hard deadlines

Portsmouth school finance director Mark Dunham explains restricted funds.

There were just 6 people in attendance at the Portsmouth School Finance subcommittee meeting tonight, and despite the somewhat theatrical buildup given in the Newport Daily News (who didn't bother to send a reporter) there were no secret pots of money discovered, no moment where a school committee member leaped up and said, "Aha! It was Colonel Mustard, in the Conservatory, with the Candlestick."

Rather, it was a prosaic but instructional two hour meeting in which Finance Director Mark Dunham walked through spreadsheets describing each of the restricted accounts (Federal Title I, Title II, Title IV, IDEA, state Article 18), while Asst. Supt. Colleen Jermain, and Supt. Susan Lusi provided any necessary backup on the nature of the fund and the and its restrictions.

Finance subcommittee chair Mike Buddemeyer explained why he wanted everything in so much detail. "I only want to do this once," he said.

At the end of the meeting, the subcommittee voted to direct the administration to produce the same reports on a quarterly basis for the school committtee's review. I would urge anyone who still has questions to watch the tape on Channel 18.

Full disclosure: I am a candidate for Portsmouth School Committee.

John McDaid (D), candidate for Portsmouth school committee with former Hathaway principal Dr. Christina Martin. Photo by Andrew Katzman.

Dr. Christina Martin, recently retired principal of Hathaway Elementary school, announced her support for John McDaid in the Portsmouth School Committee race. The ten-year veteran of Portsmouth's schools issued the following statement:

"John McDaid is a perfect candidate for the Portsmouth School Committee. He is truly schooled in the strengths and challenges of the school department, the sort of in-service training that all school committee members need to make informed decisions."

"During the last four years I have seen John's commitment to the education of his son, Jack, a student at Hathaway, and to all Portsmouth students."

"He is a proven communicator who has covered Portsmouth on his local news blog, where I've often read his coverage of school committee and town council meetings."

"John is a knowledgeable and committed participant in the process of leading our schools into the future. He was a participant in the Future Search workshop -- held at Hathaway -- which developed a strategic vision for the schools. As an appointed member of the facilities committee, he came to Hathaway with the engineers and we toured every corner of the building as they were developing their recommendations."

"His service on the district technology committee shows his dedication to the improvement of our schools. He worked with many teachers -- not just at Hathaway -- to assist in implementing the district's new web site. And I worked with him directly on the search team for our technology integration specialist and found him to be a thoughtful and engaged participant."

"Elected officials are charged with making decisions that impact the lives of all of us, so they need to really know the nuts and bolts of the organizational life intimately. John brings a deep understanding of the challenges and an admired dedication to the schools — he will make a great school committee member."

"I am honored to receive this significant endorsement," McDaid said. "Dr. Martin has been a leader in Portsmouth education for a decade, and as principal of Hathway, her tireless efforts on behalf of our children have earned her the respect of students, parents, and the community."

John McDaid is running as an endorsed Democratic candidate, on a slate with David Croston, Andrew Kelly, and Marge Levesque.

Related links
John McDaid campaign Web site: http://johnmcdaid.com
See the announcement on Portsmouth Patch

Full disclosure: It's pretty clear that I'm in candidate mode from here to November. And yes, this one is from a press release.

Support our schools Monday night.

On Monday night, July 26, the Portsmouth Town Council will take the final vote on the 2011 budget, which would include (since the tentative approval would no longer stand without a 6/7 majority) a $1.2M cut to the schools. If you support the schools, please be there. The Council has already taken public input at the hearing, but it's important for them to see a continuing show of support.

Editorial note: In case you're wondering why there hasn't been any coverage for the past week, my apologies — I've been on vacation.

By a 3-1 margin, citizens at last night's budget hearing opposed the $1.2M cut to the school budget made by the Portsmouth Town Council, with a majority specifically calling for an override of the S3050 tax cap. For more than an hour, the Council heard from residents — and students — concerned about the effect the cuts would have on the schools and the community.

One resident, Loramae Silvia, put things in perspective. "I'm watching this through the eyes of my grandchildren. I want to see children coming up get the privileges my other grandchildren got," said Silvia. "For goodness sake, what kind of community is this? How come people here have money for everything except schools?" Silvia received loud, sustained applause from the vast majority of the 150 citizens in the middle school auditorium.

-no 30 -

Editorial note: Meeting that ran til nearly 11pm plus full workday ahead means I'll try to catch up on the rest of the story later.

If you're attending tonight's budget hearing, you may want to read through a couple of documents that were e-mailed around. Supt. Susan Lusi sent out a fact sheet on the FY 2011 budget request, and Save Our Schools distributed FAQs on Portsmouth schools. BTW, could it be purely coincidence that today is Bastille Day?

Support our schools.

The Portsmouth Town Council will be taking public input (finally!) tonight on the proposed 2011 budget, and its $1.2M cut to the school department. The meeting will be in the Portsmouth Middle School at 7pm, and you'll want to get there early. The folks from Save Our Schools will be outside with fliers, so please stop by and say hello.

I would like to encourage everyone who feels comfortable to plan on saying a few words. It is expected that the Council will limit public comments, so you might want to jot down a few notes and expect to only have two or three minutes to speak. It's really important that the Council hear from all the folks who would be affected by this decision.

The School Committee came in with a reasonable budget, a 2.5% increase, and they delivered it under the tax cap. It was funding cuts by the state that put us in this position, and the S3050 tax law explicitly allows towns to exceed the cap to make up for this kind of loss in revenue.

The Council can do the right thing tonight: they can vote to fund the schools and exceed the tax cap — they already did it once, in the provisional budget, but now it would take a supermajority, or 6 out of the 7 Councilors. We can let them know that we would support them if they the right thing.

Hope to see you tonight.

According to a listserv e-mail from Portsmouth Supt. Susan Lusi today, the district has learned that the quirk of the S3050 legislation under which the Town Council restored half of the money cut from the schools has been changed in the closing days of the general assembly session. The 4-to-3 vote on June 23 would have exceeded the cap by $570K in order to restore half of the $1.2M cut from the 2011 school budget.

Lusi said, "We learned earlier this week that the loophole in the Senate 3050 legislation that would have allowed our Town Council to override the budget cap with a simple, rather than a super, majority was closed in this last legislative session with the passage of H7893 sub A – a 79 page piece of legislation that cleaned up housekeeping items in numerous pieces of legislation. This means that a supermajority of the Town Council would need to approve exceeding the tax cap."

As originally passed, S3050 technically required a supermajority (for our Town Council, 6 out of 7 votes) in the first year, 2007. The text of the bill, H7893a, is online, but you'll need to scroll down to line 64-20 to find the amended passage. It now clearly includes all years in the requirement for a supermajority, voiding last month's simple majority vote. Unless the Council makes further changes, this would mean that the original $1.2M cut to level fund the schools would be back on the table.

Lusi reminding residents of the importance of following the budget process and outlined the key upcoming meetings.

Please keep the following dates on your calendars:

7/12 – School Committee meeting (tentative, we are still polling the Committee on this date);

7/14 – Public hearing on the budget, Portsmouth Middle School Little Theater, 7 PM;

7/19 – Special Council meeting to consider the public comment and decide on any budget changes (tentative, under consideration by the Council);

7/26 – Budget adoption by the Council.
— e-mail from Supt. Lusi

Update: An anonymous reader offered a technical correction which I'm passing along: Since the modification to S3050 took effect after the Council's vote, their action would have been legal under the existing statute and would not have been voided. However, since this was just a provisional budget, the point is moot; any vote to exceed the cap on the final budget will need a supermajority.