Letter: School leaders pulled a fast one on Little Compton taxpayers

To the editor:

On May 24, the Little Compton School Committee held a meeting for non-renewing of a teacher contract due to lack of enrollment. The committee voted not to proceed with the non-renewal of a teacher with hopes of more students signing up.

The night before at the Little Compton Financial Town Meeting, Mr. McHugh chairperson for the school committee and Jana Porter, school committee member, stood up along with Ellen Kinnane, chair of the democratic town committee, and pleaded for the need for the extra $100,000-plus dollars. They weren’t telling you, the voter, they had planned on not renewing a teacher contract due to low student enrollment. This non-renewal would have been saved roughly $100,000. The school committee felt they had a mandate from the public because of the vote to increase the budget. How many would have voted for this increase knowing the school committee was planning on letting a teacher go? Basically, the school committee chose to omit information to the public so they would vote for this increase.

This type of behavior is despicable! The only school committee person who supported level funding was Mr. Quinn, who has served this school system and town for many years! The community needs to come together not to take away important items relevant for the running of the school and community but to keep an eye on those who constantly want to spend more and more.

I spent four years on the committee trying to stop the push of raising the school budget and this push was always by the same group of people as they are now. If we cannot trust the school committee on how they are spending our money what else can we not trust them with?

Peg Bugara

Little Compton