School Committee - Special Meeting

Alright.

Good evening, everyone. This is a meeting of the, a joint meeting of the, city council's school building facilities maintenance special committee and the corresponding meeting of the school committee. It is Tuesday, June 10. I am Lance Davis. I serve as chair of the city council, meeting.

I use he, him pronouns. Before we get started, I'll let you know that pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025, this meeting of the committee on school building facilities and maintenance is being conducted via remote participation. So that means we'll post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. We have, been assisted this evening by clerk Peter Forsollesi. Clerk Forsollesi, would you please call the roll?

This is roll call. Councilor Saeed?

Here.

Councilor Klingon? Present. And councilor Davis?

Here.

Mister chair, all members of the present, we have a quorum.

Thank you. And likes doing that so much? We're gonna do it again in a minute because I'm gonna put this committee in recess, briefly while the, school committee brings their meeting to work. So we will stand in recess.

Excellent. Thank you, counselor Davis. My name is Leron Biton. I am the chair of the school committee's subcommittee on school building facilities and maintenance. Appreciation to city council for continuing these productive meetings. I will call the role. Sarah Phillips, are you on?

I'm here.

Laura Patton? And I am here. That gives us a quorum to conduct business, and we'll turn the gavel back over to chair Davis.

Alright. Thank you, chair Vuitton. Clerk force Lacey, one more time. Can we, call the roll to reestablish a quorum?

This is roll call. Councilor Syed?

Here.

Councilor Klingon?

Present.

And councilor Davis?

Here.

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

Alright. Very good. Thank you. The first item on the on the agenda is approval of the minutes of this committee's meeting on April 14. I will move for approval. Is there any discussion? Seeing discussion, let's table that. We'll lay that on the table for to take up at the end of the meeting along with a anticipated motion to adjourn. And then we had a request to from the administration to take item three on the on the agenda out of order. Kirk, if you could scroll up to item three so folks can see that.

If there's no objection, we will take item three out of order. Seeing none, item three is 25 dash zero nine eight nine that the commissioner of public works appear before the special committee on school building facilities maintenance and maintenance to discuss the recent break in at the Winter Hill School building and the measures being taken to secure the building. Chair Baton, do want any background or I mean, not this some of the self explanatory, but before we turn it over to the administration for their update report on this, anything you wanna Yeah. Contacts you wanna share?

Thank you, chair Davis. This item appeared all over the news. Suffice it to say, last month, I believe it was, emergency crews reported to the Winter Hill at Sycamore Street, the old building that is now closed and is unoccupied and, to which access is presumably precluded. The emergency responders were responding to, reports of smoke and, several small fires apparently, had been set off by people inside the building. So that is obviously a concern not only for the, welfare of the people who may have, entered, inappropriately, but also for the, for the safety of the neighborhood, and for those, emergency responders.

So, you know, I don't know anything beyond what has been reported, by the city and in the media. So I'm certainly looking forward to, any additional information that can be provided. In addition, I think it raises some serious questions about how we are ensuring that people can stay safely away from the building because it is not supposed to be occupied, for various safety concerns. So that is the reason the school building is closed now. The students are relocated to the Edgerly Building.

And, we wanna we wanna, be able to use that site in the future and not have, additional problems happening there. So that's the the only background I have, and turn turn it back over to you, chair Davis.

Okay. Thank you, chair Baton. I see that we have, commissioner Leithen in the in in attendance as well as chief Breen from the fire department. Liaison Radassi, who who would you like would you like me to turn it over to you for to to lead the response or chief Breen or commissioner Leithen?

Sorry. Sorry to interrupt, mister chair. No worries. Do you I think, maybe, commissioner Leithen can give some background, and then, chief Breen is here to answer any questions about the fire response and, anything associated with that.

Okay. Excellent. Very good. Thank you. Commissioner Latham, would you introduce yourself, for the record and then, tell us what you can tell us?

Yes. Commissioner Jill Latham, thank you for this opportunity, committee and, mister chair. And thank you for the opportunity to present some facts of of the situation, of this is gonna be a factual account, not based on injunction or, you know, reception. So, actually, what happened was there was a malfunctioning door alarm malfunction communication error on the May 9 for that building. It was a door alarm.

So because that door and so that that required us to put in a IT help ticket for them to come to try and resolve this communication error to the door launch of that building. Since IT was gonna have to contact and reach out to Verizon and get this kinda set up and fixed, DPW decided that we would go in frequently every single day until that door alarm was actually fixed to make sure that that building was, you know, safe and secure. So so it was because of our daily checks and our frequent checks because of the door alarm communication error. That's how we actually found these smothering fires. If it was not for DPW doing these comprehensive checks, frequent checks because of our communication error for the door alarm, this could have been a much larger and significantly worse off situation for not only the building, but the neighbor.

So I wanna thank my DPW custodians and crews for doing their due diligence in doing these regular checks because of this dual alarm issue. We were there. We smelled smoke. We mainly followed the response from the fire department, and they responded. That's when the police fire responded to the scene.

I had my my custodians in there actually, you know, stomping out fires and he was using fire extinguishers. I was waiting for the fire department to get there, and they were smothering kind of little pocket vandalism fires that some folks had had set. We immediately following that, you know, make sure that there's some windows that were maybe busted up busted in or cracked open. We've worked with the school department. Food service goes in there regularly in the mornings.

We've worked with them about making sure that doors aren't cropped up and open while they're in there to make sure that the building is soon secure. IT has you know, then the IT came and finally had gotten fixed the door alarm systems. And then as of as of the thirteenth, the security was the door alarms were fully functional again as of May 13. So this so so just just to wrap it up, May 9, there was a communication error with the door alarm. We immediately notified IT, which we had to get Verizon involved.

So that was on Thursday, I believe. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Monday, we were doing regular checks on the building. Monday the twelfth is when we were doing our regular checks. That's when we noticed the actual smoke in the building and notified the the proper authorities. The next day on the thirteenth, IT was able to fix that system in the in the the door alarm should fully function as of the thirteenth. So that that's kind of the factual events of the of what what happened. So, again, thank you to DPW for being able to clearly take care of what they need to do and be in that building and access to see the smoke.

Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Latham. I see councilor Klingon's hand up and then school committee member Phillips. Can I just ask a clarifying question? I I guess two, really. You said that there was a a door alarm issue, and so your DBW folks were going in regularly, which I I appreciate, and and certainly sounds like that may have been a a significant factor in in, avoiding something worse. So is was the door alarm issue such that the door wouldn't then lock? Is that do I understand that correctly?

Mister chair, it was because the door alarm if the door was was forced open or something was they they the door alarm wouldn't have triggered. So somehow they forced the the entry into that building so that the door alarm didn't get triggered. So anytime you try and force the door open, you'll have an alarm go off. Now listen to this. Children's trying to enter the the building or if they're or they're in the building. That happens with all of our buildings and school buildings. If you go into one of our buildings and try and get into that that building, an alarm will sound, and that's how we get notified immediately that there's someone either in the building or trying to get into the building.

K. And so I guess may maybe my follow ups might be more for the chief. I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna wanna understand, I think, how folks got in if if they did force the door or break the door if it was windows or whatever. But my other question is you mentioned food service goes in regularly. Is that and forgive me if I've missed this in all of the conversations, but is is our food service are there are are food service folks still using the kitchen there or some other part of

the facility?

Mister Shea, that my understanding is a storage that they're using, not necessarily using the the facility. They they're going maybe to use some storage in that in that kitchen area. They're not they're they're they're early in the morning. But that's that's more of a the school department will kind of explain what exactly what kind of storage that they're using. But we've we've worked with them to make sure that sometimes, like, if they're going in, if they're popping the door from there to get bring items in and out, we said, please don't leave the door popped open and make sure it's secure.

Okay. Alright. Thank you for that. I'll I'll recognize councilor Clayton.

Yeah. Mister chair, thank you through you. Yeah. This was my order. You know? This is my building. It's my reward. And I'll say that I feel satisfied that this building is secure. It sounded like the way it was described to me was the perfect storm and that that technical issue that that I do have a question, though, because it doesn't I'm not hearing what I was what I was told. Is that, like, there are sensors in in that building. Correct? Are there motion sensors?

Through the chair, I have to really kinda make sure I'm answering that correctly. My understanding our issue was the door alarm, not necessarily motion sensors because we would have picked up on motion sensors. So I need to kinda clarify exactly what's currently happening in that building, but this particular issue was just due to a a communication error with the door alarm.

Okay. Well, I I was told that the the motion sensors were off because of an electric like, of a of an issue with Verizon. And that food service, they just go in the one door on Medford Street. They don't go beyond that set of double doors past the thing. All the all the there's there's motion sensors throughout the hallways.

This is what I was told. And that's basically, they are using that part of the cafeteria, but and I haven't been told how we thought the individuals got in. I I think it was still thought that it was a window. So I really I I felt really good about things, but now it just seems like there's even more confusion, and I'm just but but, you know, the the fact that we I believe we have motion sensors in the building that happened to be down for for a technical reason, allowed for these, you know, kids to mess around the building, or they threw paint all around and lit a couple pieces of paper on fire. But definitely don't wanna see that happening, you know, continue to happen.

So I've been in contact with DPW, and and it seems like the building is secure. That's all.

Okay. Thank you, councilor Klangen. Chair Baton, I'll I'll pass to you to recognize your members. And I I do wanna suggest, you know, I'm happy to to hear the questions from the school committee first, but also wanna give chief Frieden an opportunity if there's any detail you could fill in. Actually, I see member Phillips is did you lower your hand? Is do you still do you still wanna have a question?

Or I'm good. Jesse got to my question. Thank you.

Jesse? Okay. Very well. Then I'll recognize council Seit, and then, and then, yeah, chief Freen, then if you wanna jump in after this. Or or council site, you may have questions for the chief, of course. Go ahead.

Through you, Chad Davis, you've asked this question about, the food service using the building. I was also curious about that. I thought the building was not occupied at all. Is there anyone here from the school department to tell us a little more about that? Because it was just under the impression that it was not occupied, and it would be helpful to know how it's being used.

I can't speak directly to that, but I can say that it's ending the end of this year. Like, the it'll be they won't be using it anymore, but somebody here must be able to answer that.

So I know we have chief of staff, Anasika, here. Is there anyone that can address that question on behalf of the school department?

Hi. Can you restate the question? I'm sorry. I missed it.

So the if I if I may, counselor Syed, please correct me if I'm wrong. But to to summarize the question, it was it was mentioned that the, food service staff is accesses the old Winter Hill School Building periodically. It sounds like perhaps just in some mornings for some storage, but can the question was to just provide some more context there. But two members of the of the city council committee here, that was the first we've heard of it, and I so I suspect some members of public may also not have been aware of that to whatever extent it's relevant. Can can you speak to the to to the, you know, the degree and and manner in which the school department is still using that building for food service or any other uses?

Yeah. Exactly. As you said, it is for storage. There's nothing more to report on that, but that's the extent of the use.

I don't wanna try and extrapolate myself. Can you let you counselor asked for a, you know, an explanation. Could you sort of take it from the top and explain to us how the school department is using the Winter Hill Building? Building?

Through the chair, I can report any additional information that I have after speaking to the food services director. That being said, that that is the extent of my understanding that the space is being used for storage without a production kitchen, which is about to go online. Once IAM is done with that project and they are slated to be complete. But with that project, the end of this summer, the schools have quite a lot of students to feed without a production kitchen. And so for that reason, there is limited storage that is used at the Winter Hill and the spaces of the building that are safe for people to continue to access.

But if there is additional information needed, I just don't wanna say anything that's inaccurate, and I can I can bring that back at another time?

Councilor Syed, I I you know, I Yeah. Your question, I do see commissioner Leithon's hand up. Commissioner Leithon, did you wanna help address councilor Syed's question?

Through the chair. No. I just need to clarify an answer for potential claiming when available.

Through the chair. Yeah. Thank you, for providing that information. It's certainly the first time I hear of it. I mean, I read about it by email when members of the public notified the administration that the door was not they saw a door open.

So, yeah, my questions would be I understand that, you don't wanna provide any information that's not accurate, but would be, like, how often are they going there? Like, is it on every day, every morning? And I'm certainly glad to hear that now the door is fixed, and

I don't know. There won't

be an opportunity for anyone to go in who's not allowed to be in there. Yeah. So that's and, again, you're saying it at the end of the summer, they will no longer be using by the end of the summer, they will no longer be using the space. Is that

what I'm hearing?

Through through the chair, I can confirm that, but I I'm not sure. My understanding is that use of that space will no longer be, as critical, with the new production kitchen coming online.

Alright. I'll set, counselor.

Rich raise does anybody know anything that's going on? I'm sorry, mister chair. I'm just it's fraught this is frustrating.

Commissioner Latham, I I saw I thought I saw you. Yeah. I see your hand up. Can Can you speak to do you know in in your conversations in in, you know, helping to address the issue when it first get up to do you have a sense for how often, how frequently, this food service use is happening? Did you get I mean, I know it'd be kinda hearsay, but we're not

in

court. Anything anything you'd anything you can help us, understand a little bit of context here?

This year, I really have to refer to the school department on that. I mean, I think we we know that we've, it it seems to be frequently that they typically use that they need that use that space, and we've been supporting them in in that endeavor. It's hasn't been an issue whatsoever. I just wanna clarify that, the door alarm system is connected to all the motion sensors like we do in all our buildings. So if the door alarm is a miscommunication, that sensors go off as well. I just wanted to make sure that was clarified because that was, you know, confusing in my statement.

Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Appreciate it. So I guess, councilor Klingon, I think shall we have a motion come out of this the discussion here that the school department clarify to this committee any and all uses, frequency, manner of the with the way you're building currently and and plans going forward in terms of timing. Does that sound appropriate?

Mister chair, I mean, don't even think that's necessary. I mean, we have the head of engineering here who would have, I would imagine, cleared the building if if if if there's some use being used that that then it's then it's, you know, endorsed by everybody here on this call. Therefore, if there you know, if if it's if there's no concern with safety, access that part of the the building and and this is only gonna happen for about two like, a couple more weeks. I mean, I know that I was told that they're going in and out of there to to to, for storage purposes. I'm okay I'm okay with that.

If if if all the powers up, you're okay with that. I I don't really need much more information than that. I just I do find it concerning that no one's able to to tell to come up with an answer right now as to what exactly is happening. Like, does the does the food service just kinda have free rein?

Doctor. Raish, I I your face pop up, and you you were mentioning that you able to address any of those questions?

Sure. Richard Raish, director of infrastructure and asset management. As everyone knows, we've, we had a project over the winter to move the production kitchen to the Argentinian. We're in punch list on that. Everything is, operational.

We've just got a a few, you know, tidying up to do. That will be, complete within the next couple of weeks. Once the students are out, we are actually gonna have a formal training session, with the food service staff on the new equipment, which is just part of the contract. Frankly, they already know how to use it and have been using it, but it's it it is an item. And it's my understanding that once we have that and the school year is done, they will move all the remaining items that they will be using over the summer or or possibly next year to the Argentinian, and I suspect that they won't need to access the the Sycamore Street building much past late June, early July.

Okay. Thank thank you for that. Any other questions on that specific piece of the discussion?

I'll yield to school committee.

School committee member Patone, if chair Patone, if I may be so bold as to recognize one of your members there.

Thank you. Through you, chair. Thank you for the detailed information update on the scenario that happened. A few unfortunate scenario and the quick response to that. I did have a question about and I apologize if you guys hit it earlier and I just missed it.

What is technically the status of the building? Is it, you know, like, the the old high school building, the 1895 Building, I think has a status of, like, nobody's allowed in there. The Cummings has this curious status, which I don't always quite understand. We're we're using it and not using it at some capacity. So any in any way that we can just at least formally articulate what the status of the of the building is, what that means, and who has access to it, I think, would just be helpful in general, but it's not something I need to have answered in detail right now.

Director Reyesha, I see your hand up. Can you speak to that?

Sure. Through through the chair. It it can be confusing because we do have various different statuses. The 1895 cannot be occupied by anyone because it doesn't have any life safety items. It doesn't have heating, cooling. It only has partial electric. It doesn't have plumbing. And, frankly, there's a there's a lot of dangerous conditions in the building. So there's a prohibition on sort of occupancy of that building. The the Cummings has very limited use for construction personnel who are safety trained.

It does have heat. It does it it never had cooling. It does have heat. It has a lot of code deficiencies that would preclude it from serving as a school at this point. So were we to reoccupy it as a school, the special services would require a large number of code updates to to use it for that purpose.

The Sycamore Street Building has life safety, and it it is it's fine particularly in the area where, food services have been in and out in in storage. There are no issues around that occupation there. From from a a code perspective, I don't know if there's anything that would preclude us from using it. However, from a from a condition perspective, as we once we moved the the students out of that building, we continued doing our testing in advance of of, you know, the the assessment of the building for reconstruction. And at that point, honestly, we didn't care what condition we left it in.

There we did a lot of destructive testing, and then there were some issues with some water damage that that required some remediation. So, like, the the the building is not pleasant to be in. You know, there there would be a lot of work that would need to be done to to reoccupy the building. But it it is not an unsafe building from, you know, sort of a a life safety perspective. So, again, you know, the the we don't currently have any projected uses for it.

Were we to to try to reoccupy it, there's a lot of of I don't wanna call it cosmetic, but, you know, just work that would need to be done in terms of walls and things like that. So it that's really not on on the table right now, but it's not an unsafe building as opposed to the the 1895, which is an unsafe building right now.

Miss Baton, further questions?

Thank you. Just a follow-up. Thank you for that clarification. So just an an additional understanding is that as a school building, although it's not being occupied by students right now, it's still under the purview of the school committee. And so this then the way that we authorize the school to be utilized as heating and warming center, which I under I think that probably has finished as it's been quite warm out. I know there was a timetable to it, and I'm sure it expired.

Yeah. They they see the chair. They finished operations in April.

I wanna make sure I understand, and and maybe I'm wrong, but I think that at any point I'm assuming a and I I'm not assuming. I'd like to know that clarify that once the the kitchen is operational and all the I'm assuming, and I wanna know all the equipment is going to be moved out. And at that point, the building will be empty, and it will not be utilized unless an authorization is given by the school committee moving forward. Is that correct?

Through the chair, I think that would be a correct assessment of the situation.

Okay. So, like, no storage, no, like No. Construction work, nothing. Like, it won't unless it comes to the school committee, it wouldn't be utilized.

Alright. Correct. Thank you.

Chair Bettone, happy to, leave matters in your hands for the moment, and I'll go back to, councilor Clayton.

Sure. Although I see commissioner Lathen has her hand up, and I defer to her if she wants to add something here.

Yeah. To the chair, I just wanna make sure that DPW does regular visits and site visits to that building regardless if it's alarmed the alarm is working or not. We go frequently in there just walking and making sure that's not something we've come before the school committee to get permission to do so. We we need to make sure that the we we frequently check all of our buildings, you know, even if we're not occupied to make sure that everything is is okay and there's how we sometimes we found, like, water leaks or things like that. So we're in there, but we're in there frequently. So I just wanna make sure you guys understand that.

But it it's not an operational I apologize that I'm just commenting. It's not operational use. It is safety checks, which is, like you said, your responsibility and obligation to do that work, and I really appreciate it.

Yeah. Thank you. And, commissioner Lathan, I wanna return to something you said at the top, which was acknowledging the excellent work of your staff who identified the smell, responded to it, called in the the, fire department, worked to put out or to address immediate dangers in the vicinity at that event in around the May 12 time frame. I I wanna just commend your staff, and you for that response. I do think the the bigger question that's that rises here for me is around something that you just stated, commissioner Lathan, around, you know, the safety checks that you're doing.

And and I'm heartened to hear that that is something that's a a purview for a closed building, where people are not supposed to be entering. So I guess my broader question is, is this something that we do for all of our buildings? Director Reisch stated a few minutes ago that there is an unsafe condition at our 1895 Building. I doubt your staff, commissioner Lathan, are going into that building on a regular basis, and I could be wrong. But, how how do we assure and how frequently do we check that people are not entering, that there are not, you know, people residing in the buildings or any you know, getting in there when they shouldn't be.

So

Yes. So, Michelle, that's a great question. So 1895 is a different sort of category. We're not well, that's items we've kind of been working with that building. But we do have buildings that are that are closed, that are sometimes used, like, non spilled buildings. For example, we have 19 Walnut Street that is not used occupied. It's used for storage for parks and recreation. It is alarmed with both the door alarms and motion sensors. So, you know, if they if anything would get triggered, we'd immediately go over there. But we do do, you know, random checks in our buildings.

We try and do it, you know, frequently, depending on the location, especially, you know, with that 19 Walnut Street, just for an example, you know, how that's located. We have to kinda frequently check that, like, at least, you know, nightly or every other night depending on the the weather conditions to make sure that that's, you know, airtight and secure. There's no one that's broken in to shine, to live there, and things like that. So there's not a lot of buildings that we have that that are like this, but that's just one one of our examples. Some of some buildings that are not occupied by anything because as Mitch said, they can't be.

Those may not be checked as frequently because the systems are in place to kind of trigger something. But, you know, I have nighttime custodians and nighttime supervisors that go and and kind of look at all of our buildings throughout the night.

Thank you. Chair Davis, back to you on your side.

Okay. Thank you. Councilor Clegan.

Thank you, mister chair. Real quick. Just three. I just wanna put a ball on this because like I said, I put this order in. I've been dealing with the talking with the DVW, and and I just want people at home watching or anybody to understand that there are motion sensors throughout these throughout this building, throughout these buildings.

The door thing broke, which then broke the motion sensors, which happened to be the same night or around that that some kids maybe went through the window. All the windows have been secured. They're all all everything's buttoned up. There's been wood put over where there was a broken window, but these motion sensors will go off if anybody moves around the building. So, you know, like I said, I feel the same as I feel secure that the I I feel good that the building is secure, and I do appreciate the DBW going in that building because, you know, when a building's not in use, you know, that it they, you know, they break down things, like, you know, or or some or nobody's there to notice, like, a leak or something like that.

So so, but, yeah, I I I have faith in the DBW department and everything they're doing with the winter.

Great. Thank you, councilor Klingon. As I mentioned, we do have chief Breen here from the fire department. Chief, thank you for, for being available this evening to answer questions. Anything that, you wanted to add or context or information you feel like would be appropriate for us to understand, in the context of discussion at all?

Sure. One thing I can add is that I I did get some questions immediately following the fire as to why the fire alarm system

If I may interrupt, just just my apologies for for failing to give the reminder. Give us the formal introduce introduction of yourself just for the records of the court.

My my apologies. Chief Charlie Brain. I'm the fire chief. As I was stating earlier, I can I'll address one thing. I I did get some concerns from different individuals asking me why didn't the fire alarm system notify us. And, the it's a good great question. The fire alarm system was functional was functioning. However, the system that's in the school is, protected by heat detectors, not smoke detectors. So the fires that were set in the building did not create the amount of heat that would have been required to set those detectors off. So the the system is functioning.

However, the size of the fires in the building did not rise to the level to trip the alarm. If they were not discovered by the DPW when they were, they don't know they no doubt would have grown to the point where they would have eventually tripped the fire alarm system.

Okay. Thank you for that, chief. Any follow-up on that bit? Alright. Seeing none then. Thank you, commissioner, chief, and doctor for your help in addressing all those questions. Unless there's any objection, I think we can mark this one work complete.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, chief. Alright. Quick for us, Lucy. Would you take us back to the top of the agenda? I can go to to the regular order, which would bring us to item number two, which is that the commissioner of public works install appropriate soundproofing materials in the Arthur d Healey School Cafatorium. Chief, chief chair of baton, this one came from, from you folks through our school community representative, president Benendenfeld. Do you wanna give us some context before we go?

Yeah. Absolutely. I'll take chief any day. That sounds good. So, this is a long standing request from students and educators at the Healy School.

The the cafetorium, combination cafeteria auditorium is a large space in the Healy School, and the walls, as I understand it, are concrete. And when you pack a ton of kids into a concrete box and everyone starts, you know, socializing, that room can get extremely loud. And some of our students, especially those with, sensory issues, find that space to be very difficult to be in. And so the request has been to install soundproofing materials on the walls to ensure that more students I'm not gonna say every student will be able to be in there, because as I said, lunch rooms are, you know, hectic places. But, at least to be a a more welcoming environment for, most of our students.

So, this is something that, PTAs and administration advocated for for many years under, superintendent Mary Skipper and then, interim superintendent Jeff Kerley. And, again, it's something that popped up on the, has popped up on the list to be addressed, in the current administration. And so, I I believe at some point, it had been agreed to, although I don't have the history on that. And yet this is still something that I think, you know, I don't know what the cost would be, but, I I think improving the conditions for our kids in this building, putting up fabric tiles, in the space to make the acoustics more welcoming, would be very much in our interest, to better serve the kids in that in that school. So, that is the request, and, certainly happy to hear any updates that administration has on that.

And I will, go go ahead

go ahead, chief chair of the

is is on. Go ahead.

Thank you, chairs. Alright.

Thank you.

For the record, my name is Jasmine Rudasi. I'm a legislative liaison with, intergovernmental affairs in the mayor's office. So just wanted to provide a bit of context around this. So at the beginning of each school year, the mayor's office along with SPS administration, DPW, IIM, and SPS principals do walk throughs of each school building. The last walk through would have been in September, and it resulted in a list of priorities.

An example of the top three were a new classroom at the Argentiano, the new commercial kitchen at the Argentiano, and the science room at the Healy School, which I think this committee has already heard a lot about in under different items. The soundproofing of the cavatorium was not identified during the walk through. If at this point, it is being identified as a priority, we will work through our typical channels to get a better sense of the ask and propose solutions.

Okay. Thank you, liaison Radasi. Chair Davis, I see there's a question on your side. You guys can start.

Very well. Councilor Clinton?

Mister chair, no question. Just a statement. This is the first I'm hearing of this as the council who has a school in my ward. So I appreciate you all bringing it to my attention so I can help advocate as well. We're not privy to those walk throughs, but happy to to help advocate. I actually when I saw this order, I thought you meant in between the the cafeteria and the gymnasium because if you've ever had a meeting at nighttime in the cafeteria, the sneakers squeaking and all the, you know, the the the stuff happening, you know, can be pretty disruptive to whatever meeting or activities going on with it. But but yeah. No. I I I'm full in full support and happy to help in any way I can, and, thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Excellent. Well, I I guess, I I'm happy to raise this to doctor Carmona and, chief of staff at to bump up the priority level of this item. You know, I do think that, you know, this is a priority for the Healy. It has been for many years. I also don't think this scales, at the same level as perhaps building a classroom or, you know, the production kitchen, these sorts of things that are are major infrastructure projects at a school.

And, you know, I understand we need to learn a little more about this, but what I'm envisioning for this and director Rache can slap me over the head if I'm wrong, but, is that it's simply, you know, installing soundproofing tiles in an existing space. Oh, there he is to raised his hand to, slap me. But but, yeah. I mean, you know, so in my mind, this is this is not right raised to be a, you know, a major infrastructure project. I in my mind, it's a more, medium or minor infrastructure project, but I'm happy to be corrected.

Mister Raish, if you'd like to speak, I welcome I the input.

Yeah. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, chair Bhutan. And you articulated very well the, impacts of those loud noises in confined spaces with children. As you might recall, last summer, we did acoustic treatments throughout the for the active use of the Winter Hill there. And I've had several comments from parents, teachers, and the, administrative staff at Winter Hill at Edgely at what a huge difference that has made in it.

So I think this is a it's a it's a great item. It's unfortunate that it was not brought to our attention, at the beginning of the school year when we walked you know, commissioner Latham and I walked every school and including the Healey with the principal and chief of staff. But it's it's in the pipeline now. We've got it on our spreadsheet, and it it's I I think you're you're right. You know, the the acoustic treatment, and and for, to to clear up, consular Klingon's confusion, the the, more appropriate term is acoustic treatment rather than soundproofing.

Soundproofing would be like a resilient wall between the gym and the cafeteria that would create a a sound barrier. Acoustic treatments are more like what you see behind me to the table.

I'll own that mistake, mister Resh.

Yeah. It's it's a little late to to look at this fiscal year, but, you know, as as we're planning out projects for the summer, we'll see what we can do within our existing building budgets to to see how we could do it if if not, at least in the near distant future.

Miss Pitone.

Thank you. Through you. I appreciate, and I'm glad mister Vitton is going to follow-up with administration because, obviously, it has to be deemed a priority, in that perspective. Although we may have constituents bringing it up, and I hope that has an impact on the priority decision. I don't think it should be directed from this group.

I will I did kinda do a little searching online, and I did see that in the Healy 2021 school improvement plan, there was something stated that there had been a commitment to do soundproofing in the following year. So it was definitely something that I knew was on the agenda at one point. Clearly, we we didn't hold ourselves accountable to it. Could have been because of other really pressing items that happened with the Edgeley and the the Winter Hill. So we all recognize that maybe this is something that got dropped down on the list.

So this isn't I don't think anything here is a critique. I appreciate that it's going to be vetted through the administration, both the city and the schools. And I do think as a parent who had both of our kids at the Healy, it is a really difficult experience to have any kind of event of any kind in the cafeteria including lunch. It is very loud and it's very uncomfortable, and there are populations of students who don't eat lunch in the cafeteria. I mean, the city would have a better assessment on whether or not this cafeteria in particular is much louder than the other ones.

But other ones, like, they do have sound baffling and different things. So any kind of acoustic treatment that can be done, would be very much appreciated, and I hope that we invest in the long run-in this space. That generation of buildings are wonderful. I know there's some real we've really benefited from the design of those buildings, but the sound in particular has been problematic. So I just wanted to chime in that I did see reference to the fact that it was supposed to happen in the it was referenced in the '21 school improvement plan that there was a commitment to do this work. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Patton, for that, insight from the history books. That's great. I I remembered it was somewhere in there too, so glad you found it. Miss Nnocik, I see you had your hand up. You wanna add something?

Through the chair, I just wanted to reiterate what director Reish commented while it wasn't brought up in September at the walk throughs. It has since come to our attention as a priority, and it is on our radar and excited to work with the city on, next steps.

Excellent. Grateful for the collaboration, and thank you for the great work that you all are doing in partnership. Seeing no other questions, chair Davis, I will turn the gavel back to

you. Alright.

Very well. Thank you, chair Baton. And, shall we mark that one work complete for now? And as we see see improvement on that, we can always come back if there's any issues and concerns, but sounds like appreciate the the work and finding a way to get that done as soon as possible. So that'll take us to item four on the agenda. This is 25Dash0987 that the commissioner of public works provide an update on preventative maintenance plans for all school buildings and progress on providing the public with tools to view preventative maintenance plans and actions. This one came to us, I believe, through, through y'all, Chair Baton. So do you want to, give us some context first? It's pretty self explanatory as well, but happy to

It is. Although, I will defer to my colleague, miss Petone, from whom this, this, derived. So if if I can

Happy. Thank you. Through you. This was something that came up. It was it was a big issue and concern in kind of the first generation of this meeting when, former, city councilor Beatriz Gomez and I were the co chairs. And there was a great deal of progress made on this, and there was work done on, you know, creating kind of a detailed database, and that was, demonstrated with this committee. The person who designed that database has since left the district. I understand. I could I'm in the city. I could be wrong, but this is my understanding.

And I thought it was a good time to sort of check-in because it doesn't seem like we've come up with a way to figure out how to put the highest level information. We recognize it, not every sensor, not every changing of oil. Whatever we do on these buildings has to be public unless every obviously, if somebody puts a request for information. But creating, a, celebrating the work that we're doing and then being public about that as a celebration, but also continuing to build the confidence in the city, the city residents that we know this work is being done. So I thought it was good timing to sort of say, let's check-in what's happened with that work.

What are the thoughts about being, more public about this information and the progress? And if we don't have a full report, I get it, but I'm just curious what the status of that is.

I saw a few hands go up on the administration. Lihaz Orodasi or Rich Reich, director Reich, whoever wants to go.

We're gonna hand this off to the IGA.

Thank you, mister chair. I'll just do a quick overview, and I'm sure director Rachel have more background to add to my response. Just wanted a thank you to ask committee member Patone for that context. Happy to get an update on that. I wasn't aware of that context going into the discussion on this item.

I I know that we have an existing three one one dashboard that's public and our DPW, IAM, SPS administration, and mayor's office meet regularly to review three one one submissions and discuss school building conditions, and address any issues that may arise. And I know, I think few weeks ago, maybe it was a few months ago, there was another item in this committee about, internal tracking tool to keep track of those requests and coordinate across several departments. So just wanted to remind that that's something that we use internally.

So be before I turn it over to, city council, I guess I just wanna clarify because I I had gone back to watch the joint meeting that miss Patton and, counselor, Gomez Mokad had chaired and this interview with a, a city staffer who had developed this database product, the focus of it was was actually not on responding to three one one requests, which are, you know, responsive actions, but rather around preventative maintenance actions and planning. So it could track actions that have been taken to address a system. So let's say the boiler and, you know, when was the boiler serviced? When is the next planned boiler date? Different components of the boiler.

So the burners in the boiler or, the pipe fittings. You know, when had each been checked? So each item, they had kind of parent child relationships in this database, and I'm I'm now reaching the limits of my understanding of what had been built. But it looked like a fairly robust product. And, to miss Patton's point, this product doesn't, we haven't heard anything more about that great work that had had happened.

And, so just to sort of separate that from the three one one, very valuable three one one collaboration that's happening between the city and the school department, this, I think, is is looking a little more proactively about what the planning is. So just, just as a matter of clarification. And I'm happy to, to share the recording that Ms. Patone had forwarded to me, to anyone who would like to review that. I see mister Reish has come on screen, mister Reish.

Sure. I'm happy to provide a, progress update on that. So we are in the process of procuring software that will serve as a platform for both of those things, for three one one, emergency, or, you know, work order requests, and generating work orders based on preventative maintenance schedules. The the the software program is envisioned to to consume what you know, that that that dashboard and database that had been shared with this committee last year, as sort of a back end, in terms of the the data, that that, you know, defines all those building systems. And, you know, the the software then takes it to the next level and allows us to program in, you know, automated work work orders based on what your preventative maintenance schedule will be.

It will also interface with the three one one q alert system. The idea is that q q alert and three one one is very well established for a broad range of things in the city and will continue to be, managed by constituent services and you know, three one one is part of constituent services. But the the the the two software programs will will interface and and give us a lot more ability to, you know, perform preventive maintenance, react to three one one requests, and then also report out on them. I guess the good news is that we had a lot of interest on our request for proposals. We had 22 submissions.

The bad news is that we have 22 submissions to review. We are in the process of doing that, and we'll be narrowing it down. We hope to narrow it down to to a manageable number. I'm hoping around three to bring in four interviews, and it'll be kind of two stage interview. One, talking with sort of the the DPW staff as well as the water and sewer staff and the engineering on on sort of the the back end work order management, and then also talk with Steve Craig in three one one on the interface with, you know, how how well it can be integrated for public reporting. So

all of

that is in process. It will likely move at a pace that none of us, will enjoy. It it will it will take a while, both to select the software and then stand it up and integrate it with all that. But we have the commitment to continue doing that. The IAM budget this year includes the the cost of the software, and it includes professional technical services to help that integration, and commitment of staff time to it. So, it is it remains a priority of the administration to lean into this heavily in fiscal twenty six.

Great. Thank you for that information. That's really helpful. Chair Davis, I will turn it over to you.

Alright. Very well. Councilor Klingon and then councilor Saeed.

Well, thank you, mister chair. Through you. I just must you know, I'm I'm only bringing a I sound like a crank tonight, but I you know, I'm I'm when I'm listening to this conversation and I I wanna just do a reset on this whole thing where it's like, this was post COVID or or during COVID when, you know, there was a lot of issues with the filtration in the school systems. And this committee was formed out of a lot of that frustration and breakdown between school side, city side. And the part that gets me frustrated, this isn't knock on anybody or digging right.

It's just one counselor's perspective is that we, like, hire these positions. Like, I thought we hired somebody on the school side that was gonna talk, and then we hired somebody on the city side, or there's somebody in DPW that owns buildings, to some degree. Like, I just where are we with and then Rich is now talking about it as engineering, but it's like, who on the day to day is, like, managing these buildings? And, again, it's not I'm not picking on anybody. I just don't I feel like we're all kind of still feeling like who really has their hands on this.

The system sounds great when it comes online at some point. But in the meantime, you know, if we go back to sleep, we could end up in another situation like we found ourselves in. We run it. We had a bunch of mechanical problems. And, you know, once we got Honeywell in, things were good. But before that, we were getting ripped off or something. What what's, is there any update in that area?

Council, can I see your hand up? Council commissioner, like How's going? I wouldn't I wouldn't curse you with that.

Mister, I just wanted to adjust, councilor. So DPW, just so everyone's aware, we do have a permit. We have a building systems manager. We have a preventative maintenance manager. We put those positions in the budget years ago, as you guys know, to do this exact kind of work as far as identifying our systems and our buildings and kind of start making categories about that.

So we have a DPW system that really just categorizes our preventive maintenance and our systems and our boilers and HVAC and things like that. That's an internal DPW system. We were working with IIM and Rich's team to take that information to make it to a broader system that's gonna be more, you know, available like Richard's talking about. So we are managing our buildings. We are on top of what our our system, both my PM manager and my building systems manager are phenomenal.

They are in our buildings daily looking at our systems, HVACs, and boilers, which is why we are I've kind of I've been doing some replacements and repairs to some systems and boilers that, you know, because of these positions that we put into place years ago. So just to answer your question, we are managing the buildings, and we we do know what systems we have in place and what they're doing and what what needs to happen in in the future and x, y, and z. So we're supporting Rich's team, what he needs to do as broader for the city and all of our buildings and facilities and that kind of thing. But BPW does have an internal system, and we have categorized our HVAC systems and our boiler systems. And we have we're very on top of what is needed and when, and we're trying to navigate to get those replaced and to make sure funding's secure for those for those reasons.

Perfect. Thank you. That's, you know, what I'm looking for. And, mister chair, I will just follow-up on, like, the the aspect of things as far as on the school side. I know that they had created a position so that they does that position still exist?

Miss Barry, I don't know if you wanna answer that or or miss.

Through the chair, we recently hired a facilities, safety and transportation coordinator who is miss Danielle Berry and has years of experience in the district, has transportation experience with special ed, has management experience at a building that was a hotel. And she started about a month ago and has hit the ground running. She's doing doing an amazing job. In terms of that interacting or interfacing with a a dashboard. So the tech piece of I I believe that's what's going on in terms of maintenance.

Having a reporting dashboard, I think that's something that will continue to take ongoing partnership with the city who, as Jill said, is is managing our facilities.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that, mister Jay. It's just and that's great if, you know, the position morphed into something else. It's just that it's hard also to remember everything. I'm, like, 95% sure that they they hired a specific buildings person on the school side. It's neither here nor there at this point. It's just I was wondering how that would how you know, kinda looking back as to, like, a report guy, like, how has everything worked out? And I know things change, and that's fine. I just wanted to, like, just kinda name that and reset as to how we kinda got to where we are. And and, so that's that's good good to hear.

Okay. Thank you, counselor Klingen. Counselor Saeed.

Through you, chair Davis, first, I would like to thank, committee member, Piton, for bringing this up again and for her her advocacy years ago with my along with my predecessor and for having us have this conversation today. Just I'm just, like, trying to understand because back in the fall, we had this conversation, and this committee was the first meeting we had in September 2024. And shortly after that, an infrastructure and asset management work to benefit some of your public schools summer twenty twenty four presentation was shared with both the school committee and the city council. I was from 08/30/2024. And this was just shared by email, I think, after that request was made.

I didn't remember very specifically making the request. And I followed up with you, mister H, and you have mentioned two positions. So I'm trying to understand how does this relate to the two positions. So one is a construction hiring a construction liaison position to focus on planning and design phases of infrastructure improvement projects, and the other one is a construction liaison position. So where are these positions filled, and will these staff members be assigned the task of working on a reporting dashboard?

Yeah. Let let's start there.

To the chair. The the construction liaison positions are focused more on future large capital projects, and the position is filled. Magda Gomez is proving herself invaluable, to two of our teams. One, the CSO long term control plan update team. The other is the MSBA, replacement for the Winter Hill School.

And so she's actively involved in that big school replacement project. We just had a coffee hour with Winter Hill parents last week. We're gonna have one with brown parents either later this week or next week. You know, she she works on things like that. This sort of, you know, day to day preventative maintenance is not the sort of thing that that position is envisioned to to work on.

As I say, from from IIM's involvement, we're standing up a software system and interdepartmental system for reporting, and and we do have a dedicated senior project manager to that project. But, you know, the I apologize if there's any confusion. That's not sort of the the function of that liaison position to actually communicate out what, you know, at this moment, you know, DPW is managing.

K. Through the chair, thank you for that clarification. Because my request that I'm trying to go back to that email was which I made during one of our joint committee meetings. That was, I think, the first one in September, is to have, like, a project website. So it's for updates on school building facilities As committee member was saying, is to just get progress on the things we're doing in school buildings and have that transparency, which is something that parents have been asking for over and over.

So what you've mentioned earlier about software, is that to do the work on having this project website? I just wanna understand because there's a lot of different conversations about a project website. Now this software And, again, the goal is just transparency and that we are showing progress on all this work. So, again, I'm making this ask, and what's the update, if any?

Yeah. To to the chair. At the moment, we've stood up the, project website again for that large MSBA funded, project to replace the the Winter Hill, Somerville MA Dot Gov Slash MSBA, and that is we're keeping that up to date. I think we just pushed some updates to it this week. In terms of the, you know, sort of broader billing maintenance and improvements, we have yet to stand that up.

And, again, I think that that getting the software in place is is sort of a precursor to that. So it's it's still on the horizon, but we've got a few steps before we can get there. Certainly, any other individual capital projects that happen in the meantime will have their own website. You know? So we we've got project pages, for example, for for the work that's happening on city Hall right now with with regular posting and updates on on the work that we're doing on city hall.

The next school project in our pipeline will be the replacement of the chiller at the west and the roof at the west. Design on that is advancing right now, and, you know, we'll you know, once that becomes a construction project, we'll have a a project page for for that with with updates. And and the next one after that in the queue is the boiler for the Healy. That's maybe about six months to a year behind the the West. And, again, we'll have a project page for that, when, when that moves into construction.

Through chair, if I may continue, thank you for the clarification. I understand that some project, they do have their own project website. But, again, here, the ask is to have a project website for all the building maintenance, and I'm glad to hear that the software is going to be, like, the starting point. So question there, when are we expecting these this to start, and, do we have, you know, funding for it? Do like, what what does it involve?

Through the chair. There right now, there are are too many precursor activities for me to project a date. I think once we've selected a software, and signed the contract with both that software vendor and the integration vendor will have a a project plan that we can roll out. But right now, it's it's far too early for me to project, when we'll we'll we'll have those, up and running.

Through the chair. Okay. So can you say if it's something that we can, start this fall potentially? And the other question is funding. Do you have funding for it? Do we need to allocate funding?

Yeah. To to the chair, as I said earlier, our, fiscal twenty six I'm budget has the funding in it. We go before finance committee this coming Monday, the sixteenth. So we'll we'll I I'm I'm hoping that that funding will be safe, and and not, on the chopping block. But, as of right now, the proposed budget has that in it.

And then just the other piece of the question was, this fall, by any chance?

Oh, yes. Yeah. So so, as as I, mentioned to to chair Davis and and chair Baton, we're we're reviewing 22 proposals right now. Looking to advance them to interviews in July, sign the contract in August, and hit the ground running in September.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Chair Baton, to you. Yep.

I see member Baton has her hand up. Member Baton.

Thank you. I have a couple of hopefully quick questions. I, I'm not even gonna say it hit a lot of what I wanted to touch on. Is there a timing? I know we can't necessarily commit to when this is gonna be complete. But when would be a good estimation of when we could check-in and see the status of this based on so that, you know, we might close this item out, but that everybody has it on their radar that we should check-in in the spring, check-in next fall. When is a good time to hear, you know, what's going on? What would the timeline look like? And then I think the thing that is most concerning from my perspective is sort of the scope of public information. What are you imagining and envisioning what that might look like?

Through the chair, I I think it's gonna take us the better part of the fiscal year to stand it up. So, you know, in terms of another touch point, I'd I could probably put it out about a year. Okay. And and the the the scope of of the public interaction is actually gonna be one of our selection criterion for the for the software. You know, as I say, we've got 22 right now.

We gotta narrow it down to three or four to interview, and a big portion of that, perhaps as much as half, will be, you know, the the the interaction with the three one one and q alert. And Steve Craig is on our selection committee, and, you know, I I really wanna get Steve's and and, you know, frankly, Denise Taylor's input on that, on on that side of the house.

Alright. Well, I I just as a follow-up, so just to ping it for all of us, maybe this time next year, we check-in, see where it's going. The last comment I wanted to follow-up on was, from Kelser site about, this idea of where would, like, a master view of school prod school projects sit. So when you said, I I really appreciate hearing, like, alright. The chiller at the West and the roof of the West are the next things happening, and then the Healy boiler.

And I know you have a list. It's not just those three things. I know you have a list of, like, 15 things. And then we also know that in so many years, those things are gonna come up again. And it's almost like I'd love to at least capture that level of detail so that we don't have to bring you back in all the time to ask these questions or, like, oh my gosh.

I just saw a temporary chiller over at the x. Having an idea of what the the master overview plan for the big items would be helpful. Maybe it's already there, I just don't know where it is. So I apologize if I'm asking for something that exists. But that's the kind of detail I think that creates confidence in the community that we understand how the city is now really putting the energy and the money and the time to invest in these buildings in a way we have not. And I want that to be transparent to the public.

To to the chair. In terms of the the capital projects pipeline, we we don't have that posted. The plan is once we get through the annual budget in June that the finance director, Bean, budget director, master Boney, and I are gonna sit down and hammer off the capital investment plan, including better ways to communicate what's in the the pipeline. So once the three of us have recovered from budget in June, and we'll hit it in July.

So that might be something that we could follow-up in the fall

Yeah.

And see what you were envisioning and how to publicize that level of detail. So I'm just pinging my friends on city council as you put the orders in for this meeting. If somebody can flag that and say, let's follow-up later in the fall on this topic, that would be great.

Mister chair, if I could just jump in just to make a quick note. So,

yeah, I

mean, this has been discussed. You know, we talked about Chelsea and how the Chelsea school department has a list on their website. I know that it's a little bit outdated, but, we talked about having something similar here. And there's, you know, like a clearinghouse, like you said, where all the projects are listed, and then maybe even anticipated projects. Like you said, there's a life cycle on some of these systems too. So, I mean, that doesn't seem like it should be that heavy of a lift, director, Raish, just to get this stuff up on a website. Is that something we could do fairly quickly?

To to the chair again. We're we're all hands on deck with budget, water, and sewer, and the MSBA, process for the Winter Hill. We we understand this is priority, and we've had discussions with the, web specialists in, communications about standing up something like that. But, you know, I'd I'd love to make more progress on it. But every day, something else comes up where it's it's still in the pipeline, just not as moving as quickly as we would like it.

Thanks.

Real quick, mister chair. Have we got replaced Melissa Woods yet?

Chair, yes. So as of last week, acting director Ralph Henry has been officially, I guess, promoted to full time, not acting, like, capital projects director, which will then open up the deputy director position, which technically he held, for for the past year, we couldn't advertise it while, technically, the the he was acting, director. So there good news there.

Commissioner Latham, I see your hands up. Did you was there something you wanted to add to the discussion?

Yes. The chair. I just wanted to also just talk about Laurie, you talked about just some transparency and communication. I think there are some in the interim, as Rich is working on the project, and we are trying to get to this this budget season, there are DPW maintenance items and projects that we, you know, we can maybe discuss about how how we make that more available as far as things like the boiler stuff that we're doing at the Brown currently, the things that we've already gotten in the pipeline, the kind of our preventative maintenance plans, x, y, and z tools, whether that be through a quarterly kind of updated report. DPW is a process, just so you guys know, of, revamping our websites.

That's gonna be very interactive and, public facing and have very interactive popping kind of website. People know the website, and it's gonna be like a commissioner's corner. And then we have to talk about x, y, and z, but where we're gonna have videos. We're gonna have updates and kind of showing x. So there, you know, we are gonna intend to have a section on our new website that's gonna have public facing.

They can click on this button. This is where we are with this. And so so we can definitely incorporate some of what you're asking into that and this on a DPW scale. So that's something that once we get to budget season, you know, we can work on with my building systems manager and my maintenance manager just to give some updates of our DPW, maintenance projects that are gonna be school related, and I think it'll be helpful and, kind of lead to that transparency you're you're asking for.

Okay. Thank you. Chair Baton, through you to Ms.

Phillips. Doctor. Phillips, go ahead.

Thanks, Chair. Through you. I just wanna, elevate Commissioner Lathan's point. I think, communicating to our constituents about extensive amount of money the city is pouring into our schools is something that we, as a whole, don't do very well. Right?

I think even my colleagues had no idea the city council, you just, if I'm correct, allocated, like, half $1,000,000 for the spoiler at the Brown, which is a significant chunk of change. And I feel like our constituents really need to understand the extent of all that money. So anything we can do until the system is built to just get the word out about how much money we are actually putting into our schools for preventative maintenance, whether that's through regular reports, however it is, I just really encourage us all to do that.

Point well taken. Alright. Oh, chair Davis.

Councilor Syed?

Yeah. Committee member, Phillips, thank you for saying that. I just wanna say I just wanna add to that. Do since there's a lot of work that happens over the summer, and, as commissioner mentioned, they like, just the presentation we received from DPW, 09/03/2024. I was thrilled to see it.

Because, like, work is happening. Here's someone trying to keep track of all of this and share it with the school committee and the city council. So just something like that, and these are just slides, was very helpful for me as a counselor. And that's what I used to share with, my constituents, the parents who are asking, what are we doing about this? What are we doing about that?

So I think this will save time to all of us, and, again, will have that piece of transparency and here and just, again, be public about the progress we're making. Because we know we are investing money. We are doing the work. It's just again, we're constantly having you here. Like, this committee, this time we're here is the only time we get to discuss these things, and so only time for the public to get to learn about this progress we're making.

So, again, I encourage administration to do that and ideally start the school year with celebrating these things. Right? September. Here's a report before we've done over the summer, and here's, here's the list of things that we'll be doing that we're anticipating to do, like, the school year. Something as simple as that instead of waiting. Because, again, it's been over a year since we made the initial since I made the request and few years since my colleagues on the school committee have started this conversation. So that's that's good to it.

Chad Patone back to you.

Oh, if we're playing ping pong. Miss Patone.

Through you, just to respond to counselor site, we do, as a school committee, get a report every August about all the work that's been done. We often I don't know if we've gotten it this year, but we often will get one in June about what's planned. And I can make the request that city councilors are copied on that. There's no reason that I don't think you can because it usually comes in a memo format that you couldn't receive that memo if that's going to be helpful for you in communicating with constituents. And then, of course, eventually move to the point where that's information is more easily accessible to the public. Obviously, it's in our minutes that people can get at it, but it's not on a website.

Through the chair. Yeah. Thank you. It was shared last September. That's actually the one I was referencing. For the first time, it was just like I I was I was thrilled to see it. So, again, let's work on getting that out there to the public. So unless you're a parent and be involved and know how to where to find materials for, like, school committee, it's just hard to get your hands on it. So that's, again, the request they're making. If we can just start off the school year with something like that and make it public somewhere, that would be really helpful.

Alright. Any further discussion on this item? Alright. Seeing none. I I agree with your request or or I'll echo the request to to make sure that we do, again, get that list. And I would ask whomever might be sitting on the school committee at the time to nudge whomever might be serving on the school committee as president of the council to remind that person to have it sent over if it's not that way. Alright. So thank you for that. We can mark this one work complete unless there's any objection to that. And I see.

So I see now that'll be marked as work complete. The next item is item number five. So the next the next two items are similar but different enough that I thought was appropriate to take them up separately. Certainly, there's a bit of overlap or perhaps there's a bit of overlap, but, yeah, we can we can hit the specifics of these last two items each on their own. Item five is 20 five-five 87, that the administration worked with the director of infrastructure and asset management and commissioner of public works to accelerate maintenance schedules, invest in preventative repairs, and develop a clear contingency plan for school displacement.

So this was submitted by councilor Bah. It's similar to an item that we had discussed previously, but, chair Betone, you had suggested that we it might be appropriate to come back to this, discussion using this item as the the means to do so. You wanna any context or additional color you wanna bring to the discussion before we, launch into it?

I mean, I'll just say that I think the first portions of this, item, I believe we just talked about. The one glaring item is, developing a clear contingency plan for school displacement. That is something that we have talked about in this subcommittee in the past. And there is actually a separate item that is still in the box waiting to be talked about. But I think perhaps this can serve as an appetizer to that larger discussion at a later date.

So my hope is that we can, you know, use this item to talk about any additional information we have about contingency planning. And then, of course, we will not solve it in this meeting, so, it can be something we talk about at a later date.

Very well. Thank you. Liaison Raddazzi, see your hand up.

Thank you, mister chair. I'm happy to provide a small update. I won't read what I was gonna read, which was basically identical to the last item on the preventative maintenance plans and such. But I did wanna share that the city our our city solicitor is working or has been working with or following up with the Summerville Public Schools legal team to follow-up on that MOU for the coming school was requested, by the school committee in September. So I just wanted to provide that update. It's, still in the works, so I don't have any more detail than that except that they are working on it, it's based off of some of the information that was in their resolution that was passed by the school committee. So should I

Appreciate that.

I yeah. I I I think this might be a little bit of a loaded discussion given my understanding of what the m o that MOU was supposed to be. So I'm gonna step back into the bush here and let chair Vuitton take this.

Oh, that's fine. We are we are, right in the middle of it. So, doctor Phillips, go right ahead.

I have a question and then a comment. My question is just clarifying. So this MOU that we asked to be created in advance of opening the warming center at, on Prescott Street. We are we are just drafting now. Is is that what's happening?

Correct. Our understanding from and I did go back and review them. They were the resolution was discussed was that we would get outreach about the MOU, so we're circling back to it right now.

So my follow-up is that was not a that was that's not the intention of the motion that we made. Right? We made this motion that this MOU would be created and signed before the warming center was open, and so it's kinda shocking to me that we are just drafting it now. Putting a pin in that, the district has emergency plans that we don't make public for what happens in a range of emergencies. I think what we're asking the city to provide is what is the emergency plan for if we have to close a building during a given school year.

And I would expect that the city would wanna update that regularly as things change. So could we get an update on when we can get a sense from the city on? Because this is the issue. Right? We've had it happen in the past multiple times that a school has gone down in the middle of the school year, and we'd need to move all those kids somewhere. And where we move them changes every time we have to do it. It's really important to us that we know from the beginning of the school year what the plan for that year is. So we've got the summer now. And I guess I'm wondering, can the city commit to get a plan in place if we have to close the school building in, 2526 school year before we open it?

Miss Rudasi, go right ahead.

Thank you. Through you, mister chair, I definitely understand the concerns you raised. We are working, again, like we've mentioned throughout this meeting, on investments that are being made for preventative maintenance and repairs so that we don't get to a place where we would need to relocate a school. When that has happened in the past, this administration has pulled together every department and resource to make sure that we are able to relocate an entire school and, at the same time, make sure that we do everything we can to mitigate the impact of that relocation on teachers, students, and staff. Unfortunately, there is no straightforward simple solution to having a swing space, but we are working in collaboration with city departments and SPS administration to come up with the plan.

Doctor Phillips, do you have a follow-up?

Miss Patone can go first.

Alright. Miss Patone.

Thank you. Through you. Thank you, doctor Phillips, for framing the two different concerns. Obviously, addressing the issue in the original MOU associated with the Cummings, those conditions expectations are still there in terms of the status of the building and what would need to be done to do with that building and everything else that's outlined in the request and that resolution. So I look forward to hearing it.

It is unfortunate that it's happening after the fact, but I still would like to see that information. The second piece is around coming up with contingency plans. And I guess the answer I have I appreciate miss Radasi's feedback that they are working on a plan. Is there a time when we might get the plan or an idea of a plan, which I know is not our favorite term, but I know that there could be multiple contingencies. But having some of that work already done in advance and research, hopefully, will help the whole city and the school in the unfortunate event if this does happen to turn something around a lot quicker than, we have been able to.

Go ahead, Vardasi.

Thank you, mister chair. Through you, I can double check and get back to you on a timeline. I'm sorry. I did not come up with that information.

Thank you.

Alright. Doctor. Phillips.

Thank you. To you, chair, I would like to formally request that we put a motion to receive the city's emergency plan for what it will do if we have to close the school during the 2526 school year on the agenda for the fall first fall meeting of this subcommittee.

Noted. And I will submit an order so that we can get it on this committee in the fall. Thank you.

For the discussion on the item?

Not not seeing any here.

Shall we leave this one in committee then to bring back around with the other item in the fall? Or how do you wanna approach this?

No. I I I we have another item that is expressly focused on the common school and swing space. And my recommendation would be to close this item and use the other item as the vehicle for this further discussion.

Sounds like a solid plan. Seeing no objection on the council side, so we'll mark this item as work complete. And that'll take us to the next item on the agenda, which is item six, twenty five dash zero nine three three, that the administration work with the Somerville Public Schools and the Commissioner of Public Works to effectively budget for and fund current equipment maintenance costs, including but not limited to air compressors and ovens at the high school career and technical education program and develop plans to include CTE equipment maintenance needs in future budgeting and funding cycles. This came through, through me, in serving as, providing over the council the particular week it came through from the school committee. So, Chair Baton, I'll, hand it over to you to give us the context and lead the discussion.

Yes. Thank you, Chair Davis. This item came out of a discussion we had in school committee when our Career and Technical Education Program lead came before us and, discussed a number of equipment related maintenance items that he was concerned about in a larger package of funding needs for the CTE program. But in particular, items like air compressors, ovens, and other large pieces of equipment that happen to be housed in the CTE program in the Somerville High School are apparently part of the school budget for maintenance. Whereas if any of these equipment might have been in a different building, they would sit firmly in you know, the maintenance for that would be the responsibility of DPW, or I I assume DPW.

I'm not gonna assume I'm an act I'm not gonna say I'm an expert in how the the city's budget is put together. But, needless to say, you know, this raised a lot of questions in school committee about, why schools are paying for this because it happens to be equipment in a school or as part of a particular program. So, I think the request here is that public works, and just pointing largely at, quote, unquote, the administration, work to budget these items, out of the city budget rather than out of the school's budget because I think the sense among school committee members was that these items do not belong in our our budget. We're not, you know, facilities experts and, you know, the expertise and, you know, also efficiencies that come out of the, city side of, oversight of, again, these these maintenance of these large items, seems more appropriate on the city side. So that was the genesis of this, and I'm happy to hear from Liaison Radasi or others in response to that.

Just take it away. Thank you, mister chair.

Please. Thank

you. If that's okay. Yes. Okay. So thanks for raising this issue. I do want to share that we're actually having ongoing conversations with Summerville Public Schools on this in terms of long term financial planning. So, because those conversations are ongoing, I don't really have much more to share with them, but I did wanna let you know that those are conversations there.

Okay. I am curious to hear from our school staff if there's anything they would like to add, but I am grateful to the administration for opening that conversation and beginning that planning process. Miss Anosika, did you have something you wanted to add?

Yes. Through the chair, just to underscore what mister Raffi mentioned that we are having conversate we we've had conversations with mayor, Ed Bean, and mayor's office and others about being clear on where the funding source should come from for some of the maintenance that's happening at CT and other areas of our facilities that historically may have been under our line item or theirs. So we're working on clarity there, and it's been very collaborative when we mentioned this. So happy to report that.

That is good to hear. Doctor Phillips.

Thanks, I really appreciate the collaboration that's happening around this. I think it is really great. I think there's efficiencies of scale that we can only get by linking our equipment, maintenance to the city's equipment maintenance. And so the more we can develop contracts where, you know, part of maintaining the vents in CTE is whoever is maintaining the vents elsewhere in the city. So I just wanna encourage us.

It's not just who owns the equipment and therefore is responsible for paying for it, but what efficiencies of scale can we get by including this equipment in whatever maintenance contracts we have elsewhere for similar equipment.

Thank you. I agree wholeheartedly. Chair Davis.

Now you learn how to push a button properly. Councilor Klingen.

Thank you, mister chair. I just wanna ask a question. Can be directed to anybody, although anybody who maybe was in those discussions that have been taking place thus far. This can be the first time this discussion that has ever taken place. So I'm just curious, like, what, you know, what was Ed Bean's reaction, you know, to whoever was in that meeting. Like, what's the initial response? Because, like, this this this conversation, you know, probably has taken place for all we know, you know, multiple times, and somehow we arrived here. So I'm just curious if anybody can add anything, any type of historical knowledge to this discussion.

And hoping that people can add bleeps as appropriate. Miss Radasi?

For you, mister chair. I obviously haven't been with the city for very long, so I I can't speak to anything predating my time here. I can certainly follow-up if information I end up sharing is incorrect. But as far as I know this specific ask, this is the first time that I had heard it flagged.

Okay. Mister Chi, did we lose Lance?

No. Here. Here. Here. Here. Camille?

Oh, yeah. Oh, there you That's all. I I look forward to seeing how this discussion plays out, but I just I always you know, I want a little more, like you know, we come to these meetings, and and it could be a quick answer. Like, like, yeah. We tried that in '86, and this is what happened when you do that. And then, you know and so, you know, we think we're, like, reinventing the wheel, and then turns out that there's maybe mass general. Who knows? I mean, who knows what the answer is? Ed Bean probably knows. So I'd like to look forward to hearing that answer.

Thank you, councilor Clayton. Councilor Saeed, we'll go back to the school committee.

Through you, chair Davis, so glad to hear that this collaboration, and I understand that the conversation is still is ongoing. My question is once decision has been reached, should this come out of the school budget or, DPW, like, city budget, would this go into effect in this coming fiscal year or the one after? Like, are we expecting decision before July 1? 10

Liz and Radezzi?

Thank you. Through you, mister chair. My understanding is that the funding for this, and I think it's reflected in the language for the item, is that it's taking into consideration these maintenance needs in future budgeting cycles and funding cycles and making sure that we have a a dependable funding for these items. And so my understanding is the conversation is focusing on how we can sustainably fund the the the sustainably fund I'm mixing up these words. Sustainably fund future equipment maintenance needs.

Council say all set?

Yeah. I think I'm all set. So it sounds like not this upcoming fiscal year. Is that what what what it means? Like, when you say future, at what point does that start?

Well, would we be correct, Liaison Rodasi, in assuming that the to to the extent that we have funding, designated for these types of things that currently sit in the current proposed school budget for fiscal year twenty six?

Through the chair. Yes. That's correct. And I've just lost my train of thought. Yes. Sorry. I forgot what I was gonna say. Okay.

Yeah. Just wanted to, yeah, to be clarified. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Chair Baton, back to you.

Oh, yes. Miss Baton.

Thank you through you, chair. I'm glad this is an item. I just wanna give a little context. I think, counselor Klingon is right. It's a really good question of what we've done what have we done for the last four years when we've been offering CTE education. I do believe that we have newer equipment. We have more complex equipment. Our enrollment has increased dramatically, and I think that has all led to greater cost to main for maintenance. And I think also with the new building, there's a greater expectation in the quality of how our bill equipment is maintained. So, yes, I think we we have been doing it some way in the past.

I don't know if some of the maintenance was done by the teacher. Who knows? Because some of that equipment wasn't necessarily all all computerized. It might have been a mechanical lathe, and that person knew how it operated and did the work to maintain it. So I just think that we're in a different space.

The quality and the technology and the equipment is much more advanced. And, unfortunately, everybody was kinda surprised by, hey. You know, there's, over a $100,000 of maintenance that needs to be done for next year. And my understanding at least, and I apologize if you've covered this, we've taken some funds, some, contingency not contingency, but, efficiency dollars from our current budget to prepay some of this out of the current school community budget. But we don't wanna be in the position where the school district is absorbing these costs every year and they're not in the bid budget explicitly.

And whether or not that dollar amount exists on the school budget side or it exists on the city, it needs to be a new bucket as opposed to that the cost being absorbed by the old buckets that weren't planned to allocate that. So, again, thrilled that the city and the district are working together on this, and I'm looking forward to hearing wherever it goes. As long as we're funding it, I'm pleased. So thank you.

Alright. Seeing no more questions on the school committee side, I will hand the gavel back to you, chair Davis.

Alright. Very well. Councilor Klagen?

Yeah. I just want I just wanna make a comment, mister chair, through you that, you know, the saddest part will be is if that everybody just goes, oh, we never we just, you know, we just did it sort of case by case, and we never really, you know, thought of that or something. So so yeah. No. I mean, the idea that, you know, systems being broken maybe for multi years and kids missing out, although I will say, I I hope that kids will be extra, you know, responsible with this stuff too because, you know, it's like, that's kind of, sometimes goofing around can can end up costing us a lot of money.

So there's there's a lot of there's gotta be some accountability too with some of these things. But, certainly, if a system goes down, we shouldn't have to wait until the school department's able to scrape up the funds to get something fixed. We should be able to to help with that. So, hopefully, we'll see where where we end up with this.

Okay. Thank you, councilor Klingon. I appreciate this discussion, thank you, Ms. Baton, for, you know, for for your comments. You know, I completely agree.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if to some extent, not only the educators, but also some of the kids may have been helping with some of the some of the maintenance as as, you know, part of these incredibly valuable programs that we have. But I I just I wanna kinda add to the conversation a a much you know, sort of a high higher level excuse me. Yeah. Higher level kind of filter for you know, you, Lia Zamardasi, and and director Reich and anyone else who who is listening, you know, this this committee and and these joint meetings of these two committees were created pretty much exactly for these types of things because in the past, you know, we've seen that, you know, folks that came before us for the most part, you know, weren't keeping up on maintenance of buildings and facilities, and and that was a a very, very specific driver of the creation of of of of, you know, of this body, of these subcommittees so that we we didn't fall into that that situation going forward and that we make sure that we, you know, keep a focus and a spotlight on areas where ongoing preventative maintenance and any other kind of maintenance needs to needs to happen so that we don't end up, you know, in in a much worse situation for having failed to do that.

And so, you know, I think many of those conversations were in relation to the buildings themselves and the conditions of the buildings and the, you know, the primary systems, life safety systems that, you know, that service those buildings. But to me, this this is no different. Right? As it was noted, we've invested an incredible amount of money as a community in this in this high school facility. It's wonderful.

Know, I think it's entirely likely that the increased enrollment and participation in these programs that was mentioned is because these facilities are so good. So, you know, let's make sure we take care of them and protect those investments with smaller invest you know, smaller dollars, now, so that they don't become, you know, bigger cost and headaches later. I just wanna add add my voice to that, to, to this, and I and I appreciate that that sounds like that conversation's already happening. So, certainly look forward to hearing, how we will approach that. Chair Bettina, I'll yes. Your hand up as well as, chief of staff Abaseke. I'll pass it back to you, chair Bettina, and to lead the conversation.

Thank you, chair Davis. I I just wanted to pile on with what you just said, but also add to it. And, miss Anosike, I will get to you in a moment, but I couldn't. I just wanted to take this moment to also recognize the exceptional leadership of the Summerville High School principal, Alicia Kersten, and Jim Hashi, the, the head of the CTE program. Without their phenomenal leadership and attention to these matters, we wouldn't have this, this individual item before us.

Because of their their efforts, CTE has grown tremendously, in recent years. And I think it's a testament not only to the facilities that we have been able to build and are continuing to maintain through partnership with the city, but also the school leadership. So just would be, remiss with not also calling out their contributions. Miss Anosike, did you wanna add something?

Through the chair. Thank you, chair chair Baton. And, also, I wanted to underscore what you and school committee member, miss Patone, mentioned. The CTE department has grown by 48% since 2021, and this is a huge priority for the district. And in terms of maintenance for their equipment, it's something that we've been following very closely. So we're actually really excited that these conversations are happening, and it's it's something that the programming and the increase in access for students is something we're really proud of. So thank you all for your attention to this. I I did wanna underscore how important it is to the district.

Excellent. Well, that's a great place to close that item's discussion. So, Chair Davis, I will, turn the floor back over to you.

All right. Very good. Thank you. Mister Clerk, I believe the only item we have left is the item that is on the table. Is that correct? Correct. Alright. Very well. Well, thank you everyone for all of your discussion to members of the administration, the school department, the fire department as well. This was really helpful. I think we had a good meeting, and and we're five minutes ahead of our our target end date. So another incredibly effective, efficient meeting. Thanks to you all for helping accomplish that. We have, two well, so the Klingon will move to adjourn. See no discussion on that item.

We'll take that motion to adjourn up together with the motion to approve the minutes. Off the table, would the clerk please call the roll?

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

Yes.

Councilor Klingen? Yes. Councilor Davis? Yes. Mister chair, all members have voted to accept the minutes and to adjourn.

Chair Baton, thank you.

All right. Thank you all. We are adjourned as well. Have a good night.