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South Kingstown school leaders ask town for $500,000 as part of FY26 budget shortfall
Summary
District budget presenters told the school committee the FY26 plan closes most gaps through cuts but still asks the town for $500,000 and a $309,830 shift of shared-service costs; remaining risk if the town declines could be covered from reserves but would cut fund balance to below typical levels.
Ryan Kilpatrick, a staff member who presented the budget to the South Kingstown School Committee on March 11, said the district—s FY26 budget exercise started from the $2.4 million gap driven by lower projected state and federal revenue and higher expenses. "This presentation before you tonight is based on the original presentation and budget adoption from February 11," Kilpatrick said as he opened the joint FY26 review for the committee.
Kilpatrick and Superintendent Pedraza outlined steps the district took to narrow the gap: roughly $1.5 million in salary-and-benefit reductions (about 16.8 full-time equivalents), $75,000 trimmed from equipment, software and professional development, and other line-item savings. With those reductions the district still presented a remaining shortfall of about $809,000; its formal request to the town is for an additional $500,000 and a second request to shift $309,830 in shared-service expenses (school resource officers, crossing guards, field maintenance, 20% of an IT manager position and a portion of a tax/assessment software subscription) from the school budget to the town…
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