Putnam School Board Approves Park View Roof Replacement Bid

Putnam County School Board approved a $1.65 million bid to replace the roof at Park View Elementary Thursday night.

Director of Schools Corby King said the bid came in right at expectations. ESSER-3 funding will be used to be pay for the roof, which will extend the life of the facility.

“If we’re going to keep the building, (the roof) has to be replaced,” King said. “That had to be done this year. Everybody knows the crunch the county’s in with the tax increase to capital projects and hitting their budget. So in talking with Mayor (Randy) Porter and a couple of the commissioners, we talked about, well, if we take the roof on, we can add some of these projects maybe onto the county capital projects next year and just kind of swap those out. And so that’s what we’re hoping to see happen in taking on the roof rather than passing that expense onto the commission.”

The School Board has an interest in remodeling Park View once the new Park View K-8 facility opens into a Cookeville Pre-K Center, housing those students from across the city. That would allow those existing pre-K classrooms to be used for growth at the other elementary schools.

King said the school system had wanted to spend the ESSER money to continue replacements of several HVAC units.

The roof replacement will begin soon as, King said, it has to be completed by June of next year under ESSER funding guidelines. King said the work can be done during the school year.

“All of our roof projects, there’s portions of them that are completed with students in the building,” King said. “We have that right now at Upperman High School, part of that roof is under construction. We had it at Avery Trace last year, Cookeville High School the year before that.”

The School Board Thursday also recognized 21 teachers who retired at the conclusion of the last school year. The teachers accumulated 503 years of service to the school system and its students.

“There’s no doubt you’ve made an impact on students,” Administrator Sharon Anderson said.