#MiddletownRI school staff says the age of the buildings is causing costly, disruptive problems in each facility.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Matt Sheley at (401) 842-6543 or msheley@middletownri.com
SCHOOL STAFF — MAINTENANCE NOT THE ISSUE,
AGE OF BUILDINGS IS
MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (SEPTEMBER 25, 2023) – David Rodrigues and his maintenance team know there are problems with each school in Middletown.
He said custodians and other building staff do everything they can to make sure students and educators come to clean, healthy environments every day.
But when you’re dealing with buildings that are 50 and 60 plus years old, Rodrigues said there’s only so much they can do to keep things running smoothly without problems, sometimes significant ones.
And “Band Aiding” every leaking pipe, sewer clog and other problems costs money that adds up quickly, sometimes reaching into the tens of thousands per instance — with no long term solution in sight.
Tours of Gaudet Middle School are planned for today and Wednesday at 3 pm and Friday at 8:30 am. Reservations are required for the Friday tour by calling 846-6395. Participants are asked to meet in the Aquidneck Avenue school’s main office. A similar tour of Middletown High School is planned on Oct. 2 at 2 pm from the Valley Road school’s main office.
“We’re looking to put in touch screens into the kindergarten wing (at Aquidneck Elementary School) and there’s not enough power,” Rodrigues said, standing by one of the ancient fuse boxes in the Reservoir Road school. “Literally, we can’t get enough juice into those classrooms safely right now to use them.”
And despite what some might think, Rodrigues and others said what’s happened in each of the Middletown schools has nothing to do with a failure of “routine maintenance.”
“When people walk into and work in our schools, we do a good job, a very good job of making sure they’re clean and painted and look nice,” Rodrigues said. “We address everything we can, but when sewer lines and electrical lines are built into the slab, there’s nothing we can do to fix that. That’s why you see conduit and piping running all over our schools. It’s that stuff that people don’t really think about that costs a lot of money to repair.”
Pointing at the fuse box located in the first floor classroom hallway, Rodrigues and Building Custodian David Beebe said electricians who come to work on that and other aging infrastructure just shake their heads.
“I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve heard that they can’t even get replacement parts for this,” Beebe said of the fusebox that appears original to the building in the 1950s and relies on push button fuses, not the toggle switches seen today. “We’ve replaced everything we can and we’ve gone as far as we can with what we have.”
On Nov. 7, residents are being asked to vote on an ambitious plan to remake the Middletown school system — and more. One of the big selling points, is the state Department of Education (RIDE) is expected to pay 55 cents of every dollar on the project, saving Middletown tens of millions in the process.
Under the proposal, $170 million would be spent on a new middle-high school on property just north of Gaudet Middle School at 1225 Aquidneck Ave. The way the approximately 200,000 square foot building is designed, there would be separate entrances and wings for grades 6-8 and grades 9-12, but shared gyms, auditoriums and similar spaces.
The remaining $20 million in the bond would be invested to transform Middletown’s prekindergarten through grade five facilities as well.
One part of that plan would rework the existing Middletown High School at 130 Valley Road into a grade 2-5 learning center along with offices for school administration and maintenance staff. The Forest Avenue School would be updated to become the district’s prekindergarten through first grade learning center.
The building home to Aquidneck Elementary School on Reservoir Road would be renovated using grant money and non-tax dollars into a community center while the former Oliphant School site on Oliphant Lane would become up to 40 units of senior affordable housing.
Despite what some might think, the situation with the school buildings has been on Middletown’s radar going back close to two decades.
In 2007, school consultants Fielding/Nair International rolled out a $123 million plan to build a new high school, also on the former Starlight Drive-In site just north of Gaudet. That triggered an on and off again conversation since about what to do with the school buildings.
“That’s one thing I keep hearing, that we have to plan and have a discussion about this,” Town Administrator Shawn J. Brown said. “Going back to 2006, 2007, this is something we’ve been working on, had multiple Building Committees look at, talked with Salve (Regina University) about partnering, done the regionalization exercise multiple times and now we’re here and the one thing that’s stayed the same is the buildings are almost 20 years older and we’re still patching them.”
Brown said based on the 55 percent reimbursements from RIDE and continuing decline of all the school buildings, the time is now for Middletown to hit the reset button.
“When we look at the overall amount of money we’re spending to address the items David’s mentioned along with mechanical systems, building curtains, windows, outdoor infrastructure and the like, the cost is absolutely enormous,” Brown said. “For example, when we did some improvements to the schools a few years ago, the estimate we got to replace all the windows at Middletown High School was well in excess of $10 million. It’s like that at all our schools."
To keep track of maintenance matters, Rodrigues said the School Department uses the online program “SchoolDude,” whether that’s service reminders on smaller jobs like changing air filters and checking piping to bigger projects like roof leaks, broken boilers and the like.
“Some people think all we do is push brooms and empty trash cans,” Rodrigues said, chuckling. “Sure, that’s part of it, but we’re constantly checking things to try to head off things before they become problems.
“Unfortunately, I think a lot of people don’t understand what really goes into keeping a building this size (Aquidneck School) going, how much use it gets and how it’s completely different from your house or business. With your house, the pipes and wiring are usually pretty accessible to work on and repair. Here? Not so much and it’s big bucks to fix or replace. Those are the things that no one sees.”
Independent findings from November 2021 indicated approximately $190 million in repairs were needed to prop up the district’s schools. Problems include leaky pipes, asbestos tiling, poor air circulation, security issues and a list of dozens of other concerns.
A subsequent March 2023 state report mirrored that report, showing it would cost more to fix the schools it already has than to replace them. To view those documents, go to https://mdl.town/Report and https://mdl.town/FCI online.
Looking to replace the district’s aging facilities and move the schools into the 21st century, the volunteer School Building Committee recommended in November 2022 building a new grade 6-12 school at the former Starlight Drive-In site at 1225 Aquidneck Ave.
Under the latest design, grades sixth through eight would be separate from the high school students. The layout focused on warm, welcoming, healthy and secure spaces along with an auditorium, gymnasium and library spaces, among other assets.
Previously, proponents have said they’d prefer to redo all the schools at once. However, the town’s independent financial analysts — Hilltop Securities — have said that’s not possible due to limits on the community’s borrowing capacity.
Ask David Rodrigues what he thinks and he wasted no time with a clear answer.
“It’s time, time for new schools,” Rodrigues said. “People don’t really think about it, but this building it at the end of its useful life as a school. If you pump more money into it, that’s spending good money after bad and every one of these projects ain’t cheap. Hey, we’re taxpayers too and if I didn’t think it was the right thing to do, I wouldn’t be saying what I’m saying to you right now.”
The town administrator Brown agreed.
“We have a once in a lifetime opportunity here with the money the state is offering,” Brown said. “It’s too good for us to pass up, but it’s not going to be there forever and if we don’t strike now, we’re going to miss out. And to anyone who says this isn’t planned out or needs more vetting, I’m not sure where they’re getting their information, but this is the culmination of an ongoing dialogue in Middletown for years. This is the right plan at the right time.”
Document Link: https://www.middletownri.com/DocumentCenter/View/9456/NYCU-Maintenance
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