High winds on Nov. 20 blew the roof off the Highland High School gym.

Superintendent Ken Crawford was in his office when he heard a loud bang. He thought it was thunder until he saw insulation falling into the parking lot.

A PE class in the gym did not notice anything wrong.

“Nothing had fallen through yet,” Crawford said. “They didn’t notice anything. They were all running and screaming.”

Crawford got the class out of the gym and began calling local contractors.

McCreedy and Ruth construction company and Stutsman’s responded and got the roof reattached and put tarps over gaps.

Crawford said they had to return several times over the long Thanksgiving weekend to reattach tarps and seal areas where rain leaked through. Crawford said he appreciated the quick response.

“We had a lot of help, a lot of community support” he said, adding the work was precarious due to winds reaching 50 mph.

The school board met Monday night and approved emergency repairs to get a new roof put on the gym.

Prior to the meeting, the rooftop was crowded Monday with an insurance adjuster and representatives of two roofing companies inspecting the damage to prepare bids for the board’s consideration.

The district received two bids and went with Precision Roofing based in Lee’s Summit, Mo.

“They are going to take the roof off and put a new roof on,” Crawford said.

The price tag: $109,680.

Crawford said the big selling point for Precision Roofing was the speed they could get the work done.

They will be onsite Thursday and work through the weekend, completing the job by Monday.

The new roof comes with a 20- to 25-year warranty.

The district will need to pay a $1,000 deductible, the rest will be covered by insurance, including any of the first-day work done to secure the roof and prevent rain from leaking into the gym.

The district received an opinion from the Grant Wood Area Education Agency allowing it to bypass regular bidding requirements.

“We felt like we were in an emergency situation,” Crawford said.

Because the gym is off limits for students, practices schedules have been shuffled with all of the teams using the junior high school gym, some early in the morning and some in the evening.

Friday night home basketball games against Mediapolis have been shifted to Lone Tree High School.

The junior varsity girls will play in the main Lone Tree gym at 4:30 p.m. The junior varsity boys will play in the Wellness Center at 6 p.m. Varsity girls will play at 6 p.m. in the main gym with varsity Boys to follow.

Crawford said teams should be back in the Highland gym next week.

“It was a weird scenario,” he said.