With local-government budget season upon us, Cranston’s School Committee will meet Thursday to hold a public budget work session. Superintendent Jeanine Nota-Masse will present her proposed school budget to the committee for its review and revision. 

Ahead of the presentation, some priorities can be highlighted as focal points of the superintendent and School Committee.

In the Herald’s New Year’s edition, Nota-Masse shared some of her vision for 2025 in an address to the city and its residents.

“Despite all of these exciting improvements and new facilities, there is still so much to be done,” Nota-Masse wrote. “We are a large district. Our annual capital improvement budget is frugal. Our facilities are aging and the equipment that keeps them running is often obsolete, making it difficult to maintain them through the seasons of the year.”

Nota-Masse added that despite the capital improvements included in the annual budget, it is still insufficient to keep up with several aging school buildings.

“We need not only 21st-century teaching and learning facilities for all of our educators and students, we also need things like consistent, reliable heating and cooling systems,” Nota-Masse noted. “These are not things that can be accomplished in an annual budget, and the longer we wait, the more problems we have and the larger and more costly the problems become.”

Domenic Fusco Jr., recently appointed chair of the School Committee, spoke about some of those priorities during inauguration back on Jan. 6.

He spoke about some of the infrastructure projects that have been completed or are happening, such as Garden City School and the final updates to Eden Park Elementary School as well as the Gladstone Elementary School project.

Fusco said that momentum must continue.

“We must keep progressing, move our buildings out of the 1950s and into the 21^st century,” Fusco said.

Towards the end of his speech, he made a call to elected leaders at the federal, state and local levels to ensure that the resources are there to allow the continued growth of the schools.

The upcoming public presentation of the Cranston Public Schools district 2025-2026 school year budget will be held on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 6 p.m. in the Cranston High School East auditorium.

Following that meeting, another public budget work session is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m. in Cranston East’s auditorium.