To the editor: 

Will wonders never cease? Mr. Guida claims he’s “not surprised, just disappointed” at the recent cost overrun for the special dirt now needed to complete the middle school condo on a swamp.  

I would simply ask Mr. Guida, where was your concern when you were school committee chair not long ago when the project could have been built for almost half the price? 

While the new Barrington Middle School is under construction, it’s still inconceivable that it will cost nearly $36 million more than the East Greenwich Cole Middle School. Just in case Mr. Guida forgot about the key differences in each project, he can review them below (as listed from both district websites):

Barrington Middle School

Cost per square foot: $480 

State reimbursement: approx. $16.2 million ​

Cost: $68.4 million

Scope: 142,500 square feet of new construction

Cole Middle School

Cost per square foot: $207

State reimbursement: approx. $13.9 million

Cost: $32.1 million

Scope: 110,000 square feet of new construction

How could Mr. Guida expect taxpayers to “feel good” about this project? I might feel a little better if he could explain why BMS required about 30,000-square feet more than Cole (with about the same number of students), and why the cost per square foot is more than double Coles’s and why taxpayers are on the hook for the recent Kaestle-Boos mistake.

With principal and 3 percent interest factored in, the final additional cost over 25 years could approach $LI million. That’s about $51 million for you students who took Common Core math and never had the opportunity to study ancient number systems. 

And Mr. Guida just now expresses feigned outrage over a $1 million change order for a pile of dirt? 

As Cercei in Game of Thrones said to her most recent nemesis, “Shame, shame, shame.”

Scott Fuller

Barrington