Schools end year with $1.9M surplus

Matt Bower
Posted 11/20/14

Warwick Public Schools ended fiscal year 2014 with a total budget surplus of $1,922,628, which is higher than the initially projected $1.3 million surplus, according to the FY 2014 Year End Financial …

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Schools end year with $1.9M surplus

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Warwick Public Schools ended fiscal year 2014 with a total budget surplus of $1,922,628, which is higher than the initially projected $1.3 million surplus, according to the FY 2014 Year End Financial Report delivered by Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci at Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting.

The report, currently under audit, is for the period July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014 and uses data posted as of Oct. 31, 2014.

During a preliminary report presented on July 7, 2014, Ferrucci projected the department would end the fiscal year with a $1,387,808 surplus, but the department was able to achieve an additional surplus of $534,820.

Ferrucci said the additional surplus was attributed to revenues coming in $120,237 over the preliminary report and expenditures coming in $414,583 under the preliminary report.

Ferrucci said the added revenue was mostly due to Medicaid revenue coming in over estimates by $118,130.

As for expenses, Ferrucci said salary expenses were under by $164,022 and fringe benefit expenses were under by $340,456, a result of medical and dental coming in under by $241,328 and retiree medical coming in under by $104,106.

Ferrucci said although budget managers spent $89,895 over budget projections, the department was still able to realize an additional surplus of $534,820.

In other committee news, the four companies that submitted a bid for the Request for Proposals (RFP) for a long-term planning consultant were identified and their bids were listed.

School Committee Chairwoman Bethany Furtado read off the names and their bid amounts, which included: Robinson Green Berretta Architects from Providence with a base bid of $396,900; Lerner Ladds Bartels from Pawtucket with a base bid of $325,000; Studio JAED with offices in Delaware, Maryland and Rhode Island with a base bid of $150,000, an expanded bid of $376,600, a bid combining the two of $526,600, and an additional bid on top of that of $96,760 for a total bid of $623,360; and Symmes Maini & McKee Associates from Cambridge, Mass., with a bid of $167,000 for a 90-day study, as called for in the RFP, as well as a bid for post-90-day study of $113,043 for a total of $280,243. Symmes Maini & McKee Associates also submitted an alternative bid of $185,000.

Furtado said the full school committee has not yet reviewed the bids, as they have been in her “care, custody and control” since they were opened on Oct. 28, but plans to schedule a meeting to go over each of them as a full committee. She said the bids are “quite lengthy,” describing them as “bound books” averaging 176 pages each.

In other committee action, a Technology Education-English-Music (TEM) Pilot Program was approved to begin next year at Pilgrim High School.

Anne Siesel, assistant director of curriculum, said the program is a humanities-type program that will allow students to learn digital media or music technology through the use of a recording studio that has been established in one of the former shop classrooms, room 107, now dubbed Studio 107.

Siesel said the school was able to purchase the necessary equipment to build the recording studio last year with the help of a $95,600 grant from the Champlin Foundations.

The space features three performance areas, one chroma-key soundstage (green screen) and two staging areas for changing sets, as well as a central space for audio production. One of the storage rooms will become a computer lab for audio/video editing, creative writing, storyboarding, animation, and computer-assisted set and lighting design. Another storage area will become a professional grade sound booth and recording studio. The third closet will remain storage for cameras, lights, wires, etc.

“This is very exciting,” Siesel said. “The teachers worked very hard to think this through and develop a high quality program.”

Siesel said students in the TEM program will take two years of Music Theory and Technology, two years of Digital Video and an integrated English 4 course that will have students write, direct and produce a production during their senior year. The production may be focused on music or video or may combine the two depending on the students’ interest. The English 4 course will begin during the 2016-17 school year.

“This is cutting edge and a fabulous use of the new space,” Siesel said. “Teachers are already getting a lot of interest from students with the equipment already being there.”

The School Committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 9. Time and place are to be determined.

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