Warwick School Committee member Eugene Nadeau felt so strongly about his position on delaying the closing and repurposing of three Warwick elementary schools to help finance the consolidation of sixth graders into a true middle school model that he – according to his own words – made just the second motion of his seven-year tenure on the committee during their December meeting on Tuesday night.

“These two steps have got to be done correctly,” he said, ultimately amending his original motion made last month to delay the closing of the schools for one year, as opposed to two. “I know what will happen if we find out the month after we move all of the sixth graders – which affects all 15 elementary schools – and something goes wrong. It will never stop for the following year. Never. And the teachers have a right to be mad if we do things wrong.”

His enthusiasm or passionate position did him no good, however, as the motion was ultimately voted down 3-2 after a good 45 minutes of discussion and, at times, lively debate.

The School Committee is proceeding with elementary school consolidation with this academic year being the last for John Brown Francis, Randall Holden and Wickes Schools.

Karen Bachus joined Nadeau in support of the motion, but the three other members of the committee voted the motion down.

What Nadeau was referring to by “it” never stopping appeared to be the seemingly endless criticism that the committee has endured by the Warwick Teachers’ Union and the general public in the past few years – criticism bolstered by the failure to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, for sure, but also added to by various instances where the committee has seemed either indecisive or too decisive in their decision making.

“My point is this. We want things to go smoothly,” Nadeau said. “The animosity that has been raised in this city should end.”

To Nadeau, delaying the closing of Holden, Wickes Elementary and the re-purposing of John Brown Francis into Warwick’s early learning center (currently housed at Drum Rock Early Childhood Center, which would become a new space for the Warwick Area Career and Technical Center under the consolidation plan), is simply a matter of caution to ensure that the transition can go smoothly.

To school administration, the move would be costly financially, as was demonstrated by a report generated by Chief Academic Officer Sheryl Rabbitt.

The report showed that moving the 6th graders into the city’s two middle schools would cost approximately $1.45 million in added transportation, food services as well as building operations and improvements. Closing the two elementary schools would mean a savings of about $1.46 million, creating a net positive $10,000 difference and balancing each other out.

“The point that I’m trying to illustrate here is that it’s a mathematical certainty that in order to do the 6th grade transition we need to consolidate the elementary schools,” Rabbitt said in summary.

Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci added to the discussion that keeping the schools open would require additional staffing, as the plan as it stands would re-purpose faculty and administrative staff from those schools to go to the middle schools – as those schools would be taking in large amounts of additional students. Ferrucci estimated that those staffing costs, in addition to continuing paying for the building’s electrical upkeep, would come in at around $2 million.

This was not enough of a reason to deter Nadeau or fellow School Committee member Karen Bachus in their position.

“If it costs us $2 million to be certain that this is the way to go or that these three schools are the right schools to close, we should probably do that, and we should probably be certain,” Bachus said.

“I want it done right, and if that’s wrong and it’s going to cost a million dollars – so be it. I don’t see it costing us that money,” Nadeau said. “I’ve reviewed this day after day after day, because I’m a conservative when it comes to money – and they all know it. I apologize to no one, because I believe what we would do by just delaying one year these three schools is the right thing to do. It’s just common sense.”

David Testa, who has voiced his strong approval of middle schools, which includes 6th graders, reiterated that position and voted based on it as well.

“What are we doing a year from now? Are we sitting up here again talking about the four same schools? We’ll have the same issue then,” he said. “For me it’s the sixth graders. I cannot sit back and do to these sixth graders what we’re doing to them in science.”

Testa was referring to a data set presented by Rabbitt earlier in the night which showed a significant gap between levels of proficiency in science and mathematics in standardized test scores for students in 7th grade.

“The data you put up on the screen earlier is proof positive that we’re not serving these kids in science in elementary school, and you could argue we aren’t serving them in math either,” Testa said. “We get them into secondary schools and the scores fall off a cliff. I, for one, don’t like that.”

The consolidation will move forward and, as one member of the public pointed out last night during public comment, all the costs associated with the consolidation are not yet exactly pinned down.

“We have not seen all the pieces of the puzzle,” said Vanessa Carnevale, a parent of a student from John Brown Francis. Carnevale noted that, while building improvements are slated to happen to John Brown Francis – about $4.3 million worth according to the bond fund breakout sheet provided by Ferrucci – these funds are not guaranteed, and wouldn’t kick in until well after students had been moved into the new schools that require Priority 1 renovations now.

Carnevale pondered where the department would find the money needed to repurpose John Brown Francis into the new tech school building, and that the hypothetical $10,000 balance in savings from the consolidation, as presented by Rabbitt, couldn’t possibly be enough.

“Where is that money going to come from?” asked Carnevale, to which Ferrucci couldn’t give a definite answer.

“We’re collecting data so we can have an answer,” he said, noting that he will have to have a revised budget ready to present to the school committee in March, which would include projections such as this one.

“So you will not know how you’re going to pay for it until March, yet you have stated you are moving forward anyways,” Carnevale responded, drawing cheers from the audience.