Committee signals support for proposed East Providence school budget

FY2016-17 outlay would increase to over $80 million

By Mike Rego
Posted 8/29/16

EAST PROVIDENCE — At a second special workshop on the Fiscal Year 2016-17 budget held Monday night, Aug. 29, the East Providence School Committee strongly indicated it was on a path of supporting …

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Committee signals support for proposed East Providence school budget

FY2016-17 outlay would increase to over $80 million

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — At a second special workshop on the Fiscal Year 2016-17 budget held Monday night, Aug. 29, the East Providence School Committee strongly indicated it was on a path of supporting the tentative $80 million outline proposed by Superintendent Kathryn Crowley and staff, a plan that could potentially seek an additional $2.5 million in contribution from the city side.

Last year's exact outlay was $77.4 million. The working number for FY16-17 is $80.1 million.

Near the end of the two hour session Ward 3 Committee member Nate Cahoon summarized the appeal for the additional revenue, saying it was needed to better compensate all district employees, but especially its teachers.

Calling it the "big take-away" from the workshop Mr. Cahoon said "top step" or tenured instructors in East Providence earn $67,000 annually while in Barrington, "one town away" he added, the same level teacher earned $80,000 a year. He opined if the district wished to recruit and retain key personnel it must begin to narrow that gap.

Superintendent Crowley, as she did at a similar meeting last week, cautioned once again the documents discussed Monday were "drafts" and are still "changing."

She said the task of putting together the numbers, done by her staff led by Finance Director Lucy Maddock, "was not an easy undertaking," adding that from their collective perspective some existing "data was incomplete" and "misclassified."

The superintendent continued, "I think we've done it to the best of our ability considering the information we had."

Director Maddock spent the bulk of Monday's meeting presenting the committee with a detailed line-item overview of expenditures on personnel, following up on matters that came to the fore last week as well.

And as they did previously, both the superintendent and finance director said a proposed 2.5 percent increase in salary for all department personnel, including facilities and other support staff, as well as $1,000 and $500 raises for certified and non-certified employees, respectively, would cost approximately $1.2-$1.5 million.

The administration is proposing the increase in lieu of the 1 percent hike called for in the current collective bargaining agreements with the district's three employee unions and likely as a precursor to negotiations for those same contracts which are set to expire next fall.

In addition, talk of increasing coaching and mentoring salaries in the district, pay that was cut drastically under the state-appointed budget commission some four years ago, was also heard for the first time at Monday's meeting initiated by At-Large Committee member Joel Monteiro. The administration proposed adding some $22,000 to the pool of salaries for athletic and extra-curricular instructors.

Foretelling his remarks later, Mr. Cahoon at around that point asked a question he deemed the "elephant in the room…Are we going to ask the city for additional money?" Mrs. Crowley, hedging a bit, replied, "We haven't come to that point yet."

The administrators again said they would initially seek to pay for the bulk of the proposed increases through any surplus from the FY15-16 budget plus the city's uptick in state aid. Additionally, the superintendent and finance director said they expect to find significant savings in the district's operations budget. Mrs. Maddock made pointed reference to the work done by Pupil Personnel Director Julian MacDonnell in the area of special needs, saying he has initially found in the range of $500,000 in reductions in his department. However, those figures, like most for operations, have not yet been deciphered thoroughly enough, something the superintendent said would be done by the end of this current week.

"I would feel more comfortable bringing the schools-based budget back to you one more time," Superintendent Crowley told the committee.

With that in mind, a third budget workshop was planned for Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 7 p.m. in City Hall. The superintendent said she plans on meeting with interim City Manager Tim Chapman and state-appointed Municipal Finance Advisor Paul Luba the following day, Wednesday, Sept. 7. The committee will then gather on Monday, Sept. 12, also at 7 at City Hall, to iron out any last details and vote on the FY16-17 budget before presenting it to the city council for its input.

Regardless of the final product, the committee members nearly to a person pretty much announced their support of the superintendent's plan.

Besides Mr. Cahoon, Ward 4 Committee member Jessica Beauchaine retold the story of a speech pathologist at Waddington Elementary in her district who tearfully announced her resignation to take a job elsewhere because of the differential in pay. Mrs. Beauchaine termed the proposed across-the-board salary increases "something I think the district needs."

Ward 2 Committee member Tony Ferreira said "he was going to push to make (the budget) happen," adding in reference to the teachers' salary step scale the "bottom of the ladder is the worst place to be." He continued, "The longer I've been here, the longer I worked in the community, I believe the job our teachers do is incredible."

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