This year, High-efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) scrubbers have been successful in ridding the third floor of last year’s infamous fish smell that came from a problem with the skylights. The smell is gone, but as the fiberglass skylights near the end of their 25-30 year life expectancy, the District plans on replacing them with a more permanent solution.

“It’s our goal that we’re going to try to take the panels out completely and replace them with a different roofing system over spring break of 2014, but we don’t know if we’ll have enough time to get
it done over spring break.” FHSD Director of Operations and Facilities Rick Pavia said. “If the seal is still working and we don’t have enough time to get it done, then we’ll schedule it for the summer of 2014, and it will never have the potential of that happening again.”

Pavia is mainly worried about the potential for bad weather or unexpected snow over spring break, but as long as the weather conditions are acceptable, the leaky skylights will be replaced by a metal roof over spring break. If a freak snow hits over spring break, Pavia will postpone the roof replacement for the summer of 2014. The District architect is looking at options for replacing the roof. Many things have to be taken into consideration for this, like how much weight the existing structure can take. The facilities department has not yet figured out how much this endeavor will cost because they have not yet received bids. However, costs so far have been rather minimal because the District already owned the HEPA filters and didn’t have to pay an outside source to evaluate the issue. Over the 2012-13 school year, when Darlene Jones was the head principal, Pavia was notified of a crude odor in the upper level “Happy Hallway.” The smell even prompted some students to begin referring to the third floor as, “The Penguin House.”

“We investigated and felt it was the seams where the skylight panels meet each other,” Pavia said.

Water was seeping through the sealant between the fiberglass panels, causing the smell. Over spring break of 2013, maintenance staff put a new sealer over all the panel seams, and no more water entered the school through the skylights through the end of the year. In late July, new Head Principal Andy Downs was notified that the problem with the third floor skylights had returned. Downs followed up with Pavia.

“I have had people talk to me about the smell,” Downs said. “With regard to that area, I have not had specifics about it impacting breathing or anything of that nature; it’s been about smell and that the smell has caused people to have headaches or things of that nature. However, I have also been told by people that they’re no longer smelling that.”

Pavia and other maintenance workers went again to investigate and discovered that the problem was not the seams between the fiberglass panels, but instead was the fiberglass panels themselves.

“The actual fiberglass skylight panels have started to deteriorate and they are actually acting like a sponge,” Pavia said. “When it rains, the skylight panel is actually absorbing some water.”

As temperature and humidity changes, the panels expand and contract. As the panels change size, they release the water they hold inside. This water gets into the school and is what caused the bad smell. After a couple decent rains have torn through St. Charles, no more water has leaked into the school.
HEPA air scrubbers still remain upstairs, for precautionary purposes. Pavia is confident, though, that the sealer put over the skylights will be effective in keeping water out of the school. “They’re running the air cleaners up there and they’ll run them until we actually replace the skylights,” FHN Maintenance Worker Tim Williams said. As with every time water gets into a structure and sits, there is the potential for mold. Maintenance crews and custodial staff have been very proactive in making sure mold does
not start growing. “We cleaned everything up,” Pavia said. “When we first started noticing it, we stayed on top of it. We cleaned the water every time it came through, so the water was cleaned up immediately. Any sort of stains on the walls, we cleaned up and we do that to prevent
moisture from staying inside the facility, so that we do not end up with an indoor air quality issue or any sort of potential problems in regards to making the air quality problems any worse than what
would be acceptable in the halls.” This isn’t the first time FHSD has had to deal with a leaky roof.

“The Francis Howell School District has about 3 million square feet of buildings, so we do have roof leaks from time to time,” Pavia said. “There is a district-wide facilities committee and district-wide
report where we review and assess all of our roofs.”

The FHSD maintenance crews are experienced enough that they have ensured this problem does not get out of hand.

“The school district and the maintenance department has identified the problem that was brought to our attention and we are addressing it,” Pavia said. “[We are] trying to make sure that we have
a comfortable learning environment for our students.