Town Seeks to Halt School Spending

Just hours before , members of the North Kingstown School Committee received hand-delivered letter by officers, notifying them that the town would not release any funds for the school department.

The letters came on the heels of last week’s report that the school department may face a $712,000 deficit this year after unexpected expenditures. That number may climb to as much as $1.2 million, pending the outcome of a union contract with school employees.

In the letter sent by town Finance Director Patricia Sunderland, the town cites a state law barring school expenditures from exceeding the revenue appropriated by the town. The law states that “purchase orders or financial commitments shall not be authorized” unless it can be proven that there will not be an estimated deficit.

However, School Committee attorney Mary Ann Carroll disagreed with the town’s interpretation of the laws and called the move “premature” at Tuesday night’s meeting. Carroll said the town lacks the authority to issue the order because the school department has only spent $19.5 million of its $58.1 million budget, and is not currently in arrears.

Despite Sunderland's urgings for the committee to not enter in financial commitments at this time, the School Committee voted on and approved a new contract for phone service with Cox Communications and a lease for a new maintenance truck. In the memo, Sunderland claimed that entering into such commitments could “mislead potential contractors.”

“I think [the memo] went out prematurely,” said School Committee member Lynda Avanzato. “I just think the way it was handled [by having the letters delivered by police officers] escalates the situation.”

Police officers delivered the letters to ensure they were received prior to the meeting, according to Town Council Chairwoman Elizabeth Dolan. Eight copies of the memorandum were also delivered to the as a precautionary measure. The extra precaution, Dolan said, was in response to committee members not receiving a letter informing them of the estimated deficit. According to Dolan, several committee members learned of the deficit from a Providence Journal article.

“There was no intent to show force or show any sort of threat, just to ensure they were delivered in time for the meeting last night,” Dolan said.

Dolan will be meeting with School Committee Chairwoman Kimberly Page along with Town Manager Michael Embury and Superintendent Phil Auger tomorrow morning to discuss the legal disagreements and a possible solution to the deficit problem. A “quick audit” of the school’s budget performance may be a possibility, she added.

“It’s a $58-million budget,” said Dolan. “There’s got to be some way to move things around to make a $1.2-million deficit go away. There’s got to be.”

One potential avenue could be to tap into the school department’s surplus, but with about $500,000 in that fund, the budget would still not break even.

“The kids and the programs and the personnel of the North Kingstown School Department are the School Committee’s responsibility and also the Town Council’s responsibility,” said Auger. “We the people of North Kingstown own all of this, and one way or another we have to pay for it.”