Plans to repair the gymnasium roof at Lee-Jackson Elementary School are moving ahead, according to Mathews County Public Schools superintendent Nancy Welch.

Speaking to school board members during Tuesday night’s monthly meeting in the Mathews High School media center, she said that her office is in the final phases of getting project specifications ready for bid.

Welch said it is her goal to have bids received by the middle of next month, at which time she would have a better idea on the project’s cost as well as a timeframe for completion.

School board member John Priest asked Welch if it was a possibility that the project could be finished before the start of the 2017-2018 school year, to which she replied, “In Nancy’s world, yes sir.” Ideally, she said, work on the roof would be completed by Aug. 1 to allow time for resurfacing of the gym floor before the start of classes in September.

The failed truss system holding up the gym roof was discovered ...