Select Board Approves ARPA Funds for Aitken

The Seekonk Select Board approved $189, 928 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to be used to pay down the debt incurred for the Aitken Elementary School expansion project.

The 10 classroom addition was completed in June 2021 at a cost of nearly $11 million.

Voters approved the funding at the May 2019 Spring Town Meeting. The school committee formed an ad hoc building committee to oversee the project.

That committee included former Select Board member David Viera, school committee members Noah Escaler and Kim Sluter, and Greg Smolley, the school architect project manager from DRA (Drummey Rosanne Anderson), the firm which was hired for completing a study of the issue of overcrowding in Seekonk schools. 

Among several options and recommendations, the decision was made to pursue a permanent addition to the Aitken School to replace leased modular classrooms. DRA was later awarded the contract for architectural design for the Aitken expansion.

Town Administrator Shawn Cadime said the project was $586,247 underbudget. The money allocated for the air conditioning came in at $1,677, 416, which was more than $23,000 underbudget.

Doreen Taylor, a member of Seekonk Concerned Citizens and a frequent critic of the school department, spoke during the public comments portion of the board’s June 21 meeting following the vote.
Taylor questioned the money appropriated for the air conditioning in the Aitken School.

"The warrant article and the ballot has nothing in it that says that it’s an addition to the expansion," Miss Taylor said. "Nowhere on record is there a town meeting warrant or a ballot question asking the town to co-mingle these funds. I understand the funds were co-mingled but they were co-mingled without the knowledge of town meeting or a ballot vote, just like we did the first two warrant articles. Nowhere on this warrant article does it mention (the air conditioning) is in addition to the expansion project, that it was a stand-alone project in the existing building of Aitken School."

The School Committee did not respond to our inquiry.