All Pawtucket All The Time

As part of her continuous effort to reform unfunded educational mandates that inflict a severe burden on the budgets of school districts, Rep. Patricia A. Serpa (D-Dist. 27, West Warwick, Warwick, Coventry) has co-sponsored legislation to benefit taxpayers by providing for mediation before costly litigation in “Caruolo actions.”

Named for the former House Majority Leader who proposed the legislation, George Caruolo, the law allows a school district to sue a municipality for additional funding if it contends the amount budgeted by the community is insufficient to properly run the schools.

Caruolo actions have come into play in West Warwick for two years in a row, with the school district attempting to force the town to increase school spending.

The legislation (2009-H5843) would provide for fact-finding mediation to be conducted by a special Superior Court master to bring both sides- municipal and school district- together in a faster and less confrontational fashion. The magistrate would solely review Caruolo cases and would have an extensive background in educational and municipal spending matters. Upon reviewing the case and considering factors such as cost options and spending trends, the magistrate would file a report to the parties and the court on how the matter should be resolved, if it were to go forward as a formal lawsuit. This new mechanism would avoid the delays and continuances that currently plague local cities and towns.

Under the bill, once a court order is reached in the matter, both parties would be bound on those particular issues for three years. According to Serpa, this would prevent costly lawsuits from being filed over consecutive years, which has occurred in West Warwick for the past 2 years.

“The intent of this bill is to avoid the protracted struggles many Rhode Island communities have witnessed over the past few years, particularly in our hometown of West Warwick,” said Representative Serpa. “As a longtime educator, former school committee member and one of four members of the House of Representatives assigned to a commission studying the financial effects of unfunded educational mandates on municipalities, I know first-hand how difficult it can be when school districts are pitted against municipalities. What is most unfortunate about these drawn-out Caruolo situations is that no side ever really ‘wins,’ and the biggest loser of all is the taxpayer.”

The proposed legislation would save a significant amount of time and expense (tens of thousands of dollars) by streamlining the process after a Caruolo lawsuit is filed.

“Education funding is a huge portion of most municipal budgets,” she said. “The present Caruolo process quite simply takes too long and often does not resolve the issue. We need a quicker, more comprehensive, less contentious system that truly considers the impact on the individual paying the bill- the taxpayer.”

Representative Serpa said that in these challenging financial times, school districts must find ways to save money and not count on city and town councils to bail them out with annual increases in their budgets. The current Caruolo process encourages districts to battle with municipalities and presents an unfortunate legal procedure