Bankruptcy leaves many questions for Central Falls schools

Administrators in Central Falls hope to have more answers this week about what it means to merge with a city. The school department is planning to move its central offices to City Hall, and a city finance officer has already taken over the duties of a school finance manager.

Central Falls school officials say they are still ironing out the details of how the rest of the merger will work and which departments are likely to be affected, but the list includes human resources, athletics and facilities.

Central Falls Receiver Robert Flanders, Jr. is scheduled to attend a Central Falls School Board meeting on March 13th to answer questions about the merger. Meanwhile, Flanders, school officials and teachers’ union leaders are waiting for a ruling this month in federal bankruptcy court, which may clarify Flanders’s powers when it comes to negotiating teacher contracts and making other changes at the school department.

As far as day-to-day operations in their schools, Central Falls officials say they are trying to keep everything running normally.

“We still need to proceed as usual for the kids,” said Central Falls Schools Spokeswoman Yaviri Grosso.