10.30.2025 Facilities and Operations Subcommittee

Today's Thursday, October 30th. Uh we are here for the facilities and operations uh subcommittee. Today is October 30th, 2025. Uh roll call, please.

Mr. Dra here.

Mr. Bailey here.

Miss Ly here. Salute to the flag.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

On to open meeting law. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Deb, do we have any citizens in port?

Thank you. We'll head on to 31 discussion and vote to refer uh the truck driver organiz organized labor job description. Uh that be you Ken?

Sure, Mr. Pico.

So um this is a a combination position. um the uh truck driver position and organized labor.

Some of that work was being done uh on the custodial side. Uh the organized labor part wasn't, but the other work was being done on the uh custodial side.

uh we've we have more of a need for this kind of position on the maintenance side um to move around equipment uh that currently is being done by others. Um and also to do um a little more of the skilled labor side of the work. Um the intent is is also to fill the regular laborer position that is currently vacant in the um in the maintenance side uh to do the the dayto-day

uh tasks of an unskilled labor in that realm. So this position um does have some qualifications requirements. Um, it also has some preferred qualifications that we're looking for. Um, boom truck operator, things like that are all certifications that will enhance this position. Responsibilities in this position vary. Um, but a lot of this work is being peacemeal out to a few different people. Uh, and the

consistency sometimes isn't there. Uh, so by putting it all under one envelope or one umbrella, I'm sorry. um it'll make uh doing some of this work better.

We do have some um admin people, you know, doing some of these in of a person like this. The key management piece in some of the schools um is not handled by the school. It's handled by different individuals and and um and the admin team that shouldn't be doing that work because they're not um it's not what their job is. Okay, this key management stuff is is one of the bigger things

that we have um that needs to get a little uh a little more organized. So, as as the uh maintenance division um of uh FNL um is is starting to gain some traction and uh and doing some good work. Um this position will enhance um that group completely and I I think it'll complete that group in a way that we currently um have a bunch of different people doing this work.

Yeah Bobby.

Um, so pretty much what you're saying is the positions needed to kind of bring together some of those pieces that have kind of been, you know, like just peacem and Exactly. And some of that is moving. So, for instance, we move lifts around on a weekly basis all over the district.

Yeah.

Depending on what, you know, what the need is. Um, so I'm usually grabbing a campus person to do that work, hooking on a trailer or campus trailer and taking it with the with the maintenance uh pickup to different sites, dropping it off there, leaving it there. That person now is going to go back to whatever job they should have been at.

Mhm.

And then the same thing's happening on the pickup. Yeah.

So, this will will keep it all in in in one spot cuz most of the time um the lifts are being used by custodians.

Yeah.

Um in the cleaning periods, but when it's not cleaning time, it's it's mostly being used by maintenance. So, this will fit right in with um with that skill um group.

Where is this in the budget?

The position is in the budget. It's in the maintenance budget. But where like uh I guess if it's in the budget and then this is coming to us now cuz the budget was July 1, right?

So is it just been vacant and is this one of those positions that this is a new position. This is not a this not one that's in the budget. This is not one that's in the in the in the maintenance. Um I'm sorry. It's not a a existing position. This is a new position to that budget.

But will it be funded version of something that's already in the budget? So it was so it we pulled out one of the uh plumber steam fitter because we no longer have a need for steam fitters in the district and this is the p the position that replaced it.

So it's already in the budget as an organized labor and we discussed that it's vacant right now.

Well we discussed that at some point.

Yes.

At the budget.

Yes.

So what about the truck driver? I see truck driver on here and then we I know that we went from [clears throat] two truck drivers on the custodian side.

Yes. Yes. To one on the maintenance side, right?

Where is that out? So, one person doing one senior right now. Yes. In and out depending on who's out, who's in, who, you know, currently there are two people doing that job.

I don't have a position I don't have a position on the maintenance side that's been approved for that person.

I guess I guess I'm I think I'm mixing up two different things.

Okay.

We have two custodians doing truck driver/ senior custodian under the old contract. We do two people doing that job.

Yes.

We passed a contract in July.

Yes.

That said those positions are gone.

Yes.

And we're making one on the maintenance side.

So one position staying as a senior custodian in Florida. One position was always staying in that on the custodian side.

Yeah. On the custodian side, one position was staying.

Okay.

That position would be for whoever is that senior. that position would go. Um, two guys are on the truck right now doing that work.

Only only one person will remain on the custodial side.

Well, I guess I'm looking for an update on where is that now? So, you you two guys are on the custodian, right?

As of July 1, we changed the contract.

We said only one of them staying on the custodian side.

Yes.

Which one?

And is it he's staying and therefore you're going backwards like to regular until Well, there wouldn't be any junior time. I guess they would both stay seniors or they would bump a senior but they would bump out.

I guess I'm saying what do you do?

Right now they're still driving the truck. Right now they're still delivering things. I don't have a position.

You understand my question, Dr. C?

Yeah.

So we have two people doing custodian side, senior truck driver.

As of July, we get rid of those.

Yep.

One should be the senior custodian, whatever they call it, truck driver, right? Custodian side.

The other one, as of July 1, we created a position on the maintenance side. I'm asking where is that now? And I'm what I'm hearing I think is no. We just never did any of that. We voted for it but we never did it. So that's what I'm trying to figure out.

It's here right now. No, the position is here right now. One of the positions that was negotiated in the contract is here.

That's what this that's what I'm trying to get at exactly.

This is not an addition to that.

No, this is this is that extra that's that position that moved from one house to the other.

Correct. I think that's important for us to know. It's not an additional.

No, this is from the contract where we said one position is going to go on the maintenance side which is this.

Yes.

It's not a new position for this.

No, it's a new It's a new position cuz we never had this a new job description.

Exactly.

But it's not a new position cuz it's two positions for two people.

Now it's open for anybody to apply for.

Yes.

Under this on the maintenance side. So they'll follow the contract of whatever that means for on the maintenance side to hire. And I guess the the timing is just what is kind of this is all on me. Haven't had the opportunity 4 months after we already I get what you're saying voted for. But this is only that one position.

This is only one position. It's not it's a it's a new position based open for anybody to apply to and then exactly at that point whoever gets it based on whatifications. None of these qualifications are set up for one person. Nope.

This is just general like this isn't to say whoever takes his job.

I want to give him the job. So I make the qualifications that cover what Bobby can do. This is just general um and superintendent has the right to wave any of them. So it's not like somebody Oh, because I hold a scissor lift certification and everybody else somebody could apply without it. There might be a better person to [clears throat] get the certification.

Absolutely.

Um so it's not a new I guess that's was the only thing that I was saying. So I I feel like it's what we had already voted on. It's as you said it's a little behind but make a motion to refer.

Second M.

Yes.

Mr. Bailey.

Yes.

M.

Yes.

One more question on what you had mentioned about the filling the organized labor uh filling this position. Yeah. This is I thought you were I thought during when you were given the thing that you were now going to fill a labor position in addition. Is that so there is an additional position in the budget that was never filled which is what we call the basic labor just the basic labor

just the basic labor that I've been trying for 2 years to be filled so that position is also going to go up at the same time and that didn't get converted no cuz at some point we either didn't fill it but then sitting there idle and a basic lower level lowest level I think that's important for us to know too because I we've been paying everybody like the top I said

that about the the grounds keepers. You know, we're paying $68,000 for nine grounds keepers. Yep.

Instead, we could have paid $40,000, give somebody a legitimate, you know, job and we're paying the top rate instead of that. So, I totally agree with that. Okay.

Okay. 32 discussion and vote to refer advise uh job description, field supervisor, nutrition, and food services. Mr. Chico. So, this job description, um, the only changes that I'm looking for, so we have an approved, this position is an approved position already. What I I'm trying to fix is some of the small things. One of it is this position reports to the um the old position reports to the assistant

director of nutrition.

The assistant director of nutrition and food services when these job descriptions came about was person who was the environmental director and because of the fact that the director of nutrition is not a um an employee that person was the one who did any of the discipline work that needed to be done. So the only changes on this new there's two one of them is chief operating officer or their

designate that's the one piece and then the second one is um what I'm looking for is the salary to be negotiated um there's a salary item already in the budget for this particular position.

What I'm looking to have as as a little bit of a a leeway is if there are other events like right now I we would have if we have a school event in the in the late afternoon after they've their day is done we would ask one of the people to come in later in the day and stay for the event. What I'm asking is is that creates a problem because now that one

person is doing all the schools in the course of the day instead of just their school.

So this will allow us to pay for a school event separately. So um that's one of the pieces. The second one is grant administration and basically we have like a fresh fruit grant. We would like to add that into one of these jobs or split it up against the two positions that are currently available. And in the summer program, what I'm asking for is these positions were always 10-mon

positions. I'd like to make them 12-mon positions.

So that will increase the salary, but I just need to negotiate that number.

But we use these people all summer long.

We're doing 110 115,000 lunches in the course of the sum for CD wreck. Um, and these are the people who run the kitchen, you know, with that and all of the schools and drop offs and pickups.

Yes.

Yeah, that was just a question with the 12 month like the drop offs to pickups of the school dropping off lunches going around and it's Yeah.

So, we do some deliveries because we do move stuff around in the summer depending on where we're having our summer programs. the stuff that goes to CD wreck um they pick up and then they deliver to the parks and Yeah.

and different of some of the schools are fed by CD wreck inadvertently through us.

Yeah. I worked the program for like nine years.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So, uh first question is on the part about changing the title of who they report to.

Yes.

We have how many of these field supervisors?

Two.

Two current.

We only have one now. We just we just hired the second one.

But is there three positions? No, there's only two.

There's always been two.

Yes. And we Who are those people?

One um right now um Nancy Cardoza.

Yeah.

And the second one is Rhonda. Uh Ronda, that's the new one.

Ronda just got hired.

Just got hired.

She's not She's a 25 year veteran of the This hired, but she just got hired.

And the school left. Did people leave?

Like why is there a vacancy?

Um I'm just trying to think of name like of the person who left was um Diane Kar. So this position has been vacant for over a year and a half.

So if I'm looking at the old job description here, the one the old one stated 1119 2007.

Yes.

Uh so anyone that was in this particular job Yes. was actually supervised by the assistant director of nutrition and food services which was Joe Kore.

Yes.

Am I well but when there was an issue with this job [clears throat] then I would set that.

Yeah. But I was the one who issued any kind of disappoint.

Yep. But ultimately in ' 07 till now because we haven't seen that Joe Korea position was the assistant director of nutrition. Yeah.

Who this job Yes.

dealt with. Yes. Um, you can know, you can anticipate my concern about how that happened and we shouldn't have that happen. A lot of problems there.

Yep.

Um, so that makes sense to change it, but it would have made sense to change that a long time ago when that person was working for her husband for how many years and having all this other nonsense go on. um the piece of the move the flexible schedule as needed and 8 hour workday I think that was already included in the original like it's in both so I don't necessarily like to why

we would need to move them um well the flexible the flexible schedule was not necessarily 12 month what I'm looking for 12 month no I guess I'm just saying the part of the flexible schedule is already in here so there was always somebody else who did the grants Yeah. No, I get it. I I'm just trying to like lay out what is the rationale for the full committee.

Yes.

I don't think the flexible schedule piece should be mentioned because that was already in here.

The thing you're looking for is a 12-month along with the flexible schedule. So, we're going to have both technically, but the new things are grants and 12 month.

At that point, somebody can say, well, what is that? What's the rationale? But I think the purpose of subcommittees is to y work on this so we get a better sure product before us. So I make a motion to approve.

Second.

Dep roll please.

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. B.

Yes.

M.

Yes.

233. Discussion a vote to refer clothing, textile, shoes, and books recycling. Mr. Pico.

So a while back, um, we had a company that requested to put containers at our buildings. Um, they were there. We were asked by the school committee to remove them. Mhm.

because there was some issues with them.

So, this company here um does it a little different than everyone else. Um they do have a the company does have a current contract with the city. Nothing to do with this particular piece, but this company goes and does home pickups.

So, if you call in, you have stuff you want to get rid of, they come to the house for free. They pick up the stuff, they take it away, so you don't have to take it through another site.

Mhm. What what we're asking for here tonight is they're looking to put a container at our buildings. The proceeds of the container goes to the PTO's.

Um and if someone drops off, they're in the city every day because of these other pickups.

Mhm.

So if somebody decided to bring a couch and put it in front of a container, they will send the truck to pick it up and get rid of the couch. And then when it's time to empty the container, they would do that, weigh it, and then the checks would go into the individual PTO's accounts.

Okay.

Um, so are these like the clothing recycling bins and things of that nature? So, a few things. Um, and I just want to be honest.

Sure.

Sometimes driving by those things, they're a disaster.

Um, and there's, you know, clothes and people just drop anything outside of them. My only concern is is the um you know people not dropping off recycling and people just start dropping off trash there. Um cuz I I mean if you drive around the city and you look in the area, you know those things are packed to the max and then people just start dropping off stuff all in front of them. Um

so that's that's my only concern with those which is why we we got rid of them the first time cuz that's exactly what was happening the first time. So the like I said the difference with this company is they're in the city every day because they're doing their other work. So the call would be made immediately and whether that that is relayed from the custodian who would see that container

with stuff out in front of it and call the the central administration or make that call themselves. We could leave that number there and say if you see trash out there just call the company.

They're going to take care. So my my and like I said, my only concern is is you know if it's out there 24 48 hours um Oh yeah, absolutely. That's that's a problem.

What's it look like in like how's that going to be structured? Is it like okay it's becoming a problem? Are we just going to cut this? Um that's my only reserve with it because like I said there's not been one box like that that I drive by and it's stuffed everywhere. Um and then we'll be getting calls and complaints over that.

I think yeah I think my concern is absolutely the same but [snorts] is you're not sure on who the person is to contact them is that so so it could be so we can decide that so we can basically say I can say that since the custodian is at the building every day when the custodian comes in in the morning if it's there if there's something there that shouldn't be there

on the outside of that box then there'll be a a 1-800 number that they can call up to get a hold of that person at the company who's going to dispatch Mhm.

to the truck that's already in the city picking up own pickups or going through a a box that they already have with another agency and pick that trash up.

So, they'll pick up the good when it's time for anything. We're not paying for any of this. I don't think that's fair though.

I don't think that's fair to rely on a custodian to do that because, you know, I can have somebody ride around myself.

You know what I'm saying? I can we can I can just say to someone that's going to be your job every morning. I I'm only pushing this because of the the um we're always getting requests from some of our PTOs of ways to raise money and different things. According to the company and according to some of their testimonials, there are there are sizable amounts of money that districts are making, PTO's

are making um with these containers and they're they're coming from cities also.

Um, so I I don't believe that we have to do this wholesale. I think that we can place these boxes at the beginning if we want to do a couple of test runs and see how it works at the beginning.

That's not an all or nothing. Yeah.

You know, um, and then if the test run works, then we can, you know, branch out.

It behooves us to put these things in the spot.

Mhm. that was that we know that's well lit where we're going to grab a license plate number or we're going to grab somebody who's illegally dumping.

Um if it doesn't work next Yeah. Okay.

Uh cameras will be in so a spot that's well lit then and then if it's well lit then hopefully we can put it so that a camera will have sight of it and then we'll take it from there.

Okay. the company. I can only go by what they've said and I can only go by the the information that the company um has also provided with other cities and towns and they don't have issues with them coming back and doing this. They have not been had a situation where the company hadn't shown up. So, they're saying they will pick it up that day.

Any other school systems do this?

I can get a list. I can get a list. I don't have the list of that of that, but I will have a list and we'll send it out.

Yeah, I'd like to get so we can we can and can can if we can just I mean if we can have someone come speak on it. Um and I'm not you know opposed to it. I and cuz obviously if it's raising money and it's helping the teachers out, I think it's a great thing. Um I just don't want it to turn into something that it shouldn't be and if we can get a

commitment from them and um you know it it looks a little bit different. I my like I said just my biggest concern is just them not picking that stuff up and it turns into a landfill. I would I would have them if if this moves to full committee, I would have them.

Right. Like my concern is a positive turning into a negative very quickly.

Absolutely. And then yeah, Mr. A, do you have anything?

Two things. Um, one is if before we go to the full committee, if you can contact them, not just give us the list.

Contact a few places, see what they say.

That means more to me than showing us a list.

The other thing is what what do they make? like you know when they're saying a lot of money saying what that is and as well as like um has any PTO's actually reached out to you or superintendent for this or is it just strictly they say that PTO's like the fact the fact that they're getting the money is this being driven by a PTO at all or it's not being driven by a PTO it's

being driven by the the company and there's you know there's a ton of letters here from the towns yeah that's fine I think just before the just to get more info bring it to the full committee we have in Westport and it hasn't been a problem. No, it's not them. It's probably another one. They're green bins and it has been clean, but it's a different, you know, community. But ultimately, I think there needs to be a

clause in there that says when we say or you say you're not responsive, get them out.

They get out within 24 hours or something like that. I think that would be like, hey, we're going to try it, but we're going to trust that you're going to do the right thing. Yeah. Now, if you come back to us and say they take this potential headache on and the PTO gets $75 a year, might be a different story. You know what I'm saying? It um so I'm just uh

so I'll reach out. I'll get I'll get I'd almost go so far as to say because it's not being driven by a PTO that we should look into the district making the money and then distributing that money to all PTO's so that it's fair. Yeah, like if we said that if we have 18 14 schools and we make $1,400, then somehow we have a mechanism to give $100 to each of those

instead of like the PTO kind of at a school that's lucky. If it was a popular one and you're on a side street, you may not. So just looking at how that works.

Well, they would they wouldn't care. The company wouldn't care who we But I'm saying if they put the money in an account and then you tell them or superintendent tells them when you're ready to disperse money, we're going to divide it by 14 and these are the 14 names. I think it it kind of would be fair uh to spread the wealth if it's and it's more of a pilot piloted approach if you do that.

And if and if it doesn't work then they know they're going to take them out.

The couches and things like that I think if they keep getting couches I don't think they're going to want to.

Well, that would be the might pull out themselves and say, "Hey, we can't and it might be a location that dump."

When you look at uh the council laws [snorts] and the bylaws and they just had a meeting I watched the other day about dumping and whatever we do, we should have something to say this is dumping criminal versus civil. They were talking about criminal versus civil. So whatever we got to do for signage and something like you dump here, you're getting a criminal complaint, put them on camera and throw the book out.

Y 100%.

So I make a motion to approve and send to the full committee.

Second, please again. Yes.

Mr. Bailey.

Yes.

Yes.

Uh 34 discussion and vote to refer uh the extension of the lease for the National Guard.

Sure. So, um the National Guard building on Dwelli Street is nearing completion. Um I would think that probably um getting close to being in a in a punch list kind of thing. um where they're running through the building now. The property looks really nice in Dwelli Street. [clears throat] So, the 215th um group is ready to um start thinking about their exit plan.

They're um lease with us is good until December. They're asking for another year because they they probably won't be able to do the full move since all the move is done by members of the group.

Yeah.

Until the summer.

Mhm.

Um, currently they're not in our way.

They're not a burden. The the fire suppression system is already been through their area. That's done. The auditorium is just about completed.

Another two weeks and it'll be finished.

So, in the area that they're in, the work it hasn't affected any of the work.

So, right now, that's all um that's all done. So like my my gut feeling is it doesn't affect us. I don't believe that they're going to be here any longer than they have to because their facility is pretty pristine now. It's it's a really nice um area. But what do they pay? Is it monthly?

They don't pay anything.

They don't pay anything.

No. No. It's been just We're going to get a couple of concerts.

So when they're done, they're done. Like if they don't get done earlier, they just they're going to leave, right? They're going to leave. Motion. But we just want to be sure to comm. [clears throat] Yes, Mr. Bailey.

Yes, Mr.

Yes. Next. 35. Air quality at schools in the district. Mr. Chief, just an update.

Sure. So, um, actually, can I, um, ask everybody if they're all right to give go out of turn here because Mr. Bailey might have to leave early. So, this is a discussion.

36 is discussion to vote and refer. I'd like to go to 36 and go out of order.

Okay. Second.

Good. Okay. 36 discussion and vote to refer the request to extend the Bishop Conley rental agreement for one additional year. [snorts] Okay.

So, um we have a um we have an opportunity to ask for another agreement which we had already asked them when we were doing all of these agreements. Um [snorts] I don't know if anybody is standing in line to rent any of that. I know they do some rentals in the um in the gym. The auditorium is rented quite a bit. Um so this request um is a safety net request.

Um we don't our lease doesn't expire until um August of uh 26 and this would be just to buy another another year of time and it also would give us the opportunity to um use other rooms in the building. Um which currently every time we've asked for something they've allowed us you know use of it without any dollars. My guess is is that if we ask for a lot of the building um

then um we would pay extra um just the safety net so that we can do what we need to do up um any increase in price um the price would increase only if we the price would increase only if we added more space so for instance if the second floor was added and I think there's 12 rooms upstairs or 14 rooms upstairs and we would be paying by the room.

Mhm.

The cost which is currently the matrix works out to be $1,000 a room.

When we added a few extra rooms this year, we paid the difference per month.

$1,000 per room. Per month.

Per month. Per month. Yeah. No, not per.

I'm sorry.

Yep.

The only question um I have is that is there we're not going to [clears throat] is there an opt out for us in the contract so that we we have a meeting coming up in a week about there is a plan.

So we're not like binding us. I mean this is going to get referred and then we're going to have our meeting before the next meeting. So I just think we got to take advantage of all the opportunities that kind of a no-brainer if we haven't opted out. We have space. So I make a motion to refer.

Okay.

Second de Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Bailey.

Yes.

M.

Yes. Uh back to 35. Just an update on air quality.

Sorry, I got to go early.

Mr. Bailey is uh leaving.

Got hundreds of people leaving.

We will continue with another work engagement. Good luck, sir.

I just want to pull up one document. Um, so we did a walk around the schools to get a grand total of the equipment we have and I undercounted the district owned equipment. Um, that's on me. I was going by um the two buildings instead of the four buildings of equipment. So uh let me just pull that up one second, please.

And um

so the total of the um total of the small dehumidifiers that we have across the district, it's 148. I wasn't counting the 148 um for a couple of reasons. Number one is those are the ones without the pump. So basically when we use the small dehumidifiers, they're sitting next to a sink. They're okay.

Mhm.

When weather is not absolutely positively uncomfortable. When it's uncomfortable, they have a tough time keeping up. The next round of dehumidifiers is a combination of the very large units kind of like the ones we rent and an in and an intermittent size which also has a pump but a little larger. So we have 66 of those.

And then we have 17 of the lodge units that we purchased to go along with the ones we were renting.

So the ultimate goal on the dehumidification side would be to possibly buy another 10 at the end of this year's season buying. So in in in April, May when we see what we have left in in budget.

Yeah. If I have the funds, I'd like to buy another round, possibly 10, right?

Um, and that would give us a full complement. And hopefully with what we'd have in stock, we would no longer rent.

How many are we renting now?

We rented um 20 of the larger ones.

Of the large ones, right?

And we own all the small We own all the small tabletop ones.

Table the tabletop ones. We do have We did start buying our own mod ones. Okay.

Yeah.

Um that we put around. The problem with the larger ones is that it's very difficult to put them in a classroom cuz they're too noisy.

So when we do use them in hallways, the classroom doors are left open in order to to get that out of there.

Um on the other flip side of this, back to the the report itself. So, we have um with the with the air quality piece, the green school has got a um $3.5 million grant.

It's 2.9 and and uh 2.8 and then money coming from um uh rebates from National Grid. So, we're going to do some of the work some of the same work that we did in the other schools. We did it in Sylvia already as part of the um the IVAC and the um Easter money. We did work in the Spencer Bordon which is the sister to green that building identical

um with a new chiller and things. So the the goal for green this year um which will be in the in the spring is they're getting a an aircooled chiller um which is the next generation of chillers that's coming through. So it will be the first one in the district.

Um and that chiller will um be installed at green over the summer. So we won't get a full benefit out of that through that grant through that grant um at no cost to the district. And there's also um the BMS controls. So the entire system right now, for lack of a better way to put green. Green is an onoff switch. When we need it, we turn it on and we turn it off. That's not a way

that that building needs to operate. The building needs to operate like the rest of the buildings in the district. Um and that use putting in that VMS system which is almost a million dollars in itself will give us full control, remote control basically um so that we can adjust temperatures as we need uh to adjust those temperatures. So that'll bring the green up to where everyone

else is. Now that there is still work to do in those buildings cuz we have no central dehumidification.

So central dehumidification is kind of what we have at Watson which is our most advanced system in the district with the exception of Dery. And that system there is the that system is called doast the company but it's a it's a rooftop unit that removes changes air and removes the humidity. That's the goal for every school is to get that system installed.

So on the dehumidification side we are I'm going to say halfway there. Um and some of the portables coming in and out will take care of us. We had a a good summer. Um, and hopefully the same kind of summer next year compared to last year, right?

Some of it was with the help of of all people involved, teachers and paras keeping doors closed.

It it's such a short time that we we let kids in the building. When you hold the door open and all those kids go in and you close the door, the floors are soaking wet with the sweating, the ground temperature and the air temperature. And all day long we're dealing with that in some of those buildings. So, um, with their help in closing doors and opening only when a kid is standing actually right there to

get in, that's changed a lot of things this summer. We're also mixing air conditioning and heating, which until the last 3 years now, we never did, but it's a it's a method of trying to beat the system. So, we turn the boiler on and the air conditioning at the same time. It it takes away the dampness in the building. So sometimes when air conditioning is on, it's trying to keep up

the the air the the temperature in the building feels cold to the to the skin.

When we add the heat to it, it levels that off, but it also takes away that builtup humidity and it's leveling that stuff off and dropping the humidity in the buildings. Now, there are still buildings where we have 70% humidity.

green is one of them because I don't have anything there I can do other than what I just said about right raising the temperature but because I can't regulate the AC it's it's fighting a losing battle and when is that getting so they're going to start that work this summer so we we're waiting to sign the agreement with uh CEC the clean energy um group and and as soon as we sign that

then we'll be getting that work started at green and then we'll move on from there this other dehumidification We'll get better um information on as soon as we do the um the districtwide piece.

The um yeah, just the the 148 those I never thought they worked in the beginning. We were kind of stuck. Total waste of money. They're not worth anything from what I understand. They don't work. They freeze up. They're this and that. So those might as well just I guess you keep them for now. But I don't feel like those are what we need. But when you say like to rent, we shouldn't

be renting anymore. We have enough money. You said we need to buy some. I make a motion that we buy those 10 right now and they'll be ready to go when the season turns so we're not scrambling cuz sometimes these things are not available. So rather than in April say, "Oh boy, we need 10 more now. We're stuck. We have to rent them." I want to make a motion that we refer them to the

full committee to purchase 10 more now.

Okay.

Or if you said come back to the full committee say I need 20, but you said 10. That's if you but I'm saying if you come back between now and then and tell us we need 20. We need to have a full complement of the big one so we're not like playing with it. It's right it's going to make sure that that doesn't happen again until such time as all these other millions are done. Okay.

Second. Sorry.

Okay.

Mr. Dragon.

Yes.

Mr. Bailey.

Yes. The other piece of this is the um I want to say the these are all EN schools are they or like some of them are so none of Spence is not an EN school.

Green is not an EN school. Um that's it.

Those two are trains.

So who comes to fix the green school?

Train. Train and and E. So E and E picks up the slack. So trains contract is chiller, some rooftop units that haven't been changed out already, um some of the uh VAVs, the boxes, and the exhaust. So there are four items that are covered under the train piece.

The train operating system is horrible. So at some point we will have to make those change over. Um, but as far as the equipment that they cover, they do show up four times a year to do that maintenance work. Only PM the emergency calls and so something's going on on the E and guys are at the room. Something's wrong.

So, and it's a train thing. So, they say, "I'm not touching that cuz it's a train thing."

No. So, they they give me a call and say, "We have an issue with unit UVH1.

It's a train piece of equipment. How do you want to handle it?" I said, "What's wrong with it?" and they'll say whether it's a motor gone or something like if it's a motor that's gone and we're just going to change it. But if it's a bigger deal then we will call train and train's been responsive. The problem is is that they don't cover the whole building. So it's a duplication of services. We're

getting some stuff done by them and and other stuff we have to use and use or we use our own people. And it to me it's a lot of like who to blame. You know, if we have Ken Chico company is in charge of that, making sure all that stuff's working, it's a lot easier because one company comes in and says, "Hey, that's Train's problem. Train says that the is

not touching this or that it it that's the part I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what are we ultimately going to do because we spend a lot of money on preventive maintenance, which I'm agree with, but we've said this before. I think we need to hire some for whatever price it is people that work for us to say these we have enough need here and we're spending almost a million dollars a year with&

the problem is they're going to be union employees and there is no there is nobody who's going to work for what we pay no I get it but what I'm saying is as this is going on Oh yeah I get it simultaneously we should be looking at we need a an expert in HVAC whatever so if the guys from that are doing this work get paid $250,000 a because of their licenses and this and that. I'd

rather get a job description, put it out there and say, "Does anybody that has these skills want to come here to work for $250?" I'm just throwing out a number.

$250,000. We hire a a person like that that's on here all day to make sure these things are working right to the tea like you would do in your own private business. We don't spend $800,000 with A&E, right?

That's what I'm trying to get out of because we used to spend with a hundred,000 then it was 200,000 then. So the issue is there's a whole chunk of that money unfortunately missagia that is the operating system. So every operating system with the exception of like four schools is and and I'm going to say the name wrong but it's inventus it it's a different name right now it's a Schneider Electric

product that is the operating system we're paying for that operating system.

If tomorrow we changed vendors, they have to buy that from ENA. They have to buy that from Schneider and and the NE is is their local rep. So if Joemo comes in and becomes the new A&E for the district, they're going to buy that right of that what it is. If it's a half a million dollars, whatever it is a year to operate that system and there's nothing we can do because we've made those decisions.

Well, we wouldn't change the system anyway. It's an operating system. You have to have something.

We shouldn't have any system ever that a company has us over a barrel that just says this, you know, I own this and unfortunately we do we do it with tech.

We do it with everybody because the nobody wants to work on product. But I'm not saying it's a I don't think it's a good good government. It's not good government. It's not the government for tech to be having people hold us hostage basically because if you do this then you're going to spend this and you're going to like so then they can have a monopoly and just charge us whatever we want. So

when we're spending all this money my thing is thinking longterm we should be getting out of those or eliminating or lowering those or giving us better buyouts to say if somebody else comes in this is the set price. this is not there's a lot of like wishy-washy stuff that we would almost be stuck and I don't think that's a good government uh well we could start with the job descriptions and see what it would take

I [snorts] I'm going to tell you that I put myself on a pedestal as a plumber thinking that I am the most sought after thing in the world and HVAC is got us by a big a big margin HVAC is the new absolute job to have because they are they've built themselves up into this major major factor in every single building.

The air quality nothing is more talked about than air quality. Indoor air quality is all you ever hear from everybody and it's the major piece and they they've done it. They they've transformed that they transformed an unlicensed trade into this mega job.

So I I I agree.

I just think that we won't know if we have people unless we do. Or you look at& and say the contract's 800,000, but [clears throat] 400,000 is not salaries.

You know, I can see we got guys coming here. We criticize them cuz they leave too early and they're not working at 7 to 3. You took care of that.

But they getting good money.

Mhm.

So if we kind of do a comparison, say, "Hey, you know what? Let's try it at the X rate [snorts] because we could and then if it's like two years from now because if we have a contract then maybe we do or do we have things that we can do our own? If we want to hire our own HVAC guy that has those skill sets, we can't pay $70,000 a year, right?

I get it. Everybody gets it. So, instead of being afraid of it, I would say, "No, let's put it out there. We need an HVAC guy that's going to come in and and do just like a plumber. Mhm.

A plumber is valuable to fix the things we need to do because if you go out and hire in private, you're going to pay through the roof. So why should we pay a plumber $70,000 if on the outside market they can make 90,000 but then we pay a groundskeeper 68,000 like it's all out of whack.

So I'm just saying throw it out there and we can at least give you the chance to try, right?

And uh you know um the air quality piece that I wanted to talk about a little is the express.

Yes.

Which I do have Dr. really gave me those things to look at. When we went went to the whole that fine or whatever that thing was, it looked like some of it was paperwork uh not being done or you know.

Yeah, it was all it's all p. So, basically the the the uh um the citation so to speak is them bringing light to documents that every school has to have that has as best in it. So that aera report which is all of those documents there basically lay out what every building has in it that has that we know has known material construction material or building materials that have asbestous in them. And and what it does

is highlight where it is. Tells you where it is. And then when it's removed, how it's removed, because every every single time it's touched, the company who's touching it knows that that book that it's going to go in that book. So our LSP, um, Universal, [snorts] they maintain those books every year and then we slide the pieces in that have to be slid in. So the work that's going on

down there, every single document that's part of that project ends up in that book for 3 years. And then after 3 years, these become archived and a new book has to be built and then they start cuz you'd never be able to you regulation that tells us what's happening. Exactly. My concern was when we got it was that they that report said that we didn't have the books handy.

Nobody knew where the books were. It raises a lot of questions, folks. What in the heck is going on? How do we have this? How do we not have somebody certified, which you've rectified now?

But the reason why I wanted to ask because we should know here's what the books are.

If the books were missing, we should get something to say, why were they missing? If we had to recreate, I think we had a contractor or some other person that probably consultant to do stuff. Why are they doing it? Is it uh I'm not looking for an answer but say why can't we just do like so we can't we can we can make the book after they give us all the material so

it's not something cuz it's going to be a licensed site professional so they have to have the license I'm saying like over year so like if these get archived but this the material is the same roughly cuz nothing changes so now the next book would start with the baseline of this so it's all you're right so the so basically the baseline of that book not all the material in it but the baseline

stays in there stay there forever And those pages are added in and then the new pages each year are added in. This company does this inspection for us. So we'll do some of the the work in it but the majority of the work is still done by them. They also have to train all the employees. So every custodian has to be trained and then their documents put in that book so that they understand what

they can and can't do and the cost and those were not and those were not in there when they came in.

Exactly. So they might have been present somewhere.

Exactly.

Just not in the proper uh because this company's been doing this work for um I want to say it goes back to maybe 98 um till now. Um so the books are available every 3 years. Like those will say 22 cuz the new ones just came out now and now they have to be in a three- ring binder. They can't be bound that way. So like for instance at the new Dery. Yes.

When we took the um asbestous walls off the fieldhouse back in the day. Yeah.

That would have to go into that would have been in there except it was a demolition. So there was no there was no book to put it in. Right.

So but now at the Pace building there's a section that we're related. It's it's it's the same thing. Right. So the PACE building it has its own book and that building um we're removing some of that asbestous uh sheathing on the outside. It's transite is is the the proper name for it. But that is best sheeting that's on the outside of that building is being removed by a licensed site professional overseeing an an

abatement contractor like Alpine.

And all of those documents with all the weights and and and where it was all sent what all of that stuff is going to be in the new pace book when it's printed. So everybody will see all that work that happened in the building if they penetrate something that is asbestous or if they're doing uh fire suppression work in the boiler room or in in the basement where there are pipe wrap of asbesus. That building doesn't

have a lot of hype rappers as best. It's got all been removed, but it does have those outside panels. Every single one of them is is trans. So, I guess the bottom line is that we didn't have them, but we now have them all set up. So, there's no asbestous that we're not tracking because I think the public needs to hear this that we don't we know where it is.

We document where it is. Nobody removes asbestous on their own. We have a professional to come in to sign it and it's all documented every single time asbestous gets disturbed, moved, whatever. Yes.

Uh because I think that's what I hear in the community is how [clears throat] do we know that we're safe? There's a asus flying all over the place. There's dust at the other school. Why didn't we test the dust? So I think that's good to good information to have. Maybe present something at the full committee just so we can say here's the situation. Here's the story.

We have the books.

Josh is now certified. This, you know, right?

I think it people just need to know that we have our ducks in a row and we're not going to now back off. It's going to be contained. Exact. Exactly.

Without a yield. Thank you.

Um, any new business today?

Yes, Mr.

We did it.

the budget for them? Do we have approved? We which I don't think we do when I think we're supposed to.

So I think that's just food for thought for November 10th that when we do a we have to approve like the money's in it this that we approve the contracts, right?

We should be approving the budget. So in the budget it should show all the things and then like two field supervisors, right?

Like whatever. So we can see all of the money that's in the nutrition because uh that report was kind of, you know, from the auditor is not good. Y it's good that we have enough money.

It's not necessarily good for what are we doing about it and then we as a committee should have a say in what we're going to do about it rather than [snorts] the money get spent and all of a sudden now we're like oh by the way we bought 100 new registers or something like that and at some point we'd like to we would like to hire consultant a [snorts] kitchen consultant excuse me

to go building by building since those funds can only be used for nutritional purposes we'd like to go through the building cuz some of the equipment is getting very old and it needs to be repaired.

and replaced and by using a consultant.

There is some equipment in in a building is easy to to to make comparisons to is RPA. When you walk into the kitchen of RPA, that's old stuff. Um, it really is and it needs a complete facelift. And we had talked about this for a while back.

It's a million-doll [snorts] buildout in a in RPA alone. But there are other buildings like Talmet um that that could use it. the older buildings, the serving kitchens are a little easier, but the cooking kitchens need upgrades. So, it would be nice to bring a consultant on board that's going to go building by building and then give us a good analysis of what we need and then move forward as the committee chooses.

I have no concerns with that at all. I would just say that's what I'm referring to. So, like when we look [snorts] at it, we say we got x amount of dollars.

When we did our budget, when we were supposed to do the budget for that thing at that time, you say, "Hey, listen. we have extra money or we get antiquated equipment. We need to do something. We had to do the chapter 34, whatever it is for the building. No, I have no problem with that. We just have never approved the actual line items for that. That would include utility workers, the whole

bit, but you know, we we we're sort of involved in only spots in it rather than the whole. So, appreciate that. Thank you. Are you motion?

Second, Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Bailey, Miss Lyus, yes.