Freelake School Committee sticks with budget despite override vote
Students held signs protesting potential school budget cuts.
Photos by Nick Mossman 
A full house attended the first meeting since the override vote.
Students continued to express disapproval of the budget, a week after the walkout at Apponequet. 
The committee considered several budget alternatives but went with the original proposal to keep the schools level funded.
Students held signs protesting potential school budget cuts.
Photos by Nick Mossman
A full house attended the first meeting since the override vote.
Students continued to express disapproval of the budget, a week after the walkout at Apponequet.
The committee considered several budget alternatives but went with the original proposal to keep the schools level funded.
LAKEVILLE — The Freetown-Lakeville Regional School Committee rejected two alternatives to its over $49 million proposed budget, opting not to alter the “level-service” budget that Lakeville failed to fund its share of when the town rejected a Proposition 2½ override last week.
The committee’s decision, which was made during its meeting on Wednesday, May 27, pushes an overextended budget to Town Meeting on Monday, June 8. Lakeville residents will then reckon with the town’s budget shortfall and decide whether to adjust the school district’s funding to account for it.
After the override failed last Tuesday, Superintendent of Schools Barbara Starkie told Nemasket Week that staffing and programming cuts required by the budget shortfall could put Apponequet Regional High School’s accreditation under review. The district may see 63 positions impacted, with 39 full-time staff positions eliminated and 21 part-time roles eliminated and three full-time roles cut to part time.
The “level-service” budget that the committee is sticking with would halt these cuts and keep the services that the FreeLake school district currently offers. However, Lakeville doesn’t seem to have the money to pay for it.
“We do know what the financial situation is in Lakeville, and it’s pretty dire,” said John Higgins, FreeLake Director of Finance and Operations.
Currently, Lakeville has a nearly $2 million deficit in the funding it’s able to give to the school district.
During the meeting, Higgins presented two alternative options to the committee to adapt to Lakeville’s budget constraints. Members tried three times to pass two separate alternatives to the current budget, but each attempt failed. Budget votes require a two-thirds majority to pass.
The first option would have aligned the district’s operating budget to account for the full amount that it’s missing from Lakeville, cutting multiple teacher, administrative and custodial positions from the district’s schools. The board tried to pass this twice, but rejected it.
At first, the vote failed 4-3-1 with Melinda Richards, Courtney Brightman, Bob Clark and Jennifer Blum voting yes. Kathryn Trost, Rebecca Cushing and Derek Medeiros voted no. Timothy Emery abstained from voting.
The committee considered the proposal again, flipping Medeiros’s vote to “yes,” but was still short of the two-thirds the option required to pass.
Members also considered a second option, which the committee presented as a “middle ground” between Lakeville’s budget shortfall and the “level-service” plan. The budget would have kept some specialist, language instructor, counselor, administrator and technical roles.
Brightman said that she worried this plan could give the wrong impression about the health of Lakeville and Freetown’s budgets.
“This partial middle could unintentionally obscure the true scope of the financial challenges,” Brightman said. “Because these challenges aren’t going to go away really no matter what option we choose.”
Only Committee Chair Richards voted in favor of the “middle ground” plan. Emery abstained from voting and all other members voted against it.
“I don’t think any of these options are clean or painless for anyone,” Brightman said.
Throughout the meeting, members criticized the towns for not supporting the school district.
“We’re here for the students and for the schools,” Emery said. “Unfortunately the towns that we happen to reside in don’t seem to be.”
Blum shared Emery’s view that the towns aren’t standing up for schools.
“Our vote is based off of what our community decided, and that is really, really sad. But we don’t have enough people on the town level fighting for these schools like we’re up here fighting for our schools,” Blum said. “I’m just so frustrated with the entire situation.”
Residents, students and teachers packed the library at Apponequet Regional High School for the committee’s meeting. Despite requests from audience members, the board declined to consider public comment as it was not originally scheduled to.
After the meeting, Apponequet junior Logan Ribeiro criticized the board’s decision not to have a public comment period.
“People here always say we live in a democracy where you have freedom of speech,” Ribeiro said. “And I feel like everyone on that committee right now discouraged that.”
After Richards said the committee would not hear public comments, about 30 students in the audience held up signs with the names of teachers who could be impacted by layoffs.
