WED Likely Headed for Another Deficit

Since the revelation that the Woonsocket Education Department exceeded their 2011 budget by $2.7 million, the city has taken a to preventing another unpleasant surprise in 2012.

Everyone from City Council members to private citizens and former city employees have gotten involved in the process, examining the numbers to provide accurate projections and look for potential savings. This Monday alone, a meeting of the new was interrupted so two members (School Committee Chairwoman Anita McGuire-Forcier and committee member Christopher Roberts) could leave to meet with a separate group — the School Committee Audit Sub-Committee.

Still, it appears, Woonsocket is spending too much on , committee members say, a predicament which many insist is largely the result of the unique needs of the city's urban student population. The state's education funding formula, they say, does not do enough to address the expense of educating disadvantaged students, including those learning English as a second language. And though Woonsocket is currently involved in to challenge that formula, the city still faces the immediate struggle of addressing last year's deficit while preventing a repeat performance in 2012 and beyond. 

To avoid state intervention in the city's fiscal problems, administrators were tasked with submitting both a plan to address last year's shortfall and reports on the School Department's current status. The for 2011 is still under review by the state's Auditor General.

"I won't be surprised if we do end 2012 with a deficit. It's the magnitude of the deficit that I worry about," said Superintendent Giovanna Donoyan at Wednesday night's School Committee meeting. "We can't even go forward and start to develop a reasonable budget until we know where we are."

Donoyan opted not to discuss the details of the still incomplete projections at the meeting. Although the city was given a Jan. 31 deadline to submit year-to-date reports to State Revenue Director Rosemary Booth Gallogly, the education department is still in the process of calculating salaries. Dina DuTremble — a former city employee back on temporary assignment to provide the reports to the state — has been on the job for three weeks and has been in regular communication with Gallogly, she said.

"She is doing tremendous work at bringing credibility to the numbers, but I do not have anything at this point to submit to the committee," Donoyon explained.

A draft copy of fiscal 2012's salary projection prepared by DuTremble was sent to Gallogly and forwarded to city officials on the Jan. 31 deadline. "I urge caution about drawing conclusions from the small amount of data that is represented here," DuTremble explains in the communication.       

The education department budgeted $364,528 for Special Education Resource Teachers and, as of the draft findings, expects to spend $639,493 this year. The figure for Special Education Occupational Therapy exceeds the budgeted amount by $114,897. And the line item for "WHS SPED SC Classroom Teachers" is projected to exceed the allotted 2012 figure by $392,839.

"I don't know what is so difficult about understanding what a structural deficit is," said Committeewoman Eleanor Nadeau of Donoyan's brief assessment. "It doesn't go away."`

Council members looking at the draft figures this Monday were of similar opinion.

"You have a functional deficiency. This is a classic dilemma," said City Council member Albert Brien.

"Under what circumstances would it make sense to go to the state and say we're at the bare minimum?" Council President John Ward asked Finance Director Thomas Bruce.

While it is too soon to predict where cuts may be made for the upcoming fiscal year, both Bruce and Donoyan implied that the city might look at positions that were once funded by grants but have remained on the books under city funding.

"There will be a result just within salaries that tells a story," said Bruce. "If you have funding and then you don't, why are the people still there?"