How $40M would be spent on schools
Committee gets breakdown of how bond would be spent if approved by voters in November
Safety improvements, roofs and accessibility are three of the key areas school department officials hope to address should Warwick voters approve a $40 million bond on Nov. 6.
In an updated presentation, the first of its kind given publicly regarding the bond since the requested amount was chopped down from $85 million to $40 million by the Warwick City Council in late January, school finance director Tony Ferrucci went through a detailed list of the work that can get done across the district should the money be approved.
“I get very excited about this,” Ferrucci said. “This is about where we're going. If you can't get energized about where we're going, you don't belong in the business, but I am energized by this.”
Broken down, the $40 million would go towards work at each of the 20 schools in the district, with the majority (almost $34 million) going towards mechanical fixes, ADA improvements to increase accessibility and nine full roof replacements. The remainder of the money would fund replacing aging fire alarm systems, build 14 ADA-compliant playgrounds, facilitate the installation of nearly 1,200 new interior doors and locks and provide over $800,000 in asbestos abatement to eight schools.
A flyer detailing the full list of repairs proposed to happen at each individual school is being disseminated to as many parents as possible via school open houses, and the presentation given by Ferrucci is available on the home page of the Warwick Public Schools website. We’ll break down some of the highlights below.
Doing more with less
While $40 million certainly is not a “small” amount of money to most people, it actually only comprises 22 percent of the $178 million investment that the Rhode Island Department of Education concluded in its Jacobs Report should be spent over the next five years to get Warwick schools up to good academic standards. It is less than 18 percent of what architectural firm SMMA estimated was a $228 million need in order to make renovations to the city’s schools.
Ferrucci emphasized, however, that the current iteration of the school department has shown the ability to do much more than expected with far fewer resources. He pointed to the very building the audience was gathered in, Warwick Veterans Middle School, as an example.
RIDE concluded that Vets would need $27 million to make significant improvements, however the school department has been able to completely renovate much of the school’s interior – floors, the gymnasium, the cafeteria, auditorium, ceilings, lighting fixtures and asbestos abatement – in addition to completely replacing the antiquated HVAC system for about $13 million over the past five years.
Should the city bond be approved, Vets would receive another $1.2 million, which would enable administrators to make widespread ADA improvements to the school, such as accessible doors, bathrooms, sinks, actuator buttons for all entryway doors and a lift for the auditorium stage.
“We can do this across all our schools. When we go for our second phase we will really in at the top end,” Ferrucci said. “I'm excited about what we can achieve with the dollars that this community presents to us. This, to me, is clear fact. While folks coming in from the outside said you need to look at $30, $40 million, we can say, ‘Look what we did for $15 [million].’ It's exciting. It's where we're going. It's the future.”
All said, the breakdown of the $40 million would go towards the following: l $13.1 million in mechanical fixes – The majority of this would go towards a nearly $10 million expenditure to replace the HVAC system at Pilgrim and about $2.5 million to finish repairing the HVAC at Toll Gate. School Committee member at-large David Testa reasoned in support of this that the high schools house the most aggregate students, so getting those systems up to par should be step one.
l $11.48 million towards ADA compliance – Renovations would occur at every school across the district, including 167 restroom doors, 122 student restrooms, 45 staff restrooms, 136 sinks and about 600 actuating buttons to allow entrance and egress from multiple doors. Three elevators would also be replaced at Toll Gate, the Career and Tech Center and Greenwood Elementary. “We will be fixing all of those elements so students can get in all of our doors and students can use all of our restrooms,” Ferrucci said.
l $9 million towards fixing roofs – Nine roofs would be completely repaired at Cedar Hill, Hoxsie, Robertson, Greenwood, John Brown Francis, Lippitt, Norwood, Oakland Beach and Sherman. The roofs at Winman Middle School and Toll Gate would be partially replaced.
l $2.3 million in fire and life safety repairs – 12 fire alarm systems would be replaced at Drum Rock, Park, John Brown Francis, Robertson, Greenwood, Scott, Hoxsie, Sherman, Lippitt, Warwick Neck, Oakland Beach and Toll Gate.
l $2.1 million for ADA playgrounds – 14 such playgrounds are proposed to be constructed, with community input sought for each to make them unique to each school. Ferrucci said each would cost about $150,000 and that students would have access to all of them. “That's a contribution not just to the school, that's a contribution to our community,” he said.
l $1.07 million for interior improvements – This would include the installation of 1,189 new interior doors, along with locks for all schools
l $811,000 for asbestos abatement – Schools needing asbestos abatement include Cedar Hill, Hoxsie, Scott, Holliman, Oakland Beach, Sherman, Toll Gate High School and Wyman.
Two phases, plus RIDE reimbursement
Ferrucci referred to how the bond was essentially cut in half by the city council, but that he was hopeful and optimistic the full extent of the work could be realized if the bond is achieved in two phases.
“We had planned doing this kind of work at all of our elementary schools,” Ferrucci said of mechanical renovations, which originally amounted to $34.5 million in the original request. “So the whole air quality issue would have gone away if we had gotten the $85 million authorization we were seeking. This will be the top priority for the rest of our schools when we go to phase two.”
In terms of reimbursement, Ferrucci said that at a minimum the city would be looking at a 40 percent reimbursement rate from RIDE for capital projects, however that rate could jump to 50 percent if the state’s $250 million bond for statewide school renovation passes and Warwick is able to earn additional reimbursement through incentives based on the types of projects they bring forward.
Even with the minimum 40 percent reimbursement, RIDE would foot $16 million of the $40 million bond, leaving taxpayers responsible for $24 million to be paid over 25 years. Ferrucci said that this would amount to 30 to 40 cents per thousand in tax increases over a five-year span. “Little money, great results,” he said.
Following his presentation, school committee members expressed the importance of the community voting in approval of the bond.
“If this doesn't pass, the only thing to do is buy every building all the duct tape that Amazon and Walmart has. That and bubble gum and maybe we can patch some of these things together,” said Testa. “That's how crucial this is.”
Testa pointed out how the city council and members of the public have claimed in the past that the school department has mismanaged bond funds, but that it wouldn’t be possible to mismanage funds for projects that require RIDE approval.
“Bond moneys are not play money for the Warwick School Department. It's not as if voters approve this and we get a $40 million toy to play with. Every project has to be approved by RIDE for reimbursement,” he said. “Contrary to the lie that keeps popping up, this school department responsibly spends bond moneys on appropriate, bond-related capital projects.”
Testa inquired as to whether or not there would be enough contractors to conduct multiple projects during the same summer session, such as roof replacements, as multiple districts will be going out for similar projects if the $250 million state bond is approved this November as well. Ferrucci said prioritization would be key to ensure work can be accomplished.
“I think each school will see some activity each summer as we progress, it will just be different projects,” he said.
“We really believe the time is now,” Ferrucci said at the beginning of his presentation, which was the overarching theme of the report.
