So you...thought you...might like to...go to the show

The Portsmouth School Committee held a public forum on the school budget and contract at PHS last night where an audience of about 150 (mostly teachers) were kept at arms length for two hours.

Whether school committee chair Cynthia Perrotti intended it or not, the layout for the evening said everything: members of the committee were ensconced behind tables way up on the stage, with the three Republicans stage right and the three nominal Democrats on the left. Between them rose the enormous screen where vice-chair Jon Harris did his 20-minute PowerPoint routine. Teachers could only speak from the floor of the auditorium and were denied the opportunity to use the big screen. Perrotti graciously gave Joe Cassady, the president of the teachers' union, an extra couple of minutes at the mike, so he had 5 minutes to offer their side.

I half expected stagehands to come out with enormous cardboard bricks and begin to build a wall.

Harris spent his time waggling a laser pointer at pie charts and explaining why there was no money, blaming the S3050 tax cap and the funding formula, but neglecting to mention the advocacy by members of the school committee in opposition to last year's override referendum. Guess that didn't fit on the slide.

Harris outlined the same offer described in the school committee's release of last week, with more steps and lower increases, and urged the teachers to be grateful and compare themselves to "the unemployed person who's looking for a job."

"I don't understand what you don't get," he said to Cassady at one point.

"I can tell," Cassady responded.

Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.

Harris also said that the teachers should be glad to work in Portsmouth because it "delivers to you children who are given something at home." When pressed, he clarified "I didn't say wealthy. I said we deliver a demographic. A socioeconomic standing in town" which he asserted "is a driver for test scores."

Oooh, ah. Mother should I build a Wall?

About two dozen teachers took their turn at the microphone, critiquing the nature of the forum, the public release of information last week, the salary levels on the proposed steps relative to other towns, their willingness to compromise, their feeling that the negotiations had not been "civil and ethical."

Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue sky?

PCC member Jeff Richard played the part of the surrogate band, and with a fine sense of audience, told the members of the local NEA "The problem is not you, the problem is your union," before going on to claim that "it's impossible to pay your taxes in town," and that this was just part of a "national movement" to question public-sector unions.

You'd better run.

Dave Croston made what I consider to be last night's most authentic contribution by the school committee. He pointedly came down from the stage, prompting a remark from Perrotti, and used the same microphone as the teachers, and he spoke from the heart.

"You guys are incredible," he said to the teachers. "This is not about you." And then he named the elephant in the room. "We tried to address this with the referendum last October." It might be time, he said to face the fact that "this town doesn't want to invest in education." He described the shortfall in the budget, and how the upcoming year was being balanced with the fund balance, and that while the $300K difference in salaries might be found in that fund, "If we use that $300K of one-time cash, it will never again be in our appropriation." He added, "We're in an impossible position here."

"I want to give $300K to teachers," said Croston. "I walked for a week to get $300K for teachers. We lost."

There must have been a door there in the wall, when I came in...

In my opinion, Croston is the only one on the committee with credibility on this issue. There are people up there who opposed the referendum last year, and now they sit, crying poverty as their excuse and demanding sacrifice.

It will be interesting to see what the committee's next move is. Will they even go back to the table, or opt to head straight for arbitration?

Perhaps, as Croston suggested, the only successful end game is another referendum. "I'm at your disposal," he said last night. But with the PCC faction on the Council and school committee, and the perpetual agitprop campaign run by the anti-taxers in town, I think everyone knows that would be tough.

After all it's not easy...Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall.

Editorial note: I can't believe I got through an entire story using "The Wall" as an extended metaphor for a school committee meeting without using, well, you know which song. Heard melodies are sweet, u.s.w.