School Board to Consider Bringing $300K Request to Town Meeting

Following the Smithfield Town Council's decision last week to offer the school district another $150,000 — contingent on the results of a performance review — the school committee is scheduled to take up the matter of its fiscal 2014 budget on Monday night at 7 pm at Smithfield High School.

Supt. Robert O'Brien said in a phone interview that the school board is expected to consider whether to bring the original request for $300,000 — which the council rejected last week — directly to voters at the Town Financial Meeting, scheduled for June 13.

"We don't have another meeting [before the financial meeting], and they need to decide whether they want to bring some kind of resolution forward," explained O'Brien. "It's strictly the school committee's call."

The committee also has an item on its agenda on whether to offer a resolution at the financial town meeting asking the town council to reconsider the requirement for a performance review.

After the council's May 14 meeting, O'Brien explained that the council's vote to require a review created uncertainty for the district as far as how many staffers could be kept.

O'Brien and School Committee Chairman Richard Iannitelli had asked for $300,000, which they said would preserve 18 teaching jobs, add a full-time technology teacher, and pay for a half-time music teacher.

At the meeting last week, Town Councilor Bernard A. Hawkins explained that the performance review would determine whether the school department needs the extra funding, or could save in other areas.

During the recent interview, O'Brien said that without knowing when a performance review can be finished, "Where does that leave me? Do I spend the $450,000, or do I err on the side of caution and not bring those people back?"

And if a review won't be done until the late fall or winter, O'Brien added, "there are additional costs of unemployment, so that's going to make my hole even deeper."

The current school budget request stands at about $33 million, out of a total town spending plan of $63.25 million that the council is expected to bring before voters at the Town Financial Meeting.