By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
The cost of a new roof at Washington High School will drop by nearly $44,000 because a chemical stripper called for in the project specifications is not needed, according to information given to a school-board committee.
The stripper would have been used to remove the existing roof coating, according to a presentation given at the committee’s meeting Wednesday.
The committee, which is oversees Beaufort County Schools construction projects and school finances, also heard reports of repair needs at Washington High School that will use some of that $44,000.
“You think you’re getting ahead on capital projects, but we take two steps forward and one-an-a-half steps back,” said Board Chairman Robert Belcher in an interview after the meeting.
The committee unanimously endorsed a change order in the roofing project that eliminates the use of stripper. That change order results in a $43,956 savings on the project.
The Beaufort County Board of Education is expected to approve the change order at its July 26 meeting. 
The committee endorsed the change after Tom Gibson with Dynatek, the Charlotte firm that submitted the low bid on the project, and architect James G. “Jimmy” Hite, who is overseeing the project for the schools, said the stripper was no more effective in removing the existing coating than pressure washing the surface. The new coating adheres better to the roof area that has been pressure washed than those sections where the stripper had been applied, they said.
The pair also said the same manufacturer’s warranty would apply with the pressure washing
Recent hot weather and heavy rains continue to affect the installation of the new roof, Gibson said.
Most of the work on the roof replacement is being done early in the morning and at night because of the high temperatures — which can top 120 degrees — on the roof’s surface. Early morning dew also has hindered the project, he said.
Should the weather improve, the project could be completed in 30 to 40 days, Gibson said.
“I am satisfied with the direction we’re going and am looking forward to seeing some progress,” Hite said.
Dynatek has installed roofs for the N.C. State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Duke University and the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority.
With the change order, the cost of the project will drop to about $279,724, or about $111,836 less than the amount designated for the project in the schools’ 2010-2011 capital budget approved by the school board earlier this year.
The committee considered a request for funds to repair one of the chillers at Washington High School. The chillers provide air conditioning for the school.
The committee unanimously endorsed awarding a $7,265 contract to Centrifugal Consultants Inc., of Durham for repairs to the chiller. The school board is expected to give final approval to the project.
The committee also heard a report from Phillip Boyd, the school system’s plant operations director, about repairs needed to the track at Washington High School as the result a 3-foot-wide sink hole that has appeared.
The committee advised Boyd to investigate the cause of the sink hole and seek bids for its repair.
In other business, the committee:
• Unanimously endorsed a request by Todd Blumenreich, principal at the Beaufort County Early College High School, to exempt students beyond the second year at the school from the Beaufort County Schools dress code. Blumenreich told the committee that those students are enrolled in at least one college course at Beaufort County Community College, where they are being encouraged by BCCC officials to become more integrated into college life.
“The college wants them to be indistinguishable from the other college students,” he said.
• Unanimously endorsed a request by Blumenreich to amend his school’s schedule by eliminating a work day and adding a class day to the end of the spring semester. As a result of the change, the last day of school for early college high-school students in the 2010-2011 school year will be May 23, 2011.
• Unanimously endorsed the authorization of a form to be signed by private-property owners to allow school buses to turn around on their properties. The form is needed to protect the schools from any property damage caused by school buses which need to turn around on private property and to protect the schools from damage to buses caused by hazards on the property, the committee was told.
Often, buses are forced to turn around on private property because of the number of dead-end roads in Beaufort County, Superintendent Don Phipps told the committee.
“A lot of our roads don’t have cul-de-sacs — they just stop,” Phipps said.
• Unanimously approved three dates for paying school personnel, dates that will occur prior to the last day of the month as a result of the school system’s 2010-2011 calendar — Dec. 20; April 22, 2011, and June 24, 2011.
• Unanimously approved a request for the Washington High School varsity volleyball team to attend a team camp at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.