A letter recently sent from the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) provided reassurance to the Bristol Warren Regional School District that they would receive close to the maximum possible reimbursement rate for the proposed $200 million school construction bond going before voters in less than a week.

"As you are aware, Bristol Warren's FY2024 base rate for school housing aid is 63%," reads part of the letter from Mario Carreño, Chief Operations Officer for RIDE, dated Oct. 18, 2023. "Given the proposed scopes of work captured in the Stage II application (that is currently under review), the plan outlined in your Oct. 17 letter, and alignment with incentives outlined in statute, Bristol Warren is on target to receive at least 82% State aid on school construction projects."

Superintendent Ana Riley explained on Wednesday that the 82% figure comes from the district qualifying for the full 4% energy efficiency bonus available through the state, in addition to three of four possible 5% bonuses made available for RIDE through their analysis of plans in their Stage II application submitted on Sept. 15

Riley said that the district should still be in line to receive the fourth RIDE bonus once the state conducts another facilities condition report of all the schools in the state. That would bring them to the cap of 83% reimbursement, since no district can exceed 20% above their minimum reimbursement rate (for Bristol Warren, that is 63%).

"It makes me very confident in our original assessment that we could get up to 83%, which I still believe we can get to," Riley said.

While the letter is not an official confirmation that the district will receive this rate, Riley said it provided an additional layer of credibility for that rate heading into the Nov. 7 election. The reimbursement rate will be finalized in December.