Home Subscriber Only Cover Story Paying for badly needed school upgrades now will limit future borrowing. Can...

PROBLEM AREA: The structural problems at Rogers High School in Newport are evident in the water-infiltration damage, which has affected both the interior and exterior of the building, which was completed in 1958. Jeff Watts, the school’s plant engineer, looks at one of the affected areas outside. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Paying for badly needed school upgrades now will limit future borrowing. Can the state afford it?

By Eli Sherman

05/25/2018

Trinity Briceno, a senior at Cranston East High School, didn’t attend school between December and April. She was hospitalized in November after students and teachers reported symptoms of carbon-monoxide exposure, including dizziness and nausea. Her mother, Pauline Belal, subsequently held her out of school, accusing officials of not properly testing for the odorless gas. She…