At last Wednesday evening’s public meeting held in the Cranston High School West Media Center, Cranston Public Schools Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse spent over an hour rolling out a possible future for the school buildings across the city. The closure of two of the buildings was part of that plan. The families at Chester Barrows Elementary School received notice through a letter from the superintendent that their school was being recommended for closure at the conclusion of this academic year. In addition to Barrows, the closure of Daniel D. Waterman Elementary School was also recommended as part of the future plans, although the closure would not take place at end of this academic year.

According to Nota-Masse, factors such as the declining population in the area of the schools, combined with the age and the condition of the facilities themselves, and the fact that there is not ample parking for staff and families, especially in the snow, all played into the decision, as well as the specific details listed in the facilities report discussed that evening. The recurrent theme during Wednesday night’s meeting was, “It is more expensive to do less,” and throughout the meeting, Nota-Masse referred to that theme as she pointed out various issues with some buildings whose ages come close to being 100 years old, including but not limited to the lack of plugs for today’s technology, difficulty conforming to new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and the inability to look out of the windows.

Rhode Island-based Fielding Nair International (FNI) educational architects and E.W. Burman general contractors were hired after the publishing of the Jacobs Engineering Report. FNI and EW Burman spent months touring the buildings and assessing their condition, which had deteriorated further since the Jacobs assessment had originally been done.

Building health

According to the FNI report published and currently housed on the Cranston Public Schools website (cpsed.net) “The Facilities Condition Index (FCI) is used throughout the facility condition assessment industry as a general indicator of a building’s health. The facility management industry uses the index to benchmark the relative condition of a group of schools. FCI is determined by calculating the total repair cost divided by the total replacement cost. The total repair cost includes educational adequacy and site related repairs. Replacement value is determined by multiplying the enrollment by RIDE’s gross square footage per student by the typical construction costs per square foot.”

According to the facility assessment for Chester Barrows Elementary School, the 2016 Jacobs report “estimated that the replacement cost for the facility was $12,267,850 with a rehabilitation cost of $7,003,147. This gave the facility an FCI of 57.09 percent, putting it in the ‘very poor’ condition group.”

The condition groups are ranked on a scale from “best” at less than 5 percent, to “replacement candidate,” at greater than 65 percent.

With the more recent assessment, new items were generated during the walkthrough in 2018, and according to the FNI report, “the new cost for rehabilitation is now $12,204,241 with an updated replacement cost of $14,896,675 which makes its FCI 82 percent. With an 82 percent FCI, it now falls into the ‘replacement candidate’ category.”

The items covered in the assessment include general requirements, existing conditions, concrete, masonry, metals, wood, plastic and composites, thermal and moisture protection, openings, finishes, specialties, equipment, furnishings, special construction, elevator, mechanical, electrical, and review and permit fees.

The FCI for Daniel D. Waterman Elementary is at 58 percent, placing it in the “very poor” category and is an increase from 50.65 percent, which was still in the “very poor” category. The total repair cost is now estimated at $10,992,172 and the replacement cost is estimated at $18,819,000. The students who currently attend Chester Barrows Elementary School would be attending both Rhodes and Edgewood Highland Elementary schools.

A series of community meetings will be held beginning in December for Barrows families to receive more information and to express their opinions and concerns. The meetings will be held in the Cranston East Media Center on December 12, 2018, January 28, 2019, and February 27, 2019.

The proposed rollout of the FNI recommendations must be voted on and approved by both the Cranston School Committee and the Cranston City Council before being placed on the ballot in 2020 for a vote by Cranston residents.