Warwick
After taking Providence firefighters to task for the remarkable number of them who seem to be retiring on disability, I’d like to turn attention to a Warwick firefighter who did good by the City of Warwick and ended up suffering for it: Fire Lt. Henrik Dunlaevy, who in 2004 sold his software to a private…
Warwick schools were pretty happy with the latest NECAP results, which showed improvement nearly across the board. From the Beacon As for the improvements at the high school level where students were told for a first time that they would need to be proficient to graduate, [Warwick School Board Chair Bethany] Furtado concludes, “Students are…
I will give credit to Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian for coming up with a plan to save $2 million in pension costs via the extension of retirement ages and reformulating pension payouts for new hires after July 2012. Avedisian’s proposal would increase the minimum years of service needed for retirement from 20 to 25 for…
Testifying before the Warwick Charter Review Commission, current Warwick School Committee Chairman Christopher Friel has come to the conclusion that the Warwick School Committee has outlived its usefulness and should be integrated into city government. Traditionally, school committees were responsible for establishing curriculum and adopting educational standards and policies within their respective communities. The school…
As a Warwickian, I’d be remiss not to call attention to the latest Hummel Report: While unfunded public pensions have gotten the lion’s share of the headlines recently – the unfunded health benefit liability for retired employees is a much bigger problem here in Warwick, to the tune of more than $300 million. Part of…
In a recent column having to do with Warwick GOP infighting, former Democrat City Council and School Committee Chair Bob Cushman explained the machinations that go on at the party level amongst the power brokers in Warwick. [Councilman Steve] Colantuano in 2006 ran and was defeated in the Democrat primary by me. In 2008, he…
Faced with an insurmountable $13 million cut in state and local funding, the Warwick School Committee voted to freeze pay and impose a 20% health care co-pay for all of its employees last night. Before the vote, School Committee Chairman Chris Friel stressed that these are not actions the district wants to take but it…
It took them a year and a half, but it looks like the City Council has realized that municipal employees are going to have to pay 20% of their health care (and not a flat dollar amount) every pay period (via Warwick Beacon). The city, which is self-insured, meaning it pays its own health insurance…
The Warwick Teachers Union (WTU) leadership continues to look for and (surprise) find reasons to not meet with the Warwick School Committee to help resolve the district’s $8.9 million budget deficit. As reported by Russel Moore in the Warwick Beacon, the School Administration had proposed to consolidate and eliminate some department head positions in the…
The Warwick City Council approved a $267 million budget and avoided raising car taxes (as proposed by Mayor Avedisian) by dipping into reserves to the tune of $2.7 million to offset city-side cuts. They also basically agreed with Mayor Avedisian’s budget proposal and funded schools at 95% of last year ($117.7 million), which was $9…