As of Monday, only 29 Johnston residents had cast early ballots in Town Hall.
Early voting on a bond to fund a $215 million school facility overhaul began March 26.
The referendum is set to conclude Tuesday, April 5. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Meanwhile, early in-person voting is available in the Town Hall lobby, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through Monday, April 4.
The Johnston School Committee and Town Council held a pair of special informational meetings, in joint-session, on the evenings of Wednesday, March 16, and Wednesday, March 23, to discuss the school building projects.
SLAM representatives, James Hoagland, Senior Associate, and Catherine J. Ellithorpe, Associate Principal, delivered an update on the proposed school building projects. The firm has been assembling plans for each school project.
Ellithorpe said Hoagland has been “working feverishly on the elementary school.”
“We are currently hot and heavy on the Early Childhood Center and the new elementary school,” Ellithorpe explained. “And we’re just getting ready to kick off the High School. And the Middle School will trail a little bit behind, just because we have so many other things going on in our construction sequencing.”
The district plans to construct a new Early Childhood Center and a new Elementary School complex, and make major renovations at the Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School and the Johnston High School, if voters approve bond funding.
Johnston has 24,098 registered voters, of which 21,294 are considered active voters, according to Town Clerk Vincent P. Baccari Jr.
Schools will be closed on the Special Election Day, April 5.
Polling locations are as follows: Precinct 1601, Winsor Hill School Gym, right side; Precinct 1602, Simmons Village Community Hall; Precinct 1603, Ferri School Gym, right side; Precinct 1604, Ferri School Cafeteria; Precinct 1605, Ferri School Gym, left side; Precinct 1606, Sarah Dyer Barnes School Cafeteria; Precinct 1607, Barnes School Cafeteria; Precinct 1608, Winsor Hill School Gym, left side; Precinct 1609, Aimee Forand Community Hall; Precinct 1610, Graniteville School Cafeteria; Precinct 1611, Barnes School Cafeteria; Precincts 1612 and 1613, Johnston High School Cafeteria.
In February, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee joined the town’s elected officials and school administrators in the basement of Johnston’s oldest school, Thornton Elementary, to ceremoniously sign the bill allowing Johnston to seek a bond referendum. The referendum date was set for April 5.
Johnston’s schools are aging fast, and the town has been bleeding funds trying to maintain the classic structures.
The Thornton Elementary was originally erected in 1890, but burned down in 1919. The building was rebuilt at its current 4 School St. location in 1920 and opened to Johnston students in 1921.
Graniteville Elementary was built in 1930, 90 years ago. Brown Avenue Elementary was built in 1934, 87 years ago. Winsor Hill and Barnes elementary schools were constructed in 1953, 68 years ago.
Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School was built in 1960 (61 years ago) and Johnston Senior High was built in 1968 (53 years ago).
Johnston hopes to get more than 50 percent reimbursement from the state for the massive building project.
Joe Polisena Jr., Vice-President of Johnston Town Council, said the costs to taxpayers for the bond referendum, if approved, will be negligible.
Polisena developed the overall funding plan, devising a way to do all of the school building projects at once.
New developments in town, and the tax dollars they generate, including the Amazon warehouse under construction along Hartford Avenue, are expected to cover the annual bond payments.
School planners hope to construct a fifth-grade academy, attached to the newly renovated middle school.
The small neighborhood elementary schools will close, and the students will be moved to a town-wide elementary center. If the bond passes, town officials will hold discussions to determine the fate of the old, closed school buildings. They may be torn down or converted into senior housing.
In October, the School Committee voted to retain the SLAM Collaborative architectural firm to take the district into Stage III of the school construction process. At its Dec. 21 meeting, the Johnston School Committee passed a resolution supporting the $215 million bond.
The new ECC will cost an estimated $28,600,000 and is tentatively slated to open in the summer of 2024.
The plans call for closing and then demolishing or selling all of the town’s current elementary schools — Graniteville ECC Annex, Barnes, Brown Avenue, Thornton and Winsor Hill.
The large consolidated, new elementary school will be built to educate around 1,100 students in grades 1-4, on three floors, and is planned for construction on town property just north of the Johnston High School.
The elementary school will cost an estimated $84,350,000, and is tentatively scheduled to open in late summer 2024.
The district will likely tackle the new ECC and elementary school first, and then move on to the high school renovation, and then the middle school project, according to Johnston Schools Superintendent Bernard DiLullo Jr.
“We are affecting every student in Johnston,” DiLullo said at the first informational meeting on March 16. “From pre-Kindergarten, our 3-year-olds, all the way up to our 17-18-year olds. We’re looking forward to that.”
SLAM has proposed more than $39 million in renovations to the Ferri Middle School and a $57 million facelift at the high school.
“We’re getting a lot of good feedback from the state, in terms of being the only district that is doing something like this,” DiLullo said. “Since 2016 we’ve been talking about this project, and finally it’s starting to take shape.”
The high school is slated for a late summer of 2024 unveiling, and the middle school repairs should be complete by late summer of 2025.
“In 2025 we’ll have all new facilities in Johnston,” DiLullo said.
Polls will remain open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 5, according to a public notice advertised by the Johnston Board of Canvassers. Contact the board by calling 401-553-8856 or 401-553-8889 with questions (or email larusso@johnston-ri.us).
The advertisement contained a warning notice at the bottom:
“Voter fraud is a felony and pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws 17-26-1, every person who is convicted of voter fraud shall be imprisoned for a term up to 10 years, or fined between $1,000 and $5,000, or both, for each offense.”
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