Educators in Chariho, still reeling from the defeat of a $150 million bond to replace three elementary schools and upgrade the main campus, are preparing to go back to voters in November with a much smaller bond to address the safety issues on the main campus.
Additionally, they hope to seek up to $2.3 million in the 2025-26 school budget for repairs to the elementary schools that would have been replaced if the $150 million had passed.
At a school board meeting earlier this week, the Chariho Regional school board voted to ask approval of the General Assembly to file with the Rhode Island Department of Education for a bond referendum of $15 million for rehab and renovations at the main campus, said School Superintendent Gina Picard.
The school district would be eligible for a reimbursement from RIDE of 61 to 65 percent, Picard said, considerably less than the approximately 80 percent it would have received had the $150 million bond been approved. The percentage difference is the result of some RIDE construction incentives expiring in June.
A significant change is the $150 million bond needed voter approval in each of the three communities – Richmond, Hopkinton, Charlestown – to pass. It was only approved by voters in Charlestown. Picard said the school board voted that for the $15 million bond the vote would be the aggregate of voters in the three communities, rather than any community virtually having veto power if voters in that town rejected the bond.
The main campus includes the high and middle schools, Chariho Alternative Learning Center and CHARIHOtech.
The elementary schools are all aged 75 years plus, and include Richmond, Ashaway, Charlestown, and Hope Valley. If the $150 million bond was approved, the Hope Valley School would have been closed. That’s now in question, Picard said.
“The School Committee needs to make a decision” about the future of Hope Valley, she said.
To address needed repairs at the elementary schools, Picard said she will be asking for approval of some $2.3 million in capital expenditures in the next budget.
Budgets in the Chariho Regional School District are also subject to voter approval.
At Richmond Elementary School water leaks in, sometimes forcing the school to close. At Ashaway Elementary some classes are held in a trailer, and at Charlestown Elementary, occupational therapies and other similar programs are held in hallways for lack of space.
Picard said the plan is to move classrooms out of the basement at Richmond Elementary.
Picard said she has not ruled out perhaps seeking a bond issue in the future to replace the elementary schools. Previously, she said, it might be a different configuration, perhaps considering a single elementary school for the entire district.