Virtual School Committee: No Pay for Bus Contract

WARWICK, RI – Warwick held its first virtual School Committee teleconference April 7, following social distancing guidelines during the Coronavirus pandemic, voting to continue pay for most employees but against paying the transportation contract.

The Committee voted to continue to pay administrative and non-union district employees, as well as members of the Warwick Teachers Union and the WISE Union.

The Committee also voted not to pay the Warwick School District’s transportation contract with First Student. All of the bus drivers have been laid off and the district’s legal counsel advised it would be a waste of taxpayer money since no services will be provided. The decision follows that of the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE).

“RIDE has opted not to pay them,” said Committee Chairwoman Karen Bachus. She added that since the drivers have been laid off, they are getting unemployment insurance checks, plus an additional $600 per week, which is above the usual wage for many.

“We’re not using the buses. We’re not using the service, we shouldn’t be paying for the service,” said School Committee member David Testa.

Warwick Schools Finance Director Anthony Ferrucci said the federal government has promised stimulus funds for continuing service contracts for municipalities, but those funds, when made available, will be administered by the state, so the district will have to wait for word from RIDE about will be used to pay the First Student contract.

On Monday, Ferrucci said the cost to the district for the unused service would have been nearly $2 million.

“Regarding the transportation contract for daily school transportation, we average $30,500 per day for the buses, with drivers and aids, that we contract with First Student.  The contract amount in question is dependent upon the number of days the district does Distance Learning. With school being out as of 3-16 and if we do not have students return this school year, we are talking about $1.9 million not spent on buses for the balance of the school year,” he said.

Warwick School Committee legal counsel attorney Andrew Henneous said the district’s contract with First Student allows it to not pay for services it is not receiving. He said that while there is some language in the stimulus bill threatening loss of future funding for not paying existing contracts, he said the district would qualify for several exemptions to that.

Henneous noted the district also needs to apply the funding for transportation it’s not using to services it is using.

“In our opinion, you would just be throwing away taxpayer dollars,” Henneous said.

Assistant Superintendent Lynn Dambruch gave an update on elementary distance learning. Dambruch thanked the teachers and teachers assistants for “their hard work and dedication because together they were able to overcome so many obstacles that were in their way.”

“The parents feel the distance learning is going well,” Dambruch added.

“I think we improved in the second week and I think we’ll improve in the third week,” said member David Testa. “So it’s a lot of hard work on everybody’s part and we need to thank them for it.”

William McCaffrey, the director of secondary education, provided the committee with an update on secondary distance learning.

“We have an attendance rate of approximately 91 percent,” McCaffrey said. “Our staff with a range of 80 to 85 percent is conducting virtual classes live.”

“People have been absolutely fantastic,” said Bachus. “The goal is for people to stay safe and healthy.”

Vice-Chair Judith Cobden noted there has been no “negative backlash” to distance learning on the internet.

“I’ve seen all positive things,” Cobden said. “Parents are very happy. Parents are raving about what a good job we’re doing.”

“This is new,” said member Nathan Cornell. “Like this (hasn’t) happened before since the Spanish flu and public education not what it was then, it has changed a lot. I’m pleased to see how everyone kept moving the school district forward. This wouldn’t have worked if everyone hadn’t stepped up to the plate.”

There’s still a great amount of uncertainty about the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.

“There’s so much on hold right now with the lack of information about whether we’re going to reopen or not,” said Bachus. “If I had to guess now, I would probably say not going to happen which is going to make things very sad for our seniors. This is a dangerous time.”

“We need to make sure that we communicate as thoroughly as possible with parents who are concerned about GPAs, and scholarships, and all that,” Testa added. “They haven’t heard much so there’s a big state of limbo.”

“We are truly positioned well at the K to 12 level to do virtual distance learning,” said Superintendent Phil Thornton. “It’s really gratifying to see all this come to fruition. It’s getting better every day.”

Thornton thanked the committee for approving the use of Chromebooks and other technology so the district could make distance learning possible.

Maintenance was being performed at the school buildings until recently.

“All the buildings were left clean and sanitized. People were coming in. They’ve all been sent home. Right now with what’s going on, personally I believe people need to be home,” Bachus said. “I’ve told our administration and our people who handle that that people need to be safe and that should be number one.”

The committee will hold a discussion on the 2021 budget on April 21 and April 23.