PAWTUCKET, R.I. (WPRI) — The Pawtucket School Committee met Wednesday night to discuss the district’s growing financial issues.

Pawtucket School Committee Chairman Gerard Charbonneau discovered the district’s money problems after asking to look at the department’s capital and medical reserve funds earlier this year.

“Mainly the problem is that the city hasn’t gone out to bond to finish school construction projects,” Charbonneau said.

Charbonneau said the city needs to issue bonds to help finish those projects, which include the construction of a new elementary school.

“You’ve now heard from [R.I. Department of Education] representatives that it’s cheaper in the long run for the city to get the money to finish the projects because then we’ll get reimbursed,” Charbonneau explained.

Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien acknowledged that the district’s finances are in rough shape and that vendors weren’t getting paid. He pointed to processing on the district’s end needing to catch up.

“The delay was the request for funds,” Grebien said. “We over to RIDE and and there’s about $78-80 million requested and that was the hold up.”

Pawtucket superintendent Patricia Royal said an understaffed finance team has contributed to some of the delays.

“Hopefully, fingers crossed, I will have my full department staffed in the next couple of weeks,” she said.

Pawtucket City Councilors grilled district leaders Wednesday night regarding where the capital reserve stands. Charbonneau said a recent negative balance of $2.2 million was a recording error.

“We’ve got some reimbursements in there,” he said. “Both of those reimbursements were worth $3.2 million each, so there’s roughly $2.5 million in there.”

Charbonneau said the $40 million in funding the district received for the city’s two elementary schools has already dried up.

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