School Committee Cuts Freshman Sports, Gymnastics & Hockey

Contentious debate filled Tuesday night's meeting as the School Committee passed $1.6 million in cuts.

After delaying action at its last meeting, the North Kingstown School Committee made $1.6 million in cuts to make up a $2.7 million shortfall for the fiscal 2013 budget. The two most controversial of these cuts were the removal of freshman sports, hockey and gymnastics for a total savings of $46,050. Superintendent Phil Auger noted that the latter two were cut due to “higher relative cost and lower relative participation.” “I hope that we’re going to run those sports next year but it is my hope to do so with private funds,” said Auger. Early in the discussion, Vice Chairman Richard Welch suggested keeping the sports programs but nixing two positions that Auger wanted to add for the upcoming year — a fulltime special education …

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Letter: Mudge Explains Stance on School Budget

School Committee member Bill Mudge offers a summary of this year's budget process and explains why he didn't vote on proposed budget cuts at the last meeting.

To the editor, I would like to set the record straight regarding the fiscal 2013 school budget and submit to the readers a summary of the budget process. On January 10, 2012 the superintendent of schools, Dr. Phil Auger, presented his preliminary fiscal 2013 budget submission to the North Kingstown School Committee in the amount of $60,022,427. During the Feb. 7, 2012 school committee meeting Auger submitted a revised budget of  $58,737,012 which reflected the maximum four percent local tax increase that could be levied under Rhode Island General Law 16-2. This also represented a budget reduction of $1.4 million from his preliminary budget, submitted less than a month earlier. As recommended by the superintendent a motion was made by Dick …

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Superintendent's Proposed Budget Adjustments

Following the appropriation from the town council, Superintendent Phil Auger has compiled a list of adjustments and cuts to fiscal 2013's budget.

School Committee to Discuss Cuts to Programs, Employees at Next Meeting

Following this week's adoption of fiscal 2013 budget, the North Kingstown School Committee will look to make further cuts.

The North Kingstown School Committee will start to put items on the chopping block Tuesday night after the town council's adoption of fiscal 2013's budget will leave them with less funding than last year. Going into the budget process, Superintendent Phil Auger requested a four-percent increase for the school department's budget after two years of level funding. At its adoption of the upcoming budget, the council granted the school department a two-percent increase. "I appreciate the two percent," said Auger. "It's not an easy decision to make and it's a lot to ask for four percent. Obviously I felt very strongly that four percent was warranted. It's going to make things that much tougher to make ends meet in our district." Due to a …

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NKGOP Watch

2:50 am on Sunday, May 6, 2012

Gov, what do you suppose is stopping them?   more ›

Council Adopts 2013 Budget

The school department's budget dominated the council's meeting to adopt the 2013 budget.

The North Kingstown Town Council unanimously passed fiscal 2013’s budget, set to start July 1 of this year, at its meeting Tuesday night. The new budget will increase the tax levy by 2.08 percent, raising property tax rates from $17.26 for every $1,000 to $17.53 – an average annual increase of $90 for the average household’s tax bill in North Kingstown. The budget also grants the school department a two-percent increase after two years of level-funding. Despite the increase, the school department’s bottom line budget will be $848,349* less than the current year’s budget. The council came to the smaller figure after factoring in its number to offset the possible school department deficit from this year (a matter the town is seeking …

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NKGOP Watch

11:11 pm on Monday, May 14, 2012

A lot of the student teacher ratio and performance results from the demographic of what type of kids attend that particular school. You cant take a school with lots of less affluent students, and say that schools lower average scores is a result of too many teachers! As far as "looking at high performing school to see how they do it" is meaningless within a district, because most often what they…   more ›