On the third floor of NC, outside of room 303, there sat for the first few weeks of school a trash can surrounded by two ladders covered in caution tape with a big blue tarp attached to the ceiling. 

Upon looking up, some of the tiles appeared to be either broken or completely removed. Peeking through those tiles, the electrical and AC systems that run through the school were visible. The tarp was meant to trap water that was leaking from the ceiling, caused by the intense storms and rain the area has experienced this past month. The ladders formed an outline for the leak to prevent a slipping hazard, Associate Principal Sarah Smith said.

“Several problematic spots were identified and fixed,” Smith said. “We saw after the rain [from early August] we’re now taking on far less water because of those successful repairs.”

Math teacher Paul Labbato’s classroom is near the roof leakage. He was understanding about any minor disruptions that occurred during class time, Labbato said. 

“We have work being done up there while class is going on, so there can be some noises, some machinery, and banging around that we usually deal with,” Labbato said. 

During the first week of the school year, issues with the AC were resolved promptly. The AC never broke; it was only a delay with getting the chillers started in time for the school year.

“The AC project in general is going really well,” Smith said. “As you can feel in the building, we’ve never had such a cool NC.”

LT is starting up both existing and new chillers and cooling towers that ultimately provide AC to the entire building, Smith said. The entire AC project is estimated to be completed by the end of next summer and the leaks hopefully by the end of September.

“Our building and grounds team worked hard to make sure that we were ready to start this year and worked incredibly hard to try to take care of any issues,” Smith said.

The buildings and grounds team has helped the school in more ways than one, and for that, there is much appreciation, Smith said. They were able to calmly and quickly situate the problems within the building and provide LT students and staff with a safe learning environment.

“They did a great job getting this area under control from what it was before school [started], to what it was on the first day, to a week later, [the ceiling is] all fixed,” Labbato said.