A $190 million bond is sought for Middletown schools. Take a final look at the proposal.
On Nov. 7, Middletown voters will be asked to decide whether the town should take out a $190 million bond to build a new combination middle school-high school.
Although Middletown voters approved a school bond last November, approval of the bond was contingent on approval of a regionalized school district with Newport, which Newport voters rejected. Now, they’re asking residents to weigh in on a new bond.
What is being proposed?
While the bond funds one 210,000 sq. ft. school building, the building will house two separate schools— a middle school and a high school— with two separate entrances. According to the Middletown website, the two schools will serve a combined 1,100 6th through 12th-grade students.
As for the fourth graders currently attending Gaudet Learning Academy, the plan is to use $20 million from the bond to make improvements to stabilize the current Middletown High School campus and convert it into a second through fifth grade education center. Pre-kindergarten through first grade students will attend Forest Avenue School, which will also be improved using that $20 million and Aquidneck School will be converted into a community center. The town is also envisioning the Oliphant School to be renovated into affordable housing units.
The building will have a new auditorium, a new gymnasium with two basketball courts, an indoor sports facility, and new athletic fields. In the town's Q & A document, they say those athletic fields that will be displaced by the project will be replaced with fields of equal or higher quality.
Additionally, they plan to add new “hands-on” courses to the school district’s bio-mechanical and engineering programs with the new space provided by the building.
Construction would begin in spring 2025 and the ribbon cutting would take place in fall 2027. In the meantime, school will still take place at the existing schools.
What is the financial cost?
The town has been working to advertise the benefits of approving the bond, which they say would only cost the median Middletown homeowner about a $2 per day increase in their taxes. More specifically. The residential property tax rate would increase from $12.59 per $1,000 to $13.68 per $1,000, and the bond would be paid over the course of 25 years. The town has a more detailed analysis of how much residents would pay depending on their home assessment on the town website.
Furthermore, the town argues that, should the bond referendum fail, the town’s investment in the existing school buildings would be $124 million, because of the deficiencies identified in the RI Department of Education’s Facility Condition Assessment report from 2017.
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However, there are Middletowners who feel the town is not being forthcoming with the financial impact of this bond decision. A small group called Middletown Concerned Neighbors began hosting public meetings of their own to discuss their own concerns with the bond. Former Town Councilor Terri Flynn told The Newport Daily News the group was concerned about the size of the bond given the current state of the economy and the vagueness of the financials in advertisements presented by the town.
“There are so many facets to a $190 million decision,” Flynn said. “That is a huge, huge decision. The big concern is that voters vote with all of the information.”
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Middletown school bond proposal: Look at costs, proposal
