Warwick’s proposal to create a budget commission to help resolve issues with Warwick Public Schools’ finances following news of a projected $9-million deficit ran into some roadblocks during the Rhode Island House of Representatives Education Commission meeting last Thursday.

The bill, cosponsored by every Warwick representative with the exception of Rep. Marie Hopkins, was held for further study.

Rep. Joe McNamara (D-Warwick, Cranston), the head of the House Education Commission and the main sponsor of the bill, presented the bill alongside Mayor Frank Picozzi.

Picozzi said the decision to work toward creating the commission ultimately came from a lack of trust in the School Committee to fix the issue.

“I’m very supportive of the School Committee and the school administration. I like these people, and I’m very supportive of education,” Picozzi said. “I can understand the resistance from the School Department, the unions, and I didn’t not expect it, but this isn’t a time for pride or turf wars or whatever. We have to work together, and I think the best way to do that is an independent panel.”

Members of the education commission, however, were unsure that a budget commission would be a good idea.

Rep. Nathan Biah (D-Providence), himself the principal of Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School, said that he was worried that approving the commission would set a precedent for other communities in the state.

“I don’t want to set a precedent – today it’s Warwick; tomorrow could be Cranston, the next could be North Kingstown,” Biah said. “I think it’d be best to go back and sit down – if you can’t come together after X amount of time, then maybe, but I don’t want to set a precedent.”

Rep. Rebecca Kislak (D-Providence), one of the commission’s vice chairs, also expressed skepticism that the city could find five qualified individuals to work on the budget commission either for free or for a small stipend.

Picozzi claimed that he had heard from a few qualified interested parties, but did not name any names.

“I think that it’s an extraordinary thing for a city to come to the state and ask us for additional authorities regarding the schools,” Kislak said. “Doesn’t the city already have the staff to already do this without our needing to provide specific state authorization? Can you have a more informal auditing process?”

Picozzi said that the city’s Finance Department had its hands full with the city’s finances, and could not also take on the task that the schools presented.

School Committee Chair Shaun Galligan, speaking against the bill, said a budget commission would not be able to effectively cut the budget without harming students’ education, and that the commission would not have enough time to learn about WPS’s budget to make effective cuts.

In addition, WPS Superintendent Lynn Dambruch publicly voiced for the first time some of the reasons the deficit developed.

“For many years, we’ve been underfunding our salary line,” Dambruch said. “We’ve been overspending that line, and we did not realize it because the surpluses and other line items would cover the fact that we didn’t have enough money to pay our salaries…. We also struggled when the ESSER funds dried up, and we had to bring a lot of supports over to our general budget.”

Picozzi told the representatives he was concerned that without WPS’s financial situation being fixed quickly, the city would have to institute maximum tax increases.

His biggest fear, he said, was that any deficit would jeopardize the city’s bond rating.

“I don’t have the confidence, and it’s too big to gamble on,” Picozzi said.

Three other bills were introduced during the session – one by Rep. Lauren Carson (D-Newport) that would establish a task force to improve access to early childhood special services and two others introduced by McNamara that would incorporate SurveyWorks school climate indicators for evaluating schools and direct local education agencies to select curricula for science and technology by July 2026. All three were also held for further study.