§ 16-9-1 Receipt and payment of schoolfunds by town treasurer. The town treasurer shall receive the money due the town from the state forpublic schools, and shall keep a separate accounting of all money appropriatedby the state or town or otherwise for public schools in the town, and shall paythe money to the order of the school committee; provided, however, that schoolexpenditures, encumbrances, and accruals shall not, in any fiscal year, exceedthe total revenue appropriated for public schools in the town. Should the towntreasurer, finance director, or other charter officer charged with generalresponsibility for town finances, or the school financial officer, estimatethat actual public school expenditures, encumbrances, and accruals may exceedthe total revenue appropriated for the expenditures in any fiscal year, theschool committee, the superintendent of schools, and the chief electedofficials of the town shall be notified. Purchase orders or financialcommitments shall not be authorized even on the order of the school committeeunless it can be proven that there will not be an excess of expenditures,encumbrances, and accruals over revenues. Nothing contained in this sectionshall be construed to prohibit a school committee from negotiating andcontracting with school employees and teachers for services to be rendered inthe ensuing fiscal years pursuant to chapters 9.3 and 9.4 of title 28.