Cranston Public Schools seek an increase in city funding following Mayor Kenneth Hopkins’ budget presentation two weeks ago.

The school department had asked for $103 million earlier this year. The city’s proposed budget seeks to allocate $101 million, about $1.7 million less than what school officials had asked for.

Describing it as a “dire” situation in a special budget hearing last week, schools Chief Financial Officer Joe Balducci said several issues caused the School Department to finish the fiscal year in a deficit position.

According to Balducci, every year when school district leaders put the budget together, they must “make some assumptions on some internal savings,” he said.

In the budget for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, he said, the schools had asked the city for an additional $1.9 million to help with the department’s deficit, but received only an additional $200,000, which left a budget gap of about $1.7 million that they had to make up as the year went on.

Then, a sudden change in the state budget was adopted, restoring of cost-of-living increases to retirees who had lost them years ago, which Balducci said would affect municipalities and school districts.

But the biggest issue that seemed to place the School Department in a deeper hole came from a last-minute rise in municipalities’ pension contribution rates during the close of the last General Assembly session.

“The problem is, overnight I got notified that the pension rates went up for the year we’re in,” Balducci said. “And when I recalculated the obligation overnight, I went $1.2 million in the hole.”

With a $1.7-million deficit they knew they needed to deal with and now the additional $1.2-million loss, Balducci said, the schools are in “dire straits” as the fiscal year winds down, something he says he has never said before.

“I have never said this in …15-plus years: We are not going to run a surplus this year,” Balducci said.

School Committee, residents chime in

Members of the School Committee and other residents also told the City Council the schools will need more funding.

Citing concerns such as cuts to teaching staff and programs, growing class sizes, unfunded state mandates, building maintenance and more, many emphasized the importance of properly funding the schools.

Elizabeth Larkin, president of the Cranston Teacher’s Alliance, said the “level-funding, underfunding and barely funding cannot continue.” She said the School Department has eliminated programs, curricula and staff to keep up, and made a passionate statement calling on the council to fully fund the schools and support Superintendent Jeanine Nota-Masse’s budget.

“She [Nota-Masse] should not have to grovel and beg year after year, and have the tin cup out, trying to get extra funds,” Larkin said.

Larkin also said Cranston schools have lost millions and millions of dollars to Achievement First, a national charter-school management network.

She called out former Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, who had proposed and supported the opening of the Achievement First Iluminar Mayoral Academy Elementary School in Cranston.

Larkin said that despite the many challenges the Cranston School Department faces with underfunding, it still achieves great things.

From high graduation rates to rising attendance and test scores, School Committee Chairman Domenic Fusco Jr. said, the city’s schools are doing more with less. According to Fusco, Cranston spends an average of $19,483 per student, below the state average of $22,000 and below districts such as Warwick, Johnston and East Providence.

“The mayor stated that we should give our best to the citizens of Cranston,” Larkin said. “We have. We do. And we will continue to give. [However], it is time to give to the schools, it’s time for the community and the City of Cranston to give to the schools, to give to their employees and fully fund them.”

The next special finance committee hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, April 21, followed by a City Council meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 23.