BEVERLY — The city has hired Tim Howland to be in charge of maintenance, upkeep and oversight of the city's nine public school buildings, ending a yearlong controversy and candidate search.
Howland, 56, of Melrose, was selected from a field of about 80 applicants, said Michael Collins, Beverly's director of public services. Howland will start Jan. 3 and be paid $78,500 per year, Collins said.
The hire ends a search that, because of controversy and logistics, has taken more than a year to conclude. Collins said the city got the right man for the job.
"He's got the right depth of experience. He's been working in the field for just under 30 years," Collins said. "He also has the right professional demeanor and has a lot of hands-on skills, which is critical for this job. There's so much to do, so often you've got to do it yourself."
Howland's official title is director of the Public Schools Division of the Department of Public Services. The position had been held by Tim Liporto on an interim basis but has been handled by Collins himself since July. Howland will report to Collins.
"I thought it would be a great opportunity. Obviously, it's related to my background in building facilities, and I have never been in the public sector, that had a lot of appeal," Howland said Sunday in an interview. "It's also closer to my home and a shorter commute, which will be nice."
For the last three years, Howland has been a facility engineer for Verizon in Waltham, where he oversaw repairs, renovation projects and general upkeep. He has also worked for a small mechanical contractor in Danvers, where he said he worked on a lot of school renovation projects. For 12 years, Howland was facility manager for Eastern Tool & Stamping Co. Inc. in Saugus.
Howland will manage a staff of about 25 custodians and will coordinate with other city employees to provide ongoing maintenance and repairs.
With eight schools — including the new $80 million high school — and one administrative building, there's a lot of work to do, Collins said.
"It's everything from the nitty-gritty of managing 25 people and making sure all of the buildings are covered, to handling all of the disasters that befall us on a regular basis," Collins said. "Obviously, it's a large and important job. (He's) responsible for some of the most expensive assets the city owns."
Filling the school maintenance director job has been a long, controversial process. In May, e-mails surfaced from former school Finance Director Joan Liporto to former Superintendent James Hayes. In the e-mails, Liporto threatened to quit unless the district hired her husband, Tim, as maintenance director — the position she appointed him to on an interim basis when the job became vacant in 2008. Later, following a search for a maintenance director that drew 62 applicants, Hayes picked Tim Liporto for the position, but that selection was nixed and the search was reopened.
Joan Liporto, who had worked in Beverly schools for more than two decades, did leave last month to take a job in Newmarket, N.H., under that district's new superintendent — Hayes.
Consolidation
Howland's hiring was also the culmination of what has been a long road to consolidating school and city maintenance services. Citing the potential savings, the City Council began pushing consolidation in 2008, but School Committee members were reluctant to give up control of part of their budget.
In April, after two years of debate, the Beverly School Committee and Beverly City Council finally agreed to the merger, with Collins, as public services director, managing the maintenance of all the school buildings and the School Department continuing to manage the finances.
Until this year, the schools typically contracted outside help for general maintenance, even though the city often had carpenters, plumbers, electricians, heating and cooling specialists, and others on payroll who could do the work. Now those municipal workers can be deployed to the schools.
"Even if I have to pay out overtime, it is still going to cost less" than contracting out the work, Collins said.
Since it took over in July, the city has been looking for additional ways to save money, through "systematic changes" — everything from standardizing the cleaning supplies and duties of custodians, to mulching around trees and fences to eliminate time-consuming weed-whacking.
Already the district has discovered that "most schools" in the district have problems with heating systems, Collins said.
"Most of the elementary schools were not built with sophisticated controls, and we've lost a lot of money as far as wasted energy in the schools. You'd go into a school during vacation, and it would be just as warm as in the middle of the school day," Collins said. "We're working quickly to get things working better. ...
"I don't want to give the impression that the schools were unsupervised before; they were doing the best they could," Collins continued. "It's a monster. As soon as something gets fixed, something else breaks."
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