City Council again asked for money to open new Rogers. Why it may not be the last request.

NEWPORT – Members of the School Building Committee, School Department and the construction team overseeing the construction of the new Rogers High School came forward at the City Council meeting on Wednesday to plead their case for the city to put in an additional $2.2 million by July so that the project can acquire a temporary certificate of occupancy.

While the council has grown frustrated with the project’s continued ballooning costs, Councilors Angela Lima and Mark Aramli said the city needs to do what it can to ensure the project is fully funded.

“Our kids deserve somewhere that they can feel prideful of and that is, at its most basic level, safe, warm and dry,” Lima said.

At the meeting, Gilbane Building Company Project Manager Aleita Hall said $2.2 million will allow the construction team to award the bid packages needed for a temporary certificate of occupancy, which would allow students to attend the school in the fall as they finish the rest of the work. School Building Committee co-chair Louisa Boatwright said the team cannot guarantee money they do not have for the bid packages, so they need the extra cash flow.

This is not the first time the Rogers High School project has needed additional cash from the city, and it will not be the last. In November, the city approved a $6.3 million injection into the project to help alleviate the $12.5 million deficit in funding for the building when the guaranteed maximum price was revealed in September. Back then, communication coming out of the School Building Committee indicated that the $6.3 million, in addition to money from the School Department’s own reserve fund, would get the project over the finish line, awarding them a certificate of occupancy by the deadlines set by the state to receive its promised partial reimbursement.

However, since then, the School Building Committee has not been able to secure all the funding needed for a final certificate of occupancy. In their letter to the city, the School Building Committee also noted that it will need up to $6.4 million in additional funding by December to acquire that final certificate, but that they are waiting to see if they are able to secure grants they have applied to, which would decrease that number.

Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong said the city needs a more firm understanding of how much they will need to commit in total sooner rather than later, because while the city could figure out how to acquire $2.2 million within a few weeks, $6.4 million would require more planning. Additionally, he warned that, although the City Council could vote to pull from its reserve funds to contribute to the school building, that could lower the city’s bond rating from its current AA+ status, making borrowing money more expensive for the taxpayers in the long run.

A look back: Rogers High School project hits $20 million funding shortfall. How it got there.

During discussion, both Khamsyvoravong and Aramli suggested the problems faced by the project could be the result of the state’s Necessity of School Construction process, through which the high school was funded. Khamsyvoravong suggested flaws with having a committee of “laypersons” overseeing a complex construction project, while Aramli suggested it was a “too institutional” approach, and speculated the private sector would have been able to complete the building for less money.

Councilor Lynn Underwood Ceglie, herself one of the council representatives on the School Building Committee, and the construction team argued the problems they face are statewide and a result of post-COVID inflation. In 2020, when the Newport City Council approved a $98.8 million bond to fund the construction of the new Rogers High School, the typical estimates for the cost to build a school coming out of the Rhode Island Department of Education were around $565 per square foot. Now, following post-Covid inflation, Downes Construction Project Manager Joe DeSanti told the council on Wednesday that municipalities are looking at figures up to $1,000 per square foot.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Rogers High School projects needs another $2.2 million from city