North Kingstown launches new school bond attempt. Why opposition is already forming

NORTH KINGSTOWN – If at first you don’t succeed, try again – or so the saying goes.

The Town Council seems to have taken this to heart with its recent approval of a proposal to borrow $137.2 million to build a new middle school less than a year after failing to convince voters to pass a similar bond.

The new proposal, whose language is still being hammered out, seeks to secure financing to rebuild Wickford Middle School and repair other facilities, including investing in elementary schools. It is a simpler ask than the previous one. The last time voters in North Kingstown went to the polls in November 2023, they were asked to approve a $222.5 million bond for a new middle school that was bundled with a public-safety complex. It failed miserably, with nearly 62% of voters opposing it.

This time around, town officials seem more optimistic.

Town Council President Greg Mancini said the prospects of the bond are good. Last year Mancini recused himself from the council’s deliberations and vote on the bond because he is the executive director and general counsel of BuildRI, a guild that represents construction workers and has been stumping for school bonds across the state. But following a self-sought ethics assessment, he supported the new bond.

In an earlier interview with The Journal, Mancini said that the town overcomplicated the previous effort by bundling it with a safety complex and proposing to merge two middle schools.

“This bond is for less. It’ll stand on itself," Mancini said. "And now the town will still have two middle schools. So for those reasons – and plus the fact that I think that virtually everyone in town acknowledges that our schools are in disrepair and need significant work – I'm optimistic it will pass, but you never know.”

Town Manager Ralph Mollis, who serves as co-chair of the school building subcommittee, also said the new proposal addresses the main concerns voters had last year. He said he's optimistic the bond will pass the General Assembly but is less certain about how voters will feel about it come November.

”There's still a lot of work that needs to be done for us to inform the voters as to what is being voted on, to gauge their interest, to answer their questions. So I'll reserve any comfort level that I hope to have,” Mollis said.

Opposition to the bond remains

Not everyone, however, shares Mancini’s optimism.

Megan Reilly, who has three children in the school system and is running for School Committee, has concerns about the bond.

“We all agree that something needs to be done – that the school does need funding – [but] how it gets funded and how much it gets funded and whether or not we trust the people currently in charge to do these projects that they're claiming they're going to do, it remains to be seen,” said Reilly.

Reilly, who led opposition to the previous bond, thinks the district should start with a smaller bond and prove to residents that it can indeed deliver on its promises. She claims the district did not complete previous projects approved by another town and school combined bond in 2018.

Mollis said the major projects for the school were done, though he acknowledged there may be some minor projects still scheduled for completion. He also clarified that at least one project for the town – closing the landfill – was on hold due to federal restrictions.

Reilly also noted that some residents feel as though the bond is being rushed through at a time when the school district is under administrative turmoil due, in part, to the controversy surrounding Aaron Thomas, a former basketball coach who is facing charges of child molestation. The district ran through four superintendents in a little over a year following the resignation of Philip Augur in March 2022. It also recently replaced two School Committee members who resigned in November 2023 and January of this year.

Asked about the timeline of the bond, Mancini said the process has been going for about two years, and North Kingstown started it before other municipalities that have approved similar bonds. He explained that a moratorium on school construction projects dating back to Gina Raimondo’s tenure as governor delayed needed repairs to schools, and now school districts across the state are rushing to complete them.

As of last December, The Rhode Island Department of Education had approved 48 construction projects at a cost of more than $1 billion, and more have been greenlighted since. Reimbursement bonuses offered by the state may have encouraged school districts to pursue more ambitious construction projects, raising costs.

How would the bond affect taxpayers?

Joseph Teixeira, a 72-year-old retiree who worked in insurance investment and has lived in North Kingstown for 16 years, also balks at the idea of borrowing $137.2 million. He compared it to buying a car.

“Everybody would love to have a brand-new car. Everybody can't have a brand-new car. What you can have with proper planning is a good vehicle that will get you the way you want to go. And right now we have a fairly good system,” Teixeira said.

Teixeira said retirees who live on a fixed income worry about how the new bond will affect their taxes. His preference is to pass a smaller bond aimed at repairing school infrastructure.

Election 2023: Why did North Kingstown school bond go down in flames?

Rebuild the middle school, or repair it?

But Mollis said an assessment by an architect determined that renovating the school would be more expensive than building a new one. As for taxes, he said the school district is waiting on the General Assembly to approve the bond before conducting an assessment on how it will affect homeowners. He added that the district also has a “long shot” at qualifying for state bonus reimbursements, which may lower the share the town has to pay.

But Teixeira said retirees succeeded last time in stopping the bond and are motivated to stop it from passing again.

They may indeed pose a formidable challenge for proponents of the bond. In 2022, about 27% of North Kingstown’s residents were around or past the age of retirement, according to census data. Historically, this same group has higher turnout rates at elections.

“The retirees in North Kingstown will have a voice – whether it's my voice or other voices – but we will have a big voice in November. They will hear our voice, because … we don't sit at home: we go out and vote. We've defeated this bond once, and they should have had the courtesy not to come back with basically the same bond issue,” Teixeira said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: North Kingstown insists on a school bond, but opposition is building