NEWPORT – In a move that divided the City Council, the city has agreed to give an additional $3 million toward the Rogers High School building project. While that is more than the department initially sought, there are strings attached to the funds that school administration and committee members warned may be challenging to fulfill.
“We have a lot of changes that we know are going to be a lot more expensive than we have right now,” Superintendent Colleen Burns Jermain told City Council on Wednesday. “We’re not going to have any money and people seem to think we have money.”
The School Building Committee sent a letter to the City Council in May asking for a commitment of $2.2 million by July 1 so that the committee could purchase bids that would allow them to acquire a temporary certificate of occupancy for the school, a goal the project has to meet in order to receive some reimbursement for the project from the state. In the letter, co-chairs Rebecca Bolan and Louisa Boatwright said they were expecting to return with another request for “up to $6.4 million,” by Dec. 1 to complete the project and acquire an official certificate of occupancy.
Instead, the resolution sought to inject as much money into the project as needed to complete the project, rather than having the city contribute funds as needed. Although the city would not cover the entirety of the maximum $8.6 million needed with its reserves, it would provide a portion of the funds contingent on the School Department spending the project’s owner’s contingency to the maximum amount allowable and use its reserves until the amount reaches 3% of its operating budget on either the project, restoring previously cut positions or improving the entrance at Thompson Middle School.
Using information he acquired from the department’s finance office, Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong calculated that the $3 million, the school department’s reserves and the owner’s contingency would be more than enough to fund the project to completion.
“Rather than doing exactly that, which many of you are opposed to, which is this process of constantly requiring the School Building Committee to come forth for every little bit, so we lurch from one funding deadline to another with everything held in tandem … the approach here says let’s look holistically at what’s needed, come up with a holistic plan, and then its set, then you aren’t coming back here over and over again to beg for the funding,” Khamsyvoravong said.
Khamsyvoravong’s plan hit a barrier, however, when Jermain and School Committee members objected to the resolution. Some, such as School Committee member Kendra Meunter, argued that the City Council was operating outside its jurisdiction by telling the department how to operate and handle employee relations. However, since the School Department could opt to not meet the conditions set out by the resolution, leaving the $3 million on the table, City Solicitor Christopher Behan said the council was legally able to make the ultimatum.
Additionally, Jermain and the School Building Committee co-chairs argued the conditions were impossible to fulfill. Not only would the department not be able to touch the money in the owner’s contingency until the old Rogers High School Building was demolished in 2026, according to Bolan, but Jermain said Khamsyvoravong had his numbers wrong about how much of the school’s reserves are able to be spent.
The school has two pools of reserves, the main school department reserves and the education fund. The education fund is composed of funds from various sources, including funds from the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) program. The School Department already had plans to use some of these reserve funds, of which there is about $3.9 million, to fund budget gaps for the following years. Jermain said of the total amount, the department only has about $1.9 million to spend.
Initially, the resolution written by Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong and co-sponsored by Councilor Charles Holder offered $4 million from the city’s reserves, an amount Khamsyvoravong said he was given by the city’s Finance Department as the maximum amount the city could pull from its reserves without damaging its bond rating, which acts as a credit score for municipal bonds. A lower score could impact the ability of the city to get investors for upcoming bonds, such as the one they are hoping to put on the ballot this November.
However, once interim City Manager Laura Sitrin confirmed that pulling $2 million to $3 million is the range the city could comfortably obtain, the council amended that number to $3 million. This was only one of the amendments Councilor Angela Lima was planning to make on the issue, as she also had issues with the conditions under which the money was offered. However, in a divisive move following over two hours of debate, Councilor David Carlin motioned to “call the question,” a procedural action that forces the debate to close and a vote to commence. Four of the seven councilors voted to close debate and vote, leaving Lima and fellow Councilors Lynn Underwood Ceglie and Jeanne Marie Napolitano on the opposing minority.
After the vote took place, Lima called Carlin’s move “sneaky” and tried to argue to reopen the matter using another one of the procedures in Robert’s Rules of Order, but Behan advised the council that the length of time taken during the debate and the fact that more than two-thirds of the council voted to end the discussion, meant that the vote had to stand as is.
The resolution was supported by some of the members of the public who were present on Wednesday, particularly teachers affected by recent cuts the school made to balance its budget. The Teacher’s Association of Newport also expressed support for the resolution. However, the move proved unpopular with many others, including members of the School Committee, many of whom expressed concerns over the conditions the city put on the funds.
“Mr. Chair, I really just have to ask why? Why you’re doing this to us, but you don’t listen to us, so I’m not going to listen to your answer,” School Committee member Stephanie Winslow said, addressing Khamsyvoravong after the vote concluded.
Most Popular
Comments / 0