Breaking down the budget votes in Barrington

Taxpayers support larger increase for schools by 3-to-1 margin

By Josh Bickford
Posted 5/25/17

A financial town meeting boils down to votes, and in Barrington on Wednesday night, the votes were lopsided.

On two straight tallies, taxpayers overwhelmingly voted to support increases to the …

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Breaking down the budget votes in Barrington

Taxpayers support larger increase for schools by 3-to-1 margin

Posted

A financial town meeting boils down to votes, and in Barrington on Wednesday night, the votes were lopsided.

On two straight tallies, taxpayers overwhelmingly voted to support increases to the school budget. In the end, residents approved a $1.2 million increase for the school budget.

The first vote

An amendment filed by Julie Vanier to add $100,000 to the schools' increase was actually entered into the record by David DeSisto, after Ms. Vanier could not be found at the meeting. 

That move did not sit well with former town council member Ann Strong. 

Ms. Strong approached the microphone and asked town solicitor Michael Ursillo if it was OK for a different resident to make a motion that was filed by someone else. Mr. Ursillo said it was all right, but Ms. Strong again voiced concern, stating that she planned to contact the attorney general's office in the morning. 

"I don't think that's right," she said.

Ms. Strong's protest was followed closely by a calculated offer from resident Jon Fitta. The longtime resident said he had a plan that would not make anyone unhappy. He said residents could vote through the $800,000 increase recommended by the committee on appropriations and, if the schools found themselves short of funds during the upcoming fiscal year, they could dip into their reserve account to balance out the budget.

"This can be done," he said.

Mr. Fitta said the town and the school department are both well-managed and he was confident administrators could do the job. 

Kathy Crain followed Mr. Fitta at the microphone and asked Barrington Superintendent of Schools Michael Messore if $900,000 would be enough to maintain a level-services budget. She also said the state department of education placed athletics at the bottom of the list of priorities when allocating funding.

Mr. Messore said $900,000 would not be enough, and cuts would have to be made. He added that teaching and learning are the district's top priorities.

Joel Hellmann, a former member of the town's committee on appropriations, questioned school officials on the timing of teacher payments at the end of the fiscal year. He said officials should explore other payment options before entertaining program and staffing cuts. 

Shortly after Mr. Hellmann spoke, there was a motion to put the proposed $100,000 increase to a paper ballot vote. That motion passed and eventually residents cast their ballots about whether they supported increasing the school budget by $800,000 to $900,000.

The motion passed easily — 442 in favor, 149 opposed.

The second vote

Gina Bae filed the second amendment, proposing to add $402,000 to the committee on appropriations' recommendation to increase the school budget by $800,000.

Quickly, a resident spoke against the measure, stating that it was "deplorable" that people were considering raising taxes when the school department already had money in a reserve account.

Heather Crosby also challenged the increase. Ms. Crosby said school officials needed to address other inefficiencies, including establishing a process to check students' residency. She said school officials needed to get ahold of what's going in their budget.

Allan Klepper questioned the amount of the second motion. He asked whether it should have been $302,000 instead of $402,000, because the goal was to get the increase to $1.2 million. Town moderator Julia Califano said the second motion would act as a substitute for the first, so there was no need to change the amount.

Tom Rimoshytus asked Mr. Messore if he would guarantee that if the $400,000 was voted back in, all the programs and positions would be restored. Mr. Messore gave a simple reply: "Yes."

About a half-dozen people shared other comments during the discussion, ranging from David DeSisto's plea to think of the kids who would be impacted by the cuts, to Joseph Strong's question about whether students could be asked to "pay to play" sports. School officials said that was against Rhode Island law.

Middle Highway resident Peter Orlando grabbed a loud round of applause with his comments. The longtime resident said his children had long since graduated from the local schools and he was opposed to cutting any requests by the school department. He said he had attended the meeting "on a whim" Wednesday night "hoping to see some of these Barrington women with their yoga pants on."

The crowd laughed and cheered, and a few minutes later voted overwhelmingly to push the schools' requested increase to $1.2 million.

The final tally — 461 in favor, 120 opposed.

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