Committee’s $198M School Budget Cuts $3M In Salaries

Warwick School Committee Chairman Shaun Galligan, David Testa, and Sean Wiggins all voted in favor, with Michelle Kirby-Chapman and Leah Hazelwood voting against. 

The budget, posted to the School Department’s website, has also been attached at the end of this article. It will be presented to Mayor Frank Picozzi’s administration and The Warwick Schools Budget Commission, the final three members of which will be confirmed April 21.

Galligan said revisions to the budget are likely to be made.

“This budget proposal represents a balanced approach to meeting the needs of our students while remaining financially responsible in meeting our long-term financial goals outlined in our draft five-year budget deficit reduction plan, submitted to the Rhode Island Auditor General and City of Warwick on March 20,” Interim Superintendent William McCaffrey wrote on April 1. “We are committed to transparency and accountability, ensuring that every dollar spent meets the educational needs of our community.”

School Budget Cuts: Salary Details Omitted

“In an effort to mitigate expenses, there have been budgeted staffing reductions,” McCaffrey said at the meeting. “The budget includes staffing reductions to WTU (Warwick Teachers Union , WISE (Warwick Independent School Employees), and administration. The total reductions have been reflected in the budget.”

“I’m not okay with these cuts,” said Committee member Michelle Kirby-Chapman. “I don’t know where this is in the budget but I don’t want to vote for it.”

Kirby-Chapman made a motion to restore the cut positions for WISE, which was seconded by Hazelwood. The motion died after Hazelwood withdrew her motion. Hazelwood explained the withdrawal, saying it would be an ethics violation because she has a family member in the WISE union.

“I do have concerns about these cuts,” Hazelwood said. “These positions haven’t even been seen by the public. They don’t know what’s being cut. Teachers union doesn’t know what’s being cut. The WISE union doesn’t know what’s being cut. The classrooms don’t know what’s being cut. You have to be transparent when you’re doing these things. When you hide what you’re doing, you will have opposition every time.”

“These are difficult cuts,” Galligan noted. “They’re tough to make.”

Darlene Netcoh, President of the WTU, said the public should be able to know what is being cut from the budget, as in previous years.

“This year, all the salaries are lumped together under one line item. In the past, everything was broken down into specific FTE’s that were being budgeted for,” Netcoh said. “It’s hard to comment on positions when we don’t actually know which positions are being cut.”

Galligan made a motion to decrease the Teacher/Administrator pension line, which was set at $15.6 million, by $3 million.

“We over budgeted by $3.5 million, while using the required 15.10% local employer rate,” Galligan explained Saturday morning. “We reduced the original budgeted amount by $3-million”

The motion passed 5 – 0.

Later in the meeting, Testa made a motion to address back in $1 million of the $3-million that had been cut, allocating that amount to the WISE Union pension.

Galligan said the school department had been looking at a $5.6 million budget increase which “included these cuts.”

McCaffrey also projected a $6.8 million deficit for the current fiscal year. FY2026 Superintendent's Recommended Budget for School Committee 4-17-25 revised 4-16-25

Author: Joe Siegel

Joe Siegel is a regular contributing writer for WarwickPost.com. His reporting has appeared in The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro and EDGE.