School Committee Split On $65 Million Draft Budget

Editor's note: This story was written in part using audio posted on Mywoonsocket.com's "In their own words" page, where a recording of the entire meeting is available.  

The School Department's updated $65,957,994 draft budget failed its first passage vote March 27 after some members expressed line items.

The figures, which represent about $1 million in savings, are based on the Budget Commission's anticipated deal with unions. The state-appointed body has instructed the Woonsocket School Department to use the figures in their budget planning.

Committee Member John Donlon asked Interim School Finance Director Ralph Malafronte what would happen if the Budget Commission proves unable to negotiate those insurance savings.

"There's no question the budget needs to be increased by those amounts," if the lower figures aren't realized, he said.

On several occasions, City Finance Director Thomas Bruce, RI Director of Revenue Rosemary Booth Gallogly, Mayor Leo Fontaine, Council President John Ward and Budget Commission Chairman Bill Sequino have all stated that in the event anticipated savings aren't reached as part of the Commission's 5-year plan to solve the city's deficit, the next step for the city, the school department included, is bankruptcy.

"We don't have final authority on this budget," Committee Member Chris Roberts pointed out. For the School Committee's part, Roberts suggested the best they could do on the insurance line items was to include a notation under those line items stating they were directed to use those numbers by the Budget Commission.

 Committee Member Anita McGuire-Forcier noted that the School Committee counsel, Richard Ackerman, has advised them to follow the Committee's usual legal process in passing a budget, which means two votes to pass it before it becomes official.

But when the four Committee members present voted on the first passage, the vote split with Roberts and McGuire-Forcier voting for it and Donlon and Eleanor Nadeau voting against.  School Committee Chairman Vimala Phongsavanh did not attend the meeting.

Now, said McGuire-Forcier, they'll have to wait for the next meeting of the School Committee, on April 10, and see if the attendance of Phongsavanh will change the outcome on a second vote, when a second passage would have otherwise been scheduled. That will push a possible second passage to the following meeting April 17. The next Budget Commission meeting after that would be the next day. 

"If they (The Budget Commission) want it sooner, we'll have to go to a special meeting," Mcguire - Forcier said.