The Fall River Facilities and Operations Subcommittee convened on Tuesday, November 1st, 2022, to discuss the proposed reorganization of the Facilities and Operations Department. Mr. Chico presented a detailed plan aimed at enhancing efficiency, distributing workload, and fostering specialization within the department. Key changes included the creation of new director positions for Custodial Services, Transportation Services, Campus Services (groundskeeping), and Safety and Security. These roles would decentralize the extensive responsibilities previously managed by a single Director of Environmental Services, who oversaw custodial, safety, facilities usage, and distribution functions. The reorganization plan also outlined significant staffing increases. The grounds department was slated to double its staff from four to eight employees, in addition to the new Director of Campus Services, to manage the 66-acre Durfee campus, including an $11-12 million investment in fields, and to assume exterior maintenance tasks from custodians. Five new full-time utility workers were requested to support kitchen cleaning, bringing the total to ten, and nine new full-time Security Officers were proposed for elementary schools, which currently lack dedicated security personnel. Mr. Chico assured the committee that the budget could accommodate these changes. Committee members, including Mr. Harp, Ms. Laramie, and Ms. Pereira, expressed support for the initiative, highlighting the critical need for improved safety and accountability. The meeting concluded with a unanimous vote to adjourn, but the transcript does not record a vote on the reorganization referral itself.
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uh good evening today is Tuesday November 1st 2022. the facilities and operation stuff Community committee meeting roll call here miss Laramie here Ms Pereira here salute to the flag boys
0:29oh pursuant to the opening law any person may make an audio a video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any meeting attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and redeemed acknowledged and permissible and there's no citizens input no there is no okay so we'll go to the uh
0:53discussion three uh discussion in vote to refer the Regal organization of the facilities and operations Department Mr Chico thank you Kevin um I'd like to start with the org chart um that's in the packet and those that are in blue are positions that we currently have those that are in the cream color those are positions that are being either repurposed or Brand New by title so um we can go over those real quick on
1:33the on the clean color ones the director of custodial services so we do have a director of environmental services that covers a host of things so that position is new only because it's it's being pigeonholed so to speak with just custodial services and the whole riog concept is basically because we are not as efficient as we could be um we have a few people who are doing a lot of things a lot of different things and
2:07um to keep all those plates spinning is very difficult for them and things seem to take priority based on reaction as opposed to being proactive so I the the re-august is um is designed so that we can distribute the amount of workload more evenly across a few more people and allow them to specialize in each particular area as opposed to trying to be specialists in in three or four different ones so the first one that
2:46custodial services that position technically is a funded position and we'll work our way down this this ladder that position would be a position that is already technically in the budget but splitting off a few of the pieces that belong to it like Security on the far end um those are combined right now so director of Safety and Security currently is the same person that's director of custodial Services is the
3:21same person that's working the facilities usage and rentals um and also the distribution services so that person has all of those blocks under their control right now and it's a lot of work and a lot of employees also acting as an administrator in the Nutrition department since the nutrition is a privately operated portion that administrator doesn't do any of the discipline so we do the discipline in-house and the
3:53person that currently does that work is our director of Environmental Services right now which is that all-encompassing person that I just talked about with those four jobs so by breaking this up the director of custodial Services um will be that person who's going to take care of the cleanliness and the buildings all of that environmental services that we provide now in those buildings that
4:21will fall under the custodial services um the other position that is in the cream color is just again change of name but that position exists as the assistant director of Environmental Services now so we're just renaming it so that it falls only on the custodial services and right after that that position um in blue is an again an existing position that is already working on custodial services so the big changes
4:51the pigeonholiness um to a fine-tuning it into one particular discipline as opposed to someone trying to be everything for everybody the next one is director of Transportation Services we currently have a coordinator transportation services that coordinator is in charge of um 11 million dollar budget some couriers four couriers and two Clerks it's a major role and believe me um not having that person by my side
5:31for quite some time I I have come to appreciate the amount of work that we don't see happening behind the scenes the stuff that we see is easy to comprehend but what I'm missing so much is the details and and the amount of of work the um going to accidents um doing all of those write-ups uh doing the bus attacks all these things that happen automatically because this person's been doing it for so many years so
6:05what I'm looking to do is Elevate that job to a direct this job so that that person will do evaluations and so that that person can take a bigger role in budget development um with that with that title the next item um the second to the last director of Campus services so that's a brand new position that is groundskeepers so basically we are spending close to 11 12 million dollars on fields
6:39at Durfee we have an investment that costs that we haven't been able to keep up with an artificial surface we have plans to do some work at Durfee with the natural field for JV softball JV baseball the Durfee campus itself is a Monumental task with the 66 Acres but there's an awful lot of detail now in the front of that building and the curb appeal we get a lot of comments about how nice
7:10it looks we currently haven't cut any grass at the front of Durfee in two years because it's still on the contract with the building project but the second that comes off of contract I don't have enough Personnel to do that work right just when which is on the end of this year so in in next spring we'll be looking at that the snow removal on this building is another large chore
7:36that belongs to the groundskeeper and a lot of sidewalk that we didn't have in the other building um both front and back access to the building the parking lots there they used to be islandless so plowing snow in an islandless parking lot is pushing snow from one side to the other put an island in the middle and you've changed the game by a lot of time and everything looks great and we want
8:02it to stay looking great so um that department needs its own supervisor um I'm as we go through this document you'll see the the request for additional Personnel um the grounds department will be will double in size it'll go from four employees to eight with a supervisor with this director and some of that is the artificial surface so we will take half of that group and dedicate them to
8:37fields that have you know Turf surface and then the remaining group will be a landscaping Loop that they will do all of the shrubs all of the work at Durfee but also slowly but surely through negotiations I would like to remove a lot of the work that is being done by custodians now taking care of the building the rule of thumb is that everything that touches the building its grass
9:02and shrubs the custodians would normally take care of that in the course of the the Sun what we'd like to do is take that away and get something for it in negotiations and we'll talk about that we just you know working on a contract now but in the next contract by the time we get everything squared away we can have that conversation it'll allow me to have more custodians in the building in
9:25the summer doing the cleaning doing the stuff that I need them to do and reduce the amount of overtime we pay over the summer to get some of this work done so the director of Campus services will also be doing emptying barrels at the different schools making sure that the parking lots are swept all of the things that I can't do now that doesn't get done every once in a while I'll pick up the phone
9:52and see if the city's doing any streets around there with the street sweeper and they'll buzz in for me and do what they need to do as they've always done not just for me but for my predecessors that kind of stuff will continue to ask but with with this position will come some equipment needs also but I I foresee the person who's doing this job um is is a job that we haven't seen happen
10:20really on both sides of the of the of the city on the school side and this is a professional group that would just be worried about that kind of work they'll also do setups graduation setups things like that but their primary work would be to make sure that our grounds look as good as our buildings still and then last but not least the director of Safety and Security that role will become um
10:44uh uh a specialty where they will be in charge of the entrance fobs our security system so all the buildings um obviously the security piece the um the detectors and in our buildings going through all of the safety procedures with all of the schools doing all of that training individual training working with our sros um setting up all of our emergency plans in the buildings a much closer
11:18relationship with the principles than we currently have because again one person is doing too much work and that this in itself as we all know is probably the most important thing we do and um and it needs the kind of attention that I think this reorg will will uh will help us out with if you look above um the uh the line where everything else is uh the facility usage and rentals is
11:48one person does most of that work now under a director that person would answer directly to me um on the opposite side distribution services so that is our Logistics people for supplies both teaching and learning and custodial and maintenance everything out of our warehouse so that person again would answer to me it doesn't fit anywhere else anymore if if we're really truly looking at trying to make
12:15everybody a specialty then it needs to be on the outside and I say it answers to me that group is a phenomenal group of people that we have they've been running pretty independent for a long time and they do a great job a facility manager at Durfee and District So currently this person is working strictly at Durfee but as we've just about wrapping up the closeout and will be done by probably
12:42February of next year that person is going to play a more active role across the district with all of our MEPS our mechanical electrical HVAC work and plumbing through the rest of the district and with all of the work that we have going on in that position is going to be a very important position within the district so that'll spread out a little more than what it is now and then obviously the school resource
13:07officer and the administrative assistant that I share with um with dcfo so um if you have any questions on that or if you want me to go through the facility piece it doesn't matter no so all right so let me I do have um so the school beat I was going to ask you school resource officers wouldn't fall under director of safety so they can I mean I I don't
13:35what what happens now is is that they have always gone through the COO the superintendent the CEO would work with the the school resource offices they could work in tandem okay but but I don't think they would be working for that director yeah and they've got their own sop of you know so they're really I I think they're a great partner and and I don't know what we would do
14:04without them but I think that they are um more of a standalone and and um that information is easily spread to the superintendent myself and whoever is that director very freely so I think it's a comfortable spot um but that person will be very uh the SRO will be working with that director very closely so right now we have the director of safety facilities usage director of custodial services and District
14:35distribution you know all the same people yeah same person I'm sorry yes all the same with no assistant currently with no assistance right that oversees them yes okay right so it's one person that oversees these groups of people right and you're breaking it up so they have less people exactly so and that's the environmental services so is that going away now there is no director of environment
14:59it's all broken down this way and each pure each group will take a piece of that on its own or will be tacked on for instance the director of maintenance services that position has already been cleaned up the the committee voted for that title so that person that's in that spot would just have maintenance services but part of that may be uh some work with the custodial group because of
15:24um asbestos plans or air quality uh testing things like that so that there will be crossover but it will be a director to a director as opposed to one director triangle in regards to the um director of custodial services and then you're adding an assistant is that because of the amount of staff that's close to 100 custodians right across the across every building so it would be very difficult
15:53to do that job without having that assistant there's no other assistance with the exception of nutrition which has two field supervisors right right and in the in the real plan there I'm looking for a third person to work with that group um because that group is 200 employees what I mean what I'd like to see moving forward yeah I mean I was it wasn't expected today but exactly how many
16:18people are under would be under these positions so that's what I have oh so that's why you already have that you already have that and you should have a sheet like this no no I don't know okay no we don't know I just so happen to have it just don't know any copies so this breaks down the first few pages I'm sorry thank you so before we move on to this and one
16:48more question I think one more I just need to yeah see now this makes sense all right so director of Campus Services you said eight people is that counting the director no all right so 24. so basically right and then just split and split evenly well it's Turf and real grass so the turf people are going to be taking care of just the playing fields but they'll also be lining the natural Fields okay
17:16so their job will be to take care of the sports programs but brushing the field stuff that we haven't done in years um taking uh you know filling the fields after games making sure that um all of the equipment on the fields helping bring equipment in and out of storage units for the for the sports program as opposed to having of the ad and the assistant ad working on stuff like that
17:40will this group will provide that that backup service right now if and when we refer to the full committee I guess this is more for you Mr Almeida financially is this this budget we can handle this we're good absolutely all right thank you I yield now show me any questions um but Ken when do you understand this already but what what's your anticipation when it passes goes to the full body full body goes for it
18:15um and then the process begins of hiring and correct the right people when does it come into uh so I would say on a on a priority level it would be to fill the direct dispositions so that they can be involved in all the hiring I want them to own the people that are that are going to be working with them and uh also allow me to have that ability to do
18:42some strategic planning with the whole group I would say right after that we have to look seriously at the assistant position for the custodial piece so that the work is going on the custodial group is the one that will have the least new employees but still has the greatest number of employees to deal with right away nutrition is right there also um and then the the campus um services
19:11I need those for the spring because I got to be sure we're ready to go when the season starts um the baseball and all of the seasons that are going to happen and all of the work that's going to happen in the spring but also the the fact that we're gonna have so many new Fields coming on board and I want them to have their training and everything else ready
19:30Safety and Security on the last page I think we address some additional Security offices I think some of the goals here I mean we've been talking about it for a while is to be sure that every school has a security person there Elementary's all the way up so that's all addressed within each one of these so everything in red is a new position and it mimics that first page which is all existing some of those
19:59um ftes just slide over but some of them are new positions are new we may have funding that sits in some of those already so it's not a totally you know brand new um purchase on all of those salads okay so in referring to evaluation so I see 101 because it'll be custodial price right so that'll be a three that'll be divided amongst three employees now it is only two I have to do all of those
20:33evaluations so that's going to be a better breakdown right that's yeah I see it's I'm good for now that's okay um anything else to add so I wanted to know um who directed Services before but you already told me that how many people they're going to manage you just gave that to us um evaluation processes so what do they get do these managers have to evaluate once a year is that the gist of it and
21:05is there a formula in which they're evaluating which I'm assuming is going to be different based on the rules I just ask because I know people are going to ask at the meeting as well so maybe having that information yes at hand would be helpful at the time of the meeting um and all of the contracts have new evaluation or voted on evaluation pieces within the body of the contract so that
21:28some of these contracts will get a little more specific I'm sorry some of the eval tools will get a little more specific to the group before it was a very generic evaluation tool that didn't quite fit into some of the uh into some of the people who are being evaluated so we've made those adjustments during negotiations and what's the utility worker here five new utility workers so the utility
21:53worker is the kitchen person so we can't call him a custodian because they're not in the custodial unit and they wouldn't be called Food Services they they wouldn't be called food service because those are the ones delivering the food these are the people cleaning the kitchens utility workers the person cleaning their kitchens when we did the switch over um uh Desi recommendations we we um put
22:17five utility workers in the five cooking kitchens okay and then we hired some additional part-time utility workers to work in the schools that don't have cooking kitchens the problem that we've seen is that we don't have any backup to those because they use every day and if someone is on vacation or if someone is out sick with with scrambling to try and get those positions filled we also we're trying to
22:44um keep everything in-house within the the bargaining unit but we know we can't always so um the the pecking order so to speak would be utility workers across the district fill positions first in overtime and then we go to custodians in the building across the district and then finally we would go to outside contractors I can't imagine us with the amount of employees we have ever getting
23:11to that but that is the what we've laid out within the contract um to handle this particular piece so what this would do is give us five full-time employees that we can float wherever we need them and we won't be so you know because obviously these 54 full-time unions that some of those are utility workers no no so the utility workers are separated out so we only have five we only have five of them I'm
23:36sorry which we don't have so yeah we have five right now no we have five now so they are in there I apologize okay that's all right okay all right so we'll have a total of 10 full-time full-timers and then the part-time number will stay what it is because we're fine with the part time is that filling in perfectly the other part of the extra five is that because they're in charge of their own
23:56cafeterias they're also in charge of waxing those scafus areas and doing all that summer cleanup yeah with five we were moving them around to other schools what this will allow us to do is maybe do some gang cleaning where those five would work go and help the other ones and then when we'd finish with those then move on to the other to the buildings that we haven't started the one thing we've noticed with the
24:18buildings both on the storage side and on the kitchen side is that every year we're gaining um uh our enrollment uh it's it's rising um and it's great that all these kids are in school in the summer but we can't clean so it's it's getting it's a double-edged sword so we're dirty in the morning cleaning it in the afternoon and that that's happening until at one point we want everyone to walk into a clean brand
24:46new building so to speak um on the first day of school and it's very difficult with the numbers that we currently have so this will give us the Boost that we need in this particular department and my teacher life skills you have the kids clean them up and we will and we will have some summer yeah you know some kids that will help us out with that I think the other piece
25:06to bring into this is also the fact that if we're we're going to take care of some of that work or take away some of that work from the custodians it should give them a better um management of their hours in the summer when we need them to have that so that's really not in here but it's going to be part and parcel to the um the hiring of the extra ground
25:29Keepers how about the addition of the nine full-time Security offices so that's for the elementary schools okay and is it because we currently don't have anywhere no and so we're going to have about extra security there some of those buildings don't have it and they don't they don't have the security but they also don't have a steady SRO so we have a floating SRO that goes to the elementary so this will allow them to
25:52have that quotes on the ground so to speak right from the start and it'll help in the buildings especially in dismissal absolutely yeah right well it's hard to argue with I mean Safety and Security in the world we live in we need to prioritize and we need to have absolutely make sure that that department runs efficiently and we have somebody who's focused on safety and securities it's going to train our
26:18staff is going to be in buildings and doing proactive work as well as reactive work right but I think that we have currently we have an unmanageable Department Mr pachico's good yeah but he can't manage hundreds of people sure all at once him and one person manage all those people so we need as we've grown as a district we need to recognize that we need to put systems in place you
26:41bring up the supervision evaluation we expect that that will be asked absolutely and you have every right to ask that question we haven't had an unmanageable system where we have not been able to do it the right way right and we need to fix that and we need to put some systems of accountability in place for each of these departments the general they're ginormous now yeah okay um as far as the the leadership team
27:06that you've assembled here right here with New York excuse me um I assume that you're gonna with this new team uh you're gonna meet once a month or twice a month we'll meet once a week once a week okay good yeah the city Side in my other life we met once a week and it was just a round table and it just made everybody feel more comfortable what they had what
27:28they didn't know about that I was going to throw at them but also what I didn't know about that they were going to throw at me and it wasn't on the phone trying to you know plan a week so the goal will be that we meet once a week and we we go around the table and and anything new um that needs to be discussed we'll we'll have that opportunity the
27:50super and I've been talking about you know all of this stuff and it sometimes we expect someone to come into an organization and hit the ground running and whether they've ever been in a role or or um they're experts at it they it's still different here you know every job you go into and we don't take the time because we're always in such a hurry to get them working and we don't take that time to
28:16to train them up um anybody could be a boss a leader is a little more difficult to find so we don't want bosses we want leaders and in order to get to that we're going to need a lot of that Round Table stuff but we're also taking the time to walk them through this instead of just handing them the keys and tell them to get going you know I think that's going to be very
28:37important especially in the beginning to establish that right away and have the meetings which I'm glad it's once a week the one thing I didn't mention if I could um under um on the last page under the director of nutritional services so that person is a private person from the company the assistant director is private from the company the two supervisors are S9 employees from from us and their food
29:04service when I don't have is any kind of supervision for the sanitation side so I'm asking for a supervisor that will oversee the utility workers so it'll be 10 utility full-timers and um the part-timers also explain to me what utility that's the custodial meaning that works okay all right so this person would be in charge of making those loops around the buildings make sure the buildings are clean um
29:33what we've run into the end of last year and the beginning of this year is that we have a lot of programs that run in the schools tons of after school programs and the nutrition worker leaves at three o'clock and these after school programs come into the cafeteria and then the cafeterias are dirty in the morning so what we need to do is is that person is going to be able to distinguish what schools this is
29:58happening when it's happening what days is happening and then plan those utility workers those extra utility workers and the part-time is to come in and take care of that work so that we have clean calves and um and those tables are all set for the groups that are coming in some of that I think was just going to be focusing on moving some of those after school programs out of the calves
30:20you know gyms are available and other larger rooms are available but wherever we can't do that we're going to need those cafeterias ready for the next morning and it's a struggle right now with the amount of people we have so there any other questions
30:45yes Miss Pereira yes uh any new business hearing none make a motion to adjourn first Georgia I'm sorry second roll call Mr harp yes Ms larva yes yes thank you everyone