Leaky Roof Sends Rain Pouring Into Kilmer Elementary School; CPS Vows Fix

CHICAGO (CBS) -- When it rains outside, the water pours inside Kilmer Elementary school.

Tarps, duct tape and trash cans are set up to capture the rain from a leaky roof.

"It's immensely frustrating. I can't even express how frustrating it is," said parent Dawne Moon.

CBS 2's Jim Williams looked into why the roof at the Rogers Park school, 6700 North Greenview Ave., hasn't been fixed.

While the roof is a major problem, parents give the education at Kilmer high marks.

"I couldn't be more pleased. She's in third grade, she's been here since kindergarten - doing very well. It's great," said Moon.

Will Igoe said: 'We're saying to friends, this is a great school, you should send your kids there too and then this is going on."

Igoe is referring to water leaking into the school.

"It hurts morale here at the school," Igoe said.

The parents have photos of the damage and what the school is trying to do to stay dry.

Those measures include tarps duct-taped above classrooms and buckets to capture rainfall.

Moon and  Igoe are members of the Local School Council. They say CPS has only done short-term patch work over the years and not provided the capital funds for essential structural repairs to fix the leaky roof.

"Computers are being damaged by water coming in," Igoe said. "Students are having to sit in a classroom where there's plastic on the ceiling."

"In a perfect world, there would be adequate funding for every CPS school," Moon said. "So that every kid could be preparing for college and instead of having to worry about moving their desks around when it's raining outside."

Late Monday afternoon, and after CBS Chicago's inquiries, CPS said it would spend about $100,000 to fix the roof.