Middletown officials aimed for a May vote on school bond. Why it will wait until the fall

MIDDLETOWN – The Town Council voted Monday to postpone until the autumn the referendum on a proposed $190 million bond to build a new combined junior-senior high school.

The referendum, which had been tentatively scheduled for the beginning of May, will likely take place in November alongside the special election in District 1 to replace David Cicilline, who has announced he is leaving the US House of Representatives to take the job as president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation.

“We’ve been hearing a little bit from the community saying this seems a little rushed,” said Town Council President Paul Rodrigues. “So we hear you, let’s get the information let’s get it solid so everybody can make an informed decision at some point.”

Waiting until November will allow the town to base its cost estimates on finalized state reimbursement rates

There was a resolution in the council’s March 6 agenda to approve a referendum question for May 2, but Rodrigues led off the entire meeting with an early notification that the council would be moving to withdraw discussion of the $190 million bond discussion from the docket.

He explained waiting until the autumn would allow more time for the state’s General Assembly to decide what percentage of school construction bonds will be reimbursed, which will in turn allow the council and school district to present “real, concrete numbers” to the public instead of positing varying scenarios based on the uncertainty of the reimbursement rate.

Town Clerk Wendy Marshall will be going to the Secretary of State’s office in Providence on Thursday to find out the specific date of the special election to replace Cicilline, after which the town will decide when exactly to hold the bond referendum.

Middletown is paying millions to consultants, which will be reimbursable if the bond passes

Rodrigues also acknowledged “a certain amount of risk involved with continuing that election,” given the town has already paid about a million dollars to project management, architecture and design consultants who are helping the town design the new school.

Town Manager Shawn Brown confirmed that number, saying if the town held the referendum in May the consulting bill would have come to “about $1 million on consulting fees…if we wait until October/November, we will pay about $2.5 million.”

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Rodrigues explained if the bond referendum passes those consulting fees are reimbursable to whatever rate the state will reimburse the entire project, but if the referendum fails, Middletown’s taxpayers will be on the hook for the full consulting bill. Based on that information, he did raise the possibility of an earlier special election date to minimize risk by reducing the pre-referendum consulting bill.

School and town officials will tour combined junior-senior high school facilities

While many of the schedule dates presented by consultants to the School Building Committee on March 1 are no longer relevant given the huge schedule adjustment of moving the referendum from May to November, school district and town officials are still planning to tour the Westport, Massachusetts, middle-high school on March 9. They might also tour facilities in Saugus and Winthrop next week.

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In addition to being combined junior-senior high schools, which is a critical element of Middletown’s proposed design, some of these schools also house a variety of “career and technical education” classrooms for vocational programs, which will provide some insight to Middletown’s officials as they consider adding a fourth vocational program to their existing offerings.

What will the ballot question look like

“Shall an act passed at the 2023 session of the general assembly entitled ‘AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE TOWN OF MIDDLETOWN TO ISSUE NOT TO EXCEED $190,000,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS, NOTES, AND OTHER EVIDENCES OF INDEBTEDNESS TO FINANCE THE CONSTRUCTION, FURNISHING AND EQUIPPING OF A MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL AND THE RENOVATION, IMPROVEMENT, ALTERATION, REPAIR, FURNISHING AND EQUIPPING OF SCHOOL FACILITIES THROUGHOUT THE TOWN AND ALL ATTENDANT EXPENSES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DEMOLITION, ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURAL AND LANDSCAPING COSTS, PROVIDED THAT THE AUTHORIZATION SHALL BE REDUCED BY THE AMOUNT OF CERTAIN GRANTS RECEIVED FROM STATE BOND PROCEEDS, FROM THE RHODE ISLAND DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OR FROM THE RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL BUILDING AUTHORITY’ be approved?”

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Middletown schools bond vote moved pushed back from May to November