North Providence's sweeping school construction program is winding down after administrators and the project team held their final regular weekly construction meeting, a milestone Superintendent Joseph Goho reported to the School Committee on Oct. 28, capping four years of Tuesday sessions. Some work remains, including window replacement at North Providence High School that is expected to continue through January 2027, but the pace of oversight is easing as the finish line comes into view.
Going forward, construction meetings will shift to every other week, according to The Valley Breeze. Superintendent Joseph Goho told the School Committee about the milestone, reflecting on a project that touched nearly every building in the district. “We’ve really accomplished a lot,” Goho said, according to the same report.
Two remaining items are expected to wrap up within days. Parking-lot lighting at Woodhaven Elementary School was expected to be installed by mid-November, and temporary fencing at Dr. Joseph A. Whelan Elementary School was scheduled to come down this weekend, per the district's construction update.
A Program Spanning New Buildings and Old Ones Alike
The construction program includes the new Dr. Joseph A. Whelan Elementary School and the new Woodhaven Elementary School, along with a district administration building and athletic support facilities, in addition to district-wide renovations. North Providence celebrated both new elementary schools with a ribbon-cutting on Sept. 2, as WPRI reported at the time.
North Providence High School received renovations to its kitchen, cafeteria, media center, auditorium, lobby, gymnasiums, fitness room and restrooms, along with lighting upgrades and window replacement, the construction update notes. High school employees navigated construction work in the cafeteria, gymnasiums, weight room and windows throughout the project, and staff went without use of the auditorium for a full year during construction. Goho thanked staff for their patience as the work unfolded.
Birchwood Middle School and Dr. Edward A. Ricci Middle School each received renovations to their cafeteria and gymnasium. Cafeteria upgrades improved the brightness of those spaces and acoustic panels helped reduce cafeteria noise at both schools. An earlier Valley Breeze report described additional finished work at the two middle schools, including complete gym remodels, a cafeteria-floor replacement, and upgrades to student bathrooms, as detailed in a separate Valley Breeze story on bond-funded high school work.
Stretching a $125 Million Bond
The construction projects were funded through a $125 million construction bond that North Providence voters approved by 76.4 percent in November 2022. According to the district's own project FAQ, that same $125 million figure represents the estimated total cost of the district-wide construction program.
According to The Valley Breeze, the bond received approximately 80 percent state reimbursement, the construction update states. The North Providence School Projects FAQ explains that the district receives a base state reimbursement rate of 59.8 percent for eligible costs, with incentives potentially pushing that rate up toward 80 percent. Any costs not reimbursed by the Rhode Island Department of Education are meant to be covered through the municipal bond voters approved in 2022, per the same FAQ.
Project architect Philip Conte reviewed completed work across the district and said savings realized along the way allowed the district to take on additional projects beyond the original scope. “It was a mantra that we were going to try to recognize every bit of savings from the beginning so that we could stretch that 125 million dollars,” Conte said.
Those savings reportedly helped cover work that stretched beyond the bond's original line items. Federal COVID relief money paid for heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades, state safety funding supported security improvements, and food service funding helped cover cafeteria work, according to the construction update. Goho said grants and state reimbursement helped limit costs to local taxpayers, noting that without that outside funding, many of the repairs would otherwise have required spending from the general fund.
An earlier Valley Breeze report on the project's final elementary-school milestones noted that Shawmut Design and Construction built the new schools, with LeftField overseeing project management and StudioJAED and SLAM handling the architectural work, as detailed in that earlier report. With the last weekly meeting behind them, Goho summed up four years of work for the School Committee: “We have a lot to be proud of and a lot to show for it.”
