To the Editor,

An open letter to the School Committee:

This morning [March 19] I attended the Warwick School Committee’s building committee special meeting. 

This meeting was another eye-opener for me and continues to present significant concerns for me as a taxpayer, as finance chair of the Warwick City Council and especially for the Warwick taxpayers. The taxpayers will be forced to pay for these premature million dollar decisions that were made this morning and possibly by the School Committee as its special meeting this evening.

I am particularly concerned that the building committee has voted to approve (with the exception of Armand Lusi) and award a bid package for Pilgrim High School in excess of $14 million for the purchase of concrete, steel and elevators in the absence of 100% completed design documents. It was stated that the design documents are only 60% completed.

In addition, these two schools do not have the total amount of money needed, based upon the latest budget numbers I have received, to complete these schools. I am not aware of any GMP agreement and I do not believe there is an Escalation Clause agreement.

The discussions and comments from this committee was riddled with "we think so, typically we do, we don't anticipate, we've done it this way for years, the steel is made in America but the raw materials come from Canada."

So my $350-million question remains the same (and continues to go unanswered): "What happens if these schools reach the $350-million cap and the buildings are not finished?" Where does the School Department plan on getting the additional (at the moment) $23 million and possibly more to finish these two high schools that were prematurely started?  

On behalf of the Warwick taxpayers, I continue to object to this misguided and underfunded attempt to push these schools through until completely approved and any additional funding requirements are voted on by the taxpayers of the city of Warwick.

Ed Ladouceur

Councilman, Ward 5