SWAMPSCOTT — The Capital Improvement Committee met early on Friday to discuss several infrastructural and technical issues that will need to be addressed at Swampscott Middle School going forward.
Director of Facilities Max Kasper took a moment to elaborate on the issues for the Middle School, as the committee prepared to address a few minor setbacks and discuss a potentially significant project to update the school’s HVAC, electrical, and heating systems.
“We have a number of different capital projects that have been submitted for the school, and each item has a different flavor,” Kasper explained.
The first issue the committee discussed was the condition of the many windows that line the classrooms and hallways of the Middle School.
“We’ve been getting along for years now with significant issues with many of the windows, and really the general window system,” Kasper noted. He said that paired with the timing of the larger middle school project, the hope was to sequence the two projects together—but now, Kasper said that with the uncertainty of when the larger project can officially begin – the committee arrived at a crossroads on how to proceed tackling the issue of windows.
“While we might not break ground on the big middle school project for about four years, the condition of the windows just isn’t acceptable,” Kasper said. It was noted during the meeting that the original bulk of the building was constructed in the late 1950s – with an addition built in the ’70s – but the windows haven’t been updated since.
“We’ve done repair work, we’ve done significant sealant work on the outside, we’ve done weatherization and hardware improvements, but at the end of the day we still have a failing window system,” Kasper said. “The condition of the middle school, in certain areas, is very poor.”
He said these are issues that need to be addressed immediately and that the ball “has to get rolling” so that the committee can begin to correct the issues.
The Committee agreed that to further address the issue, it will be actively working on drafting up plans to properly tackle the issue going forward.
