Hey, we have an F&O meeting tomorrow!

The Worcester School Committee Standing Committee on Finance and Operations has a meeting tomorrow at 5:30 (IN PERSON, though it will stream online), and the agenda includes not only our (last?) monthly transportation update, but a corker of a facilities update! 

Quoting just a few of the updates on projects I know to be of interest: 

• on water and heat and cooling: Belmont has a new boiler; Burncoat High and Middle have new domestic hot water heaters; Chandler Magnet has a new boiler; City View has a new boiler, Goddard Elementary has a new boiler; Vernon Hill has a new boiler; Forest Grove is getting two new chillers over the summer; and North High is getting a new chiller this summer.
  
  
• on bottle fillers: The SWIG (School Water Improvement Grant) project has started with initial demo of existing fixtures. A 3-month grant extension has been approved through the end of September. Installation of new water bottle filling stations fixtures to take place over the summer, followed by required sampling.
  
  
• on ADA accessibility: Deborah Ryan Associates studies nearly complete for the following schools: Thorndyke, Gerald Creamer Center, Harlow Challenge & Reach, Columbus Park, and Lincoln Street. Draft reports have been provided for comment, with final reports anticipated Summer 2023. Construction has started on the accessibility updates at Worcester Arts Magnet (triggered by the roof replacement).
  
  
• on Burncoat High and NEASC:  Four firms have been engaged to prepare baseline reports and potential courses of action based on the findings of the NEASC report. These studies include building envelope, accessibility, mechanical systems, and traffic analysis improvements. These studies are now complete.
  
  
• on traffic management: Mount Vernon Group Architects have done traffic and pedestrian design studies at both Burncoat Middle and High and at Roosevelt. There is insufficient funding (as we've discussed) in both cases, though Facilities is looking into options to manage some of the issues of concern. 
  
  
• on Burncoat bleachers: project now awarded to a contractor; it is anticipated this will be done for the fall opening of school. The gym floor is also being refinished as part of the same project. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• on Elm Park's gym: New wooden flooring is installed, and one coat of varnish has been applied. Roof repairs were undertaken to ensure new flooring system would not be damaged. New doors were installed at South entrance to minimize water infiltration at that location. Vendor is expected to be applying final polyurethane and markings over the next month. The gymnasium walls have also been painted, and new bleacher system installed. Anticipated completion by August 2023, ahead of the start of new school year.
  
  
  
  
  
• on the Honeywell districtwide ESSER funded HVAC updates: $22 million investment, across majority of schools in the district. Scope includes automated controls upgrades, exhaust fan replacements, rooftop units, heating systems. Project will be completed in phases, with on-going work though the Fall of 2024.
  
  
• on the new Doherty: is now weather-tight. It's on schedule for opening Fall of 2024.
  
  
• on school moves: there are moving contracts for both the Alternative school and for La Familia; both moves starting on June 21 and will be done by June 30.
  
  

There's LOTS MORE over on the agenda, so go check it out, and maybe plan to at least watch our meeting tomorrow! 

August Finance and Operations: facilities

 F&O met on August 15 and reported out at the meeting on the 18th, but I'm still getting questions on things connected, in particular, to the Facilities report, so I'm going to write up my notes here from that. The agenda is here and the presentation we received at that meeting I've shared over here.

First up, please note: like many other sectors, the Facilities department is running short-staff (and there are openings!); as of the 15th, there were 28 custodial vacancies. As Mr. Bedard noted: Realize how this works, incidentally: we don't leave schools entirely uncovered, so this necessarily means shifts happen across the system to ensure every building gets coverage. That does mean, though, that some places don't have all they need as a result. 
The summer work to get schools ready for back to school has been going on, and the field prep for athletics is also ongoing.
ON THIS AND EVERYTHING ELSE: supply chains supply chains supply chains...we can only get things as quickly as we can get them. That matters a lot whether we are cleaning or fixing or replacing things, so please be patient.

Regarding the environmental management of the district: water sampling for testing of lead and copper was competed in the spring, and fixtures are being turned on and off and signage is being updated. Watch for further communication updating that. 
Quarterly PCB inspections are scheduled for Doherty and Burncoat; the asbestos three year inspection are ongoing. 

The $150,000 water bottle filling grant (!) was accepted at the August 18 meeting. That state grant provides for bottle filling stations (under very particular parameters) at the following places: 

If your school isn't on here, either it's among the newer schools that may already have them OR it didn't fit the parameters of the grant. We are doing some planning for additional such stations, though, through federal funding.
We have only now received the funding for this: please note that these now have to go through procurement and planning and installation (don't look for them next week; they're not there yet!).

Please join me in being unsettled by the lack of boiler in this space 

(note there is one next to it)

There are boiler replacement projects at Belmont, Chandler Magnet, City View, and Goddard; a boiler replacement is in the planning stages at Vernon Hill. Note that most of our boiler replacements in recent years have been at least partly funded through MSBA (through the accelerated repair program), but we can't always wait to go through the process (boilers are a necessary thing). With fifty buildings (most of which have more than one boiler) that have had underfunded facilities needs for decades now, there's a significant amount of need. 

The BIG project this summer is the Worcester Arts Magnet roof (which is an MSBA Accelerated repair project): 

My photo of the new WAMS roof going in.

The roof will be done this summer; the ADA upgrades (triggered by the cost of the roof) will be done next summer.

There are new hot water heaters going in at Burncoat High and Middle Schools (that's abbreviated DHM for domestic hot water, which is a thing that I learned for this meeting). 

Also at Burncoat High: bleachers in the gym! The bleachers were just going to be pull-out bleachers, but the company has told us that they, given the weight at the size, need to be motorized for safety. Those then are needing some more planning before replacement. 
Also at Burncoat High: the new window blinds are being produced!

GENERAL BURNCOAT STATEMENT: Please note that two things are true at Burncoat:

1. It continues to be next one being voted by the Worcester School Committee and Worcester City Council for major renovation or repair. Eleven years ago, we opened new North; last year, we opened a new South; new Doherty is under construction. We have had a very strong relationship with the Mass School Building Authority, where we have--unusually!--been able to have two major projects going at the same time. With South now open, fingers crossed on getting Burncoat in.
2. Burncoat High is undergoing its every-ten-year NEASC reaccreditation. As part of that process, the reaccreditation committee has come back with a report on the facilities, with their concerns. That's in the process of being reviewed and sent out for further study. Even as we plan to replace the building, it's obviously still being used as a school, and so those two things need to be held in balance. 

Claremont locker repairs are being scheduled.
The Elm Park gym floor is being torn up (may be completely up now!) before the layers of waterproofing and other underfloor prep happen before the new one can go in. This is going to take some time
Greendale Head Start has a new parking lot.
The walk-in refrigerator at Norrback is in the engineering stage.
The fire alarms are being replaced at West Tatnuck (it won't be done before school starts, but the old ones weren't taken out yet, so the school has them).

Grafton Street's cafeteria ceiling work will be done before school starts. 

A word on elevators: the Vernon Hill freight elevator was raised at the meeting, but I have been asked about others; we do have several elevators where the issue is beyond waiting for a part (which has been a thing, certainly), and is into questions of replacement (which is very expensive). Thus some of those are much longer term discussions. 

Finally, watch for updates in the future (probably our next F&O meeting on September 8) on the Honeywell and Nault Siemens review of our HVAC systems for upgrades through ESSER funding. Because that is a capital expense, it had to be reviewed and approved by DESE. 

As always, if you have questions, comment or get in touch! 

NEASC dues

Boone: share why this is here as a prior year payment
deep concerns with relevance and price about NEASC accreditation
spent a day studying the process as they were looking to shift their practices
"not just superintendents and schools in Massachusetts that had concerns"
schools continued to identify themselves as NEASC schools
our payment of last year's dues does not reflect our ongoing commitment
have concerns with the pace of change and the content of change
will be making a recommendation to this body
what has been critical for high schools is if it is needed for college admission
not an impediment for admission to college
a number of districts have withdrawn from NEASC
"not ready to make that decision"
still have some ongoing concerns

Note from NEASC on South High

Bit of an update from NEASC on South High: they're pleased by a number of the issues they'd raised being dealt with (including an instructional leadership team and a site council).
They're also interested in hearing the results of our application to MSBA.

Us, too!

NEASC report on Doherty

...can be found here, as part of today's Friday letter from Superintendent Boone.

They have lots of great things to say about Doherty! Looks as though their main concerns are accessibility and computer access (which should be improving with the new investment).

update on Nelson Place and MSBA projects

Allen: invited into feasibility phase of project for Nelson Place
between now and May 2014
March 2014 through mid 2014 doing schematic designs
May 2014 to August 2014 is when they fund the project
June 2014-March 2015 design and planning
construction until January 2017, anticipated opening

MSBA submissions for this year
remaining three comprehensive high schools for renovation or repair
MSBA forces you to name a priority school
MSBA did a needs assessment: South graded the worst by MSBA; "to show MSBA that we're serious about their assessment"
"our intention is to the three schools as a joint package"
four schools for accelerated repair for this coming year

• Worcester East Middle: Windows, Boiler, & Roof note here that WEMS is down to one boiler; if (and when) it fails,they're done
• Columbus Park School: Windows & Boiler
• Tatnuck Magnet School: Windows
• Worcester Arts Magnet: Windows

Waiting to hear from MSBA to hear what are the next steps are

library at Claremont Academy

The NEASC is concerned about the library at Claremont
"this is really an issue for funding and support for the school's library" from O'Connell

NEAS&C priorities

putting priorities of the New England Association of Schools and College into the long-term capital or operating budget
concern from the mayor at how this dovetails with the five year