Kitchen at Dennis Chavez Elementary can be saved; dining hall to be demolished

BELEN — The first day of school is just around the corner for Belen Consolidated Schools, and Superintendent Lawrence Sanchez is hoping repairs to one local elementary school go smoothly after a partial roof collapse last month.

Torrential rains on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 24, flooded streets in Belen and caused part of the cafeteria roof at Dennis Chavez Elementary — the former H.T. Jaramillo campus on Esperanza Drive — to collapse.

Last week, Sanchez said if the current assessment of the situation holds true, the dining hall cannot be saved but the kitchen is salvageable.

“Obviously, the concern is safety. The engineer and architect have a plan that needs to be approved by building inspectors to provide extra support to the room using multiple hydraulic jacks,” Sanchez said. “They will be placed in the kitchen and other areas of that wing.”

The roof collapse happened most likely due to a trifecta of issues — the age of the building, old code requirements for the drainage pitch on the roof and a massive amount of precipitation in a short period of time.

“The building was built 50 years ago. Code was different then and required a 1/8 inch slope to remove the water. That’s now a quarter inch,” Sanchez said. “You have the age of the building, things start to settle, you may have ended up with a slight indentation up there, and rather than sloping and pushing the water to the canales, it settled there.

“And with as much rain that came down in that short amount of time, it was too much weight for that portion of the roof.”

Sanchez said the main goal is to get the kitchen functional for the coming school year so students at DCE can be served hot meals.

BCS support services director Antonio Sedillo has located two, double-wide portables with bathrooms that can be placed on the north side of the school next to two existing portables and used as dining halls for the students.

“We may have to bring hot food to the campus from Central (Elementary) using the appropriate containers so it stays safe,” the superintendent said. “I’m hoping that will be a temporary situation. I’ll be disappointed if it’s past the month of August. The big priority is getting the kitchen in working order so we’re not trucking in hot food all year.”

Utilities still have to be reestablished at the campus, he said, with electricity probably the first to be brought back.

“The gas is going to take a little bit longer because we have to run gas lines and make sure they’re up to code,” Sanchez said. “The meter was pulled by PNM the night of the collapse. We need gas for the kitchen but not immediately for heating.”

The dining hall portion of the building will have to be demolished, and that will most likely still be happening when classes begin on Aug. 4. Sanchez said due to the age of the building, there is asbestos in some of the building materials which requires an abatement plan to be submitted to the New Mexico Environmental Department.

“Those plans have to be approved by the environmental department and it takes about 10 days for them to issue a permit,” he said. “We will be putting up a fence around the area so that students can’t get in accidentally or out of curiosity.”

At this time, Sanchez said he didn’t have a total dollar amount for damages done to the building, but did say the district’s insurance would cover the cost after the $15,000 deductible was met.

“We’ve got plans B, C and D if need be, but I’m hoping we get our Plan A done,” he said. “The key is going to be that kitchen.”