The water-damaged walls and ceilings at the American History High School in Newark are so weak that they blister and flake, causing chunks of white plaster to rain on students’ heads.

It’s happened during lunch, exams, assemblies and even when people walk in the building, forcing Principal Robert Gregory to cordon off the auditorium and main entrance.

Every rain or snowstorm exacerbates structural woes at the 118-year-old building as dilapidated pipes freeze, then crack and leak puddles onto classroom floors. A squall earlier this year left students in the cafeteria suddenly sitting beneath a torrent of toilet water streaming from a cracked pipe.

"It was always my fear that a student would come through the collapsing floor," Gregory said.

But he, like many administrators in the state’s poorest districts, is at the mercy of a cash-strapped state agency whose work they say has slowed to a trickle.

"Our many structural problems required immediate assistance from the Schools Development Authority, but unfortunately the work has not been done," Gregory said.

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