On June 30, the Senate’s last day in session, a bill was passed that, if approved by the House of Representatives, would mandate statewide consolidation of school and municipal cost centers by Jan. 1, 2011.

The bill is sponsored by Senator Daniel DaPonte (D-Dist.14, East Providence, Pawtucket) and “calls for each city and town school district to combine offices with their municipal counterparts in areas including human resources/personnel, finance, information technology, purchasing and maintenance.”

The bill was referred to the House Finance Committee, now awaiting review when sessions return in early September.

It was suggested as a way to adjust the government budget in the same way taxpayers were forced to adjust their budgets in response to the economy.

“This is a serious effort to save taxpayer funds without sacrificing quality of education or adversely impacting municipal services. It is long overdue in the sense that school district consolidation has been debated in this state for decades without action,” said Senator DaPonte. “While the act does not go so far as to mandate districts combining across city and town borders, it will nevertheless provide real and significant savings from the first day – savings that are needed in every city and town across the state during this unprecedented economic downturn.”

If successful, there could be more consideration given to combining similar functions among cities and towns.

“Well thought out efforts to spend taxpayer funds more efficiently will only be more important going forward. This act is one of the first such efforts and in all probability will not be the last,” the senator said.

Leonard Flood, business director for Warwick Schools, was unable to comment on how this would affect Warwick because he was unaware of the content of the bill.

Mayor Scott Avedisian said he’s been advocating this for years but has faced opposition from the school department, which “has not been willing to agree at this point.” He tried implementing changes to combine city and school operation but said they object on the basis of their E-rate program. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) directs E-rate, which is a technology that provides schools and libraries with telecommunications service at a discounted rate.

“You can’t force the school department to cooperate with us. It’s unfortunate,” said Mayor Avedisian. He added that Senator DaPonte has, “Absolutely the right idea.”

The bill, if passed into law, would translate into job losses between the city and schools, though exactly how many that would be is still unclear.

“I think that’s the whole idea,” Avedisian said of the cost-saving measures, adding that approval of this bill would force the city to eliminate work that’s redundant.

School Committee Chairman Christopher Friel said the department is more than willing to cooperate with the city to find savings through consolidation. He adds, “the bill is well-founded” and “good-intentioned” but it doesn’t solve all of the issues.

“Yeah, you’re going to see problems. There’s going to be problems probably by the unions,” Friel said.

Friel believes it will not be easy to combine school operations, which operate on federally subsidized computer systems that, by law, can only be used for educational purposes. If they violate that, they would no longer receive money for programs.

Friel said the department has a committee currently looking into consolidation resulting from a study by the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, which is focusing on possibilities similar to those proposed by the bill.

Senator DaPonte has directed the Senate Finance Office to analyze the savings anticipated under the act as well as to potential inter-city savings over the summer.