Five Sunnyside campuses will be in need of significant roof repairs or replacements within the next five years, according to a recent district-wide roofing assessment.

Sunnyside Unified School District’s governing board reviewed the report by Progressive Roofing during its meeting Tuesday, with Chief Operations Officer Abel Morado walking board members through next steps.

The discussion came on the heels of a conversation centered around a snapshot provided as part of a districtwide facilities condition assessment.

The district hired Progressive Roofing, in January for biannual preventative maintenance on every building in the district. This includes not only schools, but administrative buildings as well. As part of the contract, Progressive provided the district with an analysis of the roofs, along with recommendations for improvements and repairs.

While governing board members did not discuss potential costs during the meeting, even some buildings that were deemed to be in excellent condition still had significant issues.

Each building was graded and coded with a certain color based on its condition. Red indicates that the roof is in poor condition and has a life expectancy of five years or less; Yellow means the roof is in fair condition and has an expected lifespan of five to 10 years; And green means the roof is in great shape and has 10 to 15 years.

Of the 24 buildings assessed, five had roofs with life expectancies of five years or less: Apollo Middle School, Parent Community Educational Center, Summit View Elementary,  Star High School, and Sunnyside High School.

“It is no surprise that sunnyside (is in the red,)” Morado said. “The bulk of Sunnyside was built in the 1950s. The expectation is that things will begin to fail.”

Some of the key findings that resulted in a life expectancy in the red range included exposed and rotting wood, debris, missing shingles, standing water and overgrown trees.

Four buildings had roofs that coded mostly green: Rosemarie Rivera Elementary School, Ocotillo Learning Center, Esperanza Elementary School, and Mission Manor Elementary School. District officials noted that three of the four buildings had recently gotten new roofs, contributing to their extended life expectancy.

But the green buildings still contained issues including debris, bent metal copings, clogged drains, overgrown trees and more.

“When (the roofing company said) that there's a lot of old equipment up there, they weren't lying,” Morado said. “We’ve gone up there and found coolers that had to have been there from the 1980s. “ 

The roofing company’s report recommended regular maintenance and inspections on all district properties to maintain sound roofs.

The timeline for fixing the roofs that fell into the red zone was not determined during the meeting. Morado said the district will compare quotes from different local companies and pursue the quote that is best fit for their budget.

“Some of our schools are definitely showing their age, even the newer ones,” said District Superintendent Jose Gastelum. “Bathrooms are in good shape, but I believe those were done about eight or nine years ago, when the bond approved … a $7 million project to do bathrooms across the district. But that’s what it takes. It takes manpower, it takes money. And that was $7 million nine years ago, that would probably be double if we’re talking about something similar.”

He pointed towards the possibility of a bond election, saying the full districtwide facilities condition assessment will help determine whether asking voters to approve a bond is the best option.

“I think one of the things that we’re going to find … is that the amount of money that we have for capital expenditures, the amount of money with the capital override and the amount of costs to get our schools back to where they need to be, there is going to be a difference,” Morado said. 

Governing board and district officials said they’d discuss the issue further when the full report of facility improvements becomes available.

Abbie Andrus is a University of Arizona alum and Tucson Spotlight reporter. Contact her at asandrus@arizona.edu.

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