Warwick school budget oversight commission finds weak internal controls, $2.18 million shortfall and urges policy changes

A volunteer School Budget Oversight Commission told the Warwick City Council on Wednesday that it found weak internal controls, payroll reconciliation errors and a recurring shortfall that together left the school department with an estimated $2,181,388 deficit for fiscal 2026.

The commission’s chairman, Ernie Almonte, and vice chair Sherry Kuntz presented five months of review and recommended immediate policy and reporting changes to avoid future surprises. “At the end of that process, that resulted in approximately $5,000,000 in additional compensation and related expenses that needed to be added to the fiscal 26 budget,” Kuntz said, describing a reconciliation between HR and payroll listings that uncovered missing payroll-related costs.

The panel said the largest problems were not a single bad decision but systemic: inconsistent payroll reconciliations, poor position control for grant-funded staff, and insufficient budget-to-actual reporting. Those areas together, the commission said, can hide multi-million-dollar timing differences and lead to recurring deficits.

Why it matters: Payroll and personnel-related costs account for roughly 80% of the school department’s budget, the commission said; small data errors or missed…