WEST WARWICK — So far, it seems the Town Council doesn’t like the math the School Committee is suggesting.

Last month, the committee sent the town a letter requesting an additional $3.5 million in operating funds for the current fiscal year. The letter comes before the town’s checks totaling $1.1 million to pay off outstanding debt from last year have cleared, according to council President David Gosselin Jr.

“We’re going to discuss it in executive session [tonight], and I don’t know where the entire council stands,” Gosselin said. “But $3.5 million and $1.1 million is $4.6 million in less than six months. … The council is in a bind. Where will we get the money? There’s no money to be had for that.”

The letter, said School Committee Chairwoman Lindagay Palazzo, was just the latest step school officials are taking to be prepared should they have to file a lawsuit for additional money. They have already authorized schools lawyer David Lussier to file a suit should the need arise, and they have been denied waivers by the state Department of Education.

“[Last year] we were criticized for not filing early and that’s what we’re trying to do,” she said, “do things in a more planful way so that if we need it, we can make that move.”

The School Committee filed a so-called Caruolo suit last April seeking the $1.1 million for the 2007-08 fiscal year. A similar lawsuit filed in Cranston was denied by the court in August because a judge ruled that the School Department should have filed suit earlier to allow the city other alternatives to reduce the debt before the money was spent.

Likewise, West Warwick officials lambasted its School Committee for not acting quickly to explore other options before filing for the Caruolo action. The local lawsuit was settled in October, with the town agreeing to pay the $1.1 million in outstanding bills in exchange for a number of stipulations, including the creation of the Strategic Task Force.

The Ttask force was meant to facilitate conversation between the town and the schools and to develop a plan to mitigate the projected deficit the School Department faces this year and beyond.

The panel, according to Chairman James Williamson, has had six meetings so far, and last night was scheduled to appoint a vice chairman to facilitate the meetings in Williamson’s absence.

“So far, we’ve had a lot of discussion on particular areas of concern and areas we think where we can save money,” he said. “Each member came in with their own ideas and proposals, we consolidated them, eliminated the redundancy and now we’re in the process of discussing.”

Most of those discussions, however, were done in closed session. Last night marked the first session where the group met the majority of the time in open session, an important component for getting public feedback to avoid future budget woes, said Gosselin.

“It’s about time we went to an open meeting for public ideas,” he said. “The public can address issues we may not be aware of. The discussion is good for the town and the taxpayers.”

tbuford@projo.com