A meeting of the Up-Island Regional School District (UIRSD) committee that included a discussion of 11 capital projects with an estimated total price tag of $998,401 generated considerable tension Monday night. At one point, committee chairman Michael Marcus of West Tisbury was forced to call a timeout when a heated exchange between committee member Robert Lionette of Chilmark and school business administrator Amy Tierney erupted into an argument that ended with a flurry of tossed papers and screaming.
The catalyst was a capital projects update by school administrators for the Chilmark and West Tisbury School. Committee members, who had not met since July 28, were unhappy to learn of delays and significant unexpected costs. Of the 11 projects on the list, three were for the Chilmark School.
“I think one of the hangovers we’re experiencing here is how long it takes something to get done,” Mr. Marcus said during their discussion of the capital projects. “It feels like a hangover.”
Sinks delayed
The first project update focused on bathroom renovations at the West Tisbury School. Ms. Tierney said the good news was that the bathroom renovations for four student bathrooms and three adult bathrooms were moving along. The bad news was that the sinks would not arrive in time for the start of the school year.
Ms. Tierney said the school wouldn’t receive the sinks from the manufacturer until Sept. 9, and they would have to be installed that weekend. West Tisbury School Principal Donna Lowell-Bettencourt said she was working with the West Tisbury board of health on the best way to handle the sink delay.
The bathroom renovations were part of a project bid that included new flooring, carpeting, and tile, for a total of $426,000. She said the project was over budget by $65,470.
Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt attributed the cost overruns to change orders. The first change order eliminated carpeting the hallways at a cost of $41,000 and the tiling of the lobby for $47,500. Instead, they had to add plumbing rework for the bathrooms because the building plans were inaccurate. The second change order was for “unforeseen electrical issues,” according to the report, which cost $3,701.
Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt and Ms. Tierney told the committee that they had put a hold on the flooring and carpeting until the bathroom renovations were completed, due to the budget overrun.
Mr. Marcus said he had visited the bathrooms when the ceiling tiles were removed, and there was a significant lack of insulation in the rafters. He asked that a general survey of all the insulation be conducted because he wanted to avoid frozen pipes bursting.
“Zero insulation,” he said. “There are pipes up there that are wrapped with some insulation, duct tape, and it’s kind of hanging and sagging in the actual beams. In certain sections there is none.”
Change orders
Committee member Jeffrey “Skipper” Manter of West Tisbury questioned the process of change orders. He asked who approved the change orders and who was on the building committee that made the decisions to approve the orders.
“Decisions are being made here, and I think we should have some say,” Mr. Manter said.
Mr. Marcus said he didn’t have “a confidence problem” with the people making the decisions on change orders. He and Mr. Lionette said that they thought the committee would be, as Mr. Lionette put it, “well served to have somebody” on the building committee.
“There’s a group of people meeting and making decisions on behalf of the Up-Island school district, which involve financial issues,” Mr. Manter said.
It was decided to add one UIRSD committee member to the building committee, which includes Ms. Tierney, a project manager, and Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt or Chilmark Principal Susan Stevens, depending on the school.
Acting on a motion, the committee agreed to put Mr. Manter on the building committee, with the authority to make decisions regarding change orders on behalf of the entire UIRSD committee.
Safety trumps all
As the discussion continued, Ms. Tierney told the committee that some projects scheduled for completion this summer didn’t get done because they “had enough to deal with” in regard to the West Tisbury bathroom renovations.
Specifically, she referred to a project to upgrade or replace fire alarm panels in the West Tisbury School. Bids were opened on July 29, and all were over the $55,000 budget by $20,000, according to Ms. Tierney. The lowest bid was $74,289. Ms. Tierney said three companies bid on the project, and all came within $600 of one another.
Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt said the building inspector had advised the school to upgrade the alarm system. She explained that when a fire alarm goes off, they don’t know which specific one was set off without having to go around and physically locate it. New systems can determine the alarm source.
“He felt that we need to do a whole evaluation of our fire and alarm system,” Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt told the committee.
She told committee members that they need to redesign the entire alarm system, conduct a study of the system, upgrade it, and bring it up to code. Committee member Kate DeVane of Vineyard Haven asked if the system was operational.
“No,” Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt said. “It’s been having all sorts of problems. We’ve had alarms going off all summer long.”
“The alarm system, to me, under safety, trumps pretty much everything else on this list,” Mr. Lionette said. “This money has to be spent. It has to be done now. I can’t imagine anything else would be a priority Wednesday morning [opening day] other than this.”
Ms. DeVane agreed and said they ought to go back through the list of projects and look at the things that are safety issues versus the things that are cosmetic issues.
“It sounds like we have a systemic problem here, and it needs to be addressed from the absolute ground up,” Mr. Lionette said. “Trying to throw any Band-Aid at this juncture, I find it’s reprehensible.”
Mr. Marcus agreed, and Ms. DeVane said they needed an engineer to come to the school and evaluate the system.
Time out
Frustrations continued to rise as the discussion turned to the Chilmark School. An overhaul of the HVAC system will be completed by the start of school year. The contract was for $227,500 and the project was over budget by $27,500.
There was also discussion about separate contracts for repairs to the gutters and roof. The roof had been leaking, and Wayne Roofing Systems completed the project for $72,500. They found small holes around lighting rods and nail heads that were exposed and causing leaks in the roof of the art room.
Separately, painters started painting the bell tower at a cost of $9,500 and found rotted wood boards. That disclosure prompted an angry exchange.
“Here we are skimping on the things we’re spending $1 million trying to fix,” Mr. Manter said in regard to the building’s maintenance. “It’s the process I’m very frustrated with.”
Mr. Lionette said the committee had asked for a report to analyze the scope of the problem before they started repairs. Because the rotted wood had come as a surprise, the project essentially now was incomplete and over budget.
Ms. Stevens and Ms. Tierney explained that the original bid was for the roof and leaking bell tower. An alternate bid was made for the rotted wood.
“If we have the money we can do it. We did not have the money,” Ms. Tierney said.
Mr. Lionette asked when they got the alternate bid, and Ms. Tierney said it was June 30, but Ms. Stevens said no one actually bid on it.
“We’ve met three times in July,” Mr. Lionette said. “I’m trying to understand. We were aware in June that there were more problems than we were addressing?” Mr. Marcus said this was the first he was hearing of it, too.
“This is what you need to share with us. Why are you spending hours on this when half of this isn’t even exposed to us?” Mr. Lionette yelled to Ms. Tierney, throwing his papers. “Once again you’re just going to rubber-stamp [expletive].”
A screaming match between the two ensued. Ms. Tierney yelled back that she didn’t rubber-stamp it, and didn’t realize the excess of rot that was in the bell tower. Mr. Marcus quickly called a timeout. He said they needed to find out how much it will cost to replace the wood. Ms. DeVane said to have the painters stop, and Ms. Stevens said she had. The committee then took a two-minute recess.
The committee returned to discuss enrollment numbers and the shared-services program. The total number of students for the upcoming school year is 355 students in the West Tisbury School, but Superintendent Matt D’Andrea, in an email with The Times, said that enrollment numbers tend to fluctuate until the start of the school year.