MacWilliams: Budget Commission, School Committee, Superintendent Failed City On School Budget

Editor's note: The following is an open letter to RI Director of Revenue Rosemary Booth Gallogly:

Dear Ms. Gallogly, 

I am writing to you as a very concerned Woonsocket taxpayer. It has been brought to my attention that the Woonsocket School Department will not be submitting their budget on time. It was due on March 1, 2013. School Superintendent Donoyan stated at the last school committee meeting that she was given an extension to April 1^st.  (who approved this extension??).

 Ms.Gallogly, as you well know a State Budget Commission has been assigned to my city because of our serious financial problems. In 2011 the School Department along with the School Committee pushed us over the financial cliff with a surprise $2 million deficit. Here we are two years down the road (2013) under the close supervision of a Budget Commission and Superintendent Donoyan has NO budget ready for March 1^st. I find this appalling.

This blatant defiance towards financial responsibility by Superintendent Donoyan is unconscionable. To add to this calamity the Budget Commission did not know that her budget would not be submitted on March 1, 2013.

Ms.Gallogly, if the Budget Commission is assigned to watch over the city’s troubled finances one would think that they would make sure ALL budgets are submitted on time. If a budget was NOT going to be submitted on time the Budget Commission should let it be known that they are to be notified as soon as it became apparent that this important financial document would not be delivered on the expected due date.

This situation raises the following questions- what is the Budget Commission looking at if they allow this cavalier budget reporting from the School Committee and our School Superintendent? What kind of respect does Superintendent Donoyan have for the Budget Commission and the School Committee by not communicating that her school department was in trouble and that she could not submit a budget on time? Why didn’t the Budget Commission ask Superintendent Donoyan to confirm that her budget would be ready on time (or not)?

As a Woonsocket taxpayer I am very concerned about another Woonsocket School Superintendent that is not properly prepared when it comes to the business of school finances. What is even more troubling is that the Budget Commission and the School Committee did not demand that the school budget be ready on time.

In closing I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Very truly yours,

Christine MacWilliams

Woonsocket taxpayer