Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

BARRINGTON, R.I. -- While other cities and towns are engaged in hand-to-hand combat over school spending, Barrington voters decided to increase the school budget over the objections of the town's Committee on Appropriations
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Although school officials were prepared for a fight at Wednesday's annual Financial Town Meeting, the much-anticipated fireworks over the school budget fizzled. Once again, school supporters flocked to the meeting, which was moved to the high school gym to accommodate a larger-than-ordinary crowd. Nearly 1,000 residents turned out, but most were there to defend the superintendent's school budget, not to bury it.

Voters soundly rejected an attempt by the Committee on Appropriations to cut about $900,000 from the School Committee's $1.8-million budget increase. After an hour of debate, residents voted, 569 to 323, to restore $849,805 to the school budget, a 4-percent increase over this year's budget.

Barrington School Committee Chairman James Hasenfus said there were good reasons why Barrington residents continued to rally behind their schools. People move to Barrington because of its school system and, as Hasenfus said, "a great system doesn't come cheap."

Secondly, he said that the School Department is well-run, especially since the town receives so little in state aid. At $12,000, Barrington's per pupil expenditure is the sixth-lowest in the state, well below such towns as Lincoln and South Kingstown. That said, Barrington teachers are certainly well paid: about 200 out of 283 teachers make at least $70,000, school officials said.

"We have been a very well-managed district," Hasenfus said. "This is one of the reasons we have avoided (financial) problems so far."

This has not been the case in other districts, however. The West Warwick school district is suing the town for $3.3 million in school aid. In Tiverton, residents voted to slash the school budget and wound up giving the schools $1 more. And in North Providence, town officials contemplated asking that state to take over the town's troubled finances.

At Wednesday's town meeting, a number of Barrington residents argued that it wasn't fair to grant raises to teachers when so many people in the private sector have lost their jobs or taken pay cuts.

"The whole country is hurting," said Trinki Brueckner, who spoke against the school spending increases. "It's unconscionable for civil employees to be getting raises. There are teachers who will be getting raises of 19.6 percent (including longevity increases). How is that fair?"

Several residents called for a salary freeze, noting that state workers and town employees in other communities are being asked to take pay cuts or unpaid furloughs.

But Hasenfus said that wasn't entirely true. According to an informal poll taken last week by the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, only a handful of districts are seeking draconian cuts to school spending. And Hasenfus said those districts were struggling with significant budget shortfalls.

 Tags  Barrington RI

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