WESTERLY — The School Committee might have to dip into its own coffers to cover outstanding bills related to the field turf replacement at Westerly High School.
That’s due in part to a lag in both state reimbursement money owed to the town, plus donations through fundraising efforts.
The $1.4 million project to replace Westerly High School’s Sal Augeri Field turf with synthetic turf wrapped up last September. Now, less than half of the bill for the work has been paid.
The school department is waiting on an estimated $266,203 reimbursement from the R.I. Department of Education and $500,000 pledged by Westerly’s Town Council.
It also anticipates $38,500 in pledged but not yet received donations for 2024. Pledges after 2024 are $24,900. When that funding comes in, school officials estimate the project would end up with a $76,543 surplus.
The state reimbursement had initially been projected to arrive in late June or July, but now could take up to a year to complete.
An invoice to contractor Field Turf for $451,953 remains unpaid. Then, the remaining balance of $350,000 is due no later than July 1, Finance Director Cindy Kirchhoff said.
“We’ve had a few people talk about the idea of taking funds from our fund balance to pay for our final amounts due,” Committee Chairman Robert Cillino said.
But the committee on Wednesday rejected a request from the finance department to commit up to $246,660 of its fund balance to the payments.
“We’ll have to come back to the drawing board with something,” Cillino said.
Committee officials now want to meet with Westerly’s Town Council, which has promised $500,000, but only after non-municipal sources such as donations and the state reimbursement have been committed to fund the remainder of the project’s cost. Essentially, the Town Council’s share would be the last to be committed to the field project.
Kirchhoff told the committee that the public schools’ fund balance is separate from municipal funding as worded in the resolution the council passed to authorize the $500,000 town allocation.
Kirchhoff said the finance department proposed to commit up to $246,000 in school funds so that she could request the Town Council release its commitment of money.
Cillino and other members had concerns that doing that would be seen as a use of municipal funds, however. Cillino said the payment crunch is “a bad look,” especially as teaching positions stand to be eliminated in the next budget.
“This is what some of us wanted to avoid from the get-go. This field did not need to be pushed through the way that it was,” he said.
The hope now is that the council, contractor Field Turf or both have some wiggle room.
“Field Turf went through with this project knowing it wasn’t fully funded yet,” Cillino said.
The Field Turf contract approved by the School Committee for Augeri Field is $1,419,750. After committed funds of $673,090, the estimated deficit is $746,660, according to the finance office.
Of the committed funds, $500,000 was approved by the School Committee, and there’s $165,090 of fundraising cash in hand. A further $8,000 comes from legislative grants. To date, $617,796 has been paid.
The group responsible for fundraising efforts has not met in months, committee member Diane Chiaradio Bowdy said. The school committee’s contract with a professional fundraiser also has ended.
“We have funds coming in from 2024 to 2028,” Bowdy said.
She noted that the original fundraising goal was $400,000 to $600,000 to redo both Augeri Field and the adjacent quad. The School Committee, however, reduced the project’s scope to just Augeri Field’s turf. There was some discussion about reviving the fundraising committee, but no action was taken.
Others on the school committee said that funds pledged years out don’t help solve the immediate problem of bills that are due in months.
“Something needs to be figured out for how this bill’s going to be paid,” committee member Lori Wycall said.
The Westerly Public Schools total fund balance as of March 13 sat at $7.98 million, but parts of it are restricted for educational programs, the school building project and other areas. The unassigned fund balance is about $2.9 million.
Committee member Michael Ober said the state will come through with its share of the funding.
“They’ve always reimbursed us, we know the process, it takes time,” Ober said.