With the closest thing to an agreement failing by a 4-3 vote tonight, the Portsmouth Town Council explored and debated but ultimately failed to find the required $44K to save the Prudence Island School in the 2010 budget. At least a dozen people from Prudence were in attendance, though most did not speak, and relations between the Council and Schools were, if not exactly cordial, at least more professional than last week's joint session.

School Committee Chair Dick Carpender tried to set the tone. "There are 14 people in this community that have been elected to govern the town," he said,"on the school side, they were unanimous that there was no room in our budget to move." Trying to engage the Council in collaboration, he said, " We came over with hope. We stand ready to work with the Council if we can somehow to keep the school open."

But the bonhomie was short-lived, as Councilor Huck Little called it "deplorable" and in "bad taste" to force a 4 and 7-year-old to ride the ferry. We should be "getting rid of one secretary someplace. You can do better. Find that money."

Canario tried to get everyone back around the campfire."It's my hope and desire that we can come up with a solution to this very emotionally driven subject. I hope we can have meaningful dialog without pointing fingers."

Hamilton echoed Canario and raised the "not hire an assistant principal" suggestion.

But then Gleason got her sight calibrated. "I'm disappointed you come before us and can't find $44K. Last time, I said I could find a lot of areas, but it's not my job." Then she shifted focus to the committee members. "Question for the members of the School Committee. Did you all understand this motion, am I reading it right, are you coming here for us to give you another 44K on top of the millions and millions you already asked for?"

Carpender explained that they made the motion so that when they came to the meeting this evening, they would not be in a position of not having thought of things.

"Let's ask the other members," said Gleason.

Angela Volpicelli stood at the podium and said, "I felt personally that I misinterpreted the motion. I thought it meant that we were going to work together."

Marilyn King: "I too was under the impression that the motion that was being made to us last night was to work with you. That was the way I understood the motion and voted."

Let's rewind, for a moment, to last night. Here's the motion as I have transcribed it: WEDGE: motion committee further delay closing Prudence Island for one year only if additional revenue of 44K is received from town of Portsmouth.

Go back and re-read that sentence and see if you understand it. And then see if you can construe it to mean "we'll work with you."

I am too tired and, frankly, pissed off to pursue this tonight, But I will digitize the clips and let you watch them back to back. There is nothing, to my mind, ambiguous about the motion. And it occurs to me to wonder just where the bright idea of even asking this question so suddenly came from. Did it just pop into Tailgunner Gleason's mind? She wasn't there last night, so she could not have possibly see any look of uncertainty on the faces of Volpicelli and King as they were joining a unanimous vote. Where do you even get the idea to ask someone if they really understood a motion? Just some pure, blind, random-ass fishing expedition? And then you get lucky and discover that not one, but two people completely misinterpreted it. I mean, what are the odds, eh? If I were Tailgunner, I'd spend every buck in my pocket on Lotto on the way home.

There was a lot more sparring over the mechanics of the budget; about the April financials and whether or not there will be a surplus at the end of the year, whether the Schools will agree to reimburse the Town if there is a surplus (they had already voted $40K as part of the relief package a few weeks ago.) In the end, there was not enough certainty with the numbers, either on the town or school side to make a majority comfortable.

But both Plumb and Hamilton have emerged as thoughtful, cautious pragmatists, and they, at least, seemed willing to entertain possible solutions using some town funding, with the proviso that more locked-in numbers could be achieved from the schools (a $17K fund balance, a thorough review of the revenue projections through end of year, etc.) This thing looks fated to drag on another week and make everyone really, really pull every bit of lint out of their pockets, but there seemed be a glimmer of hope of getting this done.

With no budget yet approved, the school committee will meet again, date to be determined, and then there will be yet another go at tonight's provisional. I'll post the schedule as soon as I know.