hard deadlines

There were about 40 people at the Portsmouth School Committee meeting last night, and many of them were from Elmhurst, there to discuss the possible closing of that school. There were two items of interest on the agenda, one related to the Facilities Committee which has been doing the long-range plan, and one proposed by an Elmhurst parent.

School Committee chair Dick Carpender made a very clear distinction between the two. "The Facilities Committee was never charged with coming up with a recommendation to close Elmhurst," said Carpender. "This was a long term planning effort. It does not have anything to do with the other item this evening."

Facilities chair Michael Buddemeyer, proposed, and the School Committee passed unanimously, a motion to enlarge the committee to include a parent from each elementary, a member of the Town Council, the School Committee, school district administration, possibly an elementary principal, and two community members. The goal is to have this group in place by the first week of March.

"We want everyone to have input," Buddemeyer said, while acknowledging that "We're not going to satisfy every single person in town."

Elmhurst parent Elizabeth Dellinbaugh had requested the agenda item on the short-term options for Elmhurst, and she shared a list of concerns with the School Committeee, the foremost of which was a request to "show us your work," an insight she said struck her while helping her second-grade son with his math homework.

"We really need you to show us," said Deillinbaugh. "Show us very simply what the impact of closing Elmnhurst will be. How long students will be on buses. What exactly the budget savings would be. Additional revenues from any closed sites. Show us you have addressed the biggest line item, salaries and benefits, or closing a school will save nothing. Show us that any closure is part of a well thought out plan. That you've considered the impact on local housing values. That it will support the goals and aspirations of the Future Search. We haven't been shown that yet, we're eager to hear. I respectfully suggest that if you can't show us that work, we're not ready to close an elementary school in 2009."

Carpender noted that the Town Council had asked similar questions at the meeting last week, and that the School Committee shared the concern for fact-based decisions. "If Dr. Lusi came to us and said 'I want to close Elmhurst but have no data,' we would say the same thing," said Carpender. "We're not going to make any decisions unless we know it makes sense, and we'll share that data with whoever comes to our meetings."

Elmhurst PTO president Kelly Heitmann suggested an approach similar to the business world with multiple budgets for different scenarios, and asked the committee to consider ways to seek ideas and input from the community. "Enlist the community to think of alternatives and solutions," said Heitmann. "They're pretty astute, and they do follow the budget process." Carpender said that multiple budget scenarios was the approach they had already decided to take.

There was some back-and-forth with parents about what information needed to be developed — bus routes, clssrooms, total amount to be saved — with Lusi reiterating that the level of detail necessary to support such decisions was not "just sitting on my computer" but that it would need to be created as part of the budget process.

"I never intended to convey that we would be waiting at end of March," said Lusi, "Nor that it would be available on the web site by Friday. We want the information to be as accurate as possible."

"One of the worst things we can do," said Carpender, "Is speed up the process and make decisions based on bad data."

After a discussion of the December financials, which painted a precariously tight picture, but one still on track to end the year in balance, the committee turned to consideration of a letter to the state legislature to modify the S3050 tax cap.

The item, put on the agenda by Carpender, was a proposal to ask legislators to modify the current tax cap law to allow municipalities to take the growth of the tax base into account. Next year's cap is a 4.75% increase on the total amount of tax levied by the municipality, irrespective of any new taxable properties. "If we go to the limit," said Carpender, "And the tax base grows we can't use that as additional revenue. It has to go into reducing the tax rate even further."

School Finance Director Christine Tague, who had experience with the similar Proposition 2.5 when she worked in Massachusetts, noted that such a change had been instituted there. "After 5 years there became so much pressure on service levels, they allowed new growth," said Tague. Which made sense, she said, since "New growth, new building structures require new services." She added that her rough analysis in Portsmouth showed that over the past two years there could have been an additional $1.5M in revenue without any affect on the tax rate.

School committee member Jamie Heaney spoke in support of the motion. "When 3050 was proposed, this was my major gripe," he said, because of the problems it creates, "When you limit what you can levy, and your town is expanding."

Failed Town Council Candidate and PCC newsletter editor Joe Robicheau got up to the microphone to object to the characterization of the proposed change as not affecting tax rates. Under 3050, he noted, property taxes are reduced by new growth. "If you eliminate that, If you spend new growth, taxes will not go down."

Heaney responded that ultimately, the decision on increases rests with the Council. "Technically, they wouldn't have to increase at all," he pointed out. The committee voted to draft a letter to the Portsmouth delegation, and Carpender promised to raise the issue with the Town Council to gauge their interest.

In other business, there were two wonderful celebratory moments, with the School Committee showing their appreciation of the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee for their work on the Wind Turbine, and celebrating the accomplishments of four PHS students who won statewide scholastic art awards (as well as their teacher, Rose Escobar.)

Also, PHS principal Bob Littlefield discussed changes to the course offerings to add a new Civics elective, a combined Math and English SAT prep, and a 10th-grade science fair connected with the Chemistry course.