Gendron hints at School Committee elections
WOONSOCKET — With the City Council and Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt still unable to find some common ground on filling a fifth and final vacancy on the School Committee, Council President Daniel Gendron says its overwhelmingly likely he’ll seek a referendum on the 2018 ballot to restore elections as the mechanism for appointing members to the board.
Gendron hinted at the move by placing an item on the agenda of Monday’s council meeting that calls for discussion – but nothing more – on resurrecting the elective school committee. He later explained that – barring some change in the administration’s position on reappointing former Vice Chairman Donald Burke to the School Committee – he’ll introduce legislation in the near future calling for a referendum during citywide elections in November.
“The only thing that would stop this is if the mayor amended her actions and started acting responsibly in the school department,” said Gendron. “I would be less inclined to submit it, but I don’t see that happening.”
Incensed by the stalemate over filling School Committee vacancies, some members of the general public have already begun calling for restorations of elections for school committee members. About a week ago, former School Committeewoman Susan Pawlina joined the chorus, announcing her opinion on a radio talk show. Pawlina – one of two members of the committee who weren’t reappointed after their
“The only thing that would stop this is if the mayor amended her actions and started acting responsibly in the school department. I would be less inclined to submit it, but I don’t see that happening.” — Council President Daniel Gendron on introducing legislation calling for a referendum during citywide elections involving how the School Committee is picked
terms expired in mid-December, said Burke deserved to be reappointed and if he wasn’t – it’s a sign that the appointive system isn’t working in the interests of children.
The City Council moved to fill Pawlina’s vacancy last week with real estate developer and 2009 mayoral candidate Steve Lima, who took his seat as a member of the School Committee for the first time on Wednesday. Unlike Burke, who was willing and enthusiastic about serving another term, Pawlina wasn’t seeking reappointment.
Lima’s appointment fills four of five seats and gives the committee a cushion to operate with one member absent, leaving the minimum number of members necessary to have a lawful voting quorum. But it still raises the specter of paralysis on the board with a 2-2 tie.
After a fiscal crisis originating in the Woonsocket Education Department that brought the city to the brink of bankruptcy around 2011, former Mayor Leo Fontaine
championed a measure that let voters decide whether to abolish the elective school committee. In 2012 a referendum calling for a switch to an appointive school committee was approved on a vote of 6,098-4,522, according to voting records.
The city’s first appointive school committee was seated the following year in a new system that’s designed to push the mayor and the council toward consensus.
As Councilman James Cournoyer points out, the City Charter, as amended by voters in a the 2012 referendum, allows the mayor to identify prospective appointees. But those individuals cannot be appointed without the approval of a majority of the council.
“Pursuant to the city charter, the School Committee ‘shall be appointed by the mayor with the approval of the council,’” Cournoyer said, quoting the city’s bylaws. “The key word is ‘with’ – as in ‘together with.’ It is by design a group effort. The charter’s language purposely demands and forces compromise, collaboration and consensus...”
When the 2013 changeover took effect, the city joined Providence as the only other community in the state with a fully appointive school committee. North Smithfield operates with a seven-member hybrid that allows the town manager to appoint a member, the Town Council to appoint another, and electors to choose five others.
Citing the stalement over Burke, at least one member of the School Committee is supportive of switching back to an elective panel.
School Committeeman Paul Bourget says the recent discovery that an appointive school committee will have no role in collective bargaining with the Wonsocket Teachers Guild is also causing him to lean more strongly in favor of abolishing the appointive board. With the WTG’s contract set to expire on June 30, the committee was recently informed by its legal counsel that the mayor has the sole authority to negotiate the teachers contract under the collective bargaining agreement.
Bourget said the mayor’s interests in settling the agreement in a timely fashion may not necessarily jive with those of the School Committee.
“I think it’s kind of silly not to have us involved...it’s almost wrong,” said Bourget. “The administration may be the one that negotiates the contract, but the school committee has to live with it. We’re the ones who deal with the school system every day and we’re going to have to deal with the union day-today, on grievances, compliance and other issues.”
Bourget says the standoff over Burke stems from a fallout between the committee and the mayor over the issue of Barry Field – charges the mayor has previously denied. The council was critical of the mayor last year when it became apparent that she had hired outside legal council to modify the deed for the 22acre Park Square parcel in a way that would allow it to be sold for private commercial development. The papers filed in Superior Court asserted that the School Committee had signed off on the legal petition – a claim which the panel later pointed out was not accurate; they weren’t even aware of it until news of the lawsuit appeared in The Call.
Meanwhile, a grassroots campaign of sorts of has blossomed in support of Burke’s reappointment. Teachers, parents and others active in public education have appeared at council meetings, urging officials to settle their differences and reappoint the veteran English teacher to the board.
One woman, Brenda Galvin, launched a petition in support of Burke on change.
org – a website countless political activists have used as a catalyst for social change.
“Mr. Burke attends almost every school and local function, supporting our students in many ways,” Galvin says$ on the petition. “He has even been there to support the families of the students we have lost to tragedies. This gentleman truly cares about the well being and educational needs of “ALL” the students of Woonsocket.”
So far, 104 supporters have signed the petition.
Even if Gendron submitted a resolution calling for a new referendum to revert back to elections, it wouldn’t necessarily happen, and if it did, it would take a while. In order to hold such a referendum, the council would first have to obtain enabling legislation from state lawmakers to place it on the ballot in November.
Assuming the council surmounts the preliminary legal burdens, and voters approve the referendum, the soonest the city would hold an election to fill school committee seats would be November 2020, according to Gendron.
Efforts to reach Baldelli-Hunt for comment on this story were not successful.