On Monday evening, the Cranston School Committee started on a somber note, as Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse warned of the effects of level-funding on the city’s schools.

Nota-Masse began Monday’s meeting by describing how level-funding for the last two years has affected the school district, warning of a potentially impending layoff of “15 to 20 school faculty,” “programming cuts” and a “reevaluation of bus routes.”

These changes, according to Nota-Masse, can be avoided with more funding from both Cranston Mayor Kenneth Hopkins’s administration, as well as state government.

Nota-Masse also cited increased attendance, behavioral changes and property values following the opening of Garden City Elementary and noted the upcoming referendum vote on a $40 million bond to help fund Cranston schools.

She said the district would need “$300 million to get things to 21st Century standards,” but called the $40 million bond a positive step forward