the bond) would greatly improve the safety and security of the buildings and a lot of our maintenance issues and even health issues,” Sanderford said. “Right now we have a lot of moisture getting in the buildings with leaking roofs and ventilation. We could solve a lot of those problems.

“Bowmar and the Academy of Innovation both have major window needs. They are rusted out, leaking every time it rains you get moisture through them. You lose a lot of cooling and heating through the leaking windows.”

The facilities plan also includes major expansions and renovations at the two high schools, additional classrooms at some of the elementary schools and junior highs and the construction of a new AOI on the campus of Vicksburg and Warren Central junior highs.