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Referendum to restore elections for School Committee passes
WOONSOCKET – The city’s difficulties in appointing a school committee appear over after local voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported a special ballot question restoring an elected school committee.
A total 1,355 votes were cast on the question of changing the city charter to call for an elected school committee, and 391 votes lodged against that move. One blank ballot was also recorded, according to the city board of canvassers.
The special election on just that topic drew 1,753 voters to 12 city polling places on a warm, humid Tuesday in July. It was a voter turnout that Estelle Corriveau, manager of the Board of Canvassers, described as “pretty good for a ballot question.”
The official tally tabulated by the city’s voting machines also included 136 mail ballots.
The question considered for approval or rejection by voters asked “Shall the City of Woonoscket Home Rule Charter, Chapter XIV, entitled, “Department of Education,” be amended to provide for a five person school committee of which members are to be elected by the qualified electors of the City for a term of two years or until a successor is duly elected or appointed?” (Amends Chapter XIV, Section 2).
The vote will restore the local School Committee to the election ballot for the first time since the city enacted a charter change to the appointed panel back in 2011. That move came after the city had run into budget problems, with officials citing faulty accounting by school administrators as the cause of structural budget deficits that plunged the city into receivership.
The school budget issues were corrected under the state budget commission brought into restruc- ture city finances, with the help of more state school funding, but the appointed School Committee remained in place, with the mayor naming appointees and the City Council confirming them.
That all changed last year when the council and Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt could not reach agreement on who should be appointed to open seats on the panel and the five-member committee remains one appointee short of a full quorum.
Jeanne Moulay, 72, of 83 Main St., opted to support Mayor Baldelli-Hunt’s role in appointing committee members on Tuesday when she voted to reject the proposed change while voting at Kennedy Manor.
“When the mayor appointed it, it did an excellent job and I want to keep it appointed,” Moulay said.
Moulay said she and a friend were the only voters at Kennedy Manor when she went to cast her
vote of support, but she still thought it would be rejected. “I’m for leaving it the way it is,” she said.
Another voter showing up to polling place at Woonsocket High School on Tuesday said she had received a phone call from Baldelli-Hunt urging her to go to polls. “It’s all politics,” the woman said while noting she also planned to support the mayor’s ability to appoint
school committee members.
As poll workers brought in their results to the Board of Canvassers after the polls had closed Tuesday night, a different result emerged.
Unofficial results showed Kennedy Manor collecting 62 votes for the change to an elected school committee and 31 opposing it. At the high school, 163 were in favor and 53 voters marked reject for the question, and voters at Fairmont Heights voted 81 for and 14 against on the question.
With the final numbers expected to be certified by the Board of Canvassers on Wednesday, Corriveau said the next step in electing a School Committee will be the candidate declaration period for Aug. 22 to 23. After papers are returned a week later, the board will know if an Oct 2 primary is needed. The election of the panel will be held on Nov. 6 with other city elected posts.