During his budget presentation at the Bristol Warren Regional School Committee’s last meeting, Chief Financial Officer Anthony Ferrucci outlined how the school district can get started on nearly $4 million in capital projects through the end of 2022.

He explained that the district has more than $4 million in already-approved funding through the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) for capital projects, which expires on June 30, 2022. He targeted $2.65 million in capital projects throughout the district that are ready to begin, and proposed another $1.1 million in projects to be submitted to RIDE to be approved for housing aid reimbursement — the bulk of which would go toward bathroom and roof construction work necessary at Hugh Cole Elementary School in Warren.

Mr. Ferrucci said the district would become aware of whether or not RIDE approves the projects for reimbursement by October, which would give them time to perform the architectural and engineering work for the projects and go out to bid for construction to finish prior to the deadline.

Mr. Ferrucci identified a capital fund account that had somehow gone more than $675,000 into the red. He allocated some of the $340,000 surplus identified from the previous budget year to chip that deficit down to around $540,000. The remainder of the surplus was utilized to implement $205,000 worth of technology capital projects across the district.

Some of the $2.6 million in capital projects that are slated to be completed include:

• Approximately $1 million in security cameras throughout the district and the infrastructure to support them
• $610,000 to reconstruct the roof of Guiteras Elementary School in Bristol
• $235,000 to replace the HVAC system at Kickemuit Middle School
• $100,000 to replace the bleachers at Kickemuit Middle School
• $250,000 to re-pave Hugh Cole Elementary School.

The school committee unanimously approved the capital plan. A full roster of the projects included in the plan will be available on the district’s website. To date, nearly $7.7 million of the $11.7 million in projects approved for RIDE reimbursement have been completed.

“This is a lot of work to achieve in a four-year window, so congratulations to you,” Mr. Ferrucci told the committee.