[CREDIT: WPS] Warwick Schools Finance Director Craig Enos reviews the Budget Commission's $7.9M school deficit plan. Committee members argue $2.6M of that is illegally omitted from the city's maintenance of effort.

WARWICK, RI — School Committee members reviewed the Budget Commission’s school deficit plan Tuesday, which zeroes out a $7.9 million deficit by FY31, protesting its failure to acknowledge $2.1 million of it from FY26 of it as maintenance of effort.

That $2.1 million has been a point of friction for School Committee members for some time. In October, the School Committee sent a letter to the Budget Commission, Mayor Frank Picozzi and Warwick City Council asking them to resolve the shortfall legally.

“Warwick Public Schools is violating state law by operating without a certified, balanced budget—a situation that must be resolved,” the Committee stated at the time.

That referenced the Warwick Schools Budget Commission statements at its Sept. 22 meeting – repeated during its presentation during the Sept. 29 City Council meeting, that all FY26 district expenses were valid and legitimate, requiring an additional $2.1 million in local appropriations.

“However, subsequent statements from the Commission’s Chair Ernest Almonte suggested that this appropriation might not be provided as it would drive up the annual “maintenance of effort.” This devastating budget gap leaves the district without a lawful path to balance its budget,” the Committee said at the time.

School Deficit Plan Proceeding Without Resolving $2.1M Maintenance of Effort

The Warwick school deficit plan effectively puts 7.9 million onto the Warwick School Department books, with city-provided deficit reduction payments, averaging $1.5M, applied to reduce the deficit each fiscal year through FY31. The $2.1 million is worked into those figures in FY28.

Thursday, Committee Chairman Shaun Galligan said the $2.1 million should be added as part of the city’s contribution, in the first year of the plan, acknowledging it as part of the city’s maintenance of effort. Failing that, he said, the city should reduce the amount it is loaning the school department in the first year by that same amount.

The Committee did not vote on the plan, which they are not supervising and don’t have the power to alter. Instead, Rhode Island Auditor General David Bergantino must approve it.

“This meeting should’ve been scheduled for April 1,” Galligan said, “Because (this plan) seems like an April Fool’s prank, to get these numbers. To get this document. To be told this is what you’re going to get. Eat it. Enjoy it.”

Galligan said no Budget Commission members accepted their invitation to attend the meeting to explain the plan. In their stead, he said, Enos, who is working with the Commission and attending their meetings, would review the numbers.

The plan projects a cumulative $7.9 million deficit for FY26, with city-provided deficit reduction payments, averaging $1.5M, applied to reduce that deficit each fiscal year through FY31, until the deficit is eliminated. [A copy of the Commission’s Five Year Deficit Reduction Plan is embedded below.]

The school deficit plan also calls for yearly increases to the city’s school contribution, following a 1.6%, $2,261,817 increase in FY26, then starting with a $3,130,989 2.18% increase in FY27, a $4,037,826, 2.75% increase in FY28, a $4,148,867, 2.75% increase in FY29 and a $3,487,878, 2.25% increase in FY30 and a $3,566,354, 2.25% increase in FY31.

Those increases are separate from the deficit reduction increases from the city. Combined, the deficit reduction and city funding increases fall under the legal 4% budget increase limit: 2.97% in FY27; 3.82% in FY28, 3.80% In FY29; 3.27% in FY30 and 3.56% in FY31.

Enos noted that the School Department must still operate within the city-funding increase guard rails, which he would have preferred at about 2.5% each year. His suggestion for the FY27 increase would have been 2.6%. He said the plan would require tough budgeting decisions. The $2.1 million FY26 shortfall remains part of that math.

Galligan said the city’s deficit reduction contribution in the first year, FY27, is the lowest of the five years in the plan, despite the Auditor General’s instruction that it be the highest, in order to establish a strong foundation for the school department during the plan, “So that this plan could actually be acted upon by this School Committee, and future School Committees, and this administration.”

Upon further questioning from Galligan, Enos also said that the plan is based off a starting figure that is $2.1 million less than the Budget Commission’s approved FY26 budget.

“So you and the School Administration are already chasing $2.1 million dollars of maintenance of effort,” Galligan said. He noted that shortfall on the FY26 budget spending, deemed necessary and required by the Budget Commission during the Sept. 22 City Council meeting, had since increased to about $2.3 million.

“The deficit is getting deeper and we don’t even own this budget,” Galligan said Tuesday night. “It is ultimately unrealistic.”

Wednesday, he elaborated on his misgivings.

“I think it was more a “check the box” activity versus actually developing an achievable deficit reduction plan that doesn’t decimate public school education and services in Warwick,” Galligan wrote.

When asked about whether the School Department will pursue the $2.1 million maintenance of effort argument as part of a Caruolo Act Lawsuit, which the School Committee’s October letter suggested, Galligan said he could not speculate on that, since the law establishing the Budget Commission leaves that decision with the Commission for as long as it remains in effect. Also, the Budget Commission plan isn’t yet final.

An approved plan, adopted by the City Council, will result in the Budget Commission dissolving, with the School Committee regaining fiscal control of the School Department. After that, the full School Committee will need to decide how to proceed, he said.

Committee Members, Public, Express Frustration with Budget Commission

Committee member Sean Wiggins was critical of the way the School Committee has been treated through the process by members of the Budget Commission, particularly Ernest Almonte, the chairman.

“I will say his disrespect for this body is atrocious,” Wiggins said. “We are an elected body by the City of Warwick. We are people who did this for (children), for teachers, and for the schools. They did nothing. They used our people to get numbers or independent people to do that as well. We are not the only school system in this state that is in a deficit.”

Members of the public urged the committee not to approve the school deficit reduction plan.

“For political reasons, special legislation created this commission, stripping the School Committee, which was elected by the voters of its duty,” said Jim Ginolfi. “It’s a travesty that this Commission, a non-elected body, will decide the future budgets for this elected body and the taxpayers who will be responsible for funding the schools.”

“I have been to every Budget Commission meeting so I have watched the farce unfold in real time,” said Darlene Netcoh, President of the Warwick Teachers Union.

Netcoh said the budget was “in limbo because the budget commission voted on September 3 to create this budget and there it sat. It has not gone before the City Council to vote it up or down. The city is forcing you to yet again run a deficit.”

The meeting video can be accessed on the Warwick Public Schools YouTube channel.

Budget Commission’s Five Year School Deficit Reduction Plan

WPS 5 Year Deficit Reduction Plan_03.17.2026 FINAL.xlsx - 5 year plan

Correspondent Joe Siegel contributed to this report.