JOINT SESSION

 

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

 

At a JOINT SESSION of the Town Council, School Committee and School Building Committee of the Town of South Kingstown, County of Washington, in the State of Rhode Island, held at the Town Hall, in and for said Town on the 23^rd day of January 2023 at 7:00 PM.

 

PRESENT:     Town Council

Rory H. McEntee, President

Michael K. Marran, Vice President

Patricia A. Alley

Deborah D. Bergner

Jessica L. Rose

 

School Committee

Paula Whitford, Chairwoman

Michelle Brousseau, Vice Chairwoman

Melissa A. Boyd

Katherine Macinanti

James L. Restivo

Carol A. Vetter

 

School Building Committee

Lucas Murray, Chair

Katherine Macinanti, School Committee member

Brian Mahoney, School Facilities Superintendent

James Manni, Town Manager

David Palazzetti

Raquel Pellerin, School CFO

Mark Prince, School Superintendent

 

 

1.         A.        PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG

 

The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag is given.

 

B.        LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT STATEMENT

 

The Land Acknowledgement Statement is read.

 

2.         ROLL CALL

 

Roll Call of the Town Council is taken and all members are present.

 

Roll Call of the School Committee is taken and six members are present. Christie L. Fish is absent.

 

School Building Committee: 7 members are present. Chip McGair, High School Principal is absent.

 

Also present: Brian Silvia, Finance Director.

 

James Manni, Town Manager gives a brief introduction, noting that the Finance Director has prepared updated numbers on a potential bond for a school facilities plan that would affect the Town’s bond rating, debt service and tax rate. If a plan was approved to borrow $150 million, in FY 2025 the funds needed to be raised for the school bond debt would be $1,260,000. The tax levy increase would be 3.2%, or 18¢ per thousand. In FY 2026 the funds needed to be raised for the school bond debt would be $1,253,000. The tax levy increase would be 3.14%. In FY 2027, Year Three the funds needed to be raised for the school bond debt would be $705,000. The levy increase would be 2.4%. Year Four, FY 2028 the funds needed to be raised for the school bond debt would be $1,578,000. The tax levy increase would be 3.44%. In the fifth year, FY 2029 the funds needed to be raised for the school bond debt would be $1,097,000 with a tax levy increase of 2.82%. Required tax rate increase would be 16¢ per thousand. The total over that five year period would be an 84¢ per thousand dollar tax increase. Initial estimates were $1.03 per thousand but these numbers take into account growth in the Town and additional taxes received.  

 

Discussion ensues regarding issuing bond anticipation notes until the project is completed. Brian Silvia, Finance Director notes that this is what we would need over the three years when the project would be built, because the RI Department of Education will not sign off on any of the bonuses until the project is complete. The full bond would be issued in Year Four, FY 2028.

 

Discussion ensues.

 

The Town Manager clarifies that the tax levy increases he reported include the Town budget as well as the school bond.

  

5.         COMMENTS FROM INTERESTED CITIZENS

 

Jane Estes, North Weeden Road comments on construction costs, potential sale of South Road School, and career and tech school regionalization.

 

Jim O’Neill comments on the current and planned square footage of the high school, projected enrollment, issuance of bonds.

 

Discussion ensues.

 

Paul Brown, Columbia Street comments on what options have been considered, possible regionalization with the Town of Narragansett.

 

Discussion ensues.

 

Maura Gazerro supports putting the school facilities plan to the voters at a bond referendum, comments on students leaving SK because they don’t know where the Town is going so this would help keep students here.

 

Joe Martin, South Shore Village comments on his school board experience in Philadelphia and building expansion options into any plan for the new high school to allow for future growth as well as expanding the curriculum.

 

Viera Levitt comments on increasing the quality of education, attracting young families here.   

 

Dorald Beasley comments on the square footage planned for a new high school facility, cost of the bond, construction costs per square foot, and RIDE reimbursement.          

 

Greg Sweet comments on the Pay Go portion of the project, affordability of building a new high school.

Martha Andrew comments on her 3 children now attending Charter schools, and in support of a new high school project.  

 

Christian Blaney comments that a high school is a crown jewel of a Town, buyers choosing to locate elsewhere because of the state of the high school facilities, supports a new high school.

 

Council President McEntee notes that the Town Council probably won’t be able to vote on their choice of a school facilities project tonight, they don’t quite have all the information they were hopeful to receive in order to help them get to the point to further this along.

 

Another meeting will be scheduled for next week for the Town Council, Town Manager and staff to further discuss this.

 

Councilwoman Bergner comments on a general consensus that a new high school is needed, but there are concerns about how to fund the project. The Schools have challenges that make it difficult to determine operational savings to help contribute to the costs. Ms. Bergner is comfortable with the 52.5% contribution from RIDE but concerned with covering the rest of the gap.

 

School Committee Chair Whitford states this feels like being stuck trying to figure this out, they can’t do any more talking than they have already done, there are public forums coming up, to keep coming back to discuss if we can agree to a bond referendum is pointless. We have to make these decisions soon. 

 

Councilwoman Bergner comments that some information requested from the School Committee has still not been received.

 

School Committee Chair Whitford responds that Council is asking for information that the School Committee won’t know what that’s really going to look like until the schools have been closed for at least a year. They have given the Council a rough estimate of what they believe their operational savings are going to be.

 

School Committee Member Vetter comments that since 2017 the School has achieved savings by closing Wakefield Elementary School, by the planned closing of Curtis Corner Middle School, they will be relocating the pre-school and turning Wakefield School back to the Town. Unfortunately we have declining enrollment and that is painful. We have an opportunity to bring back the out of district students with a new high school. The School budget has been level funded for the past 3 years and the coming year as well, they have achieved operational savings and used them because when you level fund it’s a cut because costs go up. Over 4 years the Schools have saved the Town 12%. The Council already has the information on operational savings. This is a great opportunity for a school facilities project while we are assured of RIDE reimbursement rates, knowing costs are only going to go up.

 

Council Vice President Marran notes we are dealing with a lot of uncertainties, we’re on a clock that the State has set, we’ve narrowed this down, we’ve funneled through the possible options. We all have a good sense of what we can do or what we might do, it’s getting comfortable with the uncertainties despite the fact that level funding has been the issue, and there are savings in that because inflation hasn’t stopped and costs continue to go up, collective bargaining agreements need to be met. It’s a leap of faith of what we do next, and an assessment of the community’s values. We have been given 4 options and the School Building Committee has done yeoman’s work vetting those options. This project has to be decided on shortly because we have deadlines to get a bond enabling legislation bill to the General Assembly and we have a deadline for bonuses that would be available from RIDE.

 

Councilwoman Rose comments there is consensus that we want a new high school, Ms. Whitford stated we need to bring this to the voters, but her fear is that voters may reject the plan if it is too high and then we will lose out on the RIDE funding. This is all important work that we are doing here. We have to get the entire community behind it.

 

School Committee Member Macinanti agrees community approval is essential, but states that the School Building Committee has determined that the $150 million project is the right plan, we have to do it right. It’s disappointing that the Council will not make a decision tonight.

 

Discussion ensues.

 

Council President McEntee notes that they want to make an informed decision with all the facts in hand and they intend to meet next week to make an affirmative decision.       

 

Discussion ensues.

 

Councilwoman Alley comments that it’s important to answer everyone’s questions, and to have the Council members all on the same page so that they can be effective and speak with one voice to the community.

 

It is consensus to schedule a meeting for next Thursday, March 2^nd at 6 PM.

 

UNANIMOUSLY VOTED: to adjourn at 8:26 PM.

 

ADJOURNED,

 

Lucas Murray

Clerk Pro Tem