now if the school had 539 out of school suspensions and 0 detentions and 0 in school suspentions that means there were that many teaching
hours are not needed true? and most of these are for skipping school and assumeing that these are multiday removals then maybe we can save money there why do we need teacher you don't have kids in front of them, no in school , no detention, you skipped your gone, sound like a good system to me NOT!

Actually, it looks like Gareth and/or Kevin Reynolds dropped the ball on this one. Your continued attacks on the superintendent for this rather small issue in the grand scheme are just silly. You're making yourself look petty and out of touch with the real issues at hand.

Joe, I couldn't agree more. One of the many negative consequences of this annual attempt to gut the school budget is that it forces the school dept to scramble just to meet basic needs, and long-term needs & maintenance gets pushed off. The short-term thinking that would gut the schools & General Fund to save $1.39 ends up costing every taxpayer more in the long run, in addition to hurting those reliant on services. There are some major challenges that we can only meet by working together for the common good.

Tiverton Parent, I'm not blaming the superintendent. This is the School Committees responsibility. Current and previous. They're the people we elect to run the system . They're responsible to ensure the Schools are save, and clean for the students.

Sad to say, Jane, you are so deeply into your slef-righteous TCC/Tea Party bubble that you've lost all touch with reality. You have a right to criticize & question me or anyone else. But you have an obligation to use facts, not your personal delusions that you've convinced yourself is reality. You attack Mr Cotta, Ms Pallasch & myself using the foolish "red shirt" term. If you were in town a decade ago, you'd know Mr Cotta & the Budget Cmte were annually in heated dispute with the school dept over budgets, & Deb & I have ofetn had disagreements. Unlike you & TCC, our disagreements were out of a sincere desire to see the schools operate better & more affordably, not some self-serving political agenda & spite over not wanting to pay for schools since we don't have kids in them. If you think saving $1.29/week is worth closing a school or cutting all extracurricular activities, plus emptying the General Fund below the legal level, that's your right. If you prefer Mr Nelson's irresponsible course of offering up "free tax cuts" without even having the guts to say what he'd cut from a budget the Budget Cmte ALREADY cut, that says a lot more about you than any of your fact-deprived ranting. PS: School Committee members get a small stipend, not a "salary". It helps to actually know what you're talking about BEFORE you speak. If you ever want to have a rational, factual, non-anonymous debate, let me know. We may actually agree on some things.

BTW, Jane, to "rubber stamp" a budget is the EXACT OPPOSITE of the process that happened. The Budget Cmte asked the School Cmte for large cuts from their original request, and these were agreed upon. To say that the BC approving that agreed-upon smaller budget was "rubber stamping" is absurd. Anyone who does anything you don't like is all part of some grand conspiracy. There are some Budget Cmte members who have not exactly been favorable to the schools in the past who voted for this budget; I guess they are now all part of the conspiracy as well. This is just not a credible way to engage in public discourse.

Jane Doe No TCC menber would be this misinformed. You have to be a fraud.

Taking Councilor Joan Chabot's suggestion to it's logical conclusion, maybe we can close ALL our schools & rent them to Little Compton. Maybe Fall River will want to rent all our municipal buildings. Who needs a community any way?

Jim L, what about the Town's $2.3 m surplus? Where do you think the money came from? Oh that's right, from overtaxing residents.

Jim, there are exactly NO accurate factual statements in your comments. There is no $600K surplus. That's a TCC fabrication to try to justify gutting nearly $600K from the school budget. The School Cmte is using the money the TCC-led Town Council was FORCED by state law to return to the schools to fund their voter-approved budgets to pay for the septic. As someone claiming to be so concerned about waste of taxpayer funds, why aren't you raging at your TCC-majority Town Council for wasting over $80,000 in taxpayer funds on legal fees in a failed effort to overturn the RI Dept of Education in order to push their politically-motivated "bifurcation" effort to further strip the schools of funds needed to meet the budget approved by voters? Sure smells of hypocrisy, Jim.

If you were paying attention, I believe Joe Sousa answered your question the last time you brought it up.

Jane, diversion is the only strategy you & TCC have. Councilor Nelson, who puts forth a budget that will dramatically harm both the schools & the town's financial health, refused to answer questions about it. Then he tries to drum up phony outrage that people actually answered questions asked by the students targeted by Nelson's budget. If you folks would answer one question without dredging up phony issues or lame attempts at personal attacks, you might not need to anonymously raise & spend $10,000 to convince voters of your plan. You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. School budgets, by law, are funded in their entirety, not line by line. The school dept can provide you line-items, where you can see just how minimal the SC stipend is. If you're unhappy with state law, aim your resources at the State House, not on your own neighbors & their children. BTW, the line items in the "docket" you refer to are irrelevant. Voters are approving only bottom-line figures. There is no "surplus"; it's money your TCC Council wasted $80,000 of taxpayers' money trying to take back from the schools. They are responsibly using it to pay for the septic system & other vital needs. I understand a school closing & the end of extracurriculars won't affect you, but there are an awful lot of families & children who don't consider that trivial, or worth $1.39/week. Any one who claims they can predict any election is fooling him/herself. Just the facts, ma'am.

Perhaps you could ask Mrs. Coulter?

Somehow I don't think they want answers as much as they want to stir up trouble. Thanks though Renee.

i didn't even know they got paid, but since patch showed up i would say they ALL earn it now

yes step right up have people like tom call you a drunk, are others call you a lair, get a nickname like LORD , have yourself threatened, refer to other as a hycocrite, have your servive to your country questioned all by folks who say you hate your home town by trying to hold your taxes down, Step right up, I'll be at the end off the line but still right here

See, that's exactly why were were told to vote for #2, the schools were going to raise the taxes 22% and were soon going to be a half-billion dollar operation. Why can't they fix their toilets with that kind of scratch?

Ruth - It's not half a billion dollars. It's $50 million NOT billion. I can't help but wonder if you don't know the difference between a million and a billion how are you allowed to vote on any budget?

Noted. Thank you, Chris, for being part of the reason the Voters for the FTR and Tiverton Citizens for Change were created. Every time I hear you speak or see what you write, it inspires me to do my part for this town, to keep it from what you would do to it. Absolutely! On to good ideas - more wins in athletics too! (Even I know a lot about improving athletically, team and non-team sports! but that's not my focus in this comment...) But even more importantly, we're going to bring cool neighbors who really care about each other, Back! Judging from what you and your cohorts have done in the past, your financial plan would be to double the school budget again in the next 10 years, (that would be about $55,000,000.00 to $56,000,000.00 - that's half of $100 million dollars, whatever it is, it's huge money and unsustainable increases). If that's your track, CC, I'm working creatively to NOT GO THERE! I'm for doing better, with LESS MONEY!!!

Jim, given how glaringly bad the TCC/Nelson budget you defend is, I'm not surprised you try to change the subject. What exactly does my record on the Council 4 years ago have to do with this debate? Nothing of course, but that's all you have. But since you brought it up, and obviously have no clue what went on during my time on the Council, here are just a few things I (and the others on the Council) did to benefit the town & taxpayers: I wrote the Charter Amendment requiring disclosure of details of labor contracts at least 3 days prior to a vote. I was the deciding vote against an earlier version of Pay As You Throw, as I felt it was an unnecessary tax. I wrote the TC Resolution condemning strong-arm tactics by NEA & supporting the School Cmte's position in negotiations. I can send you a long list if you'd like. Unlike this current TCC Council, we didn't just pay lip service to taxpayers while wasting their money on political agenda. It might help your cause if you actually knew something about what you spout off about. Just because you want something to be true to fit your worldview doesn't make it so.

Bob Gaw why don't you speak to how Town spending has increased by 55%. Why aren't you concerned with David Nelson's Alternative Budget that increase Town spending by 4.3% I don't see any zero increase in spending here!

If you are only concerned about the School Department's expenditures and not the Town's then I would have to say that you support the TCC's primary goal which is to destroy public education in Tiverton at all costs.

Mr. Gaw, you said 'the introduction of the FTR has forced the school committee to ask for less than the outrageous increases they needed (demanded) in the past "

Another lie, and yes that is what I am calling all these statements now because I am just disgusted at the number of them.

This is the first year of the "FTR" and if you look at last years FTM docket you will see that the schools asked for a 2.6% increase (which was less than the town request of 3.0% by the way).

Also, if you look here (slide 33) you will see that with the exception of 08-09, for the last ten years the municipal increase has been higher than the schools:

http://www.tiverton.ri.gov/townclerk/sumryPresent_final.pdf

So why then aren't you questioning a budget that raises Council spending by 4.6% and strips our savings? Biased?

Please read closely!! I never said I was not concerned about the increase in town spending, as a matter of fact I have issue with the fact we pay our ex police chief over $100,000 a year to collect ANOTHER full time pay in Swansea. In no way shape or form am I anti school, they just happen to be the group that are soo demanding and using scare tactics i.e sports and after school programs will be eliminated vs. tightening personnel budgets and eliminating positions. Look at the top eight schools in RI, almost half have a lower teacher ratio. 20% contribution to health insurance?? Bring it to 50% like most other industries and you would get your $600,000 shortfall in a heartbeat. Don't kid yourself by saying I want to destroy public education, contra ire my friend. Nice try but simply NOT true! I am against all government waste, not just under performing school systems.

When you start pointing out the waste and irresponsible items on the other side of the isle (come one saving of 3%??), I will start taking you seriously. Until then, you have a bone to pick with the schools, in my opinion.

And once again, given the choice between believing the school committee, who are also parents/grandparents and have something to lose like the rest or us, versus someone like you telling me they are "scaring me", I am believing them.

I understand your concern, & I share it. I live paycheck to paycheck & don't want to spend one dollar more than is necessary. But I also realize that you get what you pay for. If you want to have vital town & school services, you have to be willing to make a financial investment in them. I wouldn't pay any amount unnecessarily, but when it's a choice of $1.39/week or closing a school, eliminating extracurriculars that are crucial for students, AND emptying our already-low General Fund below the legal requirement, it's an obvious choice for me. The idea that any tax cut is automatically good is short-sighted and leads to higher costs down the road, not to mention lowering our quality of life as a community. If you or anyone else has a solution as to how to maintain reasonable services at a lower cost, that's something we should work on together as a community, instead of this annual attack on the schools that ends up only hurting the kids & further dividing the town. In the end, no one will win that type of battle, whatever happens on Tuesday.
BTW: Your stats are skewed by the two years we needed to exceed the tax-cap due to extraordinary circumstances: 2008 when the $30 million school bonds came due, and 2010 when the state reneged on $1.5 million in vehicle funds. Otherwise, budget & tax increases have been moderate.

@ Ksilva: School percentage numbers should be decreasing as enrollment has decreased. Everyone has had to tighten up and I think all branches of our town need to tighten up. The 2.6% increase dollar number is much greater than 3.0%, consequently it is more closely scrutinized for potential savings thus making our community stronger and more attractive. Lets face it, if you look at the top 8 high schools in Rhode Island NO ONE is moving here for our school system and many won't move to Tiverton because of our taxes.

Actually Bob people ARE moving to Tiverton. Tiverton was actually one of the few communities in RI to have population growth: http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/
And we DID move here for the schools, as did many of the parents I know.

Our schools do very well with what they have and the population they must serve (which include more low income students than the top 8 schools you point to). You really should spend some time learning about them. They do some fantastic things. Watch here to learn about just some of them (including testing score achievements):

http://www.tivertonvideos.blogspot.com/2012/04/tiverton-school-committee-meeting-4-26.html

@ksilva: Unfortunately I HAVE read about Tiverton and not propaganda supported by others. See census data below. NOT GOOD, and it does not support your CLAIM that people are moving to Tiverton, the only reason I hear people are moving to Tiverton is because home values in comparison are lower but taxes are higher. Interesting Facts about Tiverton, Rhode Island

As of 2011, Tiverton's population is 6,911 people. Since 2000, it has had a population growth of -5.13 percent.
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The median home cost in Tiverton is $274,800. Home appreciation the last year has been -2.67 percent.
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Compared to the rest of the country, Tiverton's cost of living is 30.80% Higher than the U.S. average.
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Tiverton public schools spend $6,751 per student. The average school expenditure in the U.S. is $5,678. There are about 15.3 students per teacher in Tiverton.
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The unemployment rate in Tiverton is 13.20 percent(U.S. avg. is 9.10%). Recent job growth is Negative. Tiverton jobs have Decreased by 0.60 percent.

Jim: Again, wherever you come up with your information, it's wrong. the Council has control of setting hardship abatements. This Council exploits the "tough economy" & "struggling taxpayers" as a smokescreen to push their self-serving agenda. But when it comes time to actually DO something to help struggling taxpayers, they refuse to do so because helping struggling taxpayers might cost them a bit more to make up the difference. Yes, Jim, that's the definition of hypocrisy. Add to that imposing Pay As You Throw, a huge de facto tax increase no matter how useful a program, and now TRIPLING the municipal spending increase over what the BC recommended, & anyone can see that TCC isn't against taxes & spending, only taxing & spending that doesn't benefit them personally.

Jim L, in regards to spending, the Town's budget has increased by 55% over the past 11 years. Why doesn't this concern you?

I called what he said a lie and then I proved it with facts. I did not call anyone a liar.

Bob Gaw, I accessed your link it was not the US Census Bureau's website.