Committee Struggles To Work With Discrepancies In Audit

Imperfect estimates and less than exact calculations are gradually eating up the supposed savings for the Woonsocket Education Department, as it struggles to apply the recommendations of auditors from B & E Consulting.

The auditors, tasked with supplying the School Committee with a formula to make up a deficit of $2,549,032, initially handed the department a list of staffing cuts for custodians, special education and administrative personnel which would save $988,264.

But when business manager Stacy Busby applied the recommended cuts and calculated the exact savings for the department, she found only $930,145, even with large additional staffing cuts. "Meeting the budget will require significantly greater cuts in personnel," explained Superintendent Robert Gerardi last week.

Elimination of block scheduling at Woonsocket High School, according to B & E would allow the department to reduce six teachers. While final plans for scheduling at the high school have yet to be determined, the hybrid schedule that the department has discussed will only eliminate one or two.

"We still need to get creative and find out where we can get those positions from. They will not necessarily be from the high school," said Mark Garceau, director of instruction, administration and professional development at Wednesday night's School Committee meeting. "Through doing the best we can to maximize the classrooms we have, we are committed to coming up with six bodies. But to think they would all come from the high school, I don't think is realistic."

Similarly, estimates for the necessary number of custodians at Woonsocket schools may have been based on inaccurate figures. According to total square footage obtained by Local 1137 President Tom Lambert from the city's Tax Assessor office, custodians currently care for 930,000 square feet of school property. Auditors put that number at 780,776.

"I don't know if the subcommittee knew this when they made the cuts. We're understaffed as it is," said Lambert.

Committeewoman Anita McGuire-Forcier said she also attempted to obtain an exact figure for total square footage and was told the discrepancy was partially a result of the auditors' decision not to count closets, basements and attics. 

"We still have to clean those. And even if we take off the closets and basements, we're still probably talking about 125,000 square feet," Lambert said of the discrepancy.

The plan to use the Public Works Department to maintain Barry Field and plow school parking lots to make up for the elimination of of two custodians also appears doomed. "I also did ask the mayor regarding the cuts for Barry Field and about the parking... they do not have the manpower. The mayor has just given out 5 pink slips to the highway department and they didn't even have enough men to take care of their own parks. So we really cannot depend on them," said McGuire-Forcier.