School Committee - Special Meeting

Good evening, folks. We're just having some technical issues here. Lance Davis is being moved over to post as we speak. Just stand by. You see him, Peter? Can you look? There he is.

Alright. There we go. I was allowed in from the cold. Thank you. I don't know why I was, in the waiting room and all that, but thanks for whoever whoever rescued me and let me in. Sorry for the delay, folks. So we will, we will get this meeting started. We we are, Peter, you're helping us out as clerk this evening?

Correct.

Excellent. Can you put the agenda on the screen for us, please?

Got it.

So to officially get started, so this is a meeting of the city council's committee on school buildings, facilities, and maintenance meeting jointly with the school committees, facilities committee or some such. I will pass it to chair Baton in a moment to give us the proper name, which I should know by now. My apologies. Just to to get some administrative things out. Well, first off, so my name is Lance Davis.

I'm the chair of the committee. I use hehim pronouns. Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2023, this meeting of the city council committee on school building facilities and maintenance is being conducted via remote participation. So we'll we will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City Of Somerville websites and local cable access government channels. Clerk for Silesia, would you please call the roll to establish quorum?

This is roll call. Councilor Syed?

Yes. I'm here.

Councilor Klingon?

Present.

And councilor Davis? Here. Mister chair, all members are present. We have a quorum.

Alright. Thank you very much. Having opened the meeting, we will now stand in recess so that the, school subcommittee can open their meeting.

Chair Betone? Chair Davis, this is Leron Betone, ward seven school committee member, and chair of the corresponding, subcommittee for

this joint committee.

I just want to start and thank Chair Davis and the City Council for this continuing this partnership. I believe this has been working well, and we're answering, I think, important questions. And it's been productive, so I just wanted to start by thanking city council. So I will call the role. I am here. Doctor Phillips?

I'm here too.

And Ms. Patton?

Here.

Great. We have quorum, and, we will cede the floor to, you, chair Davis.

Alright. Thank you very much. We will call this meeting back to order. Would the clerk please call the roll once again just to establish that we are all here?

This is roll call. Councilor Syed?

Present.

Councilor Klingon? Present. Councilor Davis? Here. Mister chair, all members are present.

We have a quorum. Alright. Thank you very much. So we have a number of items on the agenda. It's been a bit since this committee has met, actually, since, the last calendar year. So we had a few that carried over and a few new ones. Hopefully, we can get through all of them. And, if not, we have another meeting scheduled, in just a few weeks, I believe. So we'll be able to, to pick up where we left off. Director Sting, do I see you in the audience?

Chad, I'm here.

You are here. Excellent. Thank you. For some reason, your name isn't showing up. Oh, there you are. Okay. So my thought is to to take up well, let me ask let me ask you. I I assume that the the folks to the extent that there's folks in the administration here that are only here for one item, it's probably the the last item of the agenda item eight. Is that right? Would you like to take that one up first?

Through the chair. That's correct. That that would be good.

Okay. Happy to happy to do that. I'm just looking to see who we have in the audience. And I think for the sake of discussion, let's take up, item well, actually, let's start with item number one, which is which is the approval of the minutes. That is approval of the item two four dash one six seven eight, approval of the minutes of the school building facilities and maintenance special committee from November 18. Move to approve. Is there any discussion? Seeing none with the clerk, please call the roll on that item.

On approval of the minutes, councilor Syed?

Yes.

Councilor Clayton? Yes. Councilor Davis? Yes. Mister chair, all members have voted to approve the minutes.

Okay. Very well. So, Ashley, as I think here so so we have three items that relate to the the the ongoing process to replace the Winter Winter Hill School. Item two on the agenda is our sort of standing update. Item three is a specific item that that goes to the timeline for constructing a new school building.

And then item eight relates to the recently released a week ago this morning, the school building community feedback survey. As I just noted, there's a few additional folks in administration to to speak on that item, mate. So I think maybe let's take that one up on its own, and then we can jump back to the other two together, to sort of continue the the general discussion to the extent that we feel like, there's additional things to add. So item eight is 25 dash zero one five seven that the administration immediately withdraw the school building community feedback survey released this morning. This was, as I said, a week ago Thursday, today, regarding the replacement of the Winter Hill and potentially the Brown School.

This was a late item introduced to the last city council meeting by myself and councilor Strezo, who is with us in the audience this evening. And just so so folks know, I do intend on recognizing councilor Strezo because this is a three person committee. We are able to hear from councilors from an another councilor without making it a quorum of the of the entire city council. And so and councilor Trezo also is the city council's representative on the community advisory group that is charged with advising on on this process. And so I will be happy to recognize councilor Strezzo when it's appropriate as well.

I do wanna you know, from my perspective, I I the reason that that I introduced this item was because the the the release of the survey was brought to my attention last Thursday. There was a communication from from one of the members of the of the committee of the CAG as it were. And I also heard from councilor Strazo about that about that I mean, sorry. I'm searching for a piece of information that I'm not putting my fingers on. And so it it raised a concern because I I have heard and and it's been my sort of impression that that the process hasn't been going to to the liking of a of a lot of folks in the sense that that the there's been some frustration from the from members of the committee that I've heard.

There's been frustration from members of both the Brown School community and the Winter Health community. And and it was my my the survey was raised to my attention with the concern that it it really seemed to be somewhat biased and and and drafted in a way that really didn't didn't seem designed to to bring sort of objective data and for feedback. It was characterized by some folks as being as appearing to have the intense to slant the the responses towards one preordained conclusion. And so when I read the survey myself, I I I'll admit, I I was quite surprised. I found I I I found it to be to to to be all of the things that the people had had suggested.

I found the questions to be really surprising in the way they were worded, to be, you know, focused specifically on deriving negative data for the the the possibility of of retaining the two neighborhood schools and and really driven towards creating a one mega school. That was my opinion, my read of it. As I said, it was also shared by others. And so the intent of the of the late item was to request that the administration pull the survey from the field so that it could be, you know, addressed and revised and reviewed by the the the the community advisory group, which it had not been prior to its release. That was another one of the the points that some folks raised.

And I had a conversation with some members of the administration this afternoon. The survey was was not pulled to the field. It remains live. They and I'll I'll summarize and and director Singh, I I do see that we have director Gartzman on this on the call or on on the meeting here as well. If I get any of this wrong, I'm happy to to to provide the opportunity to correct what was reported.

But I was told that the the administration has has stopped the the outreach, the sort of publication publicizing of the of the survey, sort of pushing it to to folks out in in places in the community since last week and that there is an intent to revise it. In my opinion, that that's that alone is not sufficient because whatever data has been received under this, you know, under the survey the way it's drafted, in my opinion, is is is compromised. It's it's contaminated, and it should be it should be discarded. And once a new survey is is put in is put together with the with the input from the CAG and and, you know, following review, know, you there's no reason that that data the datasets can't be begun anew, you know, once the the survey is revised. So let me stop there.

Doctor Singh, I'm happy to to give doctor Gartzman the floor if if you'd like to to speak, you know, as I said said earlier to correct or clarify my summary of the conversation or add any additional detail if if the administration would like.

Through the chair. Correct. Director Gartzman and Rich are here to speak to this item.

So we also have director Reish who's director of infrastructure asset management. And to be clear, director Gartzman is director of Somerset. So, doctor Gartzman, I I I think that the the lead leading position goes to you, if if that's right. So I'm happy to, to recognize you. If you could just, formally introduce yourself for, for the clerk so that we can get that into the record, and the floor is yours.

Of course. Hi. Yes. My name is formally Anna Gartzman. I'm the director of Somerset, which is the data shop of the city.

I wrote the survey with input from many staff on both the school and city side as well as with input from the CAG and test group of kind of unfamiliar with the problem users. You are entirely correct that what we did is pull the promotion from the survey as soon as we got word that there was feedback, but it appeared biased. So we did not pull down the survey itself. By that point, a lot of responses had already come in. So we didn't wanna have, like, a user experience where things disappeared, but we did not actively collect any further data.

I'm happy to provide kind of background for why we're doing a survey in general if

that would be helpful, or I can

wait until a later point if that's more beneficial.

I mean, I I I guess it would be helpful to to just hear what what the plan is going forward. I I I mean, I'll I'll I'll start by just asking why why leave the survey up live if, there's a recognition that it it it should be revised? You know, what what benefit does do does that data provide, you know, provide us if if the questions need to be changed? To to me, it seems like if you have a dataset that began on with, you know, one survey with questions worded one way and then a different dataset that comes in with questions or the other way that you can't really blend those two datasets. Why not start why not just say, we're gonna revise this. We're gonna address the issues and start anew?

We would do some testing on the back end because some revisions would require a complete change in data and ask people to kind of respond again, and some changes would not. And we can kind of test on the back end, so we can also, for some cases, just report them separately as well. So we didn't wanna pull down the survey in case it ended up being sort of fine to report with asterisks or caveats because we weren't sure at that point what oops. Sorry. I'm, like, blurring in strange way.

We weren't sure at that point what the concrete asks would be. At this point, the sort of more concrete feedback pieces that we got from the CAG, the things we're gonna propose to them, I think, in my opinion, don't necessitate a complete removal of the data, but we would know more from back end analysis regardless. And we can make that call after we decide on the final changes and see if the data that's coming in is completely different, then we can wipe all the preexisting data as well.

Okay. I I'm not sure necessarily with that approach, but thank you for that response. I guess let me let me open it up to to the committee. I see I I see both councilor Syed and Klingon. I didn't see his hand went up first. Guess, councilor Klingon, your your name is at the top, so I think that's that means that your hand went up first. So why don't you go ahead, then we'll go to councilor Syed.

Yeah. Thank you, mister Chia. Through I I mean, I would like an answer to the question as to why we need this you know, devise a survey, needed a survey as, miss Garvin said she had a response for.

Sarah, go ahead.

Yes. Thank you. So the kind of level set where we are in the process of gathering community input, We are in phase one of public outreach about sort of what people find important in school buildings among other funding priorities. So our main questions are well ahead of sort of what specific variants will exist. Because the school building project will affect all Somerville residents, we need to know what matters to all of our community and not just the people we've heard from thus far.

Specifically, we haven't heard a lot from people who will be, for example, voting on a possible override, but don't aren't really involved with the school community or the Winter Hill kind of building issues to begin with. So the purpose of this specific survey at this time is to gather enough kind of broad background information about what they think is important in City Of Somerville schools in general and how school funding priorities compare to other funding priorities so that we can kind of tailor our variance or at least report of on the sort of important issues to the public among all of the variance we designed. There will be a phase two that will ask people to for their feedback on specific variance once those exist. But at this point, we are not in that phase. So this is just making sure that we don't inadvertently remove some options that turn out to be important to people we haven't heard from yet.

So that's sort of the background of why we're doing a survey right now. It is largely targeted the survey part is supposed to be targeted to as, like, a more low barrier option for public input and that people who won't come to a public meeting or won't come to a focus group may be willing to do a survey. So this is our broadest sort of background data collection effort on this topic.

Okay. Thank you, miss Chen. So, I mean, if this was geared towards sort of, like, you say, the general public, especially with regards to, you know, with the future two and a half override, I mean, I would think you would wanna get some background information on the respondents. You know? I I know a lot of like, I I remember knocking doors one time in another community and and, you know, people who have older age that had no kids in school would literally be like, I don't care about schools.

Don't raise my taxes, and just slam the door on my face. So, you know, I think it's important to know who we're hearing from as well. But I don't know. I mean, yeah, it's I mean, it's obviously my whole problem I'll just leave with this. My whole thing is, like, the idea of having a a CAG, you know, you have 12 or whatever it is, 12 to 15 people that are sort of conduits to the community that are sort of, you know, synthesizing that feedback from their own networks and communities that they're hearing.

And I don't know. The idea of a survey, at least one that, you know, they weren't part of creating, to me, is just it just it's bound to cause problems as it did. And I just don't think that was really well thought out in that sense because, again, I just think that it's we know I mean, I think that we people are elected and people are, in positions to make decisions, as to what is you know, what way to priority prioritize things for our kids and for and for school buildings and stuff. I don't know that, you know, this is really the best way to to to to get, you know, advice or, you know, information from the public. It just seems like it caused a lot of a lot of issues.

But, yeah, thank you.

Chair Davis, if I may provide some clarification on councilor Klingon's question.

A clarification on councilor Klingon's point. Yes. Go ahead, doctor.

So I I I wanna point out that director of communications and community relations, Denise Taylor couldn't be with us tonight. She's, quite ill, so she couldn't make it. So I'm speaking a little bit on on her behalf. I want everyone to understand that this entire community outreach component of this, there's there's an entire strategy around engaging, as as director Garthman pointed out, the people who haven't expressed their interest. Because at the end of all this, we need to pass whatever the decision is.

We need to pass a proposition two and a half debt exclusion to build the next building. So we, as a city, need to understand the broader community's priorities for how it is that that we design, this, project. And and some of the data that we're seeking to, collect across the board with community relations, this survey is just the first thing that's sort of visible in that, is a broad range of of opinions on on various different things. A lot of the data that we're trying to collect does not necessarily go to the question of the Brown School and whether or not we should perpetuate the Brown School or keep the Brown School separate or combine or, build new. It's trying to collect data that will help us at this very early stage of designing this new building so that as we're hiring an architect, as we're beginning the larger community engagement and and public education program, what the broader community's priorities are.

So a a lot of the the questions that may have been read by the Brown School community to to have a bias for or against the Brown School really weren't even about the Brown School in particular. They're they're to help the overall project and inform, you know, the direction in which the the general project goes.

Mister chair, I'll just respond quickly. I didn't say anything about the Brown School or the McDowell School. I'm just talking about the existence of a of a survey in general and the way it was created and, you know, who who was involved in that creation.

Yeah. And, again, it was it was involved to a number of different city departments, school, departments, and it is just the the first in a multistage, multipronged community, outreach. It just so happens to be the first one, and it got a lot of attention.

Alright. Well, thank you.

Just one clarifying point. It was also the CAC was also very involved. We had two meetings about this survey, and we have ongoing conversations about it right now as well.

Thank you, director Graz. And we'll we'll do everything through the chair here. So please

My apologies.

Keep a little bit of procedure here. You know, I I I think, Joshua, I I appreciate your response. And and and to be clear, and I I said this in our meeting this afternoon, and I I think it's important to be public. I I am incredibly grateful for all of the work that that you all in the administration do on all of this stuff. We ask far too much of everybody in the administration.

I know everyone is is is diligently working to do the best job they can, and so none of this is intended anyway to to suggest otherwise. That said, you know, when when we see things that raise concerns, I think, you know, as an elected official, I have an obligation to raise them. Doctor Reisha, I I find it personally, I I find it impossible to look at this survey without seeing a a a clear bias towards, collecting data that would that would support, combining these two schools. And and to be clear, I've been told by more than one person that many members of the Winter Hill School community also saw a significant amount of bias in this survey, and I do intend on recognizing a few members of a a a a a a public, as I mentioned, councilor Sreze who will I guess, technically, as I said earlier, could could speak as as a councilor since we only have four. And Ryan Williams, who's the president of the PTA and also serves on the the CAG, Correct me if I'm wrong about that.

My understanding is that is that there have been surveys put in place among the Brownsville community, among the Winger Hill community, both of which were overwhelmingly in support of keeping the neighborhood schools in the neighborhoods and not combining into a mega school that that folks around Trump Field were were were significantly opposed to to destroying that what what what is one of the only contiguous open spaces we have in the heart of the city, in in favor of a mega school. You know, certainly, director Reish, you you talked about having to to gain support for, for an override. You know, I know that that that right now, if I'm looking at at that proposal, there's a lot there's a lot that that that comes in. The the the fact that the two school communities, seem to be opposed to it, yet the administration has decided to put another survey in place, apparently to get more data. Again, one could certainly interpret that as as looking to find the data that supports a foregone conclusion.

Perhaps there is a, you know, a preordained conclusion here, but the appearance is certainly there. You know, to to remove a significant portion of that large open space, which coincidentally or not, is among the two uses of that space. One one is a baseball field, one is a softball field. The baseball field is used by the the boys varsity baseball team. The softball field is used by the girls varsity softball team.

Guess guess which side the school would go on? To me, that's a pretty significant challenge from a you know, if you're trying to pitch this to the community. So, you know, nothing nothing in he nothing in this survey mentions anything about that. Instead, you have questions like, you know, how important is it to have a, you know, a gymnasium or a cafeteria? We all know that the Brown School is the only school that doesn't have those.

And and the structure of the survey, all of the answers are forms of yes, with the exception of I'm not sure or others. So if you don't agree with the proposal, for example, let me get to one of ones I was specifically referencing. Okay. So so there's currently only one large p k to eight school in Somerville. How important is it that the city offers another large school option?

Must have, important, somewhat important, nice to have, but other things are essential as well. I'm not sure or other. Now, again, all of the questions are are are phrased that way. So, you know, the next question is is maintaining schools' traditional locations, cultures, and community identities? So there's, you know, there's some balance there to extent, but then you go on to have questions about ample space for facilities for indoor and outdoor activities.

Again, seems to be clearly directed towards the Brown School, facilities for before and after school. The second question talks about a school that lacks diversity. There are a lot of many ways in which the Brown School actually has significant diversity, but a lack of economic diversity has been one of the critiques of that school. And and that's fair, but that's an issue that can be addressed through through admissions, not by by, you know, closing the school and and and moving it you know, moving those students to another building. I I think, again, to to me, there's there's there's no way that an objective person who has any sort of sense of of the of the the issues here could read this as being an objective survey.

You know, hype could the hypothetical community member that who had not be not plugged in at all have a sense for for, you know, not not have a sense for what's going on here, read this as objective? Maybe, but isn't that the point of push polls? Right? Isn't that the point of of designing surveys that are intended to push people to one direction? Not that not that I'm suggesting that was that that is what the intent behind this was. I don't think it was. I believe the administration, when they say that they didn't intend to make this biased, but that's not really the point. The point is that it it, in my opinion and that of any others, clearly is. And so I'm disappointed that the administration didn't pull the poll. I still don't understand why it's in the field.

I still don't understand why the data is being is being retained. I I would like the administration to, to to to shut the poll off, to revise it, to to work with the CAG, not on sort of general input, but to actually receive feedback on a draft, you know, a survey before something else goes in the field. Because what we've seen when that doesn't happen is is is not acceptable. There are there's so many other places I could go here on this, but I'm gonna stop there for now. I I I promised that I would recognize councilor Sait next, and then I went off of my soapbox. So I apologize, councilor Saeed. The floor is yours.

Through the chair. Yeah. No worries. These are all really important points that you are bringing up. Yeah. I have just a question to what was shared with us tonight. Miss Skarsman, you said that the CAG was involved in the creation of this survey. Can you tell us more about that?

Do I speak? No. Okay. Great. Sorry.

Yes. So we gathered initial topics for input, so kind of, like, what questions would be like, on what topics the questions would be asked from the CAG over I think it was over two meetings, and I am sorry. I don't know exactly because I came in kind of halfway through that process. There were two meetings that discussed those topics, and then we took that input and drafted the questions that I then tested with a group of people who didn't aren't familiar with the process. And then in response to the CAGS desire to move quickly, we did not bring the questions back for a comment.

We did review the survey again last week last week, also as response to the the sort of feedback we are receiving here. So we are evaluating them in that venue as well.

Okay. Thank you through the chair. And the other thing you mentioned earlier is the are the phases. Right? So besides surveys, what are other ways you the administration will be using to get feedback from the broader community?

I'm now speaking outside of my wheelhouse because the communications director, Denise Taylor, has a plan for kind of the broad input. I was called in to do specifically the survey piece. So I think there there has already been a lot of input gathered, including from a survey done by the Winter Hill School students. As well, I think there's extensive outreach plans as well as focus groups that are still going to happen, But I am definitely speaking outside of my area of expertise, so I don't wanna promise anything specific.

Through the chair. I'm just trying to understand because we're targeting or the goal is to target the broader community. How are we reaching that community? Is it just through a survey that lives on a website? And if yes, how are we yeah.

So I'm I'm just, like, worried about this part of this, like But the survey on the lives on a website, how are people going to access it? So, again, we're talking broader community. Are we going to, I don't know, community meetings or events? How are we making sure we're actually reaching that broader community, and not just through a survey? And are there any other ways you're planning to use to get this information?

Through through through the chair. Yeah. There there's there's a a broader outreach plan, involves a number of different, stakeholders, the, SFLC, Summernova, a bunch of a bunch of others. Again, director Taylor would be better suited, which she can't be here. So it's it's part of outreach to to bring, you know, more attention to to the survey, but then to also meet people where they are through various different events. It that isn't necessarily tied to to this survey. So there there's a a number of different strategies being employed.

Thank you. Through the chair, I think I'm done for now. I just wanna say for the record that I don't wanna speak I am choosing to not speak to you or comment on a lot of the questions in the survey as they have to do with location and just saying for the record, I'm a direct of one of the proposed locations. So I am I just, like, wanna put this out there. But I do wanna ask, questions about the survey in general on how we're reaching the community. Thank you.

Okay. Mister chair. Mister chair.

That's it. If I could just really one quick one really quick question on that line of, discussion. So just really quick to through you to director Reish. Director, how closely does this mimic or, like, how similar is this to the process from when the high school was put? Is this different in any way, or is it pretty much the exact same?

That's a good question to the chair. The situation around the high school was different from this one, and the times were different. We didn't have a sort of in house capacity to do a survey like the the one that director Cartsman regularly does now for the city. I don't recall if there had been, a survey like this one done, but many of the other aspects of the community outreach program that are planned were things that were done, for the high school. So that meeting people where they are, injecting it into what was then the the, Resistat meetings, what are now the city hall and the ward meetings.

Like, there there's plans to be rolling this out in various venues, over time, you know, particularly as our preliminary designs sort of mature, and and we've got more things that are tangible to to to discuss with folks.

Okay. And I don't wanna take much more time, but I just wanna say, I hear you, and I and I understand that there's because it speaks to what you were saying about a whole communication outreach plan, which makes sense. I mean, we have years to go with this. But this survey seems specifically to come out this early with a specific goal in mind, which is, I think, what you're hearing the concerns around. It seems like there this is directed to do a specific thing at this stage in the game, which is a little different, I think. So, I just wanted to to name that and point that out.

Thank you, councilor Klingon. So I I do wanna recognize, both, councilor Strazo and Ryan Williams, who's the president of the PTA. But, chair chair Baton, I see that, member Phillips has had, her hand up for a while here, so I wanna give the opportunity to, recognize doctor Phillips if, if you'd like to to, do so.

Thank you, chair Davis. Doctor Phillips, go ahead.

Thanks. Through you, chair. Two things are running through my mind right now. One is the cognitive dissonance that I'm hearing between the ways the city believes they have engaged CAG members and the way CAG members feel they were not partners in the development of the survey. So I just wanna highlight that piece.

What I'm hearing from CAG members is that they were not involved in the design of this survey. And had they been, they would have shaped it to be a better survey, more closely aligned with questions that we have for the broader community. The second thing I wanna talk about is so I'm a a researcher. That's my day job, a pretty well respected survey researcher, and I have a ton of technical issues with the survey that I just wanna raise here for consideration. I think the biggest issue that I have is that the way each question is worded one by one, how do you feel about spending money on sewage, etcetera, is going to lead to very little variation in the responses.

Had you selected a format for the questions that ask people to rank choice, things of different importance to them, you would have gotten more variation. So I think you're gonna get mush in the results. I also wanna flag my constituents are telling me that initially there were no identifiers at the end of the survey. I don't know to the extent to which that's true. Right?

Having things at the end of the survey to for which you can disaggregate responses seems pretty important if we're trying to compare responses from families versus responses from business owners. I also heard in the design of the survey that in addition to elders and people without children, we really wanted to capture the voices of the business community. And I see nowhere for anyone to indicate that they are a business member on that survey. Third thing, I know you ran this survey by the SFLC. I'm not sure to what extent they were able to raise all of their feedback or it was incorporated.

But this survey demands a very high level of literacy in order to complete it accuracy. And I'm not sure you're targeting responses whose literacy levels meet the demands of this survey. So for all of those reasons, I just I think there's some revision that needs to happen. And then two more points I just wanna make. This is a survey that has the district's logo on it.

I my understanding is the district gave some feedback on the survey, but was not deeply involved in of the survey, so that feels a little disingenuous. And I'm also concerned that it hasn't gone out to families in the district, all of whom live here and have things to say about where the new school should be built. And finally, a number of people have raised that this feels a lot more like a poll. I think, one of the representatives from the city said, you know, we need to get people to vote for whatever design we're going to do. And so if what we're really trying to do is poll the community, then my recommendation would be to hire a polling firm and do a high quality actual poll of the voters in our community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Doctor. Phillips. Ms. Patone, see you also have your hand up.

Thank you. I just want to thank Doctor. Phillips for all of her thoughtful feedback on the survey itself. I wanted to do, I guess, put my point of view about I do think that having some kind of feedback from the broad community is valuable in this process. I agree with doctor Phillips.

There's a difference between a survey and a poll. And understanding different priorities is important as well. However, I did wanna make one other notation, and I'm not a research expert. I mean, I've definitely been involved in work like this before with experts. And just just some of the language felt of the choices felt a little bit odd to me.

And, again, not an expert. It just about there seemed to have this very positive bias in terms of things were either must haves, important, somewhat important. And then there was no, you know, not important. You know, that wasn't an option, and I don't know if that was intentional. So this is just a little feedback because, like I said, I wanna defer to people that have a little more expertise in this.

But I guess I just wanted to appreciate the the city wanting to get the broader point of view. I actually do think that's really valuable in this process. So but I also appreciate people's concern about bias and how things were cast. But I know what the intention was, and I do agree with mister Davis that I I think the intention was just to try to get this big picture view as sort of and I appreciate understanding that this was the first part in the process. And I guess without under having the not having the context of sort of this communication community outreach plan, there's something missing for me.

And just seeing this poll for some community members, including me, would be kind of surprising. So that's just some thoughts. I don't have any particular questions.

Great. Thank you. I guess to round things out, I will I will take a discretion to ask a question of my own, which is to Mr. Reish or miss, Ms. Gartzman.

Can you provide any specific details about maybe to address some of the cognitive dissonance that doctor Phillips raised about how specifically input from the CAG was incorporated into a revised design for the survey. Because I, like Doctor. Phillips, have been hearing, that the, the input that they did provide was, not reflected in what was finally released. So I'm also just curious and wanna get a little more specificity on that.

Yes. I'm happy to, list. So there were kind of three ways three main ways. One was the menu of the overall topics, as I mentioned, for the questions came from discussions with the CAG. For example, the after school care question, the playground space, school sizes were all things that were brought up in discussions.

Also, demographic questions were included as part of their flags. For example, the flag for parents of special needs kids was directly added as a result of counselor Strazo's comment, I believe. And, additionally, we or lastly, we flagged more content for the future phase two survey. Largely, a lot of the comments around specific variants that might exist, for example, Trump Field, would go into the next phase of the survey once we have any detail about the variants that would exist. So we kind of have the the three areas of feedback, and if not all of them is are currently incorporated because some of them will be in the second phase of the survey of the the outreach.

Okay. And will the second phase of the survey have more direct engagement from the CAG so that they have a chance to, you know, provide their direct feedback and maybe help shape something that is they feel is more direct directly responsive to they're they're supposed to be a representative body, and they were designed in that way. So

I think it may be important to note here that I don't believe we have agreement on the CAG of the best ways to proceed. So we I have heard sort of both that we need to spend more time on the survey doing review and making sure that it is good, but also that we need to go faster through the process. And so in trying to balance the stated needs of the CAG, I think the CAG will have to come to kind of a a more cohesive agreement on what they would like the second phase to look like. I certainly think it can be a longer timeline than with it for this outreach effort. I agree that was too fast.

Okay. Thank you. And and I do think that, you know, I I don't mean to diminish the difficulty of of this community process because it is it's a lengthy process. Anytime you get, you know, more than two or three people in a room, you know, consensus is hard, and that's why we're doing this. So, you know, I think just because it's hard doesn't mean we shouldn't try our best, and I really appreciate your efforts to to do that.

But we're really missing an opportunity here if we don't really fully take advantage of that group. I also just before I turn it back over to chair Davis, I want to address one point that mister Raisch raised earlier, which was, about the Brown School. And I'll just read the question from the the original survey, which says, currently, there is one option for families to attend a small k through five school of around 250 total students with other schools being pre k through eight and having more students. How important is it that the city continues to offer a small k through five school? So while I do agree, mister Raish, that the preponderance of schools in our district, right, every other school is not a k through five school, but that that school that question was directly related to the Brown.

And I think there's there's no question that families from both the Brown and the Winter Hill recognize that that question was about the Brown School. So, I just wanted to provide that, response, and I'll just turn it back now to mister Davis. Thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you, chair Vitan. And, yeah, thank you for pointing that one out. As as I noted earlier, I think there are others here that are very clearly directed specifically about the Brown School, but we don't have to rehash all of that. You know, I I I just I think for all the reasons that we've heard, this is not a useful tool in in in gaining consensus.

I'm gonna recognize councilor Strezzo, and then I I'd like to hear from Ryan Williams, who's the president elected, president of the district wide PTA. And then I have a few things that I wanna say, on this topic again, but I I will, wait for a moment because we've been talking about, the the CAG and both both councilor Strezzo and Williams serve on the CAG. So councilor Strezzo, thank you for being here. As again, just if anyone's jumping in, the reason that I'm able to recognize councilor Strezzo to speak in her as her role as the city council's representative on the community advisory group is that this committee of the city council is only three people. And so with with council Schrezza's input that makes four of us, that is not a quorum of the the city council as a whole.

So there's no problem from an open meeting standpoint as we've been advised from the city attorney. So, happily, we can hear from councilor Schrezza. Councilor Schrezza, the floor is yours.

Thank you, mister chair. And thank you for thank you for for bringing this forward and also just for the conversation. Thank you committee for allowing me to, I don't know, hang out with you tonight. It's I've I've just enjoyed the talk and just really fabulous questions. It's nice to see you shine.

It's wonderful. Yeah. I I did co sponsor this, and I am a one of the representatives on the CAG. And I did wanna just one of my biggest concerns with this survey, and and I have continuously heard from the community, and fortunately, to, director Rishi's point, it it isn't just the Brown School family. It was the Winter Hill School family that immediate the families that I heard very consistently saying, this seems biased.

This isn't biased. And what concerns me about that is the fact that I don't want our residents to lose trust in this process, and I don't want them to have cynicism. And and if both schools are saying this, that concerns me. And whatever is done with the survey, if it if it's kept them up or if if the survey response time, which I think is February, I don't know, twenty second, once that expires, I don't know what happens. First off, I do want to point out that these these broad range of residents, it's only available to them if they're online.

So there's that. They have Internet access and have the ability to get and and answer all the all the questions. But also, I do know that if if I was in a even just, you know, my undergrad class or final project and I said, oh, I I put forward a survey and then and and and midway through the survey, I let my professor know, hey. I gotta change a couple answers in my survey. Okay? But we're still going forward with the survey and the results. Do you honestly think my professor would be like, it's alright. Well, just just get whatever data you can. We'll figure out how it works then. I mean, I don't know.

I I don't I don't think any college professor would even ever even entertain that. And with the survey, whatever answers are are are generated, there are several questions and answers now that just seem to be muddled together with whatever the survey results result. And that's that raises some concerns. And I do wanna address the fact, of of what our our our representative from I can't miss Gartman director Gartman and and Gartman, thank you for being here tonight. But if the CAG members several of them yeah.

If the CAG members didn't recognize any any if they were heard and if they were if they were asked their questions and then a survey is put out that doesn't reflect any of those conversations, this is where it upsets me. It's the fact that these are three hour meetings where parents are giving, donating their time after their busy days with children with teachers that come into this meeting as well. After their busy days when they're supposed to be teaching kids at 8AM onward And and six to eight, if I didn't I didn't recognize, many of the any of the questions that, that that you know, I don't wanna take this that that that fellow CAG members had set up said were the the answers. And if they were, then maybe they needed to be a little stronger. But I didn't feel like this I I think that it it what concerns me is that and I'll let I'll let, everyone else deliver.

You know, I'm just I'm just gonna stop right there, and maybe I'll I'll raise my hand. But what concerns me is if if residents are saying this feels biased and and then the response is, well, no, it's not, well, then if that's the answer, then is that really what what are you trying to gain from that? I'll stop there. Thank you for allowing me to be present in this meeting tonight.

Thank you, councilor Schrezzo. I'd like to sponsor Ryan Williams, to speak. If there's no objection, miss Williams also serves on the CAG, and as I mentioned, is, his his yes. Ryan, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you are on the CAG as a Brown School parent representative. You also happen to be, the, the citywide PTA president. Do I have that correct? Wanna make sure that I'm wanna make sure that I'm that that I'm introducing your role here appropriately and not overstate.

Yes. I'm, president of the Somerville Council PTAs and in my last year as the president of the Brown School PTA. So moving on after a number of very good years at the Browns. So I I I a lot's been covered here. So I I I think maybe talking of, like, at a more general level.

You know, you know, the very first meeting of the CAG, we talked about the goals for the group. You know, they, of course, included making recommendation on the building option. But but was also very clear from everyone in the group was that it was vitally important that we help restore broken trust between district parents and the city. You know, when you mention the school roof collapse and you have to ask which one, you have a a large gap in confidence to overcome. But but I wanna, like, center this on the Winter Hill community.

You know, we've repeatedly fumbled communication with them. It leaves them frustrated. They're uncertain. They're rightfully angry. And, you know, we're we're going into this fifty or hundred year decision, and it has to be done, you know, with the highest level of integrity and confidence that the process is legitimate. And whether we like it or not, we've already started the campaign for an override. Everyone knows it's happening. Like, what what we communicate as we lead up to that is really important. And, you know, I talked to many parents that were skeptical of the CAG and the, know, public process in general. You You know, know, it's all performance.

All the real decisions are made behind closed doors. And, you know, there I was also highly skeptical, but I do believe that if someone offers you to see at the table, you take it. But what we've seen with this survey is probably the best example, but maybe more generally with the CAG is that that there's a very strong indication that we are aren't going to this process with all options on the table. Sure. We haven't made a decision, but are we really weighing all options equally?

And it strains credulity to read that survey and assume neutrality. And even if the intentions are neutral, I think people rightfully walked away from that deeply skeptical because of the way it was communicated. And it wasn't so much about the content. We were consulted on the content. Ask questions about green space, ask about, you know, after school options, things like that. It was a very specific formulation of the questions that could have undermined all that work. And, you know, I'm a scientist. I work in data analysis every day. I'm not a survey expert. And a lot of these topics have been covered, but I I I've worked with survey development data analysis.

And the most important question you can ask even before you do the analysis is do we trust the integrity of the data, the measurement? You know, it doesn't matter how many temperature measurements you make with a broken thermometer. You know, the manner in which the data collected is seems to be so compromised. It doesn't really help or inform many options when we get to that. So and, you know, we talked a lot about input, a lot of process, but, like, you have you have to look at the outcome.

You know, somehow we ended up with survey that everyone immediately questioned, you know, put aside my take on it. People from across the city, CAG members, not just Brown and Winter Hill, parents who are deeply invested, but people who work with data and survey. Professionally, parents, non parents, you know, counsel, the school gate, we all saw that and said, you know, this is not a balanced survey. You have four different close ended variations of agree, and then any neutrality or disagreement, it's just sort of thrown in an open ended bucket of other. You can't even distinguish between, you know, neutral or disagree or degrees of disagreement.

So it's important because the way those questions are written are just as much a communication to the community about how we're thinking about this issue as it is a solicitation for information from it. So and, you know, we all want good school buildings. We all want main maintained buildings. We all want after school. These are kinda table stakes.

We didn't really force anyone to allocate points or or or a recommendation. That was a specific recommendation from the committee is, like, give people a budget. If I had 10 points, I would give five to this and two to after school and one to you know, let them really help inform those tough decisions because that's what we have to get to. And and we saw this, you know, the the excellent survey from the Winter Hall eighth graders. You know, they sliced it a number of different ways.

It showed a strong preference for some flavor of Sycamore Street. You know, renovation, you know, couple different options, rebuilding. And we pulled the brown community last year, you know, 97% wanted a renovation on Willow. So it's not clear to me what additional information a lot of those questions add to the conversation. And if the data doesn't add clarity and just blurs a picture, it doesn't actually help.

And, you know, this is necessarily kind of a fraught topic. There's a lot of really difficult decisions. There's a lot of tough conversations. And and the problem is that we aren't having them. You know, we're talking about survey question formulation and a very minimal level of communication and review, like, 48 of review just to say, hey, you're the representatives of these communities. Does it is this gonna how is this gonna land with that community? And we could've avoided all of this. So I don't think it was an inherent delay to the process. You know, we've had six hundred days since the the roof collapsed. Like, two two days to just say, this question is gonna land really poorly.

Let's change it and get to the real answer. So I don't see any way to fix. You can't reformulate questions kinda midstream. I I think we need to pull the survey and kinda move on to more productive use. Maybe that's another survey. I I think that there were a number a lot of feedback about how do that, and I think we should just let the CAG move ahead with that and and really just have to do a better job next time because we're we're undermining the very goal of what we're trying to do here. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you, mister Williams. Do any any members of the committee, have questions for, mister Williams or, I suppose, for that matter, council Chazo in her role as member of CAG? Okay. Seeing none. And so council councilor mentioned this earlier, for the court, please make sure to record for the record that councilor is is recuse is recusing yourself from the discussions beyond the survey questions themselves. And I say that now because I'm I'm gonna get into beyond the survey questions themselves. Chairman Tom, did you wanna jump in before I say my last bit?

Why don't you go ahead, and I'll just I'll ask something after you're done.

If if you have questions, go ahead. I'll I'll Okay.

Thank you, chair Davis. I just have one, quick item. I wanted to add my voice to those calling for this survey to be withdrawn, because I, similar to, councilor Davis' reasoning, believe that the data are contaminated.

Director

I apologize. Director Guardsman, mentioned earlier, that if the early responses were found to be dissimilar from the later responses, then those could be put in asterisk, gone, or discarded. I believe that the it's highly likely that those who responded to the poll immediately are those who have the greatest stake in the decision. So I think waiting until the poll closes and someone who responded early having their response asterisked or discarded is not, a wise decision and disregards the voices who are most crucial to this process. So I I really urge the city to follow the guidance that you're hearing here from, the folks on this call and revisit, after careful deliberation, how to collect data in the future.

So I will cede the time back to you, mister Davis.

Thank you, chair Baton. So thank you everyone for for input on this. Thank you, doctor doctor Reish and for for coming and and answering the questions. I it it is very much appreciated. You know, I wanna make a full disclosure.

So I I have a bias. I I as if it's not clear already, I have a very clear view on on what what the approach should be in my personal opinion as as as a as a a former parent of of students in several public schools, including the Brown School and the Kennedy School as well as the high school. And it it's hard for me to see where a survey really fits in at this stage of the process, any survey, given that there seems to be a fairly clear opinion among the the the the communities of these two smaller schools, each of which are are are are are really incredible in their own ways. You know, the Winter Hill Innovation School, you know, took the initiatives to to restructure, become an innovation school. It's the only school in the in the in the city that that has done that.

It serves an incredible population and and provides services that, to some extent, aren't aren't really aren't provided anywhere else in the city. The Brown School is the smallest school in the city. It's the oldest building in the city, but it has superpowers in in the way that that small community is able to reach students. And I've heard this from parents from, you know, from across the city. To be clear, this is not the student population of the Brown School is not just, you know, in right around Ward 6.

We have heard from someone this evening who who lives well well outside of Ward 6 and and has a student at the Brown School. You know, to to to replace those two schools to me is is is a is a crazy idea. We should be replicating those models around the city. And and the idea of putting of taking those neighborhood schools out of the neighborhoods and building a mega school, as I said, on on one of our only large continuous open spaces in the city, shouldn't even be on the table. And so to bring this back to the actual item before us, director Reisch, you said to me earlier in in in our conversation earlier today that that, you know, perhaps, you know, because of my bias, I'm I'm seeing Brown School's specific leanings towards these some of these questions, and and and and I'm I'm interpreting them as being, you know, sort of designed to to create a a preordained outcome.

But I I challenged at the time, and I wanna say publicly, you know or because I'm very attuned to what I perceive as there already being a push for this solution that no one else outside the administration that I've heard at least seems to be in support of, maybe I am looking for that. And maybe I'm gonna be, you know, particularly, you know, perceptive for those types of things. And and, also, it's not just me, as was said. You know, this this other members of the committee members of the Winter Hill School community all have raised these same concerns. So, you know, I say this honestly, yes.

I have a bias. I think the idea of combining these two schools on Trump Field is is an absolute nonstarter and and and should be taken off the table. And so that's why when I see a poll like this, it raises all sorts of alarm bells. And and to to play off one of the points that was made by one of my colleagues, and I said this last week at the city council meeting, things like this make it really hard for me to convince people that public process isn't just a waste of time. You know, to to to to echo what was said, there's this perception that that these public processes are all just window dressing because the administration and this is this goes back, well, back to the old admit the prior administration as well.

You know, has made a decision, and the public process is just a way to make it seem like the community has input in it. And I I spend a I spend a lot of time trying to dissuade people of that of that notion and and, you know, particularly when it comes to, you know, our planning department and and the work that they do. You know, I I don't believe that's true most of the time, but when I see a survey like this, it's, like, really hard to make that argument. And so I I I really hope that the administration will will take these concerns to heart. I hope that they will listen to the communities that have already spoken.

I hope they will make that they will listen to the CAG and work with the CAG. And and, you know, as as a as a person as a member of the city council who's not a member of the CAG, I hope the CAG will will advise on what what what is the the best decision that reflects those of of what the school communities have already spoken towards. I know there's a lot of other factors, and we can get into that in in other discussions of this committee as we go forward. But at the very least, I I I truly hope that the the the data that have been collected under from this survey is set aside and that we we undertake a a more appropriate way of of seeking whatever other community input is nest necessary at whatever stage it's necessary, you know, after the appropriate decisions has been made. So I'll stop there with my soliloquy, and we will I think, we'll just mark this one as work complete unless there's an objection to that.

I I think in the interest of time, we're already past an hour. I I'm inclined to keep the other two items that relate to the the school building project in committee, unless director Reisch or doctor Singh, there's anything particularly timely that are sensitive that you wanna provide us in terms of a general update on the MSBA process. If if not, let's let's keep that sort of general update in the box here and and pick it up at our next meeting if unless there's any objection. And anything on that on that item that is important to be raised this evening, director Reich or director Singh?

Through through the chair, might as well just have the the record reflect that we have because since the last meeting, we've officially advanced to the next stage of the MSBA process. The board voted in December to advance us. We we passed the eligibility phase. We are now in the forming the project team module, and I can provide details on that at a at a later meeting. But I I just think it's it's worth mentioning that we've made the next stage gate.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. So let's be clear. So that that's an update on item two in the agenda, which is twenty four zero four six six. The administration provide the committee with regular updates on the MSPA process, as I noted. And then the the item so, let's keep that item in committee.

Mister chair.

Yeah. Councilor oh, I see. I'm sorry. Questions. Questions. Questions. Alright. Well, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna gonna dive into this one then. Hey. Ask you

say it.

Yes. So councilor Saeed and then councilor. Go ahead.

First, just a question. Are we taking up the next item separately or together, chair?

In terms of the the timeline?

The timeline. Yes.

Well, here's the thing. I I don't want everybody to be here all night, and we've got a few items that have been in this committee since last November, and I really wanna make sure that we get to those. So my inclination is to take is to keep items two and three in committee and bring them up at our meeting at the May March and take up the conversation there unless there are particularly timely things that that that we we feel need to be discussed because I think it's important that we get to the items that we that that we we haven't yet, particularly the items related to the Argentinian school where we where we didn't have the benefit of having director ratio at that last meeting. So I wanna I wanna make sure that, you know, we have an opportunity to have those conversations. So I'm happy to recognize folks if if you really wanna get into the conversations that the on items two and three.

Otherwise, I propose that we keep those committee for the next meeting.

Through the chair, I have a quick question. I think it's relevant because it's has to do with the timeline and

just the approval. Let me interject you with that. So item three is 25Dash0063. The director of infrastructure and asset management update the council on the timeline for constructing a new school building. This was introduced by council Wilson. I reached out to him just to make sure I understood the the intent, and it was really just to to to sort of speak to the timing as it relates specifically to the Winter Hill MSBA process. So we'll take these two items up together. Councilor Say, the floor is yours.

Through the chair. So something I've been thinking about lately is, and I have not heard, a discussion around it, is, basically, one of the proposed locations, the Winter Hill, the current Winter Hill, if it's the chosen location, are we thinking about are we taking into account the fact that that for that specific location, a whole school needs to be torn down? So at what point, like, does that happen? Because if it's a different location, then we're starting from a different phase. Like, this like, it's just like yeah. Is this question clear where I can rephrase it, direct to Rage?

Those are largely, community discussions that we're gonna have once we're in the next MSBA module, the feasibility study, which are things that that the MSBA and, frankly, the community, need to explore anyway. If the current timeline holds in terms of of getting the the consultants on board, we really won't begin having those conversations and daylighting all the issues around them, until at least July, of twenty twenty five. And, really, from from July '25 through June '26 is really when the, we'll be doing all the the the real legwork, on exploring those options in-depth.

Okay. Thank you, for that timeline to the chair.

Councilor Cleary?

Yeah. Mister chair, through you, director Reish. Yeah. I don't wanna spend too much time on this, but but if so you said long is it gonna take to formulate the the project team?

To the chair, it's typically about six months. There are there are two components to that. First is to hire an owner's project manager. We're in the process of that right now. As a matter of fact, as as we speak tonight, the MSBA staff are reviewing our draft of the request for services for an OPM.

And and I'm already in discussions with, Angel Allen, our director of procurement. We're we're lining up to get that, request for services out, you know, as soon as we get comments back from MSBA, likely this month. That has to go through, proposals, interviews, then we have to go to, MSBA, and MSBA has to agree. Once that OPM is on board, the OPM then helps us, select a designer, an architect. So, you know, round numbers, it's about three months for each one of those.

So, you know, I'm I'm projecting that we'll we'll have that project team formed by June, July this year.

Okay. And then through you, mister chair, I'm just trying to figure out the way the dominoes are be because, like so we say if we were to say if we were to somehow accelerate the timeline on the decision, the recommendation of the CAG and then that presentation to the mayor, I how we don't need the this group to be formed or or, there's not gonna be any additional information or data that comes out of some process, like you said, over July that's gonna be necessary to make a decision on which direction to go in in terms of combined one fifteen and all that.

Correct. So through the chair, you know, as I say, we we won't have an architect on board until the summer. So we won't have actual, you know, sort of plans, renderings, you know, ideas of what the school would look like at at either location until summer, fall of of this year, which is why at this phase of it, we were trying to collect more general community data. Apparently, ham fistedly and and ineffectively as we've heard tonight. But but that's why we were seeking generic community information and and preferences at this point, and we're not drilling into specific options and and, you know, pros and cons of different locations or sizes.

I understand a three message here, but we're gonna have to have a two and a half override no matter what direction we go in. So that's why, like, even the survey just puzzles me as to, like, why it has to happen now and certainly and then the line of questionings. I have to go back to the survey, but, ultimately, my main concern is accelerating the timeline on the decision making because I know that it affects many other things in the city, projects that we're waiting on that we have to, you know, be able to figure out financing and and and such, in a way that, time is of the essence on a lot of these things. So, you know, the this time the the survey seems to almost kinda act as a stall. Like, I'm just trying to figure out what's happening in those meetings and but when can and and and also what's I mean, it seems like a very messy process in that.

Counselor Davis just pretty much said it seems like there is this split that continues to remain, and I thought, you know, we got people on the CAG that was sort of, like, gonna, you know, listen to all of the information and be able to kinda come to a a a a decision that, you know, considering whatever, the whole city or whatever the consideration may be. And I just don't know where we are. I'm completely confused as to where we are in in in terms of how, you know, how much longer this is gonna take and why it's taking so long just the way the whole CAG process and time is being managed, I just really, really would like to see decision being made on where we go. Obviously, two and a half override that involves the public, they're gonna have input. They're gonna we're gonna need a, you know, survey and community engagement.

But this is very personal and specific to the the school community, and I just I hope that we can just come to some sort of decision or maybe, you know, the people who we elect and pay to make decisions could make the decision. I often I I go back to saying that I kinda wish that it had been, you know, decided completely different by a completely different method and body, but but, I just wanna express that that my concern has continued to be the timeline on when this decision is made, and that also so that people don't get frustrated and feel like we're spinning our wheels here. Thank you, mister chair, for your indulgence.

Okay. Thank you, councilor Klingen. Chair Baton, I see your hand up.

Thank you, chair Davis. And, for fear of dragging us farther into this mire, I I almost decided not to speak. But something mister Reish said had me somewhat confused, so I'm I'm looking for a little bit of maybe clarity. We had a discussion here last spring around the timeline. I was looking at my notes, and we're expecting the CAG to complete its work, at least we were at that time, in fall of this calendar year.

So that I think at that time, we said September 2025. If if that is still the plan, I I'm not quite sure I understand how we won't be having converse or how conversations will still be going on about, whether what what site we might choose, if if we'll be entering a phase where the mayor will have needed to make a decision about, the location and whether we're choosing a path for a combined school or or moving forward with the school only replacing the Winter Hill Building. So I don't know if you can speak to that, Mr. Resch, but that timeline had me a little confused.

To

the chair. To the other chair. The the the once we form the project team, which, as I say, I'm I'm sort of projecting will be done by June, July of this year. The very first thing that that designer architect team starts up is the the feasibility study. And the feasibility study in the MSBA process for for us because of the the way that the MSBA funding offer is is worded, we'll be looking at the the the building and the massing for just the Winter Hill and the building of the massing for the combined communities.

It also necessitates looking at multiple sites. It's just part of what, you know, what what a feasibility study needs to do. For Summerville, I mean, it's it's already been sort of discussed here. We we already know that we really only have two feasible sites. Other communities have multiple.

You're looking around, you know, Ashland for open you know, because they've got more options. We've got two options. One of them may be horrible for all the reasons that, counselor Davis has outlined, but we still have the due diligence to look at that option. So, essentially, from that July through September, October time frame, the the designer will be very busy looking at those two different massings at those two different sites and and what, you know, those those conceptual designs will look like. And and that's the period of time at which the the CAG and the community will have something sort of tangible to to react to, which is why we've we've always sort sort of given us ourselves that three months, the June, July, August, for the architect to do that work, do those renderings, come up with that that sort of concept on those two sites for those two different sizes.

And and, you know, that will be when from from an engineering and architectural point of view, things will get interesting for the CAG. And always figured that that, you know, we're gonna need those three months to to do that work. The architects are gonna need that three months to do that work, and and the CAG is gonna need that that time frame to re to react to that and come to a final decision. So the the starting of the CAG process ahead of that to discuss more community priorities in the abstract, maybe get our arms around, you know, what it what is special about the Brown, what is special about the, the Winter Hill, and by comparison, what the other schools are like. You know?

You know, what would a future larger combined school look like? Would it be entirely dissimilar to the Argentiano to the to the East, to the Kennedy, which are larger buildings. Like, I I think that's, you know, sort of where where that is. So that's why we're sort of in in in into counselor Klingon's point, it is a little bit amorphous at this point, maybe frustratingly so, because we don't have sort of this or that kind of binary choices, which we will have later in the fall. But there's a lot of groundwork that we're we're trying to to cover, with the CAG, in in the meantime.

Okay. Thank you for that explanation. Wanna wanna recognize Ms. Baton, and then

go ahead.

Thank you. Through you. This may not be in the scope of this conversation, but I've had several constituents continue to ask me questions about, and, again, not allocating or advocating for a combined school or separate schools, but about a site at the d t the current DPW, recognizing that it's complicated and it would require moving that facility and that space to somewhere else. Is that totally off the table, or are the architects going to be able to consider that?

To the chair, it's a good question. I I don't know that it's totally off the table. It does introduce additional complications, but I think it it probably makes sense to revisit those complications. It was actually the DPW site that was considered for the high school. But at the at the end of that evaluation, no matter how they try to configure the the high school even going vertical, the DPW site was not large enough for the high school, which isn't to say that it wouldn't be large enough for, you know, a a a six six hundred and fifty student, k eight school, which is smaller than the high school, obviously.

So I maybe there are, you know, sort of the the the sub alternatives of the softball field or DPW, which then again you know, we'd have to replace the softball field somewhere because it's that's nonnegotiable. That open space would have to be replicated. We'd also have to replicate a a DPW, where we'd put it at at one Franey, but I don't see why it wouldn't be something we look at.

Well, I hope so. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you for that, councilor Davis. Turn it back over to you.

Okay. Thank you for that. Seeing no further questions from the committee, we will certainly leave item two in committee, as that is our regular update. I unless there's any objection that we can I mark item three as we're complete? I'll pause a moment to see if anyone wants to, have a more discussion on timing, at our next meeting.

I think we've had that conversation. So seeing no objection then, we'll, mark item three as work complete. And then if unless, doctor Singh, there's any specific requests, in terms of administrative administration staff, we would go back to the regular order. So that would take us to item four. That any objection there?

Hearing not hearing any. So we'll go to item four. This is 24Dash1595 that the director of infrastructure and asset management provide a timeline and update on the creation of a production kitchen at the Argenziano School. As I noted a few moments ago, this was we we discussed this to some extent in our so it was the November meeting or a meeting with I think it's probably our November meeting a while ago. So let's let's take it fresh since since it's it's been some time. I'm happy to have you here this evening, and and we we we definitely missed you last time around. Can you I I assume that you're you'll take the lead on this one. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct.

All right. Chair Bhattan, this one is one of the items that I believe came through the school committee. You is there any introduction or context or anything that you want to provide before we turn it over to Director Reisch?

Thank you, chair Davis. I'll just state briefly that, for everyone's, jog everyone's memory that the, production kitchen for the district had been located at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School. And when that school, was closed, it introduced a real challenge for, for the district. So, currently, my understanding, and I I'll let doctor Carmona or, chief of staff, Annocikay, speak to this if they would so like. But we are currently getting food from vendors, to serve all of our, schools across the district.

And, building a production kitchen at the Argentiano was seen as a critical next step to allowing us to to cook our own food and, that would both save save money and, result in higher quality, food in the district. So that's a a brief background, and I see doctor Kormona is on screen. I'm not sure if you wanna add anything to that.

Through the chair, thank you. Yeah. It's, you know, the impact, of the loss of that production line has been significant. We scratch food, or scratch kitchen that we had, is not available anymore, and so we are limited to heating food that is made, in some places or that is purchased from some other locations. The high school is the only one that has that capacity currently.

So, yes, we definitely have lost, our ability to be more creative with our food, and I know that, that was have been one of the pride, elements of our district that we were able to provide food to students that was, made from scratch. So it's definitely a loss, but, you know, we're we're waiting to we're really that's a big priority for us to make sure that that that process gets expedited. So I know that they they just we had a meeting recently on Monday just to kick off the process. And so I know that Mr. Reich has all the facts around where we are.

And it has you know, there have been some delays on that. And, again, that I again, I'll let Mr. Reich speak to that. But but I guess to the point that chair Bitton brought up is the impact that it has had in the quality of the food that we offer. That that is for sure.

Okay. Well, with that, I'll either turn it over to I'll turn it over to you, councilor Davis, and you can run the meeting from here.

Very well. I I'm happy to, happy to so. Just, the the hefty task of, handing it over to handing the mic the microphone over to, doctor Reish to address the questions. Thank you, doctor Reisch.

Thanks, chair. Last year, I worked with the school food service department. We've developed a plan to move the production kitchen to Argentiano. It includes some new convection stoves to put those in. There's a bunch of, gas and electrical work that, has to happen there.

Also, installing a new walk in freezer, at at the near the loading dock there. Again, that also requires some plumbing, electric, and roof vent work. We bid that project at the last fall. Unfortunately, we only got two bids on that, and they were both deemed incomplete as in they were not gonna hit the full scope. I think a lot of that has to do with just how busy the construction industry is.

It's a sort of problem for us all the way around. So the team did some you know, we sat down with those vendors, pointed out where their bids were insufficient, did some additional marketing of it to get additional, you know, sort of partners for those bidders. We bid it a second time, and luckily, this time, we did have complete bids. The contract has been awarded to Eagle Point, who is a contractor that we've used before. They were the ones that did the, emergency shoring up of the, Teal Square Fire Station.

Further back, I think they they did some work on Veterans Memorial Ice Rink, like, way back. But they're they're a known entity. The they've started the preliminary work, which is largely giving us submittals, giving our architects submittals to approve. That is all in process. So we do anticipate getting into the kitchen.

Of course, we also have to work around the fact that it it's an active kitchen for the Argentiano School. So we'll be doing a lot of the enabling plumbing and electric work and likely be able to install at least some of the equipment and stoves over February and April break. The project overall will likely go longer than that. The longest lead item is the manufacturer of the walk in fridge, and the lead time for that is ten weeks to to get the the refrigerator. That was just actually released to to start that manufacturing this week.

So the the refrigerator, we won't have that in time for April vacation for for full install, but we'll be plugging away at that and then figure once we are able to take delivery of the walk in fridge, how we can work that around, but we don't have an exact date for that component of it yet.

Excellent. Thank you, director Rakesh. That's great news. Very excited, and thank you also for working around what I know must be a very difficult situation, working working around a a fully functioning school to do this complicated project and excited to see what happens, over those breaks. And, it sounds like probably into the summer as the, the walk in fridge, would would be delivered and and ready to install.

I do wanna mention that pardon the interruption.

Please. Go ahead.

We we we should mention that we've got excellent partners, both at the school and the food services. Principal So to is an outstanding principal and helps us with the logistics around, that and the next agenda item. And, food services director, Lauren Massini, has, been excellent to work with. She's very professional, problem solver, and work works with us to to get everything done.

Fantastic. Any questions from my colleagues? And if not, chair Davis, turn it back to you.

Alright. Thank you, chair Baton. Seeing no further questions from, the city council's committee, thank you, doctor Reich, for that update. I think we can mark this one complete. And if there's additional questions, of course, we're always members are always free to submit a new a new request.

And so that will lead us nicely then into, as director Resh already, previewed our our next item, which is item five on the agenda, 24 dash one five nine four, that the director of infrastructure and asset management provide a timeline and update for installation of a new classroom on the 3rd Floor Atrium at the Argentinian School. Director Baton chair Baton, this was this is also an item that came, to the city council from the school committee. So if you'd like to lead us in on this one and provide some context, please go ahead.

Yep. There's a we've discussed this back last fall as well. There's a need for a new classroom at the Argentiniano, And I know through some actually, if, Doctor. Phillips would like to, relay any information about that, or Doctor. Carmona.

But, you know, essentially, I know that Mr. Resch, had gone back and forth a little bit and, secured the necessary timeline to get this, moving, which we're grateful for. But, Doctor. Phillips, you wanna, interject at all there?

I think Doctor. Carmona's up to me. I wonder if he wants to frame it up.

Yeah. I I, when I start definitely. I'd love to, say a couple of things, and I just wanted to highlight what what, director Reich said. The work that is happening at the Argentiano requires both planning and also good execution, and we have a great partner with Principal So to because we we not only are doing the kitchen, but also working on a construction of a classroom there. And I just wanted to highlight the fact that, know, we are experiencing significant levels of construction.

This question around the need in the need for that classroom at the Argentiniano has been something that is of great need. We have we have space challenges right now, And I know that this is a this has been brought up. This was brought up last year, and, we are very fortunate that in conversations with the finance team and the, capital investment team, we were able to line this up and get it going as soon as possible. So, I I just wanted to thank the the the Citi team to, for, being able to, prioritize this need, and also just to, really be listening partners in this process. So I know I mentioned originally that there was a kickoff meeting.

This was in relationship to this meeting, actually, not to the the the Argentiano kitchen. That has been going for a while. But the good news is that

Spoilers, Ruben. Spoilers. That was my information to give.

Yeah. Sorry. Well, you know what? I'll let I'll let you tell the story. But I just wanted to say that there's a lot of construction there. This is a beautiful school, and the need is real. And it's not only the the the need here at the Argentinian right now, but there is some crunch in terms of space. But I will let you know? Well, I'll let you you guys follow follow the process, but I just wanted to share that we are we're fortunate that this process is gonna start, and that I am assuming that in early summer, we will be having some, the construction will be starting. And, hopefully, this will be ready for the start of the school next school year.

Great news. Thank you, doctor Karmona. Mister Reyes, is there anything you wanted to add?

Yeah. I mean, it's adding adding this, room, we understand that the priority, and, we're gearing up for this to be a summer slammer. It is actually a little bit more complicated than, just putting up a couple of walls, because of the electric, the the heating and ventilation, and number of other things. So we brought on SMMA who were the original designers of the building to be our architects because, obviously, they they know the building, and and so we didn't have to get, an other architect up to speed, on that. So that is a a significant way we're able to, get a head start on this.

And as, doctor Carmona mentioned, we had our kickoff on Monday. A and other Brown School father alum, Matt Rice, is our, architect, from SMMA. And and so we're everyone understands understands the the the mission. We've got a a good team, to to get this thing done this summer.

Fantastic. Thank you for your partnership and, your collaboration. Unless there's any questions for my colleagues, you can close this one out too.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you, chair of the time. Constant clicking, I did see your hand up earlier. Was is your question answered? Yeah. I'm good. Very well.

Okay. And I see doctor Phillips has a question now.

Thanks, I just wanted to say thank you. I think once that decision to build this classroom was made, I've been really impressed with the progress, and I know the kids and teachers and administrators at our are gonna be really pleased with the end result. So thank you very much.

Alright. Very well. Thank you, doctor Reich, for that. So I think we can mark this one complete. If there's new issues or questions that come up that arise as the process goes along, of course, we can always put a new item in to continue the discussion.

So we will unless there's any objection, we'll mark that item as work complete. And that brings us to item number six on the agenda, which is 25 dash zero zero seven one, that the commissioner of public works and the director of engineering report to this council on the failure of the boiler at the Brown School and the short and long term plans to address heating for the building. I put this item in in part because, initially, I received some complaints from about us around the Brown School about the noisy new red trailer that that had moved in next door. This is the temporary boiler at the Brown School. I shouldn't laugh.

It's obviously, it was a challenge. And then when I believe, if I remember correctly, that that boiler failed for for a brief time, but was quickly brought back online. So first off, thank you to everyone who's been I'm sure had put put a lot of quick and urgent work into finding solutions to keep heat in the building, to keep that building running. As as folks know, we don't have other another space for kids. And so it's it's critical to keep that building online.

So director Reish or I I do see that commissioner Latham is here, so I'm not sure who is assume commissioner Latham, you're here to would be to to speak to the the short term workings of the boiler itself, and I see your your microphone is unmuted. So you like to take the lead on the on the response on this one?

Through the chair. Yes. Hi. Commissioner Joe Lathan, DPW. This will be my item to discuss to kind of review.

This is a DPW project. So anytime that we're doing, you know, heating and system heating, cooling systems and during their operating, you know, seasons, we always are very aware of any failures or needed repairs and identify those immediately and hope to, you know, remedy those as we're doing startups or shutdown for that for that particular item, either heating or or cooling. So with the Brown School, due to due diligence actually and the preventive maintenance team that we have that's been kind of really staying on top of and looking at the age of our of our boilers across our city buildings and schools and realizing that this could be a problematic issue for us down the road. Really recommend recommended some some changes and and some new bowlers for that for that school. So because of that, there's a there's a twenty week lead time for these two new bowlers because there's two bowlers in that system, and they're both the same age in the same the same model.

And so my building systems manager, Andy, made a phenomenal, you know, suggestion that instead of just, you know, replacing one and then waiting for the other one to go and then being back in a situation where heating can be compromised. But we're just gonna replace both those boilers, which we full heartedly support. So that's kinda how we got to where we are. Just that is actually preventive maintenance. That is actually looking ahead to the future.

That is actually doing our due diligence and making sure that we are trying to stay ahead of problematic situations in our older buildings and schools, that we are kind of having to deal with on a regular basis at DPW. So with this particular thing, when when there was a leak that happened and because of state regulations, when you have a leak, you really have to shut that down and just kinda have to make sure you that everything's working as it should. We started the process. We have we've got the other ones ordered. We hope to get that stuff in, you know, soon once they once they come in and kinda go from there. So the short and long term plan, like, things are gonna happen in these old buildings, unfortunately. We stay on top of it. So that's the best we can. That particular situation, thank you, counselor Davis. We did recognize that pretty early on.

We'll be able to we were able to get all hands on deck deck immediately and get that remedied by the afternoon, which was great. We continually check these systems. That was just a fluky situation that happened with with this particular board that we had in temporarily. It was quickly addressed and fixed, but I wish I had a magic wand that say could say that this could never or would never ever happen again in our wonderful buildings that we seem to have to kinda duct tape on a regular basis. But I'm not going to, you know, give you guys those kind of rainbows tonight. We do the best we can. We stay on top we stay on top of it, and I have a phenomenal crew that does preventative maintenance.

Okay. Well, thank you for that, commissioner Leitham, and thank you for, for your patience, until we get to this point of the evening for this for this item. And I I certainly echo your gratitude to, all the folks, whose hard work keep, keep all of the buildings up and running. And and, again, as I said, when that unexpected, situation arose, I think the kids were sent home for an afternoon, and they were back at school the next day as I understand it. So great work on that, and thanks to everyone who, who made that possible.

And so just so just so I'm clear, and and so, you know, and I can answer my questions or or with some members of the public watching. The the the the crux of the situation, and I know this has been communicated to Brown School too, but community as well, but just, you know, for for the record in in this forum, the essentially, you you you really need both boilers to be to be operating functionally to to keep the building appropriate. It's just especially to deal with the types of cold that we have at times during the winters. And and with with one down, the the the decision was made to let's just replace both of them, bring in a temporary boiler that would be able to heat the whole building and get get the two new boiler or or replacement for the two new boilers in. To be clear, is is that is that two new boilers, or is the replacement sort of a a one larger system?

Two new boilers.

It is two. Okay.

We hope to get that ready for the, you know, 02/2526 heating season. And like I said, they've been they've been procured and ordered, and it's just twenty weeks to get them in.

Yeah. Certainly understand the the lead time for for those types of things. So so I appreciate that. Glad to hear that the the investment is being made to to to do things properly. I I know that my constituents will look forward to, the day that it gets warm enough when we can turn off that, that that temporary boiler outside. I apologize to everyone who's having to deal with that, but, obviously, you gotta keep the kids warm and gotta keep in a good learning environment. There's really just not much we can do on I I I you know? So that that is that is what it is, I guess. I don't see any hands raised on the city council committee. Chair Baton, I see doctor Phillips' hands, so I'm happy to, turn it over to you folks.

Thank you, counselor Davis. Doctor Phillips.

Thanks to you, chair. Just wanted to say a big thanks to commissioner Lathen and her team for the preventative proactive maintenance. Really thoughtful and just really grateful for the hard work.

Through the chair, you're welcome. Through the chair, if I can also just say, we're also gonna looking at some piping that we're gonna be probably replacing this summer. Again, more preventative maintenance. We wanna make sure we're staying ahead of any kind of problematic problems, but that is not nothing some nothing we're concerned about right now. But as we're kind of, dug into this problem, we've noticed there's some some piping that we may need to be, taking care of this summer as well. So that's also on the agenda and project for the summer.

Okay. Thank you. I I'm I'm glad you noted that. And I think, you know, it's worth sort of taking a step back and providing a little bit wider context here because earlier in the discussion that the the the gosh. It was it was ten years ago, probably just a couple weeks from now, I I would imagine, when so the the collapse of the roof at the Brown School was mentioned.

And I it it to to be clear, the the roof that collapsed was was the new part of the building in the bathrooms, which ironically was there at the time the, I think, the newest addition back some eighty some years prior. The it it wasn't the, you know, the main the roof of the main building itself, but, you know, that was a situation that, at least from from my observation and and our conversations in in committee various committee meetings and my direct conversations with folks at the time under the prior administration, you know, probably could have been avoided if the right information was available to the right people, you know, altogether. And so I I know, commercial Nathan, that that you and your folks have done have really done a ton of work to to bring the information system together to really be proactive and look at these things like that. So, you know, mentioning the pipes, it's a perfect example of how, hopefully, all that work that you all, are are doing will, you know, will will avoid, what what you know, at the time, we had historic snowfall. Who could have known that the that, you know, the roof would collapse?

It turns out, yeah, we we probably knew that there were some some boards that were were compromised from some leaks over the years, and and it just our systems just weren't there. It wasn't anybody's fault per se. But, you know, this is this is the this kind of work is the kind of thing that, you know, takes unavoidable scenarios off the table, at least, know, to as large degree as possible. So, you know, since we're talking about it, I I I thought it was appropriate to to bring that that the context around to the to the the the Brown School roof collapse, which, you know, as I said, was ironically the newer part of the building. And and, hopefully, we're on top of things in this old building, which my understanding, the building itself is actually in pretty good shape.

The the this structure building for our oldest school building. So whatever ends up being the future of it, you know, we we at least we have a a good asset on our hands. Chair Baton, I see your hand back up, so happy to turn the mic back over to you.

Thank you, councilor Davis. And respecting the late hour, I'll be brief, noting that we need to end by 08:00. So I I just wanted to, echo the thanks of my colleagues, for the for the fantastic foresight. One item I note in the communication that went out to the Brown School, and, doctor Carmona, this may have been communicate the communication may have been shaped out of, schools. So I'm not pointing fingers.

I just wanna highlight that in the update that was shared with the Brown School, it it stated the timeline, which was fantastic, but also stated that there should be no impacts to our regular operations this winter. I think should is doing a lot of work there, as we're, you know, doing complicated projects, replacing boilers. As we saw, there there is a possibility that something might go wrong. Not saying, you know, we should plan for it happening, but, maybe just I think looking back on that that particular wording, it it struck me as, something that we might just learn from this and and think about how to communicate that to our families moving forward. So, doctor Carmona, we'll let you have the floor, and then I'll shut up.

I'll be quick. Yeah. So thank you for the feedback, and and, definitely, we will work in our word. And, I just wanted to I'll be remiss not to mention that, when this happened it was one of the coldest days in our in our season that far at that point. It was the coldest day.

And I also wanted to thank the entire Brown community, the staff, the families, the students. The response was swift, and I believe that, you know, we had to call the day, half day, which is is painful. Anytime we lose instruction is not a good thing. But I I also have to recognize the fact that DPW was there immediately. I believe there was a there was a question about why we the the sensor should have been triggered to give us an alarm, but that's an issue that I believe it was being was being worked out.

I just wanted to highlight the fact that the community was ready to support everyone. And I know that the issue was fixed by one. I couldn't send a communication at one because they needed to pressure test the system. And so by three is when I got their full reassurance. But, I think, all in all, it was a quick response. And, yes, can we do better? That's always the case. Is that right? And warding is one thing that, we still can work on. And, but I just wanted to recognize the strength of the system, and the quick response that we had on that day.

Absolutely. All right. Seeing no other hands, I will turn it back to you, Chair Davis.

Okay. Thank you, Chair Matalan, and thank you again, commissioner Leithen, for being here to to address this item. Seeing no discussion, we can mark this one as work complete. And that will bring us to our last item on the agenda, which is 25 dash zero zero nine four, that the director of parking allow public use of school parking lots during snowstorms. This is an item that was raised by council McLaughlin, and he he actually clarified that really he was just looking for an explanation or or was asking the question as to why parking lots aren't used during snowstorms, and I was able to give him a definitive answer at least as to why that policy changed at the time because I it's my fault.

I I pushed going back to actually that that winter ten years ago, when we we did have significant snow and as well as my experience as a Brown School parent, that there were there were there was more than one situation where it appeared to me that schools remained closed because there were cars in the parking lots and and, you know, that we just couldn't get couldn't clear the parking lots and therefore couldn't get kids back into school. And after a significant pressing, I I I, you know, finally was able to have a conversation committee with the the previous administration where, you know, it was acknowledged essentially, yeah, that that's correct. That was the case there when, you know, when we have, particularly back in the olden days when we had, you know, real snowstorms yes. I'm showing my bias towards towards lots of snow. When when we had heavy snowstorms more frequently, that was a that was a challenge.

So I I I confirm with councilor McGough, and he he's good with this one. He doesn't actually want the policy to change. He just wanted an explanation for why that was the case. Certainly, if there's any questions or anything new that people wanna bring up, I'm happy to recognize, but I think I put this on the on the agenda just to mark it as we're complete because, that's the answer. I I pushed for that policy to change so that we weren't keeping kids out of school because people were parking their cars in the parking lots. And to the best of my understanding, that is remains the the reason. So I I think we can leave it at that. Chair Baton, anything to add?

Thank you, councilor Davis. I I will just add that, I I as a parent at our schools, I remember the prior policy. I'm glad it changed. I'm happy with the current policy, and I have no interest in returning back to those prior days. So, thank thanks for raising this, for explaining the the the situation, and happy to, not talk about this anymore.

Alright. Very good. I will I I don't toot my own horn a lot, but I will say it's one of the things, that I'm quite proud of having having accomplished among among other things in my in my time here. Counselor Klingen.

Yeah. No, miss chair. I just wanna be clear on this policy that so when when presidents ask, they say, so why can't we park on the thing? I just say, Lance Davis.

Yeah. Just blame blame it on me. But, you know, you said what I wanna say is, like, because when when there's when there's cars in the parking lot, so I just can't get

of I'm joking. I understand. Trust me. I've I'm well versed in it. I know fully the the consequences of of that practice, and and I too am, am okay with with the current practice. Thank you.

Alright. Very good. Alright. Seeing no for oh, no. Sorry. Doctor Kamana, you had your hand up.

Thank you. And I hopefully, I'm not disrupting the process there. But, Chair Davis, I wanted to thank you for that. I know that two of my colleagues who are in districts in which cars have to park in their parking lots, they couldn't open they had to cancel the school. And so, I am just thanking you on behalf of the district because it really makes a big difference to be able to open the schools, especially when we don't know what's the degree of snow we're having. But so so thank you because that allows us to keep the school the the schools open.

Well, I'm glad we were able to do that, together as community. Thank you for those kind words. Seeing no further discussion, we will mark this one as we're complete. And quick force, Lisi, I think that wraps up everything on the, agenda. Unless I missed anything?

No. You have not.

Alright. Excellent. So thank you again, everyone, from the administration who came out to to help us with the conversations tonight. Thanks for folks. We still have a a number of members of the public here that made it past the two hour mark. I can remember when a two hour committee was quaint. We used to go all night on these, but I'm glad we have a better approach now. I think it's it's more more sane for everyone. But, hopefully, we hopefully, we provided some some good information in advance of conversation on these items. There being no further business oh, and and as I noted, I I am I I calendar is not hanging on the wall anymore.

I believe we have oh, you know what? It's not written down. Well, we've got it we've got another meeting on the agenda. Look it up on the the city council calendar. March 3. Thank you. Thank you. I knew it was early March. So March 3 is when we'll we'll we'll come back. So just about a month, that's a good cadence. And we have a few more items to, to discuss, I think, in in the box right now, and we will, I'm sure have others, and I'm sure we'll hear an update. So we look forward to seeing you all then. With that, I will move to adjourn. Would the clerk please call the role auditor?

Audit German. Councilor Syed?

Yes.

Councilor Plingen? Yes. And councilor Davis? Yes. Mister chair, all members have voted to adjourn. We are adjourned. Thank you.

And we are adjourned too. Thanks, everyone.

Alright. Thank you all.