PORTSMOUTH — When her children were small, Deidra Ricci wanted them to have the kinds of educational experiences that make some school days stand out from others in the annals of memory.

So she joined with others in raising the money to put on some of those programs, forming the Portsmouth Public Education Foundation in 2001, when the squeeze on budgets for public education had already begun.

Many other people with sentiments similar to Ricci’s donated a total of $124,535 to the schools through various organizations — not necessarily the PPEF — during the last academic year for everything from field trips to medical supplies for school nurses.

Outside consultants frown on this practice, not out of criticism of parents and other donors, but because the School Department is relying on private contributions to provide materials necessary for teaching the basic curriculum of a public program.

Instructional materials and library books are sorely under-funded, according to the consultants. Among other things, they recommend that the School Department add $40,000 to the budget for library books, which now stands at only $35,000.

Not that town is about to augment the school budget.

For one thing, the Town Council would have to convince six of its seven members to exceed the maximum 5 percent increase in the property tax levy permitted by state law for the next fiscal year.

“That will never happen,” said council member Leonard B. Katzman.

If anything, school finances will be tighter in the next budget than in the current one.

School Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Wedge said recently that she doesn’t believe the community has absorbed the fact that there will be no middle school sports next fall.

Also to be cut are late bus runs, which enable children to attend afterschool programs and get home without their parents taking time out of work to pick them up.

The consultants recently conducted a performance review of the schools which concluded that they are generally well-run and give students a high quality education for $2,000 less per pupil than any of eight other Rhode Island districts with roughly similar demographics.

Instructional materials are now budgeted at $174,000, or the equivalent of $58 per student. That’s far below benchmarks recommended by several recent studies.

During the last year, reports in California and Oregon and at the University of Pennsylvania said the cost of educational materials necessary to teach reading, math, science, and social studies ranged from $172 to $195 per student, according to Berkshire consultants.

And Berkshire noted that $35,000 allocation for library books is less than half of what it should be.

“A visit to the high school’s library illustrates the scarcity of its collection, as most shelves in the library are half empty,” Berkshire’s consultants said.

The high school library averages 11 books per student, a little more than half the recommended number of 20 books per child, the consultants said.

“Relying on external sources to fund basic services puts the entire educational enterprise at risk,” the consultants wrote.

Moreover, they wrote, in interviews and focus groups, teachers and parents throughout the district “raised concerns about the dependence of schools on parent groups to provide the core instructional materials and supplies needed to deliver the department’s curriculum.

“In particular, parents and PTO leaders expressed frustration and concern that fundraising that had been focused on supporting supplemental and enrichment programs for students was now being redirected to address needs that should be funded as part of the department’s budget.”

“Leaders of parent groups also expressed concern that the fruits of their significant fundraising efforts are being taken for granted by elected officials and have become expected by members of the community who are opposed to additional funding for schools,” the consultants wrote.

The PPEF’s Ricci, meanwhile, said she does not count hers among those parent voices.

The PPEF, which raised $14,000 last year, divided the money into $750 minigrants awarded on a competitive basis to individual teachers for enrichment projects.

The teachers who received the awards for projects in art, music, writing, history and the sciences were very appreciative, Ricci said, noting that the money does not go directly to the schools themselves.

Unlike school-based parent groups, PPEF is a community organization that draws its membership and support from people in all walks of life — including those who have no children in the schools, Ricci said.

In the last year, the PPEF has more than doubled the amount of money it has raised and hiked the maximum amount awarded to a single teacher to $750 from $500.

Private nonprofit community organizations devoted to academic enrichment in the public schools have become the norm in the East Bay area since a group of Barrington residents pioneered the concept in 1992.

In addition to Barrington and Portsmouth, nonprofit foundations to benefit the public schools have been started in Newport, Middletown, East Providence, and the Bristol Warren Regional School District, the latter two within the past year.

The Newport Public Education Foundation raised millions of dollars to furnish the new Thompson Middle School several years ago, according to Ricci.

In Portsmouth, residents have raised money to outfit the new high school gymnasium, although the PPEF did not participate because of the “political” issues surrounding the project.

Meanwhile, school booster clubs and parent-teacher organizations helped support operations during the last school year by paying for such varied items as field trips, rental of an ice rink for the high school hockey team, rugs for elementary classrooms, art supplies, encyclopedias and other books and materials for libraries, according to an accounting provided by the School Department.

gmacris@projo.com