Where's Billy?

We'll believe it get going now at four oh six PM.

Well, the clerk please call the roll.

Mr.

Snappy, Mr.

Gilweith, Mr.

Bowley, Mr.

Gebo, Mr.

Kirby.

Mr.

Lazarus, Mr.

Mudo, Mr.

Now, Mr.

Ray.

Here.

Would Councilman Rex please lead us in the salute to the flag?

One nation under God.

With liberty and justice for all.

Do we have a motion to reopen the public hearing on unfinished items of PCR fifty-five dash twenty-six and pcr fifty-six dash twenty six?

Second.

Any objection?

Seeing none, so opened.

No objection.

Alrighty.

So school department, you are up.

Thank you.

Mr.

President, members of the city council, the FY27 school budget was developed utilizing the deficit reduction plan created by the budget commission and approved by the auditor general.

This is a very lean budget focused on the core mission of Warwick Public Schools, delivering high quality instruction, supporting student achievement, and maintaining safe learning environments.

The budget prioritizes classroom instruction with meeting the basic requirements for the basic education plan established by the Rhode Island Board of Education.

The total proposed FY27 general funds budget is 203 million eight hundred and seventy-four thousand five hundred and seventeen dollars, representing a 2.68% increase.

The primary drivers of the increase are contractual salary obligations, employee benefits, pension contributions, non-staffing requirements, transportation costs, and out of district tuition expenditures for special education, career and technical education, and CHATA schools.

This budget was developed within the fiscal parameters of established by the budget commissioners approved deficit reduction plan.

The auditor general expressed concerns that certain expenditure expenditure line items present a level of financial risks that may limit the school department's ability to effectively manage escalating costs.

Those concerns outlined by the auditor general have become a reality within the recommended budget within the budget before you.

Please note that the FY27 budget reflects our commitment to maintaining educational programming despite significant financial constraints.

With me this evening is the school committee chair Sean Gallaghan, as well as our executive director of finance, Craig Enos.

At this time, I'd ask Mr.

Enos to come forward.

Thank you, Superintendent, Council President, members of the city council.

Thank you for your time.

Just to hit a couple of highlights within the budget that you have before you.

So the grant funds go away.

That position is very much needed.

And so we have now included that within the budget.

The other purchase services, transportation, out of the district uh tuitions, both to public schools within Rhode Island, special education schools, and charter schools.

We already have within our contract for first student a 5.5% increase for the coming year.

Um, one uh item to note for that we have done an uh audit.

Uh Ride had approached us earlier in the spring about uh participating in a transportation audit to look at our roots, look at all the students who are riding, um, and they were coming back to us with the recommendations on where we could where we could possibly make some re-reductions.

Uh what happened was when they did the first review of the audit, it didn't contain all of the bus routes.

But what it was able to tell us was that in some of our schools on the afternoon runs.

If we have a bus that can seat 48 students, and you only have three students that are riding on that bus in the afternoon, and that happens on a couple of runs, there are some efficiencies that we can do to really look at our um runs.

So we submitted the rest of the information to Ride.

We have an appointment with them later on for this week to review the rest of the findings, uh, but we really do feel that we can condense runs, adjust some of the bell times, and realize some significant savings for the community.

Um, in terms of our um public school placements, the students that are going to other schools uh for for high school.

That rate has not been set yet by Ride.

That usually comes out towards the end and end of the month.

Uh we are anticipating uh an increase of 20 students uh leaving us for this for next year.

So a hundred about 195 students um are going to be going to some other high school.

Uh we also have our um increases for special education out of district tuitions, which we have no um no choice over.

If we have a student that moves into the district with an IEP that places them out of out of the district, we we are obligated to to fund that charter schools, same same thing.

Uh, that is a um uh a mandated uh cost.

Um, one of the items that we were hoping to place in the budget, but it had a significant um impact was the upgrade of the refresh of the student uh Chromebooks.

That was about $500,000.

Uh, we are not including that in the budget for this year.

The director of technology feels that we can hold off for one more year and putting that that in place.

We've also been having discussions on the administrative level about changing the recycle time.

We used to do grades one, five, and nine.

If we change it to grades three and grade eight, then there's been the other discussions that we've been having about whether or not a one-to-one device program is really where the district should be should be going.

And that talk is going to be uh going on as uh the rest of the year goes goes on.

Uh so in the end, so that brings us to um our total expenses, 205 million, three hundred and fifty-one thousand three hundred and thirty uh two dollars.

Our work continues to reduce the expenses in this budget.

Uh, first, we're looking at breakage for the retirements.

We know that you know we can realize significant savings from a step 10 teacher with the masters with family benefits to going to a step three teacher with masters and and family uh family benefits.

Historically, the district has had in in the mid-30s for retirements over the past few years.

So we do we feel very strongly that that getting breakage of almost a million dollars is something that we are going to be able to obtain for this year.

Um, and then finally, as I said, our work on the transportation audit is is not done.

Um, and so the rest of our our savings, we are anticipating um approximately another 482,000 dollars in the transportation.

So if we take into account uh those two items, our balance our budget will be balanced.

Um, however, the one item that we have not been able to address is the repayment to the city of the first year deficit reduction plan.

1,141,779.

Those are funds owed back to the city for covering our expenses.

As we achieve additional savings and get more retirements, we are going to be able to allocate those funds towards that re remain.

Thank you, uh, Chairman Gallagher.

Did you want to make some comments?

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council President, uh, members of the council, Mayor Pakosi and Chief of Staff Ascenti.

Uh, I'm just gonna speak briefly here uh with regards to the passage of the budget uh by the school committee.

Uh as you know, the initial draft deficit reduction plan approved by the auditor general uh had an allocation of 2.18% within FY27, and before you tonight is a request for a 2.68% allocation.

Uh, that additional half a percent uh as outlined by Superintendent McCaffrey was based on some of the very conservative cost estimates uh that were put into the deficit reduction plan uh by the commission.

I appreciate the city's administration for acknowledging uh that some of those estimates went in the opposite direction as advertised by the auditor general uh that it was possible and likely to happen.

I just want to state so it's not misconstrued uh on the record uh that while we're asking for 2.68% and that this is a half a percent higher than what was in the deaf uh deficit reduction plan.

Uh my professional opinion from a risk perspective, uh given that the district does not have uh substantial financial autonomy here in FY27.

There's some significant relief in 28 and beyond in the five year deficit reduction plan.

Uh but we passed that to show that we were in line with the deficit reduction plan uh as a show of good faith that we support the deficit reduction plan.

But I want it to be very clear there's substantial risk associated with that deficit reduction plan.

And I'd like to give you just a few examples.

Um, you know, we we just heard from uh executive director Enos that they have a lot of initiatives they're working on.

None of yet have been implemented and cost savings realized, right?

So it's good to hear that they're working on it, and I'm very proud to hear that they're working on driving down our operational expenses, something we should all expect, not just as locally elected officials, but as taxpayers.

But if the switch flips tomorrow and it's July 1st and these haven't been implemented as of yet, if we have one DCYF placement in our city tomorrow, in that particular instance, the money does not follow the child, we will have a deficit.

If we have another student come into our city tomorrow and they are screened and they require a one-to-one IEP, we will have a deficit.

We have to hire a TA, okay, rightfully so, and then provide them their salary plus benefits.

You will have a deficit.

There are many other instances that I could provide to add, you know, to highlight that there is a very thin margin of error here, very thin.

And I so I just wanted to be on the record tonight that the school committee acknowledges that we are approving a budget that is in line with what was put together by the budget commission to show good faith on our part, working aggressively with our school department and the administration, and I applaud Superintendent McCaffrey and all of his staff.

They've been working very, very, very hard.

But I want you to know right now that from a risk perspective, it is my professional opinion that you can expect to probably be back here again next May with a deficit in FY27, the foundational year of the deficit reduction plan, and not because of the hard there isn't hard work and fiscal discipline or new controls on the part of the superintendent and his staff, but because if we look at historically how the school department operates and should operate, it's you operate based on student need and our student needs continue to change.

On a lighter note, five, six years ago, people decided instead of doing puzzles and going for a walk, they did other things.

And now our kindergarten population after COVID is through the roof.

And we need to start looking at opening up classrooms, all unbudgeted, all prepared to offer up another deficit.

And you're probably sitting there going, well, Sean, balancing a budget means drawing down from another expense line, right?

You know, if you're spending a dollar over here that's unbudgeted, you draw from a dollar over here.

Yes, we understand that.

However, there's no more dollars over here for us to draw down from.

Okay.

Uh we were chasing 2.1 million dollars already.

So any savings that we realized up to this point were already absorbed.

And uh we then had to face inflation of other expenses.

Um, but as I stated, in FY28, there is financial relief for this district.

Uh the contracts uh come before the school committee in the school district, uh, so there's a chance to possibly look at language in there and and uh provide some financial relief uh to the district.

Uh service provider contracts come before the district for renegotiation.

Uh so that gives the school district at that time in FY28 more opportunity.

But FY27, a critical year within the five-year deficit reduction plan.

Uh a lot of constraint on this gentleman here.

I don't know how he's still standing upright each day.

So I just wanted to go on the record that uh we passed the 2.68% uh budget, uh, but we did so uh, you know, I guess I would say under duress and in good faith uh to adhere to the five-year deficit reduction plan.

But if you were asking me what you should do tonight if I were in your shoes, if there's another penny or nickel somewhere else that you could throw towards this uh as an insurance policy to the district to not have another deficit, I would highly suggest and urge you to throw it towards the school district.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh to the superintendent, if I may.

Yes.

Maybe teacher and you union president Davies Career Tech.

You and I were together up at the State House fighting for education together.

Absolutely.

So I just want to get your background on the record.

You you have been in education for how many years?

30 years.

And in the Warwick system for all of that time of thereabouts.

Yes.

Uh you're obviously a certified accredited uh school administrator, superintendent, and all those necessary certifications to be in your position.

Yes.

A number of us on the council, if not all of us, have received emails over the last week about the Warwick Early Learning Center.

Obviously, I I realize as an educator that that must have been a hard decision for you to decide to cut.

Can you just briefly tell us?

Because I don't believe everything I read, especially in the beacon, uh or on social media.

What exactly was cut?

The what we we've done is we've taken a look at uh special ed programming, we've looked at IEPs, the director of special education, Mr.

Carter, looked at every single IEP at the Warwick Early Learning Center, and decisions were based upon meeting the needs of the IEP for the students at the Warwick Early Learning Center, making sure that the service hours that are in the IEPs are accommodated and to make sure that we are supporting the students.

A follow-up question.

My understanding of state law, if if a student has an IEP, you you can't deviate from that.

You must follow their individual educational programs.

Warwick schools will follow the IEP and accommodate what's in the IEP.

Okay, okay, thank you.

And again, uh based on your educational expertise, because it is expertise.

30 years in education alone gives you a lot of expertise, but I know all those advanced degrees you have to get to be in the position you're in.

And you used all that experience.

You're giving me a big head here.

You deserve it, trust me.

I like I said, I've been in the war and the battles with you.

Uh I I've seen you firsthand fight for your students, your children, and uh you deserve the pat on the back.

My my point is this though, it wasn't a frivolous thing you did.

It was thoughtful following guidelines and your expertise that you made this decision.

Decisions were made to support students.

Uh I I have a another question off that topic.

State reimbursement.

Now according to the newspapers, and I did some checking to make sure it was correct.

The state is sitting on some type of a surplus uh in the 200 million dollar range or whatever.

Have you heard or gotten any inkling of an increase in school aid from the state?

I have seen what's out on social media, but until I see a proposal uh for funding, uh it doesn't hold any credibility with me.

Okay, thank you.

Now thank you for your time.

If I could uh have uh Mr.

Enos with a couple of questions.

How are you doing tonight, sir?

I'm doing well, how are you, sir?

Uh I again um the budget commission was a gentleman, uh David Champaign.

Yes.

Uh David Champagne and I are very, very close friends.

Uh I am proud of the work he did, but more importantly, he commends you for the work you've done.

And if Dave Champagne is commending you, I have full faith in you also.

That being said, you said something earlier that perplexed me.

You said breakage, and you're saying that you anticipate 38 retirements this school year.

Am I reading did I hear that right?

Yeah, so on an average over the past couple of years, you've been in the mid-30s, 36, 38.

Okay, if I may.

My follow-up question is this.

By contract, you can lay off 20.

You have in the proposal 38 eliminations, and you're saying over and above that, unless someone has handed in their papers today, and when I retired from Davies, I handed my resignation in in May for December 31st, so the school could uh plan.

So, do you have in hand right now any of those 38 that you're anticipating?

We have, I think 12 or 13.

12 or 13.

So there would be another 25 um retirees in there, like you explained that you that's a top step, you should be a top step, as I say, with all the bells and whistles that are going out the door that you could replace with a first-year teacher, second year, third year.

Correct.

But not only that, I know we did this at Davies, is you could look at some of those teachers in that 38 group that you did lay off terminate or eliminate.

And if someone has a matching certificate, you laid off a social study teacher, but I have credits in math.

There are ways for me by taking either extra credit or petitioning the state to get an emergency certificate.

And if one of those retirees is in math, you could reach out to me and say, Mr.

Foley, if you go get these three credits, or we ask for a waiver and an emergency certification, you have a job back.

Correct.

Okay, so things haven't changed that much in eight years.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you again on that.

I appreciate it.

Um to my last few moments.

Uh the I would like to make a statement.

I I appreciate the efforts from with the budget commission, the hard work you all put in.

Uh I appreciate the position we're in as a city and as a school system.

And I know how hard it is day in and day out going into a classroom and teaching, because I did it for almost 40 years, Mr.

McCaffrey.

The last 30 of which were at Davies Career Tech.

That being said, uh I have to be honest that in the last few years, different administration, different leaders in two positions.

We things were proposed to us in the budget.

We voted, we passed it, and shortly thereafter, those things that were promised to be done were not done.

And that put us in the position we're in today.

That being said, I fully believe you are going to do what is in front of us.

And if that this budget is enacted, and you do the things you say you're going to do, and uh Mr.

Gallon, and the point you made was well taken.

You know, someone comes in, I understand that fully.

That's an outlier.

And but if you do the things you say you're going to do, and we reach January of 2027, and there's a shortfall, and you come back to us and you say we've dotted our ice, we crossed our teeth, we did everything we said we were going to do, we're still a half a million short, a million short.

I will be one of your strongest advocates in this chamber doing a supplemental appropriation.

I just can't do that at this time.

Uh thank you.

So I have a few questions based on all the emails I received for the welcome funding.

So I understand that the position is that none of the IEPs will be at ish issue.

Now three of the five self-contained AEAP classrooms are being cut.

Is that accurate?

And a lot of these initial questions are going to be special education.

So yes, that is correct.

What we ended up keeping in terms of full day is two AAP sections.

All other classrooms move to half day.

And are the cuts for the classrooms going to result in overcrowding in the remaining ones?

No, and not at this point in time.

However, with the big caveat, like I said before in the school committee meeting, is that our pre-K is an open enrollment.

Um, and that students enroll throughout the course of the year.

Uh that the cuts that we do now doesn't necessarily mean that come January uh we need to open up more classrooms.

So if it turns out based on enrollment between now and the start of the year, you have the ability to open another classroom to address that.

At this point in time, we have abilities between now and uh September to absorb uh increases as they come along.

Um in terms of after September, uh that becomes a question because we can never fully predict how many students are going to be enrolled throughout the course of the year.

Looking at trends though, we feel that what we have right now can absorb the additions coming between now and September.

And the cut to the number of TAs in the IASE classrooms.

Is that gonna result in issues with the remaining TAs being able to manage those classrooms?

So what we did was uh out of the, I believe it was 32 total TAs at the time, we cut seven.

We remained seven as being uh it might be a little bit my numbers might be up on that, but we remained uh well retained uh seven TAs that would be considered floats.

Uh of those seven, they would belong to WELK primarily for any absences, and that we agreed today with the principal uh that two of those seven would be exclusive to WELC and not leave.

Um so even if there was shortages throughout the district and other areas, two of the seven float TAs would not leave Welk.

All right, and well sorry, every time I have to restart the timer for myself, so I have to remember to look down.

And now the cuts to the full day preschool program.

We're not required to maintain the full day preschool program.

Is that accurate?

Correct.

And are we gonna have is the entirety of the full day preschool cut or just some of the classrooms?

Uh some of the classrooms.

We remain, uh we we kept four full day classrooms.

And if there's anyone in excess of those the enrollment possibilities, what happens to them?

Well, right now, uh those classrooms that we kept as full day have on average about five students in them right now.

Uh so we have the ability to absorb about three in each of those classrooms.

And then if they if you if enrollment exceeds three, what happens?

Then we may have to look at opening up another section, correct?

And that goes to what Mr.

Gallaghan said about or Chairman Gallagher about Unexpected Expenses, yes.

All right, and then for Lipit, and I'm not sure if this is your purview anymore, so you'd know better than I.

My understanding is that they're closing the proposal is to close two classrooms for Lipid Elementary.

Yeah, that would not be me.

Hi everyone, Lisa Scheltz, executive director of elementary education at Lippett Elementary School.

We are only closing one classroom, and that is a grade one.

They had extremely low numbers, and in order to keep as many teachers as we could to help with the situation, I was able to combine two classes.

Um and right now it looks like there's about 20 students in that one classroom combining two, so it's still way under the state uh maximum.

And is it is it fair to say that if the enrollment increases once you hit a certain point, you're gonna open it up another one?

Yes, absolutely.

And well, I guess you've already answered the other question I could have asked, which was will the teacher be able to handle the increased number, but as you pointed out, yes.

And then the next is for AP classes, I guess secondary education.

So I got a Tim Kane, director secondary for World Schools.

So my understanding is at least one, if not I'm pretty sure actually more than one AP class is being eliminated.

I think it's premature right now.

We went through class enrollment tallies to take a look at what science classes were like.

For example, if you had a biology in one school that was running 10 sections, uh we determined in certain cases that may only need eight sections, and we built flexibility into that.

So it's it's not necessarily advanced placement classes that are gonna be affected.

It was more the the general classes that we were looking at.

All right, yeah, so that was my still working on the master scheduling process though.

That I mean that's a pretty fluid process.

Yeah, that was my next bullet about electives.

So if my understanding is for AP classes, if a certain number of students sign up, the class happens, and if they don't, the class doesn't.

Is that accurate?

Yes.

And that still will be the case for this upcoming year?

Yes.

And now I was told that at least one of our pathways requires students take uh science AP class.

Is that accurate?

Well, what pathway are you referring to?

Environmental science?

I believe it was biomedical biomedical classes, but yes, AP environmental was the one that was mentioned.

Yeah, so the environmental uh is a new program uh that's open that opened at Pilgrim this year, and then the goal is to have that as an advanced placement program.

And so it is our pathway gonna in danger of not being able to function if we shut down any AP classes for science?

No, it'll meet the requirements because we just received approval for that, and we'll ensure that that program runs.

I mean, that's one of the stipulations of running that program.

And I was told that we have a star rating when it comes to ride based on the number of AP courses we run.

Is that accurate?

It is.

So is our star rating in jeopardy of being reduced at all based on the decisions made for this budget?

I think Ride utilizes uh the AP rating, so one facet of the star rating.

Um I think every effort was made, you know, with this budget to run as many programs as possible.

Um, but if you were to cut um an AP course, it could have a negative effect.

That's not the intent right now.

And how did it?

So in let's say with last year's budget, how did it work for AP classes for them to be held?

Did it still need to reach a certain number of students?

Correct.

Was it 12 or was it a different number?

Um, I wasn't in the role at that time, so I'd probably defer that question.

I want to answer incorrectly, I could certainly get you that information.

Yeah, I'm I'm gonna assume, but yes, please, thank you.

Uh I'm gonna assume, given that this wasn't an a matter of contention before that it was a lower threshold prior.

We have run classes, AP classes in the past with fewer students.

And forgive my ignorance, but is it possible to run a mixed AP honors class?

Um, yeah, you could run a mixed AP honors class, I would imagine.

Yes.

I don't think that's the intent.

You know, I think the intent is to keep the separate AP course.

Just my own two cents based on when I was in school, a mixed AP honors class would have been awesome.

For fair.

Because I was uh as a kid very ignorant of that prospect.

So to be able to get in that way would have been fantastic.

All right, I likely we'll have more questions, but for now, I'm gonna take a pause, let other people have a chance.

We have a lot of lights.

Okay.

Uh I did not see the order.

Councilman Rix.

Thank you.

A brief question on the uh line item 52-101 health and medical premiums.

So uh on the city side of the budget, health and medical premiums are going up by 9.4% as I review uh this budget school side fiscal year 27 compared that to the school's uh health and medical premiums budget for fiscal year 26.

I see that uh this line item has actually uh gone down by a significant amount.

And so wanted to give an opportunity to discuss how those uh savings were accomplished.

Sure.

So we so um so for fiscal year 27.

So by staying with West Bay Community Health, uh the self-insured pool.

So we have a three percent increase over over the current year.

I think the increase that we had for this year was I think seven and a half um per percent, and that was because in previous years we hadn't taken an appropriate increase in that health care.

Um so the that what you see from fiscal year 26 to fiscal year 27, approximately the 400,000 increase.

So that's reflecting the reduction of staff.

We have some other grant pieces that are falling into place so we can contain those uh costs.

That's one of the benefits that we have of of remaining with the self-insured pool uh through West Bay Thank you.

Obviously, that those kinds of numbers incredibly significant as uh yeah, potentially difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars just uh can make a huge impact in other portions of the budget.

We actually, I'm sorry, if I could say, so we actually did uh obtain pricing from another health health insurance pool, and that increase uh was 7.4.

So uh for us that was a no-brainer to remain where we are absolutely thank you for doing your due diligence on that.

Uh saving hundreds of thousands.

I mean the way these numbers add up, easy with those percentage increases, potentially difference can easily get into the millions of dollars.

And that kind of money makes a real difference when it comes to the ability to preserve a lot of the different programs.

So on welcome, just for us to get a handle on the numbers there.

What would we be looking at in terms of uh how much would it cost to keep the programming effectively similar to the way it was this last year going into fiscal year 27?

I'm not sure the exact difference in the numbers there.

Uh I don't think I'm the person who can talk about costs.

Uh I think that would be correct.

So for uh a top step teacher, master's family benefits, you're looking at roughly 158,000 for that staff person, teacher assistant, depending upon the qualifications they have and the benefits that could range anywhere from 70 to 80, 80,000.

So you know, you're looking at probably you know, a classroom to open up a new classroom would be roughly just for the staffing, about 320,000.

And effectively the welcome program to keep it uh similar availability, similar numbers uh to uh uh this last year going forward.

Would that be just one classroom or multiple classrooms to think how we're multiplying staffing costs on something like that?

Steve, would you say what two more classrooms?

Two more.

Right.

Oh, two more two more, just making sure to say it on the mic.

So effectively these cuts to the WELLK program, if they were to be restored, we would be looking at over a half a million dollars.

I'm not sure if I'm stating that accurately.

Want to make sure that I'm posing that as a question here, or would it be greater than that?

Uh so I'm just standing here realizing that the other piece would be the transportation costs.

Um so that that would that would drive that uh up, depending upon if it was full day, half day, how many kids were riding, if it was a van if we were doing it on a van, if we were doing on a smaller bus.

Thank you.

Yeah, certainly some different moving pieces there, and I know that a lot of very difficult decisions had to be made in formulating this budget.

From what I'm understanding from questions asked by Councilman Foley, Council President Snappy, the cuts that are being made to the WELLK program are not going to directly affect special education in terms of making sure that all of the IEP requirements, all of those beyond IEPs, I suppose all of the requirements that are state mandated and otherwise required uh for the school system to follow.

There's going to be compliance as to the IEPs and state mandates regarding the special needs students, correct?

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you.

And let's see.

And this is going to continue for students who apply, qualify within the allotments that the school department is making available, continue to have a half day program, which unfortunately is obviously not the same as a full day program, but continue that half day program as to other students who do not necessarily qualify as a special needs or have those IEPs correct.

Yes.

Thank you.

I'm hearing the answer yes on that.

I'd like to, of course, in my remarks here, just to thank the members of the school committee, school department, the budget commission as well.

I know that this has been an extraordinarily difficult last year.

Extraordinarily difficult planning for this coming year.

I do not envy the decisions that have to be made to get us to this point, while making sure that the schools are keeping up with their contractual commitments, keeping up with well the financial realities of inflation and simply what things cost, what are the bare essentials to make sure that the doors are staying open, that students are getting the services that they absolutely require.

And unfortunately, having to take a hard look at a lot of different programs that are wonderful to have, provide wonderful benefits to the students.

But unfortunately, I know that some very difficult decisions do have to be made on what can be afforded here as the city also has to make some difficult decisions on its side of the budget as well.

We're going to discuss more of those later this evening.

I'm not going to get into those particular items right now because we're not on those particular items.

And there are times during these budget hearings where we will be able to, under the Open Meetings Act, discuss those with more particularity.

But suffice to say, I certainly do not take any of these cuts lightly that do affect students.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh just a few questions related to the welcome program.

First, I'm not sure who would be best to address that relative to populations and numbers.

So uh what I understand from what you spoke about earlier um is that there's gonna be the new proposal here before us is that there's gonna be four full day classrooms at this current time?

Correct.

What are we dropping from to get to that for?

Well, our enrollment just isn't there.

So when we had five um AAP classrooms, which run about six kids, uh that would be 30, right?

And right now we have about 10 or 11 kids who are registered with us right now uh for uh an AAP level kind of class.

Uh so just right there uh to start the year, um we wouldn't need all five of those sections because if we did, we'd only have two kids in each class.

Um so by consolidating that, that's how we remove three full day AAPs.

So obviously having two children in a classroom is not sustainable in any business model, correct.

Regardless, even in a city that's struggling, certainly not we can sustain.

So it's more of an efficiency cut thanks.

Yes, in terms of those, absolutely, yes.

Okay.

Now, how many students, because we're going down in the number of full day programs being available, how many students that do not have IEPs or special needs are going to have to transition from full day to half day programming?

Oh, I don't know the answer to that in terms of students who are three years old who already had full day, but were not in an IEP.

I don't believe there were any.

Um, I believe that um we're just not gonna be doing full day for what's called our peer group.

Uh it's only half day options.

Okay.

Now, just because I'm I don't know this, what is the difference between a full day curriculum and a half day curriculum?

The students get the same amount of learning modalities and have the same access, or do students that have a full day have access to more yeah, it has more to do with uh IEP service hours.

All right.

So it's how many hours of service do they require?

Uh some students have a higher level of need.

Uh so it uh their service hours reflect four hours, maybe five hours.

No, generally not five, but about four, uh, which would be more than just the half day.

And they also get certain services such as speech, OT and PT on top of it.

Um so they would require a full day to be able to get that full level of service.

So from an educational perspective, the students that don't have IEPs are not seeing any reduction in any educational related services.

Okay.

This is that the difficulty with going to half days is that it's a challenge for people to um, you know, if you have a four-year-old getting them there from you know 11 o'clock to two o'clock every day.

Yeah, so that parenting generally is a challenge, so I appreciate that.

The difficulty becomes is that uh we are required to have a certain number of um peer models inside of a classroom by state regulation.

So that's one of the challenges we are facing with this change.

If you have a student that is um a full day because of an IEP need, and there's a sibling that does not have an IEP.

Is there any sort of planning consideration given to a family that has that sort of makeup to allow the sibling to stay with brother or sister for the remainder of the presently is a situation like that, and we are not at this time offering full day to the other sibling.

Okay.

Um and now if you could just explain a little bit what the my understanding from conversations that I've had with members of the school committee and the administration is that there was some scheduling changes relative to when teachers do planning or how the actual schedule is made up.

Can you just explain for us here on the council floor and for the public what those changes look like?

So at this point in time, what happens is that uh within the course of the day, the individual teachers do not have time uh in their day to receive their um their prep and non pay non-teaching time plus their contractual lunch time.

Um so as a result, there is a part of the contract that speaks to um them receiving every other Friday where the students do not come in, and that's when they get their contractual number of hours for lunch and prep.

Um what we're looking to do is to be able to build uh a break in the middle of the day that is long enough to meet the contractual obligations for uh non-teach slash prep and their lunch.

So that way every other Friday doesn't have to happen.

Um, but that's something that's in the contract that needs to be discussed.

So in the current model, the teachers don't get a lunch break.

In the current model, I believe they get lunch break, but they don't get their contractual non-teach.

Non-teaching time for planning and such.

Correct.

Okay.

And then um questions about Lipett School were addressed uh to my satisfaction at least.

That is was a concern of mine.

There were several constituents that did reach out.

Lip it is in my ward, so I'm glad to see that again.

We're just looking at efficiency cuts and changes with the intention of expanding if there are more pupils that do enroll the coming years.

Um, Mr.

Kane, I don't know if you could just speak one more time about the AP classes so I'm clear.

You said that there wasn't an elimination of the offering, but you were eliminating sections, 10 sections.

Can you just explain that, dig into that a little bit for me?

Yeah, it was not with regards to AP.

So when we take a look at the course tallies, um, we are able to predict how many students will you know, per se have to a chemistry class, a biology class, and then you realize you need a certain amount of flexibility built into that.

So you if you have 10 sections allocated and you realize you only need eight, you may run nine in the schedule just to make sure there's some flexibility.

Um really didn't take a look at cutting AP or anything along that line.

It was all related to the core subject areas.

Uh that being said, in a perfect budget, you would run every AP course you could even think of to increase your star rating.

Um there's a budgetary reality to that as well.

It was uh brought to my attention via email from um, I believe it was a member of the war teachers union that in interest in these programs is down.

Have you or has anyone in the administration looked at um possible reasons why student interest seems to be lower?

Is it anything that we can do to get interest back up?

Or is that just any thoughts on that?

Uh actually uh there's more availability now more than ever for a student to take an advanced placement course.

Um technically, you're not gonna deny a student.

So even if you believe that it would be a toll order for a student to take an advanced placement course, it would give them that ability.

Umitially with with the pathways that we're offering right now.

I mean, the environmental science pathways was the highest scoring application in the state, which is why they approved that pathway.

Um, with regards to CTC, I know there's been a lot of talk about students going out of district, um, specifically the areas like North Kingstown.

It's not due to a lack of programs.

The current career in tech center uh right now uh has over 500 students, 100 of which we take tuition from West Woolwick.

Uh they complete well nationally uh in all of those programs.

They offer certifications with agencies like electric boat um that can't be replicated in other spots, but quite frankly, people go to other areas because of things like fields of things like perhaps the lacrosse team they may play for, which is on the border of another city, uh, and they utilize pathways and CTC as the mechanism to get there.

So, right now, currently that that building is near max enrollment, with the exception of a couple programs.

So I think the programs here are strong.

Thank you.

And then just one question on electives.

Uh there was a suggestion that possibly some electives such as forensics and some of the other uh kind of specialty programs that may be getting eliminated due to either reductions in staffing or uh not enough enrollment or competing against one another, for instance.

Is that is there any truth to that?

Yeah, so I think historically before this year, there's always competition between departments to create and run uh electives that students are gonna want to sign up for, uh, which makes sense and at least to strength the programs.

Uh with regards to cutting those electives, there was no look uh when we went through determining um how many social studies teachers we need um with regards to electives.

historically before this year there's always competition between departments um to create and run uh electives that students are gonna want to sign up for uh which makes sense and at least to strength the programs uh with regards to cutting those electives there was no look uh when we went through determining um how many social studies teachers we need um with regards to electives it was all based upon the cores but it's it's not out of the question that an elective could be cut um as you cut a faculty member okay thank you that's all the questions have thank you mr president i'd like to start off by asking mr enos some questions this will probably bounce back and forth between yourself and the superintendent in the superintendent's position paper which he read most of it into the record it says the primary drivers of this increase are contractual salary obligations employee benefits pension contributions non-staffing requirements transportation costs and out of district tuition and again on page two it speaks to that again and it says the reality is that approximately 94 percent of the budget including salaries benefits transportation out of school districts etc what is the percentage of the salaries health care costs and pensions so we're probably at close to let's see 11 11 150 172 so you're probably the little bit over 80 80 percent 80 to 82 per percent of the budget so 80 80 plus percent yep which is normal so as we know the school uh sorry the city council has nothing to do with negotiating the contracts so while these concerns are made quite apparent it's the school department and the school committee that negotiates these contracts so during those negotiations there's an opportunity to make changes now those changes are difficult but that's what we're elected to do we're elected to make difficult decisions what is the enrollment of all of schools today public schools today that number I don't what's the enrollment of all the schools second year current correct current the enrollment in the warp school system total number of of students approximately 7,879 students were financially responsible for approximately 8,566 students this was as of the date that we pulled the data so actual students attending the Warwick school system is 7,879.

Yes and depending upon when you pull the data if you pull it next week it may be a little bit less two weeks from now might be a little bit more because as you know public schools we have transient populations but history shows us that there has been a relatively steady decline in student population.

In 2003 2000 2023 2024 we had 8,012 students so we're looking at what what's that that's uh 133 students difference between 23 24 in this year so over two years it dropped 133 students sure by the same token in the mid-70s I believe we had somewhere around 22000 students.

We may have but we also had staffing to accommodate it at that point as well at one point I believe we had over 1400 teachers in the district superintendent um Mr.

Is it the intention of the school department to replace those tirees, or is the intent to compress costs through attrition?

At this point, our projection is to have 15 administrative central office administrators, have 367 classified members, have five school committee members, have 28 building administrators, 24 middle management members, professional staff.

We're projecting to have 836.9 professional staff members for a total of 1,277.

As long as the enrollment stays constant as it where it is right now.

I'm not sure if you answered my question.

He said there'd be about 38 retirees this year.

Yes.

Is the school department going to be replacing those retirees or allowing attrition to just take its costs?

It'll be based upon uh staffing needs for uh for the district.

So if they if they're retiring and they're in a classroom with 25 students, we have to replace that position, yes.

So it's fair to say that.

If there's someone if there's someone retiring from a non-classroom position, we will reevaluate the position to see uh if it's if it's needed, if if it can be redesigned at that point.

But we we are looking at everything.

We're stretching every single dollar to make this budget work.

With that said, this current budget that is before us, is that based upon the 38 retirees actually retiring and not being replaced, or is there an assumption in there that a certain percentage of them will be that would be considered to be breakage?

I'm sorry that would the difference would be considered to be breakage.

And and our intent is that breakage is gonna help us balance this budget.

Are you self-insured with workers' comp as well?

We we are would you like to for classified, right?

Yep.

Would you like to explain that?

Sure.

And also the channel language of the so the the workers' compensation is only for the members of the wise bargaining unit and the um administration.

So the teachers are not um part of it.

So for the teachers, we are self-insured through through that, and we pay a blue cross premium as part of our um monthly payment, and we have uh the beacon uh is who we have uh who provides our workers' comp and I I see where hang on.

I see there's a note here that um you have an anticipated 10 10 percent increase in workers' comp this year.

Yes, we don't have the the rate for for that yet.

Um, as you are probably aware, you know, when you're looking at your workers' comp rate, it's the previous three years.

So if you have a bad year, that bad year stays within your modification.

And so um, so we don't have what that rate is yet.

So what is your experience modification?

Um I don't know that number off the top of my head.

I I can get that information to you.

Are you below one or are you above one?

We are above one.

You're above one, uh, from what my memory serves.

Well, if you didn't talk so much.

Um the the final end of your tabulation.

I'm not clear on one of the uh calculations.

You're showing for 2027 a gross of 205 million three hundred and fifty-one thousand three hundred and thirty two.

Then you're showing program forward slash other reductions, forward slash assumptions of one million four hundred and seventy-six thousand eight hundred and fifteen.

But I don't see where that number was deducted out of the two hundred and five million.

So could you explain that, please?

Uh so uh so for the projected total expenses two hundred and five million three hundred and fifty-one thousand three hundred and thirty-two dollars.

Then the two areas that were looking for additional savings, breakage nine hundred and ninety-five thousand ten dollars.

Yeah, subtract that out, and then take the additional uh transportation savings that we're hoping to get four hundred and eighty-one thousand eight hundred and five dollars.

Those two numbers equal 1,476, 815 dollars.

Subtracting that from the 205 brings us down to the 2030 there is approximately, and this could be for the superintendent.

Um, there's approximately a bond that's still sitting there of 7.9 million dollars uh for uh believe school renovations.

What is the intent of that?

But let me rephrase.

Um there are underutilized schools in the city right now.

Does the administration have any plans for consolidating any of those underutilized schools before any of that 7.9 million dollars is used to renovate or repair buildings that we're gonna close?

In the most recent bond application for the high schools, the work school department stated that we would not be closing any schools at this time.

However, this summer we are initiating a redistricting committee with the redistricting, we will be looking at enrollment data surrounding all of our schools, and after reflecting upon the data, we'll be making decisions on uh uh on future programming at schools, but the redistricting process will dictate where we are with programming at each school, and that'll enable us to make further decisions as we look at uh plan for our physical plants that we're looking at over over the next five and ten years.

That process will start this summer.

So I would assume that there has been some discussion about what particular schools could possibly be closed.

Has there been any guesstimate of a number of savings that would result between closing the schools and obviously with um appropriate staff reduction and closing those schools?

Sure.

There has been an awful lot on social media about about schools and closing schools.

At this point, I'd like to reflect look at the uh redistricting data once it's completed, and then come back to you with some answers to this question.

I I don't want to shoot from the the hip and give you misinformation or overstate or overpromise anything.

I want to rely on the data that's presented this August.

Okay.

And the school department is asking us for um approximately $3.8 million dollars.

Is that correct?

Say that again.

The school department is asking us the 2.68 percent increase, yes.

What is it, please?

2.68 percent increase is okay.

And that amount, as you know, takes a significant cut of what our maximum tax increases can be.

I'm gonna move on to uh some of the financial items here.

So your item 5115 salaries substitutes two million dollars.

The substitute teachers, I believe has a direct correlation to the 96 days that teachers have or could have.

What I don't see in here is what the dollar amount is for those 96 days.

If every teacher, obviously it's a pie in the sky thing, but it's it's not impossible.

If every teacher took 96 days, what would that number be?

A significant number, a very significant number that would bring us well above.

So we actually for this uh fiscal year are trending in a very good direction for our substitute line item, hence the reason why we are recommending bringing that budget line item down from 2.4 down to 2 million.

We're trending in the right way.

I know it disturbs people when I talk about the 96 days, but it needs to be talked about.

And it needs to be um have a serious consideration because my understanding is the reason for the 96 days is because the teachers don't get TDI.

I've put that correct.

Correct?

Okay.

So to me, it would make a lot of sense, and this was discussed about a year ago this past January with members of the um school committee and the school department of paying the cost of the TDI, reducing the 96 days down to 10, 15.

And if that were to occur, what type of savings would that show?

I'm gonna say probably 1.5 million to 2 million.

Correct.

The other the other piece is that you also have another bargaining unit where they actually pay into it.

So there'll be that that union would probably come forward as well and say you're paying for for that union, therefore we want you to pay for ours as well.

So I I understand the teachers' concerns um about not having TDI, and I actually concur with them on that.

To me, this is a rather simple business decision uh that should have been made a long time ago.

Uh teacher administrative pension, you have a line item of 14,955.

And you also have um your code 522000, private pension payment defined benefit.

What is that?

That is the uh wise pension.

Okay.

So that's in addition to um WTU.

Correct.

Got it.

Correct.

And what is teacher administrative pension?

That is the so the two portions of the teacher pension are the ERSRI portion and then the TIAA.

And what happens is the state for the TIA portion reimburses us every quarter.

So we we submit for reimbursement, and depending upon the number of years each employee has, we get reimbursed a certain percentage of that.

So that 500,000 that's in that line, that's just the net.

So that's after it's probably close to a million.

So it's interesting to me that you just mentioned the word net again.

I had quite a discussion last night about net.

No, no, more net questions.

Anyhow, uh, councilman, thank you.

You're out of time, but if you want, you can ask that someone motion to add time.

Sure.

Request the motion for an additional five minutes.

An additional five minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um below, well, let me back up.

So in here is um dental.

So you have dental, obviously, as a benefit, but down in line item 53412, there's another item that says dentist in the amount of 33,000.

What why is that separate from So the 52,000 series is a benefit per the UCOA account string coding that we have.

53,000 is a contracted service.

So that line for the dentist, that's the dentist that we pay who comes in, and we have to provide the mandated uh screenings for all the schools.

These are dentists that come into the school to do what?

Screenings.

Screening.

We are re required by state law to do screenings uh I forget the age of the elementary schools.

Of the children or of the teachers, the children.

The children.

Of the serious, serious question of the students?

Correct.

Okay.

Correct.

Yep.

Councilman, if I may interject briefly.

Sorry.

Uh if I may uh make a very quick uh statement to clarify.

Uh I just like to point out for the audience that uh perhaps the reason for that question and why it wasn't immediately obvious is because the 53,000 series is under the header of personnel services employee benefits.

So it's not clear unless one delves into it and asks the question.

Is this a service for the employee?

As is typical under that header, or is this a service for the students?

So as to clarify, thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

I would point out that there's probably several hundred code items here that uh admittedly I'm not familiar with, and that's why we're here tonight.

So I can ask the questions.

Umspots, that obviously is a major number.

So, what has the school department considered or is looking into perhaps shift gears on transportation costs?

So a lot of that has to do with the bell uh bell times.

Um, you know, we've over the course of the years when the district has closed schools.

One thing that we've never really looked at is changing the bell times.

And so right now we have a three-tier system of how how the buses run.

Um, we are taking a look at that.

As I said, the the audit that ride um helped do uh for us is gonna hopefully provide us some really good information, not only on the number of riders, but looking at the map of the city and helping us figure out if there are some cost efficiencies on the runs.

And I believe that the the teachers they do not get lifetime health care when they retire, correct?

They do not.

Right.

So up to the age of 65, and then they're shut off.

Rightfully so.

On the school department side, you have the same financial challenges that we have on the city side, and that's called health care pensions and legacy costs.

On the city side, it's even more challenging because we still sit here with lifetime health care on retirees.

I think people are starting to realize now that unless we make those tough, difficult decisions and increase the co-pays on health care, increase the caps on prescription drugs, eliminate lifetime health care for new hires when they retire.

And I reiterate new hires when they retire, because I've been criticized saying, Oh, you can't touch the contract.

I'm not touching your contract.

I'm saying when new hires retire.

You are never going to get control on these expenses.

Those are the driving forces that are definitely pushing us over the edge.

And if everybody's serious about taking on these challenges and dealing with that, then that's where you need to stop.

Just my opinion.

Thank you, Mr.

Enos.

Thank you, Superintendent.

Thank you, Chairman of the School Committee, and I appreciate everyone uh being here this evening.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Unfortunately, I am going to talk about gross and net.

So uh actually I better start with student gross and net first.

So with CTE, uh director Tim Sash, if your questions are Mike working.

I'll put it closer.

How's that?

Oh good.

Uh so the CTA program, you mentioned that we have about 500 enrolled.

A hundred of them are coming from West Warwick, which we're getting paid for.

And we have about 200 students leaving for one reason or another through the CTE Pathways program.

Two questions.

Are we getting any other uh of that 500?

You you claim the the hundred from West Warwick.

Any other school systems coming into Warwick?

Yes, there are.

How many students would that account for?

Ballpark.

I would have to probably defer to Mr.

Enos just to have about 15.

Okay.

So 200 goes out, 115 come in.

Okay, so negative net.

Here's here's my concern.

You made a comment that we're near max at the C at the CTE program.

Uh how are we going to resolve that to keep to keep growing that program to keep people in our school system?

Uh when students say there's a number of different ways students come into and get experience through CTC.

Um, one of them is a ninth grade exploratory.

We take about a hundred students who spend about a half a year uh at the CTC uh for one period of day.

They rotate through all the programs at the end of their stay.

Uh they fill out an application and they typically put in a first, second, and third choice.

Uh for those students that don't make it into the exploratory, we run um open sessions where students come in from the high schools.

Uh, they kind of like the same idea.

They can spend as many days as they want in a program testing it out.

Um same idea, they do a first, second, and third choice in that.

Uh, all of our visiting students, we have a rubric for, so we have the instructors score them on that rubric to try to attract the best students.

So, what we've noticed is the caliber of the students coming through uh has generally been on the increase.

With regards to programs being at near max, uh we really haven't had to turn students away from the career center um as a center itself, but there are times when a student wants marine trades and they wind up, you know, and their second choice was an electrical trades program.

Uh there is a space issue, obviously, with CTC.

You can only safely have so many students uh in a given area.

Um, there's also a staffing uh requirement finding a CTC teacher is probably one of the most challenging um positions to find because of the fact that they require industry credentials, and I think we all know the trades right now are exploding outside of the school, so attracting them in.

That being said, we did hire a second electrical teacher, uh, knowing that that program was on a you know, uh a tear for a while where they were maxing out every year um going on a wait list.

So we have managed to put the students into programs at the CTC.

Um it's not necessarily always the first choice program.

Those go to the highest scores in that program.

Okay.

So what I'm hearing is that yes, we have alternatives, but it's at the margins, not at the bulk.

If we want to attract, we want to get a net zero here from the 200 going out, 215 going out to the 150 coming in.

We we don't have the space to even take in, take out 85 more students.

Well, we we have done the analysis on the students that are leaving the district, and we have done an analysis on the substantially similar piece, the substantially similar law, general law that gives students the opportunity to leave the district.

And currently we we have initiated litigation approximately two and a half months ago on programs that we feel are substantially similar.

Uh and we're in the discovery phase at this point.

We're still waiting to receive information back from the Rhode Island Department of Education, but we have spent an awful lot of time looking at substantially similar programming, and we have looked at the alignment of our program to the to the other programs on why students are leaving the district.

Uh unfortunately uh time isn't on our side on this matter.

I mean, waiting two and a half months to receive information why something is different.

Seems crazy to me, but uh you know, I'm not an attorney, I'm not in the field of uh litigating matters.

So I I can't really make any further comment on that matter.

Okay, but my question was let's assume the the stars align, and we get those students to our program.

Sure.

Do you can we handle that?

As part of the redistricting that we'll be looking at the this summer, we're looking at every single building that the district owns, and we're looking at every single space and its utilization.

Uh, after looking at the utilization other than then through the uh technology program where we have and actually looking at physical space within facilities, we can see what we have available for classroom space within the district.

Okay.

So any of so your question is, would we have space?

We are looking at everything at this point.

Okay.

I know you'll do the best you can.

I'm just trying to get an idea because we talk about space and where we have the where we have the resources and need.

I'm gonna speak uh I can probably speak a little bit more to that.

When the new high schools are completed as part of that redesign that happened, um, I was director of the career center at that point, and we made sure that every program room was larger than the room that was currently there.

So nothing is smaller.

Um, I don't even believe anything is equal.

Um, everything insured for additional space.

Um, so I'm I'm confident that if we had 200 students that decided not to go out of district, um, that when those schools you know were completed, we would be able to accommodate that.

That being said, based upon the phone calls I made this summer is one of my first assignments.

I did call a neighboring district.

Um I called every parent of Woolwick that was going to that particular district without naming them right here.

I think everybody in the room would know what that district is.

Um, and they all were pretty honest with why they were going.

Some are more polite than others, but the general gist of that conversation was thank you for your phone call.

We appreciate it, but we know we don't have to answer your questions.

We can go any way we want, um, whether you have an identical program or not.

Uh, in fact, there are cases our culinary program just won the nationals.

We have potentially a student could leave our program to go play for an opposing district and join the culinary program.

Crazy as that sounds, we're on the hook for those dollars.

That wasn't my question, but we'll we'll pass it.

Well, I tried to answer it with the new high schools.

The new high schools have additional space built in for CTE for those students to expand the program.

Correct.

All right, that's what I was trying to get at.

Yep.

Thank you.

Uh the next question would be for special ed.

So my question is gross and net.

We talk about the fluidity of the student population coming in.

What is the what's the the math of going out?

Going out in terms of out of district, or you're talking about people leaving the district.

Either leaving the district, leaving the program.

So we have the same student migration patterns in general, pop um my question is do we have that same population mix?

No, we've seen uh a slight uptick in our percentage of students with IEPs.

Um, number of the same number of reasons for that, but that's nationwide, it's not just wallow.

Um, but in terms of Warwick specific increase in students with IEPs has been the increase in the number of families who have taken in foster children, uh, which I think is a great thing.

Um, but what comes along with that is an expense.

Um where you just recently someone brought in a student who uh due to medical conditions and outside placement will probably cost us around 200,000 a year for that student.

Um, so it's kind of goes along that unexpected cost.

Uh, but yes, our our number of percentage of special education has gone up a bit.

Okay.

The uh did not number go here's the what it was now.

Yeah.

Wonder the numbers.

Yep, I can do that.

So, in terms of uh school year 2324, we were at 1629, and then at the end of or where we are at the end of 2020 2526 is 1889.

Thank you.

I I do recognize the increase.

Just wondering if the population was uh similar.

Um I uh I support the uh you know the the idea of the foster parents.

I'm actually on a board that encourages uh foster parenting, so uh definitely appreciate that.

Um while you're up here, I'm just gonna I'm gonna jump to one of my risk questions.

Is with our uh special ed and IEP population and the and the student teacher or service ratio.

Is there a risk if we increase that there is a danger of uh harm to teachers or other staff members or other students?

Uh are you saying our the increase in in caseload per teacher?

Yes.

I guess the quick answer would be yes, right?

Uh anytime you're going to increase the number of students any one individual is responsible for, right?

Uh that um more and more of our special education population has become more of a behavioral concern than it is an academic performance issue.

Uh but again, that's that's state and nationwide.

Uh the nature of IEPs have been changing now for probably the past four or five years, uh, where it's less about can Johnny read his ABs and C's and more about uh why is Johnny throwing a chair?

How is that for an explanation?

No, and I just full disclosure.

My wife is a teacher, she has IEP classes, and I I hear the stories almost every day.

So uh I appreciate the um uh the the context.

Uh thank you.

I'm gonna jump to budget for healthcare costs.

We talk about um gross versus net the number that's in the budget is a net number.

Correct.

What is the gross number and how do we get what's what are the uh counterparts that get us to the net number?

So we've got the uh so the the health insurance co-pays that are taken out um every every every week.

Uh well, every week or every every pay uh payroll, the wise wise uh unions paid every week.

Uh teachers and administrators are paid every every um two weeks.

So but roughly our monthly bill that we have probably runs around 2.3 million, depending upon the the month goes up, can can go down depending upon who comes in, signs off.

Thank you.

Um I'm gonna try to keep you up there for one second.

So uh on financial risk.

Uh there's a debate on the 90 sick days that's going on.

Uh we have a pool of 2 million dollars for the subpay.

Is there something contractually that expenses over that $2 million goes into a pool and uh the teachers pay back into that pool uh of that amount to get it to the two million dollars or whatever that budgeted number is there there is a pool, the exact process and how it functions.

I can provide you with that information.

I don't have it with me this evening.

Okay.

More not the process, I'm actually familiar with the process, but okay, the dollars.

I'm trying to get to the accounting dollars.

So that varies depending upon how many absences there are and things of that nature.

Exactly.

Let's so let's just say it the cost comes out to be three million dollars.

We had two million dollars in the pot and we paid that million dollars, and correct me if I'm wrong, does that million dollars get you know distributed based proportionally by the number of days a teacher?

I can I can provide you with that information.

I don't want to give you any misinformation this evening, but I believe so it does.

Okay, but I'll get you the exact information.

All right, I appreciate that.

Uh uh I'll stay on the contract stuff, so I'll keep I'll keep uh the superintendent up.

So we talked about the full day versus part-time uh and the rotation of every other Friday or every Friday to get their um their non-teaching in.

And then there was some talk about creating a break.

And I'm I'm just saying this, so don't shoot me.

The it within the contract, do the teachers have the ability to not take their um free period and get paid for that.

Is this specific to Welk in terms of a teacher deciding not to take their non-teach and get paid for that?

Exactly.

I believe contractually, it's that um if if the principal has made a specific request for a person not to use that non-teach, then that person should get reimbursed um for the time that they've been asked to not take.

I believe that's how it works with the contract.

Okay.

Just wanted to throw another option out there.

Teachers may want the the extra options here.

So um actually I gotta bring the school chair up.

You talked about risk.

I want to get a um you're a risk guy.

Yes, sir.

I don't like general generalities.

contract okay just wanted to throw another option out there teachers may want the the the extra options there so um actually I gotta bring the school chair up you talked about risk I want to get a um oh god you're you're a risk guy yes sir I don't like jet general uh generalities can you point out just list what you view as the potential risk as well as what type of mitigation do you have being a risk manager you always have a mitigation plan can't or you should first plan run yes all right so if you can if you can give me that I think we'll we'll end well I brought up the DCYF placements and I believe firmly children should be able to come to a safe setting so not shunning that uh but a DCYF placement that they do occur throughout the year um we've been working trying to address underfunded or unfunded mandates they continue to grow uh one of the things we were doing to partner with the city of Cranston was from a mitigation plan perspective is to have a cutoff period where if a student wants to go to another district even though we have that program in house uh they should have to declare uh that they're going to plan to transfer by a certain date that will help us out with budgeting however um I don't know where that stands uh but the state house at this time hoping that it passes this year but um you know I remain optimistic but I'm not gonna hedge my bets on it um so that continues to be a risk you can have children between now and August continue to transfer and even then during the year we we could see children leave um another risk that we have is uh I know of some people that have fallen in love with Warwick Public Schools they were sending their children uh to private schooling actually someone in our little league uh that Mr.

Wiggins knows as well and they came out of uh private schooling and into public schooling um they have uh um an IEP with uh the full gamut and so now that's gonna uh obviously drive up the need there uh even further um children continue to be screened on a daily basis so that's gonna drive up the need there and and you can't really have a mitigation plan for that it's just gotta be be prepared to hire uh additional special educators and additional TAs if necessary um and so it's a really it's a moving target so it's very difficult for you to budget for something like that.

Uh there's a bill going through the House right now in the Senate relative to transportation uh did we did did you come up with a loose figure on what that could possibly be was it close to a million possibly if that Senate bill goes through which it has some traction that's another million dollars unplanned uh if it takes effect upon passage um and hits during the upcoming fiscal year that's another million dollars unplanned uh relative to out of district correct relative to out of district transportation uh so uh I could continue to go on and on and on sir uh but when I was just doing loose math prior to the May 6th budget hearing uh and then in a back and forth exchange with my main man Craig Enos uh I came I quickly came up with about six million dollars worth of risk uh that faces this budget today uh we actually asked the question on the floor uh of the assumptions within the budget what percentage would the budget have to be built to not have those assumptions and the percentage would be 3.7 thank you that was well done actually I lied I actually have two more questions uh mostly this is for Craig thank you thank you Craig uh easy one which is the uh additional transportation after audit one of the risks that was identified was that we did we wouldn't have that initiative done what's your confidence level that we'll have that audit done and the number that's there is uh solid six six fifty fifty at this point not sure because there there are there are many factors that that we really need to take a look at okay with the audit that you did I know it was a partial audit what uh what did what amounts did you find in that audit um well because we want to look at the full audit first but just in the in the review that we were doing they were able to to show us on the number of the secondary runs particularly in in the afternoon to students riding a bus that maybe seats a hundred uh you know it was it was really um eye opening um and the first time that we've really been able to to track who's riding each bus so but ballpark if you if you looked at you know if we have 800 runs and this audit did you know covered a hundred of those just anecdotally what what do you think could be saved by what you just saw I think you know by even just what we were looking at you know I think we were looking at at least um a quarter of a million so you know uh the the work that ride had been doing with other school districts comparable in size again you know um millions in savings yes um because no one had really done the work of looking at who was riding the bus and we had people who sign up in the beginning of the year and that's what we base the we order the buses upon and then it just doesn't happen.

And we had people who sign up in the beginning of the year, and that's what we base the we order the buses upon, and then it just doesn't happen.

So the amount that's in the budget here is a conservative number, but could potentially be higher.

Yep.

Okay.

And and I I will say, you know, we have a uh transportation manager who has been managing the bus runs for a number of years and does a fantastic job at protecting the interests of the taxpayers.

And and squeezes every dollar that we we can get.

Awesome.

Uh one one last question.

I almost promised that.

Um just to get a clarification on your breakage number.

Breakage numbers about a million dollars.

We have yes, we have 38 retiring.

We really only need or the target is to get 38 potentially retired, but it's truly only about 10 a top step that gets us to the breakage number.

Um I'm sorry, uh, can can you repeat that?

You're saying about the number for the breakage.

Yeah, I had said that historically when we look at the number of retirees, 3538.

So you've been you've been around there.

So far, we're we're up to 12 or 13.

Yes.

Who typically mid-30s, but that would be about three and a half million dollars or greater for the break.

You know, giving that flexibility where some may need to be replaced, whatnot.

We're really only looking at 10 solid positions to get to that breakage number in your budget.

Uh, we're probably looking at a little bit more than that.

Um, so because after when we were talking about the budget, I think counts I think councilman Foley had pointed out.

So you had a teacher who maybe retired, but then oh, you had someone else who maybe had a math certification sitting sitting in there in their pocket that we that we weren't aware of.

And so that was having a layoff.

And so that that took that's that's the other 28 to do that, the switching.

So 10 clear.

Yep.

Without replacement.

So out of those 38, typically, what have we seen in the past, which was real breakage, typically?

I know we're at a really weird retirement bell.

Yeah, let me let me get back to you on that.

I don't I don't want to speak um out of turn and and provide you an incorrect number.

Okay.

But what I'm trying to get at is we don't because I I've seen the eyes, we don't need all 38 to retire and go away.

Right.

It would be great, but I have one teacher that will do it in a heartbeat if you let her.

So uh so that's all the questions I have right now.

One more thing.

I have one more thing for Councilman Mudo, uh, relative to risk, and it's a big one that I can't believe I forgot to mention.

Uh, it would be insurance co-pays on property insurance.

Uh when I took over as chair in January of uh 2024, uh, two hours after our school committee meeting concluded, uh, the Gorton administrative building uh flooded.

That was my first phone call from then Superintendent Danbrook.

Two weeks went by and the roof at Tollgate was blowing off.

Another four weeks went by, and I got a phone call while trying to be on vacation that there was an electrical fire, resulting in an additional week of vacation uh for for the Tollgate students um after the February vacation there.

Uh we recently, as you know, we had a giant tree after a micro burst this school year, uh, go through the annex building roof.

Um ironically, the only piece of pilgrim that we were going to keep in the new construction project, that's just our luck.

Uh and uh many other incidents that have occurred, constant pipe breaks due to freezing.

Um, and though we've reduced our risk potential through phase one and phase two bond investments uh at our our elementary and uh some of our secondary schools, there are still some schools that are substantially old and still require investment.

But uh to councilman Ladder's point, uh Latisser's point, uh, those phase one and phase two bond dollars are decreasing, and the governor's uh you know, uh ADA uh compliance commission is requiring an investment to some of those properties.

So uh I would say in my three years of being three years and five months of being on the school committee, it is more likely than not that you will have an insurance claim in the upcoming fiscal year uh and a co-payment as a result of that.

So another risk that would drive another deficit.

So just a quick follow-up, and I promise.

I know I'm probably out of time.

Has there because I know we brought this up all last year, I was a big proponent of it.

Any discussion on actually getting a capital uh capital component, yes, like an enterprise fund above and beyond maintenance of effort.

That's an excellent question.

The deficit reduction plan actually called for starting to establish that, and also the deficit reduction plan actually called uh for uh initiating a surplus, and we appreciate that the city's administration recognize that when you're deciding whether you keep the electricity on or the water on, you can't really care about your savings account at that point.

And we appreciate that the city's administration recognize that when you're deciding whether you keep the electricity on or the water on, you can't really care about your savings account at that point.

So uh as far as a capital investment plan, it's kind of down the road at the moment because I think we would go in succession of filling our obligation of paying back the city, followed by developing a surplus, followed by developing that capital plan.

So thank you, council president.

Uh just want to make a comment tonight that it's clear to this council person at least that the temperature in the room tonight versus where we were 14 months ago, that the heated discussions over budget commissions and mishandling of budgets, and I think that's a testament to the work of this new administration, the work of the new support staff that's been brought in, the work of the school committee uh jointly with the administration and um support that you've gotten, you know, throughout the school department as a whole.

So I just want to thank you all for the work that was done and participating in what I know was a very difficult trying time for everyone, including the teachers and the TAs, staff, everyone.

So I appreciate that we were up here 14 months ago, and it seems to me at least that we are much more collaborative, transparent.

I don't think last year we would have had a two and a half hour conversation that didn't end up in somebody wanting to go outside and throw blows with count with Chairman Gallaghan.

Um, but here we are.

So thank you to everyone in the room, no matter what side you're s of the aisle you're sitting on.

Um I did uh want to point out just a couple of things that I recognize saw with the budget that it seemed that there was some substantial increases in certain uh line items in the 5300 block.

Uh that was explained to me that those were reallocations, Mr.

Enos recognized that they were coded improperly that ended up coming from um other areas in the budget, and it looks like there was actually savings of around 100,000 with those.

So again, thank you for that work.

Uh the 5600 block, though, I did want to speak about and maybe get some clarity on uh specifically textbooks, library books, reference books, books in general.

Uh those items have been substantially cut down, zero allocated to library books.

And I know that part of that is I'm assuming likely due to technology.

The other part is just the unfortunate realization of we don't have the money.

True.

And and there are many uh uh legislative grants that that are out there that the schools can can approach uh and get a get a grant.

Um and many of our schools have uh very healthy Feinstein um funds that they can also use because that's a that's an extra that they can do to improve the school.

So um textbooks, yep.

So we had left that uh we did a decrease um on that just due to the technology pieces of it, and based upon what has been spent so far for this year.

Um and then finally you also see that we are responsible for non-public textbooks.

Uh so any uh student that is is going to a uh private or parochial school, um we are obligated to provide them with the textbooks that that they need.

And then depending upon the year and the subject uh that it is, Ride will reimburse us a portion of that uh cost.

Thank you.

And one question related to 56101 general supplies.

Is that classroom supplies?

Yes, it is.

Um, that also includes that was a reallocation from the our gems net science kits uh that our that our schools use that was coded incorrectly in the past was flagged on our UCOA file.

Um, and so we are moving it up into the correct line.

Um, so I'm gonna put you in the crosshairs a little bit, so I apologize.

That's okay.

There's an increase of 300,000.

Did which is necessary, in my opinion.

Also, in my opinion, not high enough.

Uh was there any input relative to that in line item from teachers that are actually in the classrooms discussing with you or the administration about how much money they expend out of their own pockets year over year for necessary items?

So we spoke to the principals.

Um, so there were some increase that were requested.

Um, however, uh we we felt given the other lines that we that we had that we wanted to leave that flat.

And then once we reallocated the gems net science kits, that's what brought it up to the 1.3.

Um, so uh, you know, the to the best of my knowledge, because we've been reviewing every expense that has been requested.

We've reviewed everything.

Um, you know, other than from the what the budget commission maybe had said no to a few things, everything else so far for this year has has been going on.

If there's been a teacher that's been denied um something, you know, I I'm not aware of that.

Uh my wife would used to teach kindergarten.

So I'm very well aware of the fact that uh teachers always go above and beyond and they're buying supplies for their classrooms and they don't get reimbursed.

What would be the mechanism if a teacher took money out of their pockets to buy papers, pencils, crayons, whatever they need for their classroom to then approach the school department, school committee yourself to apply for reimbursement for such items?

Yep.

So uh something like that.

Uh crayons, that's would be an essential component to their classroom.

They should bring that issue up to the principal and say, you know, if they were if they went through and they used everything that they needed, we want to make sure out of a 200 million dollar budget, I'm sure that we can find a hundred dollars to reimburse a teacher for whatever they spent their funds on.

Uh so we want to make sure that that our students and our teachers are equipped with with uh what they have.

So yeah, but they can bring that issue forward to the to the principal.

Um, and if not, then they can bring that if they don't get the appropriate response, then the executive director of elementary edn bring that up.

Thank you.

Um I think that's all I have from the budgetary standpoint.

So I think a couple more of my questions may be for the chairman.

Well, I'll take it easy on you, I promise.

Um, so I appreciate Mr.

Cain's dance around.

I know you can't say certain things the record, I'll say it for you.

We need to stop our students from going to North Kingston to play soccer.

So has there been any work from uh school committee or administration on addressing instead of I know yes, the superintendent alluded to a litigation?

Yeah, we're the most unpopular people, Mr.

McCaffrey and I.

When he goes to the superintendent meetings and uh when I engage other chairs, uh nobody's seems to be responding when you sue them.

So has have you reached out to any of the state?

I mean, it's it's beyond our control because it's state legislation, right?

So has anyone engaged with our state legislatures or has to your knowledge that the teachers union step behind you at least to support that?

Can we change 1645 61 to a way that's more palatable to either more clearly define in B2 what substantially similar means or what the parameters are, or to 86 that provision altogether?

May I be candid?

Of course.

Really?

We need we need the city council to work with us.

Um we we need to partner up as one body, we need to the mayor, we need to go in uh strength in numbers.

That's what we need.

Um, you know, if you guys can send stuff up through intergovernmental resolutions to the state house, we need you guys to be backing us on that.

Um, you know, you guys, I I believe all nine of you uh probably agree that this is wrong.

Um, you know, to quote councilman latticer, take them to court.

That's what we're doing.

So uh we're doing our part, we're fighting as hard as we can fight, but strength in numbers.

So we we need it's gotta be a team effort as one city.

Warwick Pride.

Appreciate that.

And I'm assuming that other cities in town are facing similar problems.

Yeah, the people that are as hurt as us are now starting to speak up.

Uh more than 50% of the cities and towns are facing deficits right now because of underfunded or unfunded mandates and and people not following the pathway pathways legislation.

But I could probably tell you five or six cities that don't have a problem with it.

Yeah, heard.

Um that's all I have.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just want to um restate what I said last night so it's clear.

Uh the budget deficit the deficit reduction plan called for 2.18% increase um in this fiscal year.

Uh the school department quickly demonstrated to me that it just was not possible.

We take Draconian cuts that would just hurt this the the uh school department.

So I agree to appropriate in this budget 2.68%, but also they're not going to be required to make a 1.1 million dollar payment, which would actually be to us this year.

It's not coming out of that appropriation.

The city's going to absorb it.

Um it kind of sprained our back, but it didn't break it.

Um I just want to say that the school department the school administration uh worked diligently to cut this budget.

They were very creative and they worked hard at it.

And into the future, they're already working on cuts there.

Things have changed.

This didn't happen under this administration.

Um I trust Bill McCaffrey.

Uh he's uh he's doing a great job.

I get information.

I never got before.

I got I get he tells me everything I want to know.

He tells me a lot of things I don't want to know.

There's been great communication.

This is new.

This came in with him.

He has new staff, and I think the future is gonna get a lot easier.

I think we can finally start working together, trust each other.

Um, so that's why I appropriated this, and I'm recommending to the council.

I'm hoping that you approve it.

Thank you.

Don't get a big head.

All right, members of the public.

Does anyone wish to speak on this?

This being the school department budget as proposed.

Just keep in mind.

Try to make sure you're not redundant.

So if somebody said something prior rather than repeating what they said, just say what they said too.

That way we can keep things moving smoothly.

As we have a long night ahead of us.

And make sure when you start speaking, state your name for the record.

Oh, that public, that side.

Hello, my name is Kristen Ways, and I'm here tonight as a taxpayer, a voter, and an employee of the city of Warwick.

I've worked, is that too loud?

It's good.

Uh I've worked for Warwick Public Schools for 20 years, and I've sat in these chambers many times supporting funding for our schools.

The school department should not be treated as a burden on the taxpayers.

We need to invest in our students and in our schools.

We cannot give the students of Warwick what they need and deserve without proper funding.

I work as a teacher assistant at the Warwick Early Learning Center at JBF, which is John Brown Francis.

Because of these budget cuts, the school committee has voted to make drastic reductions to our programs, and we'll be going from 10 full-day programs down to just three, maybe four after the yeah, now four after today, uh, with new information from Mr.

Carter provided this evening.

Six of our 18 classrooms will be eliminated, or no, that's right.

Um, along with 14 of our 31 teacher assistants.

Um, Mr.

Carter stated seven teacher assistants being eliminated.

However, he's putting back in, he's eliminating 14, but putting back in seven float positions.

But those float positions will be used throughout the district, so they're not primarily they might be called primarily for welcome, but we have major concerns about that filling that gap.

I will not take up your time this evening explaining all the complexities of our jobs, but I want to share one example.

We have a student in our classroom who has been with us since his third birthday.

So he has been with us for all of last year and then this current year.

He still has one year left to go.

I would not hesitate to say that he is our most improved student.

Yet the same child has been asked to leave two daycare programs in just this school year and is struggling in his third.

This is the impact our program has on these children.

So this particular student will now only be offered a half-day program.

I'm asking you to fully fund Morwick public schools so we can continue providing quality education and support, especially for the students and families served by WELK.

Warwick Public Schools should be funded with the same commitment and priority as any other essential service in our city.

Mr.

Ricks, you asked how much it would cost to restore our programming at WELK.

I was quoted in an email.

$900,000.

I don't know the numbers.

As far as the IEPs being followed going forward, the staff at Welk have significant concerns.

The students currently in the full day programs have IEPs that have two and a half to three service hours.

These programs going to half day, adding the planning time that would reduce the day to less.

It's just over two hours, I believe.

So I don't know how that works out following IEPs.

Um we don't have itinerance, that's why we have that planning time.

We don't have art, we don't have phys ed.

So when some teachers have their planning time.

So as soon as a child turns three years old, they are eligible to enroll.

We have students enrolling this week, next week, June.

They start.

If they turn three, then they start.

And I want to thank you for your time and attention.

I know there were a lot of questions about WELLC, and we appreciate that.

Um, it's unimaginable that we're trying to reduce the budget on the backs of the needest and most vulnerable population.

We have a playground party tomorrow that I hope you all got your invitations to, and we hope to see you there.

It's a dedication of our new playground and um a bench for our former student Liam Dempsey.

So I hope to see you guys there, and I thank you for your time.

Hello, Michelle Comar, Ward One.

Um, good follow-up with the WELLK teacher or teacher assistance because I attended some of the school committee meetings or listened to you stream, and I learned quite a bit, especially about the WELLK program and how important it is to parents and those students enrolled.

And I was gonna ask um, what was the net savings or reduction in the budget for the reduction in the WELT program?

Oh no, it's okay.

Um, the WELLP program was reduced.

What was the reduction in the budget that resulted?

Uh so we were reducing four four teachers and seven seven TAs, right?

So 700 740, 640, and then so about one point 1.2.

1.2 million?

Yep.

All right.

Do we have students coming in from other districts that go to WELLK?

Not that I'm aware of.

Okay, so this is better as a local school.

Do other communities have similar programs?

Do other what?

Other municipalities have similar programs.

Yes, they do.

All right.

Is it ride required or can it be ride funded?

Uh so the ride required because once a student is identified through child find as having the need, then we have to provide the service, whatever that that need is.

So that is required in the and I think I'm saying this correctly within the half day model.

Okay, of preschool.

Of preschool.

Pre-kindergarten.

Correct.

Yep.

Um, well, that'd be interesting.

If this is a really important program to look at other funding sources to support, because I heard I heard the parents and I heard the teachers, and really what works is one teacher and two teaching assistants per classroom.

So if we can figure out a way to help out fund that program, um that'd be wonderful.

But I know you used it to reduce your budget, and I appreciate that as a taxpayer.

Um, couple questions for you.

I appreciated your comment.

We had a quick discussion after one meeting about the sharing of resources between the municipal side and the school department.

I think that would be interesting for everybody to hear.

Uh sure.

So um, you know, I think you know, as much as you know, the city we've been working well together, I think very much so over the past year.

Um you know, uh, when we've had to, if we've had a big sinkhole outside of vet, I make a phone call to Lynn, and you know, her guys are able to do it, they you take care of it.

Similarly, when there's been plumbing issues happening at the ice rink out back, our plumbers have have been doing that.

The school department.

So you haven't been been paying an out an outside source to come in.

We've been able to take care of that.

Um, as we've been doing them, the MUNIS uh trainings over the past year.

We've been opening up to the city in case there's anyone who wants to have a refresh on a training.

So it's been, I think, a really good working relationship.

We've been trying to save money wherever we we can now at one time there was a bulldozer in your budget, I believe, for 10,000.

Did that get mixed or so uh within so the director of facilities, the uh the backhoe, which is from the 1980s, um, needs needs to be replaced.

And I said, well, we can't put the purchase um in in the budget, but we did put in the budget uh the first year payment for a lease, uh, which would give us a lease payment for three years.

I'm sorry, yeah, three years, and then on that third year, we would have to pay it off.

So I was hoping DPW could help out with that.

I'm sure they have all kinds of sizes of buckets and for the needs that you might have and to take that out of your budget totally.

Yeah, that's my wish list.

Okay, um, so I commend all the council people for being here today.

Maybe my mind's a little tired and foggy, so I want to check this number.

The um school budget deficit reduction at the 1.1 million figure um is included in the school budget, so it increases their budget because the school department did not pay back the city or or pass that to the city.

So that's on page 46 on page 47, the next page, and the mayor explained this a little bit, but it's added, it's included as a revenue source to the city side, but actually, and I want to get clarification.

How is which is it a positive or negative?

And if it's a into the city budget, and if it's a because what it did is it it um increased the school budget by that amount, and the revenue got decreased by that amount.

So is that twice the makeup amount we have to do either on the the rainy day fund or by increased taxes?

I just can't figure out the math.

Thank you.

Hi, Lynn Proger, Finance Director of the City side.

So the way that we have budgeted it has uh been well vetted by the city's audit firm, by the state's auditor general, and then who else?

This council is also getting it.

Um it's a little convoluted.

Oh, and the division of municipal finance, so it is well checked.

The city side of the budget has an expense side to pay it off, the revenue side is pulling from effectively the city's fund balance, and then in the school um financials, a similar entry will happen, the net effect being no change to the maintenance of effort, but the city is over the course of next year, we'll be paying off that thing.

All right, so I guess since taxpayers write one check for their taxes.

Um, how does that because I think it's easier to think about it in this way?

That's why I'm saying this.

Yeah, um so do we is the tax race increased to cover double that amount now because it was credited as a revenue, but it was also credit as an expense on in the budget for the school department.

The fund balance will be paying it off, so there's no effect to the tax rate.

There will be a reduction in the fund balance for the city.

There'll be a reduction where, please.

In our fund balance, everybody likes to call it the rainy day fund.

It's the fund balance.

Right, the ready day fund.

Um, how does it re reduce the rainy day fund that we need to it will reduce it by the one million dollars, the 1.1.

And where is that coming from?

How's that being paid?

It's not a cash transaction.

There's nobody writing a check to to pay off an actual debt per se.

We're just using the city's fund balance to pay it off.

So the taxpayers are paying for the the budget reduction money that the school department kept to increase their budget.

And so I just don't understand how that is counted as revenue on the city side if the school department didn't transfer it over.

Because the use of fund balance is considered revenue in our budget.

Okay, but in reality, because that's all I can deal with.

I'm not an accountant.

Does this um you said it decreases the rainy day fund, meaning we're gonna take money out of the rainy day fund?

Or okay, that that's that makes sense to me now.

Okay, so this decision um has is increasing the check that taxpayers write because the school department is using it to increase their budget.

Well, the number on page 46 department total includes the 1.14 million.

It's not increasing the budget, increasing maintenance of effort.

It's not increasing their budget, it's not increasing the maintenance of effort.

The city is just forgiving that part of the debt.

Okay, what is the total school budget that they're um proposing 203 million eight hundred and seventy-four thousand five hundred and seventeen dollars?

Okay, so on page 46, that's the top line item.

And the 1.14 million is not added, it's added in this table.

Okay.

Can I walk over there?

You want to look at the table?

Sure.

This is the handout at the benches out front.

Yeah, so it's over here, right?

The council might want to hear this because they can figure out the numbers better than I can.

Sorry.

Jesus and then it's over here as well.

I just want to make sure you actually see it.

It's here as well.

You see, so it's on page 53 as school deficit reduction.

And then on the city budget, it is on page 46 as school deficit reduction.

They just negate each other.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

So the net result is oh net, is that taxpayers will be paying more because the school department decided to not refund the 1.14 million, correct?

It doesn't affect the tax rate because it's affecting our our rainy day fund.

Well, that's taxpayers' money.

Yeah, yes.

It's still taxpayers' money.

Okay.

Thank you so much for clearing all that up.

And my final comment is, and I I try to learn when I go to meetings, and I'm kind of uh I'm a fish out of a water when because I don't have children in the school system, so I try to learn at these meetings of the school committee.

And the the negativity I heard, and I just want to give credit where credit is due.

Um Warwick taxpayers, the city council, and the mayor all consider kids and their education first, and that is shown through our commitment to fund two new high schools at 350 million dollars that believe me will be a strain on our seniors to pay their taxes this year.

So please give a rah-raw out to the taxpayers when you can.

Thank you.

Okay, hello everyone.

Um, my name is Amber Perry, and I am here to just attest to welcome.

Um, my daughter, damn it.

I said I wouldn't get emotional.

It's fine.

Um, so my daughter is level one autism, which there's three levels generally, and level one being the least aggressive, you could say.

Um, she started welcome when she turned three years old, and that was April 30th.

So she started the beginning of May.

When she started, she was in an IEP only class.

So she was with, she was one of seven kids.

And of those seven, she was one of two verbal children.

So she could like say words, express her emotions, um, say no to things, all of that fun stuff that every toddler does.

Since then, she went into the summer program, which is 7 30 to 11 30 in the morning.

Great help.

It kept the structure going for the few months that she started her like pre-K three, you could say.

So this year that we're in currently is her first full year.

They switched her from being a full IEP class because she would have been one of four students, that she would have been the only verbal student.

And the thing we wanted to strengthen and work on was her being able to see other children, how they spoke, how they um worked together, integrated, played, all of those things.

So we switched her from an IEP only class to the integrated with peers class.

I'm here just as a concerned parent for the decrease of integrated classes at Welk because I can attest that my daughter is not the same person.

She plays with kids, which she never did before.

It's like holding kids' hands, asking, hey, I don't want to say another child's name, but Bob, come play with me, things like that.

And that was one of my biggest fears because I also have a two-year-old, and she at the time could not be bothered with him whatsoever.

Um, so now in an integrated peer class with her one main teacher and technically three TAs, but one is for a few students who need a lot of extra attention.

So we'll just say two TAs.

They have shown her leaps and bounds how to grow.

I'm with her all day.

I'm thankfully I can work from home and I can drive her to and from.

So don't worry, I'm not an extra cost for driving my kid to school.

See things.

Um, but I've seen her grow in ways that I think even a classic pre-K would not have been able to give her.

She's gotten speech therapy.

Um, she doesn't necessarily need occupational therapy.

I think she gets it here and there just on fine motor skills.

But her speech therapy, being around other peers, a typical children, the ones who do not need an IEP, has been pivotal in her education program.

And that is why I wanted to come up and speak because I just wanted to express the difference of the classes because I think there was a little confusion and for full day versus half day.

Full day, she's she thrives, she's learning so much, she's absorbing, she's around all these kids playing on the playground, seeing what they do, seeing how to be a normal kid.

And if she had to go to a half day program, granted, with peers, I think it would just be such a disservice.

She would regress drastically, especially she's going, she is still another full year of pre-K before she goes to kindergarten.

So next year, if I had to have her in a half day class, I think it just it almost wouldn't even be worth it.

Like I'd I feel that I'd have to pull her out.

And as someone who lives closer to East Greenwich than I do Warwick, because I have that silly 02818 zip code for paying Warwick taxes.

Um, I would be more inclined to try to get her into a program in a different district, just because I think it would help her the most.

And not to mention also um my son, just future speaking.

I was so excited that he might have the same school at Welk, the same teachers, even maybe obviously, but just the same experience that my daughter has gotten.

But now with all of the budget cuts, I see that even in a year or two, that will not be an option.

I feel like every year there's gonna be more of a deficit, there's gonna be more things that need our money, and there's not gonna be this opportunity to grow.

I don't even know if in two years welcome will exist with all the changes that are being made.

So I just wanted to come up and speak as someone who stalked all of you extensively online, and notice that you all for the most part went to a Warwick school.

You most of you have children in Warwick schools.

Most of you received your bachelor's or your master's at universities in this state.

And I just think it's very important to notice that education starts from the ground up.

And our kids, like even it's just like a preschool program, but she's learning and grasping and growing.

And this is something that if she didn't have available, who knows what she might be in 10 years.

And that's also to speak to the AP classes, which I'm a little fuzzy on that information you were throwing out.

Because when I went to another meeting, it was eight people required, and then it was 10 people required, then it was 12 required for an AP class.

And I think that our kids deserve a great pre-K experience, especially if they need extra assistance.

And I think our kids also deserve to better themselves with AP credits in order to go to universities, like most of you here have.

Hell, I'll even offer my professional services for free.

If there's anything that could help our kids, because when everyone isn't in this chair position, our children will be.

And we need to make sure they're as educated as possible to be doing what you're doing.

And then I won't say all of the quotes I found from all of you about education because everyone here thinks education is important.

And on the main web page, it's usually in one of all of your bullet points.

So thank you very much.

And I hope everyone has a wonderful night because I'm going to go feed my kids.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Kate Goldbitz, and I'm very loud.

I'm a school social worker in Warwick Schools for the past 14 years.

I've worked in other mental health capacities to include uh at Bradley.

I've also worked in the hospital setting, evaluating children with mental health crises and adults.

I'm here today as the school social worker at Welk.

I had the wonderful opportunity to uh start working there this school year.

And I uh came into a school that is so fantastically staffed at present.

Children are supported and they're safe.

Uh throughout tonight's meeting and the different comments that people were making, I kept thinking of the Washington Bridge.

And yes, I know we're not in East Providence, but I thought of the Washington Bridge because I think welcome is Warwick's bridge for children to their education.

It is a bridge for our youngest most vulnerable learners in this city.

And the teaching assistants and the teachers at Welk are the tie-downs.

Now, clearly I'm not a bridge builder.

I just learned what a tie-down is, but I learned that it's the tie-downs.

That was a major reason that that bridge failed.

My concern with Welk is that we are eliminating a significant amount of tie-downs.

Those tie-downs, again, being teacher assistants and teachers.

We have some classes at Welk that have three students that require a teacher and two assistants.

And I'll tell you why.

Because sometimes we have students who have already at three, four, just five years old, had to go to hospitals for admissions for being unsafe.

When we have these children in our school systems, we need to staff adequately.

We need to staff so that we are not creating risk.

And if we are not staffing adequately, we are creating risk.

These small children, some of who come to us with some severe mental health conditions, certainly developmental disabilities, oftentimes nonverbal.

We have children putting things in their mouths in an instant, they can ingest something.

That is risk for you.

So again, just like the Washington Bridge, if we could turn back time, those tie-downs needed to be maintained.

Those tie-downs needed to be adequate to hold up the bridge.

And right now, what we're doing at Welk, eliminating these tie-downs, that bridge is gonna falter.

That bridge carries children with disabilities and without.

It allows people to work in the city of Warwick to bring in more revenue to the city of Warwick.

Gross, net, risk.

These are all things we need to think about.

And I encourage you all to look at the monies that are being appropriated to the schools, and certainly how the schools are using those monies to make sure that we have adequate tie-downs in place.

We're really considering the gross and the net and the risk.

Lastly, I'm very concerned when we are making this really what is a very small cut here and now, which is going to cause so much.

It's going to be more costly in the future.

Again, these children at WELK, we are teaching them how to learn, how to interact with others.

We are preparing them for kindergarten and on to remove that building block to remove that bridge.

Certainly, they will falter.

Thank you very much for your time.

Stephanie Catenzaro, Toolgate High School Science Teacher, Tayer.

I've been teaching 21 years now in the district.

I wear two hats right now.

I'm going to share a little bit of my experience with you, as well as the experience of some of my students that came to speak tonight.

They unfortunately had to leave early so they could be inducted into the National Honor Society.

So these are our high-achieving students who are quite upset right now.

So I'd like to also mention that these students are my students this year, so they're not here to advocate just for me or my class.

They're here to advocate for their future in this district.

To answer some of your questions from before, my personal experience is that AP classes just four years ago, I had four students in my class.

Last year, I had the three remaining years since then, I've had over the minimum, no questions asked.

This past year, when we made the current schedule that we're teaching in right now, I was told that I needed eight students minimum to run that class.

But bio AP this year is running with four students.

So I had six sign up, my class got cut.

Biology is running with four.

And now this year, when we're making our schedules, we are told that that number has been increased to 12 students.

So when the original schedules were proposed in March, I at that point only had four in AP Physics One.

As of today, I am at the 12 student mark.

I have 12 students interested in AP Physics One right now.

When these students go to guidance, they are told that they can't add the class because it's not an aspen in the schedule builder.

So the class has been removed, and it's not there.

So the guidance counselors can't put those classes in, and it looks like only four kids still wanted to take it.

So I don't know if this is a fluid situation, if this can still get added to the schedule or not for my physics one AP class.

Talking about eliminating the science teacher at Tollgate High School in the current proposed budget.

That was approved this week and last week, I suppose.

I guess last week was to approve the total number, and this was to approve the individual teachers.

Last school year we lost a science teacher who retired, and that position was not fulfilled.

So we lost about a hundred seats in science classrooms when they did not fulfill that teaching position.

We were down in enrollment by only 44 students.

This current year, they're proposed that they already voted and approved to eliminate another science position.

And this current school year, we're only down by 49 students.

So in those two years, yes, our enrollment is down, and we can cover the fact that we lost our science teacher last year, but we can't afford to lose another science teacher at Tollgate High School this year.

A lot of the classes that they teach or the classes, excuse me, that will be eliminated will end up being elective classes because we still have to teach the state required classes to the students who are still here.

If we lost 200 students in two years, I would say, oh, I guess we have to lose a science teacher, but we haven't lost 200 students, we've only lost 100 in two years, which would account for the one loss of teaching position.

Also, eliminating the teaching position has overloaded some of our other classes.

So a class that might have been 22, 24 students is now at 27.

I have an honors class that has 27 students, and they can attest to you what a difference it would be if just five to eight of them got moved to another section.

The schedule is so tight that the person who makes our schedule went through every single student's schedule to see if they could make a switch, and it wouldn't work because they had so many high achieving classes that they all are only offered on certain periods of the day.

So every department at Tollgate High School is fighting for the same 50 students in all of our honors and AP classes, the same 80 students maybe, and it's not working.

So we need to fix what's broken.

We need to make a clear policy on how many students are needed in each class.

We can't just raise it by 300% in two years, from four to eight to twelve in just two years.

My other hat is to speak on behalf of my physics students who were dismayed to hear about the loss of a teacher at Tollgate High School.

Um, like I said, I'm speaking on behalf of them, but it is not in defense of my teaching or my classes that might run next year.

Um this would have been very passionate coming from the students, so I'm gonna try to live it up for him.

But is there a price tag on our future?

Students have curious and developing minds, they are the next generation, the next workforce, the nurses, the contractors, the engineers, they are the future.

The choices they make will affect our loved ones and entire family.

An educated, employed, and enthusiastic young workforce drives society into prosperity.

But what are we actively doing right now?

Cutting teachers, taking away precious promise of opportunity, taking away chance for more exposure to different studies, putting more pressure on other teachers and giving them less time to guide their already established classes.

I can agree there are problems with our current budget, but cutting teachers has immensely deeper impact than cutting covering a deficit.

We have to ask ourselves what really is a teacher?

Teachers are the direct connection between our schools and the students attending them.

Every program we have, every lesson to be taught, academic lessons or moral lessons reach the student body through teachers.

School does not function without that bridge between the future and the ones who will help prepare them for their future.

This isn't just their future, this is everyone's future.

You see numbers and not individuals, not society as a broader community than just a bunch of taxpayers and expenses.

Your children, your grandchildren, or your nieces and nephews, all of your family pursuing an education are being given a price tag.

But in reality, we need to be looking at them as factors.

The best teacher availability and capability can mean the best student comprehension and improvement.

The best students mean the best future.

But if you treat them as just a bill, if you look at them as an expense and not as an investment, and you're forget foregoing foresight in choosing the short-term cheap solution.

Do things cost money?

Of course they do.

But when it comes to our future, personal or in regards to the public as a whole, we cannot afford to take shortcuts.

We cannot cut corners on the cornerstones of our society.

We cannot look at our students and teachers as assets.

We cannot put a price tag on our future.

We have brand new schools and we're actively building, and all they're going to end up being our structures made of bricks and mortar containing our underexposed and underappreciated future.

Bricks do not educate kids, teachers do.

Mentors, guides, instructors.

When I look outside of my school, I see the brand new building being constructed.

And to me, that symbolizes hope, that driving for positive change for improvement to get to the future.

But the future is being shortened and bet against.

So I ask this of everyone.

Do not abandon us.

Yes, student enrollment is down, but that doesn't mean abandon the kids that are still here.

We are still here, still trying, still learning, still hoping, hoping to succeed, to be able to take pathways to be able to succeed in the future held by everyone.

Those were the words of my students.

Thank you.

Hi, my hi.

My name is Stuart Wilson.

Um from Ward One.

Uh I am a parent of two students who go to Wyman elementary school.

So uh go wyman.

Um and uh I also volunteer there, and I teach in in the after school program as well.

I teach theater there, so I have some idea of of what's going on.

Um a lot of it, actually.

And what I want to say about Wyman from my experience, I know is true of Welk too, and I have something from a Welk parent.

I'm gonna read in a little bit.

But so you understand my experience, I have we have this school in our community, ET Wyman, that is so much more than a building, right?

And it serves the community in so many ways, and the community serves it, right?

Um if you destroy a school, you risk the wrong you you risk destroying the community.

You could see the harm it does.

Um schools were closed in Warwick.

I know enrollment is down.

That means we need to ensure that the schools left have more than they need because there are overstuffed classrooms in these schools, and there are schools that are being neglected.

I I know 350 million was spent on high schools, and I think that's great.

However, I don't think it's great that it costs so much more.

I know that there was inflation, right?

But nobody likes when the price tag goes up on the schools.

Of course, we don't like that.

But unfortunately, the city of Warwick does not have the power to escape market trends and the overall financial resources.

Nonetheless, it's a great investment in the future.

Um at my kids' school, we're we recently did a supply drive.

Kids bring in paper.

We ask kids to bring in reams of paper because the teachers need paper to print things out.

Um person making the most of the existing elementary school is Heather Clark.

She's a first grade teacher there, and I want to call her out by name.

She is my kid's teacher now twice.

She has presented a new kind of patience for my second kid that uh I can be nothing but grateful for.

We have a new principal there, Mrs.

Dyco.

And I love Mrs.

Dico, and one thing she's been teaching us all about is a growth mindset.

And I'm proud to say my oldest son Henry won the growth mindset award.

So that's great.

And he very much wanted me to speak here tonight.

But as he explained, growth mindset is even though you don't know about something, you can learn about it.

The city of Warwick needs a growth mindset.

Okay, and I think frankly, the mayor has a growth mindset.

He understands that as we invest in our city, the city continues to grow, and the revenues grow accordingly.

But the best way to do that is to invest in the kids.

Okay.

Um that that also keeps the kids in our schools.

So they we won't be paying to send them to other districts.

All right.

When we have the best schools, we will keep the kids.

That's good for everything.

Um I'm sorry, I have to jump around a little bit.

My um, so to my point on welcome as an excellent investment in the future of these kids, right?

So that we're not uh behind behind the gun as they progress through the through the school systems.

Because here's the thing about these kids.

Once they're done at Welk, they're going to the public schools, and there could be over 20 people in a class with no TA.

Like that's an in that's an incredible jump for a kid.

Okay, so let's invest in them now.

I'm speaking tonight on behalf of Warwick parent Caitlin Greeley, who could not be present due to child care constraints.

Caitlin asked me to share her strong concerns regarding the proposed cuts to the Warwick Early Learning Center, including reductions to classrooms, teaching assistance, and full day preschool programming.

She understands that Warwick is facing serious budget challenges and that difficult decisions need to be made.

However, she strongly believes that cuts to early childhood education, especially services for our youngest and most vulnerable learners, are not where those reductions should occur.

Two of Caitlin's children have benefited tremendously from Welk.

Her daughter in particular has thrived in the full day preschool program.

She wanted to emphasize that the teachers and teaching assistants at Welk provide an extraordinary level of academic social and emotional support during one of the most critical stages of child development.

And as a parent, I know how critical those years are.

I know these kids, I know how helped they have been by Welk.

These proposed reductions would have real impacts on children and families.

Reducing teaching assistance will directly affect classroom support and student safety.

Moving programs from full day to half day models will significantly reduce the consistency and quality of services students receive.

Families who rely on full-day preschool options will face additional hardship and instability.

Caitlin also asked me to emphasize that teaching assistance are essential.

They are a critical part of helping classrooms function effectively and ensure students receive the attention and support they need.

It is also clear that the community deeply values these programs.

The petition to preserve WELK services is now approaching 1,000 signatures, reflecting widespread concern among Warwick families and residents.

Early childhood education is foundational to the future success of our schools, students, and city.

Caitlin respectfully urges the council to prioritize preserving existing WELK services, including full-day preschool options and adequate classroom staffing as budget decisions move forward.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Before I move on, uh or give you this back, uh I do want to go back once again to talk about this is 1.1 million dollars.

This is an amount of money we can find.

It's 11 people.

That seems like a great uh a great way to have some good jobs in the city too.

And the other phrase I kept thinking about was uh community peers, right?

And how perfect uh a term that is, right?

Because the community peers are also being served by this, as is the community.

This is where we start to build that community that keeps us safe, that keeps us growing, and that will continue to support these kids' education by the whole community for some of them right through college, they'll be able to go and and stay in Warwick.

Um I know that you know we're not here to talk about that, but uh, we do want them here K through 12.

And we should be showing them that this is an excellent place to learn.

Thank you so much.

Jacob Maduro, Warwick resident, Warwick Graduate, Proud Warwick T-shirt.

Um, as a teacher, I find it part of that war to advocate on that behalf of the students, and that's all students, that's students for special needs, that students who are athletes, that students who all AP and honor students as well.

Um, as I just wanted to add on to what Ms.

Carenzowo stated, there were five or six tollgate students who were here tonight who unfortunately had to leave only because they were getting inducted into the National Honor Society.

Just for context, I come to these the school section of the budget meeting every year.

And I to my county has been eight years.

Eight years since that number of students has come to advocate for themselves and their future and their education.

So if there's any doubt that they're the future of this city and one day might be sitting in one of your seats, I think that's all the proof you need.

Think of what we've gone through over the last eight years.

We've gone through a once in a century pandemic, distance warning, uh high school bond, of financial school um crisis.

And this tonight was the most students who came out to advocate for their education.

And my simple message is give them what they need.

Um to give some contest to Mr.

Sinape's questions of Director Crane, he asked him, did any AP classes cut?

And Mr.

King answered that none were directly cut, which is true.

With that said, the whoever made the decision to make the cutoff from eight to twelve, which is a 50% increase year over year, had a indirect consequence of cutting AP classes.

And why else would we do that?

What other rational explanation would there be than to be able to cut fruit possibly free class AP classes that ran this year, but and would have eight to run next year, but don't have 12.

Just some food for far.

I know, oh, this council doesn't have the power or the authority to direct the school committee or the school district to do anything.

Um with that said, you do have the power to recommend, you do have the power to success, and you do have the power to encourage.

About five years ago, Mr.

Shanape found on money, it was a line at approximately a little more than 10,000 to reinstate the robotics of robotics program at Winman, if I remember correctly.

And he asked the school department if I give you X, will you spend it on this?

The school department did, and at least to my knowledge, that's like exactly how it happened.

So my suggestion is you do the same saying you encourage suggest that the school department run the AP students for the future of Warwick.

Thank you.

Hello, uh Darlene Netco.

I've been teaching for 38 years, 36 of which have been in Warwick.

I'm also president of the Warwick Teachers Union.

Um, before I make the comments I intended to make, I need to make some corrections of statements that happened earlier this evening.

Um, first of all, substitute salary line item.

Um, I'm not sure it wasn't broken down, but it some of that money could be going for substitute pay for absentee administrators as well as absent teachers.

Um they sometimes provide subs for teachers that have to go for professional development during the school day.

Some of that money could be in there.

The money that goes for teachers who are absent to provide a substitute is a finite amount, and once that amount is spent, the teachers pay for the rest of the substitute.

So there is a formula in the contract that dictates how this amount is arrived at, and then each teacher pays a certain amount of money for each day that they were out.

And so that line item, as far as the teachers are concerned, does not get exceeded.

It's a finite amount.

Now I cannot speak for what happens when administrators are out, where that money comes from, or where anybody else is out, but I can speak about the contract regarding teacher absences and teachers pay for the days that they are out.

Now, also regarding the 90 days.

Um get to be on maternity leave based on that 90 days.

People who unfortunately become very sick, cancer, etc., that's how they are out of school on that 90 days.

And I don't think anyone would be so heartless to deprive a woman of being out because she has given birth.

But if that's what you are insinuating, we shouldn't have 90 days out, and we don't have workmen's comp, we don't have TDI or anything else, then what is a person to do?

People get sick, people need days out.

And furthermore, the school department conducted a study about six or seven years ago that determined that the 90 days was not being abused.

So if you want to see that report, you can talk to me and I will produce it for you, and you can read it yourself in black and white.

But as you can see, it's necessary.

Now, regarding the WELK teachers having Fridays as every other Friday is a non-teaching day.

That had to be put in place because our Welk teachers were not getting non-teaching time.

They were going to work and barely getting time to eat lunch because they were with their students all day long.

Fortunately, our teachers have TAs on the together, they work as a team to work and educate the students.

And so when the teachers would be able to go to eat lunch because the TAs were in the room, or another professional in the building.

But that every other Friday was put in place so our welk teachers could get at least the non-teaching time that other teachers in the district get.

Now, if you add up the minutes, it doesn't even add up to say, for example, the 225 minutes a week that our elementary teachers get.

And by the way, our elementary teacher, classroom teachers, do not get non-teaching time every day if they do not have an itinerant on that day.

They have their lunch and that's it.

So we don't have itinerants at Welk, so our teachers don't have that opportunity to have non-teaching time.

Hence the every other Friday.

And once again, people in other professions get breaks.

Regarding the AP classes and the scheduling.

As a former department head, one who scheduled for my English department at Tollgate High School, I can tell you the way scheduling used to work.

That administrator would then tell the department head, you need to schedule 14 9th grade English classes, or we have enough students for two sections of SAT prep, or we have this, that whatever.

Then the department heads would get together with that administrator and would figure out where to place the AP classes.

We called them singletons, in order to prevent kids from having conflicts in their schedule.

And it would get to the point, as Ms.

Cantonzaro had mentioned earlier, printing out the list of names for each course request and seeing if there was a conflict.

And then we would say, okay, you're going to put your class period seven, I'll put mine period one, and then the kids can take what they want.

That's not happening anymore because Aspen, as Ms.

Contanzaro mentioned, is the program is the online student system that Warwick uses.

And the kids no longer fill out their requests on a piece of paper and leave it to leave a paper trail.

They go into Aspen and they can only select what's in the drop-down menu in Aspen.

And I discovered this year, because some of my colleagues called it to my attention that the program of studies changed from 2024 to this year.

And some courses, I'll give you an example, a heritage foreign language course that used to run at Pilgrim was missing from the drop down drop-down menu.

So how are our kids supposed to sign up for classes if they are missing from this drop-down menu?

I think in this regard, we kind of need to go back to the days of paper.

So there's a paper trail, and so we can see who has signed up for what and where it can go.

Now, as far as the cuts, the cuts, in addition to the cuts at welk, the four or six teachers, the number has changed.

Um, there was also a cut in what's called a um the uh diagnostic teacher, the DPT for um evaluating three-year-olds coming into the system.

Um, we had three, and it was a hard fight to get three, and now we're back down to two.

So each of our uh DPTs is going to have approximately 100 students that they're in charge of evaluating.

That's excessive.

Um regarding um the other cuts.

They've cut an English teacher in each high school.

That is going to result in larger class sizes and loss of electives.

They've cut a social studies teacher in each high school.

Again, loss of electives and increased class sizes.

You heard about the science teacher issue, loss of electives, increased number in classes.

Um, I want to clarify something else.

Ms.

Katon Zaro mentioned 100 students.

The class size maximum is 26.

So theoretically, a teacher could have over a hundred and twenty five students, you know, could have 130 students, and many of our middle school teachers do.

Fortunately, at the high school level, um, class size with all five classes is around a hundred because there might be some AP classes or electives in there that aren't maxed out at 26.

You're going to be looking at everybody having about 125 students on their classeloan.

Um got one minute, Miss Neko.

Well, that was only to clarify stuff that happened earlier.

So I don't think it's fair that I now have to reduce what I'd planned to say because I had to clarify misinformation, but okay, I'll try to make it quick.

You've heard this before.

The budget commission, your budget commission proved that our schools needed 2.1 million dollars for fiscal year 26.

Add that 2.1 million in.

That was the original budget the administrator put it, the administration put out.

The budget commission went through everything with a fine-tooth comb.

They approved every expenditure that came before them except for 27,000 for ed puzzle and 100,000 for student assistance, which they then told the city to take out of the opioid money.

Our schools have consolidated in 2016 and 2018.

There's a narrative out there that we are empty buildings.

We are not.

If you look at Scott Elementary, because people keep mentioning Scott, that's because we have a number of special ed self-contained classrooms where students spend some of the time there, maybe maximum of eight or nine students, and then go into the other classrooms for inclusion.

Miss Necko, you're out of time, unfortunately.

Yeah, well, I guess it's just too bad that I couldn't have been allowed to speak earlier to clarify the stuff about 90 days and the contract.

Maybe next time you have a question about the contract, ask me.

So I'm Anna Conti.

I'm a special educator at Warwick Early Learning Center.

Um, and I I'm very grateful to state your name.

We didn't catch that.

I'm so sorry.

I don't, I feel it does feel like whoa, uh Anna Conti.

And I'm a special educator at Warw Early Learning Center, and I appreciate everyone's time, and I cannot imagine the amount of work that it has taken to put together this budget.

Um, and I would want nothing to do with it, frankly.

But I here I am because I do want something to do with it because this is affecting my students, and um that affects me because that's why I got into education because it matters.

Um, just in terms of some points of clarification, we receive students in three ways.

We get students um either from the child outreach screenings, we also um oftentimes our community peers are identified by the special educators in the classroom as perhaps needing special education services and are thereby referred to special education for testing and screening, and oftentimes qualify for IEPs at that point.

And we also get students who are receiving early intervention services, which is a federally funded uh federally mandated program when they are three years old, they are eligible for services through the school school department um in which their parents are living.

And that's why it's an ongoing enrollment throughout the year.

Um every single year, our classrooms start at smaller numbers.

My classroom typically, I teach in a self-contained classroom.

I typically start with four or five students.

I have never ended the year with less than nine.

Um, and mine is a specialty program for which um students have to, there's a myriad of reasons why they qualify.

So the other classrooms are receiving students on a much more ongoing basis.

Um, all of our AAP classes currently have between five and six students, I believe.

So while we do have five AAP classrooms right now, and yes, the numbers are low for September, anticipate, you know, anticipating lower numbers for September, they will most certainly be needing more AAP classrooms.

And those classrooms require a very specific certification that people walking down the street are not carrying.

So we're going to lose teachers that are currently using those certifications because we're gonna speak to the numbers at the beginning of the year.

Uh, also we're we're not we're not gonna be violating IEPs.

Teachers would never allow that to happen.

Yes.

However, as people have spoken about before, finding community peers for half day programs is much more challenging.

We could fill 25 classrooms with full-day peers, but finding parents who are able to get their students to school for only a half day is incredibly challenging.

We don't have enough community peers right now in the integrated half-day classrooms that we have available.

And that, while yes, Ride does give us leeway because we are constantly searching for enrollment in those community peer programs.

Technically is not best practice and it can be considered a violation of IEPs because the students with IEPs that are placed in that program are there because they should be receiving education in an integrated setting with students who are typically developing, because that is best practice for those students.

So that is that's a problem.

And the teachers that are teaching these programs, we have specific certifications at Warwick Early Learning Center.

We have to be certified in both regular and special education for early childhood.

Those people are also not just walking down the streets, and they're very hard to find mid-year because they've already been hired by all of the other districts.

So I I do, I understand that times are hard and find that we are in a financial crisis, and many districts are in a financial crisis.

But that doesn't mean that we should be saying it's okay, it's adequate, it's enough, we're gonna make it work.

I don't think that that is what the goal we should be reaching for.

I come from a long line of educators.

Okay, my grandfather was superintendent of schools in Johnston.

My parents met teaching at the city that shall not be named.

They both taught for over 45 years, and now here I am teaching in Warwick, and I am so proud to be a Warwick Public Schools teacher.

I am so proud.

I tell everyone if you want the best special education services, you come to Warwick because I've never seen anything like the teachers and the teaching assistants that I have seen in this district.

It is incredible.

So investing in our littlest learners, there have been studies that have shown that investment in early childhood education increases the likelihood of students graduating from high school, attending two and four-year colleges and retain, and it also is um it can it hire you can you earn they are higher earners in their careers.

So there's direct correlation between investment in early childhood education and bringing money back into the city.

It's not today, and I understand that, and I understand that we're talking about right now, but someday we have to look into the future and recognize that we we can't just talk about putting band-aids on things right now because there is a future ahead.

And yes, people will come to this city, they will visit this city for attractions, but they move to this city for the education.

So I think that we need to keep that in mind when we're talking about funding um our school department.

So that's all I got.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Joshua Myers.

Uh, just so you know, I had a three-pager written.

Um, but you guys asked that we try not to repeat topics.

Um, so I'm gonna try to be brief.

Um, when many of you ran for office, people have already mentioned that everyone talked about the importance of our community in schools.

This budget doesn't represent that to me.

Um, when we reduce investment in our schools, we're not just trimming expenses, but we are lowering the quality of education our children receive and beyond the classroom.

We're making Warwick less attractive to the many families we say we want to bring here, like many people have mentioned.

Um people have already mentioned that families choose communities based on their schools, but also businesses look at workforce quality and property values reflect the strength of local education.

When schools weaken, the entire city feels it.

So it's not just a school issue, it's an economic issue, a community issue, and a long-term strategic issue for Warwick.

I cut the rest out of what I prepared, but I did write some additional notes.

Um, most vulnerable students and most vulnerable citizens in Warwick, and those parents and those students cannot do more with less.

It's that simple.

Um, we need to invest now in those students because if not, we're going to pay later.

Two, we have two new high schools that many people are complaining about because they cost a lot of money, but I'm more worried about the product that's gonna have to be inside the high school.

We can have two great high schools, but if reducing teachers, reducing quality classes, not offering things to make us attractive, so people no longer want to leave Warwick, but flock to Warwick for an education.

We can have North Kingstown talking bad about us because we're stealing all their students.

Um, the science teacher from Tollgate, the head of the department.

Um, I'm sorry I forget your name.

Um, but my daughter's one of the people that she speaks about.

So I'm just gonna tell you something that no one else here can share.

Um, so I have an oldest son who's about to graduate high school, and unfortunately, it's East Greenwich High School.

Um, we chose to send him on a pathway.

We knew that they were opening up pathways.

We knew the moment to apply, and he was one of two or three students that got in.

That has benefited him greatly.

My daughter, who is a sophomore, she has excelled at school from the time that she was at Scott.

If you went into Scott School and there's a teacher that was there when she was there, they probably still remember her.

Um, but now with what's happening, I feel like I've done her a disservice by keeping her at Tollgate.

My daughter wants to do, and I believe that we were asking about before about what programs have to get cut.

Um, and I think there was a confusion about environmental science.

Uh, she's really interested in the biomedical pathway, which is going to be uh, I believe, severely inhibited by the loss of the AP classes.

Um, my daughter won National History Day two out of the three years she participated as an honor student and as a freshman at Tollgate.

And we traveled every year to Washington, DC, and she really wants to go to Georgetown for medicine.

Now, I used to be able to say, honey, Georgetown's really hard.

That's an improbability.

But based on the decisions that are being made here, it's become an impossibility.

And that's sad that I have to look at my 16-year-old daughter who's worked at school as far back as I can remember from the time she was in first grade and tell her, sorry, honey, Warwick has failed you.

Not us, Warwick.

Um, I have a son who's in seventh grade.

And guess what I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna look at North Kingstown.

Because I can't trust that we'll make a decision as a community.

It's not just them, it's not just them.

It's everybody in the community has to make the decision that this is the investment they want to make in their children and the community.

It's not just about the schools, the schools bring more people to people that want to live here, increases property values, and also I am shocked.

I grew up in Warwick, I moved to Providence when I was in second grade.

I have since returned to Warwick.

And the amount of people that I have met who have grown up in Warwick, many of you have grown up in Warwick.

We've had people come up here and give, I don't know if it's called testimony or whatever.

Um, but they also have lived and stayed in Warwick the whole time.

Why don't we want to invest in our kids so they stay in Warwick and then bring attractive businesses or start attractive businesses in Warwick in order to reduce that tax burden on the taxpayers?

But as long as we keep on devaluing their education, so therefore they can't go off to where they need to go in order to bring those great ideas back to Warwick.

We're missing out.

It's it's a short-term goal to solve a long-term problem.

Um I think that's all I have.

I won't make you guys listen to me anymore.

I appreciate the time.

Thank you.

Jeremy Langel, Ward 5.

I have two children at work neck elementary.

I'm also the advocacy chair for the Workneck PTA.

Obviously, we're I'm opposed to these budget cuts.

Um my seven-year-old asked me the other day to draw a horse.

And I said to her, I don't know how to draw a horse.

And she said, What do you mean you don't have to draw a horse?

And so she sat down and she showed me how to draw a horse in the way that her art teacher at school taught her how to draw a horse.

Now, the reason I don't know how to draw a horse is because I grew up in California in the 80s.

And we that was a time of massive budget cuts.

The previous governor, Ronald Reagan, who had instituted this failed economic policy, which led to lots of budget cuts.

Uh, you know, when he became president, he left uh to the state that I grew up in.

This massive problem, where public schools were treated as an institution to make cuts to balance budgets, right?

And that was on the backs of all of the students.

So I grew up in a system that was starved, starved.

And I am concerned about what I am seeing now.

I'm proud of the fact that my seven-year-old can draw a horse, and that she learned how to do that because she has an art teacher.

And it was stunning to me to reflect on my own childhood and realize I didn't even have that.

No art teacher, no music teacher.

That's not what we want.

That's certainly not why we moved here.

So I want you to think about the implications, the long-term implications.

I'll also say, and it's already been addressed.

Um, I think there are lots of social media keyboard warriors.

They have lots of ideas, they have lots of opinions.

Uh, for me, I value the opinions, actually, the professional opinion and the professional work of our teachers, our administrators, and our school committee, uh, who actually know what it takes to not just run a school district, but to work within ride regulations.

And I think that this city council is wise to trust that.

I would also encourage you all to focus on the things on the city side that are going to improve our city.

We need more housing, we need better paying jobs, right?

We need industry and companies and those kinds of things that are gonna grow the tax base, right, and make this a more attractive place to live.

So I'm I regret that we're in this position.

I understand that we're in this position, um, but I encourage you to think about uh the long-term consequences of these kinds of cuts.

Thank you.

Hi, Kristen Ripley McNamarr, uh teacher, taxpayer, and parent of two students who recently graduated from Pilgrim.

I hadn't planned on speaking tonight.

I hate speaking.

Um, so I'm a little nervous.

So please forgive me if I'm shaky.

Um, I decided to speak for several reasons.

One, I had to leave Warwick as a teacher because we closed JVF.

I'm heartbroken to hear that we're going in that same direction with wealth.

My son, who is currently a sophomore at Bridgewater State University, started out as a peer in that kind of a program.

It's not just important for the kids with the IEPs with autism, but it's really important for those young kids to learn how to interact with those kids.

So they are learning themselves how to be better citizens.

My son came out with several friends from that program that he is still friends with to this day.

That welk program is critical.

Also, the AP program.

My son, as a freshman at Bridgewater State, received an RU research grant to Ohio State University, which is unheard of for freshmen.

And it was a very great honor.

This year, he just found out he received an REU grant to Washington State University.

So he has one too as a freshman and a sophomore.

His AP classes were accepted to the extent that he actually could graduate next year.

But he's decided to do a double physics major as well as a chemistry minor, all because of Dr.

Savory and the teachers at Pilgrim.

As a freshman, he started with COVID.

He could not be in the National Honors Program because he didn't get the support he needed, because he had Bell's palsy, he was not successful as a freshman, but he totally turned that around.

Now, when I had to leave JBF because you guys closed it, I went to North Kingstown.

I was very excited when I had the opportunity to come back to Warwick.

Where we have so many students that are shining like my son, the students that were here that are getting honors, the students that are most at need, or looking at where our scores are, and saying, okay, we're going to cut books and give technology, even though we know that's one of our weakest areas in testing.

But I really hope that you consider those things.

Thank you.

So it appears that concludes the school department.

And so we're going to take a short break.

More than five minutes, and then we'll get going because we got a long night ahead of us.

Thank you for everyone who took the time to come out.

And for those who are wondering, we're going to pick up where we left off last night.

So it's DPW.

All right, we're back at it.

We'll pick up where we left off public works highway.

Does anyone have any questions for public works highway?

So to put it on the record.

If I'm reading it correctly, it straits that the intent is to fund paving to the tune of one and a half million dollars per year.

This coming fiscal year and forward.

So does that mean that this line item needs to be amended?

Because you're only showing 175,000 projection for this year.

Yeah, that was for the other storms, not the um big blizzard.

It's what, please?

I there were multiple storms this year.

Those would have gone into the general fund, but because there was an emergency declaration for the historic blizzard, that's actually all reserved in a FEMA fund waiting for reimbursement.

So where is it going to show what our actual expenses were, not about a million, our actual expenses?

Where is that going to show?

In the FEMA fund, not in your general fund.

I'm sorry, in the FEMA fund, not the general fund.

Okay, and we have a FEMA fund here in our budget?

No, because it's not the tax rate.

That's nothing to do with the tax rate.

It will be reflected in our financial statements, though.

Are you suggesting that FEMA is gonna reimburse 100% of that plowing?

They usually do snowstorm.

Yep, they usually do.

Usually.

We hope they do.

What happens if it doesn't?

We'll have to eat it.

Well, in future years, we would have to roll it back into the general fund, but at the moment there is an emergency declaration, and typically with an emergency declaration, there is reimbursement that comes back to the city.

Have have we paid for any of this snow plowing this million dollars?

Yes.

Approximately we've paid it.

Yep.

So where does it show us a liability then?

Where does it show us an expense item?

In the FEMA fund.

But it doesn't show in this budget.

So this budget is off by a million dollars.

It is not off by a million dollars.

Because it was not it was not regular plowing.

It was plowing due to an emergency declaration.

Is it an expense that was incurred by the city?

Yes and paid by the city.

Yes.

So then why is that?

I understand what you're doing, Councilman Lasser.

I it makes sense, but it's clear that that's not in the public works highway budget.

So we we can't discuss it at this time.

It doesn't mean it's not a good topic for discussion.

It it obviously is.

We just can't discuss it now.

So when do we discuss that is part of the highway budget?

Or it should be.

It is actually.

They've got snow removal in here, so it is part of the highway budget.

They just have an error of about a million dollars in the amount.

Yeah, like you like you asked, you asked why it wasn't there, they answered.

I'm I'm not sure what else there is as far as that's pertinent to this department.

This this plowing is for regular plowing for a regular year, not because of an emergency declaration.

Just the regular two inches came down, not four feet.

So the city has cut checks to pay for snow plowing, whether it's the blizzard or regular storm, the city has cut checks to pay for plowing.

I want to know where is the accountability for the money that was paid.

If it's not here, where is it?

So that when we can talk about it, it sounds like the answer is none of the departments within the budget.

This is for regular year.

Right.

So the FEMA fund is not reflected in any department, it's not reflected in revenue or anywhere.

No.

And that's standard accounting for an emergency declaration.

It needs to be disclosed.

That number needs to be disclosed.

It needs to show up in the budget someplace.

I have no disagreement.

I just know we can't talk about it now.

I apologize.

Okay.

So when do we talk about it?

We'll discuss it with our solicitor to figure that out.

Because it's a odd scenario.

Oh, we can figure it out why you keep going, ask whatever you want to ask.

All right, go ahead.

Oh, another another item.

63404 property damage, 2250.

That number is um, I'm sure far off just in my ward alone.

I know you have an excess of 2250 worth of property damage from snow plowing.

Is that what property damage means?

That 63,404.

Yeah, a lot of the the plow damage that we see we try and do in-house.

So and there are other plow damage that gets submitted as claims, and that wouldn't be represented here, I don't believe.

Right?

No.

So if you submit a claim for plow damage, it wouldn't be reflected here.

This is for repairs that we do in-house regarding plow damage.

Sure, that's what I'm referring to.

I'm referring to um snow plow going off the road, uh, you know, tearing up somebody's lawn or um tearing up uh a berm that needs to be replaced, or um somebody's curbing, etc.

That is the property damage that I'm referring to.

It's certainly much higher than 2250.

No, not if we do it in-house.

We have like if a berm gets damaged, we can repair that in-house at you know the cost of the asphalt, which is okay.

So that what you're saying is that will come out of the salary line item and asphalt and whatever else.

Exactly.

Yeah, it's it's the it's the in-house people performing the work, and a lot of times the material that we're using is readily available, you know, uh, like you indicated loom and seed, uh, asphalt for berms, um, resetting curbing, resetting Belgium blocks, that's all done in house.

And those those materials are in line items that we already have.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

Um, that's all I have, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

I had trouble finding my light.

Quick question for you.

Uh we may have asked maybe asked this last night, but uh the salary increases in the budget.

Are they all contractual increases or was there anything outside contractual increases?

Yeah, no, they're all contractual.

Oh, thank you.

Any questions from members of the public for highway?

All right, seeing none, we'll move on to the next portion of DPW, which I have conveniently scrolled away from.

All right, who has it up and can tell me the next portion?

Recycling and sanitation.

Thank you, Councilman Foley.

Does anyone have any questions for recycling slash sanitation?

Any members of the public have anything for recycling sanitation?

All right.

Seeing none.

Councilman Lattice.

Your projection.

We're not on that one yet, right?

We're on public works.

Recycling compost.

So I mean, we're about to.

If I don't have any questions on there's any member of the public have anything for recycling slash compost, all right.

Seeing none, we are on public works automotive.

Councilman Latticer.

Okay.

Um, so you're projecting 110,000 for this year, and I'm sorry, you to finish out this fiscal year at 110,000, and you're requesting 117,000.

Um that just because of anticipated increases, yeah.

Yeah, just the cost of materials.

Okay.

On line 6522.

And let me stay actually on 6521.

In this document, fiscal year 2026, it's showing an approved budget of $623.26.

But in the MUNIS report, there was a transfer out of that line item by $25,000 for a revised budget of $598,006.

So why wasn't that change made in our budget that's presented to us?

Where would that change have been made?

The approved was the approved, the year to date is the year to date, and the projection is the projection.

Correct.

And the transfer is the transfer, which was $25 million that was transferred out to somewhere else, and leaving you with a revised budget of $598,000.

And leaving you with a revised budget of 598,026.

So my question is, and I don't know, maybe it's a question to finance and not to you, but it's a question to someone.

Why are we being shown a budget of 623026 when it was a revised budget of 598 26?

The because the what this document is showing you is what was what was approved for the fiscal year 26 budget.

Just because we moved 25,000 out of that budget, that will reflect next year when you see the fiscal year 26 actual, which would be our final expenses.

But just because we move that money, it doesn't change what was originally budgeted in that line item.

No, but what it does do is it changes what your yearly projection is because you have a revised budget of 598 26 and you're showing a projection of 625.

So doesn't that mean that you have 27,000?

The projection says 5791.

The projection is 579193.

What is 579?

The original budget for I'm looking at the Munis report from the 18th.

And the municipal for line item 16 65 221 shows a revised budget of 598 26.

I'm looking at the budget document that was published.

Okay, I'm looking at the budget document and it shows your approved budget of 623.

Correct.

Okay.

My point is you actually revised your budget.

You took 25,000, you transferred 25,000 out.

Correct.

That left you with a revised budget of 59826.

If you're projecting 625,000 for your year-end budget, then you're over budget by um 17,000.

The 625,000 is the fiscal year 27 request.

623, but mine says your approved budget was 623,026, and you transferred 25,000 out of it.

Yes, well, the the price of fuel has gone through the roof.

So the projection had to be inflated because at the time that this document was that the projection at the time when we originally did the budget, we were still paying reasonable prices for fuel.

Now we're paying over four dollars a gallon for diesel and unleaded.

So it probably wasn't such a good idea to transfer 25,000 out to move it somewhere else.

Well, at the time we weren't having an issue with fuel prices.

Okay.

Where'd it go?

64314.

So last year's budget was 150.

We've spent more than that.

We're projected to spend even more than that before the end of this fiscal year.

But for FY27, you're only asking for 135.

Are you gonna are you gonna have enough?

I'm sorry, what was that code again?

You said 64.

65.

Okay.

314.

314.

So it's an equipment repair.

Yeah, I mean, that's uh that's just a function of us having a tighten everything up.

Ideally we have a little bit more, but with the budget being what the budget is and having to make cuts, that's one of the items we cut a little bit.

You know, hopefully we can make it work at that, but yeah, ideally that would probably be 10% higher.

All right, that's all for me for now.

Anyone else have anything for public works automotive?

Do any members of the public have anything for public works automotive?

Seeing now we move on to public works building maintenance.

Does anyone have anything for public works building maintenance?

Councilman Lattison?

The only thing I have is again questioning natural gas and electricity, but I'm sure the answer will be the same.

That's why I made a frowny face.

Same thought.

Does anyone else have anything for public works building maintenance?

Does any member of the public have anything for public works building maintenance?

All right, so we're moving on to public works engineering.

Does anyone have anything for public works engineering?

I have a question, make sure I'm reading this right.

67224 street lighting.

So is that all get paid out like soon?

Because it's year to date 144, but projected to be 452.

Um I believe that yeah, that's that's a function of the the net metering credits as well, and just also um when we get the the bills, there's a there's a delay in you know the electricity and getting the bills and getting them paid.

Um but yeah, there's also the net metering credits, which were which were applicable and now are no longer applicable.

All right, does anyone else have anything for public works engineering?

Oh, sorry, councilman Ricks.

Thank you.

So my understanding from yesterday is that effectively the credits are running out as of the end of this week, more or less, and so fiscal year 27, we're gonna move forward without the benefit of those credits.

So looking at the previous years in the packet, fiscal year 24, 836,000 in change, fiscal year 25, 500 two thousand and change.

Uh with either of those years, was that something where say was fiscal year 25?

Were we also benefiting from credits in that year?

That was the the difference, the significant change you see from 24 to 25 is our conversion to LED street lights, and that program was only partially implemented in FY25, but then fully implemented by 26.

Okay.

So that makes more sense.

So uh I take it that the 550,000.

Uh is that would you say that that's more of a situation of we're gonna try to make do uh stay within the budget, or more of a situation of yeah, that's a very realistic projection of uh what it's gonna take?

Yeah, with that one, we're pretty confident that that that numbers that numbers gonna work for us.

Okay, that's good to hear.

Uh no further questions on this one.

Thank you.

Does anyone else have anything for public works engineering?

Do any members of the public have anything for public works engineering?

So next up is Thayer and Warburton Arenas.

Does anyone have anything for the councilman Lattice?

Again, just um the utilities, but that's something for the future.

Um Director, uh there any um other than perhaps what you might have in the capital budget.

Are there any um major uh um expenses that you're anticipating in either of these two?

Um thank you.

Does anyone else have anything for the arenas?

Oh, wait a minute, I do have one.

Councilman Laddison director, as far as the um salary rink gods, it's showing uh 27% increase.

Is any of this above and beyond contractual?

No, everything in DPW is is contractual.

There are no raises outside of you know.

Oh, those are the oh, the rink guards are part-timers, so they're paid minimum wage.

But the other salary items, everything in public works is contractual.

Okay.

Do any member of the public have anything for the Thayer and Warburton arenas?

See now we move on to McDermott.

Swimming pools.

Pool singular.

Councilman Madison.

Director, um, this this question will apply to actually the other two or three items.

So when I say contractual, I'm also referring to are there any step increases in any of these line items?

Um, yeah.

I I can't I can't say specifically, but there are certainly step increases throughout public works.

Um, but again, everything would be based on the the language and the the contracts.

Um there are also some people who were at their longevity, so there's an increase with those.

Um but yeah, everything is based, every salary item is based on what the contract states.

Right.

I I actually um requested again today a breakdown of all the um contractual raises, including step and longevity, and uh perhaps I'll get that tomorrow.

Thank you.

Does anyone else have anything from McDermott pool?

Do any members of the public have anything for McDermott swimming pool?

All right, we move on to Apanog Rink.

So does anyone have anything for the Epinog Rink?

And Councilman Laddis, I can't tell if your lights just on from before or not.

Your lights on, I'm not sure if you want it for all right, perfect then.

Councilman Lattice.

So in the Apenog Rink, um the gas, the electric chemicals, clothing allowance, refrigerants.

You're showing nothing expended up until March 31st of 2026.

And then you're showing the projections for the year.

How did you arrive at those projections?

Um, well, the rink wasn't open for a good portion of the year, and then the projections are based on um that they are really just projections.

Uh but the rink opened up in December, didn't it?

Yeah.

Okay.

So you have December, January, February, you have three months there.

There's no expenses.

There were I'm sure they had to make ice, right?

To have electricity.

Um the electric bill is actually through the roof.

It's 150,000 for that.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

So I was just informed that um the Rhode Island uh the utilities were late in getting us the bills.

Um, so that the those numbers will be reconciled.

Um the uh those numbers be reconciled before we vote on the budget.

Right.

With regard to the refrigerants, there are none.

Um when we put this together, Christy and I, and I say that meaning Christie.

Um we assume that the system at the rink was going to be similar to the system down at Thayer and Warburton, but it's different, so it doesn't require the chemicals.

So that's why that line item hasn't been touched and isn't project and doesn't have a a value in FY27 either.

So again, um these numbers that you're gonna reconcile.

Will we have those reconciled numbers prior to us voting on this budget?

Uh we're gonna need them.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, I'll I'll I'll do my research and get those to you.

Okay.

I'm just making a couple notes here.

And the miscellaneous uh capital expenditure for 61975.

I I believe that was for the bumper cars.

That is for the bumper cars.

So the electric account, we actually only just got a bill for um the same, they were so delayed sending it.

The same week we got the bill, we got a shutoff notice.

So we had that cleaned up very quickly.

The first bill we got was sixty-three thousand dollars.

Um the gas bill we have not gotten yet.

I have written to Rhode Island Energy multiple times asking for the bill because I don't like getting huge bills with shutoff notices at the same time.

Um the other bills were also actually um harassing various places or Kent County Water.

We didn't get the bill yet, so we need to figure out where that is and how to get it paid.

We like to pay our bills.

Um because the rink opened later in the year, we did some transfers to um account for the bumper car purchase, which is why I moved them around.

So there what you're saying is there are there actually has been some expenditures in the electric.

Yeah, and the the date that this is printed the year to date on here is 331.

And the report that you have in your hand, we very literally just got the bill.

Um, and it was it was sixty-two thousand dollars.

And they gave us a shutoff notice the next day.

So we have since clean that up.

I think the first bill was dated February, which is not making sense with the bill open in December, but that's Rhode Island Energy for you.

So that's one would assume that sixty-two thousand is for two months.

Uh, I'm assuming that was actually back billing to December when the rink actually opened.

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh yes, uh, Director.

Um so on the line item 44, 101 salaries municipal.

Okay, the projection, the year to date is 70,158.

The projection is 116958, and the request is 2515 16.

That's 134,558 higher than the projection.

And could you just explain that?

Um I do know that this department is the only one where we add personnel.

Um, there is one additional full-time employee, so that accounts for some of it.

Um the other um slush fun.

The the projection again doesn't take into account.

Well, they were only open for half the year, right?

So the projection is only projecting that half a year.

When we did the um if they're open for a full year, then you know we're gonna be closer to the um the 188-246 that was originally approved, but even that didn't take into account that we were gonna have uh four full-time employees there.

They're the previous budget only had three full-time employees.

Okay, so the the increase is basically for an extra employee.

It's an extra employee, but also an extra half a year for okay, the other the people that are there now.

Okay, thank you.

Does anyone else have anything for the Apenog Rink?

Do any members of the public have anything for the Apenog Rink?

See now we move on to public works field maintenance.

Does anyone have anything for public works field maintenance?

Councilman DeLouise.

Uh Director, I just have a question on the gas and electricity.

Yeah, no, just kidding.

We need some do any members of the public have anything for public works field maintenance?

All right, seeing none, we move on to employee benefits.

See none, we move on to employee benefits.

Stephen Rotondo, personnel director.

There are no uh personnel costs associated with the uh benefits budget.

Our proposal this year is for three million six hundred and fifty-one thousand one hundred and ninety-eight.

That's about an eight percent increase over uh our approved budget for twenty-six.

The increase is driven largely by uh health insurance premium increase of nine point four eight percent and a dental increase of six point seven two percent.

Councilman Latticer Director, um did you say that the department total was 35 million, six fifty-one?

The total request is uh 35 million six fifty-one ninety-eight.

Correct.

So it's a an increase of three million one hundred and twenty thousand roughly.

Um just want to point out too that of that 35 million, uh, just about 14 million is for health care and dental for um retirees.

14 million.

That's all I have.

Oh no, I do have one other miscellaneous department credits, one million one hundred thousand.

What is that?

Is that co-pay?

No, uh no, that's not the co-pays can be found in revenues on page uh when if you're looking for the uh co-pays or the co-share for our employees, that's found on the uh revenues on page 52.

As for the credit, I have to defer to my colleague in finance.

I'm not sure how that that's derived.

Yeah, the question is um line item 7599 miscellaneous department credits, one million one hundred thousand.

What is it?

That is using some of the uh remaining amount of our health care reserve from when we were self-funded um to offset the rising cost of health care.

With this 1.1 million dollars, there will be 1.1 left.

So we're using exactly 50% of what's left.

Could you just repeat the last part of what you said?

I couldn't hear you.

After fiscal year 27, we will have 1.1 left to use in 2020.

Oh, I see.

Okay, okay.

So we're using exactly 50% of what's left to defray the cost.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

So obviously the 9.4% more or less increase in uh health insurance, that's uh that's a tough one.

Uh how's it look for future years after fiscal year 27 with the uh health insurance rates?

If we have any inkling on that, I uh I don't.

We know that it's sort of a national trend for rates to be going up.

Uh I never thought I'd be saying this, but I'm fairly pleased with 9.48%.

Um, but uh in outlying years, I really don't know how how far this is going to go.

There was a time, right?

I can remember for those of us with white hair.

Double digit increases were fairly common, and then that stopped, and you were down to the five and six percent.

Uh that was quite some time ago.

I don't know if we're gonna be in that trend again.

Yeah, I think that then for a little while there it seemed to be averaging seven percent, but there was a lot of volatility.

So I suppose it's just one of those things that's quite difficult to predict from one year to the next, much less more than a year in advance.

So I'll leave that at that for now.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Yes, sir.

So uh our health care contract is for two years?

Just extended it for two years, yes.

Okay, all right, because I I had 18% in my mind from a meeting that we had, so it's nine percent each year, total of 18 over the two.

Yeah, thanks.

Okay.

Does any member of the public have anything for employee benefits?

All right, see now we move on to insurance.

Does anyone have anything for insurance?

Do any members of the public have anything for insurance?

All right, see now we move on to council claims.

So I just have a quick question for finance on council claims.

Does this line item now only represent claims that actually get to us, or is it still all the claims that come in regardless of that they get to us?

Because now claims as a matter of course are handled by DPW or whatnot, or the administration rather, and only if they're appealed, are they do they come our way?

It would count all the claims.

So it's all of them still.

Yeah.

Got it.

That's all for on my end.

Does anyone else have anything for council claims?

Councilman Foley.

You cut our budget, uh the council budget earlier.

Is there any way to transfer some point of that 10 back to our budget?

I mean, historically, we don't use that much.

I I'm just just a question.

You you could do that on Thursday if you choose, yeah.

Does any member of the public have anything for council claims?

I see now we move on to postage.

Do we have anything for postage?

Councilman Lattice.

Yes.

Okay.

And when do they reimburse us?

On a monthly basis.

There's a reconciliation that's done with our postage machine.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh just a question on the top item uh 78205.

So is the reduction um the projection was 95,000, but you're only requesting 80,000.

Is that because there's more emails that uh less postage in general?

Yeah, and all those credit balances balance to the actual department, and um I cut their postage.

That makes sense.

Okay, thanks.

Do any members of the public have anything for postage?

All right, seeing now we move on to fixed costs.

Does anyone have anything for fixed costs?

Do any members of the public have anything for fixed costs?

All right, seeing none we move on to pensions.

Does anyone have anything for pensions?

Councilman Lattice.

Um that five million that's being diverted for bond payments.

How does that impact this item right here in pensions all of our pensions on this plan are funded based on the actuarial recommended contributions?

The five million dollars was actually a funding fall that was predicted in the municipal plan.

We planned on redirecting that into the OPAB trust.

Um we are not planning on doing that for a couple years, and so the amount in the OPEB budget item, the one and a quarter million dollars.

That is my estimate for the match of employee contributions.

Actually, I see it.

And municipal pension, the projection is nine million eighty-seven thousand one sixty-five, and the request for this year is three million eight hundred and seventeen.

So that's the for the reason for the five million.

Yeah, and that matches what the actuarial report says.

It says it you're right, so it's actually like five point three million, which is what we had discussed.

Yeah.

Councilman Ricks.

Thank you.

And this is more of just one of these items where I want to go on record to make it clear for anybody watching at home.

Uh the various line items in this category 85 pensions.

These are the amounts that the city is contributing, and the contributions by the employees towards these very same funds, those are not included in these numbers, correct?

Correct.

Thank you.

Also, I looked up the OPEB trust balance today, and somebody should ask me what that is.

7.7 million dollars.

Pretty good.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Quick question.

Uh I know I know we're we're still waiting for some information for the audit, the upcoming audit.

Uh just looking at uh the recent, the most recent audit, which was a year and a half ago, I think.

Um there was a comment or note by the auditor about the OPEB actuarial valuation and disclosure.

Well, we it it basically said it was missing from the audit.

I was wondering if we were going to include that information in this year's audit for the OPEP trust.

Of course.

I think that would actually have to do with the um we used to do a actuarial study on the OPEP plan every other year, and we now do it every single year.

And I will also say that even though our audit is not complete, all of the actuarial studies are complete that will match that audit, and they're all available online.

Does anyone else have anything for pensions?

Any members of the public have anything for pensions?

So now we move on to looks like revenue if we already did schools.

Revenue, yeah.

Councilman Lattizer.

The question is going to be the revenue from the speed cameras.

I don't seem to find that in here.

That's the question.

Where is it?

I believe it was stated that it's two million, but I don't I don't see it.

So unless I'm missing it.

It is on page fifty-one.

It is municipal court fines, about a third of the way down the page.

I'm sorry, you repeat that.

Page 51.

Page 51.

Okay.

Maybe a quarter of the way down the page.

Oh three five one two municipal court fines.

I see, okay.

Which is two point two million short of what the budget was calculated for last year, right?

Correct.

And interest earned on investments.

Wait a minute.

No, interest on interest on taxes.

That is dropped down to a million seven hundred and fifty thousand.

Is that to suggest that people are able to pay the taxes on time?

Yeah.

More timely.

Yes.

Um, and also we've been collecting so effectively, they're just less prior year to collect.

Okay.

And on special detail administration fees, what is that?

I'm sorry, it's code 030624.

Yeah, that's just we charge a little bit of our time for when a special detail is used.

There's a special detail clerk.

What's what's what's a special detail considered?

Um, whether an officer is out waiving traffic or a cruiser is out there on rent for construction, that kind of thing.

Okay, so that is I thought when um a police officer is on a detail that it's the entity that is using that service is paying the police officer.

Yeah, but it goes through our payroll and then we get reimbursed.

It goes through our payroll, yeah.

So when you say officers on special detail, all right.

So um here's a question that just popped in my mind.

Suppose, and it's happened um plenty of times over the years that I've been on the council, where we have police officers here in the chamber for a meeting.

Um is there a fee charged for that?

It's my understanding yes.

It's your understanding yes, yes.

The sewer department uses special details all the time, and they have to pay for them as well.

Wait a minute.

What I'm saying is when there's a police officer or officers that over the years have attended council meetings for security reasons, I assume.

Um we the city council is charged a fee for that police service.

It varies I've never heard of it.

No, it varies.

We have once in a while had to do that, but many times you see offices here, the patrol offices that rotate in and out.

Um I think there was one instance this year where we had to pay a detail to be here the whole um time.

That was at the request of the council.

But we can usually manage it just rotate, you'll see them.

They'll come in, two more will come in, the other one will leave.

And we they get back on a patrol.

Yeah, councilman Lattis for my understanding, because I I had to look into this myself, is that normally we don't pay for the well me?

Pardon?

You didn't tell me because I was look because I was looking into it.

Uh my understanding, because I I talked to the past council president too.

When we request the detail, then our department will be charged, but otherwise we're not in all the years that I've been on the council, we've had police officers here many times.

Two and three police officers here.

I was completely unaware of it as well.

That's why that's why I reached out to the past council president.

That's really shocking.

It was a shock to me as well.

To hear that um the city council has to pay for police officers doing their job in here protecting everybody.

That's but when it's a special detail, we have to pay that officer.

So what's considered a special detail if they're stationed here for whatever period of time, just like if they're out on a construction site or whatever else we have to do, they have to be paid for their time.

If we can't do it with patrol officers, we have to have it, we have to hire a detail, we have to pay for it.

It's either that or take them off the street, and sometimes we just can't spare them.

So and I think it's only happened one time, maybe twice since I've been mayor.

This is the first time even hearing of something as crazy as this.

But in any event, um so the when a police officer is here, assuming it's just one, um, how how is that charged?

Um how is that charged?

Charged by the hour.

Yes, they get the detail.

Uh it's a minimum of four hours, and I believe it's somewhere around $65 an hour.

I'm not quite sure.

Suppose the police officers here for over four hours, and then the contract kicks in and it goes to, I think believe eight hours.

But they've never been here for more than four hours.

So if police officer was here to say four hours, he gets paid.

I'll use four hundred dollars.

If he's here for four hours, four and a half hours, he's gonna get paid eight hundred hours.

Yes.

As a point of order, those are all delineated in their contract, correct?

Council President.

Yes, it's it's in the contract.

So it's it's in the contract, councilman.

That's fine when you know they're doing their normal duties and they're on details um at construction sites or details are not normal duties.

Details are above and beyond the normal patrol.

Extra what are brought in that would have been.

Councilman Mudo.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh let me just get back to my page.

I know we um we went through an exhausting amount with the schools, uh, but the you mentioned the school deficit reduction of the 1.1 million, so that's gonna be zeroed out in the in the revised version because we're not collecting that for revenue.

Oh no, this is exactly the way it's in the budget, is exactly how the entry will be made to reduce the deficit reduction.

We're effectively taking it from our own fund balance, not and it's that simple.

Okay, we're just paying ourselves, it's an accounting entry to pay ourselves.

Okay, but net net on the dollars come from somewhere, so we're taking it from the pool.

Yeah, there's an expense side, there's a revenue side.

Okay.

Um on page 48.

Would this where we have federal reimbursements?

Uh these could just all be grants.

I'm not entirely sure, but it says total federal aid.

Would this be where the FEMA reimbursements would would go?

No, um the ruling about FEMA reimbursements in general is that you are supposed to keep it in its own reserve fund.

It depends on what the grant is.

The most recent large grant that we got that I can think of is the American Rescue.

So the original ruling on that particular grant to use another example, is was that it was supposed to be in its own fund, so much so we even had to put it in its own cash account.

There were about a dozen rulings that came out after there, making the document bigger and bigger every time.

Ultimately, we the ruling said that we could actually keep the money in our general fund.

We chose not to do that, unlike other communities, because we used it for one-time expenses, and we wanted to reserve it for those one-time expenses.

Other communities have not done that, and it has created some disasters.

Um a grant like like Cranston.

The mayor loves to say Cranston to me because I love it, live in Cranston.

Um there are other large grants, not as large as American Rescue, like the safer grant.

That ruling actually says in the rules that you're supposed to run it through your general fund because we used it to hire firefighters, their pay, their benefits, all of that.

We ran it through here.

We have and that is the only explanation I have for it.

The it is that makes sense.

It is a GASB standard.

You you have your laptop open.

Um, it it truly is the ruling.

I I get the I get the reporting mechanisms.

What I'm getting at with these la next several questions, and even the previous one is we have bills to pay.

We have income.

Whether it doesn't matter how it's coming.

So we already paid a million dollars for the plowing.

Yeah.

In this fiscal year.

We're probably gonna get reimbursed in the next fiscal year.

So a million dollars is gonna fall within the next fiscal year.

The revenue will also be booked to that fund.

Yeah when the reimbursement comes in.

When a reimbursement, but what I'm saying is thinking about I I know we're municipality, but think about just simplify it.

Household.

Are we on a cash basis or an accrual basis?

An accrual basis.

But so, but okay, yep.

This is an exception to the to the accrual, right?

Because we don't know when we're gonna receive it.

It's because federal grants are a whole different animal.

You know, in the case of the Safer grant, we didn't it went over a course of a few years.

We didn't book it as a deferred revenue because the ruling says you don't, you're booking it on a cash basis in that case.

With a FEMA grant, you're actually we're gonna they're going to have us book a deferred revenue because it will come down in a year or two, hopefully.

With a FEMA emergency, they usually take a bank of money for all of the state of Rhode Island, and then it depends on who requests reimbursement.

So we could actually get reimbursement over the million dollars we requ request, but we won't know until the final ruling comes down from FEMA.

What I'm getting at is we need to spend I'm rounding this 15 million dollars to pay all our bills above and beyond uh tax to raise our taxes.

So above and beyond from a year ago.

So simple math, we're gonna get a million dollars from FEMA.

Do we get to count that million dollars against that 15 million or no?

No.

So where are we counting that million dollars?

In the FEMA fund.

Everything will go to FEMA.

If it if I it's fund three ten, maybe I get I get the fund.

I guess the practicality is we paid a million dollars out of our operating budget.

No, we didn't.

So we out of I mean, everything is the same cash account.

So there'll be a book, it will book the run this whole thing through our our liability accounts of receivable accounts that in fund 310, we will book the expenses there.

They have been booked there.

Okay.

I get it.

I get I get the account.

I need you to take off.

I need you to put your common sense hat on now.

Common sense is we spent a million dollars in fiscal year 26.

Yes, okay, for plowing that came out of our either reserves, taxpayer, you know, tax raise, whatever.

We pay for it.

We need to we're gonna get paid back the million dollars in let's just call it we're gonna we're gonna get paid in fiscal year 27.

That money, that million dollars.

Do we get to use that for anything in general budget?

No, because none of it's running through the general budget at all.

Where does that money go?

For the city, we're getting a million dollars back.

Where does it go?

FEMA, FEMA fund.

Wait a minute, mayor.

No, I'm sorry, this doesn't make sense.

So all of our expenses are booked in a fund called 310.

Yes.

When we get reimbursement, that revenue will book to be booked to 310.

Now there's a chance that we might get under-reimbursed.

There's also a chance we might get over-reimbursed.

The net of those two items eventually would be run through the general fund, but not until we know the total expense and the total revenue.

That's what I'm getting after we go through all the rigor-marole.

Yeah.

Once we get money, where is that money going to?

General fund.

I mean, if it if it's over or under, it runs through the general funds.

Oh, that's all.

So hypothetically, if we get it effectively turns into You're making me work on this, and it's just gonna ask.

I'm gonna ask 10 other questions now.

If you keep it simple, I'll I'll keep my questions simple, but this is ridiculous.

I know there's a process, but at the end of the day, we're gonna get a million dollars back.

And that million dollars is gonna hit our general fund eventually.

Just say yes, because that's what it does.

It doesn't go into this missed mysterious Pokemon account that just not a Pokemon account, it's a account.

If I if I say it goes through the general fund, the auditors will scold me if they're listening.

So they might.

I mean, it in the case.

So in the case of the flood, the flood is the greatest example I have of this because everybody was affected.

It took a long time to get reimbursement.

There was a lot to it.

A number of communities requested reimbursement.

Ultimately, we actually got a little bit more than we requested.

And that money ran through the general fund.

And that was probably reflected in our 2020 statements.

And you wonder why people have lack of confidence because this is this is brutal.

This is brutal.

Because common sense is we spent money, we're gonna get it back.

It's gonna end up in our fund to pay bills, whether it's this year, next year, or the year after.

It's going to be part of the ultimate pool that we're gonna the city is going to spend.

Be able to spend everything will end up on the financial statements.

Exactly, eventually.

So my point is that's really a carryover.

So it's a million dollars, whatever the amount is.

We're gonna have future use of that money, whether it's in fiscal year 27 or or 28, whatever.

What I'm trying to get at is that money, we're not gonna count that money in the past, we're gonna count that money in the future.

It's a receivable, yeah.

I mean it'll it'll be a deferred revenue.

I is I assume it depends how many years they're planning on paying it, but so when you say defer, okay.

So a receivable, yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

So in my simple mind, I'm gonna say a million dollars in this pot of money here going against the 15 million that we need, whether or not we get it this year.

The next item, just for clarification, on the Apenog Rank.

Uh, we have a uh budget of 671 operating.

And I'm just having trouble um reconciling that, at least for revenue.

Does that include the sponsorships as well as usage?

Yes.

Okay, were the sponsorships included in this year's fiscal year 26?

Yes.

Okay.

The number seems a lot low, that's why.

Okay.

And then municipal court fees, caught fines.

We're talking about the speed cameras.

Yeah, that two million dollars is that gross or net I had to you had to.

Ultimate pays us net.

It's so it's a net number, so we got two million dollars net.

That is what Altimant is paying us, yes, after they take their percentage.

Okay, and a couple more, then I'll be done.

Uh we next we have uh it could be even tomorrow, but we have a tax title sale coming up.

Friday, yeah, Friday.

Yeah, where is that shown in the revenue numbers in collected tax in collected tax?

Okay.

That sorry, that's 03100.

The final second to last page.

Okay, and the estimated revenue we're gonna pull from that.

At least what's the outstanding tax on that?

The last I asked our tax collector, the bills are down to about 250, but I haven't actually asked this week.

I don't know how much they're worth.

I usually I always ask about how many bills.

Yeah.

Would uh the tax guy isn't here, huh?

She's not here.

Can we um can we put a request in to see what that revenue number will be?

Uh I I've gotten numbers anywhere between 2.2 and 5.3 million in the pack taxes.

Yeah, it's potentially on that.

Do me a favor and shoot me an email, because I will forget.

Yep, we'll uh we'll shoot you an email on that.

Yeah, because again, that tax sale will help alleviate alleviate some of the pain we're we're feeling here.

Uh but last two lines, the school restricted revenue of 370,000.

What is what is that for?

You know, I don't know what the exact detail of that is.

It's directly from their budget, but it restricted always means a grant.

Okay, and the last one, which is reimbursement other.

I believe that's their um Medicare reimbursements, Medicare, okay.

All right, that's all I have.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, just want to circle back and kind of caveat off of the net 2 million from the speed camera revenue.

Just want to circle back and kind of caveat off of the net 2 million from the speed camera revenue.

We were way off on this last year, obviously.

Yes.

Is that because we were thinking 4.2 million was going to be money in pocket when that was actually the gross number?

No.

Because what the representation, not another it was you, but the representations were oh 4.2 is conservative.

Are you sure it's conservative?

Yes, that's conservative because we're told that it's going to be six or nine million, but now it's really like two-ish.

Yeah.

So we just don't have as many, we haven't given out as many tickets as we thought were going to happen.

Um I actually even wrote I wrote an email to the company this week asking what the receivables are out there.

It's about 700,000, which won't fill this gap.

But I'm working with them to figure out how to be able to collect on the outstanding bills as well.

But people are just there just aren't as many tickets as we expected.

We called communities around, and I think you know they did exactly what they were supposed to do.

Got people to not speed in school zones.

Which is fine.

It just I think we just that gross miscalculation is disturbing from last year.

Now the receivables, if those are not collected, when do when does the company, I guess my question is when does the company take their percentage?

If we have to send that to Rossi to go to collections.

They do their own collections and they get paid based on what they collect.

So if they have a receivable, they haven't taken a payment for it.

They're incented to collect the money because they get a portion.

Do they do and so cost for costs for collections?

Sending out notices.

And that does not come off of so if the let's say the ticket was 100 bucks, cost them 25 dollars in efforts to collect that, whether that be filing fees or postage, is our net based on the hundred dollar ticket or based on after they recoup all their expenses.

I don't actually know the detail of that.

I'm assuming it's I don't want to mess with let's find that out.

I have to read the whole contract, but um I'm under the impression if it's a $50 ticket and they collect it, we get our portion.

I don't remember what the portion is, so I'm just gonna say $40 and then they keep their 10.

I don't I am not remembering the percentage at the moment.

If they're if the issue then becomes nobody's paying these fines, they're getting recouped all their expenses for collecting it.

I mean then we're I get an itemized detail every two weeks of what they've collected and what they've taken and uh what the the fine was.

Yeah, I I'm fine with whatever their fee is their fee, but it's on the receivables that are not collected that force a collections effort is what my concern is how what percentage of the revenue can the city expect from something that has to go to a collections effort because people are just not paying their bill.

I am harassing them to collect them.

I'm not sure.

I don't I'm not aware of an additional collection fee.

Can we find that out?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can call the deputy chief right now.

It's a following answer your question.

I don't think we need to bother him this later.

No, it's also we can find out tomorrow.

They tend to respond to my emails pretty quickly.

So um we got that we got that revenue estimate from um the company ultimate last year, and they said it was conservative, and I haven't been happy with the performance of the red light cameras.

I don't think they're accurate.

The police are actually right now, um, they've been testing them in different areas because they're not reading what we we expected them to read as compared to other cities and town.

So the police are out with cameras and equipment and they're actually monitoring because I'm still seeing people go through red lights, and then I'll check on it and they weren't violated.

So we're we're exploring that because the revenue for fell far short.

And I'm not just talking about what they told us the estimate would be.

It's when I did the research going to Paquet and East Providence.

I mean, we're a larger city, we have more traffic, and we're not living up to their performance.

I don't think people just all of a sudden stop going through red lights.

Definitely not.

We also expected to to um deploy more cameras throughout this past year, but since they weren't performing, we kind of throttle back on it.

So um that's still to be determined.

The police are doing a very um comprehensive study.

Understood.

Yeah, my my recollection was that when they was before us, we were told the estimated amount that the company had actually said it was gonna be way higher than that, and that we picked a lower number to be conservative.

Yeah, if I recall that the number from the company was between six and nine million, and then the police department had represented that we picked four to be conservative off of their conservativeness, which is so I I would agree that probably there's something wrong with the camera system.

It there's something going on because um we chose the intersections based on their um analysis, and I I can tell you on the corner of on Route 5 and Route 113, they there was like 1200 violations in a 12 hour period or something like that.

We haven't seen anything near that.

Right.

So I think there's we're we're investigating it.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Um, and then I just wanted to move on to one that stuck out to me sale of city real estate, the 03679.

We you booked that at three million less net for next year.

Is that are we anticipating a large sale?

Is that Aldridge?

Yes.

Um, we're subdividing the land, which is going to make it more um attractive.

Uh real estate has gone up.

We we um the company that we uh win development, they just dropped out.

We had we had to end the relationship when they weren't even applying for the grants they were supposed to be applying for.

Um, so we did get the revenue from them because I had them make periodic deposits.

I think they still owe us 50,000.

But we're moving on now.

We're gonna put it back out to bid.

But uh, like I said, property values have gone way up since that was almost four years ago, Councilmember because we we signed with Wynn, uh at least three.

So it's it's just a prudent thing to do because it's sitting there.

Um we met with them a few months ago, and one of them told us they applied for the grant, and the other one said no, we didn't.

Uh speaker Shikachi had said when they applied Rhode Island housing, their um application was disgraceful.

It was like they weren't even trying, they didn't want to invest any of their own money, they would just look at five, you know, financing you got it done.

They're a big company, they could have just purchased the building, but they they just kept holding back.

So we just we just thought it was best to you know cut off of the relationship and move forward with it.

Okay, and then there's the um the uh admin building, former admin building on Warwick Avenue, which by the way, um is going before the General Assembly Thursday night, and we can't even get there to testify on it.

Um because the General Assembly, we weren't aware they can just uh they they can just take away the deed restrictions that are on there.

Um, and then that'll go back out to bid and again.

We had a lot of interest last time, but um we ended up finding the deed restrictions we can go forward with anything and property values of sorts is that one too.

Right.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

That's all I have on Ravenna.

Thank you.

Following up on sale of city real estate, yeah.

I'm gonna also just share in that that uh it's very disappointing what happened with when it was actually at the time of reading the budget address, that is the moment that I found out that Wynn was no longer moving forward.

Certainly had some hints of that based on the lack of affirmative responses to my emails through the city planner to win, in which I was repeatedly offering to write a letter of support this last year, and they weren't exactly getting back to us on that.

And then eventually I think that Wynn indicated to us that uh they weren't asking me to write a letter of support for this year.

So that certainly was not an encouraging sign, but would have been I would have liked to get more of a heads up on the status of that, and I this is uh this evening the first time hearing of uh subdividing.

So I do have some concerns as to that because there's certainly the must-haves and the want-to-haves when it comes to that land in the future.

It would and I would certainly, in advocating for the residents there considering that field that's behind Aldridge, which there may be some money in that field if it were to be sold.

I remember talking to Hugh Fisher many years ago, uh rest in peace.

He was indicating to me back then, and this is from someone, a developer who did not bid on Aldridge when it came up for sale at the same time as Rhodes, he and his company bid on roads, but not Aldridge, and he was telling me that the Aldridge building uh that uh this is of course at that time, which would have been over a half dozen years ago before COVID, things changed obviously.

But at that point in time, Hugh Fisher saw it as the money was in the field as opposed to being in the building.

When at the time that they bid, obviously they saw things the opposite way around, because they were willing to leave the field while really wanting the building.

But uh what I'm getting at with that is that that field behind Aldridge, putting aside Belmont Park, which is a bit out of the way, if you take a look at that uh uh rectangle between the Patuxet River and Post Road, and between Elmwood Ave and Warwick Ave, that rectangle there, Belmont Park aside, Aldridge Field is the only nice big green space for uh park activities, things of that nature.

Certainly there's uh sprig field across the way, commonly known as the pit, but that involves crossing post road, which isn't the most conducive to uh a family with a stroller or the like can be done, but I'd be a little bit weary.

So if it's at all possible to try to see what we can do in terms of uh preserving that field, in addition to, and of course, this is why win pulling out is just so incredibly disappointing, because win's proposed use of the Aldridge building itself was highly compatible with the neighborhood.

So I understand we might not be able to accomplish all of the objectives 10 out of 10, 100%, but to the extent possible, if we can get to that place of finding a highly compatible use for that building, highly compatible with the neighborhood that is, and also preserving those fields.

I think that that's something that we really have to look at as I'm here advocating for War 2 as a matter of a land use issue, advocating for the neighborhood.

That's something where I would see it as an item that you have to look at how that land is going to be used year after year, decade after decade, weighed against a mere one time amount of money coming in, looking at it for the next 50 years out, if something brings in a million dollars less this one time, but really does so much for the neighborhood for the next 50 years and further, perhaps.

That's certainly a trade-off I'd be more than willing to advocate for for the neighborhood.

So want to make sure to make that statement on the that line item.