White County Schools seeking bids to replace the brick facade at the White County Career Center following a partial wall collapse.
Director of White County Schools Kurt Dronebarger said the district has already removed the damaged exterior from the side of the building using a local contractor. Officials are currently negotiating with insurance carriers and the original construction teams to fund the repairs.
“There’s a lot of finger-pointing in there about architectural design and structural design,” Dronebarger said. “There were some construction concerns whether some things were done. It became problematic because we’re past the statute of limitations on how long that’s been up there.”
Dronebarger said the original construction project was completed about 10 years ago. The architect and engineer who designed the facility are no longer in business, which complicated the insurance process. The removal of the collapsed wall has not cost the school system any money so far.
“But I have been pleased with the cooperation that we’ve received from the insurance carrier, from the construction company, and from the folks that were involved in the design,” Dronebarger said. “And so you know, we’re working together.”
Dronebarger said crews have covered the exposed wall with plastic, sealed it, and patched the roof to prevent further issues. The facility remains fully operational for daily classes.
“Yeah, exactly right,” Dronebarger said. “It’s just the outside skin. There’s nothing structurally wrong with the building, it’s intact, it’s safe for student use each and every day. We just got to make it look pretty at this point.”
Dronebarger said the school system has funds available to cover a portion of the replacement costs if insurance does not pay for the entire project.
“But yeah, the school system does have money and if we end up just paying for a portion to put the wall back up and not having to pay for the other portion to take it down and fix the roof, then we’ll be pretty satisfied with that process,” Dronebarger said.
The district has sent out requests for bids and is waiting for responses to negotiate the final price of the new facade.