Late change in state budget may cause $200,000 deficit for Burrillville schools

BURRILLVILLE – Weeks after the School Department’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year was finalized, Supt. Michael Sollitto has learned that the district will have to pay out an additional $200,000 to fund rate changes to the state retirement system.

The last minute expense means the district has no means to change the fiscal plan for the upcoming year and will have to request a one time funding boost from the Town Council.

“At some point in FY25 we will have to appear before the Town Council to request use of undesignated funds or restricted funds of $200,000 for retirement increases,” Sollitto told members of the School Committee earlier this month.

Sollitto noted that the town will take it’s own financial hit from the change, with the $200,000 making up the district’s obligation alone. And Burrillville will likely not be alone with the problem: municipalities across Rhode Island complete the budget process by mid-June, leaving no time left to adapt to the changes.

“We found out on June 27th of this year that the retirement board had changed the rates for fiscal year 2025,” Sollitto said. “Obviously, this was very last minute news after budget development has pretty much been done and finalized and the budget’s been approved not just here in Burrillville, but in most districts across the state.”

The state budget included several changes to the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island pension system, including a cost of living adjustment for all state employees, teachers, and municipal employees who retired on or before June 30, 2012. The COLA payment for those members for 2024 will increase from 0.71 percent to 2.84 percent.  

The news comes following what was already a tough budget year for Burrillville schools, which saw a $442,000 reduction in state aid, a rise in transportation costs and negotiation of a new union contract providing raises for Burrillville teachers, who were among the lowest paid in Rhode Island.

In Burrillville, as with most communities, even cautionary measures in place to avoid such potential shortfalls have already been exhausted. Districts across the state are required to notify teachers prior to June 1 if there’s any chance that their position will be consolidated, and the Burrillville School Department sent out 39 such notices in April, up from the usual 10 to 15.

But as is common procedure, most teachers were recalled once town and state allocations were finalized – or so they thought. The Town Council funded all but $6,827 of the district’s $37,361,561 allocation request, and Sollitto told NRI NOW this week that of the 39 teachers that received non-renewal letters, only 4 were not called back for the fall.

“Of these four teachers, three were in one-year only positions and we anticipated that they would be cut,” he said.

Additionally, two teachers in the district were recalled to positions that were reduced to part time.

“We’re too late to amend budgets, as you know,” said Sollitto told the School Committee. “We have to proceed with our current budget since it’s been approved and passed and we’ve recalled teachers already. There’s really nothing to cut at this point.”

Sollitto said he’d already spoken to Town Manager Michael Wood and Committee Chairwoman Sylvia St. Pierre about the problem.

“We are in agreement the best course of action at this time is to push forward with the budget the way it is,” he said.

“It really is mind boggling that the information came to us after the General Assembly had tentatively approved a budget and it was really four days before the new fiscal year,” said Sollitto. “It’s going to cost the town significantly more money in FY25 but we don’t have any recourse at this point.”