01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, May 26, 2005

BY BENJAMIN N. GEDAN
Journal Staff Writer

WARWICK -- The School Committee told the City Council last night that it might have to shutter the Potowomut School, a threat that sent parents dashing to the microphone to defend the 76-year-old facility.

School board Chairman John F. Thompson, speaking at the council's first budget hearing, said the closing Potowomut would save $500,000 -- funds he called indispensable if the council approves Mayor Scott Avedisian's recommended spending plan for the year that begins July 1.

"It'll have a lot of negative impacts on education," Thompson said of the mayor's proposed budget. "Class sizes would increase dramatically; a school could be closed."

Avedisian has proposed giving the School Department $142 million, $7.3 million less than the school board requested.

School officials have ferociously attacked the mayor's recommendation, saying it would result in program cuts and eliminate the possibility of improving the aging fleet of school buses. Many of the department's 40 buses have logged more than 300,000 miles and as much as 20 years of service, and the district has not purchased a new bus in three years.

Last night, Avedisian contended that the school board hatched the Potowomut closure plan to galvanize parents of the elementary school's 200 students. The issue came up at a School Committee meeting Tuesday night, but school officials never emphasized it in earlier budget presentations.

"I think it's ironic that 10 days ago it wasn't on the radar," Avedisian said. The only similar proposal school officials have recently discussed, he asserted, concerned closing the John Wickes Elementary School if T.F. Green Airport ever expanded.

The School Department, in public comments and letters, had beseeched parents to attend last night's hearing devoted to the education budget. And the proposal to close Potowomut filled the bleachers and balcony in the council chambers, with more than 100 people.

Many of the speakers pleaded with the council to reverse the mayor's cuts, and they praised the school they call Warwick's "hidden treasure."

"This is an extremely close-knit community," said Robert McGuire, a sixth-grade teacher at the Robertson Elementary School and the father of three Potowomut students. "We resent that we're in the middle of this political hot potato."

The proposal to close Potowomut -- and likely disperse its students to the Cedar Hill and Harold J. Scott Elementary Schools -- also sparked criticism of the Warwick Teachers Union, which has been locked in a contract dispute with the school board for nearly two years.

Several parents called for giving the teachers lower raises and requiring them to contribute to the cost of their health coverage. The $2 million in this year's budget earmarked for teacher raises, speakers said, should be spent on equipment and books instead, as should $2.4 million that the school board allocated for prospective raises in its budget request for next year.

"Teacher salaries are out of line. Something needs to be done," said Bruce Gempp, to sustained applause. "Buy some buses, buy some books."

Council members gave little indication of their position. But in an interview, council President Donald Torres reiterated his opposition to financing a teacher contract that was not yet signed. "I'm not in favor of a hypothetical raise," he said.

Robert W. Dooley, the School Department's director of business affairs, argued last night that without reserving money for a future contract, negotiations would end up "on hold."

The school board's $149-million budget request -- marking a $7.8-million increase over current spending -- included financing for a 3.5 percent retroactive raise for the current year and similar raises for the next two years.

The mayor's proposed $7.3 million cut would not only sabotage contract negotiations, Dooley said, but have consequences for education throughout the district. Already, the School Department has eliminated 23 positions for next year, including 11 teachers, and it has no plans to replace the projected 35 retiring educators.

Almost $5 million of the School Department's proposed spending increase would finance a new teachers contract and other personnel salary increases, with an additional $2.6 million reserved for higher pension fund contributions.

Avedisian said the school board's doomsday predictions are unnecessary, and he criticized school officials for threatening to close a school while ignoring his proposals to save money.

"Unfortunately," Avedisian said, "none of my suggestions were met with any enthusiasm or energy."

Benjamin N. Gedan can be reached at bgedan#projo.com.