Cummings Background Info — File 25-0906

Background information: On September 9, 2024, the School Committee temporarily released the Cummings School to the City for partial renovation and use as a warming center for Somerville’s unhoused population on the conditions that the City and Somerville Public Schools would execute a memorandum of understanding (MOU) documenting the agreement. The MOU was to state, among other conditions, that “the City shall commit to creating and making public specific plans that outline the work necessary … to host students in the event of an emergency….” (See the full motion below.) At the March 31, 2025 Joint Meeting of the School Building Facilities and Maintenance (SBFM) Subcommittees of the City Council and School Committee, members discussed the renovation plans of the Cummings after this warming season. Infrastructure and Asset Management Director Rich Raiche stated the MOU was never executed or negotiated. School Committee Member Laura Pitone raised the conditions of the MOU and requested an update at a future Joint SBFM meeting. MOTION: Provided that the City and the School Committee first reach agreement on and fully execute a written MOU satisfactory in form and substance to the School Committee establishing the terms of such use and specific renovations and improvements to the Cummings School, the School Committee authorizes the City to make renovations and improvements to the Cummings School in preparation for temporary use by the City of the Cummings School building as a winter overnight warming center for unhoused residents, such MOU to provide in part that 1.) the use of the Cummings School for the purpose of a winter overnight warming center for unhoused residents shall terminate on May 31, 2025 unless terminated earlier, 2.) the School Committee reserves the right to terminate the MOU at any time if the School Committee determines in its sole discretion that there is an immediate or previously unanticipated need for the Cummings School for School Department use or purposes, 3.) the City shall commit to creating and making public specific plans that outline the work necessary (scope, capacity, time, cost) to host students in the event of an emergency, 4.) the City shall be required to do basic work to ensure the basic structure of the building does not continue to deteriorate (including but not limited to eliminating water leaks in the building), and 5.) this vote and the execution of the MOU by the School Committee are not intended to and shall not indicate or be construed to mean that the Cummings School is no longer needed for school purposes or that the Cummings School is available for disposition or that the Cummings School is released from the care, custody, management and control of the School Committee, or that the Cummings School is or will be retired as a School Department facility.