NEWS

Administrators press for ‘yes’ on $56M for school updates

By ARDEN BASTIA
Posted 10/29/20

By ARDEN BASTIA Voters are being asked to approve or reject a $56 million bond to address deferred maintenance and updates to Warwick schools with the bulk of the work for heating and air conditioning systems at 13 elementary schools. Oakland Beach

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NEWS

Administrators press for ‘yes’ on $56M for school updates

Posted

Voters are being asked to approve or reject a $56 million bond to address deferred maintenance and updates to Warwick schools with the bulk of the work for heating and air conditioning systems at 13 elementary schools.

Oakland Beach Elementary School is Warwick’s oldest elementary school, dating back to 1910. Warwick’s newest school, Toll Gate High School, was built in 1972. Across the city, the schools are starting to show their age. With crumbling infrastructure inside and outside the buildings, combined with outdated technology, Warwick schools have fallen behind.

If approved, the $56 million bond would allow the Warwick School Department to make improvements to schools between 2022 and 2026. Philip Thornton, Superintendent of Warwick Schools, is looking to reverse “decades of deferred maintenance.”

Consistent across almost all buildings is the plan to install updated HVAC systems, a critical piece to COVID pandemic schooling. HVAC systems provide heat, air conditioning, and the necessary air exchange that is key to safely returning to in-person learning. The district is in the process of installing 1,260 air filtration systems in all spaces used by students with the first of the filters going in elementary classrooms. Had the schools had HVAC systems, they wouldn’t have needed the filters. Since it was updated with HVAC, Warwick Veterans Middle School has been able to reopen for special education students.

The bond is on a 5-year timeline, and a majority of the projects would be tackled during the summer. Only so much work can be done at once, because there are only so many companies and so much labor available, explained Thornton.

David Testa, a member of the school committee, said in an interview, “This bond is absolutely necessary.”

“I know people are talking about building a new school, but that is probably a $160 to $170 million project. Most districts aren’t building new,” Testa said referencing calls for a new high school last year to replace Pilgrim and Toll Gate High Schools. Because of COVID, the discussion for updating the high schools has been paused until spring 2021.

Another bond would be needed to address secondary schools, according to Thornton. “To rehab two high schools and add additions would be $100 million. Once we’re out of the woods, plans will resume to update the high schools.”

The school committee and administrators fear that the $56 million bond may not pass. In an interview, Anthony Ferrucci, Executive Director of finance and operations for Warwick schools, stressed the importance of the bond and thinks it is a “game-changer for Warwick, if it passes.”

In the past, he and other administrators have hosted public meetings to showcase the plans for repairs, and educate about what will be done to the schools. Because of COVID, these meetings weren’t safe to carry out, and Ferrucci fears that the public has little knowledge of the importance of this bond.

Without the bond, the school department would be scraping the bottom of the barrel to try to give the schools the updates they need. According to Ferrucci, there is no backup plan if the bond doesn’t pass. “The plan is there are no funds to do any of the work. We would do our best to patch and repair, but we would have to rely on the local school budget, which is already stressed. We’d have maybe $50,000 to $100,000, but we have nothing to put against the HVAC systems. These are all or nothing projects, you can’t put in half an HVAC system or only repair half a roof.”

For more information about the $56 million bond, and to view the outline with a more detailed breakdown of the repairs to each school, please visit the Warwick School Department website. Any questions about the bond can be addressed to Anthony Ferrucci via email at anthony.ferrucci@warwickschools.org.

The work to be done

In a handout available to view on the school department website, the school department outlines how the bond money would be spent.

- Warwick Early Learning Center at John Brown Francis, $2,834,510 for the outside hard top play area, exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, and electrical updates.

- Cedar Hill Elementary, $3,256,965 for exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

- Greenwood Elementary, $2,662,725 for paving, exterior doors, window replacements, exterior wood replacement, HVAC systems, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

- Holliman Elementary, $5,759,455 for paving, roofing repairs, exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

- Hoxsie Elementary, $2,631,445 for exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, and electrical updates.

- Lippitt Elementary, $1,387,000 for paving, exterior doors, window replacements, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

- Norwood Elementary, $2,897,670 for paving, site prep for a new parking lot, exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, and electrical updates.

- Oakland Beach Elementary, $4,225,170 for exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

- Park Elementary, $3,417,010 for surface water drainage, exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

- Robertson Elementary, $2,966,328 for exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

- Scott Elementary, $3,939,090 for paving, exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

- Warwick Neck Elementary, $3,842,339 for paving, roofing, exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, and electrical updates.

- Wyman Elementary, $2,855,630 for exterior doors, window replacements, HVAC systems, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

- Warwick Veterans Middle School, $1,843,200 for exterior doors, window replacements, installation of garage style doors, and electrical updates.

- Winman Middle School, $5,917,860 for curbing, roofing, exterior doors, window replacements, installation of garage style doors, flooring replacements, asbestos abatement, and electrical updates.

- Career and Technical Center, $57,120 for electrical updates.

- Drum Rock/Annex, $1,717,000 for paving, roofing, exterior doors, window replacements, replacement HVAC filters, electrical updates, and hot water to classrooms.

schools, updates

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