Marblehead school facilities director on top of to-do list

MARBLEHEAD – School Facilities Director Richard Matthews isn’t just overseeing the sixth grade move from the Marblehead Village School to the Marblehead Veterans Middle School.While the move is the largest project handed to him in his first year in charge, Matthews is also keeping an eye on energy use in the schools.The Village School in particular has had problems with heat control since the covering was removed from the heating pipes under the floor, Matthews told the committee in a maintenance report, and the heat hasn’t been evenly distributed since. As a result some floor tiles have popped up in the front of the building.School security improvements have also kept his staff busy replacing doors and making sure they close properly.Matthews is also formulating a transportation savings plan, to save some of the $34,000 the schools spent last year on rented buses for field trips and athletic events by using the school department’s third bus with on-call drivers who would be paid a fee per trip.Using a school-owned bus would require the department to replace the current third bus, which has high mileage and needs frequent repairs, but the extra use would cost "a lot less than what we pay for rentals," he said.Matthews submitted a list of 35 work orders that have come to his department, including 10 Coffin School items which are still undone.The day-to-day needs on the list range from the usual door, lighting and toilet issues to removing poison ivy and a large bees’ nest from the vicinity of the Bell School Playground and cutting down a dead tree at the upper section of the Glover School.Matthews noted that all these issues are being handled by a staff that is short three custodians, a plumber and a driver and monitor for the special education van, and has three custodians out for illness and other issues along with the usual sick days.He said his custodians and maintenance staff "deserve a lot of credit for their efforts.""They have gone above and beyond to make sure the schools look the best they can," he said.