UPDATE: Budget Nihilism triumphs, again

Chariho budget defeated again

Ron Areglado & Donna Chambers - 
STILL no word on where Charlestown's Chariho School
Committee members stand on the proposed budget

By Will Collette

UPDATE: Voters turned down the Chariho School District budget by an overall total of 655 Yes to 1,121 NO.

Charlestown voted 228 Yes and 48 NO.

Richmond voted 230 Yes and 545 NO.

Hopkinton voted 197 Yes, 528 NO.

Chariho can make one more attempt at presenting a budget that the budget nihilists in Richmond and Hopkinton will approve. If that fails, then Chariho will continue to operate on its existing budget. The irony of that is that the budget Chariho presented to the voters yesterday was for "level funding" - that is, the same amount as the current year funding.

The no votes in Hopkinton and Richmond were orchestrated by their respective Republican Town Committees who put out a flurry of misinformation. In many respects, their conduct resembles the tactics that House Republicans are using in Congress to trash this country.

UPDATE: when I cast my ballot at 4:10 this afternoon, I was #160 to have voted in Charlestown. With polls open until 7 PM, we may do better than we did on April 9 when only 191 Charlestown voters turned out. 

If you haven't voted yet, get off your butt and head over to Town Hall!

UPDATE: on Sunday, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) sent out an e-bleat to its e-mail list reminding them that the special vote on the Chariho School District budget is Tuesday, May 14. They took no position on the budget.

It’s discouraging to see our communities show so little respect and regard for public schools. 

We expect them to perform miracles, to take care of children for the better part of each day, to turn them into geniuses, or at least functioning members of society – but we don’t want to pay for it.

On April 9, the few voters who turned out to vote in the Chariho School District rejected the first Chariho budget. Charlestown voters, to their credit, voted for the budget, but Richmond and Hopkinton voters resounding turned it down. That first budget proposed a modest increase for school district needs that made sense to me, but apparently not to the anti-tax trolls.

Hopkinton and Richmond Republicans organized a micro-revolt. In Richmond, unsuccessful Republican candidate for House District 39 (Larry Valencia’s seat) Clay Johnson distributed an anti-tax flyer across town that was criticized by Richmond Town Council President Joe Reddish as filled with “misinformation.”

Johnson said that part of his opposition to Chariho’s budget was Superintendent Ricci’s lack of enthusiasm for public funding for charter schools. Johnson earns his living by running a private pre-school, the Goddard School, in South Kingstown. 

Johnson also violated federal law by sticking his flyers in mailboxes. Richmond Chief of Police Elwood Johnson said Clay Johnson would not be charged by local police because the mailboxes were not damaged. The Post Office may take its own action.

The second version of the budget, scheduled to go to voters on May 14, asks for no increase over the current year’s budget. It takes $390,000 from the district’s budget surplus and adds in another $237,000 in spending cuts (mostly by reorganizing and consolidating bus routes) to reach “level funding.” Click here to read the budget for yourself.

That reduced budget will cut Charlestown’s proposed 24 cent per $1000 valuation tax hike by six cents. Charlestown’s tax hike is unrelated to Chariho’s budget since our levy for the upcoming fiscal year was less than the current year due to less Charlestown student enrollment. The amended budget provides the added savings. 

By the way, the main reason Charlestown taxes are likely to go up is due to choices by the CCA Party majority Town Council to pay cash on capital costs that would normally be paid for through bonds. We get to vote on that budget in June.

The Chariho Teachers Union, NEA of Rhode Island, offered to give up $600,000 in teacher incentive pay they negotiated for in their recently ratified contract if it would help make the school district budget more attractive to conservative voters. I didn’t hear any of those conservatives say “thank you.” Kinda shows who really cares about the kids, too, though I doubt the teachers will get any credit for that, either.

Indeed, at a May 6^th Hopkinton Town Council meeting, representatives from the Chariho School District were raked over the coals again because….I guess it’s because schooling the little rugrats costs money and the conservatives just don’t want to pay for education. They criticized the District for not cutting more and for using budget surplus funds to achieve part of the cuts present in the second version of the budget.

Why buy computers when you can get these for cheap? Quiz: how many
of you know what this is?

For example, they criticized the district for wanting to provide students with computers and computer tablets, apparently favoring the abacus, chalk on chalkboard and Palmer writing method that worked so well in generations past.

Hopkinton voters rejected the first budget by 1,069 to 210, a margin of more than 2.5 to 1 (I figured that out on a calculator, not an abacus).

As the long and tense meeting ended, it looked like Chariho has not won the hearts and minds of the Hopkinton trolls.

And speaking of which, where are Charlestown’s Chariho School Committee members on this important matter? We have our two superstar educators, Ron Areglado and Donna Chambers, who have been appointed by the CCA Party majority Council to serve on the Committee. Part of that job description seems to me to be not just representing Charlestown on the Chariho board, but representing Chariho to Charlestown. When Deb Carney and Andrew McQuaide served on the School Committee, you could count on them campaigning for the school here in town.

Not a peep from Areglado and Chambers who appear to be just too busy pushing fake science and jousting at windmills to take their School District responsibilities seriously. If they’re too busy, maybe they should step down and let someone else do the job.

In Charlestown, the one polling place is Town Hall. Please come out to vote on Tuesday, May 14.

If the Chariho budget fails to win voter approval for a second time, a third and final vote will be held in June. If there’s a third strike, rather than being out, Chariho will continue to operate under its current year’s budget.