Portsmouth Council considers budget.

The 40 citizens of Portsmouth who showed up at tonight's Town Council meeting witnessed a 4-3 vote to enact a budget which would give the schools a mere $129K of the $1.2M requested.

School Committee chair Dick Carpender told the Council that this would "decimate the system." But Karen Gleason made the motion, Huck Little seconded, and Peter McIntyre and Jeff Plumb voted in favor. Democrats Dennis Canario and Jim Seveney were joined by Keith Hamilton in opposing the budget.

Carpender made an impassioned defense of the teachers, the cost of whose contracts was singled out. "We have worked with the teachers and they have worked with us," said Carpender, "In the last two years, they have made over $840K in concessions, and it's not fair to them to say they're not doing their part."

But according to Plumb, it was not enough. "It's a value question," he said, adding that "We're not getting value in education now," a statement that drew hisses from many in attendance.

Seveney chided the majority for their vote. "The town spoke at the town meeting, and by and large supported the schools," he said. "You people are abdicating your responsibility. You're going to force some third party to make the hard decision," he said, referring to the proposed referendum or a Carulolo action.

Canario was even more blunt. "We all know where this is heading," he said. "We're talking 80 bucks a year for our schools. I'm optimistic that after the referendum goes in, the people of the town will support the schools."

But Tailgunner Gleason just couldn't leave it there. "The Town Council did not receive full disclosure from the School Department," she said.

This prompted Carpender to interrupt. "That is out of line, Mr. President," he shot back.

After the official reading of the budget ordinance, the meeting adjourned at 7:28.

Editorial note: It was tough to avoid the sense of deja vu at the meeting tonight, having covered the meeting four years ago where the Council made the decision to go down the path to Caruolo. But at least that was an action forced on the town by anti-tax rebels in a Tent Meeting, an experience that pushed me into localblogging.

Tonight, it was done by the elected representatives of the Town, delivered with the back of their hand to our teachers and with accusations of misconduct against the school department.

Tomorrow morning at 9 am, Dave Croston will be at Town Hall to start the process to call a special election to fully fund the schools. We need to collect about 1,500 signatures in the next 14 days to make that happen, so I would urge all school supporters to pitch in. There will be information on the Save Our Schools web site.

Correction: Originally had ten days rather than 14 for the signature collection. The language of the Charter says "two weeks after the adoption of the final Town Budget" (208.6) but it also requires the forms to be printed by the Registrar of Voters. So the clock started last night, but the signature collection can't actually start until the Registrar prints the forms.