Contracts for roof work at four Mehlville School District buildings not to exceed roughly $555,000 recently were approved by the Board of Education.

The board voted 7-0 on April 14 to award a contract to Bi-State Roofing in the amount of $218,863 for roof work at Hagemann Elementary School, and a contract to Bartch Roofing in the amount of $243,928 for roof work at Mehlville Senior High School, Wohlwend Elementary School and the Central Office.

The total project cost of $555,439.20 includes a 20-percent contingency of $92,558.20 to address unknowns and other issues that may be uncovered during the work.

Bi-State and Bartch’s bids were the lowest of four submitted, according to district officials.

Of the four roofing projects, the largest is at Hagemann Elementary School, followed by the Central Office, $127,980; Mehlville Senior High School, $67,703; and Wohlwend Elementary School, $48,245.

All roof work except for the Central Office project is being funded through remaining Proposition P building improvement funds and will take place this summer.

The $127,980 in Central Office roof improvements will begin in May and will be covered by the 2009-2010 facilities capital budget.

Planned roof improvements at the Witzel Learning Center, totaling roughly $275,000 with Bartch, will be postponed until funding is available, district officials said.

Through Proposition P, which included improvements at every district school, three new buildings were constructed — Bernard Middle School, Oakville Elementary School and the John Cary Early Childhood Center.

While the districtwide building improvement program concluded with the construction of the new early childhood center in 2005, roofing improvements have continued at a staggered pace so that all of the roofs on district buildings will not have to be replaced at the same time in the future.

Mehlville voters in November 2000 approved Proposition P, a nearly $68.4 million bond issue funded by a 49-cent tax-rate increase.

However, a final budget revision approved by the Board of Education in December 2005 raised the Proposition P budget to $89,137,440 — a roughly 30.3-percent increase — more than $20.7 million over the nearly $68.4 million building-improvement program originally envisioned.

In June 2006, the Board of Education voted unanimously to establish the Proposition P Review Committee, which ultimately answered roughly 100 questions about the building program and made five policy and 10 procedural recommendations for future building projects.

The school board later voted to accept the committee’s recommendations, which are being followed, Superintendent Terry Noble has said.