Fitchburg Public Schools

FITCHBURG CITY CLERK Jun 17 2025 4:27 pm Building Resource Sub Committee Attendees: Jon Thompson, Jeremy Roche, Nick Packard, Mark Kasperian, Dan Outerson, Eileen Spinny, Melissa Dandini, Jim Walsh, Peter Stephens Motion to accept minutes from April 15 meeting made by Jim Walsh all in Favor. SBM Update: Notes provided by Dan Outerson April 2025 Report - The lock on the custodial closet at South St South building was not working. SBM carpenter went over to take a look at it and was able to repair it to make it operational again. - There was a pile of large trash at Crocker Elementary that needed to go to the dump. SBM Grounds loaded up all the trash and brought it to the dump. - SBM Grounds assisted athletics with the assembly of the new track and field equipment at Crocker Field. - At Longsjo, the elevator doors were sticking on each floor. The doors had to be forced open. Worcester Elevator came in and found balls of grease on the door tracks. They removed the grease, cleaned up the area and the doors were back to normal working order. - In the field house at FHS, one of the crash bars for the doors fell off the door. SBM Carpenter made the repair to the crash bar. - The exterior Hall of Fame door at FHS was having an issue with the handicap button. When you would push the outdoor button, the door wouldn’t open. It appeared to be an issue with the receiver for the button. Ruel electric came out and determined the exterior button needs to be replaced. - In the Memorial girls room on the main floor, the sinks were backing up. Rooter Man had to come and snake the line. Sinks are back to normal operation. - The kitchen at Longsjo had a corroded drain line on the dish room sink. Royal had to come in and replace the drain line. - At Goodrich, after a fire drill, the fire fighters struggled to get the pull station to reset. They looked at all four pull stations and observed that either the key hole for the pull station was stripped or corroded. Fire Equipment was called out to replace the pull stations. - Annual generator preventative maintenance/inspections were done at all the schools that have a generator. - The top net to the softball batting cages and the lines and foul pole for the softball field were all set up by SBM Grounds. - On door 20 at FHS, the door closer was leaking oil. SBM Carpenter replaced the door close and is now back to normal operation. - SBM Carpenter replaced a projector in room 204 at Longsjo. - The carbon monoxide detector in the boiler room at SSELC South building was chirping. The battery was swapped out but the chirping continued. Ruel was called out to respond. The replaced the entire detector. - At SSELC, West building, B-13, the building custodian discovered a steam leak while conducting his daily building walkthrough. The steam leak was coming from the radiator in the space. He was able to shut down the radiator and Royal Steam was called in to make the repair. - At Memorial, there was a loud bang that came from the transformer and a portion of the power to the building was lost. When Piper Electric came out to look at the transformer, the electrician noticed the wires were wet. Given the age of the wires, it was determined the wires had to be replaced. Piper first tried to pull the wires out of the ground but they were unsuccessful with that. They determined they had to have a trench dug up in order to lay down the new wires. Fitchburg DPW was willing to dig the 200ft trench across the parking lot. Once the trench was dug, Piper was able to lay down the new conduit and DPW back filled the hole. - At Longsjo, after school was let it out, there was a smell of “burning plastic” in the air. Fitchburg Fire was called to the scene and they found smoke coming from the elevator shaft. Fitchburg Fire went to the elevator machine room in the attic and found the motor smoking. The fire department extinguished the motor and determined the approximate temperature of the motor was around 500 degrees. Worcester Elevator determined that the hoist motor was no longer operable and at the very least has to be rebuilt, however there are other issues that need to be addressed with it if FPS goes that route. Worcester Elevator will provide a detailed quote of what needs to be done with the elevator. - The fire alarm was active in the North building at South St. Fitchburg Fire was unable to reset the fire panel and Fire Equipment came out to attempt to find the source. It was determined that a heat detector in the old gym was wet and caused it to go into trouble. The tech was able to disable the heat detector and clear the panel. - One of the toilets in the women’s room at Crocker Field was leaking at the stem. Royal was called in to make the repair. - One of the booster pumps in the boiler room at FHS had a leak when it was one. Royal came out and replace the seals on the pumps. - Door 203 at Goodrich had to be lifted up in order to lock the door. SBM carpenter adjusted the door and now the door closes the correct way. - Door 301 at Goodrich could only lock from the inside. SBM carpenter swapped out the core and the door is now working correctly. - The stage lights at the FHS auditorium were replaced by SBM grounds and FHS custodial staff. - An outlet in the main office at Memorial fell apart. Ruel had to come out to replace it. - The walk-in freezer at Memorial wasn’t working. The senior custodian didn’t see anything wrong in the main panel. Ruel was called out and the found a sub panel in the auditorium that controlled the walk-in freezer. A breaker was tripped and the freezer started working again. - The glass vestibule door in the west building of SSELC was having an issue with the lock. New England Doors came in and replaced the strike. The door is now working correctly. - Another booster pump at FHS started leaking. Royal Steam was called in to replace the seal. - There was a complaint of potential hornets on the aluminum bleachers at the softball field at FHS. SBM found a large nest under the bleachers and contacted JP Pest. When JP Pest came out, they determined the nest was old. They did not find any hornets, but did see a few paper wasps which she said aren’t typically aggressive. She recommended we keep the old nests up because hornets tend to be territorial and they will not build new nests if they see a nest in their area. - One of the toilet seats in the Crocker Field women’s room had one of the bolts broken off. SBM carpenter removed the old seat and replaced it. - Rick Donald has been offered the district carpenter position and accepted. We’re hoping his official start date will be May 27. Crocker Field – Peter Stephens issues area’s still need some seed. Security Camera being installed. Jeremy Roche said we are looking at using the same vendor we currently use. Peter Stephens found one door open over the weekend. Jim Walsh – What is behind the field house. Jeremy Roche currently nothing could be a possible place for locker rooms. Update & Status of Capital Projects Contractor Funding Total Project School/Projec Source Cost Status/Timeline t SSELC Roof Triumph ESSER $1,179,816 Completed Roofing III/IVAQ FPS Universal ESSER III $2,449,647 Punchlist and integration work Surveillance Electric ongoing. FHS Front Poulin FPS $307,000 February Break installation with knee Doors Construction Capital wall to be repaired by end of May. FHS Walk-in Poulin Sodexo $565,537 Finalizing in January and training on Freezer Construction Capital February 14. Several outdoor punchlist items completed in April. SSELC HVAC Gage-Gen-C ESSER $4,559,720 Summer 2025 on III/IVAQ MMS HVAC Southcoast ESSER $2,208,988 Summer 2025 III/IVAQ RES HVAC Funds N/A ESSER $ 1,907,529 Submitted Clean Energy Council grant III/IVAQ ($3.5M) Contractor Funding Total Cost Project Status/Timeline School/Site Source Crocker ES Fontaine MSBA $76,500,00 April 2025 substantial 0 completion of the School Brothers (62%) building. Demo and initial move started. Crocker Field Quirk ARPA, $3,000,000 Completed FPS School Choice, NFL grant FHS Solar Solect Cost Power 2 E/V charging Purchase stations units will be Canopy Energy savings to Agreement added in summer/fall FPS/City 2025 - Cutover of completed on May Fitchburg 10, 2025. LMS Boilers Thielsch/Ris MSBA $2,149,149 Updating Combustion Air Unit. e (80%) McKay doors FSU Capital FSU $500,000+ Completed (5 sets) Longsjo Anser General $4,000,000 Developing 3-5 year - phased plan. Will Auditorium Advisory Funds $10,000,00 have a Schematic 0 Design by 1/31/25 McKay M.E. FPS - $237,000 Wednesday, November 20 Playground O’Brien McKay Lease Agreemen t Capital Projects - Update - May 13, 2025 Capital Projects - Update - May 13, 2025 Jeremy Roche – Completed Freezer and Front doors and knee walls need to be completed. Jim Walsh – at FHS the door still had some rotted areas in the door area. Peter Stephens also some mason work still needs to be done. Two big HVAC projects are still on track to begin. We also did a grant for the Reingold project. That would be begin in 2026 we will find out in June if we receive the grant. Crocker Elementary update is some of the classrooms have been moved to the new building since April vacation. Also the solar project canopy is done. The rental agreement is to be voted on. Jeremy Roche we will bring it to the June 2nd School Comm Jim Walsh – I would like to see a floater move over the Crocker as a permanent position. Motion to Adjourn 5:33 Resource Sub Comm May 13, 2025 Attendees: Jon Thompson, Jeremy Roche, Nick Packard, Eileen Spinney, Melissa Dandini, Jim Walsh, Peter Stephens Motion to accept Minutes from April 15th by Peter Stephens all in favor Grants/Donations: N/A Enrollment Update – The # of ELL students is up over 200 students this year. The programing has changed we did not have to identify them in Preschool but now we do test and services them. More number mean more teachers needed more services needed. School Choice numbers are low and concerning but we do not have the room to add students from school choice. We currently have 76 students. We submitted our School Choice claiming reports and should have better budget #’s . Peter Stephens how many students are going out. Nick Packard the current # is 373. Jeremy Roche the virtual fee has gone up to $13K a student. Jon Thompson – We can put a cap on the # of virtual kids to 1%. We currently do not have the cap but can vote for it to happen for next year for a cap in 2027. Line Item & Budget Update review Jeremy Roche – Budget book is in the packet. We will vote on the budget come Monday. Reduction of 5.5 open positions the personal contracts are settled so that helps. 21 open positions Circuit Breaker is moved up to 100% return vs 75%. That will help with the SPED tuition needs. Jim Walsh – is Van pool the only Sped transpo provider? Jeremy Roche – Van pool is the major supporter. Other cuts are replacing Chromebook, library books for the new Crocker have been reduced. Pete Stevens - How many Librarians do we have? Jon Thompson all the elementary and FHS. Reductions to meet NSS Jeremy Roche – Reason for additional counts is because we believed we were going to receive $800K by the city. The funds where then pulled back and we need to work reductions again. Jim Walsh – Could we reduce some of the Assistant Coaches? Jeremy Roche – the Assistant coaches help with the bigger #’s One of new line items is the Monty Tech line which is for the MVP program. It’s the difference between the cost of a Voc Student and Public School student cost. Jon Thompson – I know there was discussion about not eliminating the Communication Coordinator. Peter Stephens I just did not want to see just one person lose their position. Jon Thompson unfortunately it will be 4 current staff members. Would the city be willing split the position or willing to fund the position? Motion to adjourn by Peter Stephens all in favor 6.28pm