Hoping to counterbalance soaring interest rates and construction costs, Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. said the town will tap its rainy day fund to avoid a property tax increase.
“No, there will be no tax increase,” Polisena said Tuesday night. “Instead of cutting $20 million in construction costs to cover this massive increase in interest rates, my team and I have decided to propose incrementally drawing down from the $41 million surplus to cover the difference. It doesn’t make sense to support a tax increase or massive cuts to the project when the town is sitting on this amount of money in reserve.”
Earlier Tuesday, Feb. 7, Polisena issued a press release announcing the appointment of unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Helena Buonanno Foulkes to Johnston’s School Building Committee.
“Helena brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in matters of financial and project management,” Polisena said in the release, which warned of dire financial circumstances for the town’s massive school building project.
Polisena championed the school building project as vice-president of Johnston Town Council prior to his mayoral election. His father, former mayor Joseph M. Polisena, credited Polisena Jr. with the idea to launch the town’s most ambitious, and expensive, school building project ever.
Johnston plans to close the town’s four elementary schools, sell or raze the empty buildings, and construct a single Elementary School for all Johnston first through fourth graders. The plan also calls for a new Johnston Early Childhood Center (ECC), and major renovations at the Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School and Johnston High School.
Voters overwhelmingly approved a $215 million bond via referendum last year. Both mayors Polisena promised taxpayers would not pay a penny more in taxes to cover the school building project.
After securing a Tax Stabilization Agreement with Amazon, tied to the massive robotic fulfillment center under construction on Hartford Avenue, Johnston expects to rake in enough in annual tax revenue over the next 20 years to cover the bond payments.
With record-high state reimbursements for school building projects, the Polisenas argued the time was right to overhaul all of the town’s school buildings at once, with phased construction plans staggered over the next five years.
“When we began this process nearly two years ago, interest rates were at less than 2.5%,” Polisena Jr. said in the press release. “Now, we are facing interest rates approximately double that amount. To make matters worse, shifting money away from construction costs to pay for historically high rates significantly affects our reimbursement from the state, which puts us at an even further financial loss to construction costs funded by the state.”
Foulkes, a fellow Democrat, ran against Gov. Dan McKee in 2022 but lost. Polisena Jr., a former employee of McKee’s, withdrew his support for McKee (who was a close political ally of his father’s) and instead publicly supported Foulkes, despite McKee’s endorsement by the Johnston Democratic Town Committee.
On Pollisena Jr.’s Inauguration Night, Foulkes sat with the local, state and federal elected office-holders and McKee did not attend.
Foulkes worked as CEO of Hudson’s Bay Company from February 2018 to March 2020, and spent 25 years at CVS Health, most recently as President of CVS Pharmacy (from January 2014 to January 2018), according to her website (www.helenafoulkes.com).
Advocate of education
“Helena is a strong advocate for investing in high-quality public education and believes that great public schools are the key to a strong, equitable economy,” according to her website biography. “During her campaign for governor, fixing Rhode Island’s struggling public school system was her top issue.”
The Johnston School Building Committee was scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday evening, Feb. 7. Several hours before the meeting was scheduled to begin it was canceled, and Polisena Jr. issued the press release about Foulkes joining the committee.
“I am confident that Helena, along with the rest of my team, will find a solution that still provides Johnston residents the most significant school construction project the Town has ever seen,” Polisena Jr. said in the press release. “I am committed to building and upgrading all school facilities so that every school-age child in our Town, from early childhood to high school, will have the opportunity to learn in state-of-the-art schools.”
The Johnston School Committee still met at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The committee tabled a discussion on the Johnston School Building Committee’s expected “recommendation to institute a pre-hire PLA (Project Labor Agreement) relative to the school construction project.”
Johnston Schools Superintendent Bernard DiLullo Jr. said Tuesday night that the meeting was postponed and a date for the rescheduled meeting had not yet been set.
District 5 Town Councilman Robert J. Civetti, one of the Building Committee’s many members, had planned to attend Tuesday’s meeting. He was reluctant to answer questions on the school building projects’ increasingly bleak financial outlook.
“I honestly do not have enough information at this time,” Civetti said Tuesday night. “The last meeting we had was more than a month ago I believe. I have seen nothing relative to the financing of the project or any changes to the projected scope of the project.”
Exactly how dire is the school building project’s financial situation?
Will the project scope be reduced or will taxpayers face increased levies to pay for additional bond funding?
Can the town’s reserve fund cover the difference?
“All valid questions,” Civetti said on Tuesday. “I am sorry that I do not have the answers.”
Chairman of the School Building Committee Joseph Rotella (School Committee vice-president) responded to a request for comment on the press release early Wednesday morning.
Help welcomed
“I think it speaks for itself,” Rotella said. “We are honored to have so many professionals take time out of their personal and professional lives to serve on our building committee. As you know the cost of everything has risen dramatically. This project is no different.”
According to Rotella, the superintendent is working closely with the school-hired architectural and engineering firms to address rising construction costs and dipping reimbursements.
“Dr. DiLullo, SLAM, and Colliers are looking at ways to keep this project on track and maximize our construction budget,” Rotella said. “Our children deserve the best schools, and we will deliver on that commitment.”
Rotella explained Tuesday night’s committee meeting was postponed following a request by William J. Conley Jr.’s office (the town and school department’s solicitor).
“We were informed yesterday by Attorney Conley’s office that they needed additional time to finalize the Project Labor Agreement (PLA),” Rotella said Wednesday morning. “Approving that was the main reason for the meeting, so it made sense to postpone the meeting until the document was completed.”
The administration remained optimistic the building project will be fully realized and fully funded.
“This is the most consequential project Johnston will ever undertake,” Polisena Jr. said Tuesday night. “We have children in schools anywhere from 50 to 100 years old with little to no renovation since original construction. I will do everything in my power to put our students and teachers in a position to succeed. And to those without children in the school system, I would say look around other communities throughout the state to see the link between property values and school systems. This project affects everyone.”
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