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Schools

High School Hockey, Gymnastics Survive Budget-Cutting

Saving jobs leads the priorities as the North Kingstown School Committee whittles down more than half of the 2011-12 deficit

For the second time this month, dozens of people turned out for the School Committee meeting Tuesday night at the , and this time more of them took to the microphones during the public comment period.

A number of speakers identified themselves as school employees and members of the Education Support Professionals association who also live, raise their families and pay taxes in North Kingstown. Others were students who spoke warmly of the positive things custodians and “lunch ladies” contribute to the schools.

Their comments were aimed at proposals for the 2012-13 school budget year. The school committee and school staff are exploring proposals to outsource custodial duties, at a savings of $400,000 per year; switch school clerks from year-round to 10-month positions, saving $92,000; and outsourcing the food service, which will log a $140,000 deficit for this budget year.

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Speaker after speaker asked the school committee to negotiate with the ESP to achieve cost savings instead of outsourcing jobs. “We want to work with you,” said several.

After nearly an hour of listening, School Committee Chair Richard Welch said he agreed with the speakers and suggested they were making their case "in the wrong venue." He reminded the audience that the School Committee has to make cuts because the North Kingstown Town Council refused to share any of the most recent tax-increase dollars with the schools. Welch urged concerned citizens to turn out at Town Council meetings during the next budget cycle.

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Welch and the other five committee members then turned their attention to a more pressing problem: the budget year that begins July 1. The committee is faced with deleting $715,000 from the previously approved budget – on top of $245,000 in cuts approved May 10.

“We have an updated revenue picture which necessitates that we reduce more than previously estimated to achieve a balanced budget,” Superintendent Phil Thornton reported Tuesday.  Long-range, he added, state and federal support are expected to drop, while costs such as health insurance are expected to climb.

Over the next two hours of discussion, with Lynda Avanzato absent, the committee voted to save one of next year's proposed increases – $27,066 to expand after-school student assistance – and two custodial jobs that could have cut $80,000. Committee member Melvoid Benson pointed to the gleaming cafeteria floors as evidence that the janitors are doing a good job.

Instead, the committee cut the budgets for supplies, technology, early retirement incentives, and sports across the board, rather than penalizing specific teams. They also voted to collapse some small high school classes into larger ones. By 10 p.m., they had chopped $397,500 from the deficit and adjourned.

The committee has two more meetings this fiscal year to finish the trimming. The next one takes place at 7 p.m. June 14.

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