Glocester Council Sends School Accounting Shift to November Ballot Over Former Finance Staffer's Objections

The Glocester Town Council voted 4-1 at a special meeting on Monday, July 27, to put a Home Rule Charter amendment on the November 3 ballot that would strip the town's Department of Finance of responsibility for the school department's books and hand it to the superintendent of schools and the school committee.

The question, which would amend Section C6-9 of the charter, drew the longest and sharpest debate of the night, according to the Glocester Town Council's published meeting recording. A former employee of the town finance office testified against it at length, arguing the town's problem is who it hires, not how the charter divides the work.

Under the amendment as approved, school funds would stay in the custody of the town treasurer — who, under Glocester's charter, is also the finance director. Disbursements would remain subject to review by the director of finance "as further provided by ordinance," meaning the council would still have to write the rules for how school spending requests get approved. The amendment also requires monthly reconciliation between the school department and the finance director, plus a certified financial report every quarter.

What the change would actually do

The current charter language is a single sentence: the financial accounting responsibilities of the school department shall be performed by the town Department of Finance. The town's legal counsel told the council repeatedly that the core decision in front of them was whether to flip that one sentence, and that the longer paragraph they were reviewing existed only because a council member wanted oversight language attached.

"I think this idea of separating financial versus managerial accounting is very difficult to make work," counsel said. "I think it's really about controlling the money in your coffers and making the release of the money subject to a review of your finance department pursuant to the conditions of your ordinance."

Counsel was blunt about a consequence the ballot question does not mention. Asked what the schools would have to hire, the answer from the table was "an accountant, at minimum." Counsel added that the school department would not need the council's permission: "They're going to hire whoever they think they need to hire."

Council members acknowledged the cost. One said it would be "unfair of us to put this on them as an unfunded mandate," and another pointed out that any additional money would come out of the same 4% the town is limited to in annual levy growth — the state cap on how much more a municipality can raise in property taxes year over year. Counsel also reminded the council that under maintenance of effort, a state requirement, the town cannot appropriate less to schools than it did the previous year regardless of how the council votes at budget time.

The pushback

A resident who identified herself as living on Bella Vista Circle and who previously worked in the town finance office on school accounts arrived partway through the item and said it was the reason she came.

"So this is where you want the school department to cut their budget because they're spending too much money, but yet you want to add to their cost by having them get a business manager and moving it out of the finance office," she said.

Her argument, repeated over roughly half an hour of back-and-forth, was that the finance office can do the work if the town hires someone capable of it. "You need to hire a finance director who has those skills so they can do both, because it's not that hard," she said, later specifying that the town needs "somebody with an accounting degree" and, in her view, a CPA, with analytical skills that "can't be taught."

Council members countered that the workload, not the skill set, is the obstacle, and that the finance director sits in an impossible position between two bosses. One member described the town's former finance director being subpoenaed and asked who her boss was at that point — the school or the town — concluding that "it was too muddy."

The former employee disputed that framing directly. If the finance director sends the school committee monthly reports showing a projected deficit and the schools keep spending, she argued, "that's not on her; that's on the school committee." She said the monthly reports she had seen contained no projections, meaning the schools did not know where they stood until June, the most expensive month because it carries five payrolls.

She traced the deficits to a specific error: the school budget counted a transportation pass-through as revenue twice in a single year, which she said put the schools roughly $300,000 in the hole. A council member responded that the problem spanned "four or five different business managers, not just one."

Other disagreements went unresolved on the recording. The former employee said the school department has no access to the payroll and benefits data that makes up 90% to 95% of a school budget, and asked who would build the budget without it. A council member said the town is purchasing new financial software and saw no reason it could not be shared. Nobody at the table could say what the process would look like in practice. "That would be for the finance director and the school committee to figure out," one member said. "I don't have the answer to that."

How we got here

The change originated as a recommendation from the town's charter review body, which the council received and acted on. One council member noted the recommendation "was pushed mainly by the former finance director." The arrangement being reversed dates to 2004, when the accounting work moved from the regional school administration to the town finance office; the resident said one additional position was added at that time to absorb it.

The council also rejected the resident's characterization of how much has changed since she left the office in 2023. She said reporting requirements, database uploads and monthly reports to the auditor general are unchanged. Council members said town-side reporting obligations have expanded and that the schools have run deficits for years.

Before the vote, one member summed up the disagreement plainly: "Your main issue and thought process is that whoever we have as a finance director should be able to do this job. And we're saying we think it's too much for them. That's what we're saying. Just so you know, that's where the disagreement is."

The resident said she would vote against it. "If this stays like this, I'm not going for it," she said. When the motion came, one voice opposed and the measure carried 4-1.

What happens next

The council also approved, by voice vote, a written explanation of the question that must be published under state ballot rules. That explanation states the superintendent would prepare the school budget under the school committee's guidance and submit it to the budget board by January 2, on the same schedule as other town departments, and that the finance director would continue to examine school disbursement requests for available appropriation, proper documentation and legal compliance — but not for educational or programmatic judgment. The explanation says the existing prohibition on overspending school appropriations and the annual independent audit of the school department would be unchanged.

Counsel told the council that the explanation does not have to appear on the ballot itself, but the town must post it in town, publish it on its website, and keep a redline copy of the charter changes available for public inspection.

In a separate voice vote, the council authorized forwarding the adopted questions to the Glocester Board of Canvassers for certification and then to the Rhode Island Secretary of State for the November 3, 2026, general election ballot. Counsel and the town clerk were authorized to finalize wording, grammar and spelling, and counsel noted the item's number on the night may not be its number on the ballot.

The full ballot language, the required explanation and the redline charter comparison are to be made available by the town clerk's office once finalized.