The Cooperstown Central School board of education has separated the roof replacement plans and some other items from the district's capital project in an effort to have the more pressing repairs completed quicker.

Plans to replace the roof over both the elementary school and the middle/high school, to complete masonry work at the elementary school and to replace the fire alarm and public announcement system at the middle/high school have been given priority over the rest of the capital project.

"We just can't wait any longer," school superintendent Mary Jo McPhail said about the roof, the most pressing issue.

Making the roof a separate project will allow the plan to be placed in front of the voters in May of this year, McPhail said. Construction could start as early as the summer of 2006.

"The roof is not waiting for us," said board president Keith Additon.

Additon said making the roof project separate would allow for quicker approval by the New York State Department of Education, in Albany.

During a November board meeting last year, custodian Bob Meehan and head bus driver Terry Bunn stressed the importance of repairing the roof. They said it has needed repairs or a replacement for a few years.

The roof has always had occasional leaks, Additon said, and the problem worsens during heavy rain.

At that meeting, Rosanne Groff, the architect from Bearsch Compeau Knudson Architects and Engineers hired for the capital project, made recommendations to the board regarding the separation of the roof project.

"A better time to bid a roof job is in December, rather than June or May," Groff said.

Groff said the school will get a better price if it looks for bids in the winter.

A work session, has been scheduled for Feb. 8 at 4 p.m.