Chief of School Operations Paul Whyte: Priority is keeping kids safe and catching up on deferred repairs. Lisa Hopkins received a call on Wednesday about Wexler-Grant School students pulling out an eye washing station and activating the school’s sprinkler system, flooding eight classrooms. As the facilities director for New Haven schools, she dispatched a crew to the school and coordinated with the fire department to address the sprinkler problem. Hopkins then had to take a pause — to talk to alders about the state of facilities at New Haven Public Schools (NHPS). Executive Director of Facilities Hopkins spoke to members of the aldermanic Education Committee at City Hall on Wednesday as part of a workshop on school facilities and their management. She was joined by Supt. Madeline Negrón, Chief of School Operations Paul Whyte, and ABM Project Manager of Facilities Jeff Standrowicz. Schools representatives provided an overview of the facilities department and the efforts to improve the conditions of the city’s school buildings, faster and more thoroughly — including by better evaluating the district’s contractors. “First and foremost we want safe buildings for our staff and students,” said Whyte, who was hired as chief of school operations in July after working as an assistant superintendent. In a presentation to the board, Whyte said that the district employs 11 tradespeople — like carpenters and plumbers — to make repairs across 41 schools. When something can’t be done by the district’s tradespeople, the task goes out to contractors. Whyte highlighted the facilities funding gap: While it is recommended that schools spend between $3 and $4.50 per building square foot, NHPS currently spends $1.70. That, Whyte said, is compounded by the fact that the school district has been “chasing the work that has to happen in our school buildings.” Increasing spending from $1.70 per square foot to $3 per square foot is estimated to cost an additional $5.5 million dollars, according to Whyte. As the facilities team strives to react effectively and faster to problems as they come up, Whyte described a new platform, FMX, that allows building administrators and teachers to file work orders and track them. The facilities team is also working closely with the different school unions to be more communicative about when orders will be fixed and is now holding monthly meetings with the union members that have been codified in the latest teachers union contract. Still, Whyte said, they are also trying to be preventative and fix problems before they arise. This includes standardizing materials, like fire exit signs, across schools so that they can be replaced faster; conducting school inspections and creating a schedule for maintenance based on priorities; and hiring more tradespeople. The facilities team is also trying to better hold contractors accountable. Sometimes contractors aren’t honest about what equipment they have or how many staff members they have. Hopkins said that building managers are being engaged, performing inspections, and taking photos in real time to make sure work is actually complete. She said that her team is able to provide the Board of Education with a comprehensive report of everything that went right or wrong. Contractors also get performance reviews. “We need to have results,” Hopkins said. “They get paid pretty good money to clear the buildings, and we are holding them accountable.” Education Committee chair and Beaver Hills Alder Gary Hogan asked Hopkins what challenges she faces in her role as facilities director. “There is a long-running history of deferred maintenance because there wasn’t money,” she said. Alder Sarah Miller, alongside Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith: Can we find out how many roofs need to be replaced? “What would you consider an emergency work order?” Hogan asked. Hopkins said the Wexler-Grant issue she had been addressing on Wednesday was considered an emergency work order. She had to dispatch the tradesman to mitigate the inch of flooding across eight classrooms, talk with the New Haven Fire Department (NHFD), who turned off the sprinkler system as a precaution, and get the sprinklers back to working so kids could come back to school on Thursday. “There are a lot of emergencies similar to that,” she said. For the last month at Fair Haven School, someone has needed to keep constant watch over the fire pump after it was discovered that it had been installed backwards. “How does that happen?” asked Fair Haven Alder Frank Redente, who works at Fair Haven School. He asked how the district could get its money back for work not performed correctly. “We’d have to check back on when this fire pump was originally installed and if it was under warranty,” Whyte said. “But the problem wasn’t with the pump. It was with the installation,” Redente said. “It’s over two decades old,” Hopkins said. She added that the room that it’s in is also too small and would need to take three more feet from the resource room next to it. “It’s one thing to fix the fire pump, but we’re still going to be having the same issues if something else happens.” East Rock/Fair Haven Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith asked how the district is measuring progress toward its goals. Negrón said that there is an effort now to finally close out the school contracts that were still in the books from decades ago. “To do that level of renovation that is going to be required, eventually we’re going to have to talk about borrowing money,” Negrón said. Closing out contracts makes it clear what the state owes the district and what the district owes the state. “Should we anticipate any school closings due to conditions of the buildings?” Hogan asked. “I am not anticipating any closures, as of today,” Negrón said. “We are facing the tough decision of how to close a gap of $18 million when we have already merged schools.“ Hogan asked whether there are any schools’ facilities that the committee should be concerned about. Whyte went through the list: Equipment will arrive in August for John C. Daniels’ new HVAC system; Betsy Ross is on the list for new HVAC chillers; only three of the six boilers are working at Celentano; NHPS is seeking money to replace the roofs at Hillhouse, Wilbur Cross, and Truman School; and after Truman’s roof is fixed, they are finally hoping to bring in a new HVAC system. “You’re at the top of the chart, Dr. Paul Whyte,” Hogan said. “What keeps you up at night?” “Making sure that our school buildings are safe,” Whyte said. Supt. Madeline Negrón. The post NHPS Seeks Better Contractor Evals, Faster Facilities Fixes appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less