TOWN OF WEST WARWICK RHODE ISLAND 1170 Main Street West Warwick, RI  02893 (401) 822-9200 www.westwarwickri.org

 

WEST WARWICK TOWN COUNCIL

Regular Town Council Meeting

Town Council Chambers

January 4, 2022

6:00 P.M.

 

JOINT PRE-BUDGET MEETING

WEST WARWICK TOWN COUNCIL & SCHOOL COMMITTEE

 

MINUTES

 

*Please Note:  Any matter listed on this agenda may be acted upon by the Town Council*

 

A.         Meeting called to order at 6:03 p.m.

 

B.         Roll Call:

 

1.         Town Council:

 

a.   Members Present:

Councilman Bourget

Council Vice President Williamson

Council President Gosselin

 

b.   Members Absent:

Councilman Licciardi

Councilman Messier

 

2.         School Committee:

 

a.   Members Present:

Joseph DiMartino

Rene E. Coutu

Susan St. Amand

Angelina Coburn

 

b.   Members Absent:

Luis Colon

            

C.         Quorum on Record declared by Deputy Town Clerk Paula Iannitelli

 

Let the record show that the Town Manager Mark Knott and Superintendent Karen Tarasevich are present, and Town Solicitor Timothy Williamson is absent.

 

D.        Statutory pre-budget consultation between the West Warwick School Committee and West Warwick Town Council pursuant to RIGL 16-2-21 and a review of revenue and expenditure projections.

 

Joe Spagna, Director of Finance for the West Warwick Public Schools stated this is a preliminary report. The district is currently anticipating expenditures in 2023 to total around $65.6 million a $2 million increase over the fiscal year. As for as the State aid they have not receive any definitive answers yet.  Joe stated the Department of Education did however offer the school district two potential state aid amounts. the worst-case scenarios that the district could be facing in the upcoming fiscal year.

 

One of the scenarios bases the district’s aid on the total enrollment and the number of students currently enroll in the free and reduced lunch program.

 

Under that scenario the district can expect to lose around $967,000 in the state aid. Free and reduce lunch enrollment is used by the state as a poverty modifier to determine how much aid each district should receive.

 

Getting the free – reduced lunch applications that affect those numbers has been very difficult Joe Spagna stated. The schools are encouraging every family even those who don’t qualify for the program to fill out an application. The applications for that program dropped by 35 % this year. It’s a problem that all districts are experiencing, West Warwick Superintendent Karen pointed out Coventry Public Schools is also struggling with.

 

The second worst case scenario provided by the state and the scenario that Joe Spagna stated he is using right now in preparing the budget would also use the district enrollment but instead of looking at current free and reduced lunch numbers would refer to those from prior years. In that case the district would receive a $106,000 increase in the state aid over the current year. That still wouldn’t be ideal. However, since growing enrollment has meant the district typically that amount increased each year by a least $1 million. This scenario thought it’s the better of the two has a major impact on us. Joe Spagna stated.

 

Joe Spagna that some state ais expected to be cut will be reinstated and the district won’t need to request an increase in local appropriations to make up for it. We just don’t know right now.

 

The Town Council had no questions at this time due o the reason of this being preliminary and we have no answers from the state yet.

            

 

E.         Motion made by Council Vice President Williamson, seconded by Councilman Bourget, and approved by a voice vote. 

 

Adjourn at 6:14 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

_______________________________

Paula Iannitelli, Deputy Town Clerk