An audience of 6 — half of them from Prudence Island — heard the Portsmouth School Committee express tentative support for a funding scheme that would keep Rhode Island's last one-room schoolhouse open for another year.

"I'm not going to ask for a motion tonight," said finance committtee chair Dick Carpender, "What's going to happen with state aid, we just don't know." Finding the money for Prudence, he said, depends on level funding from the state and a bit of clever financial timing. According to Carpender, if the town borrows the money for the tech warrants late enough in the year so that only a $14K interest payment needs to be made, the remaining $69K budgeted by the schools for debt service could be diverted to pay for Prudence.

But a cut in state aid would mean all bets are off. "If that happens," said Carpender, "We don't just have to revisit Prudence Island, we need to revisit everything."

While the committee was clearly not completely comfortable with the approach (Jamie Heaney probably said what many were thinking when he characterized it as "Robbing Peter to pay Paul,") the reality is that without a transportation option acceptable to the RI Deptartment of Education, keeping the school open is a requirement. "It's the best thing we can do right now," said committee member Michael Buddemeyer, "It's our minimal risk avenue."

The representatives from Prudence clearly appreciated the support, even if there was an understandable note of frustration in their comments.

PI resident Allen Bearse asked, not entirely rhetorically, "Why not consider that you are doing the best you can do? Why is there a better option to be looking for? There is no way, short of building a bridge, that you're going to get the transportation issue solved." He urged the committee to work on a longer-term approach, rather than year-to-year funding. "I'd like you to take the noose off our neck," said Bearse.

It's hard not to feel for these folks. They work damned hard to support their beautiful, functional schoolhouse, and the kids on the island are Portsmouth residents just like everyone else, and shouldn't have to endure a 12-hour day.

I'm just going to point out, for the eleventeenth time, that if we weren't hobbled by the structural deficit that the PCC succeeded in ramming through at the final Tent Meeting in 2006, we wouldn't be in these dire straits. Fight the real enemy.

In other news, the committee approved 3 new technology policies, showing that Marge Levesque's policy subcommittee is getting traction on one of the issues identified by the Berkshire report. Also, Michael Buddemeyer received approval for the Facilities Committee to develop an RFP for engineering analyses of all Portsmouth school buildings, in order to put some dollar numbers against the "common issues" he said the committee had identified.

Meeting adjourned at the shocking hour of 8pm. But by then, there were just two reporters in the audience, and no camera crew, so this is one you won't be seeing on Cox.