Yes, Boston is running summer school without A/C

 Today's Boston Globe piece on BPS running summer school in buildings that don't have A/C:

After the hottest June in Boston history, the school district will reopen multiple schools for summer learning Tuesday without air conditioning to cool the students seeking to catch up after a year of mostly remote learning.

Only 29 of the 63 buildings have air conditioning, leaving the rest to resort to other methods to keep classrooms cool, including turning off overhead lights, opening windows, and using fans and blinds. The high on Tuesday is forecast to be above 90 degrees.

 ...sent me back to the numbers. The Mass School Building Authority--MSBA--did a survey of nearly all public school buildings in Massachusetts in 2016, which is a handy document to know exists. I went back to take a quick look at Boston (that starts on page 53). Boston, of course, takes up several pages; it seems to have (numbers differ!) about 130 school buildings.

And most of them have been around for awhile. 

We say that so often that it feels nearly like a quip, but here's what that ends up meaning: by my count, per the MSBA report (which, remember, is from 2016, 'though I know BPS hasn't opened a new building since), Boston has five school buildings that were new from 2017 (the Dearborne) back to 2000. Boston had another five school buildings new in the 1990's (all the late 90's, in fact), and then none in the 1980's.
If my count on that is right, that means that Boston has only ten buildings that are newer than 40 years old.

That matters for a couple of reasons: 

1. The lifespan for which schools are built now, per MSBA, is fifty years. That means that every other district building in Boston, save those built in the 1970's--of which there's at least 25; Boston went on a bit of building boom in the '70's (which was not unrelated to what else was happening the Boston Public Schools in the 1970's!)--should be cycling in for either a major renovation or rebuild.
2. Massachusetts, by and large, wasn't putting air conditioning into buildings much before then. Yes, I'm sure you'll find exceptions, but for the most part, public schools in Massachusetts aren't as full buildings being air conditioned in the 1980's, even.

The Globe notes that 29 of the 63 buildings that are running summer school have AC, so clearly other parts of this are at work, but we might also note, from the Build BPS report, how many buildings have issues with what it terms their "heating distribution systems." My sense is that some have a notion that we can simply plunk AC into existing systems. For the most part, we cannot. Many, many schools of any age are running heating systems that don't make that possible.
(And no, you absolutely cannot plug those window units into every classroom window of a school; you'll blow the circuit breakers!)

Replacing or adding HVAC systems in buildings like this is big work; it isn't something you can do around students and teachers while they're using the building, for example. Nor is it inexpensive. 
That means, for those up on MSBA and reimbursements, that those sorts of projects are the kind that tip a district over into a full renovation/replacement, which, depending on cost and other considerations like what else is going on with the building, even makes sense.

I raise this for a couple of reasons:

• Everything I said here about Boston also goes for Worcester. We're very excited to bring our new high schools online, but the majority of our buildings date back to the Second World War or before, and the vast majority neither have AC or can easily get it. Three high schools built in the past ten years is...three new schools. Add Nelson Place and that's four new schools out of nearly fifty buildings (which is a better ratio than Boston, but not great).
  And those new buildings are built under the same ticking clock on replace/renovation as anything else.
  
  
• This problem isn't going away. We're in a climate emergency, and need to recognize it.
  
  
• We have to start thinking about school buildings in terms of the climate emergency--see this good piece in The Hechinger Report, for example.

School Dude process

flowchart here
Foley: work is getting done in a much more timely process
Allen: currently used to track and prioritize and record costs associated with all of the repair work done out at the schools
"there are a lot of work order requests out there, and they are prioritized."
in heating season, heat related repairs are prioritized
"we are limited due to the number of trade people we have"
Foley: how many requests coming in?
Allen will check

Doherty heat

Finally, regarding the heat at Doherty, which has been an issue this week:

The Facilities Department also responded to Doherty High School this morning regarding the lack of heat within several parts of the school.  We understand that School Committee members have been contacted as well.

There were many classrooms that were as mid 40's as a result of equipment failure.  There were five rooftop units that malfunctioned overnight and in some cases they needed to be restarted and in others new equipment needed to be installed.  There were also many classrooms where the uninvent heaters were not functioning correctly.  As soon as these repairs were made the school is now back to normal heating temperatures.

During cold weather periods, we intend for most of the older schools to operate in full occupancy mode throughout the day and evening so that temperatures do not get too cold in the buildings.  With the repairs that have taken place we fully expect the entire school to be much more comfortable tomorrow.

It should be noted that the mechanical systems of the school is one of the reasons that the Administration would continue to submit the school for major renovation / replacement with the Massachusetts School Building Authority later this year.

Where the money is coming from (and a few more updates)

If you read carefully this morning or were listening last night, you got this, but for those who were wondering how the projected budget gap will be covered, Mr. Allen has the answer in today's Friday Letter:

It is expected that the City Manager will recommend to the City Council that an additional $1,258,321 be appropriated to the Worcester Public Schools to reflect the tuition assessment change.

The Administration will provide a full report and the recommended use of these funds for the December 19th School Committee meeting. These recommendations will primarily focus on (a) identifying resources necessary to reflect increased enrollment at schools resulting from the SOKCS closure, (b) address the FY14 budget shortfall identified in the First Quarter Budget Report, and (c) make strategic investments to best position our resources in anticipation of the FY15 budget.

Look for this on the Council agenda when that comes out later this afternoon. 

In other news, there have been heating issues across the city; this year, whether you're too hot or too cold appears to be almost random. Here's the latest from Mr. Allen on that:

The Facilities Department has been working to address a number of heating issues at schools this year, whether too hot or too cold, with many of the issues likely related to the implementation of ESCo projects with the City and Honeywell. The WPS is fully aware of each of the issues in the school and the Facilities Department is working daily with the City and Honeywell to rectify these situations.

And if this is affecting you, believe me: your frustration is heard. And shared!
And speaking of Facilities, the latest on the repair projects:

New Citizens Center: The boiler replacement portion of the project is complete. The window replacement portion of the project is essentially complete with punch list items remaining.
Lake View: The window replacement project is nearly complete with some trim work and door replacement work remaining
May Street: The window replacement project is fully underway at the school and is progressing towards completion in the next 45-60 days.
Chandler Magnet: The window replacement project will begin (as scheduled) in the Spring 2014 and continue through the summer vacation period.
Nelson Place: The building architect has been selected and the feasibility study process will commence with building committee meetings/input as well as the input from other building stakeholders.
Worcester East Middle Science Lab: The project continues with expected completion in the next 45-60 days.
Heard Street Roof: The project continues with expected completion in the next 45-60 days.

And new computers are on their way!

Heating after the long weekend

The Worcester School Committee received the following in an email from Mr. Allen regarding heat in the schools this week (underlining added):

Although the number of instances over this period of time is high, please know that the type of issues are very common that the Facilities Department faces with the schools throughout the heating season.
Columbus Park had a water line break in the boiler room and heating issues from the boiler.  Several of the technicians were deployed to address this issue at the school.  All of the issues have been resolved.
We had an unusual number of calls related to Canterbury Street.  This issue here was something that occurs in some of our schools not yet on full monitoring.  The custodian reported to Maintenance Services first thing this morning that the building was cold.  Since we had a number of personnel at Columbus Park, Maintenance Services was on site at the school between 9-9:30 a.m.  The boiler was reset and is again fully operational.  However, it is likely that it took several hours to regain normal heating temperatures to the entire building.
McGrath, Forest Grove, May Street, and Doherty had a variety of issues affecting heat delivery.  All of those overall building issues have been resolved.  There are instances of isolated classrooms issues at these site that will be addressed.
Burncoat High (B-Wing) has no heat and a replacement part is being shipped from Texas for the repair.  The repair should be completed by end of the week.  The school is fully aware of the status and will make adjustments to building usage as appropriate and needed.
Claremont, Roosevelt, Norrback, Quinsigamond, and Worcester Arts have new boilers through Honeywell ESCo program and each of these schools are having operational/technical issues associated with new boiler set-up and controls adjustments.  Honeywell and the boiler manufacturers are working these issues at the schools and we hopeful they can resolve them in the very near future.
As we progress into the cold winter season, it is not uncommon to have multiple heating issues at our schools on any given day.  Please be assured that the Facilities Department will respond to any and all heating issues that are reported by the schools.  They very are cognizant of the instructional benefit of having a warm and comfortable classroom and every effort is made to minimize disruptions to the learning process resulting from any facilities issue. 

And I will only add ('though this is somewhat repeating what Mr. Allen says above) that yes, you should always say something if you have a concern,and no, it is not okay for a building to be cold.

On the heat

or lack thereof. The Worcester School Committee received the following from Mr. Allen this afternoon:
It is clear that the recent cold weather has had an adverse impact on some of our heating plants and we are taking the necessary steps to address these issues as soon as possible so as to minimize any impact on instructional time. 

We have received the most communication regarding Doherty High School.  The immediate response that we will be taking is an earlier starting time for the heating system during the colder weather.  This should mitigate much of the overall building problems that has been experienced at the school.  However, the school does experience significant heat loss; first when the rush of students enter during the morning (with doors being opened for extended times) and during the day due to the condition of the school’s overall building envelope.  This also contributes to the variances in temperature within rooms and is not a new issue.  This is the condition resulting from of the non-insulated, single paned windows that surround the entire building envelope.  This is one of the reasons that we have identified Doherty High School as a project for major renovation under MSBA.  We will continue to work with our HVAC and building custodial staff to address daily, localized issues at the school.  We believe that turning the heat on earlier and some other steps will mitigate the problems at this school.

We have also experienced problems at other schools this week, including WTHS, McGrath, PIC, Quinsigamond, and Fanning.  These were primarily related to building controls and remote communications issues and have been resolved.  We’ve also had problems at North High and those issues appear to have been resolved through the construction contractor.  The building needed adjustments to the building controls based on the commissioning process of the school while in full operation. 

Jim Bedard is meeting with the HVAC lead tradesman each morning to review the status of all buildings and deploys necessary resources to address any issues.