School Committee Denies Request for Financial Records

Open financial records dominated the talking points made Tuesday at the last Portsmouth School Committee meeting to be held before the start of the new school year.

School committee Chairman Richard Carpender had denied an agenda item to be placed on this week's agenda.

The agenda item, requested by school committee member Cynthia Perrotti, was submitted to the committee on Aug. 13 and entitled "full financial reporting."

According to Perrotti, during the Aug. 10 school committee meeting, the finance director mentioned unallocated fiscal year 2010 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and Medicaid reimbursement funds.

Perrotti is seeking more information about these records, as well as "monthly expenditure reports on the operating budget ... future fiscal years' restricted budget, fund balance, separate accounts, grants and any other monies," according to the agenda item request.

"I just want to know what's out there in the accounts," Perrotti said.

According to the school committee member, who is running for election this year, the Portsmouth School Department "should make public complete financial records in order to promote communication and understanding between the school system and the community, especially in light of the pending referendum to increase the school budget above the Town Council-approved amount."

"Transparency and accountability are very important to me," Perrotti said. "This is information that is relevant and should be made available to the public. To submit this to a subcommittee seems like a stall tactic."

"I'm not stalling," Carpender said. "I'm trying to do this the right way. It's more appropriate to have this discussed in a subcommittee."

Carpender said he denied the agenda item in order for the school department to have time to prepare the information. The school committee chairman recommended submitting the agenda item to the finance subcommittee.

"Those meetings are open to the public," he said.

Larry Fitzmorris, president of the Portsmouth Concerned Citizens group, addressed the committee about the issue.

"If members of the school committee cannot receive information they requested ... then there are serious problems," Fitzmorris said. "You can't run a school committee if you don't have access to information."

"Mr. Fitzmorris, not once did I say I was denying information," Carpender responded. "I'm not denying anything. This is about the process to get there."

Superintendent of Schools Susan Lusi also joined in the conversation.

"It is not helpful to have all these independent requests," said the superintendent. "We (the school department) have very limited staff. We have limited time. I need clarity on when you need these."

Perrotti asked again for the records "in the spirit of transparency." School committee member Marjorie Levesque motioned to move the question.

The committee voted against continuing the conversation at Tuesday's meeting. The vote was 4-3 with Perrotti, Angela Volpicelli and Marilyn King in opposition.

The agenda item will now be discussed at the next Finance Subcommittee, which will take place on Sept. 1 at 5 p.m.