The Portsmouth School Committee tonight discussed changes to their payroll system, awarded a contract for fire-code upgrades at the Middle School, and did some thinking about next year's legislative agenda.

But first, the 13 people in the audience were treated to a show of support for current Superintendent Dr. Susan Lusi, as the committee unanimously voted their intention to renew her contract. There was even a round of applause from the audience. And well deserved. We only have to look at other communities to realize how lucky we are to have Lusi here (and, I might add, to have such a high-functioning school committee.)

There was a vote to use money from the PHS gym fund to install a sound system, which had to be approved tentatively. Some idiot from the audience who clearly has too much time on his hands pointed out that the agenda said "PMS" when they were discussing something for the high school. I almost forgave the dolt because he explained that he didn't want the committee to get into trouble, because some people would pick on something like that. And he looked right at Cheshire Kathy Melvin when he said it, making her hiss in a most satisfying way. She can dish it out, but boy, she sure can't take it.

No problem with the approval for the PMS sprinkler contract. The Committee heard from their consultant, Joe Watson of Hughes Associates who had worked with Chief Lynch to develop the specs and who analyzed the bids. They recommended, and the committee unanimously approved, an $819K contract with Energy Electric, with a $39K contingency fund, unused balance to be returned at close-out. This would bring the sprinklers and alarms up to the current post-Station-fire requirements.

The contentious issue for the evening was the request by the town that the School Department revise their payroll practice. Currently, said Dr. Lusi, "We do our own payroll, but town files for taxes, and it takes 9.3 hours/month to do that." The town asked the if the schools could use their payroll vendor, ADP, or alternately get their own Employer Identification Number (EIN) and take over the payroll process entirely.

There are problems with both solutions. Using ADP, said Lusi, "Would would make it impossible to encumber our salary lines. We pay over 450 people in each payroll, and it's very important to be able to track the funds. We are a payroll system that has a number of exceptions — stipends, professional development, et cetera. If we went over to ADP, we would lose tracking, it would also cost us $15K and save us nothing in staff."

School Finance Director Christine Tague spoke to the EIN option, "I spoke with my counterpart, Laurie Miller, the school finance director in Lincoln. She said they had to pay a consultant about $70K to set up the process by which they do payroll taxes." And she noted that they had to add another .5 clerical position for paperwork. "The second EIN would require us to send forms to the IRS, and we would be responsible, every week, for remitting payroll taxes to IRS and quarterly 1090-1091s. That would be a duplicative effort."

Given that the performance audit by Berkshire Advisors is underway, Lusi recommended that this question be taken up as part of the study. The only issue with that, she said, was timing, since the town indicated that they would come to the School Committee looking for reimbursement for their clerical time. But at just $6,500/year, that, noted Chair Sylvia Wedge, would be cheaper than switching to ADP. The committee voted unanimously to ask Berkshire to evaluate the options.

Finally, Dr. Lusi presented some "conceptual" thoughts about items the Committee might wish to pursue with our state delegation for next year's legislative session. It's a sadly familiar list: a school funding formula, revision to S3050 (Paiva-Weed) to allow communities to keep their growth, Net metering to enhance the value of the wind turbine, increase in the now "decade old" group home aid reimbursement of $15K/bed, tort reform as advised by the school's insurer, Interlocal Trust, to reconfigure joint and several responsibility for damages, and rethinking the contribution formula for the state retirement system. Committee member Marge Levesque suggested adding vocational-technical schooling (which Northern RI gets for free) and state-wide support for some busing. Meeting adjourned at the pleasantly early hour of 8:20.

If you have a taste for school budgets, there will be an open session as part of the School Committee retreat this Saturday from 10-12 in the Hampton Inn Conference Room down in Middletown. And no, despite Cheshire Kathy's question, not all retreats are "religious." Although Dr. Lusi did promise, "If we have any epiphanies we'll be sure to tell you."