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90 days does appear excessive.

However, I believe the School Committee knew/planned the consolidation process PRIOR to 6/1/15; they could have issued 20 layoff notices at that time & 20 layoff notices prior to 6/1/16. That would have allowed the SC to operate under/within the EXTENSION of the expired contract(I believe under RI State law teachers contracts that have expired are extended to prevent teacher strikes which are prohibited). Between the 40 cumulative notices & teacher retirements that usually occur normally over the past two school years, the desired reductions could have been achieved by now & this would be one issue that wouldn't need to be addressed. The teachers will likely win & as Superintendent Thornton has indicated he will find the funds within the budget which means some school programs will be cut(maybe middle school sports, fewer computers purchased, fewer math specialists, or some other school program). "Winding up our part of it" ? The same issues being arbitrated were being negotiated over one year ago! Hopefully, the consolidation will go smoothly by the time school begins in August & that all the necessary improvements are completed 10 days before opening day. There is also the issue of deciding which three elementary schools will be closing & which school will be converted to the new early learning education center. One finds it difficult to believe that there won't be some issues that weren't anticipated for consolidation. Even if there aren't any, it's hard to have confidence in the SC & the publicity the Warwick School System as a whole has received during the last several years is not good from an outside perspective.