Council, School Committee See Small Turnout For Budget Hearings

With May 1 (the date when the North Kingstown Town Council is scheduled to approve the 2014 budget) approaching, both the council and the North Kingstown School Committee looked for resident input at two public hearings Monday night. Only three people spoke during the council's hearing (addressing the town side of the budget) while six spoke at the school committee's hearing.

"With a $60 million-plus enterprise, I was hoping more of our citizens would take interest in coming out," said School Committee Member Robert Jones.

On the town side, John McDermott – a trustee with the Willett Free Library in Saunderstown – asked the council to consider equal appropriations between Willett and Davisville Free Library. In the preliminary budget, the town allotted $6,000 to Davisville and $4,000 to Willett. The differing amounts were due to the town rewarding Davisville updating its facilities to become more handicap accessible.

Because Willett recently underwent similar updates to improve accessibility, Town Manager Michael Embury stated he believed it would be appropriate to fund the two libraries equally.

On the school side, three speakers spoke in favor of appropriating additional funds to the school department. Robert Perry suggested the district look closer at offering full-day kindergarten across town to help keep up with educational mandates and curriculum. He also supported using additional funds to reinstate two buses that had been cut in previous years to restore school start times.

"Whether you're a parent or not, our schools are a vital part of this community," said resident Greg Blasbalg, who added that the quality of NK's schools reflect upon the community and help property values.

"When people talk about North Kingstown, they talk about what a great and desirable community they have and that's becuase it has a great school system," said parent Greg Mancini.

Mancini also spoke on behalf of the parents of the high school's hockey team. Last year, the school committee cut funding to both the hockey and gymnastics program at North Kingstown High School. Both teams have had to independently raise funds to keep the programs running.

Julia Helm, Jamestown's representative on the school committee, voiced her concern over comments made over Jamestown's contract with the North Kingstown School Department. Jamestown pays about $2 million each year in tuition to send its high school students to North Kingstown High School. According to some critics, the tuition rate for Jamestown is too low and that Jamestown is not "paying its fair share."

"The continued characterization of Jamestown as sort of a parasite on North Kingstown is kind of offensive, quite frankly," said Helm.