School Committee - Special Meeting

Alright. Good evening, everyone. This is a meeting of the city council's committee on school building facilities and maintenance, meeting of joint joint meeting with the the school committees, committee of the same, same, subject. Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 02/2023, this meeting of the the committee on school building facilities maintenance is being conducted via remote participation. So we will post an audio recording, audio video recording transcript, or other comprehensive record of these procedure of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City Of Somerville website or local cable access government channels.

We are assisted this evening by clerk Peter Forsalisi. Clerk Forsalisi, would you please call the roll to establish a quorum?

This is roll call. Councilor Syed? Councilor Klingon?

Present.

Counselor Davis. Here. Mister chair, two members are present. One is absent.

Alright. Very good. Thank you. I will now, put this meeting into recess so that the school committee can open its meeting.

Thank you, chair Davis. This is Leron Biton, a school committee member from board seven and chair of the aforementioned school building facilities and maintenance subcommittee of the school committee. I'll call the role, Sarah Phillips. Here. Laura Piton.

Laura Piton is not here. I am here, so we do have quorum. And I'll turn it back over to you, Chair Davis.

Alright. Thank you because we like call Call the roll to reestablish a court.

Councilor Syed. Councilor Klingon.

Present.

Councilor Davis. Here. Pastor chair, two members present, and one is absent.

Thank you very much. Number one on the agenda is 25 dash for that is approval of the minutes of the meeting on February 6. I'll move for approval. Seeing no discussion, we'll lay that on the table to be potentially with a meeting a motion to adjourn at the end of of the proceedings. Item number two is 24Dash046, excuse me, 66.

With regular updates about the Massachusetts school building authority process for the Winter Hill and Brown schools. I believe we this evening. Doctor Raish, can you provide an update for us?

Yeah. Thank you, chair. Yep. We are in the process of procuring an owner's project manager. That request for services, has been posted.

We held a pre briefing meeting with, potential applicants. For that, we had about a dozen firms show up. Very good interest as we anticipated for this. Questions are due from them next week. And then depending upon, if there are any requests for extension, we'll be getting those responses the following week, and, likely in fighting at least three, candidates for interview. So that's going according to plan right now.

Thank you. Any questions from the members? Seeing none.

Note Sorry, mister.

Alright. The clerk could note that council Syed is recused from this item. Councilor Klingen.

Yeah. Thank you, mister Chair. For you, just with regards to timeline and updates on the MSBA process, I am curious about when in the process are we should we expect to have sort of, like, number estimates around the different scenarios and and the cost cost for those? Yeah. Just because there's been some discrepancy within the community.

I think some I think there was it was it's thought that you that the that it is thought that it had been said that it was sometime should have been sometime in late fall that we should have had some numbers. I I could be mistaken. I I read somewhere. Well, can you just tell me, director H, through you, mister chair, point of dates?

The chair. Whatever had been whatever information might be circulating through the community about earlier dates for cost estimates may have been from statements made before we were in the MSBA process. Since we've been in the MSBA process and initiated the the CAG, we've been very consistent that we would not be having cost estimates for for the different concepts until the fall of this year.

Okay. Through you, mister Chair. So that's after we have a project manager and so on?

Through the chair. Yes. Before before we can the the the team that will be developing the updated cost estimates for us will be the team of both the OPM, which we're procuring right now, and the designer slash architect, which comes on board after we have the OPM on board, and that OPM helps us with the designer selection process.

Okay. And, mister Chair, through you, so I I guess my problem with this is that I always thought that we we would have those things. Like, that would sort of go into the decision making process of the CAG. So if we don't have cost to to consider in the decision decision making and the recommendation to the mayor. I'm not I don't understand how they're supposed to take everything into account and and give a recommendation if we won't have those until playful.

So so, basically, without those those numbers and stuff, like, we they really couldn't make a recommendation until, you know, after the summertime, which I know that a lot of folks, had hoped that we could maybe get the ball rolling quicker and have a decision much sooner. But it sounds like we're pretty much tied to those steps.

To the chair, that is that is correct, which is why we had always anticipated that the CAG would not be able to make a decision until this fall, September, October, November, because we always anticipated that the CAG would need those cost estimates to make its final decision. The reasoning behind starting the CAG process earlier was to evaluate and and, you know, to take a look at sort of the noncost factors that that go into the decision. The the uniqueness of the communities versus the the communities that are at the other larger schools, issues around transportation, any any other sort of, factor that weighs into the decision. And and so that that was the the the the thought, but the thought was always that they weren't gonna be able to make a final determination until we had those cost numbers in the fall.

Okay. And just lastly, comment, mister Scheer. You know, that all makes sense and everything. What I what I do think that and I hate the Monday morning Monday morning quarterback, but, you know, starting the process as quite as early as they did may have been, you know, a misstep. I just think it creates a lot of frustration and and, you know, wheel spinning. But that's just my opinion and Monday morning quarterback. So alright. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, councilor Kligman. Chair Baton, I see questions on your end.

Thank you, Chair Davis. Mr. Reyesha, I'm wondering if the cost estimates that will be provided in the fall will include the costs associated with mothballing existing sites. So if if the decision is made eventually or or if in a scenario where we are combining the Brown School with the Winter Hill School in a future redeveloped school, will we also look at sort of embedded costs that, you know, might we might need to, you know, demolish the existing Brown School or, you know, alternatively, in the in the case where we do not combine those schools, an implicit cost of future renovations that we might need to make to the Brown School. So I know that's a complex question, but can you provide sort of a scope of what kind of numbers we'll be seeing in the fall?

Yeah. To to the chair. It's a very good question because it is a complex situation. And we have made it clear, to the OPM candidates, and we'll also have to make it clear to the designer candidates, that in in the option where the schools do not combine, we do need to understand the inherent cost of what needs to be done to the Brown Building, whether that happens, even if that happens at a later date, or if it has to happen sooner than develop some sort of cost for interim housing for for the Brown School. So that general realm of cost does need to be evaluated and and put into the the equation, both in the in the time factor in in different scenarios.

We do also need to understand in the case where the schools are combined, what the disposition of the Brown is and what the the costs or credits are associated with that, which is a little bit more difficult because I think we're gonna have to come up with a range of possibilities for that, which is to say we don't have all of those scenarios mapped out, but we need to map those out and have some reasonable costs associated with them.

Yeah. No. That that makes sense. And there's a lot of moving parts there, so it would necessarily need to be, arranged, and I certainly understand that. Not seeing any other questions on my side. I will turn it back over to chair Davis.

Okay. Thank you, chair Vitan. So we'll leave this one in committee because this is our standing item for updates. Thank you, director Ash, for the update on that one. And that will bring us to item number three, which is 25Dash0237 that the director of infrastructure and asset management discuss with the city council and school committee the development of the fiscal year 2020 and and budget in accordance with the adopted capital investment plan. And, doctor Reish, this one back to you.

Thank you, chair. As I at least the members of the, city council likely know and and the

And I'm sorry. Doctor. Reish, let me interrupt you just for a procedure. If the clerk could please note that, councilor Saiyad has rejoined us. Apologies, director.

Yeah. So the finance director Bean has briefed the council on the the financial outlook for the city and the lower growth numbers, which is impacting our long range projections, for what can be accomplished in the CIP. And simultaneously, we also were on the receiving end of the disappointing judgment on the 90 Washington parcel, which has added roughly $30,000,000 to our liabilities, at least for a certain duration of time until we can divest from that property. All of which is to say that our long term capital investment plan planning is now based around significantly fewer available dollars. And we've been running a number of scenarios to understand what the city can afford long term and are getting close to finalizing a plan that we can bring to the to the city council and to school committee to show what our projections are, which will be sort of a a, you know, short term lean CIP until such time as either the, financial projections, improve or we find our way out of the the 90 Washington encumbrance.

But throughout the the process, we've been working very collaboratively with some of the public schools. Frankly, much closer coordination than we did with the previous SPS administration. Doctor Carmona's chief of staff, Amar Ensoke, has been in almost all of our planning meetings around identifying capital potential capital improvements and helping to prioritize those. We walked every school with chief of staff, Anna Soke, and the respective school's principal to daylight all of their, you know, sort of medium term issues at at all of those schools and have worked with doctor Carmona and chief of staff Anna Soke to prioritize those identified items within the CIP. So as we're developing the scenarios with all the other things that we need to do, like pave roads and build parks.

So those priorities are are reflected in in that prioritization and and scenario building. So we're we've we've made some very good progress on that financial modeling, within the past couple of weeks, and and are, hopeful to be able to to lock this down and get the twenty six f y FY '26 CIP, published before the, you CEB, the the current expense budget, process starts.

Any discussion? Sure.

Yeah. Thank you, chair. So that that's very helpful to understand, mister Resch. And I have to just say, you know, for for the school committee, we are deeply appreciative of your involving the superintendent and the Summerville Public Schools staff and chief of staff, Anna C. K, has been really, you know, at the forefront of all of our facilities issues.

So very deeply appreciative of your partnership with public schools on this. I guess my question is around what criteria you use to identify. So you have a, like, a a laundry list of priorities in the capital improvement plan, which is, as I understand it, a multiyear plan, a five, I think, five year plan, Maybe beyond that. I'm not sure. So so maybe if you could give me the for dummies version of how do you identify what goes on the '26 budget versus the '27 or '28 or maybe a little longer?

How do you identify what is a candidate for, yeah, we're ready to go with this next year?

Through the chairs? That's a good question. And there are are it's multivariate. There's a number of different factors that, go into it. One is impact and importance on existing programs and, desperately needed programs.

You know, for example, I think we talked about it last month that the, the classroom addition for the Argentinian, is proceeding. We've already sort of put that that's that's we already know that's gonna be on the CIP because that had such a a high impact to the program to important programs at the Argentiano. So there's a there's a program component to it. There's a a risk component to it to a lot of the building issues. It and weren't necessarily ones that were brought, you know, from the the SPS staff side, but more from our IAM's investigations into the buildings.

Right? So we've completed investigations into the building envelopes of all the post nineties buildings as well as their HVAC systems. And we know that the the the roof at the Healy and the roof at the West are both in poor condition. And we know that if they were to fail, that would have a very high impact. Like, there would be numbers of classrooms that would that we couldn't occupy if if one of those roofs fail.

So that's a that's a high risk, high impact type of capital investment. So those two investments rise to to the top. Maybe one step below that is is another example. We know that the chiller at the West and the boiler at the Healy are also at at risk of failure. So those are those are high risk items for us, but the impact is slightly less.

Because if worse came to worse, we would be able to bring in a temporary chiller like we did at the Kennedy two years ago or a temporary boiler like we did this year at the at the Brown. Financially, not a great way to manage the system, so there's still, from a financial point of view and in a current point of view, a high risk that that we want to address with urgency as in, like, next year or this year as soon as we can do it. But we have a way to mitigate the impact so that school wouldn't come offline. So it's it's slightly lower. So it's it's it's looking at at, you know, the the the the risk, the impact, the both in terms of space, in terms of program, in terms of financial management.

So there's there's a whole bunch of things that that, go into it. But it was, you know, it was very clearly articulated, and it was a a collaborative process, with the schools to understand, how we would prioritize those things. And and it was a fairly good process.

Great. Thank you, mister Rasha. That that's extremely helpful to understand. And that kind of multivariate sort of risk calculation benefit risk benefit calculation makes a ton of sense to me. I would be very interested in in getting any kind of visibility into that.

Is that something that your office could prepare for this, joint committee, a memorandum sort of summarizing so that the that we, the elected officials, also, the public could could see sort of how these factors were weighed and where the different projects fell. Because I think, for instance, when we hear about the potential for a chiller failure at the West, you know, I'm thinking about my families at the West who might go be going, oh my goodness. This is terrible news. But understanding how we rate the potential impact of that against, like, the roof failure, so that's why we're maybe going after the roof first. I think that would help contextualize some of the prioritization.

Is that something that you could prepare?

To make sure that that we're only just beginning some conversations with the communications and web folks. One of the the web pages that we realized needs, an update and overhaul, is the capital projects web page. And so those are the sorts of things that we we right, wrong, or indifferent, we just tend to attack the problem and go on to the next problem. But, we realized that we've got a we've got a lot of information that I think a lot of people would would like to know. And there's still more in progress.

We we're still doing some evaluations on on the Healy and the, excuse me, on the Argentiado in the East. And so we'll have reports like that, coming up for those those buildings as well. So it's definitely something that that, we're trying to get done.

Fantastic. Really appreciate that. Thank you, mister Reish. And, chair Davis, I will turn it back over to you.

Thank you very much. Councilor Hsieh?

Through the chair. To, the point that chair Bitton was making, about this report, my question is how does does this relate to the conversation we had last year or rather resolution that I put forward the concerning healthy schools, school decarbonization, school building decarbonization? Because one of the goals or the first one was by July 1, convene an interdisciplinary team to conduct a comprehensive study of all some of your municipal buildings used by some of your public schools. So how does it relate to that? Because I hear a lot of overlap.

You mentioned building envelopes. You mentioned HVAC systems, and I don't know if there's heating systems there. So can you tell us I'm happy to put in a separate order on this to get an update where things are at. We still have a few months to go. But if you can tell us about that, that would be very helpful. Yeah. Let's start with this question.

Yeah. It's it's a good question. It's a difficult one to answer because we we are working sort of on two time scales as we're doing the investigations into these buildings. Right? So we're we're gathering the data that can give us a longer term road map to making, you know, carbon neutral buildings and and improving the environmental health around those items.

But in order to execute that work, that type of construction really needs an unoccupied building or at least a partially unoccupied building. And to to really make advances on a lot of those things, we need the swing space, which we currently don't have because our only swing space building is occupied by the Winter Hill. And, you know, when when when we see that the West chiller and the Healy boiler are really at imminent failure, we have to, you know, progress with that on on an immediate track so that we're not, you know, knocking ourselves off. Now that said, our teams, as we did with the Kennedy, are looking at the sort of best environmental options that are available to us, with those, with those replacements. And, frankly, the the the chillers are a little bit easier to handle than the boilers.

And and that the conversion to electric from gas on the boiler has a lot of downstream impacts that you know, down system impacts in the classrooms that we can't get around. So which is a long way around of saying we we we try to make as much advancement on these sort of immediate needs as we can while we're also sort of looking at at a longer term replacement that further advances the goals and and really gets to to to those goals.

Through the chair. Thank you, director. I think this is helpful. And it's what I'm hearing is that we have identified the priorities and things we need to be working on right now. Like, we can't even wait until July.

So there's, like, kind of two paths, long term path, road map for all municipal buildings. Here, we're focusing on schools, and then these immediate issues that we need to be working on. I think if that in that report, if you can also include, like, how are we looking holistically at all of this. Like, I know we did some studies a while ago. We've heard very recently that the city has received a grant, the technical assistance grant that also looks at municipal buildings and provides a road map.

I met with director of police about that. So if we can just, like, gather all this information in one place, that would be really helpful, for us. And, my second question, so back to the report we were discussing. Again, thank you, Jeremy, my colleagues, in thanking you for involving the superintendent and also the schools in the conversation about the capital investment plan. Can you tell us who all who else like, how often are you meeting?

And besides IIM, who else is being part of these conversations? Like, finance, yeah, like, all the city departments who are involved in that conversation?

It it's primarily SPS, I'm finance, OSPCD, and DPW, and OSE, which was a whole bunch of letters. Do you know what? Yeah.

I think maybe for the public, it's helpful too.

Strategic strategic planning and community development, department of public works, office of sustainability in the environment, finance is finance, and SPS's, Silverville public schools. I think I think that was all the acronyms.

Okay. Through the chair. Thank you, director. And how often, are you meeting and having these conversations?

It's it's largely on an as needed basis as as we sort of update because each each party has a a little piece of it. So it it's been at most two meetings a week at a minimum once a month. November, December was honestly a little bit slow, but we we meet at least monthly. And we do have, a standing monthly meeting, between Summerville Public Schools, DPW, and IAM, to to update on on both projects that are are in flight for IIM, issues that are, you know, three one ones that DPW and is handling or anything else is bubbling up through the schools that chief of staff knows about. So we we check-in on in progress stuff at least monthly.

Okay. To the chair, thank you, director, and, really looking forward to having access to that report and the updates from the meetings.

Thank you, councilor Syed. I don't see any other questions on this one. So unless there's any objection, we'll mark this work complete. And that will take us to the next item, which is related, item four on the agenda, which is 25 dash zero two three four, which also is the combination on my luggage. Let the director of infrastructure and asset management develop a swing space plan to accommodate some of our public school students to mitigate disruption to students, families, and staff while the school building is unavailable during construction? Doctor. Reish, sounds like a familiar topic.

Yes. We we we're aware of this, and it's one of those things that keeps it me up at night, and I'm sure a bunch of other city staff up at night. We've we've heard this request. It's been very difficult for us to make advances on it given that the there are a lot of constraints around the other eligible properties. There's significant work that would need to be done at the cap at the Cummings to make that space useful.

As you know, it was there was two rooms that were granted emergency access as a warming center, but that was under a it's a very narrow determination of use by the chief building inspector and the fire chief. The rest of that building requires a a significant number of code updates and safety updates. There's a completely failed roof and some HVAC systems that are problematic. So to to activate that building, we'd have to invest significantly on that one. We have talked, broadly with the archdiocese, about, the availability of some of the Catholic schools in the area.

Didn't receive hard nose on some of them. Did receive hard nose on some of the buildings, but didn't receive hard nose on others, but nothing that advanced to kinda solid plans. So this is this is an item that we know we would need to spring on at a moment's notice if we needed it, but we haven't made huge inroads on on having a solid plan.

Okay. Lia Zanderdasi, I see your hand up. Did you wanna weigh on or add something here?

Yes. Sorry. Just to confirm, we're talking about 25DashO234. Sorry. I had to step away for a second.

That's correct.

Yes. So I know we had talked about this, counselor mister chair. I think this one this item was supposed to be mostly a council discussion that the administration was here to listen on just to hear about priorities that the council has. So I just wanted to make sure that I had understood that correctly.

The the update from from director Reish, I think, you know, it it's and and it is what it is conversation, but thank you for that that reminder. Well, I see council Clingen's hand, so I guess if there's any clarification, and then we'll, we'll swing it over to the, the school committee folks for, further, further input to to whatever extent that is helpful. Council Clinton, go ahead. Yeah. I just had

a question for director Reish on the issue, but I'm thinking maybe the liaison met school committee because this was one that comes through Judy from the school committee. So maybe they, you know, they might have more discussion to be had. Obviously, it's a it's a really important topic and one that's not easy discussion to have since we are so limited with space. My question to director Rishi is, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but the Cummings is really the only building that would be available, if, say, for instance, the Brown went down completely. So have we at least kind of I know that costs are always changing and everything, but, I mean, are we ready with what that building, you know, would need, like, in turn even just like a somewhat of a plan for that building, or am I just wrong in thinking that is am I forgetting about another building?

No. You through the chair, you're you're correct. And that the the Cumming is the Cumming's would be the city owned building that has the most potential. And IIM is working on sort of the comprehensive scope of what would need to be done on that. We're not complete with it, but we we have been working on understanding what would need to be done to that building in in that eventuality.

Then one last question, miss Trish. Similarly, to your point, when you say only city owned building, I mean, really, the only one that comes to mind that isn't that could possibly be available would be Saint Ann's, the old Saint Ann's school portion of the the property at on Thurston and and Medford. Have you like, is there open dialogue with them? I know there was when the Winter Hill was when we were scurrying to look for a spot for Winter Hill. I know that there had been discussions with them. Is that line of communication still good to where if we had to be nimble and we'd be able to to talk to them fairly quickly?

Yeah. Yeah. Through the chair. I still have contact with the archdiocese on on Saint Anne's and on Saint Clement's. Those are those are the two that the archdiocese was generally receptive but would need to understand specifically the the term and what would need to be done. So that That's chief. That line of communication is still open.

Yeah. Because your plan definitely keeps me up at night as well. Alright. That's all I have, mister chair. I'm sure the school committee's jumping at the bit if they have questions and stuff.

Thank you, chair Baton. Over to you.

Thank you, chair Davis. Doctor Phillips.

Thanks, three chair. I apologize if I am misinterpreting Ms. Radissi's question to us. So please let me know if I am. This discussion comes out of a discussion the school committee had with mister Raish before the Winter Hill Building failed when we said, hey. What's the plan if the building failed? And our priority is before another building fails, we wanna know exactly what the city's plan is for, what happens if a building fails so that we are ready to implement and not trying to figure it out.

Thank you, doctor Phillips. I will just add on to that, that this ties into what we were talking about with the previous item around risk and, and the severity of the risk, around a failure. So when we have potential roof failures at a couple of our schools and identifying, yes, we need to address those, the severity of the risk is compounded by the fact that we have no plan b. Right? There's no additional space available for our students.

And doctor Phillips, I think, hit the nail on the head when she pointed out that we were having this conversation in the, you know, fall and spring of oh, what was that? 2223 when when we were identifying that, yes, there were serious problems at the Winter Hill and wondering what we were gonna do if there was indeed a failure. And then we were scrambling, or we, I guess, should say the school committee at the time and the district, were scrambling in the city to identify a solution. The severity of the failure was compounded by the fact that we did not have swing space available. So I would really urge the city to develop a concrete plan, that we can review, rather than, you know, having an ongoing conversation where, you know, yes, we have the Cummings.

Yes. That's likely the spot, which which is not a very comforting thought that we're still talking about likelihoods rather than what our plan is. I will also point out, and I'd like to thank councilor Pineda Neufeld who shared with me the swing space plan for the city of Philadelphia. They have literally a swing space plan. And, you know, I understand that they are probably a bigger district than we are.

However, we face similar challenges, and I think it would be prudent for us to develop a plan in case the eventuality comes to fruition. So I'll get off my soapbox and turn it back over to Chair Davis.

Okay. It's

okay. It's okay. Okay. It's You

all can hear me. My Internet is thank you for the discussion. I see no I think, you know, what I hear appreciate that, you know, we were told going they plan to present, but that this denoted this is this item was requested to develop that having that conversation that it goes back to prior to before the Winter Hill Building failed. You know, what what I heard was that the Cummings isn't the plan. Right?

I mean, I I think that's what I'm what I'm getting from director Reich is that practically speaking, the amount of money that would make there to bring that building into line as a school right now, and it's not gonna happen anytime in the near future. So it sounds to me like what the plan is is, you know, happens, we then would have more firm idea of of what we need, and then we go back to the archdiocese, or we'd think of something else. And, you know, I I understand the the concern that that being sort of the the current plan, you know, would would present. So I I I would just I echo the desire to to at least have some sort of a an operating plan on paper. And it's I'm I'm going into this now that I was going into this meeting, having heard about the roof issues at the Healy and the West, which is concerning.

Being told my audio is coming in and out, so I'll stop rambling. Chair Baton, I think we can mark this one complete. Keep it as a placeholder to come back.

Mister chair.

Councilor Klingen? Okay. Before

we do, I just have a question to director Reish on this issue. So, I mean, this sounds like I mean, this is obviously a concern of all of ours. Some of you know, I'm sure I guess my my main question to director Reish is if this was really something that you were to put together, would you have to use a consultant to do this, or would you I mean, you don't have any enough staff right now. I I don't know. I'm just curious.

Like, is this something that could be done by your office in, you know, any particular amount amount of time? I I don't know. Like, it like, how I don't I don't know the amount of scope of work that this would take for for you to assign to somebody. I know we still haven't replaced Melissa Woods, or have we? I know, like, for I'm not sure how many staff were down. But, like, would we have to use a consultant to do this?

Yeah. Through through the chair to council clean. We are capacity constrained, not only in terms of city staff, but also, in terms of of our consultants, which is sort of an answer to the next agenda items question is that they're not only in terms of of city staff, but also our our consultants are all very busy. And we are struggling, frankly, to execute the projects that are high priority, like the Argentinian classroom and the production kitchen at the Argentiano. And we're bringing more on for for the large MSBA projects.

You know? There's there's a lot of work in the industry right now, and it's difficult to advance as much of it as we would like.

Okay. And lastly, mister chair. So but it seems like, I mean, you know, this is something that we're all calling for, to at least put people at ease to some degree, have have something of a of a plan in place. I mean, I don't know, if, you know, if they can put together some if it understanding not understanding what you exactly you need. If you could do it in house, great.

If you needed to put it out to bid or something, if it's a funding thing, you know, clearly, the council, you know, would support, you know, whatever assistance that you needed in that aspect. So I'm just saying it's it's a priority. So I would definitely figure out what it is you need, whether it's a consultant or whether you can get it assigned to somebody in house or something. And and maybe that can maybe that's working with the management the emergency management director that we've since brought on. Maybe they could, like, play a role in in that and and kinda take some of the load off.

But, either way, I think you've, you know, heard us loud and clear, and, and I and I do understand and appreciate and and, like, you know, sympathize with you in terms of the sheer amount of work that the city has on your plate right now and our, you know, demands or whatever our desire is to keep up with Philadelphia or whoever else.

Okay. Thank you, councilor Saeed. Councilor or sorry. Councilor Craven. Councilor Saeed, you have the floor.

Through the chair. Thank you, director Rach, for saying that this is definitely helpful to know. And I definitely sympathize. I'm sure all my colleagues do. They there are a lot of priorities, and everything feels like a crisis that we need to tackle right away.

But hearing you now say that not only we don't have a plan, but we also we don't have an approach is making me extremely nervous. And I think ahead of budget season as we're putting our budget priorities together, as we're thinking about the budget for next year, it's very important that we know exactly what you need. We know how long these things take going, looking for a consultant, the finding the right consultant, going forward to bid. Then now that I have a better understanding of this process, I think we need to start that. We need to identify as soon as possible what the approach should be, what do you need, and what can we as a council or school committee do ahead of budget fee season?

Because if it doesn't make it to the capital investment plan, doesn't make it to we don't have funding allocated for this. By the June, we all know it's not gonna happen. So I urge you to get this information to us. And, again, I really sympathize with everything you have on your plate right now. But I think we're all doing this so we don't find ourselves again in the same situation.

We found ourselves with the winter hill. I think this is, like, now would be a worse scenario because we don't have the algebra. The algebra is being used. Yeah. So that's my request. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, councilor Syed. Any further discussion? Alright. Seeing none. Chair Baton, we're good to mark this one as work complete. And then, you know, next time we needed an update, we can submit a new item.

Alright. Well, I Yeah. I think that's prudent. Thank you.

Alright. Very well. So that's the last two items then. Three and four will be marked work complete. Brings us to item five, which we had a little preview on a moment ago. This is 25Dash0235. The the director of infrastructure and asset management provide an update on the conversion of the former science lab in Room 208 at the at the Arthur Healey School to small group learning classrooms. Doctor Reyes, this one, back to you. Thank you, to the chair. This

work, will be a little bit more complicated than it sounds like on the face of it because there's a significant amount of work that would need to be done to the heating and ventilation system as well as the electrical and plumbing in that that area. There's a number of code issues that we need to surmount. So this this is an actual project much like the addition of the classroom at the Argentiano. And we worked with with both principals and doctor Komona's staff, and we prioritized the Argentiano for this year. As I sort of said, we're we have a capacity limitation both in terms of of staff, but also in terms of our consultants and in terms of our likely bidders, our our contractors.

So we needed to pick one. So we for this summer. And so we're focusing on our our Genziano and are planning to do Healy 208 next summer.

Okay. Thank you. Discussion on this item? Seeing none on the council. Anything from you, chair Baton, for your group?

Yeah. Thank you, chair Davis, and thank you to mister Resch for that update. I I understand the constraints that you're facing and really appreciate the work that your team and you are doing to provide for the needs of every student in the district. So, you know, it's not lost on me and my colleagues. You know, these these requests are not simple.

I just wanna note that the the room at the Healy that we're talking about has not been used as a science lab in, according to the information I have, at least thirteen years, and they are not planning to use it in that capacity in the future. What just so everyone understands the space we're talking about, it's a large room where a number of service providers, I'm told over 20 over 25, work individually with small groups of students, including interventionists and specialists on the staff who work with individual students in small groups. So this this space has really become critical to accommodate those student needs. So, you know, we do understand this space as a science lab had utilities sort of built into it, into the furniture. Right?

Like, a big science lab has gas and water embedded in the tables. So there's the the the work is is quite complex to renovate, and it's also really tricky to use that space for other purposes. So I wanna just applaud the students students, educators, administration at the Healy for continuing to navigate this very what is frankly an unsuitable space in a way that best serves their needs for math intervention, for physical therapy, etcetera, all around this sort of immovable furniture. So, you know, while I'm optimistic that next summer is going to be viable, and it sounds like it's really what we have to work with here. I just wanna recognize the difficulty that that will continue to pose to pose for, for the educators in that space.

So, just wanna acknowledge that difficulty moving forward. So I seem to have made my way onto a

new

soapbox. Mister Reich, I'll recognize you.

Yeah. I did wanna mention because you you brought up the the the science lab aspect to it, that, DPW was able to cut out a lot of that furniture, this summer. It's seen as a sort of a an interim, you know, partial step towards improving, that service area. And I have met with the with the service providers that that work, on tutoring. So the the area is better than it was. It's just not fully where we needed to to be. So I I do wanna make make sure that that's that's clear to the to the committee.

Great. Thank you, mister Reish, and thank you to DPW for doing that that work, to make the area better. And we'll get to best, but better is good, is better than worse, I suppose. Alright. Not seeing any other questions on school committee, I'll, defer to, Chair Davis.

Okay. Thank you. Then I guess we can, mark this when we're complete, and, you know, look for a future update when the when the time is appropriate unless there's any objection. Seeing none, that item will be marked to work complete. And that will bring us to the final item on the agenda, which is item six, which is 25 dash zero two three eight, that the commissioner of public works complete installation of any remaining lockdown blinds needed for safety at the summer of a high school. Who has an update for us on this one? Doctor. Radasi? Sorry. I gave you promotion. Liaison Radasi.

Hi, mister chair. I actually sent this ahead of time. Commissioner Lathen actually sent in a memo on this topic.

Okay. Can you summarize the content at the memo?

I can. So I I can just read off. It's it's not very long. The lockdown shades are in the procurement process, which started in December 2024. The department is in the process of procuring 34 total blinds in varying sizes.

Procurement is requiring the Department of Public Works to get two more bids. So the timeline to completion of installation depends on when the process is approved by procurement and who wins the bids, and it will be up to the vendor's schedules to obtain the shades and coordinate the logistics of the work. The memo also included list of all the blinds that have been ordered, the quantity of each size, the location, and the dimensions. And then DPW also wanted to note that they had added seven shades in Rooms 231232, and 233 that had not initially been requested due to a need that DPW identified.

Okay. Thank you. I think I I I'll I'll I'm inclined to take that as the update and not, not have the memo attached as a response because I know locations of shades and such are not something that we ought to be publicized anyways. So I'm happy to, unless there's any objection, to accept that summary as the response here. Chair Baton, questions or comments on your end?

Yeah. Thank you, Chair Davis and, liaison Radissi. Really appreciate the update, from, commissioner Lathan. I also really wanna commend DPW for identifying additional, needs, that the, district, had not identified. So really going, the extra mile and, addressing the safety needs of our students, our educators, and everyone in our schools, and and moving this process forward.

It's frustratingly slow. You know, this is a new building where, unfortunately, we had, some discrepancies with some of the furnishings that we need for the safety of our of, the occupants of the building. And, you know, unfortunately, these things take a little while, and it's taking longer than I would prefer. But, I am really pleased that the response and the responsiveness and, the additional spirit of collaboration here that is evident in this memo. So really appreciate that, that update, and, I have no further comments. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Alright. I see none. We will mark that item as work complete, and that brings us to the end of our agenda. Thank you, director Reish, for all of your time and all the information responses soon.

Very much appreciated as always. And thank you to everyone else in the administration who put time and effort into to be able to address these issues as well as provide us updates and summaries on on where they stand. So that would that is appreciated and should go should not go unnoticed. That brings us to the end of the agenda. The only item outstanding is should be item one. Mister Clark, do I have that right? Did we do you have the dispensation of each of the other items?

That is correct.

Alright. Very well. So I will move to adjourn. And seeing no discussion, If I could call for a a vote on German as well as the item that's on the table, which is approval of the minutes.

On approval of the minutes and on adjournment, council Saeed?

Yes.

Council Klingen?

Yes.

And Councilor Davis?

Yes.

Mr. Chair, all members have voted to accept the minutes and to adjourn. We are adjourned.

All right. Very well. Thank you, everyone. See you next time.

All right. Thank you. We are adjourned as well. Good night.