Opening a School Is Not Easy - 700 Gallons of Hand Sanitizer Delayed, $2M in Increased Costs

Opening a School Is Not Easy - 700 Gallons of Hand Sanitizer Delayed, $2M in Increased Costs

With just weeks before the scheduled opening of schools, some are facing complex challenges -- including waiting for basic safety materials.

For Jeremy Chiappetta, the Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Valley Prep, he has seen the cost of responding to the coronavirus as a budget buster.

Materials are delayed. Substitute orders have had to be found with an increase in costs.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

“We are bidding for basic materials on the open market against everyone from Brown, Harvard and Moses Brown. I am going to lose [that bidding war] seven days a week,” said Chiappetta.

“It is like the states fighting against each other for ventilators and PPE in the spring. Now, schools are fighting each other. There is no plan,” he added.

The total increase in cost at Blackstone Valley Prep -- one of the top-performing charter schools in Rhode Island that serves a highly diverse population of students -- is upward of $2 million increase cost.

For the school, the $2 million is a big number -- a 6% increase in costs over last year’s budget.

“Soup-to-nuts cost of reopening as presented to our board on June 24. Almost a $2 million increase and that is without having anywhere close to hard numbers for food services, trauma-related support, or other unknowns. Also not included is any differentiated busing costs.  We are not adding runs, just planning to run fewer [students] per bus," he said.

Across the state administrators and teachers are focused on developing plans for things they have no experience and little resources. Schools have little access to epidemiologists or other medical expertise.

Instead of developing plans for increasing math achievement or developing new strategies to improve science curriculums, the faculty are focused on how to set up classrooms to minimize spread of a virus.

Raimondo admitted the state was not ready on Wednesday. "We’re pushing back the start date of public schools and statewide calendar by two weeks — kids will begin school year on September 14," said Raimondo. "We’re doing this because it gives schools a little more time to be ready, to make sure they have enough PPE and masks, so that they have a way to keep windows open or have airflow, get kids to and from schools safely."

 

Battle for Hand Sanitizer

“We ordered 700 gallons of hand sanitizer in June with the promise of delivery in mid-August, but we learned last week that it would not come until between the end of September and early November,” said Chiappetta.

“We were able to get a new source but with a significant upcharge,” he said.

On Tuesday, GoLocal reported that Raimondo was pushing back the opening of schools in Rhode Island from August 31 to September 14. She will not make an announcement about how schools will open until the end of August now,  further adding to the confusion for parents, teachers, and administrators.

The original cost of just the 700 gallons of hand sanitizer was $21.25 a gallon and now the cost has jumped to $24.99 a gallon. The new total cost $17,493, and an upcharge of $2,618. This order is only expected to supply the school into November.

“The good news is the 175 touchless hand dispensers already came in," said Chiappetta. 

 

Key Player Already Sidelined

Chiappetta said the school needs to completely redesign every teaching space, adding that one of the key staffers developing the plans for the logistics was forced to go into 14-day quarantine after one of his family members contracted the coronavirus.

Welcome to the 2020 new school year.