The Pine Hill Building Committee
 

Last Updated : 06/19/2007 

 

Water Damage
(10/19/05)

 The sun may be shining again, but many in Dover and Sherborn are still cleaning up from the torrential rains last week.  And it’s not just homeowners who have had to deal with flooding issues.  Many students at Sherborn’s Pine Hill Elementary School arrived Monday morning to find their classrooms drying out from flooding over the weekend.  “We always have leaking and water problems when it rains”, said Principal David Nihill, “but this storm produced leaks we’ve never seen before.”  

Water leaked into several classrooms and hallways from buildup on the exterior of the building and from leaks in the fascia above the windows.  In one classroom there was enough water to soak the entire carpet and flow out into the hallway.  This classroom is located in an addition built in the early ‘70s that is below the level of the rest of the school, the road, and surrounding land.  Drainage has always been an issue around this and two adjoining rooms, and when rainfall is heavy water flows through downspouts from the roof and accumulates along the foundation, causing leaking and flooding.  

Water also leaked in along a beam spanning the ceiling of the library, and through the ceiling of the computer lab.  Fortunately equipment in the computer lab had been moved on Friday in case of water problems, and the leak in the library was discovered early on Saturday, so that books that were exposed below the leak could be moved out of harms way. 

Three members of the Custodial and Maintenance staff spent much of Saturday working to control the leaks and clean up the flooding.  They added flexible piping to downspouts to divert water flow away from the foundation and into the street, and jury-rigged an additional drainage pipe to clear water off of the roof.  They also cleared as much water as possible from the classrooms and the library, and set up fans to dry the carpets.  By Monday morning the school was mostly back to normal, with just a few damp spots on the carpets remaining...at least until the next time it rains. 

Pine Hill is the only school building in the region that is not new or recently renovated.  An addition was built in 1997 to add classroom space and a gym, but no major structural work was done on the original building, which dates to the 1950s. Dover’s Chickering School was completed in 2001, the new Regional Middle School was completed in 2002, and the High School was renovated in 2003.  A warrant article to fund the design phase of a renovation for Pine Hill was defeated last spring.
 

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