FinCom Stuns School Committee with Sudden Reversal-August 22, 1978

Votes Against Restoring $335,000 to School Budget Ahead of Special Town Meeting

What was anticipated to be a conciliatory joint session between the two boards instead devolved into a 20-minute rehash of the FinCom’s hardline opposition to escalating educational expenditures, jeopardizing school operating funds and forcing the School Committee to weigh alternative legal and administrative actions.

FinCom Chairman William F. Collins, who had indicated just two weeks prior that a majority of his board would support the funding restoration, abruptly changed course. “I thought there would be more cuts from the school committee. These attempts are not justifiable and I cannot support them,” Collins declared, explaining that he felt his earlier willingness to compromise was met with insufficient reciprocal cuts from the school board. School Committee Chairman Henry W. Diggs expressed utter shock at the sudden pivot, stating he was “surprised and shocked” and that the prospects for securing town meeting approval were now slim. Diggs immediately called a special school committee meeting for the following night to evaluate alternatives, including supporting an active 10-taxpayer lawsuit filed by parents and teachers against the June town meeting cuts, filing an independent lawsuit, or petitioning the state attorney general.

Complicating matters further, FinCom member William C. Phipps questioned whether the special town meeting could legally proceed at all, noting that the town’s free cash fund—the traditional funding source for special appropriations—had not yet been certified by the state. During the previous fiscal year, certification was delayed until October, and Phipps doubted it would clear by Monday.

The FinCom’s nearly unanimous vote targeted three specific warrant articles: $45,089 for administrative salaries, $275,611 for instructional salaries, and $15,046 for new equipment (specifically printing equipment for Junior High North). Dissenting on only those two items, FinCom member Allan D. Howard argued that administrative funds were necessary to keep schools open and that the junior high equipment was genuinely required. Conversely, member E. Peter Bamber voiced frustration over unfulfilled consolidation promises, noting, “We were told in 1977, a school would be closed in 1978. Now it’s ‘maybe’ for 1979,” adding that many school board cuts were superficial and would inevitably require emergency transfers for utilities and building maintenance.

During the session, the school committee did present one agreed-upon reduction: a $27,960 cut eliminating a 5% administrative pay increase that duplicated a separate town-wide article for municipal employees. While school committee member Rudith Berkowitz dismissed the FinCom’s indefinite postponement vote as a “cop-out” and vowed to take her case directly to town meeting voters, member Richard W. Kief warned that the FinCom was “abdicating its responsibility” by forcing the school system to incur unauthorized operating deficits. Concluding the tense exchange, Chairman Diggs delivered a blunt assessment of the town’s fiscal climate: “Town meeting did a job on the school budget, the school committee and the youngsters in this town. It was stacked against us before we went in there.” (Reporting by Marion Earley, Patriot Ledger Correspondent).

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger