Magaziner visits Coventry to talk school construction

COVENTRY — Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner made a stop in Coventry this week to talk school construction with the Coventry PTA Council, and to present the state School Building Task Force’s plan to make a “once-in-a-generation” investment in Rhode Island’s public schools.

The task force, co-chaired by Magaziner and Education Commissioner Ken Wagner, recommended the issuance of $500 million in state general obligation bonds for school construction following a statewide facilities assessment completed by Jacobs Engineering. The assessment is known as the Jacobs Report, and it detailed $60,192,513 in capital needs for Coventry Public Schools in 2017. According to the report, the state’s schools have more than $2.2 billion in deficiencies, $600 million of which is for immediate needs.

“All children in Rhode Island deserve to go to schools that are warm, safe and dry,” Magaziner said to a group of parents and PTA members at Alan Shawn Feinstein Middle School Tuesday night. “As I’ve gone through this process what I’ve learned is the way schools are designed today is very different compared to even when I was in school in the 90s. It’s different now than it was before the Internet, and the types of jobs out there are very different.”

He said there is a direct connection between the quality of a school building and its academic outcomes.

“There’s been a lot of research on the impact on attendance and health outcomes,” he said.

The longer municipalities wait to fix their schools, the more expensive it will get, he added, pointing to several repairs needed in Coventry, like the boiler at the high school and an electrical system at Western Coventry Elementary that is original to 1948.

The Jacobs Report broke down the deficiencies of each school in every district by priorities. Priorities 1 and 2 are repairs that need to be done rather quickly, while those falling into categories 3 and 4 may have more to do with aesthetics.

“Every single district in the state had at least one building with priority 1 needs, so it’s not just one city or town,” said Magaziner. “Every city and town has buildings that need work.”

The state currently spends roughly $80 million a year on school construction, he said. When a city or town wants to do a school project, they pay for the whole cost and get reimbursed from the state for some portion of it. How much they get reimbursed is based on a formula. The state covers about 47 percent of Coventry’s school project costs, according to members of the PTA council.

There are several problems with the current system of funding, the treasurer explained.

“It’s not enough to keep up with the need,” he said, noting that over 10 years that $2.2 billion in repairs will become $2.9 billion. “We’re not keeping up with the rate at which the buildings are falling apart.”

The task force has come up with several recommendations to help municipalities throughout the state perform the necessary school construction work that is needed, based on the facilities assessment. The first recommendation is that the state increases its share toward school projects significantly, but only for a short period of time.

“We want to increase the state share to make it easier and to do it in a way so money comes in at the beginning and they don’t have to borrow the full amount,” said Magaziner. “It’s temporarily increasing the state share because we can’t afford to it forever.”

Another recommendation of the task force is the creation of cost controls for projects.

“If we’re doing these projects, we want to make sure we’re not wasting money on things we don’t need to,” he said. “We talked about introducing statewide maintenance standards to make sure we don’t end up in the same place 10 years from now. It involves making sure cities and towns keep enough money aside for repairs.”

For projects over $1.5 million, the task force is also recommending an “Owners Project Manager” come on board to oversee the construction process and to make sure projects stay on budget. Massachusetts already has a similar requirement which they claim has saved the state money.

The task force hopes to get a school construction bond out to the voters by November, first asking for approval of a $250 million bond and then another $250 million in 4 years.

“$500 million in state bonds is a lot of money, but over the next year we’re actually paying off about $1.4 million of old bonds,” Magaziner said. “We have a lot of old debt the state issued in the 90s that is expiring.”

Magaziner referenced the Potter Burns School in Pawtucket, which had a ceiling collapse into a classroom four years ago. Since the school reopened this year after a major renovation, he said, the administration has reported that disciplinary issues and student absenteeism have dropped.

Governor Gina Raimondo included the task force’s recommendation in her annual budget this year. The legislature will vote in June to decide whether it goes to the voters for approval as well as the amount.

“If it gets to the voters I’m very confident it will pass,” Magaziner said. “Call your legislators and tell them you support this.

There will be a hearing on the proposal before the Senate Finance Committee next Wednesday. Last week the House Finance Committee held its own hearing.

According to Magaziner, the state hasn’t committed a bond for school construction in 30 years, but Massachusetts has done so for 7 out of the last 9 years.

Follow Kendra Port on Twitter @kendrarport