PLYMPTON — September 14, 2026 — The Dennett Elementary School has a failing flat roof, a chiller at the end of its life and a well that nearly ran dry this spring. A committee member put the cost of replacing the roof in the low millions. The state earmark the district expects for emergency roof repairs is $15,000, which members twice described as a Band-Aid.
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Principal Peter Veneto reported the school was losing thousands of gallons of water a day through a rotted butterfly valve in the sprinkler system, traced by the maintenance custodian; after the repair, consumption returned to the normal 800 to 1,000 gallons a day. But the water operator then found pressure had dropped to about five gallons a minute against the 15 the building needs to mix its chemicals properly. Recharging the bladder system in the holding tanks helped. The rest of the problem was a two-year-old three-inch inlet pipe from the well head, packed with sediment down to roughly an inch of usable bore. Flow is back where it needs to be.
The air conditioning is not. The chiller is at or near the end of its use, and it broke down repeatedly over the summer. The building was designed to be air-conditioned and runs a mold and moisture risk without it — which is why the system was put in when the school was redone. Two HVAC companies are hunting for parts that will work with a system 23 to 25 years old and, Veneto said, having major difficulty. For now the custodial team is opening windows in the morning and running portable blowers and fans.
The roof is the expensive one. Veneto described a major failure above several learning spaces, patched over the years with moderate success, and a school year in which rugs, books, ceiling tiles and walls were lost to water. Insurance covered that damage. It does not cover the roof. Three inches of rain the day before the meeting produced two small new drips in places that had never leaked.
The district has money coming, but not that kind. Member Jason Fraser reported a $15,000 state earmark for emergency roof repairs at the Dennett, $35,000 from town meeting and a matching $35,000 state earmark for a building envelope study, plus funds for phone system repairs. The plan is to spend the state’s money first, backfill from the town’s only if needed, and return what is left. Fraser said capital repairs at the Dennett cannot be absorbed by the operating budget, and that a large mid-year failure would mean going to the town — a special town meeting in the fall or winter, or warrant articles in the spring.
Asked what a repair would cost, member Ross MacPherson’s response was that this is no longer a repair but a replacement. The building envelope study is partly a play for a higher state reimbursement percentage when that bill arrives.
