Bond Nixed, Extra-District Placements Rising

WARWICK, RI — The Warwick School Department‘s plan for facilities that’ll curb sports-related out-of-district placements snagged with the $50M bond defeat Feb. 3, so now city and school officials are looking for at least $13 million to build the planned fields.

Scott Galligan, Warwick School Committee Chairman, said project experts managing the new high schools projects think the work, with the sports facilities built as planned, will be 3.5-5 percent over budget. That works out to  $13 million to $18 million more than the initial $350 million bond for the buildings, he said.

Regarding the initial $350 million bond, according to Finance Director Peder Schaefer,  “A home assessed at $400,000 would likely incur a property tax increase of over $250 a year for 20 years to pay the debt service on the bonds.”

$50M bond meant to stem ongoing, rising $5.5M costs

Mayor Frank Picozzi’s office estimates the cost of the $50 million bond at $22 per every $100,000 of homeowner’s value. The resulting yearly increase on a $400,000 house would’ve been $88, or $7.33 per month.

“It’s important to note that the $50 million bond didn’t have to be sold in its entirety. If the schools needed $10, nothing says that the city had to release the other $40,” Galligan said.

Warwick Schools pay about $3.5 million yearly for local students choosing to attend out-of-district schools largely based on the quality of athletic facilities.

According to the Mayor’s office, the city conducted a full revaluation for the levy supporting the FY 26 budget. The net result was that the tax rate on residential property dropped from $14.47 to $12.70 (final). The final commercial rate was $23.99 as compared to $25.32 the year before.

The residential tax rate would have been 18 cents less (and the commercial rate 34 cents less) if we didn’t have the new debt service component of $3.5 million. On a $400,000 home, that would be approximately $72.

Galligan noted the $3.5 million is likely to increase in the coming years without the planned field improvements the bond would’ve guaranteed, and to do so perpetually.

“Chairman Galligan is in the ballpark for the out-of-district tuition to other school districts.  Originally, the budget was developed on $3.2 million based on enrollment information we had at the time,” said Warwick Schools Finance Director Craig Enos.  However, since the budget was passed, we’ve had additional students (11) that left the district.  We’ll probably be closer to $3.4 million in out-of-district tuitions.”

Enos said Galligan is also right about the reasoning for the out-of-district placements.

‘We did a review at the beginning of the school year regarding athletes that were playing on teams in other districts (fall sports were obviously squared away by that point).  We do have a group of students attending one district that play hockey on their team, girls playing D1 soccer in another community, and then there are a smattering of students playing various winter/spring sports.  It wasn’t the numbers we were thinking it would be.  We have not done a review since then – it certainly could have changed over the fall,” he said.

Enos also backed the assessment that out-of-district placements will continue to increase.

‘As an example, North Kingstown seems to attract many of our students.  Currently we have 69 students enrolled in North Kingstown.  This year we have 9 students I believe that are graduating.  I already know that we have 28 9th graders enrolling there for next year. That’s an extra 19 students we have to budget for – at approximately $20k per student – that adds $380,000 to the budget.  That’s only one community.  Foster Glocester is another community that takes a lot of our students.  Other community enrollments are unknown at this time,” Enos said.

Picozzi planned to meet with school officials to work out how else the fields can be completed as originally planned.