Schools to ask for additional $33.7 M to satisfy state

In an effort to satisfy the Rhode Island Department of Education’s (RIDE) stringent requirements for what it deems “aspirational capacity” – the amount of space per student that the state sees as ideal for students in school – the Warwick School Department will be appearing before the Warwick City Council on Nov. 29 to ask for an additional $33.7 million, on top of their original $85 million bond which was requested in January.

While the number is sure to generate gasps of disapproval and forehead sweating amongst those with financial concerns for the city and taxpayers alike, school administrators say that the request is an important exercise of due diligence that the schools must entertain if they are to have any shot of receiving reimbursement from the state to conduct large-scale renovation work on schools across the district – and that remains the goal.

Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci explained the complex situation at the Oct. 10 meeting of the Warwick School Committee, detailing how it was important to show RIDE that the Warwick community had addressed the state’s aspirational capacity standard by requesting the additional funds.

The figure of $33.7 million was reached by Ferrucci’s calculations for how much it would cost to construct two brand new elementary schools in Warwick, in addition to renovating and keeping open the Randall Holden Elementary School, in order to satisfy the aspirational capacity standards for elementary schools set by RIDE.

“[New] elementary schools under RIDE’s model will now be required to have an auditorium [space] dedicated, a cafeteria dedicated and a gymnasium dedicated,” Ferrucci said, explaining the cost. “So the multi-purpose room concept goes away under those aspirations. They’re aspiring to have all these dedicated spaces in the school. They’re also aspiring to have a science classroom, a music classroom and an arts classroom.”

At the heart is the discrepancy between what the state aspires as the standard for educational space, and what districts like Warwick have to work with – which is, by and large, schools that are smaller and are graded under a different standard – instructional capacity.

“[RIDE] is telling folks in the communities that an existing school which has a square footage of 35,000 square feet at $350 a square foot [per student] could be replaced for $12 or $13 million. But what they’re not really clearly telling the community is that that current building may be serving 250 or 300 students, which our architect, SMMA, when they did the analysis, did it on an instructional space capacity, said that that building could in fact house 250 or 300 students. So there is a discrepancy between instructional space and aspirational space,” Ferrucci said.

“Because of that, if we were to build a new building, we would need to take those 300 students and multiply it by 180 square feet and build a building that is now 48,000 square feet,” he continued. “That will translate into – if they’re saying that the building can be replaced for $13 million – but if we have to build a building to accommodate those students, it will be $17 or $18 million. And there, I believe, is a disconnect in the community.”

The discrepancy between aspirational standards and instructional capacity can most clearly be seen in the figures that represent the number of students who are able to be accommodated in the learning space. Under Warwick’s model, the 1,394,000 square feet of total instructional space can accommodate 12,900 students. Under RIDE’s standard? That same space is fit to accommodate just 7,600.

As a result, under RIDE’s model Warwick is actually coming up short of the amount of instructional space necessary by about 300 students, as they anticipate having about 7,900 in enrollment in the coming years, according to Ferrucci.

The district’s elementary schools are the most affected by the state standards. Under the purview of the Jacobs Report – the statewide report on school infrastructure which RIDE will be using as a benchmark to determine which districts will get reimbursement funding for school improvements – Warwick needs to accommodate an aspirational capacity of 679 additional elementary students.

It is for this reason that Ferrucci requested the additional $33.7 million, as he has concerns that RIDE will disregard the district’s request for an $85 million bond, as the aspirational capacity for elementary schools is so far from what they believe is necessary.

“This is strictly a mathematical issue,” Ferrucci said. “If the City Council says we cannot afford to do that, or if the voters say in the future that we cannot afford it, or we have more public hearings going forward between now and the first of the year and we hear back, we can then feed that to RIDE at the Stage 2 level saying, ‘Here’s what happened over the next three months after we stepped forward, and here’s why we’re not able to sustain buying the additional space, and so please consider our whole $85 million.’”

Ferrucci urged the community to understand that the goal of this bond is to make far-reaching improvements to as many schools in the district as possible, and that this request is not a school-driven agenda.

“It’s not one person making a recommendation, it’s a community effort making a recommendation,” he said.

Superintendent Thornton said that, no matter what final figure is reached for a bond request, work to the schools must be conducted.

“In the end when we do decide if it’s $50 million or $70 million, something won’t get done that someone wants to get done, whether it’s a roof, a boiler, tarring Toll Gate Road, you name it we have a list that’s really long,” he said. “However we do this, we really do have to talk to the council about a need to get something done because the schools need work.”

The Stage 1 deadline for submitting an initial application was on Monday. Ferrucci said that the department had sent it in on time. The Stage 2 request, which requires approval from the council on a final figure for the bond request, is due on Feb. 1. RIDE will inform districts on the status of their application by May 1.

Should a bond then be sought, it would need a resolution of support from both the state legislature, and then the city of Warwick would have to place the bond request on the ballot for November 2018 for the voters to ultimately approve or deny.