SUNDERLAND — With some minor leaks occurring on the Sunderland Elementary School roof, town and school officials began discussing this week whether to repair or replace it.

The Selectboard met with Darius Modestow, superintendent of the Frontier Regional and Union 38 school districts, on Monday to kick off discussions. The town and school got an early start on the project and laid out some preliminary timelines and estimates.

Modestow, speaking this week and at a May 16 School Committee meeting, said Titan Roofing, which is currently conducting work at the high school, took a look at the Sunderland Elementary School roof free of charge and identified some nails that are popping up, as well as some “trouble spots” that appear after heavy storms.

“It’s not in dire, dire straits right now. It’s starting to show its age,” Modestow said Monday, emphasizing that the school and town have time to figure this out, as there are no major errors that could damage any other part of the building. “You figure you’d get a few more years out of the roof, but it’s kind of really weathered.”

Roof replacement discussions might cause some déjà vu for longtime Sunderland residents. The current roof is just 21 years old because the previous one, which was only 13 years old at the time, collapsed in February 2003, destroying a classroom and flooding the building with water from the sprinkler system.

The initial thought was that there was too much snow on the roof, but it was discovered several days later that the roof was built without lateral bracing across the trusses. After nine months of work and more than $5 million later, students were welcomed back into the building in November 2003.

This project, however, should be much more palatable to residents.

The preliminary figure presented by Modestow was $680,000 and includes both engineering work and a replacement of the roof. If the town wants to take care of the roof as soon as possible, then it could secure funding at the April 2025 Annual Town Meeting, design it that summer, send it out to bid in 2026 and begin work in June of that year, with a projected completion date of August 2026.

This early discussion was also a chance to determine what kind of roof the town and school want to pursue — shingles as it is now, metal or another material — and if they want to incorporate solar.

The town and its Energy Committee are interested in putting solar on the roof, although Modestow said that could increase the cost of the project. He noted there are a lot of incentive programs out there that could help fund these additions, but that is outside his area of expertise.

“Should we put solar on the building … that does expand the project in multiple ways; it expands it in costs, it expands it in planning and that kind of stuff,” Modestow said, noting the administration’s position is to separate the two projects.

Selectboard Chair Nathaniel Waring said it might make sense to try to see what options there are for solar during this project. That way, if the town does decide it wants to put solar on the roof, it isn’t “doing the same work twice.” Modestow said they can have the engineering work include solar feasibility.

Energy Committee Chair David Goodwin noted a replacement roof would be a great chance to “dovetail these two projects together.”

“The elementary school represents a really fantastic opportunity,” Goodwin said. “When you’re putting solar panels on a roof, you want to ensure the roof is as new as possible.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.