PROVIDENCE – City Hall has offered to provide $1 million in additional funding to the Providence Public School District to help address its budget deficit under the conditions that the district commits to a third-party audit of its finances and the R.I. Department of Education increases its current year funding by $3 million.
RIDE currently controls the district and is responsible for at least 71% of the district's funding, with the city providing the remainder. Mayor Brett P. Smiley said the additional city funding would come from two payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements with Lifespan Corp., which still need City Council approval.
According to a letter sent Wednesday from Smiley to Providence Superintendent Javier Montañez outlining the city's proposal, the district reached out to the city on Tuesday requesting additional funding to help balance its budget, which the Smiley administration said is currently $10.9 million in the red.
According to Smiley's letter, this request goes against a previous understanding that the school district would work within the current funding arrangement.
"We have made it clear that once a budget is passed, there is no way to appropriate additional taxpayer dollars," Smiley wrote, calling the approved school budget “irresponsible and reckless.
“You have continued to communicate an increasing gap in financing for the current year and have made veiled threats about the cuts anticipated, that we all agree, would only harm our students, families and teachers," Smiley wrote.
In addition to continuing the central office hiring freeze and restricting spending districtwide, other steps being considered by the district include laying off all nonunion staff, eliminating all winter and spring athletics, and instituting five furlough days for all central office staff members, principals and assistant principals.
“It is unclear exactly how much the district needs to close their current fiscal year gap,” Smiley spokesperson Josh Estrella said Thursday. “At our last meeting, we understood it to be $10.6 million.”
Estrella added that when the city tallied up the list of potential programming cuts the school district was contemplating, it amounts to $11.9 million.
RIDE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
PPSD spokesperson Jay G. Wegimont told Providence Business News in an emailed statement later Thursday that since the state intervention and takeover of the district, the city’s budget – minus education funding – has increased by $88 million while its contribution to the district rose by $5.5 million.
"It should not be controversial to invest in Providence’s children,” Wegimont said, imploring the Smiley administration to “meet its legal obligation for local funding contributions to address the financial strain PPSD is facing.”
Despite the city increasing its contribution by 4.23% over the past year and a half, according to the mayor's letter, there have been several occasions of “conflicting and incomplete information ... provided on revenues and expenses across the District for all accounts," Smiley wrote.
“We still do not have clear awareness of where those funds are designated and each time there are threats of cuts, the gap in financing and items for consideration changes,” Smiley continued. "There are limitless improvements and investments that the City needs to make, but there are none more important than our students’ future."
(UPDATE: Recasts lede and adds comment from Providence Public School District spokesperson in paragraphs 11 and 12.)
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
