01:00 AM EDT on Friday, May 26, 2006

BY DANIEL BARBARISI
Journal Staff Writer

The Cranston and Warwick school systems have launched a joint study of how pooling certain services could save them money.

An eight-member study committee, which held its first meeting last week, has identified five areas of potential savings: transportation, purchasing, energy and special education, and alternative programs such as the charter school that Cranston operates in partnership with the Laborers' Union of North America.

The two communities have assigned department heads and administrators to explore the possibilities in each of those areas

"In two weeks or so, they'll come back before the full committee as to what is the art of the possible," Warwick Supt. Robert J. Shapiro said.

The easiest savings could come in transportation, for example. Both communities transport special-education students to specialized outside programs -- and both send near-empty buses to some of the same centers.

They could also buy supplies and energy jointly, potentially receiving discounts by purchasing in greater bulk. And, conceivably, Warwick could send students to Cranston's charter school, the Construction Career Academy.

"I think it's going to work out really well," said Cranston School Committee member Andrea Iannazzi.

Several months ago, Iannazzi recalled, she was reviewing the number of special-education positions in Cranston's School Department budget and wanted to check with the Warwick schools for comparison. She e-mailed Warwick School Committee Chairman Robert A. Cushman, starting a dialogue that eventually led to the creation of the committee.

Each School Department will also look at what the other does particularly well and try to emulate it. For instance, Iannazzi said Cranston is impressed by Warwick's energy-savings program, which has helped reduce fuel costs by roughly $500,000 annually. And Warwick, Cushman said, may follow Cranston's example in implementing alternative programs for students who do not succeed in a traditional setting.