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West Warwick school leaders present preliminary FY26 budget; council approves Tecton contract for Stage 2 submission
Summary
School officials told the joint meeting the FY26 school budget is preliminary and may require one-time use of fund balance if state aid projections are flat. The council approved an approximately $856,000 AIA-template contract with architect/consultant Tecton to prepare a Stage 2 submission; supplemental studies would be added if required.
School and town officials met Dec. 17 for the annual statutory pre-budget consultation to review early FY26 revenue and expenditure estimates and a school building consultant contract.
Krista, a town finance staff member, told the joint meeting the revenue estimates are preliminary and that prior-year tax revenue and penalty/interest collections are down because motor vehicle collections have declined. “I always factor a 2% on the levy for now to be conservative,” Krista said.
The superintendent said the district’s draft FY26 budget is not yet complete but is on track to be delivered to the town manager in the first week of February, per the town charter. Lisa, a school finance official, said the district has seen an average budget increase of about 5% over the last four years, driven largely by contractual salary increases and added staff to meet student needs. She warned the district might need to use fund balance to support operations in FY26 and called repeated reliance on the fund balance “not a long term solution.”
Separately, the council approved an American Institute of Architects–template contract with Tecton for work on the school building Stage 2 submission. The contract was vetted by the school building committee and the school committee before the council vote. The base agreement is for approximately $856,000 and is planned to be funded from the school department’s surplus; the contract includes allowances for supplemental services such as traffic and geotechnical studies if the eventual proposal requires them.
Town and school officials said Tecton has been responsive during the Stage 1 work and that the firm would assess the Stage 1 report, identify opportunities and prepare the Stage 2 submission. The school building committee reminded the public of a scheduled public engagement at the high school auditorium the next evening and noted the Stage 2 submission deadline of Feb. 15.
No formal budget figures or a final levy request were adopted during the meeting; officials emphasized the revenue and expense numbers discussed were preliminary.
