McCall Middle School Roof Damage Forces Room Closures

Even when it doesn’t snow, the winter weather continues to cause problems in Winchester.

Late Tuesday afternoon, one of the custodians at noticed a problem with some of the bricks on the outside wall of the auditorium – they were beginning to detach from the building.

“The bricks in that area have become destabilized,” said McCall Middle School Principal, Ralph Marotta. “They became detached from the corner of the building. It’s still in solid form, but the bricks are just bending a little. Nothing is falling, they’re just some bricks that are detaching from the building.”

The bricks are not falling to the ground and are not separating individually. Instead, it's the brick veneer along the outside of the wall, near the courtyard that’s separating from the building.

“Some of the brick work on the building, up by the roof, has become separated,” said Acting Building Commissioner, John Wile. “We’re in the middle of determining what caused it. It’s not a collapse and there’s no structural damage.”

According to Marotta, it was decided to close the D-wing of the school as a safety precaution. This area includes the gymnasium as well as a few classrooms.

“We looked at the situation and determined we made the right decision,” Marotta said about closing off that part of the building. “Student safety is our No. 1 concern.”

During the day on Wednesday, Peter Lawson, the building operations manager, as well as Superintendent William McAlduff, Wile and engineers from the town's insurance company looked at the damage. After their inspection, certain classrooms in the D-wing were reopened, but the courtyard, gym and any classrooms that have windows facing the courtyard will remain closed.

The area that's peeling away from the building is approximately four feet hight and 25 to 30 feet long, according to Lawson.

"Right now we're taking all the precautions as if these bricks will fall," Lawson said.

The engineers will meet with town officials again on Friday with their recommendation. Until then, that area of the building will remain closed.

“It started out as a major relocation, but we’ve been able to bring more classrooms online,” Marotta said. "Students, teachers and the DPW have been really helpful throughout this whole process."

Marotta doesn’t think the weight of the snow caused this problem, as the roofs have been cleared off regularly, and instead, could just be the regular winter weather.

“We’ve made sure there’s not too much snow on the roofs, so it's not the weight of the snow that caused this,” Marotta said. “It’s more likely the long period of melting and freezing of the snow during the winter season that’s caused the bricks to detach.”

The roof of McCall was replaced in 1999, but this area of the building is below the roof and was not touched during that renovation.