School Roofs Get Snow Removal Weekend

The roofs of Sharon's five schools became less likely to collapse under the weight of heavy snow after two 12-hour shoveling sessions this weekend.

School District Director of Maintenance and Operations Ken Wertz said Monday that "while I didn't think our buildings were in peril, better to be safe than sorry."

Roof collapses have become a greater concern statewide as major winter storm after major winter storm create snowbanks taller than most pedestrians.

"Everyone is out there looking at the roofs," Wertz said.

Wertz said when he and others looked at the Sharon school roofs, "they were about what we had expected."

Major building code changes after the Blizzard of 1978 required roofs to be shored up to handle more snow, he said.

Last Monday, crews cleared the school roofs' storm drains, which were snow clogged, he said.

In an e-mail, Wertz told School Superintendent Barbara Dunham that crews of 10 to 15 outsourced workers "concentrated on any roof that was built and hadn't received any structural upgrades prior to the 1994 renovation at Heights, even with that direction we did remove some snow from the older areas that have had structural upgrades just to be safe; knock(ed) down any remaining snow drifts that exceeded 3 feet in height; (and) continued to remove snow from roof drains and shovel relief veins across roof to allow better drainage."

"We have worked on all five of our schools and continue to do some touchup areas that we weren't able to complete over the weekend," Wertz wrote.

"I've been in contact with our local building inspector every step of the way to make sure we focused on what was important.  This work will be ongoing for the remainder of the winter and will be tied to the weather predictions and quantity of snow remaining on our roofs."

Dunham sent Wertz's e-mail to staff, the school committee and others on Monday.

"Thanks to our crews, we are not in the position that other districts found themselves," Dunham wrote.