Ventnor Educational Community Complex
VENTNOR – It’s been more than a year since the Board of Education’s engineering company received payment due to problems with the new roof that was installed during the summer of 2017.
Because the job entailed additional work to determine where a leak was coming from, the engineers at Remington, Vernick and Walberg billed the district an extra $61,214. On Wednesday, Dec. 19, company representatives attended the board meeting to ask the district to pay the arrears and deduct it from the $90,000 owed to commercial roofing contractor, Winchester Roofing.
Representatives of the roofing company also attended the meeting, asking the board to pay the balance of $90,000 owed on its original $1.2 million contract, or it would hear from its lawyers. A clause in Winchester’s contract states any additional expenses incurred by the district would be deducted from the contract amount, RVW engineer Bob Smith said.
Because the contractor said she would contact her attorney, Solicitor Andrew Brown suggested the issue be discussed in executive session. Following the executive session, the board agreed to pay RVW $30,000 and deduct it from the amount owed to the contractor.
According to Business Administrator Terri Nowotny, RVW’s original inspection fee for the time the contractor was working on the roof was $74,000. Because there was difficulty finding the leak, which was later determined to be coming from a brick wall that needs repointing, the district incurred additional costs for engineering and inspections. Winchester continued to work on the roof to eliminate the leak but received no extra money and the project was never closed out.
District Facilities Supervisor Ron Fenton said there are additional problems with another section of roofing that was completed this past summer. Smith said that engineers are contacting the roofing manufacturer, Tremco Roofing and Maintenance, to determine if the bubbling that has occurred is structural or cosmetic.
“We need assurances it will not be an issue,” Smith said.
Smith said the roof job was first inspected on a cloudy day, which showed no problems with the roof, but on a bright, sunny day, there was extensive bubbling in several sections of the roof, which could have been caused by moisture under the roofing fabric.
Members of the board’s Buildings and Grounds Committee also said they are also not satisfied with the work done to repair sidewalk joints, which they say are uneven and peeling.
Board members also discussed accommodating all summer recreation programs during extensive work on the building planned for summer 2019. Scheduling with the city’s Recreation Department will be discussed at the next committee meeting, which is slated for Jan. 15, 2019.
In other business, the board approved the appointment of Ventnor Elementary School Principal Carmela Somershoe to fill in for Superintendent Eileen Johnson, who is on medical leave from Dec. 3 to Feb. 1, 2019. After the executive session, the board revised Somershoe’s stipend to $150 per day from the $1,000 per week amount posted on the original agenda.
The board also held its first discussion about the 2019-2020 budget. In an effort to be more transparent about how the district prepares its budget, Board President James Pacanowski said the Budget Committee would include all board members and discussions would be held at school board meetings.
Nowotny informed the board that it is likely the district will receive a 13-percent decrease in adjustment aid, which is based on student enrollment. Nowotny said the amount could change depending on whether enrollment projections increase or decrease over the next few months.
At the present time, projections show a potential increase of approximately 15 students in a grant-funded expansion of the district’s pre-school program. However, because the district will be adding another pre-school class, it will lose rental income from one of three classrooms currently leased to Gateway Head Start. Gateway currently pays $6,600 per month to rent three classrooms in the Early Childhood Wing at the Ventnor Educational Community Complex.
“If we expand pre-k, they will lose one classroom and we will lose the revenue from one classroom,” she said.
Nowotny also said the state did not approve the district’s application to receive emergency aid to reimburse $94,015 cut from last year’s adjustment aid amount. In a letter to Johnson, NJ Education Commissioner Lamont O. Repollet said after a review of the district’s finances, there was enough money in reserve to cover the loss.
Pacanowski said the board would build its budget around a flat tax levy. The tax levy was $16,405,094 last year, Nowotny said.
