The playground at Matoaka Elementary School will soon reopen as the Williamsburg-James City County School Board approved Tuesday night a $25,000 temporary fix for a collapsed rain tank.
An underground tank that held rain drained from the school’s roof and slowly leached into the watershed partially collapsed in early October. Since that time, the Matoaka playground has been fenced off and closed to students.
The division employed the help of AES Engineering to put in a support that has kept the tank working at a 70 percent capacity. At WJCC Public Schools’ Nov. 12 meeting, Bob Cosby from AES presented a pair of options to fix the tank.
One of the options was a $550,000 fix that would not comply with a special drainage permit attached to Matoaka and another for $600,000 that would comply. Board members decided Tuesday night the $600,000 was the preferred method but they were not sure how to fund it.
On Tuesday the board decided to allow a $25,000 project that would use 30 linear feet of piping to partially bypass the rain tank system and relieve potential overloading. The playground would likely open within a couple weeks, Cosby said at the board’s Nov. 12 work session.
“We want to get the kids back on the playground, so I really think it’s best if we do something,” Board Member Heather Cordasco said. “It’s not only for the kids, but for the mental health of the teachers.”
Board Member Joe Fuentes asked Cosby how much time the $25,000 repair would buy the division for the full repair. Cosby said it was a temporary fix and it “could last 40 years or it could last three more days.”
“Then my next question is – if we spent $25,000 and it would only last three days, why would we do it?” Fuentes asked.
Cosby called it a “question of reasonable risk” and said the repair should last long enough to get a make a permanent repair. Kelly agreed saying it was a “risk mitigation thing” to keep the tank from failing any further.
Board Member Oscar Prater asked Superintendent Steven Constantino if the $25,000 project had the administration’s backing, which Constantino confirmed.
“It’s not money wasted. It’s not $25,000 for nothing. It’s $25,000 of fixing a larger problem,” Constantino said.
The school board voted 6-1 to approve the $25,000 project to reopen the playground with Fuentes dissenting. Constantino and Chairwoman Ruth Larson will enter conversations with the City of Williamsburg and James City County on how to fund the larger $600,000 repair.
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