School Committee - Regular Meeting

Thank you all right good evening everyone, this is Tuesday September 8 2026 it is 6pm and we are going to be starting the school buildings facilities and maintenance committee meeting. pursuant to Chapter two of the acts of 2025 this meeting of a city council committee will be conducted by remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. All right, let's establish quorum, please.

This is roll call. Councillor Scott? Councillor Saeed? Here. Councillor Link?

Here.

With two councillors present,

All right, and we will enter a brief recess so that the school committee can establish a quorum.

Thank you, Chair Link. This is Leron Betone, school committee member for Ward 7, chairing, and I will establish quorum for the subcommittee of the same name on the school committee side. So, Laura Petone, are you here? I am present. And Liz Eldredge, are you here?

Present.

Excellent. I just want to note that the first item on our committee had an error. We did not actually have a report to approve from June 3 because we did not meet on June 3. However, we do have reports to approve for three other meetings, March, April, and May. So with your grace for that typo, I will entertain a motion to approve those reports.

Motion to approve.

Is there a second, Liz?

I apologize, second.

That's okay. Any discussion? If not, we'll go through. Laura, how do you vote?

Yes.

Liz, how do you vote?

Yes.

And I vote yes. Thanks for letting us take care of that business at the top here, and we will turn it over to Chair Link.

Thank you, Chair Paton. All right, so now we get to reestablish quorum.

And this is roll call to reestablish quorum. Councillor Scott? Councillor Saeed? Here. Councillor Link?

Here.

And with two councillors present, we have quorum.

Okey dokey, let's get cooking. So let's start off with ID 260941, which is approval of the school buildings, facilities and maintenance committee meeting minutes of May 21st. We'll just lay that on the table unless there's any discussion for approval. All right, moving on to item number two, ID 260839. that the Commissioner of Public Works provide an update to this council on improvements made to custodial staffing at the East Somerville Community School. And I see we've got Commissioner Wiseman here.

The floor is yours. Thank you, Chair. Eric Wiseman, Commissioner of DPW. So when we spoke to you about this, we were still awaiting a final contract from, with the local three. We are very nearly there, I think. I think it just has to, the final elements have to be approved by the council, but we were able to post the position, the swing ship position as suggested by this committee, And despite the assurances of the custodians that there was a lot of interest in this position, nobody bid on it. So we are currently staffing the position sort of in a split way between having one morning floater come over to the Somerville School for that shift and one afternoon floater come over to the East Somerville School for that shift. In the meantime, the position is posted to the public and we strongly believe that we will get a good candidate to fill that position.

Thank you, Commissioner Weissman. That's all great news. I'll just say I'm really excited that, you know, it seems like we've been making steady progress and, you know, I know that the contract is a really big piece of this, so I'm really excited. Councilor Saip, it's you.

Through you, Chair Link, to Commissioner Wiseman, I'm excited to hear about this update that we heard from this committee, both school committee and the council, about the importance of having this position. and that it's out there. So anyone listening, apply if you're interested. Thank you.

Move the chair. Thank you. Happy to take any referrals. Chair Patel.

Thank you, Chair Link. I recognize Liz Eldridge. Go ahead.

Thank you, through the chair. I'm really glad we're talking about this. I was wondering if you could just, Commissioner Wiseman, if you just clarified the times. I know there's a lot of discussion about whether or not there's going to be a movement of time into earlier in the day. If you could just clarify so we can best understand what time frames we're looking at for coverage. Sure. Thank you.

Through the chair, yeah. I'm actually, I've gotten mixed up a bit myself. It's changed a couple of times. I can just pull up the latest posting, if you don't mind. But it, gosh, I should know off the top of my head, but I don't remember where we landed. There was a fair amount of back and forth. I can add it to the chat if you'd like.

If you're going to add to the chat, I think it has to be shared publicly.

I just... Sure, if you just bear with me for one moment.

Yes, thank you. Appreciate it. Do you want me to pull it up on the shared screen? The chat is disabled for webinars.

I'll just read it out. Actually, I'm going to have to follow up with HR. I do not see it with the hours posted. So that's like a... Oh, here it is. 1030 to 6 p.m.

Could you just clarify how that's changed from previously? I know when we started talking about this in April, there was a discussion of possibly moving someone earlier. So if you could just confirm for me maybe that that means that we do in fact have coverage through lunchtime, just to really break it down to the basics.

Sure, through the chair. We have always had coverage through lunchtime. Yeah, so this will provide additional coverage. We had originally talked about, I think, an 11 to 6.30 shift, and then it got shifted back to 10.30 to 6. And that's why I couldn't remember where the end of the shift was.

Appreciate the clarification. Thank you so much for the work on this.

Before turning it back over to City Council, unless Member Patone also has a comment, I just want to express my gratitude to you, Commissioner Wiseman, for your cooperation and partnership here. You know, even simple shifts in timeframes and looking at, you know, schedules requires a tremendous amount of coordination, negotiation. And, you know, I think the openness that you have shown to us to hearing feedback and, you know, going to the table and, talking things through with stakeholders really shows a commitment to listening and meaningfully responding to feedback. This was exactly the response that I think constituents were looking for when they raised this question in the first place. So I just want to reflect to you that I think you are doing the job that I think is exactly what is called for here. So I'm so glad and grateful to be in a city where we have leaders who are responding that way, meaning this is participatory democracy right here. So just really grateful for that. Thank you, Chair. Happy to work together. Great. Awesome. I see Danielle Berry, our coordinator for many things. I'm not going to try to repeat your title as a comment. Go ahead, Danielle.

Thank you. Through you, Chair, Danielle Barry, Facility Safety and Transportation Coordinator for Somerville Public Schools. And I do just want to say how thankful we are for DPW for adding over the past last few months of last school year, the floater custodian that helped during the daytime. It definitely seemed to help improve certain things throughout the building. And it was incredible. you know, the custodian that was there was able to focus on other tasks. And then we had the floater. I know we're only a few days into this school year, but so far things have been on track and going very smoothly. And the East Somerville looked beautiful when we opened it last week. So I do want to say a huge thank you to DPW for getting the schools ready.

You're here. Okay, with that gratitude, we will move back to City Council. It's all yours, Chair Link.

Thank you, Chair Raton. So, yeah, obviously, I think you've heard lots of praise, so I'm not going to keep beating that drum, but let's just move on to the next one. So we've got item number 3, 260841, that the commission of public works, the commissioner, sorry, of public works, provide an update on the improvements made to the temperature in the Edgerly Education Center, Cafetorium and Kitchen. It says Cafetorium and Kitchen, but actually my recollection is that it was maybe only the kitchen. following the installation of the air conditioning unit.

Me again, Eric Wiseman, Commissioner of DPW. Yeah, just slight correction. After consulting with the kitchen staff and the administration, the unit was placed in the That went in early summer. We had it in throughout the summer. We removed it to do the floors and the cafeteria as part of our summer work and then replaced it. And just to give you an example of how it is working, we reinstalled it after the floors had been stripped of waxed. The temperature in the cafeteria was 82. Within 30 minutes, it got down to 74. So it does appear to be working well in the space. The feedback I've gotten has been positive. So yeah, I would say it has been a success.

That's fantastic news. I'm glad that it is cooling both the spaces as well. That is excellent. And So do we have, I'm glad to hear that it brought it from in the 80s to the 70s. Is it lower than the, I guess, is it in the low 70s or high 60s at this point on hot days?

Thank you, Chair. Yeah, the temperature, my understanding is it is, In the, like, 74 is sort of where it's landing. We have it set to a 72 set point. But my understanding is, like, having to do with the way the doors open into the hallway. We're ending up... cooling the hallway a little bit. We're losing some efficiency there. I think our building systems manager has had some conversations with the principal about some logistical changes about how those doors are used. And I think eventually we'll be able to keep it cooler and keep those hallway doors closed. But I think it is at an acceptable temperature. Great.

Wonderful. Thank you very much. Um, all right. Um, I am happy to hand it over then to chair Baton.

Thank you, chair link rep the tone. It's all yours.

Thank you through you chair. Um, I just want to put in a thank you. Um, this was something that wasn't originally planned and the city and through, um, the direction of Mr. Wiseman, really move forward to try to figure out a solution that would have an effect not only on the staff, which is huge, but also a positive impact on the students. I'm curious, this would be, I guess, a question through you to Ms. Berry, just what kind of feedback are we getting from the staff at the edgerly and whether or not we've really had a really, really hot day to see what the impact is with full occupancy.

So through you chair, All feedback has been very positive. We were, over the summertime, able to do hot meals for the AIM program for the extended school year at the Edgerly. So that was great because we couldn't do that in the past. So that was something very wonderful that we were able to do this year. And so far, the days have been great. not so extreme heat. But feedback has still been positive. And Food Services is very grateful. And I know Principal Gosselin is very thankful that we have the new air conditioning in place just to make it more comfortable for all.

Brett Patone, go ahead.

Thank you. Three years of follow-up. I guess without knowing how the experience will be in a hot day, like a June day, or if we happen to have some hotter days in September, I'm only curious about, I guess, to the commissioner about what kind of monitoring is gonna happen and at what point do you make a decision to saying, okay, well, this is good enough or that we need to consider more of an investment because our students are gonna be there for another, whatever it is, five or six years.

Thank you through the chair. I think we will, this is one of the things that's absolutely on our radar. We have several staff that look at these issues, including our building systems manager. I think at some point we would have to, like, if we found that this didn't work, we would have to start to think really creatively because we're, you know, even with this, we're butting up to the limits of the electrical capacity of the building. But we will, you know, we have a very creative crew over at the building shop. So if there's anything we could do, we will certainly exhaust any options we have.

Just to follow up and through the chair to the commissioner, I apologize, it's been a long summer, but there were some plans that in potentially to do upgrades to the electrical system or did that stuff get shelved or we're just waiting for equipment? Can you just refresh the group with this?

Yeah, thank you. Through the chair, I think that's somewhat beyond the realm of my expertise. That would be, I think, like a larger capital project in the building. So I hesitate to speak on that. But given the constraints of the building, we would absolutely explore every avenue to make that space comfortable.

And through the chair, just to confirm, so you guys are going to be monitoring if it gets to a point where it becomes uncomfortable again, that will be a report out at some point. I mean, I don't know if you guys closed this issue, that's up to you, but I'm just thinking about the monitoring and the follow-up.

Yeah, through the chair, I'm not 100% sure What type of a report you would be expecting, but I can guarantee that if this system fails, we will be talking about this further probably in this committee.

Thank you, Commissioner. Thanks, Rep. Patone. Ms. Berry, go ahead.

Through you, Chair, I just wanted to add that the director and assistant director of food services have worked very closely with DPW through the process of the placement of the unit and all the restrictions with the safe serve process and things like that. And they know not to hesitate to reach out should there be an issue. If they find that it's not cooling as well as it was, they're in constant contact with myself or with a representative from DPW. So we've kind of been tracking in a sense and monitoring that way as well, just to give you a little feedback on, and we haven't heard anything yet, so, which is great news. Yeah.

Yeah, in that sense, silence is the best news we can have there. So again, gratitude to DPW for this great work. And hopefully that's the end of the conversation and we can move on. Thanks again. Chair Link, I'll send it back to you.

Thank you, Chair Patu. I will just point out, I just took a quick look and it, you know, it looks like Thursday will be a kind of a hotter day. So might be a good day to check in this week. Thank you, Charlie. Keep an eye on it. All right. So I'm, I'm realizing right now that we've moved through a couple items without setting a disposition. Sorry, Clark. So Can we just go back real quick here? So we're gonna lay 260839, which I think, no, so I think that one we can just, we can mark as complete. And then we just did, yeah, so 26841. So why don't we leave that for discussion? table for another meeting just to to check back in one last time and see um how we how we fared on these warm days uh unless anyone care you'd like to keep it in committee yes sorry keep it in committee uh all right so um Now let's move on to item number 4, 261022, expressing and recognizing appreciation for the Department of Public Works, the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, and the Inspectional Services Department for their work in addressing rodent issues in the West Somerville Neighborhood School. is uh commissioner wiseman are you planning to speak on that one um and no we don't have um director niger williams here uh through the chair or thank you chair um i i appreciate the recognition i know that um

I don't think my counterpart in the health department is available in this meeting. I'm not sure, but I know that he worked, he and his team worked very hard on this as well. I would say that we are, you know, like I, I wish I could say that we're complete on this one. But like, I think that the, You know, we will continue to monitor and work with the school department on road issues at this school and all of our schools, so thank you for the recognition.

Yes, so yeah it's I think you know we live in a city with a lot of rodents unfortunately and. schools where there's so much food and there's so much, there's such a large source of everything that they want. I'm sure that this makes it extra challenging. So I'm glad that we're going to keep at this. I'm not seeing anyone. Oh, so councilor Saeed.

Yeah, just expressing my gratitude to DPW, Commissioner Weisman, your staff and all the other departments. I love meeting when there's three consecutive good news. So yeah, let's continue with good news. All right, thank you.

Thank you. Chair Baton. Thank you, Chair Link. Sharing the celebration here. I guess, so I did have a chance to check in with Ms. Berry about this maybe a week ago now. It's hard to keep track of time. And, you know, the update on this that I was hearing just from, you know, what happened over the summer, if I'm recounting correctly, and please, Danielle, correct me if I'm wrong, is that, you know, we don't know yet what the impact is going to be in terms of, you know, rodent mitigation. I think we're feeling good about all the work that was done. But as we all know, school is a substantially different place in the summer than it is when it is in session. and then compound that with the fact that work is now in progress with the roof at West Somerville. And we know construction work sometimes exacerbates and sort of draws out rodents that wouldn't otherwise be active. So this I think is an area where we're gonna need to be vigilant. And if we start to see an uptick here, we may need to revisit some of the strategies that were successful in the spring. And again, deep gratitude to all the different coordinating partners that helped with this problem. Because as I heard, this school was actually among the biggest rodent issues for school buildings in the city in the spring. So this does seem like we got ahead of it. And I'm grateful for that. And We should just not take our finger off the pulse of this burgeoning problem. All right, I'm seeing Danielle nodding, so that gives me some confidence that I didn't at least totally flub that.

No, all good. And this is something through you, Chair, that when we start conducting our annual school building walkthroughs, we do have a member from ISD joining us to also reiterate the needs of the different school buildings with rodent mitigation.

Excellent. Yep. That's the kind of coordination that in particular, Ms. Barry, I think the role that you are playing in coordinating all these different partners with respect to our school buildings is so pivotal. And I'm glad we've invested in this position. I'm really glad you're here as a partner with us and bringing all these partners together. So it's all, I'm very pleased at the work that is happening.

Thank you very much.

All right. Another good news story, unless there's comments from my colleagues, we'll pass it back to you, Chair Link.

Fantastic. All right. So let's keep moving. So I think, well, so, Chair Paton, how would you, are you... Oh, yeah, I recommend...

To close that item.

Okay, so let's mark this one as complete and move on. So sorry, I've just lost my There we are. Okay, so next up we are on Item number 5, 260710, that the Commissioner of Public Works and the Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management update this council and the school committee about safety improvements to security cameras, enclosed schoolyard fencing, balconies, and other infrastructure at the Argenziano School. Director Ruiz, or, oh, Director Weisman, who's speaking on this, sorry, our Commissioner Weisman, who's speaking on this.

I can certainly speak on the first two items in this list. I wanted to just share with the committee that the security cameras have been installed and they are functional. And we completed the schoolyard enclosure fencing project earlier in the season as well. So I wanted to let you know about that infrastructure.

I will, so both my kids go to Argentina, so I get to see a lot of these things. There's, yeah, it's the fence seems to be working, keeping all the kids corralled in a way that done that. that it was a very porous system before and with the very littles, it's keeping them in place. So it's nice to see that. All right. Alrighty. I think that one of the other big questions still was the balcony and there was questions about what was gonna happen there. Director Race, do you have any updates there?

Yeah, thank you, Chair. The decision was made to not pursue any changes to the balcony for two primary reasons. One, any additional interventions there would be extremely invasive. There's no sort of simple light touch solution there. You know, it would essentially amount to bars. in sort of looked like a jail. The other more pressing or another prescient thought there is that that condition is compliant with Massachusetts state building code. And that condition exists in numerous other locations throughout the city. The Capuano, in fact, has that same sort of design as does the high school, a few other buildings. And that condition is present at essentially every staircase, especially on the top landings of every staircase. And so, you know, anyone that's had this sort of question simply turns back to Massachusetts State Building Code. And as long as you are compliant with that, that is, you know, what sort of sets the precedent there. And it's advisable for us to follow that.

Okay. All right. That's good to hear the logic there. That's not my area of expertise, so I'm going to defer on that one. I see that Chair Patone has something to say. He's got more thoughts.

Thank you, Chair Link. And thank you, Commissioner Wiseman. Thank you, Director Raich, for the update. I guess I do have a question about the safety improvements at the balcony. I know that several different treatments have been considered, including plexiglass treatment that I hadn't heard of. compared to bars, maybe it was infeasible to pursue that solution for either for that reason or for a different reason. I guess I'd be curious which of the different options are we talking about? Are we talking about any option as being infeasible because of the way it might present. And we certainly don't want to present a jail-like situation. I attended a high school that very much resembled a jail. I think many people have. But we definitely don't want that for our students. We want them to be places of joy and learning, of course. Um, but the second question I have, so that's one, um, what are the options? And the second question, if I may just pile on, um, is, uh, I'm curious how this, um, uh, interacts with what our instructional leaders have indicated. Um, this was a request that came from the principal. and then was relayed through our superintendent and senior leadership in our school department. And so if they're indicating it as a developmentally appropriate need in this situation, I guess, was there a consultation with your office before that came to the school committee? Just curious about how that, communication flow got us here to this point. So I'll let you decide which of those you want to answer first.

Well, I can try to answer all of them. The concept of the plexiglass has two sort of drawbacks. One, plexiglass on its own is not sort of structurally sound enough. So it would have to be reinforced by bars at regular intervals. So it would not present quite as gel-like in a series of bars, but there would still be bars along with the plexiglass. Plexiglass also presents lots of challenges for operations, maintenance, and cleaning, particularly on the backside of it. um where you uh would would need additional equipment like a scissor lift to clean it from the back side um on you know it did uh um argentinos from the from the cafeteria but as i say this condition persists at various locations including the high school and the capuano um from which this stream was relocated And educators at the Capuano had never raised any concerns about that condition at the Capuano. and at every stairwell. So while that balcony over the cafeteria is sort of an obvious place, addressing that alone does not actually address the overall concerns because you still have it at the stairwells and at the other schools. And, you know, again, at the end of the day, it is compliant with Massachusetts State Building Code. And so, you know, that's what sets the precedent for this. You know, there's pretty much any sort of building thing that anyone can do. raise a concern over. But at the end of the day, if it is of concern enough, like the doors of the Coconut Grove, why all doors open out, you know, the building code is the definer of that use. In terms of the chain of how this came to IAM, it came to us rather late. And I'm not fully privy on the exact communication chain from educators to the principal and to the superintendent's office. I believe we were then put on the case to investigate it after it had already gone to school committee.

Okay, Director Raish, I appreciate that response. And I see Rep Eldridge is also online, so I will recognize her.

I just wanted to say it was it was lovely to watch how quickly the fences went up. And from my conversations from with staff over at Argentiniano, I'm hearing that there's just like a bit of general relief that that area is now enclosed. And that also it ended up being more aesthetically pleasing than what some of the concerns were on that end. um so thanks for kind of like you know just making it become part of the natural landscape that was already there um and it appeared you know um like it wasn't a huge change um i know there were some questions from constituents concerned about the height of the fence. And although I don't have any specific data points to reference for this year, and I'm sure we don't in general because of how early we are in the school year, I'm wondering if anyone's heard anything about if the height of the fence has been sufficient in all areas. And I guess just generally speaking, would love to kind of continue to hear updates on this because you know, the needs of our communities and our students can ebb and flow. And I think, you know, making sure that we're meeting the needs of our students and our educators to make everyone feel safe. I would just love to continue to receive updates as we settle into the new, really amazing improvements that were made.

All right. Rep Pitone, please.

Thank you through you. I guess this question goes through to Miss Barry. I'm just curious. Absolutely understand and hear from the city what their perspective is that this condition regarding the open space on the second floor that this condition exists in other buildings, and that it is to code. Was there any thought, position, or feedback from the principal and or the superintendent in terms of how satisfied they are with this current outcome and whether or not it's something that needs to be pursued or not from their perspective?

thank you through you chair i don't necessarily want to speak on behalf of the superintendent or the principal um i do know that some families had addressed their concerns to the principal when they found out about the move as well as the director of special education. And I think that's how the chain originally started. I think at this time, we are going to take the advice of the experts in capital projects and go with their advice on leaving it as is for the time being and just continuing to monitor the situation and see if any needs arise through this school year.

May I follow up? Yeah, of course. Thank you through the chair. I wonder if it makes sense to leave this item open until we get feedback more explicitly from the district because I don't, again, I'm with everybody else and I'm applauding all the good work that has happened and it may make sense to sustain it the way it is based on the expert recommendation, but I do really want to close the loop here from the district's perspective on, you know, whether or not they're satisfied with that decision.

Rep Pitone, I agree with you. And I just want to add, you know, I certainly respect the professional opinion of the experts on the call and in our city staff and appreciate all the work that they are doing to provide a suitable learning environment for our students every day and educators to come into our buildings and do the great work that happens in our school buildings. You know, when we design our streets here in Somerville, we do not stop at the state's minimum requirements for road safety. And that's because we know that our most vulnerable road users are at an increased risk of injury of fatality, right? So this is just an example, maybe an imperfect analogy. I'm certainly not saying that, you know, anyone is necessarily going to be injured, but we just, we want to think about things holistically and with an equity mindset, right? So those users of our building who may be at an increased risk and may have, you know, individualized needs, and there may be enough of these students to warrant additional treatment of this area. I'm certainly not saying I know the answer, but it's just something that I think we think about things in a more nuanced way than simply you know, it meets code and that is one metric, but it's not, I think, the only metric that we need to consider. So my opinion, and I certainly think that we should leave this open until we have that input from administration, school administration, and maybe we can revisit it and close it out at that time. Great. Appreciate everyone's work there. And I will turn it back over to Councilor Link.

Thank you very much, Chair Patone. I did, I realized I'd forgotten to ask one question. I wanted to follow up and make sure, you know, like I said, both my kids go there, so I get to see that space regularly and it looks like everything's fine, but I just want to make sure that we did you know, confirm that the fire department gave the new enclosure the A-OK? Danielle?

Yes, I do remember this coming up. So I immediately reached out to the fire department and the chief and the deputy chief went down right away and met with DPW and Carly Fence and everything was great on their end.

Wonderful. I assumed as much, but I would feel foolish not asking.

No problem. Thank you.

Alrighty. So yeah, I guess what I'm hearing is we'd like to keep this one in committee. So let's, let's do that. And move on then to item number six, the penultimate 260241. that the administration provide the committee on school building facilities and maintenance with regular updates on the Massachusetts school building authority process for the Winterhill and Brown schools. Dr. Aish.

Okay. Hopefully this update is more embraced than the last update I had. So I think as most folks know, we submitted the preferred schematic report, the PSR, to the MSBA. MSBA staff have performed their cursory review of it, had a few follow-on questions, just for mostly figure clarifications that they sent along our way. The Perkins Eastman team was able to turn around responses to those questions in, I think, less than 24 hours. And staff are finishing their review. They're putting us into the queue. So the standard procedure is that a subcommittee of the board, the Facilities Assessment Subcommittee, FAS, is the formal subcommittee of the MSBA board that reviews that submission. The staff are gonna put us on the agenda for either September 16th or September 30th. They have a bunch of other schools in the pipeline as well. So we haven't received our commitment date. We're kind of hoping for the 16th, but the 30th at the latest. That will be the board's opportunity to review the submission, including the education plan. So there's sort of two parts to the presentation that we will give to that subcommittee. One on the education plan, which will largely be led by Dr. Kimona and likely Principal Gosselin and support. Also with support from our consultant, Perkins Eastman. And then Perkins Eastman will then lead the discussion on the building. Following that, we hope to come out of that subcommittee with a recommendation that will go to the full board later in the fall for a vote, which would then hopefully advance us to the next stage, which will be schematic design. But the headline here, if I sort of buried it in all those words, is that we continue to be on track with our very aggressive schedule. As the committees remember, we challenged Perkins Eastman to do this as quickly as possible. And we're happy to pay a premium for time over costs. And they have risen to every occasion. And again, the idea that they turned around questions in 24 hours shows the dedication of the team. So we're on track. As I'm thinking about it, sort of public service announcement, Civic Day is this coming Thursday, the 10th. Perkins Eastman will have a table there as part of their community outreach that they've been doing. They've had about... dozen or so community touch points. This will be another. And we will also be at a number of the upcoming community meetings, the things formerly known as summer stat. At a minimum, we'll be at wards four, five, and six. But I don't want to exclude 1, 2, and 7, so we might show up there too. And the real exciting part, it's not going to be ready for Civic Day, but they're working on the model of the neighborhood and the building and how it sits in. So we will actually, I mean, I like the, you know, 2Ds, but, you know, people like the 3D models. So our hope is we'll have the 3D model in time for those ward meetings.

Thank you, director. I'm curious the, there was, I think the last time we spoke about this, there was about to be some like test borings to see what was possible to those, I mean, I'm obviously not going to understand the technical details, but like, you know, was it a positive outcome? Did we see what we were hoping?

Yeah, through the chair, you know, the test borings are informing a number of different things associated with the design. Each one is on sort of a separate track. Certainly nothing about the test borings raised any concerns about the foundation for the building, which is good because we've had buildings there for a while. It did indicate high ledge or bedrock. which would be a large cost factor should we decide to put a parking garage below because we would have to blast through ledge. So as we're examining the feasibility or the desirability in the costs of the parking options, that will impact the parking. The third thing that it gives us information on, or at least preliminarily, there's more borings have to happen, is on the idea of geothermal. Because, you know, we obviously want a net zero building and are examining a few different mechanical systems that would get us there. Geo or air exchange for that. Nothing came back that said it's not feasible, but more testing has to be done there. So far, interesting. I think we're going to mobilize, especially given that we found the ledge where we did and want to refine the cost estimates for the parking option. I think we're going to advance a few more borings to get a better idea of where it drops off or where it doesn't drop off. So there's still more, but we're early enough in the design phase that this is sort of normal business for us.

Wonderful. Thank you very much.

Through you, Chair Link, to Director Rage, thank you for this update. And, yeah, thank you for... I'm really excited that they will have a table, award meetings, and also on Thursday, so we can get to ask questions and the community get to see the 3D model, hopefully. And... Yeah, and you just mentioned geothermal. I was just going to ask a question about that. At 12 point in the process, are we going to know for sure that geothermal can happen? We know that there are a lot of state incentives, and we can get that covered, mostly covered by the state. Yeah, we definitely don't want to miss out on that.

Thank you to the Ward 5 Consulate for the Chair. That's something that we're continuing to investigate and design. I think probably if I had to hazard a guess, we'll have a go-no-go on the geothermal decision probably in the February timeframe. That's probably the timeframe in which we'll have all the information we need to make a go-no-go.

Okay, thank you, Director. And the other one, again, this is, we're still in the early phases of this process, but making sure that we apply for, once, you know, we get that, you know, approval to have geothermal, or know that it's possible to have geothermal, is to start that application process because it takes a really long time. And, um, we don't, yeah, a lot of those, uh, funds and, uh, programs are going away, unfortunately. So just, you know, it will keep flagging this for your team by email. Um, and, uh, yeah, it, I think Revere is the next district to have geothermal, if I am not, if you remember correctly. Yes, it is Revere. So I hope we're going to be next. Thank you.

Thank you, Kelsey. So I'll just kind of close out on our side by just saying that I really appreciate that we have um, heavily weighed, um, you know, the urgency, uh, of this just because, you know, while we've done, I think, uh, um, as good a job as we, we can with the edgerly school, making it a, a school that works. Um, it is obviously like, as we can see regularly, it's just, it's not really built for, for what we're doing with it. Um, and you know, I just, I'm, I'm just really thankful that we're, we're moving on this fast and that we're not treating it like like, you know, nice to have, if it could be fast, it's really, really reassuring to see that we're, we've got our consultants moving quickly and your team moving quickly. And I just really hope we can continue to move quickly and continue to keep that, that sense of urgency. And Dr. Oshisi.

Also, if I may, the school committee also played a part in that because they needed to review and vote on it to authorize Chair Ackman to sign it. And we had two meetings during recess. So the school committee is actively participating in our crushed schedule by giving up their recess.

Well, then I will also extend my thanks to the school committee.

All right, Chair Patel. Thank you, Chair Link and Director Raich for that. I feel we played some part, but a small part in that moving that forward. So just curious, if the geothermal energy solution is not selected, I know that the city itself has climate action goals. The school committee has a resolution that is non-binding to the city, but certainly our stated on record view is that our buildings should be zero carbon moving forward. My question to you is, if we don't go with geothermal, what other energy solutions are we considering? My strong hope is that it is not a fossil solution that would provide heat and power in the building, but just an open question.

To the chair. The other option, the ground source exchange is far more efficient and actually has lower long-term operation replacement costs. If the ground source exchange doesn't prove out, it does have higher capital costs, but much lower operations, maintenance, and replacement costs. The alternative to that is air exchange. So it's still a heat pump system, much like the one I installed in my own home under a MassSaves grant. It's an air exchange, which is not as efficient, requires more electricity, and the equipment needs to be replaced on a faster schedule. So, you know, if you look at life cycle costs, we're hoping that we can get ground source geothermal to pencil out, but otherwise we'll likely be looking at air source.

Great news. Thank you for sharing that. Rep. Patone.

Thank you for you, Chair. I apologize, you may have already hit this to Director Raish. Is it that it's not viable, possibly from a cost perspective? You're talking about geothermal, or is it some kind of issue just with the site? Just trying to understand. Because I know that geothermal, I thought we possibly could get money and grants and different things to help with that.

Yeah, through the chair. I mean, certainly there is an economic... analysis happening, you know, grants aside and our eligibility for grants aside, there is a higher upfront cost. So there is, you know, we have to do our due diligence on the capital costs evaluation. And Medford's doing the same thing right now. As a matter of fact, they're looking at a go-no-go, although I think their no-go is gas fired. But it's more from a technical perspective. Apparently, the presence of bedrock is likely in our favor on this, but we need to know a little bit more about that sort of geologic layer. It's interesting that we have had zero geothermal done in the entire city of Somerville. We have only on the even on the private side, there has only been one permit issued to install geothermal. And then the owner of that project decided not to pursue it. And then there was a second one that was. But contemplating permitting and then never submitted a permit so as of right now on both private and public side we don't have any geothermal in Somerville so we're we're pioneering here in our 4.2 square miles with this project.

So just to follow up, yes, there has to be an economic analysis. Yes, there may be money out there to help support it, but it's more a site-specific question on whether or not the site itself from a... geological technology standpoint is really the right place to do geothermal. I just want to make sure I understand the high top line.

Yeah, but it also has to do with our available footprint because it is a very tight site and we're developing most of the site, which isn't to say that we couldn't sink wells under some portion of the building. We would still have to be able to have access to it. We're also looking next door at the annex site as possible supplemental. So if we can develop enough wells within our footprint is a big part of the analysis.

Thank you, I appreciate that. I have a procedural question through the chair and I apologize if I'm absolutely out of order. I just had the question from when we were discussing The Edgerly and the HVAC, I know that Director Raich wasn't on the call and I had asked a question about, we were all very excited about what DPW has done regarding HVAC in the kitchen area at the Edgerly, but there was still, for me, the outstanding question, I didn't remember what had happened to potential plans to upgrade the electrical. And so I didn't, the procedural question is, may I ask this question now, even though we're on a different item, because we never closed the old item. And I'd rather discuss this publicly than email directly.

From a procedural standpoint, it's on our agenda. I'm happy to entertain the question.

I just wanted to jump out and answer the question and have someone yell at me that I was out of order. But but the as Commissioner Weissman pointed out, we're essentially at the electrical limit of that building. The next thing we need to do is install a new transformer, which we have to do in partnership with Eversource and upgrade the electrical panels. We haven't. uh done a go no go on that yet um we in also acknowledging that it is a long lead item on the eversource time so even if we went go today that likely wouldn't go in until next summer like the following summer um but the the prioritization of that is something that we will be discussing with Dr. Carmona and his staff, where over the next two months, as we'll be discussing on agenda item number seven, we're working out the capital investment plan for the next five years. And when it comes to schools, we sort of follow SPS's priorities and we'll be picking out our summer project for this coming summer and the following summer. So on, you know, given the, between the balance of the city's financial capabilities and what we can do in any given summer, we will know when that project will be scheduled in the next five year horizon. And we'll be reporting that out in November. I'll get a little bit more into that in the next one.

And just a quick follow up. First of all, thank you, because I didn't really know where that sat. And I know you're going to, this is going to be part of the analysis, that's the risk associated with not updating the electrical, because obviously there's this solution that came for trying to resolve the air conditioning issue. And we're not positive that that is the solution, but we're feeling, everyone's feeling good about it. Are there other risks associated with not upgrading that panel?

through the chair for sure. And this is sort of stealing the thunder from agenda item number seven. But, you know, as I say, under city charter, under the new city charter that we're just under this year, the mayor now has to submit a capital investment plan to the city council for approval on an annual basis for approval in November. That was not the case before. And I'm very sad to report that we went for four years without updating our CIP publicly. So, you know, we're working on it right now. We're sort of in the early stages, largely with finance, understanding our financial capability, working with a few other department heads and amassing our very long list of needs. and prioritizing those. So, you know, which is to say, you know, we're going through the exercise, we're going to be getting feedback from a lot of different departments, SPS included, on prioritization, understand what our financial capacity is. The mayor will then approve or, you know, have final say on that five-year CIP and we'll publish it in November. Now that said, I can sort of anticipate where a lot of these things are going to fall on the overall spectrum. And my educated guess is that the transformer and electrical upgrade for the Edgerly will happen within this five-year window. It's only a question of when in that five-year window, because as you sort of rightly point out, we are very dependent on that building, like right now for Winter Hill, but also in the long term. It is the vital classroom swing space that we anticipate needing to do a lot of upgrade updates and upgrades at the other schools, East, West, Kennedy, Healy, like a lot of the things that we want and will be needing to do. in those buildings over the next decade, we can't do while fully populated with students. So the edgerly is a very important asset to us over the next couple of decades to facilitate all that other work that's gonna come up. Because we wanna do it ahead of schedule and not have another Winter Hill happen to us and have a school close suddenly. um so all of that is to say investments in the edgerly are important strategically to us in the long term um so that electric upgrade to that building um you know it's uh it's not a pretty building but the bones of the building are excellent and we want to keep it going for us for for a lot more a lot more time well i really appreciate that update and then it's still in the uh

in the worldview and all the planning that's being done to make sure that our buildings are not going to have to go offline in an unplanned way. Can you give me one last answer, which is, do we have an order of magnitude of what that project is going to cost?

We do. And much like commissioner Weissman, I can't memorize all the numbers in the world. Give me one second. The number we're carrying right now for budgeting purposes is $3 million.

Thank you.

It's a bargain at twice the price. All right. Seeing no more questions, I will turn it back over to you, Chair Link.

Thank you. Um, so for, for the purposes of the city council, we're still on, um, item number 6, 26, 0, 2, 4, 1. And we're just, I think, um, as always, we will just keep that one in committee. Oh, uh, council site. I see your hand.

Yeah. Uh, so you can select before you close that item. Uh, I guess the conversation was not about the item, but the item that we kept in committee, but, um, the electrical upgrade at the elderly, um, Yeah, and just to follow up, I'll definitely be looking at the capital project. Yeah, like I'll look at this specifically when we get that in November. And I'm glad to hear that we are willing to invest, we want to invest in the building. And at some point in the next five years, that electrical upgrade will happen. It's 3 million. It's a lot of money. There are a lot of priorities in the schools. And one request is if your staff can look into if there are any grants for this. I, as you know, a resident did the MassAve thing and they have, you know, grants. They're not grants, they're rebates for that. And I wonder for schools if the state offers anything like that, specifically for electrical upgrades too, since the purpose is having air heat pumps. Just something to look into.

Yeah, to the chair, our grants department are tracking a few different avenues for us. And so that's something we do stay on top of.

Okay, thank you. Happy to hear that. And then one last comment regarding the item on updates on the Winter Hill. I hear you when you say, you know, there's the economic analysis. We want to make sure for like geothermal that we are you know, the finances make sense for it. If, you know, the geology of the site allows us to do that, I will just reiterate that I get that there's the upfront cost, but, and it can, you know, it will add a lot to the cost, you know, of the building, but let's also remember also there's the, in the long run, we'll save a lot of money. I know this is not always how we approach school buildings because it costs a lot of money and we want to know in the moment, do we have the money for this? So just want to say that.

Thank you, councillors. I actually, I totally agree with what the good councillor from Ward 5 just said. I think there's a few, like we, you know, we've seen a couple of times where it's like, Oh, you know, we've all as individual consumers experienced the thing where we're like, Oh, I, you know, I saved a thousand dollars, but I would have gladly paid that thousand dollars. Like, you know, we've got the different model car or something like that. And, you know, a thousand more dollars, I would have had more space for my kids, something like that. So, you know, I, you know, we've seen that also with, you know, the high school where we're kind of like, Oh, you know, we wish there was, we'd gotten more parking in there. to figure that kind of thing out. So I'm really hoping that, yeah, we can balance the painful money conversation with like the, what we're going to stick, not just us, but the, you know, the next few generations with if we, if we make the cheap choice just because it's cheap, which I don't think anyone's going to do here. I trust the judgment of everyone on this, but I do want to keep it in mind. All right, so that one is still going to be kept in committee. And then let's go on to the last one. It's item number 726-0063 that the Commission of Public Works and the Director of Engineering explore the feasibility of establishing a teen center at the Cummings School, accessible via School Street, considering current building uses and provide this council with analysis on space availability, operational considerations, community impacts, and potential next steps. Um, and I know director is, I think you, um, you sent us, uh, and I just want to check in actually with the school committee. I should have checked on this, that there was a supplemental item, um, uh, for this, uh, like a handout. Um, did, uh, did the school come in to get that?

Yes, they did.

Perfect. Awesome. Uh, the floor jurors.

Great.

So the headline here is that we were already, Capital was already performing an analysis of the building as a result of the memorandum of understanding with the school committee that allowed the warming center last year. So we had done a fairly extensive investigation into the building and As I believe I've told the committee before, the Cummings building is in very rough shape. The school street wing in particular has some structural items that are very concerning. The north wall is separating from the roof, which is going to require extensive structural repair before we could even contemplate occupying the school street wing of the building. The analysis also identified several lentils over doorways and windows that are of concern, where there's brick, concrete, and mortar that is ready to fall from those areas. So there's extensive repairs needed on those. There's also extensive electrical issues. The building is not currently sprinklered or alarmed. So in order to occupy, we'd be looking at a lot of code updates and a lot of ADA compliance issues. It is true for both wings, but it is more acute on the school street side than it is on the Prescott Street side. It is also a very awkwardly configured building. So ADA compliance in that building and sort of integrating the two wings, or almost three wings really, together from an ADA standpoint is very challenging. All that is to say that the cost estimates to occupy that building for any number of uses for for swing space, you know, ostensibly for the Brown, for a teen center, even for general office use, if we wanted to, you know, sort of. play musical chairs with other programs, like say at the TAB, all of those cost estimates come in very high. And as I said in the last item, we're currently evaluating the whole, you know, the city's financial capability and the whole universe of wants and needs. And we will be consulting with Dr. Cremona's staff and others on the prioritization. But that said, and so again, we'll really have an answer to this question in November, but this is almost the corollary in my mind to the edgerly electric upgrades. Like the edgerly electric upgrades at 3 million, while not super cheap, is an order of magnitude less than this. and is a very high priority item for us strategically. You know, we may be surprised as we go through the CIP, but as we're sitting here in September, I think it's a very narrow path for this to be a successful project and make it onto the CIP come November. That is speculation, but I just want to be sort of forthcoming with that evaluation on the directionality of what's likely to come out in November.

Wonderful. Curriculature, could you please put the handout Maybe just like the first page of it, I guess, on the screen, just so people can see. Thank you very much, Director Isha. Yeah, so I took a look at it. I do think, especially hearing more about how we have these kind of long-term plans for for using the edgerly, which was the 18 space. I'm really hoping that we can, if not this figure out where that teen space is. I'm curious though. So, obviously it's kind of an eye bulging price to the $28 million. I noticed though that part of that included the, a like reconfiguration of a parking lot of the current parking lot and, and, and doing either redoing or redoing the, I know there is a playground there already. I'm not sure if that's how it's, how it was kind of considered, but that there was like a, you know, redoing or doing a new playground. So, you know, I'm just, I'm curious how much of that, like, you know, is, Would it have to be, like, let's say we said, like, the playground and the parking lot can stay as is. Like, would that save us $10 million? I don't know.

I'd have to go back, Chair. I'd have to go back and get the detailed breakdown from cash-ins. But it's not anywhere near that level of, I don't think we can cut that much cost out of this.

All right. Yeah. Okay, great. So yeah, just to reiterate, then I, you know, I just, I'm really hoping that we can, we can find this, you know, if it's not this space, this, like I said, it's an eye-bulging amount of money, but like, you know, there's, there's not, it sounds like we're going to be out of a great space for, for the a teen center for a while. So this, you know, I'd rather, and, you know, obviously there's, you know, we don't have a lot going on with the, that I know of, maybe we'll learn more in the capital investment fund, but, you know, the nearby, the central library is also, doesn't have a lot of space for teens or anything like that. So, you know, it just seems like we've got to figure something out. All right, but I will stop talking now. And I guess I'll hand it over to Chair Patone.

Thank you, Chair Link. Rep. Patone, go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. First of all, really pleased to see the memo. Maybe not always as pleased to see what's in the memo, but that the work is moving forward to think about that building and how it could play into plans for the district and or the city. I guess it opens for me a can of worms that you may or may not be able to speak to Director Rafe about. We've been sitting on this building for many years. It has never been a school, at least in my lifetime, on school committee, which is closing in on almost 13 years. So... you know, I'm thinking about the bigger picture and I know that's not necessarily our, um, scope of this bill, uh, building committee, but, uh, you know, when I look at numbers and granted the memo costs of 20 minutes, whatever it was, I apologize. I have in front of me. Yeah. The 28 million with the contingency and all that work, you know, it's a lot of money, but considering that a new school building itself costs, you know, $250 million, um, It's a question. I know the work that would be done wouldn't necessarily making into a state of the art building, but having to be ADA compliant and have all the electrical and all the sprinklers and all the things we need to have. So I guess I'm getting into the question, which again, I don't think I'm expecting you to be able to answer, but there is a bigger question. The school committee has the authority and the responsibility at some point to consider releasing this building. And we have been hemming and hawing, waiting for plans to address other issues, which have been thankfully moving forward with the work on the Winter Hill and potentially plans to upgrade the edge really. But at some point, the school committee will have to take that up and make an active decision about what to do with a building that is you know highly under uh not even a building but a property that's incredibly underutilized because we all know that it takes a huge investment to do something with it so you know i don't know what forms these conversations are going to take i know the school committee again at the point where we have to make a decision whether or not to release this as a school building has to happen at some point and i'm sure the school committee as a body will want more information um But, you know, again, questions about having a teen center or even a community center that could cost us $28 million versus having to build one for, you know, $400 million. So, and again, it wouldn't be ideally what we want. And I'm curious if there's any thoughts that have been going into that. I'd appreciate any insight.

Through the chair, I think you... Because the building is within the control of the school committee, we being, you know, city staff administration through three administrations that I've worked with now, haven't given much consideration to that building or, you know, what could or should be done. Based on... The building condition and its, frankly, awkward configuration, my opinion is that any reuse or reconstruction or rehabilitation of that building is not worth the effort and that the land that it is on is much more valuable and that A better path forward would be demolition of that building and reconstruction on that site. And for what purpose or at what magnitude, that because it's controlled by the school committee should be something that the school committee deliberates over. Um, and, uh, to the extent that I can fit it into my budget, uh, including workload with staff time, I'm happy to be a partner in capital projects. I'm happy to be a partner, um, to the school committee on, on evaluating those sorts of options. But, you know, that, that, that initial thought on disposition really does start with, with the school committee.

Thank you. Through the chair, I'll bring what we've talked about here to the school committee chair and to the superintendent just to start the dialogue. Again, I don't know what the right timing is. I don't know what the answer is, but... at least getting this memo is really an opportunity to start moving the gears forward to address, again, a highly underutilized property that could serve, whether it's raising capital by selling it or sustaining it and doing something useful on it. But again, it all depends on the budgeting that happens and anything that has to happen with either that building or rebuilding building is going to be a huge investment for the city. So thank you.

Thanks, Rep. Patone. I'm going to add my own question. Maybe I should have done my homework. But I thought I recalled the Swing Space solution offered by the city previously included as a first step the TAB building as sort of an interim solution. And then as a second step, the redevelopment of the Cummings School. Again, my memory might be failing me here and I would need to go back and look, but is this then a departure from that solution, that sort of contingency planning for Swing Space? So, Maybe you can remind me, Director Raish, about where we were with that previous memo we got.

So, a coordinator of multiple things, Danielle Berry, can give a report on where the continuity of operations plan is, but in general, Reuse of the Cummings writ large is essentially off the table now. We do have some spaces that under the emergency certificate of occupancy, we can leverage the two rooms that are used for the warming center and the adjacent support areas are viable for us for some staff. Just not large numbers.

So we got a memo. I'm just confused here. We got this memo last fall, was it? That indicated this plan... And I understand that this deeper probing of the building, just to make sure I understand, this is now off the table. So what, maybe it's a question for Ms. Berry, what is our contingency then for Swing Space in the event that the tab building is needed as swing space, right? This was tab building was kind of our immediate solution. And then longer term, we were gonna be developing a second space that was identified in the memo as the coming school. Do we have a, so is that now off the table? And Director Raich, I see you're shaking your head. Again, my memory may be faulty here.

Yeah, we had never identified the Cummings as a secondary space. The secondary space has to be explored with our neighbors. And, you know, these are, and the Archdiocese. And they are areas that we can't at any given time, like right now, specify what they are. But we have, you know, mutual aid support in place that, you know, again, that the immediate move would be to pivot to the tab because we can we have control that we can move that quickly and then work with our neighboring cities and the archdiocese on a medium to long term house if that's what's needed. So it was never the Cummings. The Cummings had been contemplated for displaced office folks from the tab, but basically the top stop on the number of staff that we could move to the Cummings is lower than we had hoped in November, but not appreciably so.

All right, I appreciate you helping to jog my memory here, and I'm sorry. Ms. Berry, did you want to add?

For you, Chair, I think with the MOU for the warming center, I think that's where you're thinking as the swing space, but it is part of the continuity of operations plan, which is attached to that MOU for the warming space to use the tab as the immediate relocation spot for if, should we have an emergency school closure?

Okay. And that was the immediate use. And then in the longer term, does that MOU specify working with neighbors and potential of the archdiocese? Was there, I mean, it's weird to me that this was identified in the Cummings School MOU that we're talking about buildings other than the Cummings School as being potential swing space. And maybe that's just something I need to get my head around, and the cause of my own confusion.

Through you, Chair, I believe from my understanding is because the Cummings School was not going to be a viable option as a swing space, we wanted to make sure we could utilize another location which was identified as the TAB building.

All right. I appreciate that. The second question, if I may, is about the capital investment plan. You indicated in the memo, and I actually appreciate the certainty that you provided in the memo that you're not gonna be recommending this considerable investment as part of the capital investment plan. Is that capital investment plan like a five-year horizon document? Is it a 10-year horizon document? Is it a one-year?

No, two of the shares. It's a five-year plan horizon.

Okay. So extrapolating then, we can expect that at this time, you are not recommending, your department is not recommending inclusion of the redevelopment of the Cummings School as either swing space or office space in the next five years.

Correct. And, you know, again, just for clarity, my recommendation isn't the only one. There's a number of other departments that get their way in on this. But looking at The universe of needs and wants and what the economic reality is for the next five years, you know, there's just many more things that we're going to need and want to fund than this.

Great. Yep. Such is the nature of municipal government right now. Our resources are stretched thin and the demands are great. Rep Eldridge, go ahead.

Thank you for the chair. My apologies if this has been discussed or I'm missing it elsewhere. If the Cummings School isn't recommended and the specific use of it as a teen center isn't going to work, has there been any other identified options or will there be in the capital investment plan of other options to explore for a teen center? I'm hearing a lot from constituents and also through the city how important it is that we have space for our teens. And again, I apologize if I'm missing something that I should be aware of already, but I am personally not aware of any other options. Would love to learn more.

Yeah, through the chair, we've been investigating a number of other potential locations for a number of different things in terms of the city's existing building portfolio of unoccupied buildings. And pretty much every one of them have similar issues in terms of gaining occupancy that that require substantial funding. either structural or building code or life safety upgrades. And so nothing is clearly rising to the top as an easy win for a teen center or anyplace else, but we are tracking down all the other inventory.

Rep Patone, go ahead.

Thank you. Through you, Chair, to Director Raish. I just quickly, sounds like teen centers are we looking into and teen center is on this agenda item. Is there any general consideration for a broader community center that has a teen center component or is it just a teen center or are we limiting our conversation because that's what's...

I think we're limiting to the chair. We're limiting our conversation tonight to teen center because that's what is on this agenda item. But the building investigations are for any and all uses. For example, the Cummings school reuse was looking at any number of different occupancies, but the From an occupancy, building occupancy standpoint, they all require same or similar upgrades that are the costly ones that we're looking at. Electric plumbing, fire safety, ADA. So that they're from, at least from the costing of, at this level, there really isn't much differentiation between

in use, and those spaces could be used for any number of things, teen center included. All right. Seeing no other questions on the school committee side, I will turn it back over to you, Chair Link.

You're muted, Chair.

Got it. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Paton. Turning in. Oh, my God. I literally just said director twice now. Counselor site. I was like, oh, no one even heard my flub.

I don't have that power. Through you, Chair. Thank you for the memo, Director Rage. It's good to see these numbers coming. Yes. And thank you for being very transparent about the fact that this will not make it to the capital investment plan, which is expected. We have a lot of other priorities. It's just unfortunate that We're going, you know, the next five years there will be no teen center again. This is a community that's been waiting for this forever now. And we've talked about the needs, and I know everyone understands the needs. It's not about, you know, convincing. It's more convincing, you know, people in leadership positions or the mayor. It's about finding an actual space for... Our teens, our community center. And it would just, I know this is not really under capital projects, but have we looked at the high school, at the activity in the high school after school hours as, you know, community center, teen center? This was on some councillors, even the current mayor, budget priorities for, I think that was last year or earlier, and myself. my budget priorities already this year. So I'm just curious as you're having these conversations with staff, with other departments, are you discussing this option at all? Um, and it has to do with funding because we need staff, we need staff, we need custodians, we need, um, yeah. And also curious, um, since we have our school committee members here, what your position is and if any conversations are happening there, um, regarding this option. I know it's not ideal, but it's also not ideal to not have a teen center in the next five years.

So through the chair, we have been activating the schools for other uses, and it has given rise to a number of additional issues that have unearthed. And I think you're exactly right. In order to do this better and well, it's more of a staffing issue. The larger concern is. How those other users then leave the space so that when educators come in in the next morning, it is as they left it. So this is something that we've been discussing at the cabinet level about how to how to do a better job of that, whilst also acknowledging that hiring additional staff right now to do exactly that might be a difficult budgetary constraint. So it is it's a learning experience. But I do think it, at least from a capital expenditure point of view, is a lot more viable than some of the others. Now, that said, I've got two high schoolers who probably who are teens and probably would not want to spend more time at the high school as much as I love that building and think they should spend more time. You know, there's there's there's that.

Thank you, director. I think it also depends on the activities and what you're doing. But yeah, yeah, I would love to hear from the school committee. But I'm glad to hear that. You know, you are considering all options.

I'm just going to take, if I may, Chair Link, suggest that we include this as a agenda topic for a future meeting. I'm not even sure this subcommittee is the right place for that meeting, despite the fact that we're both here, given that the focus of this meeting is school buildings, facilities, and maintenance. This is a staffing, more of a staffing issue rather than maintenance issue. I really think it's a question for the mayor. The school committee by and large supports expansion of the use of the Summerville High School building for purposes outside of school hours. I don't want to speak for the full committee because I don't know whether we support a teen center per se as that use, but just a suggestion that we, and perhaps Councillor Saeed, you can offer an agenda topic and figure out where that conversation may best be held.

Yeah, I think it should be done. Yeah, you are correct. This is more of a finance giving us, I think first step is we'll put in order, giving us an idea of how much, just like we got the memo about the coming school, how much it would cost to staff it and what would that look like and making sure staff are working closely with the district to, you know, figure out the needs, you know, Yeah, I'm only mentioning it because we're talking about teen center and, you know, that's how conversations start. But I will leave it at that. And we'll go to the right committee. Thank you.

Yeah, I will just note that hiring extra staff has to be cheaper than $28 million. Anyway. All right. So I believe that brings us to a close. So, oh, disposition for this one. So, I mean, I kind of get the sense that maybe the, you know, this doesn't seem like there's a lot left to discuss. You know, maybe I guess if we hear some sort of revelation when we get the CIP in the future. But I kind of think that maybe this one we can just mark as complete.

I concur with that, Chair.

Sounds good. All right. So that being said, I think so. Madam Clerk, do we have anything that we need to, besides adjournment, that we need to take a roll call on?

we can roll up the approval of the minutes during the roll call to adjourn.

All right. Do I see a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn. Do we need to approve and also approve the minutes? Yeah. Motion to adjourn.

All right. I'll second that.

Okay, and just to verify, we are marking work completed, agenda item numbers two, four, and seven, and keeping in committee, agenda items three, five, six, and roll call on approval, acceptance of agenda item one, and adjournment. Councilor Scott, Councilor Sait. Yes. Councilor Link.

Yes.

We are adjourned.

All right, and we're adjourned for the school committee too. Thanks, everyone. Good night. Bye.