The Portsmouth Town Council, in a long and sometimes tedious meeting this evening, grilled School Superintendent Sue Lusi on the budget for next year, and finally voted to tentatively accept the proposed $33,451,958, which came in under the cap at a 3.96% increase over last year. Still unresolved was the question of Town warrant money for buildings and technology.

No public comment from the more than 40 citizens was taken, but Tailgunner Gleason made up for the lack of audience participation by revisiting every issue: where teachers are on steps "think about those new college teachers," closing an elementary "keep considering it," moving the 5th grade "to me, this is lowering the bar," regional special ed, "We need to work together and get DPW [sic] involved," and eliminating "luxuries," like the new TV studio.

She even reopened the question of the guidance counselor, nurse, and librarian, asserting that Lusi could have saved "150-200K, without impact on teachers."

Now this is what still puzzles me. She sat on the freaking school committee. And she is still unaware that nurses teach health, guidance counselors coach kids on social adjustment, and librarians are the only ones left at our schools teaching technology? Can she really have sat on the School Committee and not been aware of that?

Most members of the Council had about 8-10 minutes worth of questions. Huck Little came in low, asking a few during the opening presentation, but none in the QA. Tailgunner came in about two standard deviations above the mean, over half an hour. And several were requests to repeat information that had already been presented.

Dr. Lusi vigorously defended the decisions that had been made, particularly the 5th-grade move, where she cited both research and the practices of other districts in the state. She fended off a troubling line of questioning from Pete McIntyre "Is Pre-K a part of the Basic Education Program? Is one of our Pre-K teachers a step 10?" with a terse, "We can't just lay people off because they're step 10 teachers." Jim Seveney asked a reasonable question about why computer software can be paid for with a capital warrant. ("It's considered an underlying asset, since you can't use the computers without it.")

Seveney also probed on the State's failure to fund the group home beds. The Governor's budget, Lusi explained, had left out 450K for the Boys and Girls Town, contrary to the requirements of state law. "So the Governor's budget is illegal?" Dick Carpender replied, "Technically, yes."

Councilor Len Katzman probed on the warrant troubles. Basically, the warrants cost the town $89K in debt service in the their budget, but they provide $700K in funding for capital items that would otherwise need to be shifted to the school operational budget. "You're at the cap," Katzman noted, "Assuming that the warrant items are picked up by the town." And, he noted, the town was at the cap assuming that they did not pick up the $89K.

Town Admin Bob Driscoll said that he was working on some options to address the problem. "S3050 [Paiva-Weed] is requiring us to do business differently," he said. "We simply have too much school spending in the Town budget. We have a tractor that we need to replace that was bought when Huck Little was a new councilman and Sargeant Pepper was popular."

"And," noted Seveney drily, "When our textbooks were new."

Council President Dennis Canario did not have a lot of questions, but he did voice concerns on behalf of the Prudence Island community. "Sending children that young on a ferry is a disservice to the island, and unfair to the children," he said, asking the committee to take another look at their options.

Despite the lack of a solution for the warrants, the Council tentatively approved the budget and the meeting adjourned at around the three-hour mark. Finally, although Wedge, Carpender, Levesque, and Cortvriend were on hand from the School Committee, unless they were hiding very effectively, I didn't see Jamie Heaney or Michael Buddemeyer. Maybe they were busy. Let's remember that next November.