School budget vote postponed

Questions, but few answers after workshops

By ERIN REDIHAN, Breeze Correspondent

NORTH PROVIDENCE - After two budget workshops in a span of four days raised more questions than answers, the North Providence School Committee decided to put off voting on their 2010-2011 budget until they have more information.

There was a debate among the committee members before the second meeting began, Thursday, March 11, as to whether the workshop should be postponed because two members, Stephen Palmieri and chairwoman Helen Reall, were absent.

In the end, the meeting was held, with Donald Cataldi filling in as the chair.

"Out of respect for one of our members who may not be at our next meeting, we will hold this one and maybe some of the questions we raised the other (Monday) night can be answered," Cataldi said.

At the initial budget session, held on Monday, March 8, new Finance Director Jeffrey Robinson and Schools Superintendent Donna Ottaviano presented the School Committee with their proposed budget for the upcoming 2010-2011 school year.

"There's a $346,000 shortfall between now and the end of the school year," Robinson said. "We're in the process of reconciling that now. For the proposed 2011 budget, we're identifying areas of our performance where there should be a focus on budget savings going forward."

According to Robinson, this process includes negotiations with the teachers' union and exploring "other options."

From there, the committee received copies of the budget broken down by allocations to study and to raise questions during the Thursday session. They came prepared, having scrutinized the budget for anything that seemed out of place.

Because there were so many questions that Robinson was unable to answer definitively and because Reall and Palmieri did not have the opportunity to inquire about any of the line items, no vote was taken on the budget.

Instead of scheduling a third workshop, the committee will add the budget vote to the agenda for its March 24 meeting to give Robinson and his staff enough time to come up with some answers and adjustments.

Several questions arose regarding the allocations for the special education department. According to special education director Robert Lynch, the increases on individual line items are due to the district trying to keep more services in-house and will result in savings in outside program and transportation fees.

"When we added programs we had to add staff too," Lynch said. "For our extended school year program, we have a self-contained preschool, an elementary program, and functional skills classes for the middle and high schools. By doing this we save in fees for out-of-district sources."

Another sizable increase questioned was the dramatic rise in allocations for general supplies and materials for Director of Non-Instructional Services Armand Milazzo's budget.

"That's mainly because we're changing from oil to gas burners at the schools," said Milazzo. "There have been issues at Greystone school. It will cost $35,000 to change there but then only another $1,200 to do the rest of the schools."

Once the burners have been converted from oil to gas, the district can anticipate saving a considerable amount of money, as gas is typically less expensive than oil.

In addition to the cost of changing the burners, Milazzo has made several building improvements that will be covered by grants, however, the district has had to front the costs for these projects.

"For capital improvements we will be reimbursed by the state," he said. "It's more a timing difference than anything else."

An area where the district is hoping to save money is in staffing costs. The amount of severance pay needed for the current school year was much higher than usual due to the 44 teachers retiring last year being way above average. While the district plans to offer a retirement incentive, the administration does not anticipate as many departures.

"There is a potential savings coming in terms of contract negotiations as well," Robinson said.

The administration is currently in mediation.

Some of the specific areas where there seemed to be issues were the line items for the athletic director's stipend, the significant increase in telephone costs, and the price of keeping a student assistance counselor full-time at the high school now that the grant funding for this is drying up.

Robinson intends to look into these as well as a few line item errors on the proposed budget in time to present a more polished copy for the committee to vote on at their next meeting. From there, the budget would go before the Town Council for approval in April.

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