School Board Fails History Examination

Large Number of Missing Records

At the School Board meeting on December 18, 2024, one of the things the public was told was that the history of the decisions the board made about the school’s heating system could be found on the school’s website, along with key documents such as requests for proposals.

Looking for these documents requires a huge effort. People with jobs and kids cannot be expected to put in that kind of time.

I reviewed from the beginning of the 2022/2023 school year to the most recent minutes posted - for November 6, 2024 Here are some highlights of what I did and did not find.

One of the most notable things I did not find was minutes. The severity of the problem is visible at first glance. Consider this list of meetings. Note how much longer the Agendas column is compared to the Minutes column. Many meetings have been held without minutes being made available to the public.

But, it’s worse than that. I found evidence of meetings being held that aren’t even listed. For example, there was an emergency meeting held March 26, 2024 that’s not in the above list, but it is referenced in one of the later meeting packets.

To make things even worse, most of the recordings of past meetings on the school’s YouTube channel have been deleted. The oldest recordings are from late 2023.

While the meeting packets contain some useful information, they do not provide good documentation of requests for proposals, quotes, and other key information.

The main result of my investigation was to develop a list for a right-to-know request, as what is on the school’s website is not particularly informative. However, I did find a couple of things worth reporting on.

The corrosiveness of the glycol has been a known problem since at least the beginning of 2023. Palmer & Sicard said in January 2023 they do not consider themselves responsible for testing and maintaining the quality of the glycol and water. I was unable to identify any vendor charged with this responsibility. I would have liked to have been able to view the video of this presentation, but it has been deleted.

EEI reported that their test of the water/glycol showed it to be the most corrosive they’ve ever seen, and that they worked on a prior case in which corrosive water/glycol did $1.9 million in damages to a school’s heating system.

It has also been known since February 2023 that the state will not allow remote learning for reasons other than weather. For details on these two items, see the appendix at the end of this article.

I have submitted the following questions and right-to-know requests with the School Board.

Questions

• The December 21, 2022 packet mentions the potential creation of an HVAC subcommittee. Was this ever formed? If so, who is on it?

• Who is responsible for ensuring board meeting minutes are posted to the website?

• Videos of board meetings prior to 2023 are gone from Youtube. Why have these been deleted?

• What vendor is responsible for testing and maintaining the water/glycol in the heating system?

Right to know request items:

• Minutes to the September 7, 2022 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the February 1, 2023 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the March 1, 2023 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the April 5, 2023 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the May 3, 2023 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the May 17, 2023 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the June 7, 2023 board meeting - missing from website.

• The maintenance plan the July 19, 2023 meeting agenda says Scott Brown carried to the meeting.

• Minutes to the August 30, 2023 board meeting - missing from website.

• The September 6, 2023 report on the boiler that the agenda says will be hand-carried to the meeting.

• Minutes to the November 8, 2023 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the January 6, 2024 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the March 6, 2024 emergency board meeting - missing from website

• Minutes to the March 26, 2024 emergency board meeting - missing from website

• Minutes to the April 17, 2024 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the May 1, 2024 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the June 26, 2024 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the July 10, 2024 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the September 4, 2024 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the October 2, 2024 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the October 16, 2024 board meeting - missing from website.

• Minutes to the November 20, 2024 board meeting - missing from website.

• All requests for proposals associated with the heating system from 2022 to date, in particular RFPs for the boiler and air handlers.

• All email communications between the school, defined as Superintendent, Business Manager, and Facilities Manager, and any heating vendor, including but not limited to EMC, Palmer & Sicard, Maine Boiler, EEI, Turner Group. 2022 to date.

• All proposals and quotes from heating vendors. 2022 to date.

• All invoices from heating vendors. 2022 to date.

• All test results of the water/glycol in the heating system going back to 2015.

• All invoices for testing and/or treating the water/glycol in the heating system going back to 2015.

Appendix

The January 18, 2023 packet says:

● HVAC Issues - The glycol in our system is bad and we are in need of replacing it. Palmer and Sicard have sent in a proposal to replace this and I have passed it along to the SAU.

The minutes say:

8. Business Administrator’s Report:

a. Palmer & Sicard Quote: Mr. Koumrian presented a quote from Palmer & Sicard for $18,456.00 to flush out, dispose of and replace a corrosion inhibitor and approximately 570 gallons of glycol that is in critical condition. The system water should be clear and transparent but is currently the color and consistency of coffee. Mr. Koumrian stated that this issue is unrelated to the concurring boiler issues, and will need to be done regardless of regulator repairs. Mr. Campo confirmed that the regulators and the glycol are on separate loops and are not associated with each other. Mr. Campo spoke with Mr. Brown about composing a list of equipment in the building to track maintenance and plan necessary testing down the road. Mr. Campo recommends boiler replacement be put together in a long range CIP plan and that regulator replacement be explored in the near future. Conversations surrounding boiler & HVAC issues will continue to be ongoing. Karyl Martin made a motion to approve the $18,456.00 quote from Palmer & Sicard, Inc. to flush out, dispose of and replace a corrosion inhibitor and approximately 570 gallons of glycol. Kathryne Brosnan seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. The motion carried unanimously.

Mr. Campo advised that the glycol replacement will take place over April vacation.

The February 15, 2023 minutes say:

4. Heating System Update:

Representatives of Palmer & Sicard were present to discuss the recent developments with the HVAC system and heating boiler. Another vendor has recommended replacing the exterior regulators and re-pipe the location of the regulators at the tank to correct the pressure coming from the tank. An estimate of the cost for this repair will be presented at the next meeting. As a result of the pressure and flow issues, only half of the boiler is currently in use. It is anticipated that new internal regulators will not be needed once the exterior regulators are replaced/repaired.

The glycol leaks in the hallway are due to the pipe being porous (rotting from the inside outwards). This is causing weep holes that result in leaks. This is primarily due to aging of the infrastructure. The glycol has also become acidic and needs to be replaced. The water quality within the closed boiler system has not been treated as part of regular maintenance (this is done by a separate vendor); this could be done to lengthen the lifespan of the glycol. The current glycol is only four years old and could be extended to 10-15 years if the water quality is maintained. The glycol will be replaced next week; they started preparations for flushing out the glycol this week. This week, they discovered that one of the sections of the boiler is cracked and dripping, causing steaming. The section can be removed and replaced, and there is inventory available in New Jersey. It is an interior section so the boiler has to be disassembled to reach it. The current boiler is not as efficient as newer ones; the current boiler is dated 1991 and is original to the building. If one section is replaced, another one could start leaking soon after. There are other things that need to be updated in the boiler room to support a new boiler; a rough estimated cost in total would be $230,000 (needs to be put out as RFP). A new boiler would achieve efficiency of 94% which could result in savings around 14% in heating costs. They emphasized the importance of regular maintenance of the water quality to keep it at the right pH levels to extend the life of the glycol. Palmer & Sicard’s recommendation is to replace the boiler section now for around $12,000 (without freight costs) as a temporary solution, with the hope of doing the repair next week if they can get the part in time. The long-term recommendation is to replace the boiler and update the boiler room. This could be done during summer when school is not in session. Rather than replacing with one large boiler, they would recommend replacing with 2 or 3 smaller boilers which provide redundancy and extend the life of the boilers since they are not always in use at the same time. They recommend replacing sections of the existing interior piping as needed and use clamps to address leaks as they occur until the leaking section can be replaced. Karyl Martin motioned to approve Palmer & Sicard replacing the leaking section of the boiler as soon as possible for estimated cost of $12,000 (plus freight costs). Susan Levenson seconded the motion. All members voted in favor.

Karyl Martin motioned to issue an RFP for replacement of the boiler during summer 2023 so that the board can determine whether to proceed with the project. Susan Levenson seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. The Expectations for Remote Instruction and Learning handout was distributed to families and included in the packet. Mr. Koumrian reported that he reached out to the NH Dept. of Education regarding use of remote instruction when the school has to be closed for unexpected reasons; DOE clarified that the closure has to be due to a weather-related emergency. This means remote instruction cannot be used for days such as closures for town voting or due to issues with the heating system. Staff are aware that any additional weather-related closures for the current year will be remote learning days if possible to avoid adding more days at the end of the school year. Susan Levenson reported that the request for a waiver of instruction days has been submitted to the State Board of Education due to the number of school closures this year; the request will go on the agenda for the State Board, hopefully in March.