[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey Diane,

DESE’s guidance seems to be to have students eat in their classrooms as you have mentioned outside tents are not sustainable much past end of October.

I know people have been looking at tents for emergency swing space so am curious to see what others have to share.

Good luck out there,

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Just re-read that section; the use the word “consider” regarding the MERV portable re-circ not “require”…

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

This is great Jon thanks so much!

HEPA recirc is going to be virtually impossible. I just spoke with Governor’s office on a call last week and we narrowed it down to nurses suite. Game changer as there aren’t likely enough for every classroom!

Oh boy!

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Likely guidance will be having these units for both nurses suite and isolation room. Home Depot and Amazon carry smaller Honeywell units. Depending on use dictates how often you need to change the hepa filters. We uses to use these in a few problematic air quality spaces at our old High School and they worked great… as long as they are plugged in and on a maintenance schedule.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Honeywell-PowerPlus-True-HEPA-530-sq-ft-Allergen-Remover-Air-Purifier-HPA3300B/312232605

Watch out for anything that potentially will emit Ozone. That will only make the situation worse.

Good luck,

Ken

 

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Sharon MS has air conditioning via air displacement in the new 7th grade wing (fresh air makeup) all others were only SPED classrooms via either window AC or split units. Maybe 15% of total district.

FYI, some window AC units have a small outdoor damper that you can adjust to allow some fresh air intake if needed. Split units have zero.

Good luck,

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Joe,

I have purchased 20′ boxes from Pac-Van out of Salisbury.  I paid arounf 3K with delivery.

Michael Harrison
Sales Representative
Pac-Van, Inc.
74 Main Street – Salisbury, MA 01952
p: (978) 961-1013 – f: (978) 961-1015 – m: (978) 802-0852

 

Mike Gormley, Monty Tech

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey Bill,

Some needle point technology has shown to create ozone and been an issue. Double check to make sure iWave doesn’t have the same issues. So many new technologies and so little time to keep track.

Bipolar Ionization is gaining popularity. This and UVC lighting are hot topics  right now. https://www.businessinsider.com/bipolar-ionization-could-be-a-secret-weapon-against-covid-19-2020-4

Good luck with this just make sure you do your homework and aren’t creating a monster for yourself. There are some great technologies available for sure, just many have varying design philosophies and difference of opinion on upstream or downstream installation and costs.

For what it is worth, Sharon High School’s design team is looking at bipolar ionization https://atmosair.com/technology/how-atmosair-works/

Keep at it and stay safe,

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey Joe,

I love your Superintendent! Outside of the box thinking is great and don’t know until you ask the questions.

Only experience I’ve had with a school is a covered walkway during phased construction. Biggest issue came in dead of winter where we heated the space but freeze thaw at night created sheets of ice in the (hallway) outside walkway. It was a huge pain.

You can certainly look at renting heated/air conditioned tents which would likely be expensive. I just ran Ashland’s schools through the Cannon Design district calculator and if you have 2 feet of personal space and 4 feet of social distancing, in theory you can fit everyone into your elementary schools and MS. You would need to plug in your data from your High School as the data  wasn’t collected for that in 2016.

Good luck, curious to see who else chimes in, and personally I think classroom yurts would be amazing!

Ken Wertz

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Congrats Frank and wishing all the best that life has to offer! 48 years as a public servant is no easy task for sure. You have always handled it with grace and professionalism. Thankful to have had you as part of MFAA and always appreciated your help along the way.

Take care and enjoy yourself. You’ve earned it!

Ken Wertz

MFAA Exec.Director

 

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey everyone,

The wording that DESE decided on really comes down to shoot for 6′ but no less than 3′. Think of it this way, 6 feet nose to nose which is about 4′ shoulder to shoulder which gives you 3′ between desks. Tables are going to be an issue so you may need to look at storage containers for those and getting you hands on some desks or be really creative with a hybrid schedule for 50% capacity per day to allow 12 kids per class so it is 1 student per desk. Every district and building in those districts are so varied that there really isn’t a one size fits all plan.

I like Cannon Design’s calculator as it provides a good broad overview and you can change settings to adjust space for furniture, teachers space, etc. The other interesting component of the calculator lets you decide if you set desks up in symmetrical rows creating spacial squares or if you break your rows into a 4 – 3 -4 staggered system creating spacial triangles.

As for funding; there is supposed money coming to help according to the press release. Track your expenses tag them as COVID if you haven’t already.

Press Release: … the Baker-Polito Administration announced the allocation of approximately $200 million from the Commonwealth’s federal Coronavirus Relief Fund for costs related to reopening public schools. Schools are eligible to receive up to $225 per student for eligible costs incurred due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, such as training for school staff, supplemental social and academic services, reconfiguration of school spaces, leasing of temporary facilities, and acquisition of health and hygiene supplies.

Good luck and will keep you posted with any changes.

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey Bob,

Hoisting license is over 10 ft. in height or over 500 lbs. lifting capacity or a bucket with more than .25 yard capacity.

You can search the message board in the search box and you may pull up some older archived Q&A regarding salaries and benefits.

When I was in Sharon it became tricky as we used to pay for licenses then our business manager put a stop to it as the teacher’s have to pay for their own licenses as part of their work (plumber, electrician) I did convince her that we would pay for hoisting license as that was our requirement for our maintenance techs to remove snow with a small loader.

Good luck,

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Bumped to noon press release.

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hi again,

Also wanted to share with you all this amazing tool built by Cannon Design using MSBA’s 2016 Building Audit data. More than 75% of all of your buildings data are plugged into this tool and allows you to manipulate fields to find out safe capacity for your buildings regarding social distancing.

Here is the link but this can also be found on MFAA’s Covid Page.  https://www.cannondesign.com/massachusetts-capacity-dashboard/

Press release supposedly coming at 10am.

Good luck everyone,

Ken

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hi everyone,

This seems excessive and doesn’t align with the guidance coming fro DESE. Water fountains maybe, bottle fillers are hands free so may be ok.

 

Paper towels need to be cleaned and disinfected but are still able to be used.

Hold tight as guidance being released next week.

 

 

[Ken Wertz, MFAA Exec]

Hey everyone,

Here is an updated 1 minute Video Brochure for Precision Concrete in case the other one was acting funny.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/214wvw04flrj8jg/Digital%20Brochure%201080p.mp4?dl=0

Thanks

Ken