Building schools to suit how kids learn today

NATHAN BISHOP MIDDLE SCHOOL, now closed, exemplifies the rundown, antiquated condition of many of the city’s school buildings. /
NATHAN BISHOP MIDDLE SCHOOL, now closed, exemplifies the rundown, antiquated condition of many of the city’s school buildings. /

Superintendent Donnie Evans doesn’t mince words when he talks about the condition of the city’s school buildings. “Many of our facilities are depressing,” he says.
Anyone who has spent time in the schools, especially the older ones – 23 of the 42 were built before 1940 – knows how dilapidated they are, and how ill-suited they are to the way education is delivered today: The Carl G. Lauro Elementary School, for example, built in 1921, is about twice the size that’s considered optimal for a school at that level.
When the Providence Schools and Mayor David N. Cicilline commissioned a report on the condition of the schools and a plan to get the system up to par, the picture it painted was daunting:
• 78 percent of the schools were deemed to be in “poor” condition and “in need of major renovation or replacement; 8 percent were in “fair” condition, and only 14 percent were deemed to be in “good” condition.
• School capacity and enrollment don’t match; by the 2010-11 school year, elementary-school enrollment is expected to exceed capacity – by a school’s worth, 379, the following year – and middle-school enrollment, which is now close to capacity, is expected to drop to more than a school’s worth below capacity – 1,054 students – by 2010-11 before rebounding and surpassing capacity in 2014-15. The high schools, meanwhile, are now above capacity but will be well below capacity within a few years, and for several years after that.
• Both the capital projects and the maintenance and operations budgets are underfunded.
The plan to correct these problems, developed with the Gilbane Building Co., Studio JAED Facility Solutions and DeJong Inc., was unveiled last December. It’s called “Building a Legacy,” and it has become a key part of the city’s long-term investment plans.
“This is really a situation that has developed because of 30 years or more of neglect,” said Cicilline. “School buildings have not been properly maintained.”
“We’ve done a lot of patchwork over the years to deal with some critical safety issues, and we’ve invested a lot of money, but at the same time we have to make sure our buildings are conducive to learning, and that’s what this facilities master plan is about,” said Evans.
“It’s about making sure we have facilities that meet today’s educational specifications,” he added, “that meet today’s safety requirements and schools that are open to community use. We will look at lighting and air quality and all of the things that contribute to student learning, because when you look at the vast majority of our buildings, they fall short in many of those areas.”
The plan also aims to make the schools better-suited to the way children are taught today, Cicilline and Evans said. The current classrooms, for example, work best for a lecture-style class, but most instruction is now interactive, with students working in small groups, giving presentations, and having discussions with their peers.
But getting to that point won’t be cheap.
The 2006 cost estimate is $792 million, but with each year that passes, the anticipated cost goes up. If the plan were funded at $95 million per year, the report says, construction would be finished by 2019 and end up costing $1.2 billion. If $70 million per year is allocated, it will be completed by 2026 and will end up costing $1.4 billion; at $50 million per year, it will be finished in 2043 and will cost $1.8 billion.
The money, according to the master plan, would come from “local, state and federal government sources” and would utilize the state’s matching funding program for school facilities.
“It’s a long process but it’s about making a commitment,” said Cicilline. “It’s a smarter, more responsible, more cost-effective way [to handle school construction], because it will be part of a long-term facilities master plan rather than reacting to emergencies. It’s like health care: If you make the right investments and do the right prevention and you stay healthy, it’s a lot less expensive than if you have a terrible illness or some emergency.”
But Providence won’t be able to get almost any of this done without the support of the General Assembly. Because the state provides the largest share of the funds for school construction projects – at least any that are funded as capital projects, as almost all are – state approval is required in advance. Providence used to be exempt from this requirement, but the General Assembly just changed that, and Jeff Neal, a spokesman for Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, said the measure will be signed into law.
“Gov. Carcieri supports providing students with appropriate educational facilities,” Neal said. “He also supports ensuring that there is proper oversight of the spending of statewide money to build such facilities.” The change in the law, he added, “will allow us to move forward with the goal of the mayor’s plan while ensuring that it is done within the context of the state budget.”
Despite the unknowns regarding the funding, the Providence School Board has voted to approve the first phase of the master plan.
That phase includes the work to be done in the first three to five years of the plan. In phase one, Hanley Career Tech, Nathan Bishop Middle School, West Broadway Elementary School, the Alternative High School, Mount Pleasant High School, Hanley Gym, West Elementary School, Feinstein Elementary School at Broad Street, Asa Messer Elementary School and its annex, and Laurel Hill Elementary School and its annex all will be addressed.
In addition, the phase includes the construction of a new career and technical high school for building trades. Work on Adelaide High School, Central High School and the athletic complex has already begun with existing funds.
By completion, 37 of the district’s 42 buildings will be updated or replaced, and all of the schools in phase one need major renovation or replacement. According to the report, it is expected that with all of the phase one buildings, “the cost of renovation would be 80 percent or more of the cost of replacement.”
But before any major work, or replacement, is done, Cicilline has vowed to meet with people in the neighborhoods to ensure their wishes are heard.
“There will be community conversations on each of these to make final recommendations as to whether a building should be replaced or renovated,” the mayor said. “We have some very old buildings in our city, and there are lots of people who feel very strongly that these buildings should be preserved, and I think whenever they can be preserved we ought to preserve them. But we also have to be mindful of the cost and that, with these buildings, their first responsibility is not aesthetics. They are not museums – they are schools, and that’s their primary function.” •

No posts to display