School budget seeks $3.5 million more from Bristol and Warren

Budget increases for salaries, benefits and ‘social-emotional’ supports

By Scott Pickering
Posted 3/21/19

The numbers are big and scary. The Bristol Warren Regional School District says it needs nearly $2 million more next year. Funding from the State of Rhode Island is going down $522,000. Money from a …

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School budget seeks $3.5 million more from Bristol and Warren

Budget increases for salaries, benefits and ‘social-emotional’ supports

Posted

The numbers are big and scary. The Bristol Warren Regional School District says it needs nearly $2 million more next year. Funding from the State of Rhode Island is going down $522,000. Money from a capital loan revolving fund is down nearly $1 million.

Put those things together, and to fund the budget, Bristol taxpayers face an 8.5 percent increase ($2.25 million more), Warren taxpayers face an 11 percent increase ($1.27 million more).

Superintendent of Schools Mario Andrade knows it’s a big increase, and it’s a big “ask” from the two towns. But he’s asking.

“This is an investment in people and programs. There isn’t a lot of sexy stuff in here,” he said Tuesday morning.

Mr. Andrade could have told you a year ago what the majority of this money would be going toward. About $1.5 million of the increase is for staff salaries. Per teachers’ union contract, the base salary for a “Step 12” (most veteran and highest-paid) teacher, will be increasing 2.6 percent, from an $83,790 base salary to an $85,969 base salary. A majority of teachers in the Bristol Warren district are at Step 12. On top of their salaries, they can receive stipends for master’s degrees, longevity and more.

Another $935,000 is going to staff benefits, principally increases in health care premiums. Those two buckets hold about $2.5 million of the nearly $3 million growth in spending.

There are smaller buckets, such as:

  • $70,000 to update and replace equipment in a Mac lab;
  • $50,000 for AP (Advanced Placement) textbooks;
  • $100,000 more in transportation fees to drive students who are in foster care or alternate home placements, in and out of the district, per state law. For example, a student from the Bristol Warren district who gets placed into a foster home in the West Bay, must be bused back into town to go to school in this district every day. Mr. Andrade said those mandatory costs have gone up two years in a row.
  • An increase in out-of-district placements; this year, the district paid to send about 50 students to outside settings, typically private schools like Meeting Street and others. That number is rising by three or four students.

Investments in 'social emotional' supports

The majority of those increases were either guaranteed, or at least reasonably predicted.

Then there’s what happened at Kickemuit Middle School two months ago. When teachers at that school staged a “sick-out” to protest escalating problems with student behavior, they shined a giant spotlight on the programming, staffing and discipline at Kickemuit.

Mr. Andrade said the district was talking about those issues long before the sick-out took place, and they would have been making investments in more staffing next year anyway, but “the sick-out accelerated the conversations we were already having.”

So the budget for next year includes new investments in student behavioral resources. Specifically, the district is asking for:

  • An additional special education teacher at Hugh Cole Elementary;
  • An additional special education teacher at Kickemuit;
  • A new math specialist for Kickemuit;
  • A Kickemuit behavioral specialist to increase from three days a week to five days;
  • A permanent school resource officer at Kickemuit (though the district would pay only 25 percent of the salary; the Town of Warren and a Rhode Island governor grant would pay the remainder).

The majority of those expenses are investments in what Mr. Andrade considers the new and obvious mission of the public school system — to manage the whole child, not just the academics for the child. In his budget presentation, Mr. Andrade wrote: “Recently, we received a clarion call from the community in response to what has become a national trend, namely, redefining the role of public schools to consider the whole child by increasing social emotional supports. In essence, schools have become the hub of the community, expanding the circle of supports for students and families, and can no longer operate as stand-alone academic institutions.”

Moving forward, the superintendent envisions a team of people who are working within all schools, K to 8. Comprised of behavior specialist, special educator, neuropsychologist, social worker, and school psychologist, working together, the team will offer an array of supports to those students who need it most.

Mr. Andrade said not all students need those services. For most students, a culture of inspiration, engagement and problem-solving, is enough. For others, perhaps 5 percent of the student population, the supports are daily.

“For 90 percent of the kids, they just need a fist-bump in the morning,” Mr. Andrade said. “They need someone to say, ‘Good morning, I’m glad you’re here.’ And they’ll be fine. Some other kids need a little more. They need a 10-minute conversation — ‘How was your night? What’s your goal for today? How are you going to make it through from 7:30 to 2? Work on your goal, and we’ll check in at the end of the day.’ — And then you have another tier, where the kids need that social emotional person, where they say, ‘I’m going to check in on you every hour. Here’s your goal. And if it’s not working, we’ll go to a different classroom.’ ”

Coupled with the “fixed” expenses of salaries, benefits and programs, the new social-emotional initiatives add up to a $3 million increase in spending. The Bristol Warren Joint Finance Committee, comprised of leaders from the two towns, heard a first presentation of the budget last week. They meet again next Tuesday, March 26, to vote on a bottom-line for district funding. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Mt. Hope High School.

  2018-19 2019-20 Change
Expenses      
General Fund $53,190,174 $56,157,125 $2,966,951 (5.6%)
Debt Service $2,563,650 $1,586,050 -$997,600 (-38%)
Revenue      
State Aid $15,973,757 $15,451,343 -$522,414 (3.3%)
Bristol Funding $26,495,653 $28,743,735 $2,248,082 (8.5%)
Warren Funding $11,572,814 $12,844,800 $1,271,986 (11%)

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