Warwick Schools FY24 Salaries Overspend $4.8M

WARWICK, RI — Warwick Schools Finance Director Brandon Bohl says Warwick Schools FY24 salaries were over budget by $4.8 million for FY24,  which the administration recommends fixing by increasing FY25 salary by 4.61 percent, coupled with 35 layoffs, already enacted.

“The salaries line for FY24 shows that we budgeted $95.4M, but spent $100.2M,” Bohl wrote when asked to elaborate on his remarks about the salary overspend in the previous fiscal year.

“We’ve talked at previous School Committee meetings about being over budget in terms of salaries in prior years and showing that trend” Bohl told the Committee during Tuesday night’s meeting. In response, the district halted discretionary spending, such as custodial and maintenance supplies, equipment,  through the end of December as they consider a revised district budget for the remainder of the school year to address the overrun, Bohl said during the meeting.

Though the budget allocated $94 million for salaries,  due to programatic head count and the end of COVID-19 related federal stimulus funding, “We  now know this was far less than the district  needed to budget for salaries,” Bohl said. “While a significant adjustment was made to increase the budget for salaries during the current fiscal year, we anticipate being over budget again in Fiscal Year 25.”

School Committee Chairman Shaun Galligan said that while the layoffs occurred earlier this year when the FY25 budget was adopted, a majority of the TA’s have been brought back due to student needs.

Next, Bohl said, they will determine how much the district will actually need in FY25, develop a spending plan for the second half off the year that’s inline with operations and fiscal concerns, and present an accurate spending plan for FY25.

At the meeting, Committee member David Testa said he was “disappointed” but, said, “We’ll cross each bridge as we get to it and then we’ll see just how big or bad this monster is.”

Bohl noted the administration was being prudent.

“We’re doing what we can in order to minimize or offset it to the extent that we can but also recognizing there’s programmatic needs within the district,” Bohl explained. “We can’t say no to everything. We can’t cut everything. We still have to run a school district which meets student needs.”

“We’re getting ahead of this,” said Galligan. “We’re identifying a potential issue here with regards to our financials. We’re going to have some tough decisions before us.”

New High Schools Costs Update Due January

New cost estimates for the new Toll Gate and Pilgrim High Schools will be presented in January. The cost of construction for the schools has escalated to $387.8 million, $38.7 million more than the original $350 million estimated, as disclosed during the Oct. 23 School Committee meeting.

In order to save money, the architects revised and reissued the schematic designs, according to Chris Spiegel, the Senior Project Manager for Left Field Project Management.

An enclosed courtyard was eliminated, and 40,000 square feet were reduced without cutting programs, Spiegel said.

The School Committee approved Pilgrim’s Stage III RIDE design submission at Tuesday’s meeting. It will be reviewed by RIDE next week. 

“I’m very concerned about the number of classrooms,” Bachus said. “I know it will be a major issue with our faculty.”

John Bates from Left Field Project Management told the committee Pilgrim’s floor plans and athletic field had not changed.

Construction on the project is set to begin in March 2025. The move-in date for the  new high schools would be sometime July through August 2027. Last August, Spiegel said the project was on budget.

The meeting video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPbK96D_FB4