School Committee - Special Meeting

Alright. Good evening, everyone. It is Monday, March 31. This is a meeting of the city council school building facilities and maintenance special committee, meeting jointly with the, school committees, subcommittee of the same name. I'm Lance Davis, chair of the city council committee. I use he, him pronouns, and we will let's start us off by calling the row. We're assisted this evening by Peter Forsalisi as a clerk. Thank you. Clerk Forsalisi, would you please call the roll to establish quorum?

This is roll call. Councilor Syed?

Present.

Councilor Klingon? Present. Councilor Klingon?

Present.

Here. And councilor Dave?

Here.

Mister chair, all members are present. We have a quorum.

Alright. Thank you. I will let you know that pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2023, this meeting of the committee on school building facilities and maintenance is being conducted via remote participation. So we will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of counts city of summer website and or local cable access government channels. As I mentioned, this is a joint meeting, so the, city council's committee will, now stand in a brief recess so that the school committee can, open their meeting.

Thank you, chair Davis. This is Leron B. For the school committee. I will start by calling role. Is Sarah Phillips there?

Here.

Laura Patton?

Here.

And I am here. We have quorum, and we'll turn it back to you, Chair Davis.

Alright. Thank you very much. Because it was so much fun the last time, let's do it once more. Clerk first, please call the roll to re establish the quorum.

Protocol. Councilor Syed? Councilor Syed?

Present.

Councilor Klum? Present. And councilor Davis?

Here.

Mister chair, all members are here.

Alright. Thank you very much. So we have a few items on the agenda this evening, and forgive a little bit of administrative work here. Liaison Hernandez, I I did I I neglected to ask before we opened the meeting whether there was any any particular order that the administration would prefer to take things to be most conscious of administration staff's time. Always happy to try and accommodate that where we can. Is there any any items that you would care to take out of order?

Hi, counselor Davis. This is Yasmin from IGA. I was wondering if we could take up item twenty four zero four six six and twenty five zero four eight nine first.

And then if possible, have 250236 after that. And then no preference on the order after that.

Okay. So O466 is the item regarding Junie Smithers' pool. O489 is that's item four on the agenda. O489 is item three on the agenda.

Sorry. Counts, mister chair. O fours, O466 would be the MSBA, the, the update for Winter Hill and the Brown School.

O436. Sorry. I misheard you. O 4 36. Okay. So, yes, the overall, update on the Winter Hill School, that is item oh, wait a minute. Okay.

O466.

There's we had, by coincidence, we have a 240466 and a 250466. What were the chances of that? Alright. Let's make it as complicated as possible. Thankfully, clerk force Alicia, I know we'll get all of this right. Alright. 240466 is item two of the agendas. We'll take that up in the regular order of business. Then we item three is next, so that keeps us in the regular order. And then we will jump to item five on the agenda, which is o two three six regarding road mitigation. Does that sound right, Lia Zander Nasi?

That's right. Thank you so much, mister chair.

Alright. Excellent. So then let's let's keep it in

order what we can. We'll start with item number one, which is twenty five zero four zero eight, approving the minutes of the school building facilities and maintenance special committee meeting of 03/03/2025. I'll move for approval of that. Is there any discussion? Alright. Seeing none, we'll we'll lay that on the table to be taken up at the end of the meeting. Item number two is 24 dash o four six six, that the administration provide the special committee on school building facilities and maintenance with a regular update about the Massachusetts school building authority process for the Winter Hill and Brown School. Councilor Saeed, do you want to, do you to accuse yourself for this?

I think it was just a general update. No location. I'm yeah. I can be here. If this has to do with the location, then I will just turn off my camera. And

Okay. We'll we'll keep an eye on that, and we'll make sure the clerk notes if you if you do recuse yourself from the discussion. Liaison or Dassie, do who do we have from the administration to speak to the update?

We have, director Rache from IAM.

Okay. I suppose we could ask director Rache. Is there is there any, information in the update that's specific to the location of the potential new school?

There is not, Chair Davis.

Okay.

Excellent. Alright. You have the floor, sir.

Thank you. For your record, Richard Rice, director of infrastructure and asset management. We continue to move along in the MSBA forming the team module. We released the request for services for owner's project manager. We received nine submittals for that.

We shortlisted that down to four firms that we've invited to interview. Those interviews will take place on Wednesday on a marathon session, and we've blocked out time on Thursday for the selection committee to reconvene and make our top choice from those four. And that'll keep us on track and on schedule for the the the MSBA May meeting. And that's it.

Alright. Very good. Thank you for that. I see councilor Klingen.

Yeah. Through you, mister chair, it's mister director Rage. Director, so I'm on the school building committee. I know that someone had asked, and I and and also just from I think I'm not a 100% how it was with the high school, but wouldn't we be part of that selection process? And are we part of that? Like, is the plan for us to be part of that? I didn't I didn't hear you say I know we haven't there's no meeting yet. We haven't met yet, and I haven't heard anything about our meeting. Serge, can you just tell me where we're supposed to fit into that this piece of it, this slide?

Correct. Through through the chair, to our dual member of committees. It it is not required by the MSBA that the school building committee, have a say on the OPM selection. The school building committee does have to have a say on the designer selection, which comes next. In an ideal world, we would have met with the school building committee just to, get everyone informed.

But to to keep the, the pace of this as fast as, we can and hit the target dates, we were proceeding with the OPM selection prior to having the, building committee convene. And it's just it has to do with, our the Somerville City Charter and how we're, establishing who can sign contracts that it's it's not necessary for the building committee to meet prior to the OPM selection.

Okay. That's all I have, mister chair.

Okay. Thank you. Just a clarification, counselor Klingen, for, for, for the minutes, ultimately, when you talk about the school building committee, you're talking about the construction advisory group? No. No? Okay. Could you clarify what group you're talking about?

Well, the construction manager group, that's the name of that group. I thought the school the, what what's the name, director?

It is it is school building committee. We we had one for the high school. Yeah. Chair Davis, I believe you were on it for a while.

Okay. Gotcha.

So we we have an MSBA required

Oh, he's frozen. But, yeah, mister chair, I didn't know that if there was any extra word in there that signifies. You know?

Yeah. No. I I appreciate the metrics.

Building committee, elementary school. Yeah.

The school commit building committee is the is the formal entity that's created under under the state law that will include the administration, the, ultimately, the, you know, construction the team, the design team, and its architect, etcetera, etcetera, and that will flow through the ultimate construction and completion of whatever building is is is done. So that's thank thank you for that clarification. I was I had

Mister chair.

I I had the construction advisory group in my head, so that's why I was I was

Mister chair, while while we're waiting for director H to come back, do you remember when you were on that school building committee for the high school? Did they I know he already clarified that we don't need to be part of that process, and they don't intend on having us be part of But do you remember if you you all helped select the OPM,

the project?

No. So I I I don't because I didn't serve on the committee at the time. It was it was

Oh, you came in after.

Counselor Rossetti served at the at the at the beginning, and I and I took over when she when she retired from the council towards the end part. So I wasn't on the committee at that time, so I can't recall. We could certainly, you know, sort of find out, but it sounds like perhaps that maybe isn't the common practice.

Chair. Apologies. My computer froze up there for a second. I can Glad to

have you back, director.

I can answer counselor Klingon's question for that because I did research what we did. Almost ten years ago to the day for the the high school, the composition of the OPM selection committee is nearly identical to the the high school OPM committee. For for the purposes of this one, we've got our purchasing director or our procurement chief procurement officer, Angela Allen, who is also on the high school one, our finance director, Ed Bean, who is also on the high school one, my predecessor, Rob King. And we have for for this one, we've got the mayor's office is involved, and Joe Cartagione delegated his mayor's office to, Tony Parentazi. So it's it's essentially the same composition as before.

Thank you for that, director Ish. And my, my recollection or at least my my experience is is that former, superintendent, Parentazi, was the I believe he served as chair, or some Yeah. Procedural leader of that committee. Is is that is that position been designated yet for the scope building committee for?

It it it has not. I am interim chair until our first meeting when we expect the, committee itself to self select the the Okay.

Alright. Very good. Thank you. I see councilor Saeed.

Through you, chair Davis, to director Rach. So I'm hearing for the high school, school billing committee. We have the city councilor, on that committee. Why do we not have one, for this committee?

We do. It's, word for councilor Jesse Klingon.

Oh, okay. Thank you. Okay.

Any further questions from the city council committee? Seeing none, Chair Baton. Anything from, your committee?

I'm not seeing any questions. Give me a moment. Nope. We're good to move on.

Well, thank you for that update, director. We'll leave this item in committee, and look forward to, what whatever update's available at our next meeting. And let's see. Let me get back to my agenda here. That'll take us to item number three, which is the next one on in order. It's item 25 dash zero four eight nine that the director of infrastructure and asset management work with a consultant to provide this council with the renovation cost of the Cummings school building. Doctor Reyes, are you here to speak on that one as well?

Yes. I am. To the chair, this is I I think it's a project that has merit, but it is essentially a a budget decision, as to whether this item we would fund this item, both in terms of of staff time and consultant time. We're working through the specifics of our P and T or engineering architecture budget, and we'll be, putting that forth at at budget time.

Chair Bhutani, take it away.

Thanks, Chair Davis. Mister Resh, thanks for that, framing. I am, wondering, whether the basically, are you saying that the staff time and consultant costs would be needed to develop a renovation cost? I understand, of course, that renovation of the building would would be costly. But, anyway, I I think you understand my question.

Yeah. There's there's a lot of particulars about that building. It is a peculiar building. So the ADA plan, we we would need an architect to work through the specifics of that. There's a lot of HVAC and MEP control systems that would need to be updated, and there's also a number of code implications.

So we we would need consultant team to help us, really tally up all of those things and, develop a renovation plan. So that that costing exercise is a little difficult. My director of capital projects and I were sort of bouncing around numbers that we thought were plausible, but it's, you know, just sort of, you know, a swag, and and not a real number that I could take to, finance committee or or anybody else for, as a real project.

Okay. Chair Davis, I'll I'll bounce it back to you.

Okay. Thank you, director, Resh. I understand that the challenge of of, you know, coming at coming up with something specific in without really digging into it. Can you give us a sense of, you know, whether we're talking about, you know, five figures, 6 figures, low six figures, 7 figures, multi like, it

Yeah. But

Can give us a large bracket that that you would feel comfortable, you know, even if it's as large as necessary?

It it given all that needs to happen in that building, it would not surprise me or Ralph if that wound up being a $100,000,000 price tag.

Okay.

Alright. I see, counselor Syed and then counselor Klan.

Through you, chair Davis, to director Rach. So, could could you clarify what the funding here is for? I did put in this I this order, and I wanted it to be a standing item in this committee, so we can keep checking on this. And my understanding from last conversation we had last time is that we need, funding to hire consultant to do this study. And now I'm hearing funding.

We need funding. We're just during budget season, you're go you're going to make the request for the amount it would cost to renovate the coming school. So am I hearing that? Am I understanding this well? And then if this yeah. If that's the case, then for the consultant, can we go ahead and start looking for a consultant hire consultant now so we can have that number, in the next few months?

Yeah. Through through through the chair. For for a study like this to develop a renovation cost estimate for all of the things that have to be done from ADA compliance to structural issues to MEP and code, that would typically be funded through capital projects annual operating budget. You know, most other departments you'll hear, professional technical services, for those outside consultants. I am has a a a line an accounting line that it it has access to engineering and architecture, which is essentially the same as P and T.

So a study like this would be funded through the annual operating budget. And then once you have that cost estimate, if that then goes into the the capital improvement program evaluation for a green light. And if if that then gets greenlit, we would then for for an actual renovation, a real construction cost, then we would come to the council for, an appropriation, usually under general obligation bonds, for for debt for for that project. But, you know, this this first step, you know, the consultant for for cost estimating would come out of an annual operating budget.

Okay. So the chair, thank you for the clarification, director. So can these two things happen simultaneously? So consultant hiring funding for the study, the consultant, and then, the appropriation. Can this all happen in the same year?

Through the cherry generally, Where we're sitting right now in in April and given what we've already spent from our operating budget, it's unlikely although I can take a look at it, it's unlikely that we would have sufficient funds to to start this effort because we've done we've done a lot. Like, the the the big thing that's eating up our our annual budget from this past year was the the some of the work at the and the two projects at the Argentinian, the the production kitchen. At the Argentinian, we used operating budget money for the design of that, and we're using operating budget for the design of the classroom, that that additional infill classroom. So between that and the few other things that that we needed to do, we don't have much left in fiscal twenty five. So we'd be looking to if we wanted to fund this out of fiscal twenty six.

So it would it would be more a thing that we would be starting in in July than right now.

Okay. Through the chair. I think your director. So, yes, what I'm hearing is we can hire a consultant who'll be doing the study, get that estimate, and go through the council for appropriation all in 2026, fiscal year 2026. Okay.

Yeah.

Alright. Thank you.

Okay. Councilor Clayton? Thank you, mister chair. Through you, director Reish, how how long of the like, is a number like that good for? Like, when when the consultant comes in and prices out everything that needs to be done, what is the length that that number would be good for, especially given, you know, the way things are changing with tariffs and everything every other day? I'm just curious.

Through through the chair, that is a very good question. And, you know, typically, I it's a pre pandemic. A cost estimate like that would be good for for for a decent amount of time, and you could just adjust for inflation. Since the pandemic, there's been a lot of volatility, and the validity of of an estimate starts to wane quickly. And, honestly, right now, with the absolute chaos that the Trump administration is is throwing, I mean, every industry, but the construct construction industry in in particular with tariffs on materials, including steel and lumber, cost estimating is almost impossible right now.

And I've I've had discussions with some of my colleagues in other cities, and and we we have a general reservation about bidding anything right now because contractors may very well be pricing all kinds of risk into the into their bids right now. So it I don't have a good answer for you right now just because there's so much volatility.

So just last thing. But but your back of the envelope, you know, super rough estimate like, you know, you think roughly around a 100,000,000, you know, even somewhere in that ballpark.

A $100,100,000,000, give or take, 50,000,000 wouldn't wouldn't surprise us right now.

Okay. And now and that's to make it off when you came up with that estimate, that was to make it into, I would imagine, a school building.

Correct.

Not that's what yeah. Alright. That's all. Thank you, mister Thank you. Chair Patone, over to you.

Thanks, Chair Davis. Laura Patone.

Thank you. Through you. I understand all the constraints and the challenges that the city has had, but I also am very frustrated because as part of our agreement of the school committee to allow the use of the Cummings as a warming center, there was an expectation that an MOU would be made, created, and include information about what the scope capacity, time, and cost would be to host students in the event of an emergent see. So not necessarily a full renovation. Of course, we would all to have love to have a beautiful live building in the event of one of our schools or part of our schools going down.

But we specifically in our motion through the school committee, this is on the September 9 meeting. The school committee said, yes. We will allow this school building to be utilized as a warming center, but the city must commit to be creating this plan. And the second thing we required was to do basic work to ensure that the basic structure of the building does not continue to deteriorate, including but not limited limited to eliminating water leaks in the buildings. I completely understand the capacity constraints in the city, but I also, as a school committee member, came into this agreement to allow that building to be used as a warming center because, of course, we wanna support the health and safety of our unhoused students, but with the expectations that these things would be done by the city and that the city would meet that commitment.

So I'm feeling a a lot between a rock and a hard because we were really pressured to say, please release this building. Everybody in the city wanted to support the unhoused community. But at the same time, we did not want and expected that this building, a, wouldn't continue to deteriorate and that some basic work would be done and, two, that a plan would be created, not necessarily details, but some level of plan about how this building could be used as an emergency in an emergency situation. I don't know if I've gone beyond the scope of the order, but I really did think it was very important to bring this up in the context of this

Mr. Resh, do you have a response to that?

Yeah. I I I hear that. I understand the frustration. My group did spend some time, in the building getting an understanding of, what the deficiencies were and what the the needs were. That's unfortunately as far as we were able to take the work again given just all the other backlog that we had, and and that's sort of what's what in it's informing, our general opinion of cost in in, you know, in the absence of hiring somebody else. But it's it's a it's an item on a back burner, and, it's just an issue of capacity and being able to get to it.

Hey. Sarah Phillips, see if have your hand up

as well.

Chair. I appreciate that response, mister Reyesha. I understand there's a a lot going on, but I request that we put this this item back on the agenda, not this particular item, but the one Laura raised about the city fulfilling its commitments based on the motion motion of the school committee to release the coming school for

a warming center. Seems like it's time for the city to report back explicitly on what's been done and and what the plan is to follow through.

Noted, Doctor. Phillips, and I will, submit that as an item for future, discussion at this meeting, if that makes sense. Okay. Chair Davis, I will turn the floor back over to you.

So just for clarification, chair Bhutan, do you, when you said you'll submit, is that do you plan on formulating that and submitting it through the through the ex official member, president, Peter Neufeld, or did you wanna make a motion well, you want us to make a motion here?

Yeah. I I can do it offline. I'm I'm not gonna get the wording right.

Okay. Great. Just wanna make sure

that we got that right. That was on the same page as you there. Thank you. Alright. So then this specific item, unless there's any objection, I think we could place on file, and we'll look forward to that, that follow-up item with the specifics as reflecting the discussion that we've had. See no objection to that. Then item this item will be placed on file. And that takes us

Excuse me, mister chair.

Can Yes.

Cannot cannot visit our file, and we're

We're completed. Thank you very much for the clarification. Excellent then. Yes. So we're completed for item three. And if there's no objection, we will take the next item out of order. We'll take item five out of order next. That is item 25 Dash0236 that the director of inspectional services discuss the metrics for measuring the effectiveness of rodent mitigation strategies in public school buildings. I will note for any members of the public following along in in the in the city of Somerville's website, the city council website, the legislar legislar portal. If you you click into this meeting, there are attachments several attachments.

I think two of which which two of which relate to this item. They're the final two, at least in the order that's on my screen. They both have in the in parentheses at the end, this item 25 dash o two three six. Those were responses provided by the administration on Friday afternoon. So, assuming the discussion will will sort of, relate to those or reference those, I wanna let people know where they can where they can find them. Director Reich, is this one, coming back to you as well?

We've got Colin Ziegler here.

Even better. As if that was possible.

Thanks, chair.

No. That's a compliment, director Reish. Alright. Yes. Former czar Ziegler. I I I can I apologize for never remembering your current title appropriately? Please correct me so that I can provide you the respect you deserve.

Thank you. Through the chair, Colin Ziegler, environmental health manager.

Okay. We'll call you manager Ziegler then. In any event, the floor is yours. Take it away.

Thank you. Thank you, chair. Would it be possible to share my screen? Is that possible?

Quick four space. Is that Yep. We get that Perfect. Thank you very much.

That now. Thank you. Oh, I requested it. Alright.

Yep. It's okay. Yeah. You should have it.

Thank you. Here. Let me see. Can everyone see that?

No. Not

not yet. Not yet. We still see Peter's screen.

Oh, interesting.

Peter, you might need to stop sharing.

It's it's okay. If not, I can talk through it. No problem.

Or alternatively, we we alternatively, if it's one Right.

Right now, Carl. Alright.

How's that, everybody? Can you see that?

No. Peter, I'm I'm still seeing the agenda. Weird.

Okay. Let me just Is

it a presentation that you can send?

It's going. It was loading.

Apologies. Apologies. It was loading. It was loading. Alright. So let's go presentation mode. Perfect. Hello, everyone. Just thanks again for inviting me this evening to discuss road and control in schools. I know topic of concern for everyone, especially in our department at ISD and DPW and as well as the administrative staff at the schools that we've been working closely with.

And we've been formulating a new way to track metrics and hold different departments accountable for different aspects of rodent control and rodent prevention management within our schools. We've changed things a little bit to streamline the process as well as developing documentation as well as setting goals and objectives and metrics, for us to improve how how rodent control and rodent management is done in our schools and around the classroom. So to kick that off, so we have been doing oh, sorry. We've developed a new inspection type for the for the schools to be filing to us, which will help track these various cases throughout the the schools, on an individual basis and developing a number of metrics and goals and objectives for each individual stakeholder to try to accomplish over a set period of time. Why this is so important is because currently, complaints are filed to three in one, sent to DPW, and then the contractor and DPW staff work together to address those particular issues.

But it's very sporadic and reactionary. It doesn't contain a lot of the elements associated with good IPM practices based around exclusion, reduction of food, water, and shelter. And what ISD has now done is with developing this new inspection type, we're able to provide our perspective on on management practices, develop these reports, distribute them to all of the different departments as well as school staff to act upon in their in their various capacities. So I'll jump to this. The data being tracked, we're gonna have contact information.

So there's gonna be points of contact for each of the schools that are gonna be putting in complaints, as well as the photos, documentation, teachers that can be contacted, as well as any work that might have been done by our pest control contractor at Waltham Pest. So all of that will be tracked and and pulled over for us. We're gonna be conducting site assessments. So that includes photos, descriptions, recommendations, where we're gonna be looking at conducive conditions as well as solutions to those, number of visits, which is critically important, how many times are we going out there, do we have follow ups scheduled, and then recommendations based on responsibility, which is currently divided between ISD. We're gonna be taking a role in facilitating and coordinating some of this work as well as educating folks on the best practices that are being recommended.

DPW managing the physical spaces as well as interacting directly with our pest control contractor, school staff and administrative staff on working with teachers on issues that might come up around food storage or best practices in the classroom or anything that might come up in terms of reporting, And then actual recommendations to the contractor directly on work that they can do. I have a pretty good idea of their capacity in terms of treatments and and best abatement methods that they could be using in a certain situation. So I oh, Councilor Klingon, did you wanna ask me?

No. I'll hold the questions till the end. I just wanted to go in.

Oh, okay.

Sorry. I mean, so from the chair, I'm happy to to entertain, you know, questions. But if if it's sometimes easier to let you get through the presentation, so I'm happy to do that too. So but we'll we'll stick with that plan for now. But, yeah, members, if you do wanna jump in, then just put your hand up at that top at that.

Right. Thank you. If you look at this flowchart currently, the current structure is basically that top row. Three of normal requests come in directly to DPW. The DPW buildings team assigns the work order to the pest control company. Work is conducted. The pest control company fills out the binder, which indicates where they have done the work, what work has been done, and then, you know, when they're coming back to do the monitoring and re rebatement work. And then the work order is essentially closed, and then a notification is sent. And that's pretty much the end of it. Again, it's very sporadic, very reactionary.

The new set of actions that are being taken in the new flow includes this second row below as well as the citizen serve note at the bottom. So the work order is gonna be created, go to DPW for their normal, their current, process and coordination with their contractor. So there can be some sort of initial reactive action. But, ISD is going to have the three one one request push into CitizenServe. And for those unfamiliar with CitizenServe, this is the city's permitting and ticketing platform.

This is how we track everything, develop cases, and issue tickets and violations and and track certain things. So, it's a critical tool for us, so we're very familiar with it. And what we'll do is myself and environmental health coordinator Alicia Prevett will be responding to these requests in those particular locations, conducting a thorough investigation into entrances, access to food, water, or shelter, documenting, taking notes, speaking with teachers, staff, both janitorial staff as well as administrative staff on on what they're noticing. And then we'll be writing up these reports. They'll be filed.

They'll contain everything that we've done, which has been great. We've tested it out, and we'll go into an example here shortly. It lays out pretty much everything that needs to be done that we can observe there at that time. Those recommendations are then filed within CitizenServe. And then when it is closed out, it'll then push over to three one one, which will go directly to DPW, the constituent, and the three one one service so they'll be able to reference it for future complaints.

So everyone is essentially being brought into the loop. The recommendations are disseminated, so there isn't any he said he said, she said. There isn't any, you know, things getting lost to the ways because there's a process of scheduling follow-up, and ensuring that this work is being done, correctly. So that is our intention. We're changing the metrics.

We're adding those metrics. We're gonna follow them over time. And what I wanted to do now is I wanted to just show you one of these reports that we did over at the Kennedy School. So, again, this is just the draft one that we've done with our contractor when we just finished this integration, and it'll be live within the next week or so, so the the new version. But this is essentially what will happen.

The complaint will come in. All of this information is gonna be auto populated, which is fantastic for tracking, with the direct locations for classrooms, locations, addresses, everything. We're going to be looking at evidence for rodents. So chewing wasn't observed. There were droppings observed, and then we'll be looking through the various locations where droppings are documented, providing a description so it can be referenced. Pathways observed. Yes. Weren't any photos. It's kinda hard to get sebum runs in some of the spaces that I was working in at that point. Entry points, for example, number of the door sweeps here at the Kennedy.

A little older, damaged, a lot of wear and tear. They only need the size of a dime to get through, so mice can get in through a lot of spaces. So being conscientious of that and documenting it is critically important. No live rodents were observed. No other observations. Food access. So this this is where we start getting into a lot of the behavioral side of this issue. Low lying bins were open. Some have open food, needs to be sealed, elevated, those types of little notes. There weren't any water access, so no puddles, standing water, things like that observed.

Clutter. So I understand these are classrooms and teachers need these supplies and space is limited. But as you can see, it provides quite the habitat for mice and just making sure that it's documented in in terms of when we make these recommendations here at the bottom. So it's divided by stakeholder, DPW, janitorial staff, teachers staff, teachers and staff, and then wealth and pest for the contractor. So those type these recommendations are all being made, and that's what we'll be tracking on a report to report basis.

So when we conduct our follow-up, we'll be checking off what has been done, what hasn't been done, and then putting that within the file. So documentation, documentation, documentation, that's really what ISD does. It's what we're trying to improve with school inspections, and it's critical to any IPM that you conduct at any any sort of facility and especially a school. It's it's very important to to solving the problem. That is the conclusion of my presentation. I'm happy to take questions, comments, concerns, recommendations, anything like that.

Alright. Counselor Klingen.

I think doctor Phillips had her hand up first. I'm happy to wait.

Alright. I'm I'm happy to, to, toss it over to chair Raton if you wanna wanna go to, school committee first.

Hey, doctor Phillip. Thank you.

Thanks, sir, chair Jesse. I appreciate that, but I think

you had your hand up first. But I'll go ahead so we don't waste more time. Colin, I apologize. I'm just trying to catch up on your awesome flowchart. Help me understand. You make this great report with all these recommendations for all these different stakeholders. How does the recommendation get to them, and who holds them accountable for following through?

That is an excellent question, and apologies if I didn't make that clear enough. So there are two systems that complaints flow through. There's Qalert, which is 301, which is handled by by our amazing 301 staff, and then there's CitizenServe. So CitizenServe is the the database and system that ISD utilizes for permitting, ticketing cases, and things like that. What we've done essentially is allow these two systems to talk to each other and push information back and forth while removing a lot of redundancy that can take place with something like that.

So now whatever is reported to 311 from school administrative staff is gonna go directly into our citizen serve system to develop that report that I just presented on. From there, I'm able to enter all this data information, develop the metrics that that were discussed within the report, and then I can schedule follow ups on my calendar for reinspection. So the accountability side of things is coming from ISD. We're essentially gonna be the arbiter of these integrated pest management plans. We're trying to get the departments and staff and folks responsible for this type of work on the same page and flowing in the same direction rather than just putting out some traps and hoping things work.

I hope that answers your question. If it didn't, I feel

like Okay.

You, Mr. Ziegler. I'm gonna follow-up while the school committee has, the floor here so we avoid the back and forth. To just ask, you know, this sounds all this report generation, report looks great, by the way, and, I think there's a real value to it. Is this work that you and your, your colleagues are already doing?

It looks like a tremendous amount of new work. And I'm just sort of wondering, with all of the efforts, that that you're already expending, like, what is this gonna mean for for you and your colleagues? Is this, is this now a double full time job? So I you know? And then as a follow-up, how does how do the reports go into decision making? I understand accountability, but I'm curious about decision making.

Thank you for the question, for the question, through the chair. In terms of workload, myself and Alicia Prevett are trying to divide and conquer as much as possible, but this is what we do. We're here to help and and implement our integrated pest management plan citywide. It is a little bit of additional work, but just with this integration that we've done already, it's cut down a lot again on some of the redundancies and generating reports. It actually cuts away from some of the reports that we get.

Now this just kinda streamlines everything. And what we're hoping is that by having the complaint, complaint structure come from school administrative staff, we'll get multiple types of observations or concerns within one rather than getting five or six throughout the area from different people. So we're hoping that this is gonna help streamline things a little bit more. But in terms of decision making, those will ultimately have to come down to the departments in doing that work themselves, but we are gonna be pressing them on on what needs to get done. And, Nick, you're here.

Would you like to say a word as to the term as to the question of decision making and making sure these things get done?

If I may, to the chair, Nick Antanaviga, director of ISD. Yes. So this is the first one that we've put together. We've been coordinating with, Amar from the schools and then also with DPW and three one one to get the integration together. Right now, we have just finalized the integration.

We are going to use the rest of the school year as this comes in to review our distribution process. So right now, we are figuring out how we're getting all of our information. Once we have that information and we've got the report and we have it distributed, that's when we're gonna look into, okay, what what do we do in order to make our decisions because it will come in through all three of the stakeholders in order to direct resources and and where the time is needed as well. Because as we all know, we have finite resources in the city. So what we are going to do with these reports is basically inform us where the the highest areas are and where the biggest needs are in order for us to make the the best decisions for the the dollar, we'll say.

You know, if it's an easy win to go put a bunch of door stops on the the doors at Kennedy, then maybe that's something we discuss as a as a summer slammer over the over the summer with DPW to to go and hook up all of those. Maybe that's something we look at across the schools if we find that. But, again, we're right in the data collecting stage. So now that we've got the reports, we're gonna do probably the next several months of data collection, and then that will inform us to be able to better use this, once the new school year starts. Also, with these reports, we'll be able to better talk with, the schools themselves over the summers on how best to report out to the teachers and the other staff and also best practices.

So there is also a continued education with this where over the summer, Colin and Alicia will be developing a program, to go around to the different schools to help with best practices, to better, work within the reports that we're gonna be doing to to basically give everybody the opportunity to to do well at this. Right now, we got involved. ISD gets involved because there all the other options typically haven't been able to work. We get involved because people wanna know who to point the finger at. And once we start pointing the fingers, that's when everybody starts doing what they're supposed to.

We don't wanna get to the point where we're pointing fingers at specific people. So right now, we're gathering our data. We're gonna make, you know, informed judgments with the stakeholders, and, hopefully, that will put us all on a new trajectory starting in the new school year.

Great. Thank you for that. Chair chair Davis, we have a couple more hands over here. Is it alright with you if I continue our line?

Yeah. Go right ahead.

Alright. Laura Patone, I saw your hand first.

Thank you for you. Thank you for this presentation. I'm really glad to see the new process. I really appreciate the example, the report you gave us for the Kennedy School. I'm maybe this is an opportunity hear from the administration at the schools that support chief of staff on a CK's on the call.

But, you know, to make sure that these things happen, we everybody needs to take their part. So one part is what the administration needs to do, the school administration. Another part is, making sure the janitorial staff executes. So I'm just curious, from the school's perspective, you know, how are they receiving these reports? How is it integrated into the building leadership so that this this plan can be And

and sorry. Some of the video cut out, so I might have missed some parts, but I'll try my best to answer. Is that it's my hope that those who are filing the complaints are gonna receive all in the information that we're putting into these reports, everything from notes to time in, time out, as well as the report that I had presented. And that's getting pushed out to everyone through Q Alert. It'll go right back to their email or to their to their phone as as a link and and how they can look at it and and make sure that they're getting it.

That was the whole basis that we aren't just gonna have all these documents floating around anymore. It's gonna be a in and then out sort of process. That that's how we intend on doing it. And they'll, of course, be follow ups beyond just talking through 311 and citizen serve. There'll be a lot of follow ups directly with DPW leadership and and schools leadership as well. It's it's the intention to make this as robust as possible. We're not just gonna let these things float to the side.

Thank you, mister Zigler. I see superintendent Carmona has his hand up. Do you wanna provide a response?

Thank you, chair Biton and, chair Davis, for, giving me the floor. So I just wanted to echo, Laura's comments about, being very appreciative of the the work that DPW and ISD are doing in our buildings. I think that that will pay off, in the in the short in the short term. We still have have challenges. Is that right?

I know I get calls on a daily basis from the from the East about, the presence of rodents, and, we're working on that. I just wanna highlight that as a district, we have been very clear with our staff about the importance of of keeping all the areas, free of food and and also that any any space in which we can have clear, containers, plastic containers, as well as spaces that are that are free and clear of clutter is something that we have insisted and continue to insist and, obviously, will continue to do. And I also know that we still are addressing some of the issues of access into the building. I know that at the east is is the issue of the bricks that are being, still being, deployed. It's it's a little bit of a challenge, but, but we continue to work in collaboration with, with DPW.

As far as the system itself, I don't know if Amara has anything to say, but I believe it's fairly new. And we're still making the the the the 311 calls and emails. So I'm looking forward to seeing how this becomes part of a system that can be, systematized. So I'm looking forward for any improvements. I know I saw some of the dashboards, Amara showed me the other day, and, they look quite promising.

It's still, I guess, they're in the early phases of the implementation, but looking forward to making sure that we both support our our buildings, and the needs of every kid in the in in the building. So, and, again, I just wanted to highlight that our message has been consistently to make sure that we keep our spaces clean and also clear of clutter. And we we have actually asked everyone if you need a plastic containers, we'll seal them. And and, again, we we will be working with our community to let them know that this is important and that, I know access and mitigation, is is critical in in decreasing these these rodent issues.

Excellent. Thank you, Doctor. Kramona. Doctor Phillips.

Thanks through you, chair, to, director and to Naveka. I apologize for butchering your name, but just wanted to thank you for just a clear overview of your change management plan and the process you and ISD are going through to get us all on board.

I feel really good about the direction where things are going, so thank you all for your work.

Thank you very much. And and just also through the chair as well to to echo the the superintendent's words. We we know that the the schools are difficult. Obviously, we're dealing with children, so it's a a multipronged approach. One is getting all the data we're doing here too. But like I said before, I think one of the other items that we're gonna be working with the schools with is is just the overall education. If

we

can get the the kids to understand and the students to understand at a younger age and and just get into the habits of keeping, road and control best practices there, I think that, you know, it it will help the next generation just, you know, be better at it and and have the best practices already built in.

Alright. Well, if there's one thing our schools are good for, it's education. So, hope hopeful there. Chair Davis, I'll turn it back over

to you.

Thank you very much. Councilor Klingen, thank you for

your patience. Thank you, mister Cheah, for you to, Colin. So, Colin, I saw on their workflow. I'm just trying to understand how the system works, with regards to the, approved submitter. So it looks like even the current way, there's an approved submitter.

What who how many approved submitters are there in each school building?

Thank you. Through the chair. In that flowchart, it's sort of been used as the new format. There's no current approved submitters right now. We kinda just can get complaints sporadically, and that ranges from, parents, teachers, janitorial staff, admin staff. We get the whole, you know, whole, whole group of folks, coming in and asking. The the point is gonna be that we're gonna assign individual administrative staff in each one of the schools to be submitting these complaints rather than multiple people. We want these things to go to one person or maybe a couple people, but we wanna try to avoid how sporadic it is right now. Make sure people are being, you know, informed and and accountable.

Through the chair also with that too, the the point of having the, assigned submitter is to also reduce the number of repeat submissions. So right now, we get multiple complaints. We we could get a dozen complaints about the same thing. So by having the the approved or identified submitter, it will reduce the multiple complaints because that also kinda skews some of the data when we're looking at it. If we see one school has, you know, two dozen complaints in one week, but it was, you know, only for three things, it doesn't really make a you know, it messes with our numbers, and it doesn't allow us to accurately, you know, go where where needed.

So that's also the other reason why we're looking at having a couple of designated submitters at each school.

Okay. And do you, mister chair? So I'm not sure, like, how, you know, the backside of, three one one is, but it sounds like I mean, that's really cool that you're able to the the system kicks it directly over to citizen serve, I guess. So what's what's creating that that hierarchy with regards to school building? Is it just anything that comes in that has the address of the school, or can you are are people able to select a school? I never put anything in while I was at a school. So how how are those being routed based on what?

Yeah. Through through the chair. Those are gonna be routed as, school rodent activities. So those are gonna go directly to me, and they're routed they're gonna be assigned their their service ID, of course. And then those will be routed to me. And the school just auto populates based on the three in one report, the call or or email or text that they're getting. It's most likely gonna be a call. That's the most efficient version of this. And that will all just get populated on my end. And that's how we're gonna be able to track complaints school by school on a school by school debate basis.

Okay. Because, like, in the past, you know, with the work to Hills before it even went off offline, the building itself, I went to sycamore. You know? I had always asked them. I I know that there isn't an internal, like, three one one, you know, within, like, four specifically for the schools, like, a separate its own system or anything like that.

So so they just kinda have to be put in. And then, like you said, based on those two characteristics that I've chosen, what that it the the address and then rodent activity, then it then ends up in in your bin? Okay. So at some point, there may be approved submitters, and that and, obviously, that's a good thing because, like you said, then you don't have repeats and stuff like that clogging up the system. So other question I have is this is kinda just directly to you to you too. We have nine school buildings or 10 school buildings. Anybody for that one, that piece of it.

I believe 10.

10. Okay. That's what thought. It's either nine or 10. So 10 school buildings. Like, at this point, how much of a handle do you feel like you have on, you know, even any like, a number of buildings? Like, you know, do you or is it still kinda just the Wild West right now, or do you feel like are you going through systematically through each school and trying to get a handle on it as you implement the system so that you can kinda really, you know, get control of the situation?

Through the chair, we're just getting started.

Okay.

So so we'll work through the process and troubleshoot as we go to make it as efficient as possible. The Kennedy is was the testing ground for that specific complaint. But, of course, this will come more robust as we get better at it.

Okay. And so then once so the whole idea of the pest company I mean, I don't know these folks. I mean, I don't wanna have faith, but, Waltham Pest, like, there's no way we can train any DPW to sort of do some of this stuff in house, or is that out of the question?

Through through the chair, doing, pest control and then using, some some of the items in there requires, licenses and certifications through the through the state. That isn't necessarily what would be preventing us other than, you know, getting people in trained up, but there's also insurances that that are required on certain of these items, and it's it's in the city's best interest at this point to be using a contractor. We may reevaluate it depending on the the need for it throughout the buildings, but at this point, it's it's better to use the the contractor than to train up and hire new city staff.

Okay. Last question. This is gonna be kind of a tough one to answer just because it's it's gonna be, you know, straightforward and brutal here. So Colin, our director, Ratzard Ziegler. Sorry. You know? What you have observed in the schools at this point, Have you seen any evidence of I know we've seen them with our eyes because I've said I've seen a rat in the Healy. It came in the gymnasium, I think, through the doors. But we know we have mice in all the buildings, and that's, you know, typical of any building. It's it's a it's a constant battle with when it comes to mice, once they get in.

But have you seen any evidence of rats in the schools? Like, bar you know, any any, like, habitat or you know?

No. Rats normally they try to stay outside if they're not foraging. So most evidence of rats that I've seen are around the schools or in the school grounds. And, you know, we work closely with with Waltham Pest in addressing those as needed as well as modern pests for other public spaces. So that's the evidence I've seen. Nothing internal. Anything internal I've seen has been evidence of mice.

So based on your expertise last question, mister Chair. Based on your expertise, if you did see a rat in the so when a rat does go inside of a building, chances are they're looking to get back out of it, or or would they is there a possibility they would set up shop in a school building?

Through the chair. They really, really like the dirt, and they love their burrows. They don't normally stay within internal spaces. It's mostly in an in and out type of relationship with that space.

And mice, they build the nest with, like, all the little papers and everything like that.

Correct.

Alright. Well, I'm really glad to hear this is happening because as you know, I've been talking about the rats and, you know, in around the schools and the mice in the schools and and these things. And I'm really glad that you you guys have gotten involved to sort of be the, you know, expediter, if you will, like, in a restaurant, you know, the person that stands at the the window, making sure that everybody's things are going where they're supposed to go. So this is really great news. I look forward to hearing more, and I and I I want I I look forward to sort of having that confidence that we have a really good our hands you know, really good grasp of of the the issue holistically with our 10, you know, different school buildings because, I mean, nothing makes me more upset than, you know, thinking about kids having to deal with, you know, rat sorry, mouse poop on their books or something.

You know? Because I know they get they get all over the place. So that's all, mister Cheah. Thank you.

Okay. Mister, would you wanna follow-up on that?

Quick follow-up. Rat not that rats can't be inside. I just wanna make that clear. They they can potentially be inside, but I have not seen evidence, in our schools. Only external evidence of of burrowing.

Yeah. That's what I was saying based on what you've seen so far. I mean, if I if there are any three, mister chair, you know, residents living in the schools, I mean, I'd like to know about it. I'd to know that they're gone, and we feel confident that they're gone. Thank

Okay. Chair Vuitton, back to you.

Thank you, chair Davis. I also am, optimistic about this new approach, and the process that ISD has set up to, you know, get a better handle, on rodents in our schools and, try to create the systems that we'll need to effectively combat their residents in our in our school buildings. One thing I I would like to, I guess, plant in in the mind of our administration, so really directed to, doctor Carmona and, your team, is thinking about how, because the the the people who will be empowered with, the access to report will have, a lot of responsibility. You know, I I know there's a lot happening in our school buildings day in and day out. And what I fear is, the holder of that information may sort of kind of get siloed away or if they have someone repeatedly asking them to you know, can you report this?

Can you report this? You know? I know over time, someone who has that task, who has that responsibility can sometimes sort of, want to, I don't know, sort of control it. And maybe not through a, like, a negative instinct, but it's just something that happens. I've I've seen it in workplaces over and over again.

The other thing is wanting to make sure that our families also know who to report to if this is something that, you know, it shouldn't be going through three one one anymore. It needs to be reported to the school, and then that information is coming to this person. So just something to think about. And I see you have your hand up, so happy to hear your response.

Through the chair, I I just want to clarify something. I know you know that, our chief of, staff, Maranosike, has taken care of systematizing some of the some of the processes that we have to make sure that we either report or communicate on a timely basis. So from the beginning of the year or since she started in her position, we streamline the way we communicate any sightings of of rodents in our district. So they are done through only three people, assistant principal, principal, or the secretary. So those are the only three people.

And believe me, I the the East, for example, is a place where I get an email a day. So this is not an issue of folks not really not being something that is that they will forget. This is something that is top of mind often. So I don't think that that really might be necessarily the issue. I'm I'm I am a 100% sure that that is not the issue. I think, you know, we we I'm still very curious as to how we build up the system, but but I can tell you that the the three one one submitters, are very clear in term in terms of that task. And and has been done since Amara kind of took play took, her her role as a as a managing these these systems here.

Great. Thank you. I'm I'm not surprised to hear, that she has, really whipped things into shape, and very, pleased to hear it. So, that's it, I think, on our side, Chair Davis. We'll turn it back to you for the next item.

Okay. Very good. Thank you for that. Thank you for the discussion. As a reminder to folks, the, one of the the attachments that I noted that are attached to the to the main meeting agenda, not the item itself, to the main meeting agenda, slide deck that we heard from mister Ziebler as well as a a memo from the administration detail on a lot of this so folks can take a look at those if they wanna follow-up.

So I think that item we can dispense of, however is appropriate. Seeing no objection to that. And that will bring us back to our regular order of business, to item four, which is twenty five dash zero four six six that the director of parks and recreation report on the process by which Ginny Swethers pool patrons are promptly notified of pool cancellations or schedule changes, including any modifications that could be made to that process in light of March 25 temporary pool closure. I'll note there is also an attachment on the, at the median level, that relates to, to this item.

Sarah Davis, may I interrupt for a moment? Absolutely. Thank you. Doctor Phillips, is this pertinent to the discussion, a new item or the old item?

Yeah. I'm just in the queue for this item, so I don't mean to cut you off.

Understood. Thank you. I just wanna make sure we're missing something.

Thank you. Alright. Alright, Jamie. Very good. So no. That's fine. So as I as I was saying, there was a a response to the administration on this item that is attached. It's in the parenthetical. I look for 25DashO466, so folks can see that. Although, I just clicked it, and it says server error. So, hopefully, that's just a temporary glitch. Thought I had

an upper layer. Yeah. There it goes.

So this came through, the school committee to, to the city council. So I'm happy to, defer to you, chair Maton, if you wanna recognize doctor Phillips or or also to give a little, you know Yeah. Introductory statement, leave us in before we hear from, you know, anything from the administration.

Thank you, Chair Davis. I I guess, before I recognize Doctor. Phillips, I just wanna, say this was an item of great public concern. I heard from multiple families, who had had their swim, classes canceled. Certainly, everyone appreciates, that pool maintenance needs to happen.

And when there are chemical imbalances in the pool, you know, we don't we don't want people in the pool, that that if it's not safe to do so. But a number of people I spoke with, hadn't heard, about the cancellation and showed up to the pool, to find the the, for their swim classes to find a note on the door. People who did not receive an email, did not get called. So, I am I'll I'll sort of wait to see how this, discussion progresses, but I'm I'm curious about some of the information contained in the memo, and, would appreciate if, do we, liaison Radissi, do we have someone to speak on this tonight, or is this just a memo?

Sorry. Through the chair. Director Yerkes actually wasn't able to join us tonight. So we have this memo. I have some background, and I will be taking notes, on any concerns or any questions that I can't answer to relay back and get that information.

Understood. Doctor Phillips.

Thanks. Through you, chair. I too am hearing from constituents about the pool being closed. Right? Our third graders can't have swim lessons because the pool is closed.

The sea turtle swim team that, right, is the the way you get on the high school swim team is also apparently not able to practice right now because the pool is closed. My question actually has to do with the communications because when I read this memo that says there's a chemical imbalance that required this the pool to be closed on February 27, I do not in any way think it should still be closed on March 31. So can you help me understand what we are sharing with the community to help them understand that a chemical imbalance in the water will result in the pool being closed for over a month? I'm sorry. If that wasn't clear, that was to miss Radissi.

Through the chair. Yes. So the sorry. Your question is basically, how are we communicating the chemical, the chemical imbalance that's contributing to the closure of the pool?

More like, how are we communicating how long it's gonna take to fix the chemical imbalance?

Yeah. So from my understanding, part of the problem is that part of the problem is that we're not exactly sure when that imbalance is going to be corrected. They're doing tests of the water on a regular basis, and I know that the, parks and recreation department is posting, on their social media regularly and is in contact with 311. And I know it's included in the memo, but, there's also some email notifications that go out if individuals are opted in to email notifications, which is typically something that you would do once you're registering for a certain program. And yeah. Sorry. I I don't know if that answers your question.

Doctor. Phillips.

Sorry. Just a follow-up.

Am I understanding this right? Basically, it sounds like what we're doing and what we're communicating to constituents is the chemical levels are too high, so we're just gonna wait?

Sorry. We're it's not that they're waiting. They are using chlorine to treat the pool, so we're just making sure that it's safe for residents to use the pool before we reopen it and making sure to stay in contact in sorry, in communication with the community about that.

I'm sorry. One more question. Yeah.

Go ahead.

Are too high, so we're adding more chlorine to the pool.

Through the chair. Sorry. So I am not an expert in chemical or chemistry. From my understanding, it's the the combined chlorine levels, which from my understanding is I don't also wanna give wrong information, but I believe it's fluids that are combined with the pool chemicals. So we're using chlorine to treat that water to make it safe to swim in. But if I also don't wanna I wanna make sure I'm not giving the wrong information so I can follow-up with the committee on exactly the nature of how that chemistry stuff works.

Okay. I wanna recognize Ms. Patone.

Thank you. Through you. I appreciate Doctor. Phillips bringing up the question. None of us are pool experts, but I have never heard of chemical imbalances resulting in a pool being closed for a month. And it I know how hard everyone in the city works. It just makes me wonder, there a bigger problem with the pool beyond the imbalances? Is there some level of expertise that's not available in the district or the city? I apologize. This is city managed.

Is this something that is considered to be an option to outsource this? Because, again, not a pool expert. Miss Radissi, I know you are not a pool expert, and it's very hard for you to answer these questions. However, it just is outside the norm of a situation. And in any other college, you know, school, I've never heard of something like a chemical imbalance leaving a pool out for a month.

So it just makes me ask the question to the city and what can be done differently because this is also the pool has been very unstable for the last couple years. And that's what I'm really struggling with is that we really only have one city pool. And and it's very unfortunate, and I know decisions were made when to build a high school to not put a pool in because the pool is very expensive. But I would love to see a particular different plan to avoid this happening in the future, because these kids who don't get swim lessons will probably never get the swim lessons. This is what happens is if they fall out of their cycle, they don't get the opportunity.

I'm talking about the public school kids to cycle back and get them again because this has happened before. And, you know, we have a lot of students that will not get swim lessons otherwise. And we all know that swim lessons are, you know, a health and safety issue for students. So I'm just flagging this, flagging my frustration, and I hope that the city may consider that if we don't have the expertise in house to manage the pool that we consider bringing in a third party. Just a thought.

The chair. I I hear those concerns. I think everyone on the city side definitely wants to get the pool open again. I know that they're doing regular testing of the pool, for to see make sure it's safe. And I I do wanna note that in the moment, it does say that the trend is trending downwards, and so they're they're seeing some level of improvement. I think the issue is that they wanna see a con a consistent and sustainable level of improvement that won't put anyone's, health in in jeopardy if they do reopen it completely.

Thank you, liaison with DC. I'm gonna recognize myself for a quick question here, which goes back to the communication piece. I also just as an aside, you know, I don't have a degree in chemistry, although I essentially have a minor in chemistry and, my undergrad and studied atmospheric chemistry. So I know, like, a little bit. And, you know, if if we weren't sure, you know, exactly what the problem was, I think we could have emptied the pool and refilled it and started back to zero, over the course of, you know, less than a month.

Just my my opinion there, as an aside. But, I guess about communication, what's contained in the memo pretty directly conflicts with the experience of some parents that I've spoken with who stated that they they did not receive an initial email from the aquatics team. They received subsequent emails. I know the the memo says that emails were made, calls were made. I guess I would just ask that the aquatics department look at what list they're using and just make sure that, you know, a consistent, you know, process is being used to to sort of look backwards on this and really do it like an after action because I really think the communications needs to get tightened up here.

And, so that would just be my recommendation. I'm also gonna recommend that, in in deference to, director Yerkis' not being able to be here tonight, that even after reporting back, and giving her some time to sort of think about the questions that we're asking, that we keep this on the agenda for the next meeting. I don't wanna beg, sort of preempt it, but I think having some productive back and forth would be helpful here. So just that's my opinion to start off with. And then I'll

Through the oh, sorry. Through the chair. So I know, that the director and I had conversations, and, obviously, this item being submitted raised some questions about the communications. So there was a concerted effort as I was working with the director to formulate this memo that we are gonna, pay more attention or not pay more attention, but be, very much more intentional about making sure that we're we're we're reaching out to residents and folks that are signed up for this programming. That's not to say at all that we were not being intentional before, but just really making sure that we're closing any gaps that might have been left out in that initial communication.

And some of those protocols, I know that, in the memo, the director says that, really, she she's instructed her staff to really make sure that social media posts are made rather than stories, which are temporary on the social media pages so that those posts stay up and and folks can visit the page on a different day. We'll see the post afterwards and really making sure that we're consistently following up with folks that have opted out of email notifications via phone phone calls.

Okay. Thank you. Chair Davis.

Okay. Thank you. In order to keep the, discussion on the items before us, I'm going to make two motions right now, that will come out of committee. The first, clerk Forsalis, if you can, if you can get this. If not, I'll, I'll send you an email.

And the first is that the administration reports to this council on the cause of the reported chemical imbalance at the Ginny Smithers pool and the process being used to address the imbalance. That's the first motion. Peter, let me know when you're ready for the second one. Actually, we gotta take one at a time, don't we?

You don't have to vote on it. You don't need to vote.

No. That's a good point.

Putting in a

That's a good point. That'll be out of committee. So I make that motion, and then I will secondly make a motion that the administration develop a new process to address ongoing maintenance at the Janice Smithers Pool and report to this council to describe that process. And I'm gonna speak to those motions briefly, because I think that they're they're distinct from the item that is before us, but related, enough that, I wanna explain where we're going. I I share the frustration, as was noted.

There's been just ongoing challenges with this pool for reasons that maybe don't make sense to a lot of people. But I think that a having anyone and everyone who can speak, definitively to it and and, you know, liaison Rodasi, thank you for for speaking on the administration here and for for, you know, providing the memo. I think the next time we take this up, we need to have we need to have folks responsible here because I I also can't comprehend why we're a month out and haven't been able to figure out how to put the right chemicals in the pool, at the right volumes to fix this. My experience with pools, which is mostly secondhand, but it has there's some expertise in the folks that have that experience is that you check the levels every day. You make the adjustments.

You move on. Sometimes it gets it gets out of hand a little bit, and you got might have to be down for a few days, up to a week. A month is not like anything I've ever heard, but maybe there's some reason that, you know, that that couldn't be avoided, but I think we need to dig into this more because people are just frustrated, myself included. Alright. So on the item before us, which is specific to the communication, and forgive me. Let's let's see. I see councilor Klingon's hand is is at the top of the list, so we'll go to councilor Klingon and then councilor Sate.

Mister chair, I'm trying to contain my anger here. I mean, this is ridiculous. A month and the director couldn't even be here this evening? Something stinks here. That's for sure. I happen to know there was a report, ISD report. Like, why wasn't that attached to this item? Like, there's gonna be a reckoning with this. Like, something. Mister chair, you know that when when the pool closes even for a few days, it's a big deal. I I thought that this so I didn't have I had no idea that it's been closed since February 27. I mean, who's treating this pool in such a way that this has happened like this? I I'm I'm kinda speechless, mister. I don't I I mean, there's no one ask questions too. I mean, I just want the liaison to bring all of this back.

I mean, this ISD report, I believe the administration should have, and I'm not sure you know, it makes me wonder what what happened to the water, and how how long was it like that? You know, I I have a lot of questions, like, really concerns. And and I and and it's like, you know, obviously, what's done is done, but something needs to happen to improve the situation. This this and, I mean, there needs to be a reckoning on this particular incident. There has to be.

I mean, we can't I mean, what I don't know if there you know, who who is at the end of this thing? I don't know. I I just know that we this is unacceptable. We can't have this. And, you know, I appreciate you putting those order in those orders in, mister chair, because, I mean, yeah, this is about communication, and that's always been an issue with regards to the pool going down.

When I heard this, I was like, oh, people are upset, mister chairman. Let's go rant a little bit. People are upset because, you know, maybe the pool went down three days ago, and then they showed up for lessons, and that stinks that they weren't notified. But, you know, that's that's a little and I was prepared to come here and speak on it and say, they need to know what if the people that work at the pool don't know how important this pool is to the community to where it's a big deal when it goes down to, like there should be word should be put out there all over the place. Like, I I think the council should get a should get an email saying when the pool's down.

I mean, that's how, like, much attention and how serious this pool is. And as stated by the school committee partners here, like, kids are gonna miss important I mean, we we a few years ago, we had those drownings, and we were, like, pushing to get you know, make sure our pools are accessible and make sure that we're having swimming lessons. And I I just I just I don't know, miss Jia. I appreciate you putting on with that. I I love I need to hear more. We're not gonna get that tonight. I'm done ranting, but, this is really unacceptable, and I really hope that the administration's taking this seriously.

Thank you, councilor Klingen. Well, as the second paragraph of the the memo provided says, the pool is jointly managed by Parks and Recreation and Public Works. So, certainly, those two departments you know, the way our city government is structured, the person at the top is the mayor. And so where there's a lack of coordination, ultimately, that's where the buck needs to stop. So I you know, as I said, I I look forward to taking out these two items at our next meeting. To share. Yes, councilman.

To you, could you like, is there a way to ensure that they you know, so there is an ISD report about this incident, and it should be pretty telling. So I don't know if, you know, hopefully, they just bring it when they discuss your your orders you just put in, but I'd like to make sure that we get a copy of this report.

So, liaison Radassi, could we, request to the administration that, that report be provided and attached in response to the items that will come out that write the motions I just made that will come out of committee so they can be, available to folks when we discuss the items?

Thank you, mister chair. Yes. I can I can request that we get the report? My apologies. I was I my understanding was that this item was more on the communication side, which is why I didn't include it initially in in as part of the documents that were provided in response to this item. My apologies.

Understood. And I think, you know, I I I imagine many folks are are surprised that, you know, when this item was put in, we wanted to know, you know, why folks didn't get an email. And I think, you know, now we're wondering why is the pool still still closed. So, you know, it it definitely was the the idea was definitely not specific to, to the ongoing issue issue,

but it's Sorry. Sorry. Let let me finish, counseling, please, and then I'll I'll let you, I'll you again for a follow-up. So, yeah, I understand.

And and no you know, there's the the no you know, should should take no, you know, no frustration for me that that that wasn't submitted here. But I think the issue is just that the the situation exists and that we're here. And, you know, I saw I saw, I think, I guess, a social media posting today that says it was announcing the pool's gonna be and I don't know when it was it made it made its way through the algorithm to be today. So it may have been a few few days ago, but that the pool is closed now indefinitely because of the the chemical imbalance. So I think that's what we're all sort of reacting to.

And, you know, the the item to to to which this communication relates is is the is the issue that began that. And so, you know, we're that's why I put those two I two, two items in. Councilor Klingon, you wanted to just

Yeah. Just just I had a comment on, yeah, on the thing that you were saying, and it's on and ends directly to the language of this order, and thank you for your patience, councilor Saeed, is I think the reason why we didn't get emails because that was by design because this is a bad situation. And I don't wanna say cover up, but I'm just saying, like, it definitely wasn't, you know, being put out there. I mean, this is a month without the pool, so I think that wasn't an axe

Well, we'll we'll thank you, councilor Klingon. I think let let's keep the speculation down for the moment. You know, it was announced at some point recently that the pool is still closed, and so we'll we'll leave it at that. Counsel, say you've been very patient.

I'm gonna recognize you now. Thank you.

Through you, Chad Davis. Yeah. So patiently getting extremely angry here. And so a lot has been said about this. Right now, I'm extremely upset that we do not have the director here or anyone from Park and Recs who has knowledge of how this works so they can give us information.

As you heard tonight, liaison, all school committee representatives, city councilors, we all have been receiving so many calls and emails from constituents about this. Frustration that this is happening again. We know that it was closed from October to from August to October. And now this on and off closure. So there's that, and then there's the communication piece.

There's definitely a huge communication issue here. And we have discussed this back in the fall, and I'm, again, extremely frustrated that we're having this conversation again. And I know there's a communication issue because I signed up my son for a class for Saturday. And then I never I opted in for the emails. I have never received an email about it. And on on Thursday, during the city council meeting, when they put in this order, and I shared this, and I urge the administration to ask Park and Rex to post something on their social media, to send emails to all these people who

have signed up for classes. Can I interrupt you for a moment, please? Just because I wanna Yes. Wanna clarify. So, the order that's before us is is is an order that was put in back in February. The the the order that was put in, which is essentially the same question because the communication issues I I assume because the communication issues are ongoing, that was submitted on Thursday. It did not make it under the agenda because it was just new. So just just so folks are clear, this this this is the item 25 dash o four six six that was

Okay.

Admitted back in February.

Okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for that clarification. But, I think it's no surprise that the post I saw on social media was on Friday, which is after the city council discussed it. And I made a request to the administration to ask the park and racks director to communicate the closure to to the pool users. And this is for a class that was supposed to start on Saturday. And just some dates there, February 27, the is closed for the chemical imbalance. March 1, they received an email saying sign up for classes. March 3, you can sign up for classes at 10AM.

March 29, the class is supposed to start. That whole time, I have not received any emails about it until Friday. So this is just an example example of a parent here. So these constituents are not making this up. There's a reason there's a lot of frustration there.

And the whole time, of course, I knew that the poll was closed because I'm a city councilor, and I I heard about it. But imagine now a parent who had no idea, they just show up and find the notification at the door, or they receive the email Friday night, Friday afternoon, one day before the class was supposed to start. So I'm just sharing this story because I know there's a communication issue there. So we urge you to talk to the director and fix this because I just don't wanna be here again in few months having this conversation about the communication. That's the least we can do with this with all these ongoing challenges is just just communicate that.

So I'm gonna stop here because, again, we have nobody here who can answer the these questions or so we can get to the bottom of it. I think I'm done chair. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, councilor Sait. And just to be clear, so it's it'll be my suggestion to the committee that we leave this item in committee, and at our next meeting, take up, this item again as well as the one that you put in, that is essentially on the same issue because it's it's, you know, ongoing, as well as the two other items, so that we can have a a full discussion with, hopefully, with everyone who's, you know, has responsibility to to manage this public resource. Chair Baton, anything further from, your side?

I'm sure there are, but we can we can wait two weeks for it.

Okay. Alright. Thank you very much then. So let's leave this one in committee, and we'll queue up pool talk, in two weeks or thereabouts, think. So let's see.

That we are back to we are still on the regular order. So we've done item five. That'll bring us to item six. That is 25 Dash zero two three three that the commissioner of public works work with relevant city staff to develop a prioritization and tracking system of three one one requests to maintain to maintain optimal school building conditions and proactively address potential concerns. This is another item for which there, is a memo in response that is attached to the, the main meeting, page in our registrar portal so folks can take a look at that. Chair Baton, this one came through. You folks, do you wanna any, introductory, you know, statements or setup before we discuss the response?

Yes, chair Davis. Thank you. And, it did come through us, and I neglected to place it on the school committee's, subcommittee agenda. So we can't speak about this one, and I apologize to you and our colleagues here. So, I guess my recommendation is gonna be to hold this item for the next meeting.

Okay. Totally understand. No worries there. So and I think since we have a a memo if and that just came in Friday. You know, if folks have another chance to to look through it, that'll give folks a chance to to do so, and we can, we can then, you know, determine to what extent. It may be that the memo answers all the questions, and we decide to just, you know, places one on the on file the next week. Hypothetically, that's possible. So I have no objection there. Counselor Clayton, did you wanna make any

I just wanted to yeah. Through you, mister chair, I I just wanted to thank the school committee for putting this in. This is because, you know, this is something that I've been advocating for talking, you know, with with regards to the Winter Hill School even prior to when they were having issues and and we're talking to the principal about being able to have an internal system because people would say, oh, I put this in and and, know, and this had there's been no action. You know, these different things, I think, I mean, if we could move towards something like this. So I'll I'll read the memo. I haven't read the memo, and I look forward to speaking, discussing it next time. Thank you.

Okay. Very well. I guess since you made you made the point, I'll I'll add my my sort of repetitive statement on this. And I do think I I know things have gotten a lot better, overall, but, you know, I'll I'll take this one back even to 2015. And the Brown School, one of the in the follow-up today, the the roof of the bathroom collapsing because of the way of snow, during that extraordinary winter.

You know, we were told by then mayor Kurt Etton that the there was no way we could have known that the supporting beams were, had been weakened over the years and and therefore, you know, made different decisions about whether or not to to remove the snow. And thanks to Freedom of Information Act request, it turns out we absolutely had a way of knowing that there was the beams could have been compromised. We had replaced the membrane on the roof. There had been other reports of of leaks and and, you know, requests put in through 311 from the school department about various leaks, over the years. And so, you know, it doesn't take a building engineer to to think that, you know, once you get water under that wood, maybe there might be an issue.

We might wanna take a peek at it. And part of the problem is we just didn't have a central repository and a system for, you know, as we said, you know, prioritizing prioritization and tracking. And I know that director Lathen and commission Lathen and her staff have done a lot of work towards centralizing the records and creating, you know, a database of of of resources and all that. And so I'll and I I I also haven't a chance to fully read the memo because I was out of town until last night. So, you know, the the the delay on this one, Jeremy, I thought suits us all just well.

It's it's it's serendipitous. So I'll I'll take a closer look at it. I skimmed through it, but I didn't read it in in in detail. And we can, and we can pick this up, at the next meeting. And I guess I I will say so, liaison, unless there's anything that I I do see that that commissioner Leithen is in the in the audience. If there's any, you know, anything that what you were planning on having her speak to, from the city council standpoint, we could hear that, but I think it might make more sense to, to queue this one up at the next meeting if that's okay.

But I'll, I'll offer that if, there's a wish

to discuss.

Chair. Yeah. We don't have any issue with waiting to discuss this at the next meeting. Commissioner Lathen actually wouldn't have spoken instead, and this is more, our chief administrative officer working with SPS on the system, which the memo reflects. So, yeah, we're happy to hold discussion until the next meeting.

Okay. Well, I'm glad I mentioned that, and I'm glad you you made that point because I think that, as you just heard from what I was saying, I think, you know, from my perspective, a a key aspect of this and and I know that mean, obviously, there's there's a a link between three zero one and the the hardworking folks at DPW that actually, you know, fix all the stuff and address all the stuff that that comes through three zero one. So I I I definitely will wanna make sure that my my questions will be, you know, after hearing of where we sort of are in a system, but, you know, understanding how that tracks to any other database resources that we have on the buildings. Because I think that to me, that's the key. It's it's that, you know, anywhere in the city that we have data that relates to a school building, it should be centrally accessible to the folks who that, you know, who need to make those important decisions.

So, you know, if we could be prepared to address it to that extent as well. Alright. Well, so then we will leave o two three three in item six in committee, that brings us to item seven, which is 25 dash zero one one six that the superintendent of schools consider the oh, consider opening the Highlander Cafe within Somerville High School due to the public sorry, to the public for regular hour lunch hours while school is in session and that the administration address any barriers to this request. This was introduced by councilor Strezzo and councilor Ba. You know?

And so I'll I sort of just repeat for folks who may not have seen the, city city council meeting, you know, the idea here. As folks may may recall, in the old high school building, Highlander Cafe, which is the the, you know, part of the culinary program, at the high school, was, was open to the public, as a restaurant. And it was awesome. It was wonderful. And I think folks were hoping that with the with there's a beautiful facility in the new building.

I've been there for various functions and events, know, after school hours around, you know, shows and and musicals and whatnot and, other other, actually, other music programming that had it it that that that was in there, but, never for, for food. And so, you know, I I I had a brief conversation with some with some folks, after this was submitted, and my understanding there's some challenges with security and the building access, etcetera. But, and actually, forgive me. I don't do we director we're not asking. Do we or director Leah's already asking. Do we have a memo on this one too? I don't remember if I saw that.

Through the chair, I believe, when we had discussed adding this to the agenda that Summerville Public School said that they would address this item. So I'm just gonna listen.

Yeah. Which makes sense. Okay. Very well. So let me let me councilor Klingen, did you wanna add anything to the, to the sort of thing before you I will pass it over to

our No. Mister chair, you said it this I've also asked that question and got the same answer, and I assume that the superintendent or whoever would be able to answer that best. So look forward to hearing it.

Alright. Well, chairman, I'll I'll toss it over to you to, add to the conversation and or recognize whomever might be appropriate to, to let us

know what, what the

challenges are and if there's if we think there's a way to address them.

Yep. Thank you, chair Davis. I'm not gonna add my own thoughts. I will, turn the table over to, doctor Karmana.

Thank you, mister Bitton, and thank you, mister Davis, through you. So, you you know, I I think, for for us, CTE and especially the the the work that happens in the culinary area or program is integral to to the work that happens, to give students an opportunity to showcase their strengths. One of the challenges that we have is that we we are dealing with, some operational constraints, that we need to address with the with the staff. And so, that is one of the issues that is is holding this process back. And, you know, it it has to do with, the structures in place, in in in the department.

I know Jim Hatchi, the director, and the principal Kirsten, we have been in contact, and, it it requires some logistical systems that are in place. I know at we have discussed the issue of access, and that's definitely an issue that at some at some point might require some budgetary allocation because we might need to have a way to to provide access to one of the doors. But the the thing that is holding it back is mainly, right now, we don't have enough seniors, and I think it's an instructional design. We have to make sure that we have enough students in the program and also that, that we have a system in place to to to address, the management of a space like that that requires more students and requires a different way to to navigate the, the the resources. So to sum it up, it's it's, it's something that I'm working with, Jim Hachi and principal Kirsten, and it has to do with the the the some of the logistical structures that they have in the program.

Okay. Thank you, Doctor. Carmona. Doctor Phillips, I saw you in the queue earlier. Happy to recognize Wait. Okay? Miss Baton.

Thank you. Through you. Thank you, Doctor. Coramona. From a logistical standpoint, the old cafe had an like a door that opened to the outside, and they had someone administering that door. They actually had a staff member that stayed at that door. And I think it wasn't just about the cafe. It was, the second entrance to the building, basically. So is the problem having to staff someone to be security at the door? The second question is is about is there a belief that we have enough juniors so when we come to school next year that there will be enough students to step seniors to staff.

And I know that's about a scheduling problem. So the people who actually staff the cafe have to be the seniors. And if you don't have enough seniors, you can't stop the cafe. So I'm curious if we have a group of rising juniors that will be able to be large enough numbers to run it if we take care of all these operational problems.

Through the chair. So I again, my understanding is, the way that the operational logistics in in terms of, the staffing. We also are going through the, we're in the process of negotiations, and so this is part of the kind of the challenges that we're facing. And I know that this problem we're gonna we're aiming to resolve this problem this year. So I don't have any any update on that because we're, again, in conversations to determine how how to best resolve the the logistical challenges that we're facing.

But it is not in regards to the door. That's not actually the major roadblock that we have. Just so so I answered your question.

Hey. Thank you, Ms. Patton. Thanks, Doctor. Cremona. I have a question about the revenue from the restaurant. I don't know how things worked in the past, but is that something that could be used to, help with the operational costs?

Through the chair. I don't know what receipts we have from that. I know that any revolving account would would that's actually how it works with that out of school time. And, when we use facilities also, we usually use that money to to offset any of the cost. I don't think that that might be the issue. And, again, I don't know what receipts we have at this point. I'll have to look at that account. But, usually, that's the intent that the the programs are self sustained. If not, we find different ways to, to provide, ways to finance the the structures in place. But, again, this is more, of an operational constraint that we have than than, a financial one at this point.

Doctor Phillips.

Thanks, Sue. You're slightly off topic. I hope you will indulge me. This is to counselor Klingon.

I just want to apologize. I got the number of school buildings wrong. I always think of next wave and full circle as one school. I'm wrong. There are nine school buildings in operation and 11 different schools in Summerville. Many apologies.

Thank you for that clarification, Doctor. Phillips. It's a great way to close this topic. Seeing no other questions on our side, and very hopeful for a pathway forward for this. So thanks, Doctor. Karmona, for, the information, and we'll turn it back over to, chair Davis.

Okay. Thank you, chair Batanya. Thank you, Doctor. Karmona, for for that. You know, I'm I'm I'm most glad to hear you say we're we're we're hoping to solve this problem, for, you know, for this year, so, going into next year.

You know, it sounds like sounds like the the the type of budgetary item that the council would need to approve may not be may not be the you know, what would address the issues, but certainly, I would suspect I will talk to my behalf of my colleagues, but I would suspect that, as popular as as that's that program was, it would probably be received favorably if if there you know, anything that that that we would need to to prove, but what whatever we can do because it was a cool program. And and, doctor Phillips, thank you for, saving me the loss of sleep while I I was sitting there going, what am I missing? I know. I could so, I'm not crazy. I had it right.

Very well. That is the last item on our agenda. I believe quick first, Lisa, I haven't missed anything, have I?

You have not. The disposition

Yeah. Of this So that one, I think so unless there's any objection, I I I I essentially, we could probably, mark this one more complete, or place on file or whatever's appropriate. You know? And then, yeah, as if there's anything that we could, any discussion we could have that would help facilitate, you know, solutions going forward, then, you know, I would have any way to to just to to to talk about specifics. But my sense is the, is that we sort of we've heard what we can hear for now on that one, so, we'll, we'll dispense with that item.

So I think we have, one item on the table, which is approval of the minutes. I will add a motion to adjourn. As of at the moment, we have, we have another meeting. Normally, we go about every month on this. Well, there hasn't been a whole lot of normally, but, we're trying to get a cadence here. But we we actually have I think it's April 13, they're on. Is that right? What I have for the next meeting somewhere in that neighborhood. So stay tuned. I think the you know, we've got a a number of things that are, on the they're still in the box.

And as, you know, a few of the items tonight, we didn't, we didn't close out. So, we'll look to pick up pick up those conversations again to the extent fourteenth. It's fourteenth. Thank you very much. At that meeting, so I will move to adjourn on this one. And, Kirk, would you please call roll on adjournment and approval of the minutes? Yes. Sorry.

I

see councilor Klingon has his hand up.

Yeah. Councilor Klingon. Thank you.

Miss miss mister Jay, yeah, before we do it, I'm just gonna say that I have my y eyes crossed. You know, when you weren't at the meeting the other day, maybe you weren't overly, but, like, there was multiple orders put in above the pool. I just I realized now that those weren't able to make it to committee so soon. But, yeah, they they are that So, yeah, so we'll be having, definitely having some pool talk next time. So

Yeah. So so just to to to clear clarification. So, when an item comes in from the city council and is referred to committee and, and we're we're within the time to put an to put place on an agenda. There is a there is a mechanism to do that if it if it, you know, it wasn't anticipated. It's a new item.

It it can be added to an to an agenda. We, in fact, did did did that with an item from, that that'll be on the legislative matters agenda last night, although I suppose that was probably in time or for tomorrow night that came in last Thursday. I didn't add this to the agenda because we had a pool item on the agenda, and we had a pretty full agenda anyways. Here we are at at at the end of our our sort of, you know, our goal our two hour goal. And so that was that was, you know, both the timing and the cut sort of a conscious decision to see what we heard on on the item that we have here and then pick up a more thorough discussion once we and and just so folks know, I'm gonna give you a little behind the scenes.

We chair Baton and I and liaison Raddazzi have a a regular discussion or either Zoom meeting or phone call or or whichever technology works that day to, you know, to sort of queue these things up. And and and so I didn't wanna yeah. I I didn't wanna go stray too far off of what we had already discussed with the administration given that we did have a pretty full full slate already. So that was the the the thinking that went into we we we we there's a lot of thought that goes into structuring. Just wanna make sure we have as as effective and and productive conversations as possible.

So we will we will have pool talk at our next meeting for sure. Alright. Any further discussion? We have two items before us. Would the clerk please call the roll?

On approval of the March 3 twenty five minutes of adjournment, councilor Saeed?

Yes.

Councilor Klingon? Yes. And councilor Litovitz? Yes. Mister chair, all members voted to approve the minutes and approve the adjournment.

Alright. Thank you. We'll see you in a couple weeks. Chair Baton.

And we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Good night.

Take care, everyone.