Councilors press for a student swing space plan among Somerville’s school buildings

Danielle Howe The most viable city-owned property for Somerville student swing space is considered to be the Cummings School in Prospect Hill.

Councilors in Somerville are raising alarm bells over the lack of school swing space across the district, fearing a situation like in May 2023 when Winter Hill Community Innovation students were displaced after a chunk of concrete was discovered after falling from a stairwell ceiling.

The Edgerly Education Center at 8 Bonair St., East Somerville, was the school district’s only swing space for students in the case of a building failure or renovation, but will be occupied by Winter Hill classes for the foreseeable future: A new school may not be ready until December 2031.

An order for a plan by City Council president Judy Pineda Neufeld was addressed Monday by director of infrastructure and asset management Rich Raiche at a School Building Facilities and Maintenance Special Joint Committee.

“It’s one of those things that keeps me up at night, and I’m sure a bunch of other city staff up at night,” Raiche said. “We’ve heard this request. It’s been very difficult for us to make advances on it.”

Several school buildings across the district face challenges, said Raiche, who described the roofs at the Arthur D. Healey School and the West Somerville Neighborhood School as being close to failure – a reference, he clarified, to water leaks that would affect large parts of the schools and displace students.

The chiller at the West and the boiler at the Healey are also at risk of failure from age, Raiche said. Those risks could be mitigated by bringing in temporary heating and cooling systems such as one at the Brown School. The option, while convenient, is not a long-term solution.

“The severity of the risk is compounded by the fact that we have no plan B,” School Committee member Leiran Biton said.

Recurring shortage

In 2023 too there was no swing space readily available despite community and council members raising alarms in advance, member Sarah Philips said. “The School Committee at the time and the district were scrambling in the city to identify a solution,” she said. When the Edgerly was identified as an available space it did not accommodate the entire school body, and later had to close temporarily to allow for health and safety improvements.

The lack of swing space goes beyond the issue of displaced students; it also prevents the city from being able to perform planned improvements. Councilor Naima Sait raised concerns over the district’s ability to meet carbon neutrality deadlines, which Raiche agreed would be difficult to accomplish without the ability to move students temporarily.

Options are scarce, with the most viable city-owned property being the Cummings School at 42 Prescott St., Prospect Hill, despite the school being far from up to code – it has a failed roof and problematic HVAC system, officials said. It is now a city-sponsored overnight emergency warming center, and the Department of Infrastructure and Asset Management is assessing the full scope of its needs to include in a Capital Investment Plan for this year, Raiche said.

Looking to the Archdiocese

Infrastructure and Asset Management has been in contact with the Archdiocese of Boston about using classroom spaces in the event of an emergency. It’s been a hard no for many locations, but the Archdiocese was “generally receptive” to the district using space at either Saint Clements or Saint Anns, Raiche said. “I believe they would be accommodating and we could work that agreement out relatively quickly,” Raiche said in a comment to Cambridge Day. Cambridge Day reached out to the Archdiocese of Boston for comment but did not get an immediate response.

Still, councilors pressed for a commitment to develop a plan soon. “I would really urge the city to develop a concrete plan that we can review, rather than having an ongoing conversation where, yes we have the Cummings, that’s likely the spot,” Phillips said, “Which is not a very comforting thought, that we’re still talking about likelihood rather than what our plan is.”

“It would be prudent for us to develop a plan in case eventuality comes to fruition,” said Philips, pointing to Philadelphia as an example of a city with comprehensive plans in place.

Strained staff resources

Raiche did not dispute the need for a plan, but said the city was constrained in what it can take on and is already struggling to execute high-priority projects such as the Argenziano production kitchen and a state process to renovate or rebuild the Winter Hill school.

“This is something that we’re all calling for,” said councilor Jesse Clingan, raising the prospects of finding funding to go out of house and hire a consultant or using the city’s new emergency management director. “Clearly the council would support whatever assistance that you needed in that aspect,” he said.

Sait also emphasized the need for urgency as budget season approaches. “Hearing you now say that not only we don’t have a plan, but also we don’t have an approach, is making me extremely nervous. I think ahead of budget season as we are putting our priorities together it’s very important that we know exactly what you need,” Sait said.