WOONSOCKET — The school district has a surplus carried over from last year and a reimbursement for saving thousands when it redesigned its health-care package that will allow the district to finish in the black for this school year.

Meanwhile, the district is looking to bring financing to the schools to help offset next year’s projected budget of $63 million to $68 million. The School Department has sent pink slips to 99 teachers and proposes to cut portions of the music and arts programs.

Supt. Maureen B. Macera said that the school district has a $763,689 surplus from the end of last school year, $29,000 in government funds, plus a $220,000 reimbursement from the Government Health Group for saving thousands when it changed its health benefits for three unions. All this will allow Woonsocket to be one of the only urban school systems that finishes in the black this year.

The district was able to get the three unions covering teachers, teaching assistants, paraprofessionals, custodians and clerks to agree to go from paying a $10 co-pay for everything from primary care to the emergency room to paying a $15 co-pay for primary care, $25 co-pay for a specialist, $50 for urgent care and $100 co-pay for an emergency room visit.

“Previously, we had been paying health care with an average 13 percent increase to the district. We looked at usage and saw there was a lot of overuse for urgent care and the emergency room. That is why we changed the program design,” Macera said.

For 2007-08, the district projected an 8-percent increase for health care. The district did so well it had no increase and saved $800,000, Macera said. “This forces them to be responsible. To have primary care physician and a specialist when needed,” Macera said. “I’m proud of our staff for our responsible health initiative.”

In the coming days, representatives from the school administration and the Woonsocket Teachers’ Guild will meet to discuss renegotiating the last year of the teachers’ contract that expires in July 2009.

John Boudreau, executive vice president of the union said the School Department had approached the guild about renegotiating the last year of the contract. “The School Department feels there is no way they can call 99 people back if there are no concessions. To bring all 99 back the school needs $6 million. Our raises amount to $1.2 million,” Boudreau said. “We’re not going in with any proposals, we are just looking to see what they have to say and see if it’s feasible.”

Woonsocket asked the Northern Rhode Island Collaborative, a regional special education program, to reimburse it $558,000 from a $7.35-million surplus. Public school superintendents on the board of directors of the collaborative voted last month against a proposal that would have divided up $7.35 million of the collaborative’s assets among its member school districts and effectively dissolve it. They are expected to meet again this month.

Macera and other urban educators are pinning their hopes to a proposed bill called the Fair Share Education Funding Formula, which Macera says would distribute state aid more equitably. The bill proposes redistributing state funds to towns and cities bases on the wealth of the community, student enrollment and the the number of special education students, English language learners and children from poor families. The bill is sponsored by Representatives Edith H. Ajello, D-Providence, and John A. Savage, R-East Providence, and Senators Rhoda E. Perry D-Providence, and Hanna M. Gallo, D-Cranston. “The formula has been used across the country. It does not increase funding but redistributes it based on these factors, making it fairer,” Macera said.

Under the new system, Woonsocket would stand to get an additional $13,164,914 to be phased in over three years. Pawtucket would receive an additional $10,772,350, Providence would receive $49,674,333 and Cranston would get $14,604,658.

tpina@projo.com