Something stinks at BPS, and it’s not just the stench of sewage at the Dearborn STEM Academy.
A foul odor has plagued the state-of-the-art facility (“Our school smells like poop,” said Steven Benjamin, a middle school reading specialist and special education teacher, according to the Herald) all year long.
Teachers at the $73 million Roxbury facility have to work around the smell: A classroom door needs to be fully open at all times, an air purifier running with the ionizer on, and windows open. Class is held in the hallway, or relocated from a classroom that’s particularly offensive. Students spray perfume and Febreeze when they can stand to enter a particularly odiferous room.
The logical step is to call a plumber. Staffers say that custodial teams have tried onsite fixes, but when multiple rooms smell like a sewer pipe, you’re not looking at a simple clog. Benjamin noted that leaders have “communicated to facilities through the proper channels.”
And yet the olfactory ordeal continues and students and teachers suffer. Last week, Benjamin and two colleagues took the issue to a School Committee meeting, asking for help from district leaders.
Teachers shouldn’t have to be the ones to raise a stink about the stench. An entire school smelling to high heaven can’t be a secret, and if leadership knew, and facilities contacted, why didn’t the ball get rolling sooner?
School Committee Vice Chairman Michael O’Neill is calling for action to be taken as soon as possible, and the timeline in solving the issue to be expedited.
“I hope we’re going to get some very professional plumbers out to a (new) building – a matter of fact, let’s get the contractors who built the building out there – and find out what the heck is going on there,” he told Superintendent Mary Skipper.
While you’re at it, make sure there aren’t any overdue bills hanging around.
This isn’t the first plumbing problem that Boston Public Schools has encountered. Last May, BPS was found to be stiffing a plumbing contractor on a $164,000 bill, racked up since 2018, as the Herald reported. According to the Boston Finance Commission, district employees sought to resolve the issue by directing another vendor to pick up the tab. That fiscal finagling left the school district with a substantially larger bill of $189,162.
It also raised questions about how BPS does business with vendors. How do you rack up a plumbing bill for five years without payment? And what effect does this have on future work?
The Boston Finance Commission addressed that in its report: “This transaction unnecessarily cost the taxpayers money that could have gone toward services for Boston Public School students, undermines the faith citizens have in their public officials, and will potentially cause vendors to question whether they should enter a working relationship with the City of Boston.”
What kind of rep does BPS having with plumbing contractors in light of the mega-bucks bill that went unpaid for years? Is that why work on the Dearborn STEM Academy’s problem is proceeding at a glacial pace?
Teachers, students and their parents deserve better. The BPS needs to get on this problem, stat. And maybe pay upfront.
