So, it figures. I made a real attempt to be on time for the scheduled 6:30 school committee meeting (although I was 15 minutes late), and an unscheduled executive session held it over until 7:00.
It’s a good thing, it appears, because there’s the peculiar change of audience. Per usual, Newport Daily News reporter Marcia Pobzeznik is here, but both Laura Epke and Deb Pallasch are also in attendance — as well as the crew that usually records Town Council meetings. It appears that Epke might have asked them to record this meeting.
Superintendent Bill Rearick just recommended, in keeping with advice from a special education specialist, to reduce teaching staff by two special ed teachers and 2.8 special ed assistants, saving $228,356. The cause is a restructuring of a regional program that will impose no additional costs. The projected budget is still $319,982 over the committee’s increase cap.
Of course, that’s by their dishonest manipulation of last year’s local contribution, mixing in unmentioned budget numbers. (That the state Department of Education might give the nod to claiming that federal dollars count as “local funds” — even if that is the way the law would have it — does not make the move honest. Rhode Island specializes in “legal but dishonest,” and I sincerely hope that any school committee member who backs this garbage at least feels a weensy bit squeamish about doing so.)
Moving on to the budget, School Committee Chairman Jan Bergandy noted that there have been no concessions. Carroll Herrmann went on for quite some time about the horrible cuts that a $1 local increase would require.
Then Rearick challenged all of the supposed falsehoods being stated in public (“on the air”) and declared that he’d “debate anybody anywhere as long as it’s filmed by a third party.”
I suspect this is why there’s a camera here. I’ve got some questions for the committee, but I think I’ll keep my seat.
Committee Member Danielle Coulter did defend the suspicions of townsfolk, noting that the numbers were kept from people who didn’t know what specifically to request and that they wouldn’t have known to request what they weren’t told was there.
7:25 p.m.
My questions, by the way, are why, if the restricted dollars have to be left out of budget discussions, the requested increase from the town is suspiciously equivalent to reductions in restricted dollars.
Second: Is that why they’ve been manipulating the appropriation from last year in order to exceed the plain language of the spending increase cap?
Third, Education Commissioner Deborah Gist told the General Assembly that municipalities are expecting more stimulus funds, but I don’t think that’s accounted for in the budget proposal.
7:46 p.m.
I’ve meant to note that the committee mentioned that it’s looking for something on the order of $300,000 in concessions from the teacher union. That is nowhere near enough.
Another question I might have asked if tonight weren’t so clearly a setup had to do with Herrmann’s mention of the fact that a $1 increase in the school’s budget would probably force them to violate the state’s Basic Education Plan. Current precedent, out of East Providence, suggests that a budget violating the BEP coinciding with an absence of a current contract would permit the committee to impose whatever cuts it deems necessary in employee compensation.
East Providence, by the way, just cut teacher pay by another 5%.
Loading ...