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General Treasurer Seth Magaziner today celebrated the extension of the school construction program developed by the Task Force he co-chaired in 2017. The Fiscal Year 2023 Budget passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly and signed today by Governor Dan McKee includes $300 million of funding for the statewide school construction program, including a $250 million bond proposal for voters to consider on the 2022 ballot.  

As co-chair of the Rhode Island School Building Task Force, Treasurer Magaziner led the development of a once-in-a-generation plan to repair or replace Rhode Island's public school buildings that provides enhanced state funding for public school districts. The Fiscal Year 2023 Budget ensures that school districts will continue to be able to apply for enhanced state funding through 2023.  

“All students deserve to attend schools that are safe, warm, dry, and equipped for 21st-century learning,” said General Treasurer Seth Magaziner. “I thank the members of the General Assembly for continuing this historic investment in Rhode Island’s students and school buildings. Rhode Islanders understand that investing in our schools and in our students is how we build a strong economy for the future, and I look forward to when voters across the state will approve this measure on Tuesday, November 8.”  

Treasurer Magaziner’s statewide school construction program was approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 and has since allocated more than $2.2 billion in funding to repair or replace over 200 school buildings across 31 districts in Rhode Island. These schools serve nearly 100,000 students annually and the projects to repair or replace the schools have created more than 36,000 jobs.  

Examples of school construction projects recently completed, currently, or soon to be underway include: 

Cranston voters overwhelmingly supported a 2020 proposal to rebuild two schools, Garden City and Gladstone Elementary Schools, and to launch major renovations at Park View Middle School, Eden Park Elementary School, and Cranston High West, benefiting over 9,400 students annually.  

Smithfield renovated and expanded all three of its elementary schools, adding pre-K classrooms to the Raymond C. LaPerche Elementary School, and updating the cafeteria at Pleasant View, while also adding a new music room, media center, and gym.  

Narragansett will upgrade Narragansett Elementary and Middle Schools as well as modernize and expand Narragansett High School. North Kingstown voters overwhelmingly approved a $13.5 million proposal in 2018 that includes renovations to Davisville Middle School, several elementary schools, and sports facilities that complement the new, state-of-the-art North Kingstown High School that serves as a model for surrounding communities.

Newport recently broke ground on a new 164,567 square-foot facility to replace Rogers High School, which was built in 1957 and its condition made it the worst-rated high school in the 2017 statewide assessment of all 306 public school buildings in Rhode Island.  

86% of Johnston voters approved a $215 million proposal in April 2022 to finance the largest modernization of education facilities in the town’s history. School construction projects include the closure and consolidation of four elementary schools into one new state-of-the-art school with a new gymnasium, media center, and science and technology labs to support art, music, science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) education, major renovations to the Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School and Johnston High School, in addition to a new early childhood center and new and expanded career as well as technical training programming for high school students.

Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner today announced that the Rhode Island Pension Fund outperformed 98% of public pension plans over the last year and during the first quarter of 2022, continuing the consistent outperformance the Rhode Island plan has achieved under Treasurer Magaziner’s ‘Back to Basics’ Investment Plan.   

According to the InvMetrics Public DB Database, which tracks the performance of 591 public pension plans, Rhode Island’s performance as of March 31, 2022 was ahead of 98% of the funds in the database for the first quarter of 2022, the fiscal year to date, as well as the trailing 12-month period.  

“My mission as Treasurer is to support economic opportunity and financial stability in Rhode Island by strengthening the pension fund that thousands of Rhode Islanders and their families rely on for retirement security,” said Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner. “Under our ‘Back-to-Basics' Investment strategy, the pension fund’s investment performance has been historically strong, and the plan has reached new all-time highs while consistently outperforming our peers.”  

Over the twelve months ending March 31, the Rhode Island pension plan achieved a return of 12.2%, significantly ahead of the median public pension plan return of 4.9% as well as a traditional 60% stock / 40% bond portfolio return of 2.7%.  

During the fiscal year to date, the Plan achieved a return of 5.0% compared to the median public pension plan return of -0.6% and a 60% stock / 40% bond portfolio return of -2.3%.   

Rhode Island has achieved strong performance relative to other pension funds since Treasurer Magaziner launched the ‘Back to Basics’ investment strategy in 2017. According to InvMetrics, Rhode Island has outperformed most public pension funds in three of the last four full fiscal years.  

Additional information about the Rhode Island pension system, including the ‘Back to Basics’ investment strategy and performance, can be found online as part of Treasurer Magaziner's “Transparent Treasury” initiative at investments.treasury.ri.gov.  

All performance is reported on a “net of fees” basis.

Legislation seeks $300-million bond to continue critical school construction progress

Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner testified today before the Rhode Island House Finance Committee in favor of S2596, developed by his Office in partnership with sponsor Senator Hanna M. Gallo (D-Dist. 27, Cranston and West Warwick), which would extend and expand the once-in-a-generation investment in Rhode Island’s school buildings. As co-chair of the School Building Task Force, Treasurer Magaziner led the development of the State’s school construction plan that was overwhelmingly approved by Rhode Island voters in 2018. Treasurer Magaziner also provided testimony on the companion House Bill H7125 with bill sponsor Representative Brandon Potter (D-Dist. 16, Cranston).  

The State School Construction Plan has since allocated more than $1.7 billion in funding to repair or replace 189 school buildings across 28 districts in Rhode Island. These schools serve more than 101,800 students annually and the projects to repair or replace the schools have created more than 28,000 jobs. School construction activity is well distributed across both urban and suburban school districts. 

“Modern school facilities are vital to preparing students to succeed in our economy and to maintain Rhode Island’s competitiveness in the region and the country,” said General Treasurer Seth Magaziner. “Despite incredible progress in a short period of time, there are still thousands of children across Rhode Island attending schools that are old, unsafe, and poorly equipped. We need to continue prioritizing school modernization until all students in Rhode Island are attending schools that are safe, warm, and built for 21st-century learning.” 

The legislation will include a $300 million statewide bond proposal for voters to consider on the 2022 ballot, to extend the availability of enhanced state funding for early childhood education facilities, career and technical education facilities, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) facilities. 

“This is an incredible opportunity, not only to invest in students and their education but to do so in a way that reflects our values and priorities. By incentivizing the hiring of minority enterprises to complete this work, we can provide opportunities to communities that have historically been especially neglected. By incentivizing energy-efficient, environmentally focused construction, we can play a part in meeting our state’s climate goals. These provisions ensure that we are leveraging all the benefits available to us while providing our students the facilities they need and deserve.” 

The proposed legislation will also include significant new incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements to public school buildings, in keeping with the state’s Act on Climate goals to achieve a net-zero emission economy. The legislation will also include new incentives for school districts to employ local contractors and minority business enterprises on school construction projects. 

“Our district has benefitted enormously from the state’s school construction plan,” said Superintendent of Cranston Public Schools Jeaninne Nota-Masse. “More of our students are now learning in educational environments designed to meet the needs of today’s learners. We could not make as much progress in improving our schools for so many of our students and our educators as we have without this increased state support.”