BY JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — School Superintendent Robert Gerardi Jr. is reviewing a number of options to save money in the current school budget but still can’t say if those steps will resolve the school department’s projected $1.6 million budget deficit without deep cuts in programs.

 As a result, Gerardi will be asking state Auditor General Ernest A. Almonte for more time to work on those options before submitting a deficit correction plan to his office.
“We are still looking at places to cut and believe it or not we have found a couple of other spots to help close the gap,” Gerardi said prior to updating the school committee on his budget work Wednesday evening.
The latest savings, approximately $48,000, will come from allowing three vacant department secretarial positions to remain vacant for the rest of the fiscal year.
A second move could be an adjustment of the department’s walking routes for elementary schools that would allow a reduction in the number of buses operated each day, according to Gerardi.
A check of existing elementary transportation routes show that some students are being bused to a school beyond the walking distance for elementary school when they would actually be within the walking distance for another school closer to home.
 “If we could cut four or five buses, that would be a significant savings in transportation,” Gerardi said.
The administration is also looking into options for modifying class schedules at the secondary level for possible savings and also a proposal raised by School Committeewoman Anita MacGuire Forcier to adopt a four-day work week for the rest of the school year as another option for savings.
That plan would shift the class time of school days to longer class periods on the remaining four days. The closing of school for one day of the week would in turn generate savings in both energy costs and transportation under the plan.
Gerardi has already contacted the Department of Education to see if a four-day work week could be implemented by the district and thus far not received a firm objection to the concept.
“They indicated they want to see a much more detailed plan but also that they are open to considering it,” he said.
In the end, the district might have to seek a legislative change allowing a reduction in the number of school days in the year, Gerardi noted, but that step might be easier to pursue in the current economic environment than it would have been in the past.
The fact the budget year has reached its midpoint may also help the administration in seeking a solution to the deficit. The school department is now getting more accurate projections on end-of-the-fiscal-year costs such as electricity and fuel, and any savings in those line items could also be put against the deficit.
School Committee Chairman Marc Dubois said he hopes the additional time Gerardi is requesting on finalizing the correction plan will allow the department to resolve the problem by finding solutions within its budget.
Like many other communities, the city is facing major cuts in spending due to the state’s budget problems, and that has prompted Mayor Susan D. Menard to warn she has no additional funding to help the department.
 In a worst case scenario, the school department could pursue additional city funding through a Caruolo Act suit but that would require painful cuts in non-academic programs to gain the court intervention, according to Dubois.
 That could mean the elimination of all school sports programs, music, art, and extra-curricular activities, he said.
“A judge would look at what we offer and say the city is responsible for just funding the state’s basic education plan,” he said.
 Hopefully, with a little more time, the school department will have a firmer projection of its potential deficit and viable options to correct it, according to Dubois.
 “It’s just a waiting game right now. We’ve got our fingers crossed and are waiting to see what happens,” he said.