Councillors Cite Lack of Communications from RHS Building Committee

The Revere High School Building Committee, who is working on plans for the construction of a new high school, came under heavy criticism at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

Councillor-at-Large George Rotondo led the torrent after requesting that the building project team “provide an update on their scope of work.” Council President Anthony Zambuto, who said he has been actively involved in the construction of five new schools in the city during his tenure in office, felt that the Committee had erred by not providing minutes of its meeting to the City Council.

ADA Coordinator Ralph DeCicco also blasted the Committee, stating that the public speaking portions of the meeting are conducted unprofessionally and that a member of the Revere Commission on Disabilities should have a seat on the School Building Committee.

“This is not about the school building group, it’s about participation of the people,” began Rotondo. “We have a $300 million project that is coming before us, and we have a very minimal amount of participation from the public.

“When I review the YouTube videos that are presented on the web site and you look at the participation numbers, it’s less than 1,000 people – that’s a very, very small amount,” said Rotondo.

Councillor Patrick Keefe, who with Councillor-at-Large Gerry Visconti are members of the School Building Committee, responded to Rotondo’s claims.

“The plans are to be in front of the City Council on Jan. 10,” said Keefe. “The project chair wants to present it in front of the School Committee, and subsequently in front of the City Council, and host a public forum that week as well.”

Keefe also reported that the two potential sites for the new high school are on the current site of Revere High School and at the former Wonderland  Park property that was home to a greyhound racing facility.

“You see, this is my issue,” said Rotondo. “The entire process, the people did not have a say in it. It was just a select group.”

“They have had a say,” said Keefe, before Zambuto said he didn’t want the discussion to evolve into “a back and forth.”

Rotondo said past school building committees ‘reported to us on a weekly basis.”

Keefe said that “everyone has been given a chance to participate. These meetings have been held on Zoom. It couldn’t be easier to participate.”

Zambuto then asked Keefe, “Have the minutes of every meeting been distributed to this Council?”

“They have not been,” said Zambuto, answering his own question. “I built five schools and I sat at every construction meeting and altered some of the problems that were going to happen because of my construction experience. But what we did do is we always issued minutes for the City Council, and that has not been done. You people on the Building Committee should insist that that happens.”

ADA Coordinator DeCicco momentarily altered the tense atmosphere when he said, “I’m going to talk as two people right now.”

DeCicco explained that he would be speaking from the perspective of being a private citizen and the ADA coordinator.

“Public speaking is done in a very unprofessional way at those [School Building Committee] meetings,” said DeCicco. “You can only make a comment. You cannot ask questions and get a response. It [making comments] has to be done at the beginning of the meeting when there are not facts stated.”

DeCicco said that in the past, “there has always been a person from the Commission on Disabilities on those [school building] boards. There is not a person on this Committee from the Commission on Disabilities.”

Zambuto also seemed to be taken aback that he was not invited to serve on the Committee, despite “having the most experience in building schools in the city.”

“The way they’re running these meetings don’t seem to be in keeping with the way they were run in the past,” concluded Zambuto.

The Council concluded its discussion by approving Rotondo’s motion for an update on the School Building Committee’s work to-date.