The vote to fund a massive school building project in Johnston will be held at least one month later than previously expected.
As the Johnston School District moves into Phase III of a total …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
|
The vote to fund a massive school building project in Johnston will be held at least one month later than previously expected.
As the Johnston School District moves into Phase III of a total town-wide school facility overhaul, the voters will ultimately decide whether tax dollars will fund the $215 million project.
Once the state legislature approves a bond referendum, the town can hold a vote 60 days later.
“I think April … that’s tentatively where it will be,” Johnston Schools Superintendent Dr. Bernard DiLullo Jr. said Tuesday night. “So because the Legislature is not in full session it got a little delayed in terms of being heard on the floor. So I don’t think it’s going to go onto the floor until possibly next week. And you need 60 days in between passing the legislature and the vote.”
The district hopes to build a new Early Childhood Center and a new Elementary School, and make major renovations at the Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School and the Johnston High School, if voters approve bond funding.
The School Committee was expected to vote Tuesday night to “authorize Colliers International to draft an RFP and go out to bid for Construction Manager at Risk for the school construction projects approved by the Rhode Island Department of Education.”
However, due to technology issues, the meeting was canceled and rescheduled for next week.
The district initially pitched the school projects in late summer, and the process has moved rapidly through both Town Council and the School Committee.
“We are now moving into Stage III, really starts to develop the design of the buildings,” DiLullo said.
Now, it’s in the hands of state legislators.
“We were on a tight timeframe,” DiLullo explained Tuesday night. “We got approval in December. The legislature didn’t go back until last week. The mayor and I went to testify to the finance committee in terms of the need, so that’s kind of like the timing of it all. Nothing really was delayed.”
In October, the School Committee voted to retain the SLAM Collaborative architectural firm to take the district into Stage III of the school construction process.
At its Dec. 21 meeting, the Johnston School Committee passed a resolution supporting the $215 million bond.
Johnston Mayor Joseph M. Polisena said the recent spike in COVID-19 has slowed down the process.
“It’s because of COVID,” he said Saturday, while standing in the high school parking lot. “We’re expecting to hold the vote in early April now instead of March.
The new ECC will cost an estimated $28,600,000 and is tentatively slated to open in the summer of 2024.
The plans call for closing and then demolishing or selling all of the town’s current elementary schools — Graniteville ECC Annex, Barnes, Brown Avenue, Thornton and Winsor Hill.
The large consolidated, new elementary school will be built to educate 1,100 students in grades 1-4, and is planned for construction on town property just north of the Johnston High School.
The elementary school will cost an estimated $84,350,000, and is tentatively scheduled to open in late summer 2024.
The district will likely tackle the new ECC and elementary school first, and then move on to the high school renovation, and then the middle school project, according to DiLullo.
SLAM has proposed more than $39 million in renovations to the Ferri Middle School and a $57 million facelift at the high school.
The high school is slated for a late summer of 2024 unveiling, and the middle school repairs should be complete by late summer of 2025.
The district hopes to build a new Early Childhood Center, a new Elementary School for all students in grades 1-4, and make major renovations at the Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School and Johnston High School.
SCHOOLS:
Early Childhood Center (ECC)
Johnston Elementary School
Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School
Johnston High School
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here