Denn Ronald Gonzals, I'm the business manager, Newport Public Schools.

Steph Smythe, Newport City Council.

Alan Connect, Newport City Council.

Lynn Segley, Newport City Council.

Charlie Holder, Newport City Council.

Becky Bolin, School Committee.

Stephanie Winslow, School Committee.

Bob Power School Committee.

Beth Cullen, School Committee.

Zai, City Council.

Bobby Larry, School Committee.

Sandra Flow is school committee.

Colin Kennedy, Newport City Manager.

All right.

Thank you.

And uh just want to remind everyone that you speak into the microphone and then your microphone is on for the uh recording of the tape.

So we're gonna go back and watch it later.

Uh so we we'll get started off.

Uh I'll turn it over to uh Chair Dring.

I just want to give a little bit of background on last night we we did have a meeting.

And unfortunately, as a school committee, we were not able to come to a consensus on the budget.

So what we have tonight is we're bringing forward um what we have so far.

Um, this is the beginning.

We're gonna have probably at least three more votes on the school budget.

Um, I know we have to get this done by the end of June, and we will.

Um, you know, but yeah, last night was the first step, and here we are today to to talk to you guys about a budget that I think everybody knows has a significant amount of pain in it.

Um I remember last year when I sat here, I said this coming budget is gonna have pain in it.

Um it's gotten significantly worse.

Um, you know, for a variety of different reasons, and we're gonna get into that when we start our slideshow, and we have our fine instructor here, and you can get into the the nuts and bolts of it as well as the superintendent.

Um I'll turn it back to um and as we go through the uh through the report at the end of it.

Then if anyone from the public has any questions, we'll we'll uh allow you to ask those.

Uh so Madam Superintendent, I'll turn it over to you.

Okay, thank you.

Um Mr.

Holder.

Um I'd like to also before we begin, I'd like you to at least see who the people are that are in the buildings leading the buildings.

I'm gonna stop start in the back row with Beth Raffa.

Could you please stand, wave, smile, do whatever?

Uh Dr.

Browner, Michael Browner, both Thompson Middle School, uh Kathy Nash, uh right there, who we know runs the district, and then we have Ashley Zarugian, she's our HR director.

Patty all, director of teaching and learning, right next to her is uh Penny, and you go by Penny just Penny.

Okay, Penny Hunt.

Uh uh, she's uh part of our finance committee.

And then we have Michael Monahan, our acting super um almost acting principal.

Then we have Mr.

Rice, our neighbor and friend.

Then we have Robert Director, uh Robert over here, Young, director of uh operations, tech and NAC Tech, and going way back to the beginning.

We have Ronnie Lee Mooney, Dr.

Mooney, she's our director of ELLMLL.

Then we have Director Candace Andrade, who oversees special ed, and then we have Tracy Westman who oversees our elementary.

So there's the team right there.

So I just wanted to make sure you could put a name and a face together.

Okay, so thank you.

Yes, as our chair uh shared with you already, it is a painful budget.

It was a budget that last year we knew going forward we were going to have some significant challenges since last year we were having struggles, and as you know uh know we had to go through some significant budget cuts at that point in time.

Um the uh basically we are right now forecasting a 4.9 million dollar uh gap, and then we also have some possible solutions as far as staff reductions again as the chair mentioned, chair Dring mentioned.

This is a work in progress.

This is a working financial draft.

The structural imbalance that exists, I think is not new news, but I just want to explain a little bit more.

It's probably more so for for the um public at home than it is for all of you sitting around the tables.

Um Mr.

Mayer Chair or who's doing a slideshow.

Okay Thank you.

All right, uh so our expenses are rising faster than our revenues.

The school department does not have the ability to raise revenues, and we do have expenses that continue to rise.

Simple ones for the public and everyone to understand, we have contractual obligations, we have uh utilities, those are rising.

We have an average increase of one million dollars, as it says in salary and benefits.

We have material increase in utility costs.

Everyone knows if you're paying your electric bill or water bill, the prices have gone up and the costs have gone up.

And then the increased costs driven by fewer students with greater needs.

I think for the general public and for everyone to really understand, because everyone says, Well, you have fewer children.

Why do you need more money?

And you're going to see as we go through this that we do have fewer children, no doubt about it.

But we have children that have greater needs.

And we're going to explain that with our demographics.

If you look at the next slide, despite the staffing reductions, which you are all familiar with from last year, and we've done it in previous years as well.

Expenses continue to rise while our revenues are falling short.

It's an inverse relationship between the two.

And you'll see as you look at the bar graph, you'll see that orange, which is expenses that are, you know, back then, right after COVID, because we did have an education fund and we did have something in our fund balance.

You'll see that the green is higher than the orange.

And then as we proceed and we go through the years, you'll see that the orange starts to rise, the green rises a little with it too, and then you'll start to see that we're getting larger gaps, and that's where we are today.

The next slide you'll see is uh excuse me.

Uh the reserves, and this is just a history of what we've done.

Um the history way back when there was a the former city manager and former finance director, we tried to come up with a plan that we could set up some predictable funding for the school department.

So we set up an education fund and an emergency fund, and that's what we did with our um fund balance.

And then we started off with that 6.5 million, and now it's less than $500,000.

Um, and you can see um in where those dollars went.

We put $2 million into the school building project, and we thank the city council, they did as well.

They put in additional funds.

We put in 1.9 million dollars for an educational investment in school year 25.

We did 545 in educational investments in the school year 24, and then if you keep going, you look at 480.

Um, in we had a deficit during that year, and we covered that with our emergency funding.

Then we had 376,000 for the Thompson Middle School rooftop units.

That was something that uh believe it or not, uh, I think Thompson is 20 years old already, and uh they needed to be replaced.

And then with security concerns and whatnot, with the Thompson vestibule, we did um also enhance those security measures at the front of the building.

Then we also in the 24, we had a deficit 291 we needed to cover, and then $89,000 needed to be covered for school activity funds.

That has to that had to do with gas fee.

And I think Mr.

Nolan knows that, and Mr.

Gonzalves understands that better than anyone in the room.

That's something, and perhaps city manager, um, as far as accounting purposes.

So now we have 496,000 left in our fund balance.

Okay.

The cost drivers, out of district tuition that ties into and links to we have more children with higher needs, and one of the great things about our school system is, and we we know it's best practice, is we always try to keep our children in their own schools.

We don't want to have to send children away from their neighborhood schools or from their local schools.

Pell, when we first opened Pell, and that was back in 2013-14.

That uh building had two self-contained special ed programs.

We now have nine to eleven now from autism to um I'll say some Asperger's like, we have um behavioral, but we try to keep the children at the school.

We also have like other businesses, city, I'm sure as well, health life and dental costs have uh increased 692.

We have the Rhode Island Energy increase uh of 425,000, transportation, transportation costs, and I'm gonna just do a double check here.

This is not just out of district, correct?

No, no.

That's in and out.

And what the director means by in and out, we have in-district transportation costs that go up with the contracts, and then we have out-of-district costs.

And I will say that director Andrade uh and Director Gonzales have done an excellent job of trying to keep those costs down for our out-of-district students.

We've found different bus routes, we've found different ways we've worked with Middletown as well, and we bus our out-of-district students so that we can keep those out of districts um counts uh costs down.

Paris support services.

For those in the audience, a para support person is someone that helps the teacher in the classroom in the sense of they support the child.

They're there to support the child required by their individual education plan.

That is an IEP, that is special education.

One of the strategies I'll say, or one of the things we've put in place as far as being able to meet the needs of the many students we are having arrive at our doorstep that do require uh additional special ed support, and we don't want to send out a district, is in their IEP.

It's written in there that we provide a para support for the child in the classroom.

That number, which it probably, if I called on them right now, Mr.

Leary could tell you how much it was and how many how many we have now has risen dramatically.

And that is why you see the 245,000 increase there.

Not only has it risen dramatically, it's very difficult to fill.

We're having a tough time finding them, and we've had to at some times do purchase services pro care to help us to get people to fill those requirements, those jobs.

Curriculum, we do continue to focus on, and we know education is our number one priority.

First, safety of all and security for all our children and staff, and then instruction and curriculum, we continue to work on our curriculum.

Uh, director all has done excellent job as far as the implementation of new curriculum.

We have um curriculum coaches that go in and are helping our teachers, and if you look at the research, that is what makes all the difference in the world.

I'm gonna do a sports analogy.

You have a good coach and they teach you how to excel your skills and bring those skills to life better.

That's what our instructional coaches do.

They help our teachers in the classroom to learn the curriculum and to implement it so our students learn.

Substitute coverage.

That has gone up.

That has gone up for two reasons.

One, we have an aging, I'll say parent population of our teachers.

So we do have uh teachers that are out on FMLA taking care of their parents.

We also have on the other end, we have those having babies, and we also have with once we start declining um reduction of staffing, we do have fewer people taking on more roles, and that leads to a lot of times people needing a break, or we have more absences.

So that's substitute coverage.

The increase in certified, non-certified pension, that is a yearly event.

Total is 3.7 million dollars in the cost drivers for 2027.

Uh superintendent, what do you would you say the percentage of student population are have extra needs?

Our population for student um the percentage is I'm leaning, it's 25% of our total budget special ed, and the percentage is we're at 26% of the student population is a child identified with an IEP.

That has gone up.

And DLL.

L population has increased as well, and that additional service is uh a cost to us, especially if we don't have teachers with the certification.

We have to hire two teachers.

The teacher that does the general curriculum and the teacher that has the L certification.

Next slide, please.

The local appropriation.

I I believe I was told we're gonna get 33.7 million, you know.

I just thought that is what we're hoping.

That is in order to balance our budget, it is.

I realize and I I'm I'm not I understand how serious that is.

I just want to be clear on that.

But I do think it's important.

We've been at this table before.

I've been at this table before, and many a time it's been asked, well, how much do you need?

So this is why you're seeing that number.

Nobody likes it.

I'm a taxpayer too, but nobody likes to see it, but that's what we need.

Unrestricted state aid, we're hoping to come in at 15.5 million.

Tuitions, and these tuitions are for students that come into our building for our CTE programming.

So the more students we recruit, and the more students we get into our programming, the higher we revenues we get in that we do get revenues in in our CTE.

Director Young tries to reinvest that in our programming, and also that helps our budget.

Impact aid is um estimated at about 500,000, half a million, and Medicaid reimbursement 450,000.

Yes.

Um Superintendent Jermaine, the impact aid is and Mr.

Gonzals, has that gone down this year?

And maybe explain what that is.

It has.

Yes.

It has gone down.

Um impact aid, uh I shared last night with the school committee at this point in time, or uh maybe it was sorry.

Impact aid.

What is impact aid?

Impact aid is the uh reimbursement from the federal government to cities and towns that host federal properties, either military or low-income properties.

They reimburse the cities or towns for missing tax revenue for the properties being located in their um municipality.

Um there have been um significant changes at the federal level.

Um what supports impact aid is the U.S.

Department of Education, and there have been significant reductions in that budget overall at the federal level, which is having an impact um indirectly to cities and towns that receive impact aid funding.

Um at this point in time, and I'm I'm using numbers shared a couple of weeks ago.

We've got 20,000 of revenue posted through March of uh 2026.

Monday, about 17,000 additional revenue came in.

So we're at 37 for the year so far.

Um the past three years we were at uh either 120,000 greater or 180,000 greater in the prior years at this point in time for three years, we were approximately 150 or so higher.

So we've um we've seen a significant reduction.

Uh I I think it's important to note about two years ago, we did receive an impact um aid revenue amount in June, totaling $620,000 or so.

So it's not unreasonable to perhaps uh you know receive a few hundred thousand dollars in the next two or three months, but I don't think it's also unreasonable that it we don't see a $500,000 impact aid payment.

Can you give us an idea um how that's calculated?

In other words, you said you just got a surprise $620,000 last June.

What was the rationale behind that?

How do we know?

How can we how can we either talk to our federal representatives or figure that out a little bit more so it's more of a I can tell you about the process, the application process for the district with regard to forecasting how much money is going to come in?

It's very challenging for me to do.

What we've always done is look at a three or four-year impact aid revenue amount, and we use an average in the forecast for the revenue.

We've done that consistently, and we've had good years, and this year is the first time in six years we've had a bad year so far, and it's not over though.

Um the timing of the delivery of the case.

So let's talk about the payments that come in with impact aid.

Appropriations are made at the federal level that ultimately get dispersed to participants of the impact aid funding.

If uh the all the dollars aren't appropriated to eligible participants, they go back into uh redistribution pool.

So there are many years where we see multiple fiscal year payments in impact aid just happens to be in our fiscal year.

We qualify that as uh monies for that year, but we do receive funding from outside years, you know, closeouts, reconciliations that took place, and and it's it's challenging to gauge how much um impact aid will be received year to year.

But do we we don't control that?

That's from the federal government, and when the federal government's ready to deliver the funds, that's when we the city receives them.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Thank you.

I guess my question is what are the parameters?

Is there um a document or a website that explains how it's calculated, maybe a schedule of payments or anything like that that we can get smarter on?

They do post uh historical payments, I believe they're at least 10 or 15 years in the um of activity there.

Um applications are listed.

Applications quantify uh various input data.

They want special ed inputs, federal receipts um for special ed, how much is in the general revenue, uh general operating budget for special ed, how much money comes in through uh tuitions in, how much money tuition out.

They ask for IEPs district wide, then they go into really four inputs that uh come from uh families, community members.

That would be um military, live on, live off, military work on, work off, uh live on a military property, and the fourth is the low-income housing.

Uh those are four inputs that basically comprises the entire application uh 703 um impact aid application that we submit.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So that's our anticipated revenues, and now we go on to the current year projected deficit, which every month we send the city and the council, you get our reports, our monthly reports.

So this isn't new news to any of you, and um director Gonsalves has been projecting this for the year.

We have a $2.8 million current year projected deficit, and we have put a link on that for that report, which all of you do receive.

And um, it's also for the general public.

If they're looking at it, they can click on that link as well to see the 26 revenue and expenditure report.

We have had higher than budgeted cost of out of district placements.

Last year, when we balanced the budget, we did look at the out of district placements, and we knew that they were going to be higher, but we were not able, and we also wondered if maybe because this is what can happen.

Um, a family can move in in the district, and they could have three children that require high services that could lead to a half a million dollars.

Those that same family could also leave the district as well.

So you never have exact science on what or how many students you're gonna have in out of district placement, but you also do have a good idea of what you presently have.

We decided to take a chance and see if maybe we could reduce that line as we went forward, and we were not successful because we did reduce that line in order to balance the budget.

We had already done significant staffing reductions, and that is what we did.

So I just want full disclosure on that.

Then we have significant unanticipated increase in utility costs.

We have been looking at last night there was a lengthy discussion about electricity at Rogers High School.

We are taking a look at that.

Uh Dr.

Power has been very active in looking into solar panels and whether we can place the solar panels.

And I know I see Councillor Napolitano nodding her head because I know he's been in touch with you as well about it.

And um we're hoping that we could possibly, you know, move that forward for some revenue or at least reduction in the electricity.

Um, and then like everyone, we had the historic snowstorm, and we had much higher costs in snow plowing than expected.

Could you could you explain the um outside district placement?

What how that budget was balanced this year?

Or you want me to do it?

No, I just yes, I just did Mr.

Leary.

I just did you tell them what you did?

Yes.

Anybody know what you did?

Yes.

You know what they did?

You don't know, you know what they did?

Say it, Bobby.

Yes, then we will I will explain it.

We reduced the line by what?

By a million dollars?

By a million dollars.

Yes.

And how many kids did you have in August?

Uh 32, 39.

How many kids do you have in September?

32, 33.

About the year before.

Around the same amount.

Uh no, you reduce it by a million dollars.

Maybe lower because it wasn't as high then.

But um, I will say the same thing.

I've always said, I can have two children, and I can have 25 children.

And two children can cost 10 times more than the 25 children.

It all depends upon their services and what I call it a fake balance budget.

I know.

Okay.

All right.

Snowstorm.

We got a lot of snow.

I'll move on.

So this is just putting it in um Mr.

Holder.

I'm glad you asked the question about special ed because there it is right there.

You can see the inverse relationship.

We have the population, the school population is going down, yet we have greater IEP and L programming expenses than we did back in 2022.

We are a budget in for just the services alone have run from 9.3 to 12.7 million.

And our L services, in order to provide the children the services they need, have risen from 1.6 to 1.9.

And I will share with you that we are not meeting all their needs.

We do not have all the staffing to meet their needs, and our budget at this point in time cannot support it.

What what's the what would you say is the biggest reason why you don't have the staffing?

We've seen we're seeing this population grow.

So what's what's holding back from in order to provide the services?

The children have to the teachers need to have a specific type of certification.

They have to have an ML certification in order to provide those services.

The administration is going to share that we've been providing professional development.

We provide scholarships, we provide reimbursements, and we have a staff that has not we don't have enough people with the certification to provide for the children.

And that is why we got into a very intense legal situation in 2024.

And we never saw that fully realized.

And um we're still waiting for teachers to get their certifications.

They don't have to, there's nothing forcing them to get these certifications.

You can post jobs that require a certification.

And that's what you may have to do, but at this point in time, no, but the Rhode Island regs are requiring.

I think by what year, Dr.

Mooney?

2930, all the teachers are going to have to have their certification.

Just say again.

All right.

So I'm going to repeat for the audience.

So just like and some of those that may be familiar with the reading certification that all of us had to do the reading awareness or reading proficiency.

Ride is following that same model.

So by 2029-30, the all teachers must have either an awareness or the certification.

So that means we will provide time for them.

We will we have different options for them to participate in this.

And we just, you know, that will move forward.

So that is it had to be legislated.

So that's the best way for me to say it.

But these are out-of-pocket costs for the no, we reimburse, and we also provide scholarships for them.

That in itself, you know, does cost us money, but it's professional development to support the teachers, and we provide time during the work day.

So with the awareness, we'll need to have substitutes in order for the okay.

So Dr.

Mooney's over there advocating for the budget, and she's saying yes, there is a cost for the school department because we're going to have to have substitutes, and we're going to have to give people time out from the classroom in order to do the training.

Those are the costs.

Thank you for that.

Good catch.

All right.

So again, um, and for the public as well.

So more children with IEP and L program requirements is causing expenses to rise.

And then we have fewer students, and from the state perspective, we receive less funding.

So we have fewer students, and we got less funding.

Yet we have greater needs for our children.

And we have unfunded mandates, like you.

Oh, right.

They're unfunded mandates that we that we, the district, have to uh fulfill.

So then we have the next slide, which goes to the ongoing staffing shifts to control costs to meet the student student learning requirements.

And this is where you're gonna see the jump in the paraeducators in order to fulfill the needs and support the children with IEPs, we have more paraeducators that are in the classrooms helping to support the students and being there for the teachers as well.

We also, as you see, you can see from if you look at the TAN, you look you can see they were had a high of in 23-24 of 243 personnel, and that has been being reduced, and we're down to 196.

There's two things for that, less students, our contract requirements.

Um we can reduce staffing that way, and we also do it for budgetary purposes.

Then you look at uh the C94, they have kind of maintained.

We still need the C94, you need the secretarial support, you need the custodians, so they stay at the 46, but there's the paraeducators.

And for the audience, if you can't see the screen entirely, from 2021, we had paraeducators um uh looking at it.

We had 66, and as of this year, we have 84, and we don't have enough, as I've said, we haven't filled all the vacant spots.

We don't have people that apply for the jobs or are trained.

Ride does require certification for paraeducators as well.

And in our HR department, we actually started a training program so that people could who live in Newport live nearby, could get the certification, and I think we're trying to we're gonna try to put that back into place as well.

Quick question on that.

Does the community school um the adult school offer paraprofessional training?

They were the ones that were providing it, and we're actually involved in a grant right now with Sean Rubin at through with Throughline, and we're trying to get that up and running so we can have more training and more certification programs.

And thank you to the Van Buren Foundation for that.

Mr.

Chair, I just asked a question.

Um, is this a general trend of having many more children with needs throughout the country?

I mean, is this something that has happening in cities and towns?

Uh uh, or is this something that's just really you know something that Newport is experiencing?

We have a high poverty rate.

There is a direct correlation with the poverty with poverty and with students that have special needs.

So that that is a fact.

We also um with the population declining.

My own opinion in looking at some of the data is some of our student population, those that have the means are not necessarily in the district anymore, and those that have special eds require special ed services really need to be in the school system so that their children can be supported.

So this is it is it is a trend.

This is a trend more in the urban ring type schools, yes.

Thank you for that question.

So we have been doing ongoing staffing shifts to control costs, and now this is the slide that shows you all right where of the entire general fund, where's the funding going as far as um in the school district?

58% of it goes towards general ed.

25% of our total budget goes to special ed CTE, which is our certified tech programs, it's our vote um Nash uh NACTAC programs, four percent.

Our MLL is four percent, as I shared.

We have not hired the amount of people we really need for MLL certification, and then we have nine percent goes to other, and that's the entire budget.

The salary and benefits by program, uh, you'll see what the actuals are there for general ed, special ed, CTE, MLL, and all other programs.

So the action required, the sustainable solutions that are needed.

We need funding to close the structural gap.

We have a structural gap and better align the Newport public schools within the city of Newport's even strategic plan.

I know it's uh education is one of the pillars to create a system of predictable funding for planning and future budgeting.

We started to have that, and then that went away.

In addition to staff restructuring and focused instructional funding, we just need some kind of thoughtful investment to keep up with the required state and federal educational demands of our students and the changing demographics.

So we're looking for a plan working with the city.

Um and then on the next page, just to hit the message home.

The initial structural deficit forecasted is 4.9 for 2027 in an effort of collaboration and trying to put more effort and ex question say more effort, effort towards trying to work together with the city.

We have proposed reductions.

Now, as the chair mentioned at the beginning of this presentation, we still have some work to do with the school committee.

The school committee wants to dive deeper into some of those um cut uh reductions, and then also maybe have some other ideas for reductions.

But I just want to let you know that as of now, we did look at staffing reductions, and we have about 1.1 million proposed, and those are outlined on the next page.

And they're also, if for those looking at the draft budget at home, just the budget, it's on page two.

And it's on our last slide here.

Our request from the city of Newport is 3.8 million.

Um we feel that this request will give us the structural reset and align our projected revenue with district needs.

And then for the path forward, we really need to come down to how are we going to fund the schools going forward?

What is and understanding the city has its own needs, you have your own departments, you know, it's not just us, it's the entire city.

How do we have some kind of long-term sustainable funding practice that when you're planning for a new year, one year, two years out, you know, all right, from a budgeting perspective, we know the city, this, the Fed most likely around this, Fed hasn't fluctuated except for in a few areas this year.

And then it's like, okay, the city, the school department, we're responsible for staying within these costs.

And if we can't, we come to the city and continue to share what is going on in the district.

So the staffing impact of the reductions is eight FTE new positions are required, totaling 496,000 dollars.

So we have four positions.

I'm sorry, eight positions, and you'll notice in that list, I believe uh three of them, and this is on page two of your draft.

It's not in the can you define FTE.

Oh, I'm sorry, thank you.

Full-time equivalent for the public FTE means full-time equivalent, or it means uh one person working.

Uh then we have six retirements, uh, which net to about 150,000 in savings, and we have 14 and a half uh staffing positions that will not non-returning positions, which then gives us a net of 1.1 million dollars.

And the proposed reductions are on the next page.

The 95 means 95,000, 85,000, 57, 105,000, etc.

Total change, and then we have our draft budget.

Question go ahead.

That's not above no with the reduction of truancy officers in all three.

I I mean, how many that that was a problem and is a problem?

Continue it.

The problem does continue.

There was some discussion with the um, I'll call it the fifth of the finance group, small group, and others that we can hire someone part-time uh for X amount of hours per week, like what happens in other districts.

I think with what's going on, and because the staff and schools have become so familiar with their own data collection and what they do within their own staff of monitoring monitoring the data, they can continue that work, and then when we need people to go to the courts or go check on residency, we can hire someone part-time.

And my other question is how many students do we have in Pell in Thompson, and in Rogers, not all the students together, each school.

Which how many students do we have?

Oh, I didn't get my brain.

Just a ballpark.

Ballpark uh 670 at Pell, five 464 at Thompson.

Where's Rogers?

600.

560 at Rogers, just 560.

It's under 1700 total.

Okay.

670 670, Thompson, 454.

464.

Okay.

And Rogers.

560.

Okay.

And of all those students, how many require services from ESL percentage-wise?

I think it's 18 or 20 percent.

And we don't have enough teachers in that area.

We don't have enough certified teachers, correct?

Right.

That's correct.

I I don't understand the state.

It's almost the same way they treat us with our water and sewer.

You know, there are tremendous needs for students here.

And yet the formula doesn't address that for the students that we have and that are placed here.

Correct.

Okay.

One of the things I think we really need to look at.

And you know, Bob and I had been talking quite a bit about these solar panels, and he told me that the district is paying $65,000 a month on the electric bill at Rogers.

That is correct.

That's about $700,000 a year.

That's it.

That's about that.

That's for heat and electricity.

We had a building meeting this morning, and we do have a walk through.

I think it's May 8th, thank you.

And we're we're gonna be looking at the systems, and that's on the checklist of what we're looking at, making sure all the systems are uh set correctly.

Specifically I had uh spoken to Zion mentioned this to Zai, and he um said the infrastructure bank does have an efficient building fund that possibly we could look at um is that a loan it is a loan, yep, that's alone, yeah.

So it's alone, but yeah, it's uh the counselor's point.

What they do is amortize the cost of the solar panels, for example.

Oh over a 20-year life period, and then the savings flow first to repaying the debt on that loan, and then the net differential flows through to your savings ultimately and electricity costs.

Providence water, we did this.

We moved the utility over to solar that we generated on site, saved nearly a million dollars a year net.

So I think it's something that we really need to look into.

I agree.

Quick question for those that were on the building committee.

Why didn't electricity solely without any other alternative energy sources um be built into the new high school?

Well, I know that we were looking into solar panels, um, but we couldn't afford them with the um with the the bond, but the enough with the amount we had for the bond and then the overage, there was no way to afford them.

Uh I don't remember exactly why electricity was chosen over oil, but I I can't remember.

We didn't have a choice, it was a requirement for the building project, and there were many voices at the table that really questioned that.

As a matter of fact, for the culinary program, we had to get special permission to get gas for the kitchens.

But we did look into solar panels, and I remember very well that there was no way we would have been able to afford them at that time.

We've actually had sorry, we've actually had one meeting um with Mr.

Kennedy and and uh a couple people on the building committee to talk about solar, and uh I know that you were gonna see if your uh grant person could help us, you know, try to figure this out and go on a field trip.

I think Teresa has a field trip planned around May 1st.

Yeah, I can't remember Johnston or perhaps Lincoln had a new construction project that had some of that great equipment installed, and the and the conduits for the solar panels are on the roof.

They they were there, so adding them on well that that'll reduce some of the cost right up front because we made them we we made the roof available for solar panels at the time though I think it was uh it was a trade-off cost cutting measure.

We just didn't have the the chance to purchase the panels themselves installed.

And I I don't think I would leave Pell out of this because Pell, I remember when I first arrived, the um roof, that was one of the questions I had asked about it.

The roof was built to support solar panels.

Is it built?

It is built.

It is built, yeah, to support it.

24 years later, they haven't been installed.

The building opened in 2002.

Thompson's correct.

It hasn't been a priority.

We have to have a priority on some of these electors.

Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Um, I just have a question with one, two, three.

So all of the truancy um support from all three schools.

Um possibly or most likely being reduced, is there another plan?

Because I worked in truancy for a while, as most of you in here probably remember.

Um, started with the chronic early absenteeism and truancy reduction initiative or sea tree um years ago.

So truancy's been an ongoing issue for a long time.

Has that gotten any better?

No.

No.

Well, it has improved a little, a little.

Yeah, which is right at Rogers.

Very high.

Second lowest.

Second, second lowest.

When stock is lowest, we're second from the bottom of 36 school districts.

Okay.

But by reducing one from each school, does that be take the question program away completely, or are there other people who can do this?

That's what I was saying earlier.

The thought was uh from the fiscal little subgroup uh that a part-time person, 15 to 20 hours could handle that.

The interior work, um, counselor Pinnack is still gonna be done and it is being done right now by the staff.

And um, like we have a person at each building, Evelyn Falcarelli focuses it on it at the high school.

Um, I'm not sure who it is at Megan Cawley at Thompson and Tracy Westman, the principal focuses that um help.

Yeah.

So the internal team will stay the same.

It's the boots on the ground on the outside, which is what we need for the courts and for residency checks.

Right.

Someone who is involved in this deeply when I was here in the school department and actually went to court once a week.

Um, you know, one of the things that DCYF likes to do is if we don't show up at court, the school department, they like to place kids out of district.

So they go to the judge and they say we this child should go X, Y, and Z.

The school department's not there to say we have a program for that child, they get sent out.

So you have to have somebody in court every week.

And the summertime was a famous time for them because we didn't have people working in the summertime.

So over the course of the time that I was with Newport School Department, we created a position, had a lot of flexibility, could go out at night, could go to the homes, related to the people that were having trouble with that, and was in the court.

So while you can do modifications of or whatever, I would strongly recommend that you have a component of a truant officer person in the program in in the school department that has specific assignments to be in certain places, certain times.

And you certainly want a personality of somebody that has a relationship with the community.

Um I can't tell you when I came here it was a disaster.

Uh I think they've done much, much better um over the years as far as that position, um, the lead position there.

And and one of the things that maybe some of the discourse with the school committee is my um pushing back on a budget when I look at that position, say, you know, I'm not sure I'm gonna vote for a budget that doesn't have that position in there.

I have a question for uh school committee members.

Um the ones who voted against this last night at your meeting.

What were your specific concerns?

I think from my own perspective, my biggest concern is coming into this room and asking you guys for 13%.

We asked for more details.

It was a little oblique.

We needed a lot more granular information so that we could decide what's good, what's bad, what we can do without.

We there wasn't enough information.

Um yeah, we just needed more, more to understand why the cost had risen specifically why, not just overview of a bar chart.

So Steph uh I I've echoed a few of the comments from, but I think the important thing you look you have to look at is that in 2025, we took 1.9 million dollars out of the reserves and put that to a balanced budget.

It didn't do any layoffs, it didn't do any cut in positions.

And then this last year, we have a 900 almost a million dollar surplus right now.

And we still have money from national grid or whatever it's called now coming to us 500,000.

The business manager put it into an account.

Um I'm putting on an agenda to put that in a separate account so we can take that million dollars plus the 500,000 and have a 1.5 million dollar thing to contribute toward the depths of this year.

I don't think it's gonna be that high to begin with you, but we're gonna cut it and get it down there.

So it it needs to be cut.

It needs to be do a lot of shopping, no new hires, no new things.

I asked put on an agenda to pass last night or freeze.

We froze the budget, except all non-sential items.

So things are gonna happen in the direction for the next few months.

And another thing we voted on last night was to put an RFP out for an independent auditor of staffing and programming that will fall into will help us with our fiscal decision making.

We really really need to know where we are as a as a district from an outside uh audit.

And Jim, you mentioned that that this was gonna come before you guys again three more times.

At least um and in that time, are you going to be negotiating with uh the school department for different items to fine-tune the budget or yeah, absolutely.

We're we're gonna have to get in deep into this budget and find out where we can make more cuts.

We have to.

We don't have a choice.

We've got to balance our budget by June 30th.

Right.

So, like I said, there's gonna be a lot of pain in this budget, and there's gonna be people that are gonna lose their jobs, unfortunately.

And that pain could be spread out over the last three years if they did it properly.

Did you want to come?

That's her opinion.

Sorry, Mr.

Yeah, that's my opinion.

I'm not talking about waiting to speak.

Yeah.

So what Mr.

Leary was explaining was it was never a good idea to use you know, one-time money to pay for ongoing cost.

And we we really know that it's called kicking the can down the road.

And now the can, you know, we're we're looking at it.

And um, I will say that Mr.

Leary um his idea for for taking that our we got money, uh it was like a uh a rebate for doing such a good job of putting um such great LED lights into the building, and they they rated us and they gave us close to 500,000 in total.

But what Mr.

Mr.

Gonzals did is he just applied it to the the um electric bill.

So it's if he takes it off the electric bill, we're just gonna have a bigger deficit for the year.

So, you know, it's it's robbing Peter to pay Paul.

It's not gonna really change anything.

Then you have to discuss Ms.

Bowling, and thank you.

You're right.

But if you look at the electric bills for uh balanced budget, Papel, he has 264,000.

For Thompson, he has 125,000.

And for Rogers, he had 117,000, which is now over 400,000 over it.

At what point, maybe the first month we should abandon this idea into something different.

But no, we didn't.

We're over 450,000 more on one line item.

Mr.

Leary, that's incorrect.

He did not budget 117,000 for electric.

That's the that is the the bill right now after applying the credit.

What are we looking for?

The chart that Mr.

Leary was referring to.

Um, I shared an attachment a to the monthly memo I shared to the financial statements on a monthly basis to the school committee in this month.

I highlighted two areas.

One was the impact aid, where I touched on that about a half hour ago on the various um revenue differences for that that component.

The other piece was um identifying the expenses we have actually incurred for the past uh three years plus current year data by building for electricity only.

So um right now with the 333,000 dollar energy rebate, Rogers has 117,000 of energy expenses.

If that rebate wasn't sitting in that account, they would be at 450,000 of expenses for approximately seven or eight months out of the school year.

Well, the recent um issues at NAC Tech in here somewhere.

Um that that's a great great question.

It is included in the overall projected deficit for the year at 2.8.

I uh that information hadn't come to me by the time I prepared um the backup.

So we we had we still had a time to adjust the slides.

I that will be forthcoming.

Okay, in for the school committee reporting officially, but for for this conversation, we included it in that 2.8 overall projection for the current school year.

What was the cost?

Uh to the tune of about 170,000.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chairman.

Uh forgive me if this has already been done, but before I even dive into any questions or talk about the budgets, uh, Dr.

Jermaine.

We may not have too many more opportunities like this.

Sure, we'll meet again in the next few weeks, but uh uh you've not had a you've not had an easy road.

Uh appreciate everything you've done for the school department, not just as superintendent, but for the citizens of Newport.

Uh but your career and education and your commitment to the schools as a grad uh extends far far beyond that.

So I appreciate you and I always will.

Thank you.

Uh question for the city manager, please.

On the uh next city council agenda, uh, which I received this afternoon, I see that there is a report from Dr.

Jermaine sent to you on March 13th, which uh explained that the Newport School Department was 1.9 million dollars or expected to be 1.9 million dollars uh in deficit.

Did you send that to the city council?

It was provided to the city council at the time.

Uh but uh discussing with uh uh Dr.

Jermaine, we we determined that it would be best to make sure that that's also uh a part of the public record.

So noting that it hadn't been placed in a docket yet, we simply had it to re to formally receive on the docket before the first budget hearing.

Can you send to me and any of my colleagues on the council who might be interested uh the exact date that you sent that information to the city council?

I uh pride myself on uh looking closely at budget issues, and I I don't recall uh other than press having information regarding a one point nine million dollar uh potential deficit.

Um I'll yield until later if there will be more questions, potentially.

If there's not, I'll ask my questions now.

I'll yield to the the chairman.

Can I make one comment and then this is not about anything that you're speaking?

I just wanted to finish up on the topic of the um solar panels.

So it would appear to me that as um I'm sitting here on the school committee, but I'm also taxpayer in Newport.

If there's some way for Newport to get rid of the electric bills in these buildings and do it as quickly as we can and not and I and I hear the financing part, but you know, I don't like to go and finance the car at the car dealership if I can avoid it.

If I can save up my money or I have money to get it, I can pay it off and then I can keep it for a long period of time and you know just say goodbye to them.

Um I'm just wondering if there's some way aside from this school budget, not just not considering you know where we are financially with this, but to look at the fact that we have a buildings in Newport that are property of the taxpayers of Newport, it's not the school committee.

We have care and custody.

If we can erase a $700,000 uh bill every year at Rogers High School, and potentially, because I've haven't looked at Thompson or Pell, but he raised some of those bills as well, the investment of money, and we get I think 40 or 50 percent back.

If we can do that quickly, then maybe that would be a way to go.

I'm not a finance guy, so I could be completely wrong about you know the approach that I would take to that.

Um, but I think if there's a way to get that off the table for the community, uh I think we should look at that.

I just want to touch on this briefly.

Might might be helpful here.

Umfortunately, Scott Wheeler tells us there's not a money tree available right now in the city.

Um when we talk about financings like this, you're looking at about a 90 to 18, 20 day period to execute a financing for a project like this.

Um, particularly a lot of these providers actually specialize in assisting you through that process, and the city has a municipal advisor who can better advise to be able to amortize out this cost with a state subsidized program within basically 90 to 120 days.

I don't think is an unreasonable to lay if it's something everybody decides they want to lean in on.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll continue.

Thank you.

Uh forgive my ignorance.

Uh school committee members Leary, Cullen, and Dring uh voted against the proposed budget last evening for fiscal twenty-seven.

Who was your fourth vote?

School committee member powers.

Uh I thank you for that.

And I I say that budgets should, although they're uh they're fluid, budgets for potential budgets should be realistic.

Uh a 13% increase is not only unrealistic, but it's against the law.

Uh we we have a four percent maximum.

Uh and you all could say, well, just like with city budgeting, there are extenuating circumstances which you could bring to the state and ask for uh permission to go beyond the four percent cap.

The four percent cap uh was uh enacted into state law many years ago as a two-part system.

One for the school department that we're talking about this evening, and two for uh municipalities.

It was actually championed by our own uh former Senate president Teresa Piberwee.

She worked very hard for two legislative sessions.

There was much resistance against such a law because it previously the law allowed for 5.25% year over year increases.

So a 13% uh potential increase is uh is absurd.

Could I just could I I'm sorry, but could I could I just ask a question hypothetically speaking?

Let's just say let's say we say yes, 13 percent, you get 13 percent.

What would that make our levy?

I mean, would we how how would we be over the four percent at that point?

I mean by and by how much.

This is this is rough math, but I was actually doing that earlier this evening, and uh coupled the school the the the Newport public schools request coupled with our existing proposed budget as it stands would require a 4.47 ish for the 13 percent to get to their 13th.

To get to their 13 percent correct.

Okay, thank you.

Generally speaking, when the General Assembly always speaking, when the General Assembly enacts a law that affects municipalities and school districts, they expect us to take it seriously.

They don't just say, well, enact this as a suggestion.

The maximum increase for a levy year over year is four percent.

The maximum city contribution increase year over year for a school department is also four percent.

These are not suggestions, these are very serious and again laws that that took many years to enact.

I don't think the school department, though, is restricted to four percent.

I think that we are restricted to four percent, but the the schools the school's percentage is would be most likely higher than the four percent, but we can't go over the four percent, but their budget wouldn't put us over the four percent.

It would in order to give the now how would I say this?

In order to do the 13.8 percent increase, we would have to raise the levy four and a half percent.

Is the school committee's attorney here this evening?

That's exactly what that's exactly what Mr.

Kennedy just said.

So, I mean, I'm not I'm not saying that that's what we should do.

I'm just saying, hypothetically speaking, their 13 percent does not necessarily correlate to a uh us going their 13 percent would make us go over the four, but let's say if we did 10 percent, it wouldn't make us go over the four percent.

I I'm sorry you don't understand the law.

Counselor Segley is correct.

No, she's not.

She is uh I'd like to ask our attorney, absent your attorney, who I have no idea why your attorney is not here this evening, but that's up to you as a school committee.

Uh, what is per state law the maximum increase a city or town can provide outside of extenuating circumstances to a school department in terms of year-over-year budgeting.

Mr.

Bean, please.

Well, I can give you uh I can direct it towards our levy, but at this point I'm not sure about the contributions to the school.

Um I'd have to look at that.

I wouldn't want to give you um what I think it is when uh I can't attest to its accuracy.

I appreciate that, Mr.

B.

And thank you for your candidness.

Uh uh Ms.

Segley is incorrect, and uh de facto uh Ms.

Winslow is incorrect.

The state law spells out how much we can give, and there have been attempts successfully by the city of Newport to circumvent the maximum that we can give to the school department.

We reached our limit in years past, and we found creative ways to give you millions of dollars more as a school department.

I'll stop there until the if you want as school committee members, the school committee attorney can give you the proper answer.

But I'm confident uh in what I say.

If I'm not, I look forward to a public apology to Ms.

Winslow and Ms.

Segley by me.

Um, Mr.

Carlin, would you pay our attorney 250 dollars an hour to be present at meetings?

And we're in a budget deficit.

There are appropriate reasons for an attorney to be at a public hearing.

I have nothing to do with why or how you pay your school department attorney, uh, but I'm sure were he here, he could have given you that answer.

It's up to you.

I'm sorry, but I'm gonna push back.

I mean, our our 4% is our max.

The school committee can ask more than 4%.

School committee can ask for a thousand percent increase.

I do not suggest that they can't ask for it.

I can ask for anything I want for Christmas, but I don't think my wife's gonna give it to me.

It's a matter of what the law says.

So make it common.

Um so it I know that that the city has been very generous in giving us some other one-time monies, but the the problem, our structural deficit is a is a product of one-time money.

So we have to make uh an investment to get us up to where we need to be.

It's got to be an ongoing commitment.

It can't be a one to, you know, that does help us, but it doesn't get us where we need to be.

The local appropriation since 2010 has averaged 1.64 percent.

That has not kept up with inflation.

I know that this city has paid for new school buildings for one-time money for Chromebooks.

Those things matter.

We get that.

But the local appropriation pays for salaries, pays for bus, pays for utilities, the things that we need that we can't always control.

So it matters that that has not kept pace with our costs and inflation.

Mr.

Chairman, back to my original question, please, and I apologize for pulling my colleagues a little bit off the ramp here, but uh it's important that we deal with these underlying questions.

Uh about a year ago, my colleagues and I were request or were uh debating the city's budget for fiscal twenty-six.

And we had before us the same.

Well, you don't have a budget before us, uh, but you had a budget request before us for the maximum four percent increase in fiscal twenty-six in late May of 2026 when my colleagues and I were discussing and debating and potentially voting on the school department's request.

At that time, uh colleagues by way of an official vote on the city's proposed fiscal twenty-six budget.

I asked my colleagues uh to hold off on appropriating any money to the Newport School Department until the Newport School Department and the administration and ultimately the school committee came back to the Newport City Council with a plan to reduce administrative staff and bring back needed staff like psychologists, counselors, teachers, and others.

My motion was successful by a five to two vote.

Two weeks later, the Newport City Council, I beg your pardon, four weeks later, the Newport City Council came back and addressed the budget in its entirety.

And in the subsequent four weeks from my first motion, which again succeeded five to two to win the council adopted our budget by a five to two ironically vote.

Uh there were no changes that the Newport School Department, the administration and the city uh, or I'm sorry, the school committee uh brought back to the Newport City Council as asked for in my uh amendment in my successful request.

At the time, my suggestion was we can help alleviate a potential current fiscal 25 shortfall and hold off against a potential fiscal 26 shortfall by reducing administrative staff and moving lower paying salaries and benefits that are needed in place of those higher paying salaries and benefits.

I know it's a long explanation, but uh my suggestion at the time, using dollars at the time, uh was a 735,000 dollar suggestion in terms of cost savings.

It was rejected in the end, and now we have what is a at least 1.9 million dollar, if not more, most definitely more uh shortfall for fiscal 26 in the Newport School Department with due respect to all of my colleagues.

I suggest now the the council deals with uh much more than what we allocate what the city of of Newport, what our residents, our taxpayers allocate uh to the school department.

We have a potential 135 plus million dollar budget, all inclusive.

But at least from that perspective, I think my colleagues on the council made the wrong decision not to insist upon uh those reductions.

And I definitely know uh that my colleagues and friends who ultimately voted for the budget, the school department's about budget, uh, were fiscally irresponsible and made the wrong decision.

So I I simply cannot support any type uh 13 percent is out of the question, but I can't support any type of request from the school department that is coming near the 4% maximum without seeing you become as a school department fiscally responsible, because we as a council have got to go back to our voters this year and say, oh, sure, we gave millions of dollars with no attention at all to reducing expenses where expenses should be reduced.

Why should we, as a council, have to make very difficult decisions in our budget, but let you do willy-nilly what you'd like.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Mr.

Chairman.

I'm appalled at the remarks.

If you were here in the beginning of the meeting, you would have realized the students that come to Newport, there are some very needy students with some real issues that we don't have the proper teaching staff for them.

That's unfortunate.

But it's the reality.

And I just, you know, it's not I agree, it it's quite a shock to come back with almost three mil that you need it.

For years, we've been trying to solve this in a way for years.

We have talked about the diminution of the number of students in our schools and the needs of the students that have arrived in Newport.

And to make it work, yeah, they're gonna need money, they're gonna need certain teachers, they're gonna need teachers that that have certain qualifications or certifications.

I just I'm just amazed.

Uh it's a hard pill to swallow.

I don't think I can it at uh what it is, but there has to be some answers out there, and it has to be the answers for the residents.

They have to feel comfortable with what we're doing, the outcomes of the students.

I don't think it's it's to the point.

We've got a beautiful new high school.

Um, and I know people are trying very hard to make things work, but it's not working, Mr.

Chair.

Two things that um can help us.

We have to change what we're doing, and we continue to do the same thing over and over again.

We know that answer.

Um two things that the public can help us with, uh, and our local uh general assembly members.

The first one is of course the R-word regionalization.

We have to get serious about this because we're duplicating services, two very small districts sit side by side with a sort of similar demographic.

I mean, it's Middletown is not all, you know, middle class white kids.

It's it's it's a combination of lots of different people.

So we have to figure that out.

But that's that's huge.

And I'm really hoping that the council and the school committee can continue to work together towards that end.

Um we had a very good um liaison meeting last week, Alan Pinnock and Ms.

Segley.

Yeah, Miss Sagley, I think I know your name, but it can come to me.

And Bob Power, we sat down and we talked about we talked about um ways we can work together because in the past uh this is my first full year on the school committee, but I've been involved for many, many years, and I've sat in this room as a resident and a taxpayer, and the school department has come to the council, and the council's been very generous, but they haven't really given you the why.

They haven't given you the why.

And that's why last night I refused to accept the first draft because the we need more why.

We've heard some of the reasons, and yes, we have high levels of poverty, high levels of of kids that need special attention.

But we also have a 10 to one ratio of teacher to student, and we have a 7.5 ratio of staff to student.

So considering other uh urban districts, we are positioned quite well.

So we have to take that into account.

We have to be smarter about our staffing issues and put the people where they need to base to make the best um to do the best for the children.

The other thing is, and um I don't have all the answers on this, but it's currently in the General Assembly and legislation.

It's the Rhode Island Foundation blue ribbon panel proposal to change the funding formula.

Our funding formula, our state funding formula has not changed in 15 years, but our our communities have changed tremendously.

And because of that change, we need to adjust how we get our money from the state.

So in this proposal, they talk about things like um transportation, MLL, special ed, all the things that weigh us down, should be more state related rather than local municipalities related.

So if anybody's listening at home that's in the General Assembly or any um taxpayers who want to help us, please talk about this.

Look it up.

It's called the equalizing opportunity, creating a fair and transparent funding system for Rhode Island's public schools.

It is important, and we need to get serious about this.

Because kids with special needs, they may live in Newport for a while, but then they move to another community in another community.

And it's it's weighing us down, and we're not putting the money in the classrooms that we need to be doing to get the kids where they need to be.

That's all chair.

Chairs, plural, uh, however, do this.

Look, obviously, there's a lot of work left to be done, and I'm trying to frame out how best we think about that work moving forward, but I do want to note something.

The population that we support here is the population that supports running one of what is unquestionably one of America's most iconic cities.

And that is an enormous workload that those families take on, and we in turn owe to them and their families the ladder of opportunity that the schools provide.

And so this I know this is a higher than usual investment.

This is an investment that we are carrying not just on behalf of this community and the people that visit, but of this entire state.

Um Council Napolitano has been a very strong voice, constantly stating that we are not getting enough from the state for what we deliver in terms of overall value.

This is one of those price tags, as much as our roads and the transportation system that we just bear a higher cost for because that's what it takes to run this place.

We are having this conversation, which feels like an annual groundhog day meeting, right?

Um, where unfortunately you all come to us uh hat in hands and you know we scold you for a bit and then we banter back and forth through the budget process and to Councillor Carlin's very apt point, it kind of squeaks out at the 11th hour, and nobody's thrilled about it.

Part of the nature compromise, I guess.

What's different about this year is we're having this conversation not in a vacuum.

This conversation is happening alongside the regionalization efforts that uh many people around this table have worked exceptionally hard for.

And if I am sitting in in Middletown, or if I'm a parent or a taxpayer in Newport, or if I'm a kid that's paying attention to what's being said about their schools, I'm thinking about two things that we need to come out of this conversation reflecting.

One is that we are committed to these kids and we are committed to ensuring that they get the education they deserve, that their families are investing in by being here and that this economy needs in the future.

The second is this commitment to some level of fiscal responsibility and reasonableness.

And I don't know how we rise above the normal banter that we have here to reflect that.

But as we have these meetings over the next few weeks, that has to be our focus of the tone that we're setting.

Um I see glimmers of that with with some of the ideas that um that Dr.

Powers proposed here, right?

Whether it's looking at how we use things like solar to be more efficient with how we're operating, um, or remaining committed to funding positions to help us deal with things like chronic absenteeism.

I don't know what the other solutions are that exist out there right now, but I do know that's the tone we have to be setting more broadly if we have any hope of being able to regionalize and think about this on a more scalable basis, we'll have the tools to address it.

The final thing I'd like to note is that the amount of money that we are investing in career and technical education is probably the biggest gap that we have in terms of opportunity.

I see Director Young here.

The fact that we are attracting students here because of the caliber of those programs, because the investments this city's made should be a big sign that while we may not know everything that works, that is something that we certainly know works, and we should be doubling down on that.

Mr.

Chairman, uh final question from me.

Uh for the members of the school committee, at least those who voted for the budget in uh fiscal 26 and for the administration, Director Gonzals, I suppose, uh, or the director of uh whatever you might call it, special learning, et cetera.

Uh why uh did you reduce your proposed fiscal 26 budget regarding out of district placement by 930,000 as opposed to fiscal 25?

And here we are in fiscal 27.

And not only was that 930,000 plus needed, but much more needed.

What was the reasoning behind you uh expecting a million dollars less in out-of-district placement uh for this school year?

Thank you for the question.

Can I take a shot at that?

Only because I worked in 11 towns in Rhode Island.

So if we took the money in one account, because you could see where that account was, and you and we gambled on the fact that we thought that hopefully everything breaks that way, and if it doesn't, then we're gonna have a problem.

Now, there's another approach you could take to that.

We could take that and say, let's think that we can probably get breakage in salaries, and we could pick up three or four hundred thousand dollars there, so we put three or four hundred thousand dollars there.

We could say let's take a gamble on special ed, we'll put three or four hundred thousand dollars there.

We're at eight hundred thousand dollars.

And I could probably find another account in the school department that I could say I could probably pick up fifty thousand dollars here and forty there and twenty over there, and I would come up with the same number that I did in the special ed account.

Easier to just say, listen, we'll take a shot at special ed.

That goes up wildly up and down.

And if it goes the wrong way, then it goes the wrong way.

All the others were kind of you'd have to track all those pieces.

It just made it easier.

It wasn't it was very clear that we had a problem, and and we have to move forward.

And if and if we can't move forward, then I give you the keys and I say you go run the school department, because I can't do anything else with it.

So we came with a a budget.

Mr.

Leary pointed it out, he was absolutely right.

He said, There's a there's a big number in there.

I don't think you're gonna hit it.

He's absolutely right.

We didn't hit it.

But we could have put some numbers in some other places that we would also be looking at and saying, because normally in a school department, with the amount of staff that we have, people leave in the year, you don't replace some of those positions.

I call it breakage.

You're probably good to get three or four hundred thousand dollars with the size of the staff that we have that we pick up that amount of money.

Then you have things like impact aid.

Impact aid, and you know, you could kind of see it coming with you know the way that the federal government's been working when they're talking about the Department of Ed, is if you take enough people out of there and there's nobody down there calculating the formulas and calculating the reimbursements, then all of a sudden that money starts to dry up.

And so you don't have that.

So there's a lot of things that are at play here.

But absolutely, I I don't disagree with you know, like I said with Mr.

Leary when he would say, you know, there's X amount of dollars not account.

But we could have broken that into, or the administration could have broken that into a lot of other places to try to make that up and then hope that you get there.

Uh that's that's that's just I'm I'm Mr.

Collin, that's just you could do it one way or the other, but you you're gonna have to come in with if you're sitting in the in the top seat, you're gonna have to move in with a budget in front of the council by hook or by crook.

Uh Dr.

Power, I appreciate that answer.

I think what happened uh was that you were facing a very significant budget deficit or potential budget deficit.

And like they used to do at the state of Rhode Island or within the state's budget years ago, is when they had that deficit problem, uh, what they did was they said, for example, well, there'll be no need for road repairs throughout the year, or there will be no need for snow cleanup throughout the year.

And they just drastically reduced or eliminated the funding for that, and you balance your budget.

I think what you all did was you said we will not need these out-of-district placements, even though wink wink, nod nod, we know we will need them.

And you reduced your budget uh by 930,000 plus, and that represented more than 15 students in out of district placement.

And instead of those 15 students or a reduction by those 15 students in out of district placement, if you look at what your real numbers are this year, you have more than those 15.

You have actually three more.

If I've read my my numbers correctly, uh I think like we'd all like to do, you waved a magic wand.

Any other questions?

Mr.

Chu?

I mean, Bob.

First thing is just people on the committee that think the uh city council has an unlimited ATM card.

I don't I've been doing this for a long time, and I appreciate all the support you've given us over the years.

Millions of dollars besides the 4% and other things that were covered for, not to count the 27, not to exclude the 27 million dollars extra in Rogers High School.

So you've been a hell of an ally to the school department.

Don't feel like you have to do more than that.

I I think going back a year, right?

We had 900 and we had almost a million dollars in our education reserve at the close of fiscal year 25.

So we also felt that we were in a better position to absorb higher special ed costs should they occur.

But like our you know, our school year budget closes, and then there's an audit, and I know we discovered we were short for fiscal year 25.

So automatically we had to then cover fiscal year 25.

That you know, hindsight is 2020, but at the time the risk, I know Dr.

Power has called called it a calculated risk.

Felt to many of us that it was a risk worth taking.

But you know, I personally, no.

Do we have an ATM card to an unlimited account?

No.

Does the city have a lot of money?

This city is a very wealthy city.

I mean, we could we could be in real dire straits with a school department that costs a lot of money and not funds to fund it.

I don't understand the constant attack on public education, always you've got to just reduce costs, reduce costs.

I don't know what magic number people are looking for, but I can't imagine where we would be if we weren't doing what we're doing now.

I I just I don't even have words to describe the feeling of of uh just sitting here and I have a school committee that that I work with that doesn't seem to want to fund a school system.

I feel the city of Newport has always been hostile to a school system, it seems there are people who care very deeply, but it's this battle over and over the taxpayers, the taxpayers, the taxpayers.

I mean, that's what we do as a society in this country.

We have to pay for education.

We reap what we sow if we don't pay for it.

Um there are cheaper ways to do it.

We want to do that audit, we want to look at things.

I still don't think some people will be satisfied.

You know, I just uh I'm at a loss.

It's every year the attacks tired of being berated for trying to educate people, Mr.

Chair.

Um I understand what you're saying.

I understand what you're saying, Ms.

Winslow.

I I understand.

We all want to we all want to educate the kids.

We all want to do whatever we possibly can to give them the best quality education that we possibly can.

Now, we have a very high per pupil cost, it's about $30 according to the Rhode Island Department of Education compared to other districts that have similar urban issues, we're very high.

So there are ways that we have to look at this budget and cut things that are extraneous.

I'm a big advocate for keeping the money in the classroom.

So we have there are a lot of things, you know, 85,000 for this consultant and 50,000 for that consultant.

There's I've learned a lot this year.

There's a lot of money that can be repositioned and cut or used for other more important things like education.

There are now uh this is separate.

Um I had I forgot to ask this earlier when I was speaking about regionalization.

Where are we with the um academic integration advisory committee?

And the second question.

Um I know you all had budgeted 250,000 for a consultant sometime back.

Well, with that, and the reason I'm asking is time is of the essence if we're gonna do this by November, but also is there money within that 250,000 that we could use to pay for that independent audit that we desperately need that will get us moving forward, and I think it will also show Middletown that we're being um we're doing the best we can to to partner with them.

Uh the AIAC so as of right now, um, you know, we're still trying to work with Middletown of getting that group together.

So I know what the city council guys get that email yet.

All right, so I know we have an email coming out.

We're gonna get our our group together, our six Newport uh commission members, and hopefully next week we're trying to get a date set just to get our side start.

When um has that has that been worked on?

Who's responsible for setting that date on the calendar?

Me.

Okay.

Can we put a priority on that?

Because I've been hearing a lot, we're gonna do this.

We're gonna want I talked to Paul Rodericks, he also wants to get get it going, so it's just can we ratchet it up a little bit because it really is the elephant in the room.

We can't hire a superintendent until we know where we're going, and we won't know where we're going a year out because we've been wasting a year preparing for this.

So can we giddy up and get that thing moving so that we know where we're going?

Yeah, well, I was hoping to get it done this week, but we have a basically a budget workshop every night of this week, so that's our question.

Um and we can't do it during the daytime because most people are working.

So next week is the best chance.

So there's a few dates um that we have out there, so we put them out to um the six members and see what if I can get all six same date.

So it's not like is there a staff member that can help you with that?

Yeah, there we go.

Dr.

Flowers.

Thank you.

I've been kind of quiet tonight.

Um, just like to respectfully remind everyone that Newport Public Schools is one department of the entire city of Newport, and that we're not um a private sector.

So all the support that is given allocated, I'll put it that way, allocated to Newport Public Schools is an investment in our young people, investment in the city.

I dare say that the slide presentation gave uh quite a uh detailed presentation of just the facts, it is the facts of the situation that the school department is in, and probably all the other school departments in the state nationwide for that matter, and a lot of discussion is gone on about our out-of-district placements, and a number of years ago, Mrs.

Bowman might be able to be better at what year it was, that it was a major effort to bring back the youngsters who were at that time because it's different ones every year, uh, who were in out of district placements, and let's get them back into the classrooms.

Well, then of course we had to have baras with a lot of them, keeping in mind when there are IEPs and all of those other programs, there are federal mandates, and you have to follow those IEPs, even if the youngster comes in halfway through the year, you have to provide what that the IEP says.

They deserve every possible resource that can be afforded to them.

So that has it is it's surprising when you look at all this data, when you look at the electric bills, and get people get feeling it themselves at home.

Last night we talked about it, and I had a few theories about maybe why the bills were higher, the high school.

When you listen to maybe a suggestion that you cut back on your higher level administrative, who's going to run the show?

Who has the expertise?

If you start getting um we graduated teachers, and then in a few years they'll all be heading out, and you'll you expect to get new ones.

When you start to put the price tag and everything, and you have to, you have to say what is the real cost.

It's a tough job you folks have to decide how to allocate what you have.

My final point is, and and I if I'm wrong, I apologize, but that four percent um maximum increase that was was enacted a number of years ago.

But if the city or town wants to exceed it, I believe correct me if I'm wrong, I believe they have to appeal to the General Assembly.

And if our delegation backs us up, maybe it can be gotten.

I don't know.

That's something that's that's not my field of expertise.

But I just want to say that that I think that could be it.

We hope we don't have to go that level.

The the list of the possible cuts in personnel the positions.

I truly wonder what's going to happen when certain services are not provided to the system and to our students.

I don't have the answers right now.

I just have a lot of questions.

Uh people who are listening very respectfully and and thank you for that.

But also thank our people for really giving just the facts, as they used to say in the detective shows, you know, you gave us the facts.

This is the way it is.

And I would have looked to all of us, but thank you for letting me give my comments.

I'm closing comment.

I just say one thought.

Can I can I make a yeah, go ahead.

So I just want to point out, like everybody, you know, and there's been an issue tonight about that we haven't canceled administrators.

I want you to understand that this in the last two years at Pell, they have lost four people that helped to run the school.

Family service coordinator, they lost a vice, yeah, a um one of the vice principals there.

Um, they've lost a guidance counselor, and um they lost a behavior person.

So they're dealing with four less people there to help run everything at the school.

At the middle school, we've gone down to just one vice principal.

Okay, so that has been cut there, and at the high school, we just cut another.

Um, we now have just a principal and a vice principal.

So we cut it we I know it's it's so it's good.

We we're cutting these things, but just understand that these things have happened.

You don't see it on this list here because most of these have already happened, but we have definitely you know, and it takes a certain amount of people at an elementary school to be able to run lunches and everything else.

You have to have some form of administration in there and people to help you do this.

So we're we're cut pretty low right now.

Well, counselor Carlin, I I'd like to let you know that uh I did hear back from our attorney on that.

I'll read it, I'll read his response.

He says the tax cap relates only to the municipal levy, not the funds budgeted to the school department.

I respectfully disagree with him.

I'll leave it to as Mr.

B and heard earlier.

Uh I mean great respect.

There's no you mean I was right.

Oh my god.

Apologize.

I'm I'm just I'm gonna take that.

I was right.

I will wait.

I will wait.

Look, I'll wait, I'll wait.

He's got it.

You know, when I'm wrong, I apologize.

I will wait 21, and I think Dr.

Flowers is correct.

Let's say there is a limit of four percent.

Well, that's not Dr.

Flowers, that's me that said that.

The limit the limit is if you listen, hold it, hold it.

The limit is four percent for the municipality.

It's not four percent necessarily for the school department.

Okay, it is it's only one department.

The the school right present a budget that is a hundred and four percent higher than what was given the year before.

And Dr.

Flowers is correct, communities have exceeded that, but they've gone to the General Assembly for special legislature.

I believe I and I think I I know Mr.

BN is correct.

I disagree with your attorney.

Uh you know, I'm not gonna publicly debate him, he's not here.

Uh the law is clear, but Dr.

Flowers uh in rightfully stating that there are uh ways, there are certainly ways for the municipalities to exceed the four percent cap as well.

The uh school departments must first, if I am correct, receive approval by the Department of Education.

And then there is remedies beyond the Assembly, the Curulo Act uh enacted some 1991 or 1992 by the assembly, which is still still the mainstay of state law where a school department, school committee disagrees with the city council on the level of funding.

You enact or you I should say request that the Curulo Act uh be determined by the court.

Uh there's a there's a convoluted process for all of this, but in state law, there is a year over year maximum of 104% for the living increase and for a new port or for a municipalities increase in support for a school department.

So again, if I'm wrong, I'll everybody I hate I hate to beat a dead horse here.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna stop you right there.

So I'm gonna turn this over to um anyone from the public have any questions or comments they'd like to make.

Okay, so I just want to say that the municipal I'm done, I'm just gonna say it one more time.

The municipality cannot go over four percent without the general assembly, but the school department is just one department in the city.

So they can ask, and they can be funded more than four percent.

And that's what the attorney just said.

Yes.

And you've done it in the past.

May I just say one quick, very quick thing?

I promise I'll keep this very quick, okay.

I just have to pick on something, Mrs.

Cullen pointed out, because when every time I hear people refer to the per pupil cost, I want to remind you that is a very, very, very basic calculation.

That is our entire revenue divided by number of students.

Last night we accepted how many grants from Newport Public Education Foundation, all those things.

That adds to that numerator or denominator is small, it's a benchmark that is under the cost of the state.

So it doesn't, but I think it does affect the holy.

I'm sorry.

I want people to just you have to be careful with that number.

It's a very, very basic calculation.

Legacy costs, teacher salaries.

We could have you know um aging teaching staff that doesn't compare.

We've got more career tech programs than other um other of the urban ring districts.

So it it's just a it's a it is a number they use all the time.

It drives me crazy because it's super basic.

Thank you.

That's all I want to say.

Mr.

Chairman, Ms.

Winslow is absolutely correct with respect to outside uh appropriations.

I encourage everybody, including your own attorney, Mr.

Dring, and thanks for calling him or texting them or doing whatever you did.

Uh why don't you please look at uh state law uh well I'm not gonna sound like a fool because I've done that plenty of times.

Uh but look at 1622.

It's very, very clear what the state law says, and it even includes a summarization, uh at least what I'm looking at, with thanks.

Uh uh, that we exclude state and federal aid when dealing specifically with the state law that prohibits a school department for asking for more than four percent from a city or town from a municipality.

I everybody's heard this a thousand times, a million times.

You are entitled, of course, to your own opinion.

I have a more than I keep you here for six years with my opinions, but we're not entitled to our own facts.

Look it up.

All right, so thank you.

I also want to take this moment and thank everyone for uh being here tonight.

We're gonna have plenty more times for these discussions as we uh head into the budget season.

So thank you so much.

Have a great night.

Thank you.

Next case.