Three hundred and fifty million dollars. That’s what the projected cost of building new Pilgrim and Toll Gate High Schools.

Two hundred million dollars. That is the projected cost to Warwick taxpayers once the state has paid for its share of the two new schools.

Can Warwick taxpayers afford $200 million? What will be the impact on the city budget over 20 years? What other projects and obligations does the city face and might the cost of the schools make it impossible to do those? What debts are in the process of being paid off and might this enable the city to pay for the schools without dramatically raising taxes?

And perhaps the toughest question: what if you don’t build new high schools? What would it cost to keep Toll Gate and Pilgrim operational when heating systems need replacement and the schools lacking air conditioning? And what would need to be done to reconfigure the schools to meet the teaching techniques designed to equip students for the jobs of tomorrow?

There are a lot of questions and little time for all the answers. The immediate deadline is Feb. 15 for the Warwick School Department to meet Rhode Island Department of Education Stage 2 approval. Without that the prospect of bringing the question before the voters on the November ballot is unlikely.

But then to reach Stage 2, first the School Committee and then the City Council need to endorse the two new schools. The committee voted in favor of the schools Tuesday. The council will consider the matter next Monday under unanimous consent meaning the matter is open to public comment.

That’s it. If the council fails to vote because they want more time to fully consider the plan or should they reject it, Warwick won’t see new high schools in the next five years.

That’s why the school administration has launched a campaign to inform the public of the two schools. That’s why Steve McAllister, president of the City Council, has virtually cleared the Monday docket to allow discussion about the schools. That’s why he has asked the administration to provide a financial impact of the building the schools on the municipal budget going forward. And that’s why he said in an interview Thursday he has called on council solicitor Billy Walsh to draft a resolution giving the state the endorsement it needs to move ahead, yet gives the council the time to more thoroughly examine the plan.

“Do we support the application allowing it to move forward?” he asks. He notes that for the question to appear on the ballot, it requires General Assembly approval and for that to happen legislators would be looking for council and administration approval.

“They (the school committee) would still have to come back to the City Council,” said McAllister. “Let the process play out…the only thing we (the council) would support is the application moving forward.”

McAllister isn’t prepared to say he favors two new high schools. The proposal calls for the new Pilgrim to be built in the current playing fields east of the school. The new Toll Gate would go south of the existing school in a wooded area next to the former Drum Rock School. Drum Rock would be demolished.

McAllister notes in the past four years the council has approved the issuance of $90 million in school bonds to upgrade elementary schools, which is ongoing.

“Everybody wants new schools,” said McAllister. He wants taxpayers to know what they will pay so he has asked the administration to provide projections based on homes of different valuations.

Also, noting the inflationary cost of construction materials he said, “This is a really difficult time to build anything.” 

But the clock is ticking.

What put the school department on such a compressed schedule?

Actually, as Steve Gothberg, director of construction and capital projects, explained at Thursday’s Warwick Rotary Club meeting where the district launched its school information campaign, the process of addressing the two high schools started more than two and a half years ago. After retaining an educational planner and conducting several public workshops, the committee ruled out a single new high school for the city and chose to renovate the existing schools. Then Covid-19 hit and momentum stalled.

Superintendent Lynn Dambruch and the committee revived the plan last year and in July presented the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) with its proposal to renovate the two schools.

“RIDE did not agree with renovating the high schools due to the difficulty in the phasing of construction,” Gothberg said.  The renovations were projected to disrupt the schools for four years requiring the district to go back to the drawing board.

Saccoccio and Associates and SAAM Architects were picked as a team to design the new schools and by September the plan was completed and sent on to RIDE that granted Stage 1 approval. For the project to move forward, the district needs Stage 2 approval requiring city council endorsement to be followed by General Assembly approval in order for the question to appear on the November ballot.

Gothberg outlined the $350 million cost of the two schools and with RIDE Housing Aid reimbursement the $200 million Warwick taxpayers would face paying.

“But the real question is what is the cost to the City of Warwick if we do not move ahead with replacing our high schools. Students are moving away from our schools, going to charter schools, private schools and other public schools with better more modern facilities.”

Gothberg concludes that Warwick schools are not drawing families to the city and points out RIDE has rejected plans to renovate the buildings.

“Infrastructure is 50 to 60 years old, the buildings do not support 21st Century learning. Do we continue to do nothing, or do we move forward and bring new energy to Warwick?” asked Gothberg.