WARWICK — The West Warwick School Committee’s legal quest to pry an extra $3.3 million from the town to pay off expenses for the year that just ended came to an abrupt halt Wednesday in Superior Court.

Judge Steven P. Nugent, in a ruling from the bench, dismissed the School Committee’s Caruolo suit against the town, saying that school officials didn’t even try to balance their fiscal 2009 budget after voters at the Financial Town Meeting limited their spending to $49.2 million –– roughly $4 million less than they had requested.

Nugent said the committee had failed to heed the state law requiring that it give the town and the state auditor general a corrective action plan within five days of realizing that it would have a substantial shortfall.

Instead, he said, the School Department simply added a line in the budget to cover the $4-million shortfall without showing how it would be accomplished.

“This was simply a gimmick or a fiction … to balance the budget as required by law and does not comply with state law requiring the School Committee to operate within a balanced budget,” he said. “In fact, for all of fiscal year ’09, the School Committee has not operated with a balanced budget.”

The judge’s decision, ending part one of the trial that started May 11, came in response to a motion by Town Solicitor Timothy A. Williamson, who argued that school officials had not adequately substantiated their claim that the town owed them more money.

The second part involves the School Committee’s auxiliary pursuit of $1.1 million –– the minimum amount it says is needed to keep town tax support in fiscal 2009 level with what the schools received the prior year. State law requires what is called “maintenance of effort” from year to year.

In fiscal 2008, when the schools appropriation was also $49.2 million, the School Committee pursued its first Caruolo action and reached an out-of-court settlement with the town for $1.1 million. That’s the amount it wants to match. Nugent recessed the hearing yesterday, saying he would take up the matter in three weeks.

The schools had been counting on a $3.3-million award to pay outstanding bills, including the final payroll for teachers.

Last week, teachers received only three of the five summer paychecks for work already performed. After the court hearing was recessed, Supt. Kenneth Sheehan disclosed that the salary amount still due was roughly $1.8 million.

When asked if he had any way of covering the salaries, he said, “The answer is no.”

He added: “There is no way to get it. The School Committee has no statutory authority to raise revenue.”

Town Manager James H. Thomas, who has been fighting with the School Department since he arrived last year, said he is relieved that the judge agreed with him that the schools “did not have a plan.” He said the real work is ahead.

“Now you have a judge saying, ‘You didn’t do your homework. The sad part of this is there is only one taxing authority,” Thomas said in a telephone interview later Wednesday. “We are going to have to sit down with their vendors. If anything I hope this opens … a great line of communication.

“We cannot continue on the course that we’ve been on. We need to reinvent how we educate our kids. We don’t have enough money. That’s what I’ve said all along. We should have one finance office.”

In his oral ruling that lasted nearly an hour, Nugent criticized the witnesses called by the School Committee.

He recalled that Thomas Sweeney, a former West Warwick schools superintendent who served as the committee’s consultant in the Caruolo action, testified that the provision of state law involving corrective action plans was “ridiculous.”

“It may be ridiculous to him but it’s still a law that this court must uphold, which will ultimately prove fatal for the School Committee in this Caruolo action,” Nugent said.

He also said that education consultants from B&E Consulting, a Providence firm, brought in to assist the schools did not properly prepare a finance and performance audit, a procedural requirement before filing a lawsuit.

The lawyer for the School Committee, Katherine Merolla, said she plans to appeal the decision.

lsparks@projo.com