Johnston School Committee responds to town’s takeover plans

JOHNSTON, R.I. (WLNE) — A week after Johnston Mayor Joe Polisena Jr. said the town will takeover the school department, the School Committee said they don’t believe this will “improve educational outcomes” for students and could make the situation “worse.”

“Let me be clear: under no circumstances will we agree to allow the mayor to ‘takeover’ the district,” said Robert Lafazia, School Committee chair. “The reality is, the challenges the district is facing have been cause by financial mismanagement, not by the district or the School Committee, but by the town.”

Lafazia claims that the town has failed to “appropriately” fund Johnston Public Schools, saying the town has faced “drastically” higher costs because of increasing numbers of “special needs students and multilingual learners.”

He said there are operating and facilities costs that are lingering because of the pandemic.

“We welcome the mayor’s interest in dire challenges facing Johnston Public Schools and have already committed to fully supporting the audit of the district’s finances,” said Lafazia.

This week, Polisena said the takeover was necessary because the district ended last fiscal year with a deficit of about $1 million and is projected to have a multi-million-dollar deficit in the current fiscal year.

ABC 6 News reached to Polisena Friday for comment and is waiting to hear back.

The Town Council is slated to take up a resolution next week to give the town oversight for the school department’s “financial and business operation.”