By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — The School Committee stood its ground Wednesday and took no action on a request by Mayor Susan D. Menard to immediately balance its current budget to available revenues.

The panel instead approved sending Menard a letter explaining its interest in continuing to reduce its expenditures while awaiting a formal audit review of its spending.
Officials are expected to meet with Menard at City Hall this morning but the purpose of that session was unclear.
Menard indicated Monday that she would block the school department’s access to city funding for its budget in light of the unbalanced spending plan. That move could prevent the school department from meeting its payroll obligations on Friday and in turn sparked legal action from the school department’s labor union for violation of contract obligations.
School Superintendent Robert J. Gerardi Jr. read the letter of response after the committee met in closed session with its special legal counsel, Stephen Robinson, and approved the document.
In response to the mayor’s contention that the school department is required by the charter to “provide the administration within a prescribed timeframe a budget balanced to enact” its city appropriation, the committee maintains the school department “did send the City an amended budget” on July 16, 2009, which completed that step.
The amended budget was based on two stipulations — the approval of requested waivers by the Commissioner of Education and an agreement from the Woonsocket Teachers Guild establishing 40 unpaid work days for its members -- that never materialized.
The department, the letter stated, is still working on alternatives to those steps that would also require approval from the Commissioner and the Woonsocket Teachers Guild.
 The panel is currently working with the Commissioner’s office on several variances from state staffing requirements that could save the department money in the current budget and has scheduled meetings with the Woonsocket Teachers Guild to open negotiations on a contract extension “which could yield significant reductions” to the 2010 budget, according to the letter.
 The panel indicated it is also exploring a “maintenance of effort” ruling from the Commissioner of Education that combined with the other cost savings efforts could allow the school department to produce a balanced budget.
 The panel indicated that it is ready to begin work on the hiring of a performance auditor to review its operations and finances and noted the first step in that process is for the city to identify the auditor it would like used during that process.
 The items mentions would constitute a “concrete plan” offered by the panel to “balance the Woonsocket Education Department FY10 Budget,” the letter stated.
 In response to Menard’s notification that she had directed “the Finance Director to withhold any further draws against the City’s appropriation” until the department was in compliance with charter’s budget requirements, the committee offered a clear objection to the possible legal ramification of the move.
“It is the school department’s position that we run the school and you fund the schools,” the letter states. “We are putting you on notice that we are not participants in your potential wage and hour violations,” it stated.
 As he concluded the letter, Gerardi said the school department is continuing to “explore expense reductions and legal procedural remedies to our current projected deficits.
 “We do not believe the taxpayers of Woonsocket would want us to put forward a request for more additional appropriations than we actually need for FY10,” he said.
 The department continues to wait for the name of an auditing firm to begin the review of the school department’s operations, he said. “We are hopeful that you will be diligent in getting this information to us as we want to resolve this issue as quickly as possible,” Gerardi said.
 While not taking up any specific budget balancing cuts during the session, the School Committee did subsequently vote unanimously to seek a ruling from the Commissioner of Education on maintenance of effort and also to join a Cranston and Chariho petition seeking the payment of never received compensation for administration costs at the career and technical schools in those communities.
 The maintenance of effort appeal would be based on the school department’s contention that city has in effect approved a school budget of $64.8 million in the past two years and yet approved a budget of $61 million this year. The change, based on the reduced state revenue the city received this year, would violate state education law requiring communities to fund schools at a least the same level they were funded the previous year, according to school officials.
 The process involves petitioning the Commissioner of Education to rule that a community is not in compliance with the maintenance of effort requirement, Robinson told the panel, and in turn that ruling could be litigated in court. In effect, the move could support a bid for additional funding under a so-called Caruolo Act lawsuit against a community or solve deficit problem independently.
 The local petition would focus on the approximate $3 million shortfall that remains in this year’s budget from the reduction in revenue. Covering that amount could make the current projected deficit of $5,559,966 more manageable, according to school officials.
 School Committee Chairman Marc A. Dubois joined other members of the panel in supporting the filing of a maintenance of effort petition.
 The fact the city cut the budget below the figure the school department spent in two previous years guaranteed a new deficit would occur this year, he argued.
 While facing budget problems of its own, Dubois said the city still has to “realize that education is a priority.”
 Gerardi told the panel that the Career Center petition could secure the department between $7.5 million and $4.5 million in funding for the Woonsocket Area Career and Technical Center if successful.
 The legal bid would be handled by the department’s regular legal counsel, Richard Ackerman at no additional cost beyond his regular compensation, he noted.
 The school committee heard City Councilman John F. Ward also appeal for a speedier resolution to the potential legal matters pending between sides but did not act on his request.
 The commencement of a formal audit requires a “step-by-step” process specified under the Caruolo Act, Ward argued, and failure to comply with that process would only delay the end result.
 He also made that point on the panel’s bid to find additional savings. The actual deficit would be a moving target, Ward said, and as a result the panel should simply state it has a deficit and begin the formal process of requesting additional funding from the city.
“To delay because you are trying to get additional savings is wasting precious time and serves no purpose,” Ward said.
 The school department should instead file a request for additional funding, he said. “The council will say no and we can move on,” he said.
 Once the Caruolo process has begun Ward said the review of school spending and operations could begin as the first step in resolving the department’s financial problems.