The school committee approved a superintendent-recommended fiscal year 2016 revised budget Tuesday night that uses $1 million of the fiscal year 2015 year-end projected $1,017,000 surplus to reseed a number of initiatives into the FY 2016 budget, for a total of $160,871,976.

The reseeded initiatives include: $150,000 for a director of technology; $50,000 for other professional purchase services in support of the superintendent’s office; $695,000 for technology hardware specifically targeted to meet math curriculum initiatives; and $105,000 in technology hardware, to provide some support for the area as the technology hardware budget was cut to zero.

“We had planned to introduce one-to-one devices [Chromebooks] to every student, so we would not need to continue supporting the computer labs if that were the case, but because we’re not doing that, we still need money to support the computer labs,” Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci explained.

The revised budget was approved by a 4-1 vote, with Karen Bachus dissenting.

In other committee action, although a specific date is still yet to be determined, the school committee established a timeline for the closure of Aldrich and Gorton Junior Highs as part of the secondary school consolidation plan, which will also see Warwick Veterans Memorial High School re-purposed as a super junior high.

By unanimous vote, the junior high schools will be retired between the end of the 2015-16 school year and the beginning of the 2016-17 school year.

“The sooner we can turn the buildings over to the city, the better,” Bachus said. “We don’t want to repeat the issues we had at Potowomut with books, waste, dampness and mold.”

Director of Human Resources Rosemary Healey said excess contents in the buildings would be disposed of in a manner compliant with the City Charter and the school department will work with the city and give them as early a notification as possible.

“We need to find out what is surplus and what will be transitioned to other schools,” she said.

Director of Buildings and Grounds David LaPlante said he has already requested a meeting with the mayor’s chief of staff in an effort to get out in front of the transition before it becomes an issue.

Prior to establishing a timeline for consolidation, committee member Beth Furtado provided an update on the consolidation process.

After the school committee approved the consolidation plan in late June, a consolidation committee was formed to determine how that process would unfold.

Furtado, who heads the committee, said the group has been meeting on a weekly basis since June 26. Co-chairs on the committee include Healey and Director of Elementary Education Lynn Dambruch.

“We have met every Tuesday,” Dambruch said. “We looked at the scope of the work and divided into sub-committees. Those were formed and finalized this morning [Tuesday] and they will be meeting next week and reporting back to the main [consolidation] committee at our Aug. 25 meeting.”

Healey said a comprehensive “to-do list” has been prepared to analyze where the work of the sub-committees will be best focused.

“It’s a living, breathing document,” she said. “The responsibility of the overall [consolidation] committee is to develop a timeline in order to make sure everything gets done on time. We want to ensure everything is handled at the appropriate time to open school without a hitch.”

Furtado said the consolidation committee is in the early planning stages.

“We are not releasing any tentative information right now, but we will update the school department website with all pertinent information moving forward,” she said. “The meetings have been productive, despite the lack of a full compliment of core members due to summer vacations.”

Dambruch said the sub-committees would report back their accomplishments and concerns to the overall consolidation committee on a regular basis.

Areas covered by the sub-committees include, but are not limited to, the following: logistics, public relations, curriculum, staffing, technology, transportation, and legal.

Dambruch said the number of members on each sub-committee ranges from one to 11, depending on the committee.

In addition to establishing a consolidation timeline and analyzing the key areas, Furtado said there has also been discussion of getting a leadership team in place to head the new re-purposed Vets junior high.

“It has been brought up as a topic for discussion to let current staff, students, parents, city leaders, and the public know that we are cognizant of the fact that we will need strong leadership in the building in order to move consolidation forward,” Furtado said. “We want a dynamic leader in the building to make the next phase of Warwick education shine.”

Furtado said no decisions have been made yet.

“This will be an above board process and we welcome applications from outstanding current staff,” she said.

Interim Superintendent William Holland said the sooner the department can get a principal appointed at the building, the better.

“We all feel the sooner we can get a principal appointed, the better reactive they can be with the consolidation committee,” he said.

Holland said the position would be posted by the end of September.

“We’ll be looking at Oct. 1 enrollment figures to determine how big the schools will be,” he added.

Committee member Terri Medeiros said it is important not to forget that students can also help with the transition to new schools.

“Keep in mind the seventh grade student leaders, who will be eighth-graders, and positive communicating students that can assist with the transition,” she said. “In order to move forward as a city, it’s important to remember we are not three distinct areas, but one city. Our diploma is a city-wide diploma.”

Bachus said she thought it would be fair to let students who are already at Vets receive a diploma that says they graduated from Vets.

Holland said the sub-committees would have to dig deep in terms of planning.

“It will be difficult but doable,” he said. “There’s a lot of emotion involved when you spend three years at a building and then the composition changes.”