School Committee - Regular Meeting

Hello, everyone. This is the school buildings, facilities, and maintenance committee. It is, March 23. Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of of 2025, the meeting of the city council will be conducted by remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting of the city of Somerville on the city of Somerville website and local cable access government channels.

And with that, madam clerk, I'd ask for you to do roll call so we can establish quorum.

Absolutely. Councilor Scott? Present. Councilor Saeed? Here. Chair Link?

Here.

Alright. With that, everyone is here, so we do have quorum.

Alright. Then we'll go into a brief recess to allow the school committee to establish quorum.

Thank you, chair Link. Very excited to have this meeting today. It's 06:04, and I'll call the school committee's corresponding, subcommittee on school building facilities and maintenance to order an established quorum. I am here. Liraan Baton for Ward 7. Liz Eldridge, are you here?

Present.

Great. Laura Patone, are you here?

I'm here.

Excellent. With all members present, the school committee's subcommittee is now in session, and we'll turn it back over to chair Link.

Fantastic. And with that thirty second recess, we'll reestablish forum.

Alright. Deja vu. Council Scott.

Still here.

Council Saeed. Here. Chairlink?

Here.

Alright. With that, everyone has returned, so we do have quorum.

Fantastic. Alright. So, first, so we'll be taking things in kind of a reverse order. But, to start with, let's just approve the minutes from the December 8 meeting, for when it was a special committee. And seeing no objections, I'm gonna lay that on the table for approval.

So now we'll be working from the back, to the front. So we're gonna start with item twenty six zero two six seven, which is a director, the director of public space and urban forestry conveying information regarding the Kennedy Inclusive Schoolyard renovation. And do we have someone to speak on that?

Good evening, mister chair. Through you, director intergovernmental affairs director Najim Williams, to report on this item. Chairs, as you're aware, intergovernmental affairs reached out to both the chairs of the school committee, as well as the council to let them know that the public space and urban forestry team was unable to attend this meeting tonight. However, the memo that is attached to the item is pretty comprehensive and goes over the engagement process to date. The Public Space and Urban Forestry team is looking forward to putting this project out to bid soon so that construction can begin.

If there are any questions from the committee, I'm happy to bring those back to the public space and urban forestry team as follow-up.

Thank you very much. Do we have any questions? So,

Through you, chair link, no questions. Bye. I just wanna take a a moment to thank the administration, the whole team, and the parents, and everyone who was involved in this process. This is in my ward, and I really appreciated all the meetings that were hosted so we can hear from the school community about this project. So much gratitude to everyone and excited about next steps.

Yeah. I'm very excited too as I think that the that school's especially important because it's where all of our our, you know, programs like the the spring programs and what are held. So school, citywide, it's a really important school to have this great stuff on. And seeing no further comments on my side, I'll leave it to you, chair.

Thank you, chair Link. While, I per peruse the, the attendee list here to see if anyone else, from the school committee side has any comments or questions, I I just wanna commend PSOF for, sorry, Public Space and Urban Forestry for, the tremendous outreach that they, accomplished in coordination with multiple interest groups and stakeholders. This schoolyard is a is a first of its kind in the city. A truly, it will be truly an inclusive space, with the design meant to be used by every single student, hopefully, in our at the Kennedy School, as well as, neighbors and community members, some of whom require mobility assistance. And it it's really, fantastic to see, the investment the investment in spaces that are truly meant for the most, not only the most vulnerable students in our community, but also, those with the biggest barriers to access.

So truly appreciate, all of the work that went into it. And a term I I learned, for the first time, probably about a year ago was nothing about us without us. And the process by which, public space and urban forestry went about by coming to the table, listening to parents, students, educators, to find out all of the needs before, engaging in a in a, the design process and coming to conclusions. I I understand that the final design really does reflect, robust engagement. So I just wanna I I think it's worth underlining, and, I just wanna share with that appreciation.

Okay. I'm gonna get off my soapbox, and I see member Eldridge has a a comment or a question.

Nope. I just wanted to echo how fantastic it is that we are working on intentionally inclusive spaces. It's beautiful to see that work moving forward, had the opportunity to participate in the Special Education Parents Advisory Council and the, Cerebral Commission for Persons with Disabilities Roundtable. And pulling that together and, really making a space to intentionally elevate the voices of our families that are navigating the need for an inclusive playground is fantastic. And I hope to see work like this just continue, like, be the snowball effect of of more and more work with collaboration because it was really truly beautiful, to see that. And so, again, just wanted to also echo appreciation and, real excitement for what's in store when it comes to intense intentionally inclusive spaces here in Somerville.

Thank you, member Eldridge. Miss Barry, if you could identify yourself for the city councilors who are new to this meeting.

Hi. I'm Danielle Barry. I am the facility safety and transportation coordinator for Summerville Public Schools. And I also wanna echo what counselor Said said, school committee member Baton, and school committee member Eldridge said about how amazing the community engagement was and how involved they incorporated student voice, families' voices, community voice. It was it's been an amazing process, and we're really excited to get the work going, over the summertime.

So thank you. Very,

not seeing any further comments on our side. We will, turn the meeting back over to you, chair Link.

Alright. So I think we can mark this one as work complete and, move to the next item, which is twenty six zero two six six. The the director of infrastructure and asset management conveying the, strategic asset management plan report.

Thank you, chair Link. For your record, Richard Reich, director of infrastructure and asset management. This is a a matter that's been of interest to both of these committees in the past. And in particular, school committee member, Baton, has asked a lot of questions about our asset management program and how we assess risk and prioritize things. And as I've told the the committees before, asset management is a program that we've been working on for the past several years in earnest to really bring the city of Somerville, you know, into the twenty first century and and world class in terms of of how we manage our assets, all of the assets, the roads, the sewer pipes, the water pipes, and our our school and municipal buildings.

You know, because there's been interest, we we did publish our strategic asset management plan report, and and I thought that this committee would would like a copy of that. So I'm simply providing it as a, you know, I guess not a courtesy, but just, you know, so so that you you have the the the document in your files. We are also progressing with the next stages of that, which is the implementation of the enterprise management software. We selected OpenGov, and we are in the implementation phase with that software vendor. We've been meeting with you know, at this point, it's it's largely the the superintendents, like the building superintendent, water, sewer, as well as all the folks at three one one and constituent services to to get that that that program up and running.

You know? Essentially, it will give all of our DPW water and sewer workers in the field will have iPads. They'll get their their work order assignments through that. They'll be able

to

access our databases so that, you know, they they have access to all the information on the assets they need as they they implement it. So we're we're we're making some pretty good progress here, and just wanted to to share this as as a a document, to show what we've been doing.

Thank you very much, I have a question, actually. So I was really glad to see this. Having selected OpenGov, is there gonna be an opportunity to make up yeah. You know, you're you're saying that you're starting with a kind of it was gonna be rolled out kind of internally as a as a platform. Is there gonna be some sort of public facing dashboard for that so that people can, see what's happening?

That's a good question, Cherry. Yes. Eventually, that that is the goal. The the early stages are are more, focused on on the DPW and back of house side. But one of the reasons why we chose OpenGov, frankly, as opposed to other vendors, is that their dashboard reporting is, you know, significantly more elegant and and transparent than some of the other vendors.

So it isn't gonna be a thing that gets rolled out in in '26, maybe not even '27 or or until '27, but but that is what we're striving towards. At least in the in the interim, what our hope is that we go into budget season for next year having already implemented this. The the department heads like myself, like, commissioner, Wiseman will have the benefit of those dashboards in our budgeting for for next year.

Fantastic. I know that's been a a long time request from, you know, our residents here. I I'll I'll just ask one more question, and then I'll I'll, see if other people would like to. But, I was just curious, where so, like, you know, I I know we've been it's been a long road, in terms of, like, just doing the actual inventory. So I'm just curious where for the schools specifically, like, where how how well we've inventoried the schools at this point. Yeah.

In in terms of all the mechanical equipment Mhmm. That's that's come pretty far. It's not in a consumable sort of form right now. It's really just like an access database. But Yep. OpenGov will consume that so that it will be, you know, a a little bit more accessible to to everybody. But, you know, in terms of the inventory of of all the mechanical equipment, the HVAC, right right down to the the pieces of all the the equipment, we're we're in a pretty good position.

Fantastic. Because, yeah, that that's I have to imagine that, you know, the move from trying to go from reactive to proactive really requires that to be complete. And, you know, see what happens with Winter Hill when we're we're falling back on that one. Okay. Alright. Let's see. Do any of the councilors have any questions or comments here? Alright. Sure. Sure. This is Scott.

Yeah. I just wanna, thank director Raish for the work on this. You know? And it's clear that this is a the strategic level, which is getting your hands around the the problem and getting the getting your your metrics in place. Now the the detailed asset management plan, I know that's that's mentioned in here. Is that is that public already?

It should be. And I should know off the top of my head where it's posted, but I do not. Let let me go searching for it, and and get you the link for that.

Alright. Now it's just one of those things that I wanna make sure that I'm, up to date on so that when folks ask, hey. What the heck is going on with that bill? I'll be able to answer. So appreciate it. Thank you, sir. I'm all set, mister chair.

Alright. I I guess with that, chair Baton, I'm not sure if

Yep. Thank you, chair link. I will just start off by saying I I did read all 45 pages of this earlier today and, found it to be illuminating. I wanna commend you, mister Resch, and, your team for assembling this this document. And, actually, for the honest and transparent assessment of where you're at, there was a a diagram, probably some 20 pages in, indicating sort of where we're at right now and and where we wanna be. Oh, no. It was, maybe it felt like 20 pages. Four pages in.

The the mature

assessment. We're we're we're immature.

Yes. Yeah. No. I mean, then it's it's it's that's not an indictment on on, think go one more. It was page maybe. There it is. Yeah. It's sort of like, you know, here we are in the bull's eye. We wanna we wanna expand out. We wanna be, more mature in in each of these areas, but but we're moving forward. We're, kind of at an awareness level. And, boy, we'd love to get to industry leader. But, you know, hey. It's a process. And you can't know where you need to go until you assess where you're at.

So, you know, I I thought this was actually a fantastic visual, for us to sort of know our our current status and know where we need to go. And then the rest of the document sort of takes us through it. Alright. Here's where we're gonna go in these different areas. So really appreciated the clarity, the transparency, and I am excited in seeing, you know, those those dashboards when we're able to sort of get into it, you know, in finer with a finer tooth comb.

But that that's gonna come with that maturity. So, anyway, just kudos. Appreciate all of this, and look forward to seeing more. I will I don't see any hands from my colleagues, but I'll give it a moment. Alright. Not seeing anything. I guess I'll turn it back to you, Chair Link.

Miss, Chair Pitone, this is Laura Pitone. I apologize. I'm on a phone, so it's a little harder to navigate.

Go ahead.

May I I speak through you? Thank you. First of all, thank you for the report. I'm gonna ask a really dumb question. Where was the report made available? I didn't see it in my email. I didn't see it posted on the thing. Maybe it came from directoration. I just missed it. I apologize because I found four memos that we received.

It can only speak for the city side. It's attached to the city agenda. Okay. Maybe that's where I missed it. I I I don't know how it how they make their way to the

No. I mean, obviously, mister chair Baton had it, but I can't find it. So It it just can't comment

on drive.

Oh, it's on the drive. Yeah. So now we're starting to put things on the drive because before we were just putting them in email. So okay. Apologies. That's fine. No. It's no. No. That's great. I'm thrilled that it's on the drive. I just didn't know to look there. So I all I have is to say is I'm excited to see it. I'm sure if it's tracking in the direction of all the work the city has been doing over the last several years to enhance, the asset management work, I'm sure it's fantastic, but I can't comment on it. So I'm gonna have to defer my feedback if there is any, which I sounds like there won't be, but I I haven't read it. So I apologize and that I missed where this stuff was located.

Alright. And member Patone, I I can also track through my email. I had thought I sent this out. I intended to.

May have. I might have missed it. I saw an email with four memos on it.

No worries. We

can And I didn't know we were managing stuff in the drive again for this meeting because we used to not. So it's great. I'm thrilled. So all I'm saying is that I don't know if people are willing to leave it open for another meeting. I don't know what I'm gonna I just would like to read it. So that's all. Because I'm

Well so, Chairlink, if you're willing to keep this, open, I'd I'm happy to keep it open as well.

Sure. That is not a problem.

Thank

Alright. Thank you, and back to you, Chairlink.

Thank you. So we'll, sorry. So what is the what what would be the official designation on this again?

We would keep this in committee.

Just keep it in committee. Okay. So we'll just mark it as can keep

it committee. If I may just briefly, the item is attached or the the document is attached to the actual item. So if you go here, it's not up here where the attachments are. If you click on this over here, that is how I was able to pull that up, on our side.

That's helpful to know where everything can be found because I knew about the meeting minutes in the one I mean, the meeting information in one place. I didn't know you had items to individual things. So thank

you.

It occasionally gets a little misplaced. So yes.

Not a problem. As long as I know all the places, I'm all set.

Alright. Then, with that, we'll move to, item twenty six zero two four one, which is a resolution that the administration provide, the committee on school building facilities and maintenance with regular updates on the Massachusetts school building authority process for the Winter Hill and Brown schools.

Thank you. Again, for your record, Richard Reyes, director of infrastructure and asset management. We continue to move along through the MSBA feasibility phase. We've had a lot of interaction recently with the school committee. Our next submission to the MSBA is what's called the preliminary design program or the PDP, And there are two aspects of that submission in particular that have a lot of implication for the education portion of of the the building project.

And so the while not a requirement of the MSBA process, we did elect to review those portions with the with the school committee, partially at the assistance of mayor Wilson with the concurrence of chair Ackman. And and those two components are the educational program, which was largely directed by and authored by the school administration, doctor Carmona's team, with the assistance of our consultants, but it was very much driven by the educational vision of doctor Carmona and his team. And then more from the consulting side, what's called the the space the the space plan. So, basically, mapping that educational plan along with the the the student enrollment counts that the MSBA gave us to space, numbers of classrooms and square footage. So those those two documents were or components were reviewed with the school committee.

School committee voted to authorize chair Ackman to sign off on those. Vote was seven for and two against. So Emily is allowed to sign off on that. The school building committee will be holding a vote on that as well prior to the submission, and that'll go into MSBA. The preliminary design program also has, you know, sort of massings of of of the the building for those two different enrollments with a few different configurations that the architects are coming up with.

One of the primary drivers that we gave them and and was part of their of of Perkins easement selection is the the sort of passive house green building or or energy standards. And so the the layout of the building on the site has a lot to do with with sort of, you know, passive solar gain. And so that those are the the things that, you know, we're we're sort of reviewing in terms of of the massing. So that's where we are right now. You know, once this goes in, that gets reviewed, and then the next major milestone and and the next milestone is very important to to make it onto the MSBA board schedule.

We have to submit by August the preferred schematic report, the PSR, And that's where we really narrow it down to, you know, one option, one one enrollment number, one layout, and a and a lot of detail on the on the you know, how the educational services are are provided in that building. So that'll be the next major milestone after this one.

Thank you very much, doctor Ish. That was a really great update. I so just so that I'm I'm clear on this, does so that means that we're, at this point, we're starting to kind of figure out how I know in the the last public meeting, it was kind of a more just concept of a these are the the potential massings and and, like, orientations of the building itself or, like, design of the building itself, like, kind of on a very large scale. Does this mean we're actually getting more fine grained, where we're now figuring out, like, what the programming space would look like?

To the chair. Yeah. I you know, really, the the content of this submission, that that goes into the m MSBA right now is largely what you saw at that last public meeting. You know? It's it's really the compilation, of those. It's there has been some advancement on some of the detail, but we're we're still very high level at this point. It'll be the next submission, the the August submission that that really has a lot more detail on on the preferred alternative.

Understood. And at that time, we'll so we'll have because there was three or four designs. Maybe four.

Well, technically, there's there's six. But but to I I I don't you know, and MSBA requires us to also evaluate just a a repair and code update, which will not serve our purposes at all. But for whatever reason, we have to document that and cost it out, as a base case, but it it will not serve our our needs. We also have to, do a renovation plus addition option, which we also know will not meet our needs, but it is a requirement. So we we we're we're carrying two other options by by rote, but they're not really, you know, under serious consideration.

And does the this is just for my own identification. Does the MSPCA understand that those are those two options while required are are not feasible?

Yes. But we have to go through the process.

Yeah. I figured. I I understand. Okay. Great. Thank you. Any other nope. So was not seeing any other hands from the city council. I'll leave it to you, Chair, to talk to Tony.

Thank you, Chair Link. Chair, sorry, Director Reisch, thanks so much for, this update. I I have one late breaking addition to provide, which is from member Green, who serves on the school building committee, that the school building committee just voted right before this meeting began 10 to two to submit only the 925 seat proposals to the MSBA. So that is, hot off the prices. Was there anything else I wanted to ask about this? I I got so excited to announce that.

Just, just just a point of clarification on the on the the book. That is our indication of the preferred alternative. The submission still has to contain all of them, including the the six ninety enrollment options, but the the the the school building committee is indicating a preference for the the six ninety, which may still come back. The MSBA may still tell us continue to explore the the other options, but there was the the the preponderance of the of the committee wanted to give direction to Perkins Eastman to focus their efforts and not dilute their efforts. So that was sort of the the reasoning behind that.

And and also to provide clarity to the to the community who, you know, wanna have a clear indication of the directionality of the evaluation.

Thank you for that clarification. Appreciate it. I did wanna just provide a a brief addendum to this topic unrelated to the current status, which was going way back in time to 2023 when we were first accepted into this process with MSBA. Mister Reish, I had requested, maybe a month or two ago, those initiating documents, where MSBA invited us into the process. And, you you went through your email and dug up those files and, posted them on the, the public website.

So I just wanted to thank you for for doing that. And just for the public record here, note that those documents are now available, and I believe actually attached to this item, in this meeting. So in case anyone's wondering what that, item is and why it's there, it's because we asked and, mister Reich delivered. So thank you for that. Are there any other questions or comments on school committee side?

Seeing none, chair Link, we'll go back to you.

Thank you very much, chair, Bichon. We are on, item oh, sorry. So, we will mark that, work complete.

If I may, chair link, I I think this one we wanna keep in

Yeah. I just realized. That's how I saying it. Sorry. Yeah. We're gonna keep this one in committee. My apologies. Alright. So, moving on to item, 26Dash0134, the that the director of infrastructure and asset management and the director of the office of sustainability and the environment provide a written report to this council on updates to measures and practices taken to assess, monitor, maintain, and improve the physical environment in schools. And,

chair Link, if I if I may just mention, I neglected to include this on the school committee's corresponding agenda, so we will not participate in this conversation. However, the memo that was attached to this document was received by the school committee back in January, so we are well versed on this topic, and it should be fine on this. So go ahead. Wonderful.

Yeah. It's the chair. You know, much of what we've just been talking about, you know, the asset management plan, and all that sort of our our strategic way we go about this. What we provided here for an update for this particular item, is what we accomplished last year. And and I should, you know, point out that this document is provided to the school committee on a buy in semiannual basis semiannual basis consistent with the agreement with the SEU, and this is what was accomplished within the the past year.

It it's it's the joint contributions of IAM OSE, which is the Office of Sustainability Environment, and, of course, DPW. So just to to update the the committees, on on what has been accomplished in the past year, we provided that.

Wonderful, Thank you. I'm I'm curious. So I thinking about this, I'm I was recalling it a an email was that we received that I I was made aware of. I know we had this morning about the Edgerly School and the the gym for the HVAC, that that there's maybe not climate control there. So maybe taking this as I'm bending this one a little bit, but, you know, I'm I'm curious. Is there any updates there in terms of, when they're gonna have climate control at the the elderly school in the, the gym?

To the chair, you know, we we meet regularly with SPS and and prioritize, you know, what our summer projects are. And for this year, the summer project to be prioritized is Healy two zero eight. So that that's on that that's what we're and and last summer, it was the infill classroom at the Argentiniano. I I suspect that our priority project for next year will be the the Edgely air conditioning. However, I I you know, while I think we will we will likely, you know, launch that effort as soon as we finish ULE two zero eight, it will require an upgrade in the transformer, which is something that we need to work with Eversource Energy on.

Those are long lead items. And and so well, I think we're gonna try to line this up for next summer. It is possible that we won't be complete next summer because of that. You know, the the the the lead times on those things are variable. I don't wanna take it you know, be too pessimistic and say that is impossible, but I do wanna be realistic on on when we'll be able to deliver that.

Understood. Thank you very much. Council Sight?

Through you, Chair Link, to director Rage. So first, my question about this document is so is this the format that was is he, like, these three three bullet points? Right? So is this how the city provides this is, like, how if every six months, this is these there will be updates on these three different things?

No. That's accurate. That's correct. Yeah. The this then yeah. This is this is in response to the SEU contract. Okay. And it it laid out the, you know, the sort of three topic points that we update semiannually.

Yeah. The reason I'm asking is because the item I put in is mostly around, like, updates, like, around school decarbonization, and this one has, like, more than that. Right? Okay. Because some of the things, and this is my next question is I see boilers replacement. These boilers are gas powered. Right?

Through the chair. That's right.

Yeah. Because yeah. Okay. Because, you know, seeing that on a report that's should be about school decarbonization is not great. It's we don't wanna give the impression that building new fossil fuel infrastructure is is how we are going to achieve school building decarbonization. So just to be clear, this one is a copy of, the update to the SEU, not necessarily a direct response to the item we put in.

Through the chair, that's correct. But it was a responsive document. In the interest of time, we turned this over rather than create a new document.

Yeah. Just because it's, we're discussing that item. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for that for this clarification.

And, yeah, I just wanna say, I just wanna thank you and, everyone who is working on this, the administration, the city staff, everyone in the school community. As you all know, this is an effort, you know, between that has started years ago between parents, educators, students. So it's great that we're seeing these updates. So we know, like, we're working on these things even in these times when it feels like achieving school decarbonization is impossible with everything that's happening at the national level and the state level. So I appreciate that we are sticking to our goals, to our climate goals, and we're doing everything we can.

So and I will add that this is an important goal that we have as district, as a city. That would be great to have this, not just, like, in one report, but somehow way of tracking these things in, like, two and a half, two categories. There's the they are the short term goals and the long term goals. That you know, when we you look at the short term, you feel like, yes. We are achieving we are doing things.

Right? And, also, we making sure that we are we always keeping in mind our long term goals. So, yeah, so I think this is how that's why I asked about, like, the format. And, again, I understand this is just an update for the SEU. But my request is that we'll have something like that where every time we complete something, we add it.

We have been asking about this for a few years now. I think the school community would like to have something like that, especially that this is we know that this is one of our top priorities, and we are doing the work to get there. So they can make this request separately, but I you know, we haven't asked for, like, a specific format for this update, but we can we can work on that.

Okay. I I will say thank you, councilor Saeed. I I believe yeah. I agree with with everything that you said there. And I I, you know, I was really with the the project to decarbonize the the parking building, over in, in Ward 7, that, you know, I was really, there's 76.

But the the I I was really excited to see that, and, like, I think that's a model, where we're seeing, you know, that, yeah, we can do these things and actually, you know, while it's money upfront, it does actually return the investment, where it's very quickly. The the solar rate that's gonna be put on there is gonna pay for both itself and other projects that are, you know, that was deferred maintenance. So I I believe that, you know, we've got this, like, really wonderful kind of model of how how we can do this. And I I believe doctor Nudar is also on you know, feels the same. So, yeah, I'm really excited about that.

Okay. Seeing no further discussion. Yes.

May I ask another question through you?

Of course. Yes. Sorry. I'm gonna ask you.

Through your trail link to director Rage. I wanna ask about the, if, there is any update about the power brush or the bro the broom sweepers to remove snow on rubberized playgrounds? Do you have any have we looked into that?

Chair link, if I'm if I may, I submitted a separate item on this through president Davis. My hope is that this will be on the agenda next next meeting.

Alright. We'll hold up.

Yeah.

Can I say this was, I believe this is your order? So what would how would you like it disposed?

I think we can mark it as work completed.

Okay.

I do not expect different update. But as I said, we'll work together on figuring out what would be the best way of

A new order of getting

Communicating these updates and also keeping track of them and make sure they live somewhere. Yeah. Yes. But for now, we're completed. Sounds good to me.

Great. Alright. Thank you very much. So, with that, Mark, as we're complete, we'll move on to item 26Dash0109, that the commissioner of public works provide a written update to this council and the school committee on the status of restoring hot water to all areas of the Capuana Early Education Center, including areas of including which areas are affected affected, actions taken, and an estimate, and timeline for full restoration, which I believe is fully restored at this point. But, I'll I'll leave that, to, I guess, interim director.

Hi.

But yep. I see this. Here are.

Eric Wiseman, commissioner of DPW. Yeah. So thank you for your patience on this item. We have restored hot water to, all areas of the school. It was, something of a whack a mole type, issue where we thought we had identified the issue, made a repair or replacement, and then just sort of worked our way through the system until it was fully resolved. So, the attached memo, I think, goes through all of the steps we took, but, hot water is, is restored. And, again, I appreciate your patience on this. This was very important to me to get completed.

Thank you, director Wiseman. Am I correct when I was reading this? So there's, that that on on page one, that's second to last bullet in there. 15 crossed, hot and cold water lines. Am I reading that correctly in that, like, that means that they were literally, like, they

For the sake, mister Share, I do have Matt Bennett, the building superintendent, who can explain the better than I can the actual physical crossing that happens there. But, yeah, my my sense is that there was an inefficiency with how the the building was plumbed at the beginning that caused, a lot of loss of heat. Wow. He he can jump in if he has anything to add on that.

Through the chair, Matthew Madden, superintendent of buildings, DPW. You're you're somewhat correct in your ascertain of what is what the issue was. Initially, what we found is during the I believe it was 1999 renovation, some along the lines, hot and cold water lines actually were were mixing with each other, creating the the inability for the the building to maintain hot water throughout. So learning the the history in the in the past year or so, apparently, it's been a ongoing problem. But as the the food service department ran ramped up each year, it would drain away from the domestic hot water.

So as and and, like Eric said, the whack the whack a mole theory was how we're going about trying to resolve the least evasive and the the the least expensive over the course of time. And the mixing valve seemed to solve the problems in the majority of the building, specifically the the main area affected initially reported. But then it just started to matriculate down the building and a problem in each section of the wing. So, you know, as you see, that's we we changed 12 mixing valves, a balancing valve. We actually we found one tempering valve by utilizing the knowledge of Stuart McKenzie, is now a plumbing inspector who worked for DPW for a multitude of years, realized that they were there with a little bit of research working departmentally in between.

And we shut it down, and voila, we had the the one last remaining room. So it it was frustrating to say at least on all of our parts, but but, you know, trial and error, we get we we'll get you there. We don't give up.

Yeah. I I will say it's it's evident from this that it was not something where anyone was, twiddling their thumbs. There's a lot of work that, is very clearly documented here. I really appreciate that. And I'm I'm sure that the the people, that were really pushing for this also appreciate being able to see, how much work went into this. So thank you very much. Chair of the tone, do you have, seen no, oh, sorry. Councilor Scott.

Thank you, mister chair. I just wanna say thanks for this memo. This is a really good, capturing of this. It can be a little hard to parse if you're not a plumber. I'm not a plumber. I know my limitations. I can't sweat a copper pipe. But I do know that one of the most frustrating things in the world as a plumber is working on somebody else's plumbing. So, you know, just couldn't couldn't say enough about how great it is that, that all this really detective work and recognizing that all this detective work happens behind the walls, and in the ceiling. And it's, it's a lot to track down.

So I really appreciate the work here. I I appreciate the summary here. Probably know just enough about plumbing to waste all of our time, forty five minutes asking detailed questions about what happened, but I'm gonna spare everybody on that and just say thank you again to mister Bennett, and, maybe I'll buy you a cup of coffee sometime and pick your brain and buy it. Alright. Thank you, sir.

Okay. Thank you. So, seeing no further discussion, I'll turn it over to chair Baton.

Thank you, chair Link. I'll pause for a moment to see if there's any questions on the school committee side. Great. Miss Barry?

Hi. I through you, chair, I do not have a question, but the school department wants to send their greatest appreciation to commissioner Weissman and superintendent Bennett for all their hard work in getting the hot water restored back at the Kapowano School. We really appreciate it. And I will say that I truly appreciate all the communication that superintendent Bennett had provided to the school department through this whole process. Step by step, we were in constant communication. So I really do appreciate that. So thank you.

Alright. I I'll second that. I do have one question, which is if teachers or students are are finding that the water, is tepid or, you know, not not coming up at the expected, you know, warmth, what what is the course of action? Is it a 301 request through the front office? Is it I I see miss Barry nodding her head there. But just wondering, you know, if if something you know, if there's any more detective work to do here, what what the next step is.

So, yeah, yes, mister chair. That is the best way to to get this documented and get it, in our hands. I do wanna mention that we have monthly meetings with the school department to go over their priorities. So, that's another avenue where, items get elevated. I would say anytime there's a, like, a perceived public safety risk or, you know, something like that, I'd be happy to receive a separate communication on it as well.

Fantastic. Thank you, commissioner. And and I'll say that was my that my hope was what you were gonna say. I do get messages a fair, bit of the time about different facilities issues, and my number one is always, you know, please please make sure it gets reported to three in one. So, thanks for reinforcing that. I'm not seeing any other questions on the school committee side, so, we will turn it back over to you, Chair Link.

Thank you very much. Alright. So, we can mark this one as we're complete and, move on to, the next item, twenty six zero one zero seven. The commissioner of public works update this council on the maintenance issues at, East Seminole, Capuano, and Edgeley Schools.

Thank you, mister chair. I think in the same memo, there's a responsive mini memo on this, specifically, the work we've done over the past fiscal year as well as some, planned work that we have coming up. And, I think it's worth mentioning that some of the the language or the the work captured in the Capuana hot water memo is also cap captured in in this memo, so those aren't we didn't replace two hot water heaters. It's all just the one.

Thank you very much. I don't think that I've got anything to add. I'm I'm seeing nothing on the city council side. I'll turn it over to you, chair Tom.

Thank you, chair Link. This is one where you guys had a little conversation, and brought up the Edgely transformer issue and power supply to air handling. I'm gonna stretch this item, as well to bring that in, so we can have a little bite at the apple Just for awareness and apologies to my colleagues for not having, put that on the agenda for our meeting, if if this is something you'd like to speak on now maybe at time as well. And just also for awareness, I did put this on, through president Davis, in the hopes that this will make our April agenda as well. But I I did notice that the for upcoming projects, we don't have the, anticipated project to address the heat and air handling at the cafeteria and gym at the Edgeley.

There is a known issue with the transformer there. So I I I'm not sure if perhaps this is where we draw the line between infrastructure and asset management and DPW, and that's why it's not on this particular list. So I I guess whoever wants to take that can.

So so, yeah, yes, I will say that that that this is sort of the line of, like, a capital project versus a public works project. I will say that we are that this has come up. We we recognize this as a priority for the school department, so we are working on a potential, temporary measure, but not not ready for detailed discussion at this point. More to come,

hopefully. Excellent. And and I guess fair warning that it'll be on the agenda hopefully in April. So, maybe we can have that conversation then, commissioner.

You, mister chair. We should have clarity by then.

Amazing. Perfect. Alright. Thank you so much. Anything else from school committee? Oh, miss Berry, go ahead.

Thank you. Through you, chair, I just wanna add that I've been in contact with ISD, and we are going to have spring school building walk throughs. I know that, counselor McLaughlin, I believe, addressed the rodent issue in some of these buildings on the East side of the city. So we are definitely going to be moving forward with having additional school building walk throughs with ISD and DPW so we can report back on that as well. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Berry. Alright. Seeing no other discussion, chair Link, I'll turn it back to the city council.

Thank you very much, Trevor Jones. This brings us to the last oh, wait. Sorry. So we'll mark that as, work complete, I believe. And, then that'll bring us to the the last item on this agenda, which is 26 dash zero one zero two that the commissioner of public works provide the city, council a full time equivalent analysis, and recommendations for custodial staffing at each Somerville public school, including distinctions between day versus evening shifts, disparities between school sizes, usage, and current custodial assignments. Doctor Weissman.

Thank you, chair. I I added, there's a separate memo on this if you wanna bring that up, please. So thank you again. If you scroll down, I started with a breakdown of the schools that we staff custodians for as well as floaters and attached enrollment and area data provided by the school department. So to this just gives you a sense of what the world we're talking about here.

You move along, and then, broke it down by, square footage per custodian and students per custodian at each of the schools that we staff. So and I I put a, like, a a median line on there to give you a sense of, like, which school's custodians serve, more than the median in terms of square footage and which which serve less than the median in terms of square footage and the same for students per custodian. So what what you can see here is that the the brown, has the the most, area and student per per custodian. I gotta I question some of the math here on that brown, square footage per custodian. Need to dig into that a little bit now that I'm looking at it.

I think maybe something got duplicated there. But, yeah, you can see in terms of, yeah, I'll have to look at that. But in terms of custodians, I think we're we're right on students per custodian that the Brown has the most students per custodians followed by the East. And then, in terms of the square footage per custodian, the highest are Argentiniano or sorry, East Kennedy and Argentiniano. I'll have to I think there might just be a extra digit in there somewhere.

Thank you, intern intern commissioner Weitzman. The I guess my my question would just be the you know, we're we we feel that the the it seems like the feeling is that we've got enough custodians, but the I guess, kind of going back to what miss Barry was mentioning, the we do have kind of a rodent issue in some of the schools, especially in or one in something like that the older building of elderly, and then the, you know, the, East, which is, our our largest school. So, and I'd I'd heard from a from a parent that, and I so this is I I can't speak to whether or not, you know, it's this is her third hand at this point. But, you know, that it had been suggested that, like, the the rodent problem was just that, like, the kids were messy. So I just wanna make sure we're not resting on that as a as an idea because, you know, it's we're at schools where there's, you know, there's children as young as four.

And, you know, I wouldn't wanna see, us blaming the kids. Like, we know what the assignment is. The assignment is that they've got, you know, small kids who are going to be messy. We can't ask a four year old to be less messy, really. Mhmm. So, you know, I just wanna make sure we're taking the the actual, you know, making sure that these these places are getting, cleaned appropriately so that we are, you know, mitigating rodent, access.

Yeah. Thank you, mister chair. Absolutely agree with you 100%. I think that that is the benefit of the floaters. It it allows us to shift staff around as necessary, respond to messes.

So, like, as we identify needs in the school, we'll we'll assign a floater, as needed and and direct them to help support the cleaning in the schools.

Alright. Chair site chair site council site. Excuse me. Through your

chair link to commissioner Wiseman. Thank you for providing us with this. We yeah. I see that for East looking at East here. For the day custodian, there's only one.

So there's a request from an East parent after talking to staff. I imagine that staff, they need help with especially the after lunch is when they need additional custodians. Is there can we, like, investigate and see if, this is the case so that because evening, custodians start at three. Mhmm. Is that correct?

If there's any way we can have someone start earlier, or help, since there's this is a need that was identified, so specifically helping after lunch.

So through the chair, yeah, this is exactly how we would use a floater and then, direct them. It gets complicated when there's staff out, and and we have to cover shifts. But but, yes, I I I acknowledge what you're saying that that post lunch period is a is a time that needs a lot of cleanup.

Yeah. Thank you, commissioner, for looking into this.

Councilor Scott?

Yeah. Thank you, mister chair. I guess, the thing that really jumped out to me about this is not so much total area. Kennedy's got a lot of area and pool and and a lot of but just the sheer number of students at the Summerville and having that that balanced I I see the balanced distribution here. I appreciate the floaters are a viable viable resource, but they're a valuable resource and man to all kinds of places.

And, you know, looking around this joint committee, I see a whole lot of people with kids. And my you know, maybe my kids are unique, but good lord. They make misses all the time, and it is unpredictable, both the timing, location, and scale of any particular disaster. So, you know, I I found myself a few years back wondering if I was just bad with toilets because I realized I was having a toilet break on me about once a month, and it was, only it was only later that I realized that I was responsible at that point in my life for something like, over a dozen toilets. When you got 738 of these kids, there's just going to be more incidents, no matter how much they're trying, to to keep it together.

So, just given that, I keep coming back to the staffing on this on a per student basis. It's you know, nothing about the facility or suitability of the facility, but just the fact that there are that many opportunities for an incident or an event makes it a basic certainty that there is going to be. And then, god forbid, there are two critical events happening at the same time. You know, I know that's when a a floater gets called in, but at some point, when you've been managing emergencies for as long, as as one hardworking custodian on a day shift has been, your scale of what constitutes an emergency starts to distort a little bit. So, I'm I'm curious.

You know, with with these day custodian floaters, do we have a sense of how much time they spend at each facility? How much time is spent moving from facility to facility for these floaters? Do they have a default home base that they start the day at? Or so I I guess I'm I'm asking operationally about this. Because maybe the answer isn't we need a dedicated extra custodian there at the at the East. Maybe the answer is, well, we've got it. We're we're doing some operational changes to make sure we've got more resources available there, on the default. Like, maybe maybe there's room at the East can that can be the floater's home base. I don't know. But, mister chair, I threw you.

That's the that's the question I'm trying to get out of here is is understanding that that floating resource piece of it.

So thank you, mister chair. I I gotta admit I lost you a little bit on the toilet, metaphor, but Okay. The in in terms of the floaters, they start centrally, and then they're sort of assigned to cover shortages, and those can be staffing shortages or operational shortages. They typically stay in a building for their entire shift, but, occasionally, we use, floaters to make deliveries of of materials or work on special projects. So that's generally how the operational things look.

I think, like, when you talk about the enrollment numbers and the, you know, like, the number of of, students at the East, one thing stands out to me is that the Capuana school has significantly fewer custodian, students for the number of custodians they have. So maybe we could look at shifting a student from the Capuano, to the East Somerville School. But, sort of on the flip side of that, I think the Capuano population has additional needs because they're younger students, so it's possible that they'd be more messy. Just trying to think creatively about this.

Yeah. I mean, miss, miss Chair, if I could, you know, I'm it's not, look. I'm not certainly not looking to take Capilano as only daytime, daytime custodian.

No. I I wouldn't suggest that. I was looking more at the night. I I apologize for not

being real clear. And, you know, the night is a time where things can be a lot more flexible. Right? That is, I think, an easier situation to manage than, let's say, the real time you man, you wanna talk about something to make a good reality TV show, a ride along with the East Somerville custodian for a week of their shift would probably make for some gripping view. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way, other than just saying we need to push for another full time day custodian at the East Somerville, if there is an operational way.

And and I understand floaters having the floaters cover, you know, folks who are out for a day. It it is absolutely great that we've got that floating resource. I'm sure it also helps with the overtime costs and and maybe the fire department would like a word about how how staff like that to work on overtime costs. But, yeah, I I really wanna focus this, this piece of the conversation on the daytime, Eddie Somerville.

Yeah. So, at this time, I don't feel the, that we should add an additional custodian. We're not to that point yet. I certainly wouldn't turn down an additional custodian, but, I think that, you know, we we've arrived at this staffing. It's certainly something we could look at in the future, but, yeah, I'm not I'm not ready to request an additional custodian at this point.

Alright. Well, I think I got my answer, miss, mister chair. I think I'm all set. Appreciate

it. Thank you. So oh, actually,

Through you, chair. How do I how do I say this? I think if we are hearing from parents that, after lunch is when there is a need for an additional person, then my request is at least to, investigate this, to be there with the custodian, for a week and see how is it going, and especially after lunch. Like, does East need a floater on a daily basis after lunch? I know there are days when there's early release, and there are days where the lunch is, like, easy.

You know, they plan all their meals. I don't know how it is anymore about what it used to be. In the schools, Friday was more like pizza, like, kinda straightforward thing. So my request is, can we please investigate this? And if there is a need during lunch, shortly after lunch at east, then we assign someone to be there or have a floater. I understand that right now, we're not ready to make a commitment to add the custodian, but I would like to hear that we're going to look into this, investigate, and, take action.

Through the chair, I I don't have the exact numbers, but we've added a number of additional floaters over the past few years in the budget. I'm sure councilor Scott, recalls that. You know, like, this is something that we that we certainly have done in the past. We've, I think, you know, when, for example, when the Edgely opened up, we added a temporary custodian for that. So it is something we do, but we we don't take it lightly.

It's very you know, it's a a very serious thing to add a new position. So, yeah, I'm I'm happy to to entertain the possibility, but it's it's not something that we're in a position to ask for at this point.

Thank you, commissioner, again, for looking into this and Mhmm. Where budget season is starting. And, if we identify real need here, it is our role as city council, as a school committee to make sure we meet the needs. So if East needs that, this is a call to my colleagues here on both bodies to do what we can do, actually, in this case. Thank you.

Sure. Through the chair, if I may, the other thing we can look at is whether that we can have a a staggered schedule or something like that to have, sort of overlapping coverage so that the day custodian has more support shifting somebody to cover both shifts in some way. I imagine that that would have collective bargaining implications, but that does that's not a reason not to explore it.

Thank you, Krishna. Oh, sorry.

Yeah.

I was just

gonna say, thank you. I appreciate you looking into solutions here, but I think what we're hearing, what's pretty clear is that there's a need. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. So I guess my my only question is to follow-up and and maybe pull on some of the strings that people have been asking that, so we've got four floaters. Do they have, do the floaters have, like, a a kind of a home base that they start from, commissioner Wiseman?

Through the chair. I I know the answer for the night floaters better that they report centrally and go out. And then I believe that, you know, like, if they have a a preexisting assignment, they'll go directly to their assignment. But, yeah, they'll they'll they'll typically, like, work with the the custodial supervisors and, go to their assignments from there.

So, potentially, we could just I'm I'm I'm obviously not gonna suppose that I know better than anyone else. But, I mean, I wonder if there's the possibility of having, you know, kind of a default where, like, you know, one or one floaters always starts at, you know, at the East and then moves on if they need to. Mhmm.

They're

they're kind of semi dedicated, if you would. Mhmm. Great. And I I've also I've got our our mayor mentioning some some news to me that I guess so mayor Wilson's about to send out an announcement that that you are not an interim commissioner anymore, commissioner Wiseman. So congratulations. That's really fantastic.

Thank you, mister chair. What a way to find out. That

is awesome. Well, yes. So I know that that mayor Wilson has spoken very highly of you both in in public and in private, so I'm sure that you're gonna continue doing an awesome job, you know, making the city a better place. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair. I'm I'm I'm confident we can come up with a creative solution to to address this.

Great. And with that, chair Baton.

Thank you, chair Link. I wanna also share my congratulations, commissioner Wiseman.

Thank you.

And I'm looking forward to continued work together. I'll I'll pause a moment. Are there any questions, about the custodial staffing issue from my colleagues?

Member Eldridge, go ahead. Thank you. Congratulations, and nice to meet you all in the same the same breath there.

Nice to meet you as well. Thank you.

I'm hoping maybe, you could provide some context or maybe someone else here might be able to, or we can get some information and bring it back. We've been talking a bit about this on the school committee end of things. There's going to be a transition of a strand of the AIM program, our students that are navigating autism from Winter Hill to the Argentinian school. With that, there's been a lot of thoughtful work to support educators, administrators, and students. I'm curious whether there's also plans or resources in place to support our custodial staff in that transition, particularly given the specific needs of the new student population coming into that building.

But also thinking a little bit more broadly, I'm wondering about the full student experience in the building and how we're supporting all adults that interact with students day to day, including custodial staff, if there's any structures, trainings, or resources in place to help guide interactions and support our custodians as they're working within the schools?

Thank you for your question. So through your chair, the chair. So so this is somewhat new information about the the shift of this this strand to the Argentinian. It's it's been something we've been discussing internally from a facility standpoint, like, a facility management standpoint. It's not something that's come up from a custodial standpoint.

This came to my, my attention very recently. So in terms of supporting our custodial staff, we would you know, if there are recommended trainings, we would be happy to provide those. Most of our trainings tend to be about safety, you know, worker injury, things like that, or technical trainings about materials or equipment. It's not something that we've we've conducted in house, but if there is guidance on that kind of thing, I would be, happy to to facilitate that with with my, my team.

I appreciate that. I don't honestly have any training suggestions in front

of me.

I was just kinda thinking just for

No. And I I was I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to ask

you

to to put you on the spot, but, it's something that I'd be happy to follow-up with the school department on.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Sure.

Excellent question, member Eldridge. Anything more? Alright. So I have two questions, and I will, just start with one, and we'll see if I there's any other questions for my colleagues. But, first off, just really appreciated the data. I love I I couldn't help myself. I threw all of it into a spreadsheet, and I can confirm that the, the Brown School area, calculation was incorrect. But, you know, it it it's actually more

and distracting to me. Apologize.

Oh, no. Me too.

What I did.

It's okay. But it it it's much more in line with the other schools. It does have the higher students per custodian count. But in doing that, I actually, you know, found also that you know, confirmed some of what you you concluded, that the students per custodian and the area per per custodian is sort of an outlier at east. And I I trust your judgment and conclusion that this is your department, at the end of the memo when you conclude, that at this time, you don't feel you need any staffing changes.

Far be it from me to, second guess your your own determination there. But but that does suggest that area and student per custodian is not a meaningful measure for assessing workload for the custodians. And and I don't know what would be a meaningful measure, to assess that, but, it seems that in this instance, it may not be. So my question to you, commissioner, is what might be a more meaningful measure that we could look at? Because we are getting these questions about, you know, hey.

Why does a school with almost 800 students have the same number of daytime custodians as a school with 230 students? It it's a reasonable question.

Thank you, mister Shere. I I think you're absolutely right. I I love looking at data, and these things stood out to me. Part of the reason that I've I've hesitated to suggest a staffing change is that we've had a lot of turnover in our custodial staff over the years. We've we're working on having a fully staffed custodial department for the first time in a while.

I'd like to see how we do with a fully staffed, custodial team. Again, like, I'm not saying that there there is no room to shuffle staff, around. I'm saying that at this point, I'm not advocating for a new employee. But, yeah, like, I think that there's that there one one of the things that we're we're in active negotiations with Local three, so we are talking about ways to be a little bit more flexible in terms of staffing. All of these are assigned custodians.

It it would be nice to have, you know, different different opportunities to to shift people around as needed. Don't wanna, you know, talk too much about active negotiations, but I I think it's, like, it's absolutely something that we could look at being more creative about. I also feel that, like, enrollment, is dynamic. So, yeah, it may it may be I I'm I'm not gonna say it's not the best, measure or but it's not the only measure. I think that there you know, I hate to say that we're doing something because of the way it's always done, but I do feel like it's worth, you know, understanding the situation before you go around changing things.

Yeah. So so happy to look at the East in particular and see what our options are, and, see if there's there's ways that we can that we can correct that anomaly there.

Well said, commissioner, and, appreciate that, humbleness about approach. We certainly don't wanna go into a situation and sort of upset the apple cart and create more problems while we're trying to fix something that is seemingly working okay, but, you know, might need some tweaks. So, anyway, appreciate that. My second question, is about the high school. I was surprised to see in this memo that, we subcontract out, or we contract out custodians at the high school.

I know we need custodians every day at the high school, so this surprised me a little bit. Is is there a, a plan to transition off of contractors at some point, or, you know, what what is the reasoning for for that? I imagine it's more expensive.

So Thank you, mister Cherry. It was before my time, so I'm not a 100% certain about the reasoning, but I suspect with the building as large as the high school that the thinking was that by contracting out, you insulate the city from responsibility to cover missed shifts and things like that. So when we when you have a contractor, they have to take care of like, they're responsible for covering all of their vacancies, so they can pull from their resources to staff, whereas, you know, we would have to cover from like, pull from a floater or from another school to cover that. That's my guess. I wasn't here when that when that arrangement was set up.

It's been many years.

Appreciate that answer, commissioner. And and I would be interested in hearing, as you come up to the, to the end of that contract, how you may consider changes to it at some point in the future, certainly seems worth evaluating. Seeing no other questions from my colleagues, I will turn it over to you, chair Link.

Alright. So thank you to, commissioner Weissman. And Thank you so much. That we can mark this one as, complete. And that brings us to the end of our agenda. So, for there, madam clerk, do we have do I is there anything that we need to actually do a roll call on?

For the minutes. Yes. That's the first item.

Alright. So I guess let's, so let's let's take the roll call for, approval of the minutes for, the school the special, committee for school building facilities maintenance on December 8.

Perfect. Alright. On approval of the minutes, councilor Scott?

Yes, please.

Councilor Sai? Yes. Chair Link?

Yes.

Alright. That is all votes in the affirmative.

Chair Link, we also have, minutes on our side to approve, if I may.

Yes.

So I'll accept a motion to accept the report from the 12/08/2025 meeting.

Motion to accept the report from the 12/08/2025 meeting. Did I get that?

You got it. Is there a second? Great. Motion by member Eldridge, second by Ms. Patton. Member Eldridge, how do you vote?

Yes.

Member Patton, how do you vote?

Yes.

I vote yes. Motion approved unanimously. And, that concludes our session. So I I believe we're adjourned on the school committee side.

Alright. Thank you. And, motion to adjourn by super Scott.

Alright. An adjournment. Council Scott.

Yes, please.

Council Saeed.

Yes.

Chair Link.

Yes.

Alright. With that, it is 07:32PM, and we are adjourned.

Thank you all.