CRANSTON –– School Committee Chairman Michael A. Traficante said yesterday he expects the committee to appeal a Superior Court decision rejecting the schools’ $4.5-million lawsuit against City Hall.

But at least two members of the committee said it might be time to give up the legal fight for a boost in local education aid and begin the painful process of cutting school programs.

“I don’t think I’m in favor of an appeal,” said Andrea M. Iannazzi. “I think the dispute has gone on long enough.”

Steve Stycos echoed Iannazzi’s comments, though both said they would remain open to an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The panel is scheduled to meet tomorrow night and is expected to discuss the matter in closed session.

School officials filed the lawsuit, known as a Caruolo action, in May. In it, they contended that the $125.3 million the City Council appropriated for the district in the 2007-2008 fiscal year was not enough to adequately run the schools.

Judge Judith C. Savage rejected the lawsuit in a sharply worded ruling Monday, finding the district had “blatantly failed to comply” with a number of legal prerequisites to filing the Caruolo action and criticizing the district’s financial management.

The ruling leaves a hole in the district budget that could range from $4.1 million to $9 million, depending on the outcome of a detailed audit of district finances and programs.

That reality has district officials weighing cuts they had put off for months in the hopes of a legal victory.

“It’s going to be devastating for 11,000 schoolchildren,” Traficante said.

School Committee members said they are already weighing mid-year cuts to middle school sports and an increase in the number of students who would have to walk to school.

They said they could also leave empty about six vacancies spread among elementary guidance counselors, social workers, school psychologists and speech pathologists.

That move would save the district some $600,000, according to Raymond L. Votto Jr., the district’s chief operating officer.

Traficante talked of mid-year layoffs or furloughs for non-certified employees such as bus drivers or secretaries. And he said the cash-strapped district will ask its labor unions for money-saving concessions –– even though it has little to offer in return.

Stycos said the district should also consider charging a charter school, the New England Laborers’/Cranston Public Schools Construction Career Academy, for a series of in-kind services.

Committee members said they could not chop a popular enrichment program for gifted students in the middle of the school year because they were past a statutory deadline to warn teachers of possible layoffs.

But the program, the Enrichment Project in Cranston (EPIC), could be on the chopping block for the 2009-10 school year.

Committee members acknowledged that all these cuts would probably not amount to the sort of savings the district would have to effect if the Caruolo ruling stands.

And even those who said they were reluctant to pursue an appeal disputed portions of Savage’s decision.

For instance, the judge blasted the schools for filing their lawsuit in May, just a month before the end of the fiscal year.

She even suggested the district had waited until its money had all but run out in a bid to force a court award for more cash.

The schools, she wrote, should have been doing more to contain costs and less to prepare a lawsuit.

Stycos said he was part of a minority faction on the School Committee that pushed for more cuts before the 2007-08 fiscal year began.

But he said the judge’s assertion that the schools did not do much to cut costs once the school year began was “fair.”

Still, Stycos said there was no calculated attempt to delay the Caruolo filing until late in the fiscal year.

“I don’t think there was a conscious effort to, ‘Oh, let’s put this off,’ ” he said.

Iannazzi agreed. And she argued that the delays came because the schools were trying to work out a settlement with the city –– led on by a mayor who kept suggesting he would come up with the money for an agreement.

Mayor Michael T. Napolitano said he discussed a settlement, but made it clear that he would provide the cash only if the schools proved they were entitled to the money. The district never made the case, he said.

Iannazzi added that the committee made all its decisions based on the advice of financial consultants and lawyers.

District lawyers, who are scheduled to meet with administrators and financial consultants this morning to discuss the schools’ next steps, did not return calls for comment yesterday.

dscharfe@projo.com