Monday, June 25, 2012
E-mail memo from Committeeman Chris Roberts warns move could disrupt efforts to solve deficits.
Budget Commission members are waiting on the advice of the state Revenue Department's legal counsel on whether they're able to stop a move to re-organize the School Committee. The issue was raised by a June 22 e-mail memo to the Commission from School Committeeman Chris Roberts about an item on the school board's Wednesday agenda to modify bylaws to allow a non-election related reorganization of the board. The effort, Roberts wrote, has, "...the ultimate end goal presumptively the election of a new Chair (currently Anita Forcier-McGuire) and/or Vice Chair (currently Vimala Phongsavanh)." In regular times, Roberts wrote, such a change might be appropriate, but given the fiscal oversight of the Budget Commission and the city's struggle to …
42.00287
-71.51371
Woonsocket City Hall
169 Main St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/budget-commission-considers-blocking-reorganization-of-school-committee
505492
/locations/8968914
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Vimala Phongsavanh cast sole vote against request for state takeover of schools.
School Committee Vice Chair Vimala Phongsavanh, who cast the lone dissenting vote on a resolution asking the state to take over Woonsocket Schools Wednesday night, thinks the board should handle its deficit crisis itself. The resolution, introduced by Committee Chair Anita Forcier-McGuire and Committee member Chris Roberts, passed 4 to 1. Elliot Krieger, communications director for RIDE Commissioner Deborah Gist, spoke to RIFuture.org about the process, noting there are legal steps required before the state would step in. A FAQ document on the state's education funding formula (see attached .pdf) states, "While RI General Law (R.I.G.L.) 16-1-10 allows districts to petition RIDE to assume the supervision, control, and management of the …
42.00346
-71.51508
City of Woonsocket Department of Education
108 High St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/school-committee-vice-chair-says-board-should-handle-deficits
505279
/locations/7211665
Letter to Education Commissioner Deborah Gist says WED can't balance budget.
The Woonsocket School Committee has asked the RI Department of Education to take over, citing their inability to balance the budget while educating the city's students. The Committee voted 4 to 1 to send the letter, according to Turnto10.com, during their Wednesday night meeting at Woonsocket Middle School, 60 Florence Dr., and the state education department has reported it's ready to work with them. After Wednesday's Budget Commission hearing, RI Director of Revenue Rosemary Booth Gallogly said RIDE was cognizant of the Woonsocket School system's troubles. "They obviously are concerned about events in Woonsocket," she said. Superintendent Giovanna Donoyan told the Woonsocket Budget Commission yesterday that the while the school …
42.00346
-71.51508
City of Woonsocket Department of Education
108 High St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/wooonsocket-school-committee-asks-state-to-take-over-schools
505279
/locations/7211648
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
About $900,000 owed to the company for school bus services.
Stephen Schmuck, region vice president for Durham School Services, Woonsocket Schools bus service contractor, asked the Budget Commission for a timely resolution to the $906,000 bill owed to them by the district Monday. "This is a major concern of ours," Schmuck said during the start of the Comission's 8 a.m. meeting on the third floor of City Hall, "I don't know how much we can go on." At the moment, there is no action to extend the contract with the company to provide bus service to Woonsocket Schools in the fall, "...and I don't know who will be," Schmuck said. Giovanna Donoyan, Superintendent of Woonsocket Schools, said the district had reached out to a local contractor to see if they would provide services if Durham were to stop. …
41.99598
-71.51718
Valley Transportation
664 Front St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/durham-school-services-asks-budget-commission-for-back-pay
504829
/locations/7193316
42.00346
-71.51508
City of Woonsocket Department of Education
108 High St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/durham-school-services-asks-budget-commission-for-back-pay
505279
/locations/7193317
Monday, June 11, 2012
Results of today's job fair hinge on Budget Commission approval.
The Woonsocket Budget Commission hasn't decided whether to call back 98 laid off teachers invited to apply for open positions at the school department today. The teachers have been asked to attend a job fair at Woonsocket High today at 4 p.m., said Roxanne Cary, executive vice president of the Woonsocket Teachers Union. Cary said there are 52 positions that are open for the 98 teachers. Kathleen Lombardo, human resources director for Woonsocket Schools, said the number had been reduced from 104 due to attrition. Budget Commission Chairman Bill Sequino asked Woonsocket Teachers Union President Jeff Partington if they could postpone the job fair for two weeks until the Commission had more information on next year's budget, particularly the…
42.00287
-71.51371
Woonsocket City Hall
169 Main St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/woonsocket-schools-invite-ninety-eight-teachers-to-re-apply-for-jobs
505492
/locations/7186189
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
First meeting scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at City Hall.
Woonsocket's Budget Commisson has posted the agenda for its first meeting Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. at City Hall, 169 Main St. Yesterday, Gov. Lincoln Chafee announced the five-member committee had been appointed by Rosemary Booth Gallogly, director of the department of revenue. The appointed Commission members are Peder Schaefer, Associate Director of the League of Cities and Towns; William Sequino, Town Manager of East Greenwich; and retired school business officer Dina Dutremble. By law, the other two members of the commission are Mayor Leo Fontaine and Woonsocket City Council President John Ward. "Though the appointment of a Budget Commission does not offer immediate relief of all our concerns, it does afford the option of having …
42.00287
-71.51371
Woonsocket City Hall
169 Main St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/woonsocket-budget-commission-sets-friday-agenda
505492
/locations/8968927
Entire city delegation's support needed to resurrect legislation.
Hours after the state appointed a Budget Commission to run Woonsocket's finances, members were working to bring back legislation authorizing supplemental tax bills — a task requiring the entire Woonsocket delegation's cooperation. Larry Berman, communications director for the office of the Speaker, said Speaker Gordon Fox would not consider the bill again without a strong change of heart from local representatives. "It would have to have the support of the whole Woonsocket delegation," Berman said. The most public of the legislators opposing the supplemental tax bill, Rep. Lisa Baldelli Hunt (Democrat - District 49), spoke against the measure Thursday. Her testimony resulted in the House sending the bill back to committee. City Council …
42.00287
-71.51371
Woonsocket City Hall
169 Main St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/ri-revenue-chief-making-appeal-to-revive-woonsocket-supplemental-tax-bill
505492
/locations/7113615
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Mayor, Teacher's Union criticize reversal on House floor, WTC praises stand.
Rep. Lisa Baldelli Hunt's (D-District 49, Woonsocket), stand against the bill authorizing a supplemental tax last week, two days after her stated support for it, has drawn criticism and praise. RINPR reports the Woonsocket Teacher's Guild has rapped the representative, criticizing her failure to offer an alternative to the plan. Jeffrey Partington, President of the Woonsocket Teachers’ Guild, also accused Baldelli-Hunt of using school children as pawns in a play for political captial. However, both Baldelli-Hunt and Mayor Leo Fontaine dismissed similar insinuations in an interview for RIfuture.org after the May 22 House Committee vote where Baldelli-Hunt offered her initial support for the authorizing legislation. After her reversal that…
42.00287
-71.51371
Woonsocket City Hall
169 Main St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/baldelli-hunt-takes-heat-for-reversal-on-tax-bill
505492
/locations/7109423
Friday, May 25, 2012
City Council President focused on next step after supplemental tax goes back to committee.
As Rep. Lisa Baldelli Hunt (Democrat - District 49, Woonsocket) spoke against the bill authorizing a supplemental tax for Woonsocket, City Council President John Ward said he was shocked. "If she was told a budget commission was coming either way, it's not what I was told," Ward said when asked about Baldelli-Hunt's claim that the city would face a budget commission regardless of the outcome of the supplemental tax question, and that he and city officials knew it. Regarding her claim that there are problems in the municipal side of the budget, "I have no idea what that is about," Ward said. Baldelli-Hunt said she learned those pieces of information during a meeting Tuesday between the Woonsocket delegation and members of Govenor Lincoln …
42.00287
-71.51371
Woonsocket City Hall
169 Main St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/ward-budget-commission-unavoidable-for-woonsocket
505492
/locations/7093813
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Authorizing legislation will be considered late this afternoon.
As Woonsocket awaits the full House decision on a bill authorizing the city to raise $6.6 million with a 13 percent tax hike today, alternative plans to fix city finances are brewing. During the first Finance Committee hearing on the bill, Woonsocket Finance Director Thomas Bruce noted the hike is a permanent, recurring increase. On Wednesday, he said the $6.6 million addition to the annual tax levy is entirely devoted to school department funding. "The solution has to be a permanent solution to repair the structural deficit," Bruce said. The school department was underfunded last year and this year, to a combined tune of about $10 million, he said. The School Committee's recently drawn draft budget stands at $69.8 million for FY13, …
42.00287
-71.51371
Woonsocket City Hall
169 Main St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/house-hears-supplemental-tax-bill-today
505492
/locations/7085131
Jerry
10:37 am on Sunday, July 1, 2012
Robert, my comments weren't sour, they were the truth, maybe you should do some research and realize you don't know what you are ever talking about. YOu protect the WED like they've done no wrong. Do your math if you can. more ›