As of this fall I am a head caretaker at an elementary school with 250 (grades four to eight) students. Last year my building was almost empty. The front half was used occasionally for meetings and the back half was used for storing resources for the school system. It's an old building. I think of it as an ancient leaky battleship. It's true that the roof leaks, but even more dampness occurs as a result of the heating system. There are seven furnaces and they pump hot air underground through ducts that have corroded over time. What this means is that the ducts, if it's raining or if the water table is too high, fill with water. The school becomes very humid and I have to pump out the ducts so the heat can get through. One wet spring the gym got so humid that it rained in there. You could have grown mushrooms. Also it sounds roughly like Niagara Falls with the heat pushing through over the underground water. A year ago the ancient rooftop unit for the gym died. It was time. It was decided to replace it, then put ceiling ducts in and fill the underground ones with cement. Also they would be bringing in 8 portables to house 250 students for two years while their school was being reno'd. More about this next time I post.
