Hello, everyone.

My name is John Link.

He, him, I am the chair of the school building facilities and maintenance committee.

And I'm calling this meeting to order.

Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025, this meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation.

We will post an audio recording, audio video reporting, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting of the city on the city of Somerville website and local cable access channels.

All right.

So can we please get a roll call to establish?

Yeah, we can.

This is roll call.

Counselor Scott.

Counselor Sae.

Here.

Chair Link.

Here.

All right.

With that, we have all members present, so we do have a quorum.

All right.

And now we have to take to do our pony dance where we take a recess so that our uh counterparts can also establish quorum.

Um I believe we need a roll call on that, even though we just did this.

So we don't need a roll call to go into recess, we need a roll call to get back.

Okay.

Great.

So let's take a brief recess.

Thank you, Chair Link.

Uh this is the school committee portion of the show.

Uh I am Le Ron Bitone, Chair of this subcommittee uh counterpart of the uh school building facilities and maintenance on the school committee side.

Um I will establish quorum.

Uh Liz Eldridge, are you here?

Present.

Laura Pitone.

Uh looks like she's not here yet.

Um I am here, so we do have quorum.

Uh and we will pass it back to you, Chair Link.

You're on mute.

Thank you, yes.

Uh let's return from recess in case anyone uh escaped in those brief couple moments.

Let's do roll call to establish quorum again.

All right, let's make sure.

All right, counselor Scott.

Probably counselor Say here.

Chair Link.

Still here.

Great.

No one got lost, so we do have a quorum.

Everyone is here.

Fantastic.

Um, all right.

So uh we start with uh approval of the minutes uh from the March 2023.

Um so that's uh item one, so 26-0503.

Um, unless anyone objects, uh I'm gonna lay that on the table for approval.

Uh and seeing no objections, moving on to item number two, 26-0063.

At the Commission of Public Works and the Director of Engineering Explore the Feasibility of Establishing a Teen Center at the coming school accessible by a school street, um, considering current building uses and uh provide this council with an analysis on space availability, operational considerations, community impacts, and uh potential next steps.

Uh hello, Chair.

Uh Richard Rach, Director of Instruction Asset Management.

Uh we've brought in a consultant to help us with the evaluation of the building.

Um they have completed that evaluation, uh, have worked up a couple of different um options as I've reported to this uh committee before.

Um there's a large number of code and ADA um upgrades that we would need to do to the building to make it functional.

Um they have you know sort of laid out uh a couple different options for us.

Their cost estimator uh has estimated the construction cost of that.

Um we've reviewed drafts um of those uh concepts and the uh um accompanying cost estimates.

Uh we've given them a couple of um you know comments for revision.

Uh so they're they're still working on it.

Um we have expressed to them that we would like to wrap this up um by the end of May uh and and have a report to hand over.

So the work is still in progress.

Um and and I hope to be able to submit to this committee and to the school committee uh by the end of the coming month.

Councilor Scott.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'm very excited to hear that we're looking at this in a serious way.

Uh you know Director Rach knows how much uh love I have for that building.

Um so just two quick questions, direct Rash.

Uh one of which was uh what what kind of order of magnitude are we looking at on uh the cost projections at this early stage?

I I appreciate to the chair.

I appreciate um Counselor Scott giving me an order of magnitude, knowing that I wouldn't want to say exact numbers, but um the two concepts that we looked at, and I I think I've uh expressed this to the committee before.

The coming school um actually consists of two buildings that were built in different eras.

Um there's the Prescott Street side and the school street side, which is older.

Uh the school street side poses significantly more challenges.

So that the two concepts that we looked at, uh one was just the um Prescott Street side.

Um, and the the costs for that are coming in around 10 million.

Uh and then to do the full building, uh, which would include the the school street wing, which is a lot more work that needs to uh be done on it, is is more in the 30 million dollar range.

But we'll we'll have the full report by uh for you in May.

All right, great.

And then uh the only other question I had, which is uh how much did the consultant study cost us?

That's a good question.

I don't have that off the top of my head.

Uh that's the sort of thing that Michael Richards would be able to rattle off uh for you, but I don't have that one on the top of my head.

I can uh you can send me a text later.

Yeah.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chairman Set.

All right.

Um I uh I have one um, I guess quick question.

I hope quick.

Uh so you know, we said it's the um the school street side one is um particularly far behind in terms of like ADA.

Does it um what are what are some of like examples of some like do we does it have an elevator in it?

Probably not.

Um the chair, um there are a couple of challenges with the school street side.

Uh one of which um is the the north facade is actually separating from the building, um, which is why it rains inside uh right now, which is a little bit of a problem.

Um, so that's fairly expensive to remedy.

And the other uh is that there is no elevator in the building.

Um, and that poses an additional challenge because the two wings aren't um sort of on equal uh uh elevations.

Um so it would have to be uh either two uh elevators or a very complicated elevator that has uh six stops.

Um there's an additional challenge there.

That does sound pretty challenging, actually.

Um thank you.

Uh see oh I saw him briefly.

Oh uh director Megan Williams.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair.

Um, to you, uh director of intergovernmental affairs, Amanda Nathan Williams.

I also just wanted to flag that we had um the director of emergency management here, um, William Fisher to speak a little bit to the continuity of operations plan along with this item, as it involves the the same um building that we are discussing tonight.

So I just wanted to flag that as well as an additional piece to the conversation.

Oh, wonderful.

I would um I just before uh handing it off.

Let's uh I'd love to hear from Director Fisher.

Thank you, Chair.

Through you.

So uh just to be clear, it doesn't necessarily involve this building in the physical structure, involves an agreement with this building for use for the warning center.

Um so just to give you guys a brief update, uh, I'm glad to re come back and report.

I'm actually very excited that you know when this plan is it's finally completed to present to not only the full committee, but the school committee as well, um, because there's been a lot of work done.

So just to give a brief summary of some of the work we've done, we established a planning team, uh, myself and Danielle Barry from the schools uh side of things, along with some pretty strong support from the administration of the city and the school.

And we've been meeting uh since about just before the beginning of the year, uh weekly.

And we've worked through, we completed the base plan for the continuity of operations, and now we're working through the nuances of the school specific.

So what that looks like is we want to make sure we're we're touching and identifying all the critical resources, staffing and services that are provided at each individual school and make sure that we have a plan in place that if we do have to move temporarily to a new location, we're continuing that high level of education services.

So we're working through that portion.

We're about 70% done with that um at this point.

And so from there, we're looking to take that draft plan and conduct a cable top exercise where we can have a discussion around simulated school disruption because it's a very large plan.

And so there's gonna be a lot of areas that I think once we kind of sit down and go through it, we may identify some areas that we need to bridge some gaps.

Once we complete that, we'll take that information, uh, put it into an uh after action uh report and improvement plan, integrate them into the plan and be able to come back to the committee with a completed uh well-defined comprehensive plan.

And so for and so on's gonna ask me about timelines.

It's hard to give a timeline, but I will say that the timeline we're looking at right now is tentatively into August being done because of the nuances of the uh school vacations, the budget season, uh, because we have to do that exercise, and that takes getting a bunch of people together in the room.

Uh, but we are moving forward.

We haven't stopped since the beginning of the year.

It's an important initiative to everybody involved.

We've had very receptive um conversations moving forward.

So that's the biggest message I want to give because I'm very excited to pass it on.

Council site.

Uh through you, Chair Link.

I just want to say I'm really excited to see that we are looking into this and uh staff are meeting, both city and school um to see how we can make this happen.

Uh it's something I I and many of my colleagues have advocated for uh for years.

So um yeah, yeah, look forward to uh reading that report plan.

I heard a lot of plans.

Um so thank you all.

And uh yeah, once uh we have the numbers and we receive a detailed plan.

Um yeah, I'm excited about next steps.

Yeah, very it is extremely exciting.

Um, I was talking today uh with uh um the director of Parkson Rick.

Um and yeah, talking about like spaces, it's just it's so it's so important.

We've got these like great spaces that you know in terms of location.

Um it would yeah, be really lovely to see uh uh us utilizing them.

Um seeing no further questions or comments, uh and oh that was an accident.

Uh hand it back over uh to Chair Baton.

Thank you, Chair Link.

Um noting for the record that my colleague Laura Patton has joined us.

Hi, Laura, even though you have my name somehow.

Um glad to see you.

Um are there any questions or comments on this item?

Uh from my colleagues.

Ah, I see Ms.

Anno CK has her hand up.

Go ahead.

Thank you through the chair.

I just wanted to say uh a big thank you to Director Rach, Director Fisher for all of their work on making sure these plans are in place.

Um, and I know it was connected to the MOU that the school committee entered into with the city around use of the warming center.

And this was something that was very important to us as a district.

Um, and so we really appreciate the follow-through on this.

Um, because as you guys have all mentioned, um it's important space.

We need more space and and and this is a step in the right direction.

So I just wanted to say thank you very much to to the um city administration for working with us on that on this.

Thank you for those comments.

I uh heartily endorse them myself.

Um I will say, you know, I will share additional exuberant thanks um in a couple months, it sounds like when we have uh fuller item for discussion.

I don't see a reason to belabor it at the moment.

So I'm gonna hold uh questions until that point.

So um seeing no other comments from my colleagues, I will hand it back over to you, Chair Link.

All right, thank you very much.

Um, so I believe we'll leave this one in committee so that we can later.

All righty.

Uh so that brings us to our next item, uh item agenda three 26-0491.

That the administration update this council on plans to upgrade electrical and air conditioning equipment for the gym and cafeteria at the Edgerly School.

Well again, Chair.

Um, so uh we've uh we've been concentrating on uh getting the bid package ready for uh Healy room uh 208 uh and the acoustic treatments and the cafetorium.

Uh, we've also been getting ready to bid the uh roof at the West Somerville Neighborhood School, um, which is a high risk item.

I think is we've discussed before.

If that roof fails, then we're displacing those students.

Um so those have been our our priorities.

We've also been um getting ready to bid the uh the DPW roof, um which not directly related to the high school is uh to to the schools is very important for the uh DPW staff who support the schools.

Um so uh the the plan is uh after we'll we'll concentrate our uh efforts on the the another summer slammers at uh the west for the roof uh in uh healy 208 uh and then following the construction season uh we'll then uh prioritize the um the electrical upgrades for um uh uh the edgerly uh as as a capital project.

Um so we'll you know we won't have much to report from the electrical upgrade um standpoint uh until next fall or or uh spring.

But in the meantime, uh DPW uh director Weissman, I think does have an update for what DPW is doing in the interim.

I might have lulled uh Eric to sleep my tones.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can.

I don't know what's happening with my camera, but I am here.

I apologize.

Um can you see me?

Oh, wait, we cannot.

There's uh it's it's it uh the simplest technology of all the cover on my camera.

Uh Eric Wiseman, commissioner of DPW.

Um so uh we spoke with the school department about this issue, and we understand that one of the most pressing issues for the the department in the building is the kitchen area.

So we went and um procured a um like a commercial air conditioning unit that can be installed in the kitchen uh and we'll cool that space for the uh the food service staff uh and other people in the cafeteria.

Um and the the electrical work uh was done in-house uh already.

The uh the air conditioning unit itself will take a couple of weeks to be delivered, and then there'll be some duct work, which we are procuring in the meantime.

So uh in the next four weeks or so, there should be air conditioning in that space.

Uh any questions from my colleagues.

No, um, okay.

Well, I'm uh I'll say that I'm yeah, I'm very keen to see this uh you know continue to move forward.

Uh, but I am um heartened that we've taken some steps to to amiterate the the biggest concerns.

Um and the I assume that um uh to uh Dr.

Weissman, um we're talking about like one of those kind of like big chunky guys that uh so it's gonna have uh but there's duct.

So I guess uh I'm glad to hear that there's ductwork that's gonna get installed because I've seen it before where people just kind of like try to stick it in like a window or whatever and it just pops out half the time and ends up heating up the room.

No, Mr.

Chair, I'm not an expert on this, but this is like a five-ton unit that is uh going to be wired in and ducked it out.

All right.

Um all right.

Well, uh Chair Batone, uh I'll hand it off to you.

Thank you, Chair Link.

Um before I go to my colleague, I I think um Ms.

NOCK, which for the record, um chief of staff of Summerville Public Schools, Amara NOCK, um for uh Clerk Delaney.

Umara, did you have uh something you wanted to add there?

Chair, thank you so much, Chair Bertone.

I just wanted to say that this is so important because our aim program is there in the summers, and for um for us to be able to provide warm food for that program.

It's very difficult when the cafeteria is incredibly like too hot to do that.

Um so I'm just so grateful to DPW and I am for making this happen.

Um it was a lot of strain on our food services department.

Um and obviously uh making sure that our our kiddos have warm food in the summers is a huge priority.

So we're very grateful.

Thank you for adding that um context and gratitude, which we all share.

Um member Eldridge, I saw your hand first, but it came down.

We'll go to um uh uh member Patone.

Thank you.

Um through you chair.

I apologize.

I took my video off because my internet is spotty.

Um I just want to acknowledge and appreciate the um interim solution.

I am I missed the notation that Mr.

Wiseman said about is it sized only for the kitchen or is it sized for the full cafeteria space to cool the whole thing?

I'm just curious.

You may have answered this, but I couldn't miss that.

Sorry.

Um I believe it's for the kitchen, but uh sorry, through the chair.

Uh I believe that's it's for the kitchen, but uh I can get back to you on that.

Okay, because it isn't it an open space.

I might be wrong.

I I thought this is yeah, through the chair.

This is where I'm not a hundred percent certain.

Uh the language we were using was the kitchen.

Uh in my mind, it was the cafeteria.

I need to clarify that.

Yep.

Yep.

Thank you.

And that can go through.

I don't know if you're gonna keep this item open, but obviously that can go through.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Uh I just got an update.

Uh I'm I hate to interrupt.

I apologize, just got an update that it was size for both.

Well, that's exciting.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Um member Patone, did you want to continue with a question?

No, I'm also okay.

Um so seeing no other hands on my side, I will just um take this opportunity to um uh express appreciation um for the diligent planning, despite the fact that we didn't have capacity for the um what'd you call it, uh Mr.

Rachel, Summer Slammer?

I love that.

Um so SummerSlammer 27.

Um I'm printing out posters and t-shirts right now um at the adultery.

So looking forward to that work.

Um I'm wondering for you, Mr.

Raish.

What uh can you describe kind of uh what the limiting factors are for um including you know work to put out a bid uh or put something out for bid um on a particular timeline.

I'm imagining it's staffing, so uh I'm thinking that's what I'm gonna hear.

Um and it it could relate to uh uh procurement budgets.

Um, but I'll let you answer the question rather than myself speculating.

So go ahead.

Uh trips on your you're essentially correct um on both counts.

The um constraint on being able to progress work is largely staffing um constraints.

Uh you know, we we can we can only do so many projects at at the same time.

Um but uh this to advance this work well, we also have to work with uh Eversource.

Um, because as I think I've said before, there isn't enough um electrical capacity in the panel in the building.

There's also not enough electrical capacity in the neighborhood.

Um and so we need to uh install uh an additional transformer.

That is something that we have to coordinate with Eversource on, but it is a customer cost.

So umerville will have to purchase and install um the transformer um someplace adjacent or in the building because there's no pull capacity.

Um so there's there's costs associated with with that um ever source coordination, uh, which we also have to budget for.

Appreciate that.

Um I'll just say in response and then I'll acknowledge my colleagues.

Um that as we transition to a zero carbon city, right?

Relying more and more on electricity.

Um the idea that we do not have the capacity to um bring in more and more electric electricity into the city is really um uh distressing for me to hear.

Um in my day job, I I worked to approve a permit for offshore wind farms.

Uh really excited about the capacity for electricity, zero carbon electricity to be coming into our state.

Um, but if we can't accept that electricity, uh that's um hadn't even crossed my mind.

Um so I'll be uh curious to hear more about that moving forward.

Yeah, to to the chair just for your knowledge is it's a um huge problem uh in the region, but in Somerville in particular, where we've got our um our stretch stretch code in effect.

Uh we are we we have reserved staff capacity um to in advance uh an analysis of what needs to be done at the schools for decarbonization.

Yeah to to the chair just for your knowledge it is it's a um huge problem uh in the region but in Somerville in particular where we've got our um our stretch stretch code in effect uh we are we we have reserved staff capacity um to in advance uh an analysis of what needs to be done at the schools for decarbonization that's a uh it including the upgrades uh you know for transformers in the grid um that's a a joint effort between capital projects and uh office sustainability in the environment um so uh i got to check in on their progress so i i don't have an exact data when we're gonna publish that but that's coming but it's it's also a problem um across the board you know in even for our private developments because um we have adopted the the stretch code uh we're having a lot of issues uh with the need for transformers um for even things like three family homes um uh and and locating that uh within you know the the private property because we're we're not giving up sidewalk space for it we don't have to give it up um it's it it is a a big issue that the the city is uh grappling with uh with several departments involved fascinating thank you rich uh mr rage uh member eldridge thank you um i'm not understanding fully uh what the AC unit entails in the space but if you could um possibly just uh reassure concerned constituents um that currently are navigating the high temperatures in the cafeteria and or the cafetorium like what we could expect i understand that there's a longer permanent fix in the works and that is fantastic and I'm so glad to hear that you have an interim fix um can we expect a like a measurable change in temperature in those spaces and like making those environments a bit more comfortable again not knowing anything about the specific units that you've chosen I'll have to defer to Commissioner Weissman and Superintendent Bennett.

Thank you.

Yeah through the through the chair I I don't have a great uh way to quantify that um I'm sorry I could I could come back to you on that um if I could just follow up on that question and answer um uh and maybe Chair Link this is something we could add a second item um to uh get a progress report on the temperature differential um just to see how it's working um for maybe June you know once we have this in place great okay I'm seeing thumbs up from my colleague um member Pitone um thank you through you um uh Commissioner Raish is this a project that could qualify for the MSBA accelerated repair which is initiating in I think January of 2027 which I'm just flagging to everybody on the table here that we should start be planning for that now and I'm sure there's other things that Commissioner Raish has on his mental agenda but um you know it's about energy efficiency it's about cost savings windows doors heat pumps I mean I haven't read it all in detail but um I'm just curious.

Uh to the chair's an interesting question the so the the decarbonization plan that I I mentioned that we're working on jointly with OSC is intended to position us for that um at the other schools.

Another project that we're um working on is a I I think the um committees know we've had some issues with the facade at uh the east uh and the option that we've landed on um would uh not only provide you know sort of repairs for for that but then also significantly increase uh the insulation uh factors on on that facade and I I have a suspicion that that might be eligible um so I I can't I I don't know that the the edgerly one um would meet the the criteria but uh we'll we'll explore that along with with the other ones that um we've got in the pipeline may I do a quick follow-up of course um what would be your timeline in kind of creating the proposal of not completing the proposal but making uh a recommendation to the city and the the school district about which things projects you think are going to be appropriate for this so that we're primed for that 2027 application.

Yeah I I as some of you know um our CSO uh plan was formally submitted to the state um about two hours ago um so that has uh been taking up so much of my mental bandwidth that I have to check back in with my capital projects team on a on a time frame for that I don't have it off the top of my head but I can I can follow up with that.

I don't have it off the top of my head, but I can I can follow up with that.

That's combined sewer overflow plan for those paying attention.

Thank you.

Yes.

Yes, this is a question for you, Chair.

Um I don't know if I'm allowed to make a suggestion that this topic of um you know the scope of the accelerated repair program get put on a future agenda for this body.

Yeah, of course that's appropriate.

Um you guys can figure out the timing and um you know basically it's like the MSBA uh building project.

They fund many projects to focus on this energy efficiency, but also improvements to buildings and an accelerated project.

So you work with particular consultants that they already have lined up to do the work.

Um and just for context, last year Medford got or two years ago, whenever it happened when Medford got accepted into for the high school, they also got two accelerated repair at the same time.

So we don't have to think, well, because we already have the winner hill in the pipeline that they wouldn't consider our accelerated repair project.

But every year is different.

So I'm just giving everybody that for context that it's always worth putting in for this stuff because it's very uh valuable investment and can really make our money go further.

So thank you.

Thank you, Member Patone, for that valuable insight.

Awesome.

Um seeing no other discussion on our side, I will hand the gavel back to you, Chair Link.

Okay, thank you very much, Chair Pitone.

Um Director, uh it's just to make sure I understood correctly.

Um the in terms of you it sounds like I knew about the transformer for this particular location.

Um, but it it sounds like this is I did not realize how widespread the issue was uh until this terrifying moment uh that we had just a couple seconds ago.

Um so I'm I'm curious.

Uh you it sounded like we're we're evaluating that for all the different schools um to see where they're at.

Uh is is there like a um it sounds like we don't have that kind of that work done yet.

It is that something that's going to be kind that will have like a sense of that, you know, in the next month in the next six months.

Uh yeah, through the chair.

I think we're we're looking at more like a six-month timeline.

Uh that this the uh the this effort won't be finished um for you know time for budget this year.

Um that this this is more like a a fall publication.

Okay.

Wonderful.

Um thank you very much.

All right, so um seeing nothing else, uh no one else wants to discuss.

We'll move on to the next item.

That is item number four.

Uh Chair Link, sorry, not to cut you off.

Um what would we like to do at this item?

Sorry, I apologize.

No else.

Yeah, so it sounds like maybe we um I think maybe we can mark this one as work complete and then um set up a new one to check on the progress.

All right.

Thank you.

Mark, this is where complete.

Um great.

And uh that brings us to item four, uh 26-0521 that the commissioner public works addressed the radiator dysfunction in one of the Kennedy School classrooms.

Uh Director Weisman.

Uh hi, thank you, Chair.

Uh yeah, so this is an issue uh that uh came up in I think classroom 209.

Um there were this this is an unusual classroom where there are uh two, it's a corner room, so there are two separate systems.

Uh both of them seemed to to have an issue.

Uh there was a valve issue on the um on the ventilator heater on one side of the building.

That was addressed.

And then there was also a control issue uh with the fin tube radiator on the other side.

Uh, and then that was addressed.

So uh the space should be responding now as expected.

Uh council say uh through you chair link.

Uh so I put in this order, and you just want to say that a parent reached out to both myself and uh member Pitone.

And uh I contacted uh Commissioner Weisman and he very quickly sent staff there, had you know, just took all the steps necessary.

So I'm very grateful for um yeah, addressing this issue that's been going on for a while and really finding the rule of cause and addressing it.

Uh thank you, Commissioner.

Fantastic.

Um yeah, and it does it sounds like another game of maybe um a small much smaller game of whackable uh in terms of there being multiple issues.

Um funny stuff.

Uh all right, seeing no further discussion on uh this side, I'll hand it over to Chair Piton.

Thank you, Chair Link.

Um so I'll just uh echo the gratitude for the um quick attention to this matter.

Uh no one wants to sit in a uh boiling hot uh classroom um in June, let alone in in March.

Um so really grateful and um positive that it uh dramatically improved the uh learning in that classroom.

Uh my question is this an item that um oh so I guess like it's great that that was um addressed through the sort of constituent um reaching out to school committee and city counselor for the ward and then to DPW.

But I'm wondering, was this uh provided to 311 within the school notification system as well?

And because that's supposed to be our sort of notification system that things sort of regularly work through.

Um uh perhaps this was happening in parallel, but I'm just curious if that if that's how that went down.

Uh the chair, thank you for the question.

Um so so my staff receives a number of three one ones all the time on any number of issues in the buildings.

Uh this is an issue that was elevated to me.

Uh, and that's that's why I put particular attention to it.

I I would imagine there was a 311 on it as well.

Um sometimes um building issues take multiple paths to get uh to me.

Sometimes it comes through 311, sometimes it comes through uh my staff that are in the buildings, uh, and sometimes it comes through um a city council agenda item.

Uh so um yeah, I'm I'm not sure, but I imagine that there's a 311 on this item.

Thank you, Commissioner Wiseman.

Um, job security for us, I suppose.

Um uh Ms.

Anosike, um I'll I'll direct the same question to you uh if you have any awareness of the issue.

Um do you know whether this uh made its way through that process through the chair?

So you're asking about the radiator issue.

Did it did it go through the 311 process?

Yes.

I'm sorry, okay, good.

I just wanted to make sure I heard that.

Yeah, sorry to put you in the spot.

No, no, no, you not at all.

Um, I get I get CC'd on every single 311.

Um, I do not remember this in particular, um, but I can go through and and see, I can imagine that that this came through.

And it looks like uh uh Commissioner Weissman has his hand up.

Yeah, through the chair, it uh it came through multiple times.

Okay, all right.

Excellent.

Um that's that's great and um actually a reassurance.

So thank you for that.

Um member Pitone.

Uh thank you through you.

Um my understanding is to go three one one, but I also want to add, and this is just more sort of the anecdotal context of you know, families or people overhearing someone at DPW saying things like, I don't think it can be fixed till until the summer.

So there was sort of some kind of misrepresentation.

I don't know if they heard things properly.

I'm not implying that anything anybody did anything wrong because I know how thoughtful everyone is, but that's kind of how it got at least elevated to me was sort of this.

We know they're working on it and they've tried multiple things and it's not fixing it, which is life, you know, things sometimes you have to try a few things before it gets resolved, but there was some misunderstanding, and that's where the escalation came to me was that sort of someone mishearing or misunderstanding that uh it was stated that it wouldn't be able to be resolved this year, which of the school year, which I'm so happy it was, and I just wanted to provide that context.

Thank you.

Commissioner Wiseman, did you want to add something there?

No, okay, sorry.

Um all right.

Uh that's looks like all on our side.

And um uh member Patone, thanks for that clarification also.

I um that's really helpful.

Uh so turn it back over to you, Chair Link.

Thank you.

Uh Council Site, you I see your hands down now.

You're good.

Okay, wonderful.

Um, yeah, thank you for the quick action.

Um actually getting it done.

I haven't taught in a classroom that was in the 90s once I know it is miserable, horrible work.

Um both just doing it and also trying to have all the students um do it with you.

Uh yeah, so thank you.

Thank you.

Uh all right, moving on uh to uh item number five, which is another Kennedy school item.

Uh this is 26.

Oh, sorry.

Disposition.

Good catch.

I just wanted to keep going.

Um I think we can mark this one as work complete.

Got it.

Thank you.

Uh now on to item number five.

Uh that the administration um report to the school committee uh and to this council on indoor air quality concerns at the Kennedy School, specifically regarding mold and humidity levels, uh and on the steps being taken to address them.

Thank you, Chair.

Um this item is somewhat new to me.

Uh I I don't quite know the history of this issue.

I did look into uh the the history of 311s regarding mold or humidity.

Uh I didn't find a ton of information on it, but we we have been meeting with the school department um on this issue.

Um I will say that like when it comes to mold and humidity, like it's really critical for us to respond immediately to leaks and intrusions of water.

Um I think like that's our first line of defense.

Uh so to dry out the surface, the the or sort of to take a step back to uh secure the building envelope, um, and then dry out any moisture, remove any standing water, um, remove any soggy materials.

So that's like normally what we would do in those situations.

Um we try to do that as quickly as possible.

Um, and then um as there are complaints about air quality or or mold or something like that, that is something that we would work with the school department to investigate um before um uh taking uh like the step of uh monitoring and testing and things like that.

Uh so uh this is something that I think uh it doesn't seem like there's a formal process to date.

Something I would like to work with the school department uh as part of our regular check-ins on establishing um a process for for handling these type of complaints.

Um but I don't have a uh an update on specifically on mold and humidity levels at the school at this point.

Thank you, Dr.

Risman.

Um I'm I'm curious.

Uh, do we have the the tools necessary to to measure things like humidity and and mold?

So th uh thank you, Chair.

Yes, we do have uh tools to measure humidity.

Um testing, I think is is um something that we would we would seek an outside vendor to do.

Great.

Um I'm assuming we could it's it's I've my experience, my personal experience with that is that um it can be kind of uh a little tricky in that a lot of times if you pick the wrong people, they will always tell you that there's mold that needs to be remediated.

Yeah, through through the thank you, chair.

Um yeah, I'm not an expert on these things, but my understanding is that there aren't established like safe levels for mold or thresholds that are easy to point to.

Um so uh most organizations point to uh like doing a visual investigation, looking at moisture, uh looking for visible signs of mold for smells of mold, um, and then really using like air quality testing as a last step.

But uh I think we can we can sort of like get a process in place for for these things.

Wonderful.

All right, um, Council Say.

Uh through Chair Link.

Um I just wanted to say personally, the first I heard of this is during office hours uh with the Kennedy with member Pitone, member Pitone may have more information about this.

Um, but yeah, this is a concern that was raised and um yeah, would love the DPW to look into this.

Yes, thank you.

Uh happy to work with the school department on this.

Uh I just realized I haven't asked one question though.

Where is the potential mold?

Is it I guess maybe I'll all right.

Let's acknowledge her.

We don't have to have a firewall here.

Oh, thank you through both of you.

Um my understanding that they was mentioned the there's a PTA room, which I think was formerly a closet, and that they were seeing um some water situation there.

I can't I didn't see it personally, so I can't speak to it, but that was one of the spaces they brought up.

I don't I'm gonna look through my notes while we're continuing to talk on that and see if I missed something else.

Thank you through the chair.

I understand that there have been leaks in the past at the Kennedy School.

Um there's also been some dripping pipes and things like that.

Certainly uh an opportunity for moisture to collect, but uh we do the best we can to respond to those as quickly as possible to remediate the the moisture.

Um, but happy to work further with the school department on this.

Uh sure the tone I'll be thrust to to you.

Thank you, Chair Link.

Um so uh Commissioner Wiseman, I I want to share with you some language that um the well as a little background information.

Every year the school committee meets with the Somerville uh Council of PTAs, which uh is kind of an umbrella that um brings together all of the PTAs across the city.

And we do that in during budget season, and each of the PTAs shares with us some of their, you know, both successes during the year and also some of their concerns that they would like addressed.

Um so I want to just share with you one of the things, and that Kennedy gave us um two requests.

Uh and one of them, and so usually that's like these are high-level things.

Um, so I'm just gonna read to you from what they delivered to us.

They said they were requesting an action plan and timeline to alleviate concerns about health and safety for educators and students.

Concerns about general air quality and specifically about mold have been bubbling up by educators through recommended channels, but it seems there hasn't yet been action on testing and remediation or communication about a future plan for the same.

Um that's how this item first came to my attention.

Um it sounds to me like the recommended channels, that would be the 311 process that we talked about before.

Um hasn't resulted in uh uh you described your search earlier through items for mold, and it sounded like there was really scant information in those 311 requests.

Um so you know, here we are now, and it's still still, you know.

Um we don't have a concrete plan for testing.

Um, some ideas, and I'm and I'm grateful for that.

Um direction and effort.

Um and collaboration with the schools in particular.

So um I'm wondering uh, you know, the channels that we have, these official 311 channels and the meetings with um uh uh Ms.

NOCA and Ms.

Barry from the school department.

Um is this a matter that you've discussed with them during your regular check-ins.

Yeah, through the chair.

Uh this came up as this this item uh came up.

Uh so I think where we got to is that we really need to have a process for handling these requests.

Like a like it sounds like they're they're looking for a process and a plan in progress.

And I think we need to have an overall plan for intake of requests of this nature, what the next steps would be, who's responsible for what, and then how to follow through on them.

All right, thank you.

And I think you said pretty much exactly that before, and I appreciate you repeating it for me so that I could get it through my skull.

Um so that that's helpful.

Um I will be oh, and I see uh Ms.

Enoseke has her hand up, so go ahead.

Thank you through the chair.

I just wanted to add that the SEU in our in our contract, there's a biannual.

Sorry about that.

There's a bi-annual report um that we work on with the city departments, and they do touch on air quality and and filtering and um and so that's where we were getting some of our updates on how the air quality was for some of the schools, but I agree completely with Commissioner Weisman that a more uh formalized process is needed in in light of some of the requests that have come in through this process.

Okay.

So it sounds to me like that's the the need for a process is is a more general kind of how do we deal with this sort of approach?

Um and then with respect to the specifics of this request.

Um do we have a timeline for taking action to uh to conduct those tests and identify a solution.

Um so thank you.

I I think that the that the immediate step will be to conduct an investigation of the complaints um with my staff and SPS.

Uh and then determine the next step, whether testing is warranting, whether it's appropriate, uh, define what we are testing for.

Um, and then and then if we determine the testing is necessary, then do the test based on that process.

Understood.

Uh member Pitone.

Thank you, Mike.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Yeah, I'm I must just not be in a great location.

Through you, I just was looking through my notes.

Um, you know, you know, notations around more transparency around quality concerns, the references were wet ceiling tiles, mold, quote, more visible mold.

Now I don't know if there is or is not.

That's something that you would do in your assessment, testing of air quality, ongoing monitoring, and the specific reference to the PTA closet, which is behind the stage, something about saying it was like 30% too warm.

I don't know if there's like a uh a challenge.

It's a closet, not a space.

So, you know, it might not have the same uh requirements.

Um yeah, so those were my notes.

So I'm I didn't add much, but I at least wanted to let you know what I had heard.

And I appreciate what Mr.

Wiseman is saying about having some type of investigation and deciding what the next steps are.

I think that's good to hear.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Through the chair, we will absolutely look at this.

And uh I appreciate you um being as specific as possible about the space.

Excellent.

Um I will also relay in in my conversations with one uh parent that the space feels measurably different this year than it did in past years.

Um so there's something that has changed.

Uh the chair, I assume you you're saying worse, not better.

That's right.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, yes.

Okay.

Um awesome.

Uh so uh chair Link, my recommendation will be that we keep this in committee.

Yeah, and I'll hand the gavel back.

Thank you.

Yes.

So uh we will keep this one in committee.

Uh and hopefully we can hear uh more about this specific issue and then maybe um the the general plan to to handle um issues like this.

Um hopefully this can be used as a uh whatever we come up with can be used as a template um for future ones.

Uh okay.

Um that brings us to uh item 626-0241 that the administration provide the committee uh on school buildings facilities and maintenance with regular updates on the Massachusetts School Building Authority uh process for the Winter Hill and Brown Schools.

Uh so uh I believe at our last meeting I reported that we submitted the preliminary design program to MSBA uh for their review.

Um it is still in their review process.

Uh they did uh give us some uh preliminary uh um requests for additional information, uh including um the condition assessment of the Brown School building at Willow Av.

Um I'm gonna brag here.

We had uh already anticipated a question like that and done a full evaluation of the building.

So we had all the data on the shelf and were able to turn that in immediately.

Um which had we not anticipated that could have been months of delay.

Um they also interestingly asked for a test fit at the WillowAv site for the uh 925 uh student um population, which our architects were able to turn around um pretty quickly, uh, which would be a very slender high rise that would make uh the copper mill development in Davis Square look quaint.

Um we we've also uh so we we uh uh you know on a more serious note, uh you know, we're there MSBA is still reviewing that.

We will uh anticipate some additional comments.

Team is still continuing on with the work of uh fleshing out the um schematic designs for um the you know the the things we know we want to uh advance on.

Uh team has also been uh doing a lot of community outreach.

We had uh a fairly well attended um uh community workshop that focused on sustainability.

Um we did have parents at that, but more importantly, we had sort of our usual suspects from the sustainability and environment uh sort of folks uh in the city.

So uh we were um uh encouraged by that.

We also had uh sort of a young children uh workshop where the kids got to play with Legos and give us some ideas that was a ton of fun.

Uh we will have uh school building committee meeting on Monday, May 4th.

Live long and prosper.

Uh and we're continuing on with work.

All right.

Um I I just wanna say huge kudos on making sure that um that we had the information so that we could just keep that process moving.

I know that um parents are desperate to see this keep going um and as quickly as possible.

So the fact that we um anticipated that and had it ready is just it's huge.

So um thank you.

Thank you very much, Dr.

Rish.

Uh Counselor Scott, I see you picked your hand up.

Uh thank you, Ms.

Chair.

Uh so just through I just wanted to um understand what I what I heard about the Brown School evaluation.

So that was that the a new building to accommodate uh the a total load for combined schools, or where did that student load come from for that for the through the chair?

Um, you know, the MSBA process processes to find two student enrollment um numbers for us to uh investigate one is the 690, uh, which is uh all future district needs less the student um capacity of you know east west Healy Argenciano uh in and the Brown, and then the 920, which is all future um enrollment needs, just less the east-west Healy Argenciano Kennedy.

Um so those are the two numbers.

For some reason, they they asked us only to do the test fit for um for the for the uh 925.

Um it was real, I I suspect they knew it was going to be a paper exercise.

Um, largely uh driven from the fact that again, as I've I've said before, they want communities to explore more than one site.

And so, you know, our package only had the Sycamore site and Trum Field.

Um interestingly enough, I I it doesn't seem as they're pushing back on our elimination of Trump Field, but they wanted us to give them one more site uh for the documentation and and selected Willow Av um as unaccommodating as that lot would be for such student enrollment.

Yeah, so it would be what if we took down the brown school and used that lot to handle all future capacity growth.

Oh okay.

Well, not for nothing.

How tall are we talking?

Oh, I think it was something like 23 stories or something crazy like that.

Oh, we got that in the bacon building.

We can do that.

Yeah.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

All right, uh hand this over to you, Chair Piton.

Um thank you, Chair Link.

I am very curious, Mr.

Rage.

Can you share that uh the drawings of that?

I would love to just see a 23-story Brown school um mock-up.

It's if they funded that and they said this is what you have to choose, we would not move forward as a city with that selection.

Um I just want to see it.

Yeah, I I can I can get that to you.

Thank you.

And we'll we'll we'll uh once it's in um sort of a public uh uh consumable format, we'll put it on the website anyway.

We'll put it on the website anyway.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I think everyone will enjoy that.

Um questions from my colleagues.

All right.

Uh seems like we're good.

Um we'll hand this back to you.

Oh, and and just I'll share from school committee side uh uh gratitude to Mr.

Rach and the team working on this for their diligence and preparation.

Uh so we didn't have additional delays.

Like that work, that planning is is measurably uh impacting our students, right?

In 2031, when we open up, uh we'll have your uh valiant efforts to thank for that.

Um not losing months at a time because we didn't have something ready.

So like pat yourself on the back, you deserve that one.

Thank you.

Um Chair Link.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, yeah, again, that is really huge.

Um all right, so we will leave this one in committee.

Uh and move on to item seven, which is um an officer's communication.

Uh oh, I believe this was um we already discussed this one, but it uh there was potentially some questions.

So this was the um infrastructure and asset management um the strategic asset management plan report.

Um I can't remember who it was that um had some questions.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um chair link, uh member Pitone uh was had requested some additional time to review this.

Um uh we kept it in the committee for that purpose.

You're all set.

All right, that was an easy one.

All right, thank you very much for that.

Sorry.

Uh let's mark that as work complete then.

Uh and move on to uh our last scheduled item, which is item 8, 26-0135, that the director of infrastructure and asset management update uh this council on when the school buildings maintenance project website will be available.

Uh through the chair.

Unfortunately, this one I can't give you a positive update.

Um, we just have not had the bandwidth uh to dedicate to this, either I am or comms.

Um we've been very busy on whole bunch of other stuff, not least of which is the CSO uh combined tour overflow program.

So I I don't have a report on this or really a projection of when we're gonna be able to get to it.

As we're jumping into construction season.

Got it.

Uh counselor site.

Um yeah, thank you, Director Rage.

I was surprised to see it on the agenda.

I thought maybe there was uh it was uh an update.

But um yeah, I would keep chair link uh if we can keep this one in committee and uh uh again I will keep uh requesting and asking that we have this up so that families are informed, especially with everything that's going on.

I think this committee is one of the few opportunities when they get to have updates and know what's happening.

So um yeah, so that's a link if we can keep it.

That would be great.

Thank you.

Absolutely, and yeah, I just to echo what the um counselor from Board Five was saying.

I think that's yeah, it's a it's very important to families.

Uh and I think we absolutely need to have it.

I think communication is always one of the things that people talk a lot about, um, wanting more of uh and I think that it'd be good if we can make sure we we are communicating as well as we can.

All right, um Chair Baton.

Any questions from my colleagues, comments?

Not see, oh uh member Pitone, go ahead.

And through you, I'm just I just wanted to put forward my enthusiasm and looking forward to seeing this when there is time and space to work on it.

All right.

I think she speaks for us all.

Um Chair Link back to you.

Great, thank you.

Uh yeah, now that CSO is uh totally solved, we should have tons of bandwidth for that.

So uh great.

Okay, um, all right.

So we'll we'll keep this one in committee.

Uh and that brings us to the end of our agenda.

Clark, do we need, I guess.

Yes.

Do we need to take a roll call on least the minutes?

Yep.

So we'll approve the minutes and we can approve and adjourn with the same roll call if we'd like.

Yes.

I make a motion that we do so.

Great.

And the school committee also needs to do their recess and whatnot or adjournment.

If I may, if I may just pipe in to say I neglected to circulate the um report from the last meeting.

So we'll hold that approval for our next um our next subcommittee and just do a twofer.

Sounds good.

Okay.

So we're good to approve on RN though.

Yes.

Great.

All right.

School committee, are you adjourning?

Oh, we'll just wait for you to adjourn and we'll adjourn quickly.

Great.

All right.

On approval of the minutes and adjournment.

Counselor Scott.

Yes, please.

Counselor Saeed.

Yes.

Chair Link.

Hi.

All right.

With that, it is 7.08 p.m.

and we are adjourned.

And so are we.

Thank you so much.

Have a great night.

Thank you, everyone.

See everyone.

Thank you.