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School buildings and the schools' other fights

Updated September 22, 2026

What's happening

The Cummings School will not become a teen center. Infrastructure and Asset Management Director Rich Raiche's September 1 memo prices a full renovation of the School Street and Prescott Street wings at $28,295,541 and an office-only conversion of the Prescott wing at $13,217,746, and says his department will recommend against putting either in the capital plan due in November. The joint school-buildings committees closed the item on September 8 as work completed; Council committee chair Jonathan Link's verdict was that "hiring extra staff has to be cheaper than $28,000,000" for after-hours teen space at the high school, which Ward 5 Councilor Naima Sait is now asking staff to price (Sept. 8 digest). The building keeps its winter job as the city's warming center, and the School Committee, which owns it, has to decide whether to release it.

The rest of the docket is the usual stream of small emergencies. The Argenziano cafeteria balcony will not be modified; Raiche called intervention "extremely invasive" and said it would "look like a jail," and the School Committee members kept the item open until the district weighs in. Edgerly needs a roughly $3 million transformer and panel upgrade that is headed for the capital plan because the building is "vital classroom swing space." East Somerville's swing-shift custodian job drew no internal bids and is posted publicly. Two items remain open from the spring: whether a police officer returns to Somerville High School in some form, and crossing-guard pay, where the Council passed a raise resolution (item 26-1318) on Aug. 27.

The story

Kennedy: mold, then a $3M schoolyard

The Kennedy PTA asked for an air-quality action plan in April, citing wet ceiling tiles, "more visible mold," and a hot, damp closet behind the stage. DPW Commissioner Eric Weisman conceded there was almost nothing in 311 about mold and no process at all for intake, testing or remediation (April 30 digest). That was the real finding: the city had no method. May site visits turned up one stained tile from an old valve leak, and the fix was procedural — complaints now route from school staff to 311 to a district questionnaire to a DPW investigation.

Separately, the Council approved $3 million for the schoolyard on Feb. 26 — a $2 million bond plus a $1 million CPA appropriation from the Open Space Reserve, both unanimous (Feb. 26 digest). The parking lot and underground stormwater catchment went in this summer, the playground follows next summer. It removes 12–16 parking spaces to grow the schoolyard by 30%, which drew a teacher petition; At-large Councilor Kristen Strezo wants reserved on-street teacher parking to offset it.

Its poured-in-place rubberized surface raised a follow-up sent to committee on May 14: it cannot be cleared of snow, because plowing, shoveling and salting all damage it and sand clogs its pores. Holly Simione, chair of the Commission for Persons with Disabilities, noted as a parent that students using wheelchairs can then reach no outdoor play space at all.

Edgerly: an AC unit waiting on a transformer

The Edgerly Education Center, where the displaced Winter Hill students go, overheats, and the permanent fix is blocked on electricity: the building's panel and the surrounding neighborhood lack capacity, so a full upgrade waits on an Eversource transformer and can't start until after the 2027 construction season. The interim measure was a five-ton commercial AC unit for the kitchen and cafeteria. The Council kept a relocation-era promise in June, approving $45,000 to continue the Playworks recess program there through 2026-27 (June 25 digest).

The AC unit works: Raiche told the joint committee on September 8 it took the room from 82 to 74 degrees in half an hour, though it loses efficiency through the hallway doors. The permanent fix is now priced at roughly $3 million for a new Eversource transformer plus panel upgrades, a long-lead item that likely cannot go in before the summer after next; Raiche expects it to land in the five-year capital plan because Edgerly is the swing space for future East, West, Kennedy and Healey work (Sept. 8 digest). See The capital plan Somerville hasn't updated in four years.

Argenziano: a fence, three cameras, a balcony

Chain-link fencing with two double-swing locking gates and one single gate went up by the end of June, designed for fire-apparatus access, and three more security cameras were installed over the summer. The balcony is settled, at least from the city's side: on September 8 Raiche said the city would not modify it, calling any intervention "extremely invasive" and something that would "look like a jail," and noting the railing height complies with the state building code and matches the Capuano, the high school and nearly every stairwell landing. School Committee member Leiran Biton pushed back that code compliance "is one metric" but "not the only metric," especially for students with individualized needs, and Laura Pitone asked to keep the item open until the district formally weighs in (Sept. 8 digest). Security cameras are installed and the schoolyard fence is complete; Link, whose children attend, called the old setup "very porous." The school absorbed the AIM autism program strand relocated from Winter Hill; its boilers are being replaced with $500,000 in free cash approved June 11, and a $999,000 May appropriation covered the Argenziano kitchen and a Kennedy chiller.

East Somerville: one custodian, 738 students

Weisman's custodial staffing analysis on March 23 broke every school out by square footage and students per custodian, and East Somerville was the clear outlier: 738 students, one daytime custodian (March 23 digest). Councilor Naima Sait pressed on post-lunch cleaning after parent reports. Weisman declined to request a position, citing recent turnover, and offered staggered scheduling or floater assignments instead. School Committee member Leiran Biton asked the obvious question: if area and enrollment per custodian aren't driving the decision, what is? The item returned to committee on May 14 and no added position appears in the FY27 budget — see the FY27 budget and the school budget authority fight. The compromise was a 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. swing shift, and on September 8 the committees learned it drew no internal bids despite assurances of interest; the job is now posted publicly with a morning-and-afternoon floater covering in the meantime. The Local 3 custodians' contract is nearly finalized pending Council approval, and the item was closed (Sept. 8 digest). West Somerville Neighborhood School, among the worst rodent problems in the city last spring, got remediation work that Biton thanked DPW for while warning that its roof construction could draw rodents back out; see The rodenticide fight.

The Cummings teen center, priced and dropped

The 1931 Cummings School at 93 School Street, expanded toward Prescott Street in the 1960s, was the School Committee's candidate for a teen center to replace the one lost when Winter Hill's students took over the Edgerly. Under the 2025 memorandum that also made the building the city's winter warming center, the city hired Beyer Blinder Belle and a cost estimator to price two futures. Scenario one, about 33,600 square feet of swing space across both wings with a teen center off School Street, came to $28,295,541 ($20.5 million construction, $4.1 million contingency, $3.7 million design). Scenario two, offices in the roughly 18,000-square-foot Prescott wing only, came to $13,217,746 (memo, Sept. 1). The full job needs a new elevator, sprinklers and alarms the building lacks, masonry and structural repair, a new roof and hazmat remediation.

Raiche's description on September 8 was blunter than the memo: the School Street wing is "in very rough shape," its north wall is separating from the roof, lintels have brick and mortar "ready to fall," and the layout is "awkwardly configured." He said rehabilitation "is not worth the effort," the land is worth more than the building, and demolition would be the better path, but that decision starts with the School Committee, which owns the property; Pitone noted it has not been a school in her nearly 13 years on the committee. Link asked whether dropping the parking-lot and playground work would save $10 million and was told it would not. Every unoccupied building in the city's portfolio has similar problems, Raiche said, so "nothing is clearly rising to the top" as an alternative site. Sait called it "unfortunate" that there will be no teen center within five years and asked about the high school after hours; Raiche said staffing is the obstacle and the question is under discussion at cabinet level. Both chairs closed the item (26-0063, work completed on a 2-0-1 roll with Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott absent, along with the East Somerville custodial and West Somerville rodent items; the MSBA updates and the Edgerly temperature item stay in committee, per the agenda), and Link reported to the full Council on September 10 that the two bodies would look for "the best bad answer" (Sept. 8 digest; Sept. 10 digest).

Mayor Jake Wilson has meanwhile put teen programming at the TAB. The building's other life continues: Cummings hosts the winter warming center again this season, and the School Committee's September 14 agenda carried a vote authorizing the superintendent to sign the updated warming-center memorandum along with a memorandum of agreement with the UAW Community Schools Union (agenda) (outcome not in our sources yet).

The school resource officer question

The School Committee ended the full-time School Resource Officer program at the high school. On June 4, Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen raised constituent reports that it might be reversed. Superintendent Rubén Carmona said the Student Liaison Officer model — specially trained officers based off-site — "remains on the table," that no memorandum of understanding was ever completed under the previous administration, and that he wants an agreement addressing safety without students ending up in "a criminalized track" (June 4 digest). Nothing has been signed. Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott has noted that removing police from schools was among the 2020 demands body cameras did not answer — see body cameras and police oversight.

Crossing guards and School Committee appointments

Link's FY27 budget amendment for a 10% crossing-guard raise didn't survive cut night (June 23 digest), but the Council returned to it on Aug. 27, passing item 26-1318 to raise pay "as a means to ensure the city is adequately staffed with crossing guards." The same meeting placed on file four School Committee appointments to charter bodies: Ellenor Barish and Jack Perenick to the Ranked Choice Voting Committee (26-1244, 26-1245), Ilana Krepchin and Devon Moos to the Public Financing of Campaigns Committee (26-1246, 26-1247). See charter buildout.

What's next

  • September 30, 2026 — Public Health and Public Safety takes up the Cummings warming-center after-action report; see The Cummings warming center.
  • Fall 2026 — Weisman's phased snow-removal memo for each school, and a winter-gear donation drive through PTAs and the SFLC from late October.
  • Fall 2026 — The joint decarbonization and electrical-capacity analysis from Capital Projects and the Office of Sustainability and the Environment. School buildings are 50-60% of municipal carbon pollution, and the Carbon Free and Healthy Schools coalition says there is still "no plan and no timeline."
  • November 2026 — The five-year capital plan, which is expected to carry the $3 million Edgerly electrical fix and to leave out both Cummings scenarios; see The capital plan Somerville hasn't updated in four years.
  • Fall 2026 — The school department's three-year forecast, which Finance Director Ed Bean asked for as part of the city's long-range financial plan; the School Committee's Finance and Facilities subcommittee had a "3-Year Forecast Overview" on its Sept. 16 agenda (outcome not in our sources yet). It is the first real look at whether FY28 can absorb the six positions the School Committee added and Mayor Wilson left out of FY27, after the Law Department told the Finance Committee June 16 that the mayor is not bound by the School Committee's figure and the Council can only cut a budget, never add to it.
  • Undated — Sait's order for a cost and staffing estimate of after-hours teen and community use of the high school; the School Committee's decision on whether to release the Cummings building.
  • January 2027 — MSBA Accelerated Repair Program applications open; School Committee member Laura Pitone argues Somerville should apply for windows, doors and heat pumps anyway, with the East School facade a candidate.
  • Summer 2027 — Construction of the Kennedy playground itself.
  • Summer 2028 at the earliest — The Edgerly transformer, per Raiche's September 8 estimate.
  • Open in committee — Argenziano balcony (city says no change; district sign-off pending), the school buildings maintenance website (no timeline offered), and any agreement on a school resource or student liaison officer.