Schools finalize $174.4M budget

By ETHAN HARTLEY
Posted 4/30/19

By ETHAN HARTLEY The Warwick School Department sent a budget request to the city council for an additional $8.53 million in city funds on Monday, after four days of budget hearings last week resulted in a budget that produced no significant cost savings

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Schools finalize $174.4M budget

Posted

The Warwick School Department sent a budget request to the city council for an additional $8.53 million in city funds on Monday, after four days of budget hearings last week resulted in a budget that produced no significant cost savings after personnel that were slated to be cut were restored.

There is some good news, depending on your perspective at least. The $174.4 million budget that was approved by the school committee on Thursday included funding for janitorial staff – and cleaning supplies – that had been cut last year and resulted in constant anxiety regarding the cleanliness of schools. It also included funding for Mentor Rhode Island, although there is no guarantee those items will be saved throughout the coming months as the budget must be finalized, balanced and approved by the city.

“We are a long, long way away,” said school finance director Anthony Ferrucci on Friday. “We're in the first five minutes of the first quarter of the game.”

The ask of the city would have been higher, too, had the school committee not made efforts to reduce the budget elsewhere once it decided last Wednesday night to include $100,000 in funding for the mentor program, and about $1 million to save the jobs of 6.5 elementary math interventionists and 10 teaching assistants for elementary classrooms – all of which were originally proposed to be cut by Superintendent Philip Thornton, which was projected to save $1.13 million.

Those re-additions to the budget were remediated in part by the school committee zeroing proposed raises for all administrative positions – including building principals and vice principals – although that only amounted to about $179,000 in savings.

The committee saved about $200,000 in proposed increases by altering the plan to bump pay for school building aides and bus monitors – which were slated to get an increase in pay from minimum wage to $15 an hour – which was proposed as a means to improve a significant vacancy rates for those positions.

The school committee decided to let their personnel committee iron out a more definite plan regarding how these individuals would be compensated and how many hours they would work. There were 81 building aides and 41 elementary bus monitors working in the district at the time of this piece, which are required positions tasked with watching kids during lunch periods, recess and while being transported to and from school, according to Ferrucci.

The majority of the rest of the cuts came from throughout the budget in small doses, including the proposed $150,000 to remodel aging locker rooms at both high schools; $90,000 that would have replaced or added additional security cameras to elementary schools; $75,000 that would have connected Warwick Neck Elementary to sewers; $64,600 that would have purchased new basketball backstops, softball and football scoreboards for Pilgrim High School; $57,300 towards refurbishing computer lab equipment; $56,000 to the line intended to purchase new Chromebooks; $35,000 that would have purchased 10 Promethean Boards; and $15,800 for new LCD projectors across the district.

Talk of potentially cutting middle school and high school sports – a measure that would save approximately $1 million – was brief, and not acted upon. An additional $80,000 intended to go towards stipends for teachers attending professional development activities was slashed.

All told, after adding back the employee positions and mentoring, the school committee passed a budget that was just $4,257 lower than what Superintendent Thornton had presented them at the beginning of last week. The total ask from the city is $132.5 million – the $8,533,002 on top represents a 6.88 percent increase above the current allocation received in FY2019, which was $123.9 million.

School Committee Chairwoman Karen Bachus was discouraged by the result, as she expressed on Monday.

“I'm disgusted. I am very upset. We just hope and pray we find a way to make it,” she said, adding that fixed costs like salary increases are responsible for a significant portion of the budget.

“I didn't negotiate those raises,” she added. “I had nothing to do with that contract.”

Bachus said that the school committee went through every budget line item and cut what they could, even items that were to a detriment to the district. They simply weren’t able to cut enough to make up for the high costs of salaries and benefits.

“We went through every single uniform code, every line of the appendices. Everything,” she said, adding that she wouldn’t support layoffs as a means to find more savings, worrying it would further impact the educational quality of the schools. “I could probably find a few more things but not to get to $8 million.”

With time running out in the current fiscal year (which ends June 30), Bachus said that the schools remain in mediation with the city on how to resolve their current year deficit, which runs north of $4 million. However, she said progress on that was occurring “slowly.”

“I thought this would be done by now,” she said. “We continue to meet with the city and all we can do is hope to figure out a way to make things happen.”

Comments

12 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here

  • Honestinfo

    Let’s start a pool on how long it takes Robbie to post that this is all the fault of the WFD.

    Tuesday, April 30, 2019 Report this

  • Warwick Man

    He has been more silent recently after he killed all those animals. Or he saw the results of the audit. Either way his time of usefulness to the city has come and gone.

    Tuesday, April 30, 2019 Report this

  • Reality

    Bachus is a joke. She fought against school consolidation for yrs. because she was afraid of elimination of union jobs but now she doesn't have the money to pay for the basics.

    Maybe she can call on her partner in crime Vella-Wilkinson to get more state money. Vella is promoting Bachus's evergreen bill to protect the goodies in the teachers' contract.

    Tuesday, April 30, 2019 Report this

  • Thecaptain

    Actually Jimmy,

    I am very busy between my very high paying projects and my boat. Not to mention a fair amount of flying. In addition, the intelligence level around here, (like you and the rest of your ANONYMOUS fake people) leaves a bit to desire.

    Tuesday, April 30, 2019 Report this

  • Samuel

    Cote got some high paying projects since he posted nonsense three days ago? Glad to hear it, maybe his wife will be happy that she doesn't have to support him anymore.

    Tuesday, April 30, 2019 Report this

  • Warwickbeautiful

    Mr. Cote also conveniently fails to add that he has also been busy stalking and harassing an innocent family who by his own admission he does not even know. In addition he leaves out how he has been busy disrespecting a deceased man who leaves behind a grieving family still coping with their loss.

    Tuesday, April 30, 2019 Report this

  • JohnStark

    A few points here.

    1. Why is $100k needed to fund a mentoring program that is staffed by volunteers? I do not questions that some kids may benefit. But I'm not sure how a mentor-student relationship is enhanced by $100k, unless it is another non-profit whose primary financial beneficiaries are those individuals who administer the program.

    2. 6.88% increase from the city is an absolute nonstarter!

    3. We have Teachers. Then we have Teaching Assistants. We also have Teachers' Aids. Add in Math Interventionists, Special Education teachers, and the 82nd Airborne and here are the results: Fewer than 1 in 4 kids is deemed to be competent in Math in Warwick's high schools. As it stands, the system is an unmitigated disaster.

    In the Name of God...will someone on the SC PLEASE take a step back and ask the question: What, exactly, are Warwick taxpayers getting in measurable outcomes, in exchange for $19,000 per pupil?!

    Wednesday, May 1, 2019 Report this

  • patientman

    Ken Block tweeted last night that he has HEARD the city is planning to raid $4,000,000 from the fully funded (105%) janitors & cafeteria workers pension fund. Has anyone else heard anything about this? This is ridiculous. I'm sure these are among the lowest pensions the city has. Why screw with these people? FUBAR

    Is it even legal? If it is legal, why? The states run by the unions.

    Wednesday, May 1, 2019 Report this

  • Bob_Cushman

    The Warwick School Employee Retirement Plan currently has $53,002,896 in assets and $57,021,715 in liabilities for a funded ration of 93% according to the USI Consulting Group actuarial report from June 30, 2018.

    Removing $4 million from the plan will reduce the funding ration to 86%.

    Wednesday, May 1, 2019 Report this

  • patientman

    I believe 86% is still considered "fully funded". Seems like a horrible idea that avoids politicians having to make hard decisions. What happens when times are tough. Cut the money from the budget.

    Wednesday, May 1, 2019 Report this

  • CAMP2020

    OHHHH LOOK AT COTE...SO BIG AND IMPORTANT WITH ALL HIS HIGH PAYING "PROJECTS" AND FANCY BOAT!! WE ARE ALL SO IMPRESSED WITH ALL YOUR MASSIVE GREATNESS!

    We all know that if you have "money" then that makes you so much better then the rest of us! All of us little peons bow to your greatness Captain Shrimpy!

    Wednesday, May 1, 2019 Report this

  • wwkvoter

    As a reader I'm not impressed or swayed by the immature rob cote comments. It only makes him look more legitimate and the poster look like an angry (and dumb) child. I'm not cote fan, just trying to see facts and information. I feel sorry for people who think they have to argue public policy like that, but they still annoy me as well. You're not helping yourselves.

    Anyway, as to the raid on the Warwick pension, I am against this wholeheartedly! What an idea, take one of the FEW pensions in RI that has actually been kept healthy, and use it to plug a one year budget hole? What about NEXT year? Really? Don't, just don't.

    BTW, here it is in the Projo:

    https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190501/warwick-unions-object-to-use-of-pension-funds-to-plug-4m-hole-in-school-budget

    Thursday, May 2, 2019 Report this