Minutes
Quincy School Committee
Facilities & Security Subcommittee Meeting
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
A meeting of the Facilities and Security Subcommittee was held on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at 5:00
pm at Quincy High School. Present were Mrs. Kathryn Hubley, Ms. Barbara Isola, and Mr. Dave
McCarthy, Chair. Also attending were Superintendent DeCristofaro, Deputy Superintendent Kevin
Mulvey, Mr. Gary Cunniff, Ms. Shelly Dein, Mr. Michael Draicchio, Mr. Kevin Murphy, Mr. David Scott,
Mr. Keith Segalla, Mr. Kevin Segalla, Mr. Christopher Walker, and Ms. Laura Owens, Clerk.
Mr. McCarthy welcomed everyone to the meeting and moved to the first agenda item, Solar Array
Installation on school roofs. Mr. Walker introduced Dr. Kelly and Mr. Cohen from Power
Management, who had presented preliminary information to School Committee last spring. Dr. Kelly
and Mr. Cohen updated the Subcommittee on the preliminary steps that have been completed to
date, qualifying bidders and receiving proposals. A five-member panel evaluated the proposals and
selected SolarCity as the vendor. SolarCity is the largest solar entity on the United States, with more
than 30,000 buildings in 14 states. SolarCity’s contract with the city requires no installation costs or
investment; the city purchases the energy produced at a contracted rate under the purchase power
agreement (PPA). The engineering process is underway and a preliminary review has been done for
all city buildings. Proposed installation sizes and locations were supplied in the presentation packet.
All city buildings had a preliminary evaluation and a more detailed evaluation of the age and
condition of each roof will be needed to finalize the plan. Once the permitting process is complete,
installation is a matter of weeks. The solar energy produced may be used internally to and excess
energy generates credits. Maintenance is performed several times annually and the systems are
expected to remain in place for 20 years.
Mr. McCarthy asked for a time estimate for a typical elementary school installation. It takes less than
two weeks to assemble the array and then National Grid reviews the installation, prior to the
commissioning. The arrays provide protection and potentially extend their life of each roof. Mr.
McCarthy asked about potential educational benefits. Dr. DeCristofaro would like to see them
become a business partner and participate in curriculum support, job shadowing, and other
opportunities to be explored.
Mr. Cohen stressed that for most city buildings, the arrays will not be visible from the street. Mr.
Walker suggested that public meetings would be held for schools that are in mainly residential
neighborhoods. There is a proposed second phase to install solar carports and that would require
more public input. Ms. Isola asked about the construction timeline; multiple installations will be
ongoing at the same time. Mr. McCarthy asked about installations at schools that may be planning
major renovations; Mr. Walker said SolarCity will factor that into the final location decisions.
The Subcommittee agreed that Mr. McCarthy would summarize the discussion at the March 5 School
Committee meeting and that another presentation was not necessary.
The next item on the agenda was Quincy High School; Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Cunniff, Dr. DeCristofaro,
and Mr. Murphy had a walkthrough in late January which surfaced some issues. Mr. Cunniff said that
steady progress is continuing to be made both through Maintenance and Contractual Services. Mr.
McCarthy asked about several specific items and Mr. Murphy said that the sprinkler leaks have been
repaired, the faucet is replaced, and outside lights have been upgraded. An issue with the fire doors
and magnets damaging walls is still to be resolved. The elevator issue is related to roof-level
ventilation and is still to be resolved. Mr. McCarthy asked about front and rear door issues; Mr.
Draicchio said that the door issues were resolved by Signet on their most recent visit. Some outside
lights in the ground are affected by water/ice, Public Buildings will look towards replacing.
Mr. McCarthy asked about an issue with work orders; Mr. Murphy said that some work orders were
misdirected to the wrong email address, so there was a backlog that has now been resolved. Going
forward, Custodians will copy Kevin Segalla on their maintenance request e-mails.
Mr. McCarthy asked for a status update of Central Middle School project. Mr. Cunniff said that the
contractor and subcontractors are working on the punch list after school hours, on weekends, and
during school vacation. Architects have completed their final walkthrough; Tishman is still involved
and are working with architects on an analysis of the monetized punch list. A value has been
assigned to each item not satisfactorily completed. Mr. McCarthy asked about whether some of the
smaller items that could be easily completed by our own staff, but Mr. Cunniff said that the value of
non-completed items is $600,000. The City has held back $1.6 million and the construction bond as
surety for completion of these items. Mr. McCarthy asked about big picture issues with Signet or
heating; Mr. Cunniff said the public address system and clock synchronization were resolved. Dr.
DeCristofaro said there have been issues with cameras and access control, but Signet has been
responsive.
Mr. Cunniff introduced Ms. Dein, Energy and Sustainability Director and Mr. Scott, Technical Manager
as the newest members of the Public Buildings department. Both have gotten involved with many
school building projects. Mr. Scott in a assessment of major heating issues at a number of school
buildings. Ms. Dein has led the recent initiative to secure a grant to install LED lighting at Lincoln
Hancock, Point Webster, Clifford Marshall, and Quincy High School; these new bulbs are expected to
generate a significant savings in energy consumption.
Mr. Cunniff then reported on the Coddington Hall renovation project. Two-thirds of the new
windows are installed and final exterior work will be ongoing with the roof almost complete. Interior
drywall and partitions are being installed; many doors have been sent out for refinishing. Most of
the mechanical work, including the generator, is complete. Elevator controls have been upgraded
and the security plan finalized. Nauset Construction is on schedule for June 2014 completion.
The last item on the agenda was the heating audit requested by the School Committee. Principals
and program coordinators were surveyed and responses were integrated with the master
SIP/Maintenance requests list. Mr. Scott said that he has been responding to daily heating calls along
with assessing ongoing issues. Ms. Isola asked about the heating issue at GOALS in the guidance
office and Mr. Murphy will look into it. Mr. McCarthy asked if there were any major issues; NQHS has
heat regulation issues. Mr. Scott said that a building control system survey was just completed;
complicated by the original building and addition having different systems. Univents in original
building are pneumatic; in the addition, there are electronic and pneumatic controls. New controls
may help alleviate regulation issues. Other complications are that the NQHS heating units are on the
outside wall and the vents that bring in fresh air sometimes do not close properly, exposing heating
coil to frigid temperatures. Marshall had a similar leak this winter and Point Webster had a ruptured
coil. Point, Marshall, and NQHS will have glycol added to their heating system or refreshed over
Summer 2014. Mrs. Hubley asked about Wollaston and Merrymount; Mr. Scott said those are his
next priorities; Lincoln Hancock, Point Webster, and Beechwood have been priorities and most issues
have been resolved. Merrymount requires replacement controllers and these have been ordered.
Mr. McCarthy thanked all of the presenters and Public Buildings staff. Dr. DeCristofaro agreed that
QPS’s partnership with Public Buildings is beneficial to all of our students.
Mrs. Hubley made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:20 pm. Mr. McCarthy seconded the motion
and on a voice vote, the ayes have it.