By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

The Pawtucket and Woonsocket school districts, plus nine others in the state, got some good news this week: All will be getting back substantial funds from the distribution of a surplus accumulated by the Northern Rhode Island Collaborative.

In a meeting held on Friday, the collaborative’s regional board voted to approve a resolution drafted by Pawtucket Schools Supt. Hans Dellith and Woonsocket Schools Supt. Maureen Macera aimed at recouping funds from an estimated $7 million surplus.
The Pawtucket School Committee had voted on approving the new resolution just hours earlier, with all members except David Coughlin agreeing to the plan.
Macera said an initial resolution had been rejected by the board, but she and Dellith had worked together on a “compromise resolution” that was subsequently passed. “Dr. Dellith and I had worked very hard on this issue,” said Macera.
According to Pawtucket Schools Business Manager Thomas Conlon, Pawtucket should be getting a dispersement of $749,000 within a week or so and another $88,000 later in July, for a total of $837,000. Conlon added that there is a potential for the School District to receive an additional $130,000 later in the year, one the collaborative’s fiscal year 2009 books are closed out for the year.
According to a source in the Woonsocket School Department, the resolution that was passed by the NRIC’s regional board of directors agreed to a series of payouts that would eventually total $1.3 million for Pawtucket, $558,000 for Woonsocket, $460,000 for Central Falls, $433,000 for Cumberland, $87,000 for Foster-Glocester, $611,000 for Johnston, $267,000 for Lincoln, $674,000 for North Providence, $240,000 for North Smithfield, and $401,000 for Smithfield.
The Northern Rhode Island Collaborative (NRIC) is a state-chartered consortium, headquartered in Cumberland, that provides educational services to disabled youngsters.
Its 11-members include the school districts of Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Central Falls, Burrillville, Cumberland, Foster-Glocester, Johnston, Lincoln, North Providence, North Smithfield, and Smithfield. The school superintendents from all 11 districts sit on its board.
The surplus was estimated to range from $5 million to about $7 million. The higher figure was reproetd in January from an independent financial consultant who had been hired by Pawtucket School department to delve into the matter.
The auditor’s report showed no wrong-doing on the part of the collaborative. Rather, the auditor found that that the non-profit institution had built up a surplus from using conservative budgeting practices that tended to over-estimate anticipated expenses. The surplus also stemmed from a separate building fund that the NRIC collaborative officials had established to put towards the construction of a new headquarters in Smithfield.
When contacted about the initial auditor’s report, Julian MacDonnell, NRIC’s Executive Director, did not dispute the existence of a surplus, but said he considered it to be much lower than the consultant’s figures. He also noted that since 2004, the NRIC had consistently given back money to its member school districts in the way of tuition re-imbursements.
Previously, the Pawtucket School Committee had voted to present an initial resolution from Dellith that contained options for dispensing the surplus. However, the NRIC’s board had voted against that plan, saying it would, in effect, liquidate the collaborative.
The School Committee had also voted pursue legal action with the collaborative over the surplus if an agreement couldn’t be reached.
Julian MacDonnell was out of the office on Monday and could not be reached for comment, so specifics of the latest resolution agreement were not available.
However, according to several sources, one key part of the compromise centered on freeing up the money that had been set aside in a building fund for the new Smithfield site. Officials reportedly agreed that the collaborative could explore leasing new space, rather than doing construction.
Speaking for Pawtucket, Conlon said that school officials were obviously pleased about the decision and said the money will be put towards next year’s school deficit.
School Committeeman David Coughlin, who voted against Dellith’s and Macera’s resolution, said he did so only because he had thought that it was shortchanging the Pawtucket School District. Coughlin said he that some estimates showed that Pawtucket’s share of the surplus was more in the vicinity of $1.75-1.8 million. “We could have got a lot more,” maintained Coughlin.