Richmond School Committee Meeting Update for January 24th 2023

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA

RICHMOND – With continued controversy over the appointment of Clay Johnson to fill the vacant Richmond seat on the Chariho School Committee, many of the 50 or so residents who came to the middle school auditorium on Tuesday were eager to express their opinions on the issue, even though the meeting was advertised as a budget workshop.

After Board Chair Catherine Giusti opened a public comment period, more than an hour was taken by people telling school committee members, and Chariho solicitor Jon Anderson, how they felt about the district’s initial resistance to seat Johnson, who was appointed by a majority of Richmond Town Council members on Jan. 19. Jessica Purcell, a Democrat received the second-highest number of votes, losing by a margin of just 27.

Supporters of Johnson’s appointment have argued that the district must follow the Chariho Act, which requires council members to vote for a replacement for a school committee seat. The town’s Home Rule Charter states that the council should select the committee replacement with the next-greatest number of votes.

While Johnson supporters, including three of the five Richmond council members, have stated that as state law, the Chariho Act supersedes the town charter, Anderson and others have countered that the two statutes are compatible, because the council would be voting for the replacement member, and also, the replacement would have the second-greatest number of votes.

The Supreme Court

There were several developments before the meeting.

Purcell announced that she had hired attorney Jeffrey Levy to file a writ of “Quo Warranto” in Rhode Island Supreme Court, which asks the court to determine whether Johnson should hold the school committee office.

Soon after the meeting had begun, attorney Joseph Larisa, hired to represent Johnson, appeared briefly before the committee to announce that he, too, had filed a Quo Warranto.

“I just wanted to make the committee aware that the matter is before the Supreme Court, both parties claiming the right to the position are represented,” he said. “There is no injunction whatsoever by the court against anybody, so you should proceed, in my view, exactly as you are with the budget workshop.”

It is not clear who will be paying Larisa’s fees for representing Johnson, but Larisa has previously represented the conservative group, the Gaspee Project, which Johnson chairs.

Purcell said she had received no financial assistance to pay Levy’s fees.

“I asked around, I networked, to see if anyone knew a lawyer for advice, and on Friday night, I finally found someone who would represent me,” she said. “I’m not receiving financial backing from anybody.”

Tuesday’s meeting revealed the extent of the political divide in the three Chariho towns. Supporters of Purcell were far outnumbered Tuesday by school committee critics, who largely focused their attacks on Anderson, for writing a legal opinion opposing Johnson’s appointment without first having obtained the authorization of the school committee to post it.

(See the Jan. 19 post in the BRVCA blog.)

Several members of the public, and school committee members, raised the same argument: that Anderson had acted inappropriately, violating the school committee’s code of conduct, when he submitted a legal opinion to the council on Jan. 17, without first obtaining the approval of the committee.

Anderson’s written opinion stated, in part:

“… the Council need only follow the plain language of the Chariho Act and the Richmond Home Rule Charter and appoint the next highest vote getter. There is no need to explore the rules of statutory construction as suggested elsewhere.”

Hopkinton school committee member Polly Hopkins, representing Hopkinton led the charge and was joined by several others, including former Hopkinton school committee member David Stall, who currently serves as the Hopkinton Town Moderator.

Stall called for both Anderson and committee chair Catherine Giusti to resign.

“What happened is a legal action and a letter on behalf of the entire school committee without any meeting of the school committee,” he said. “That is a violation of this board’s procedures, practices and policy, and I think, the Open Meeting [sic] Act. And I think it’s egregious, and I think it was intentional and strategic, and I give you enough credit to know the rules to believe that you broke them intentionally. Mr. Anderson and Mrs. Giusti, I believe it calls for your immediate resignation.”

Richmond Town Council member Michael Colasante, who, with council President Mark Trimmer and councilor Helen Sheehan, had voted to approve Johnson’s appointment, said he believed having Johnson on the school committee would be beneficial, because the committee would be more balanced, with equal numbers of liberals and conservatives.

“When we look at the next election, when you have six people from each side – whatever you want to say – they’re conservative or liberal, it will give the voters a good chance to see who is pushing what, what agendas and what is actually the best for the Chariho School District as a whole,” he said.

With Johnson now on the school committee, there is a question of what will happen if the Supreme Court rules that his appointment is not valid.

Charlestown member Craig Louzon asked what would become of committee decisions that Johnson had voted on.

“They don’t make a decision on this until, hypothetically, July, or August, or something of that nature, and we made a bunch of decisions involving Mr. Johnson’s participation in those decisions…what do we have to do about those decisions?” he said.

“All those decisions become void, because Mr. Johnson’s vote would not properly count,” Anderson said.

The committee would then have to vote again, with Purcell and without Johnson, on every decision.

The budget

The comment period ended and committee members and administrators turned their attention to the Fiscal Year 2024 schools budget. The committee has not yet begun making cuts to the proposed, $60 million spending plan, which represents a 6% increase over the current budget. The towns have asked the district to make reductions that will bring the budget under the 4% tax increase limit set by the state.

Superintendent of Schools Gina Picard will present budget scenarios to the school committee at the next workshop, including an alternative budget that is level-funded.

“We would need about $3,800,000 in cuts to get to level funding, so I’m going to put together what gets to $3,800,000, and they will determine what they want to do, based on what they want to cut,” she said Wednesday.

Picard also told the committee on Tuesday that the proposed state budget, if it passes in June, includes significant increases in state aid to the towns, in addition to the transportation aid they already receive.

Charlestown would receive $60,283, Richmond, $564,248, and Hopkinton, $552,571.

The next budget workshop is open to the public and will take place on Thursday, in the Chariho library, at 6 p.m.