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Hi Michael2012,

Actually, prior to any concessions, the teachers paid $11 and city employees paid $14. For family coverage, I think both paid $28. Both of these amounts are very low.

As far as teacher co-pay being temporary, in a way you are right, but they never returned to the lower contribution and we have locked in the savings with our last contract. So what was initially a temporary concession became a permanent concession.

The first union in the city to go to 20% was the WISE (Warwick Independent School Employees) Union. They have been at that amount since they switched to the higher co-pay. The teachers agreed to a temporary 20% for one year but locked in at 20% in the last contract. The reason the school budget is higher is because we have so many more employees than the city and many more buildings too. If we have 1/3 more buildings and 1/3 more employees, doesn't it make sense to have a budget that is 1/3 higher. I think the important thing to do is compare the city to other cities and the schools with other school districts in RI. We still have a lot to do and we always will look for a way to get savings.

I am happy the city worked with the city employees for savings. I am happy the schools found additional savings. Are we done? Definitely not. Are we moving in the right direction for the taxpayers? Yes.

As far as numbers being able to be manipulated and giving savings back, all the school savings are actual savings without givebacks. We closed schools, made personnel cuts and raised co-share payments. That is all real savings. More needs to be done.

Our school performance in high school testing is not something to celebrate. Do we want to improve? Yes. Do I believe throwing money at the problem will fix it? Absolutely NOT! We have a new evaluation system being launched, RIDE and the Dept of Ed is rolling out a new performance evaluation system for the kids too that we be able to find out which kids are falling behind earlier so they can get them help. Parents need to be more involved and communicate their concerns too.

Finally, if I was trying to deceive anyone, would I be posting at all on the beacon website for everyone to see using my real full name? I would choose to not reply and hide. I'm here and available and I say it the way it is, maloneyp@warwickschools.org. I am not going to bash the city even though I feel there are many things that could have and can be done better. I am glad Warwick is looking at a surplus on both the city and school side. Perhaps, there will be no need to raise taxes the full amount allowed by law, as they have every year for the last 10 years. Ask yourself this question. If the school funding has not gone up at all from 2008 to 2012, why did the city raise our taxes every year the full amount allowed by law each year? Where did the money go? It went to the city side. I'm not asking for more and I don't expect more. I do expect the city to make similar savings and stop, for once, to stop raising taxes. If the taxes stop being raised each year, maybe more people will move here and there will be more people paying for services. With more people here paying, the tax base would be larger and the cost would be spread out more. This would help everyone. The airport is getting larger, Rocky Point is not being developed, no one is moving in and people are leaving. A perfect example is the fact that there are less kids in school. There aren't just less kids, there are less people. Less people paying taxes leaving the rest of us to foot the bill.

Patrick Maloney

From: City looks to finish fiscal year with $1.7M surplus

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