School Committee: 'Secret Negotiations' Helped Avoid Budget 'Food Fight'

The Hamilton-Wenham School Committee voted 7-1 Tuesday night to OK the 2013 budget that was

The decision, though, came after a lengthy discussion on how "secret negotiations" before the meeting avoided what member Larry Swartz called “a war” that might have broken out in the high school auditorium.

Several current and former members of the School Committee criticized the negotiations by three members – Chairman Alexa McCloughan, Vice Chairman Roger Kuebel and Swartz – which were kept from the other committee members prior to Saturday's Annual Town Meeting in Hamilton. However, most critics also said that the result of the "secret negotiations" was good for the .

The newly approved School budget number is $419,013 less than the $28.1 million budget approved by the School Committee . The $420,000 "giveback" number was a compromise between those who wanted to take more from the schools and those who wanted to pass the full budget first approved the the School Committee.

The money will be sent to the towns immediately. In the fall, another $374,774 will be returned to the towns in time to impact the rate of tax assessment, the School Committee said. That money would come from what's left above 3 percent of the budget in the schools' “excess and deficiency” account after it is certified by the state Department of Revenue.

The "giveback" plan earned the backing of the Wenham Board of Selectmen, who were meeting at at the same time the School Committee was taking its vote on a number school budget figure.

"I think steps of trust and goodwill were taken," Chairman of the Wenham Board of Selectmen Molly Martins said about the compromise giveback agreement.

The negotiations about the school budget began in earnest last Friday afternoon after the Hamilton Finance Committee voted Thursday night not to strip the schools of $1.1 million. That proposal would have threatened the schools' summer capital improvement projects and a planned technology upgrade.

The Hamilton Finance Committee, divided on the school budget, agreed initially to back the school budget as approved by the School Committee for next year. But the four-member finance committee met again on Saturday before the Town Meeting and was deadlocked 2-2 on the budget. It was unclear how the Hamilton Board of Selectmen would vote.

To avoid a fight on the Town Meeting floor, the three school committee members began negotiations that resulted in an agreed-to solution. The concern was that Finance Committee Chairman John McWane and Board of Selectmen Chairman Jennifer Scuteri would try to persuade the Town Meeting to reject or at least reduce the school budget, school committee members said.

McCloughan said the negotiations avoided having the school committee face what she described as “McWane's wacky way of doing things.” The proposal from McWane would have jeopardized the $348,000 earmarked for the schools' summer capital improvement programs she said, plus about $200,000 in technology upgrades.

School Committee Member Jack O'Keefe said he likes the ultimate solution, but said, “It can't be good to have things being decided in the last 48 hours. It doesn't help anybody. This came out of left field.”

Several members asked why McCloughan did not call an emergency meeting of the school committee on Saturday morning to discuss the negotiated compromise. McCloughan said she did not call a meeting because she thought there would not be enough members who could attend.

Supintendent Peter Gray said he did not believe that the issue was serious enough to qualify for an emergency meeting.

Committee member Bill Dery said the negotiations avoided “a terrible food fight” at the Town Meeting. Without the negotiated agreement among the various boards, he had planned to “add to the food fight” by objecting to some of the funds being spent on "technology toys" like iPads for students. He said Kuebel and Swartz “sat on me and kept me quiet.”

Ann Minois, the lone board member who voted "no" on the budget, said the three members should have communicated with the other School Committee members. Former board member Tess Leary agreed with Minios.

“You (the three members) were representing them, but they didn't know it,” she said.