Budget issues, more improvements to Warwick Vets’ athletic facilities and other building work were the main focuses of the Warwick School Committee at their meeting Tuesday night.

Finance Director Brandon Bohl said the department is working to address school employee salary costs. In three of the four previous fiscal years, he said, over spent budget for salaries and other compensation, with the one year that they didn’t largely due to federal ESSER funding making up that gap.

“That’s part of the project over the next month, is to really refine that number and come up with where we think we’re going to head in Fiscal Year 25 [the current fiscal year] and then we’ll come up with more concrete steps to take in order to try and avoid a deficit,” Bohl said. “At that point, I think we can be a little more comfortable saying we’re either going to avoid a deficit altogether, or it’ll be a smaller number than we were originally projecting — if we put these steps in place.”

Committee chair Shaun Galligan said making sure the salary issue is addressed early is key to avoid exacerbating it.

“Although this is stressful and we are trending towards a deficit in FY25, it’s been caught so early within our fiscal year that we can make adjustments,” Galligan said.

The committee also unanimously approved new, efficient lighting for the track at Warwick Veterans Middle School. The department received $500,000 in the city’s budget this year for repairs as it prepares to house the track teams for all of Warwick’s secondary schools through 2027. Of that, according to Director of Capital Projects Steve Gothberg, $264,000 was spent to repair the track, and the balance could potentially go to either the lighting the fields or repairing Vets’ tennis courts.

The lighting contract, according to Gothberg, would be with Energy Conservation, Inc. for $219,530. Warwick Public Schools would be on the hook for $199,504, with a Rhode Island Energy incentive covering the rest of the cost. Bohl said that WPS would pay roughly $40,000 annually for five years following the installation of the lights.

“I’ve spoken with Mr. Bohl, we believe it’s manageable,” Gothberg said.

LeftField Project Management Senior Project Manager Chris Spiegel also gave an update on the design and construction of the new high schools.

Since the previous update, Spiegel said that the Rhode Island Department of Education provided preliminary comments on the schematic designs of both high schools; RIDE’s comments, Spiegel said, were nothing out of the ordinary. An environmental assessment of Toll Gate and Pilgrim’s building sites is wrapping up as well.

Spiegel warned, though, that the progress update did not mean that there would be smooth sailing ahead for the projects.

“Difficult conversations [over possible changes and school amenities] are coming,” Spiegel said. “They should be expected, as we’ve been saying for months.”

After months of waiting, the project’s website, Spiegel said, is ready to go public, and will be doing so after one more meeting with the administration to review it. It will have separate tabs to view the Pilgrim and Toll Gate projects.

Gothberg said that ongoing work on the city’s current schools was going well, with work at Greenwood and Warwick Neck expected to be finished by the end of the month.

Oakland Beach’s façade, however, is a different story. Gothberg said that work had to be halted because of the façade’s condition, and that a structural engineer was brought in to review it.

“The masonry was in very poor condition in several locations,” he said.

Window installation at the school, Gothberg said, is expected to be completed by Thanksgiving.

Work on Holliman, whose students are learning in the Gorton Administrative Building while their building is being worked on, is “well underway” according to Gothberg, who said that at the moment, it was roughly two weeks ahead of schedule.