Voters To Only See One Budget Referendum June 7

North Kingstown voters will be faced with only one question during the June 7 budget referendum.

A budget petition to increase the North Kingstown School Department's budget by $500,000 received 366 qualified signatures, 14 more than the necessary 352. Another petition to cut the school department's budget by $1.6 million missed the mark by 10 signatures.

The petition to increase the budget was put forth by Sandra Blankenship, president of the NK Educational Support Professionals while the petition to cut was submitted by the North Kingstown Taxpayers Organization. According to North Kingstown Town Clerk Jeannette Alyward, the NKTO petition was initially submitted with 374 signatures. After counting and verification, it was found that 32 of the signatures were invalid and were not registered voters, leaving the petition 10 signatures short.

"We certainly welcome the effort of ESP to put forth the petition," said Superintendent Phil Thornton. "I'm looking forward to seeing the community vote on June 7."

After , the school department is still about $397,500 shy of meeting the town's budget requirement. Earlier this month, the North Kingstown Town Council voted to , denying its request for an additional $713,000. If $500,000 is added to the schools' budget, Thornton says he'd like to add a social worker to the district's roster. Early on in the budget process, Thornton had recommended adding two social workers but both have since been cut.

"We're getting an increasing amount of difficult situations we're dealing with," said Thornton. According to Thornton, each social worker would roughly cost the department $67,500 each.

Thornton also said that the additional $500,000 may also go to fill the $30,000 cut from sports.

The referendum will take place on June 7 at Davisville Middle School and the Cold Spring Community Center.