Freetown-Lakeville school committee accepts reduced budget

 LAKEVILLE -- After months of lengthy and sometimes heated discussions, the Freetown-Lakeville School Committee has accepted a budget for next year that is less than they had requested.

Committee members unanimously approved a budget figure that was approved by Lakeville Town Meeting voters at their Aug. 6 meeting.

At both the annual and a subsequent Special Town Meeting, voters  rejected the school committee’s request for a $1.7 million increase over the current budget.  Instead, they agreed to pay a $350,000 increase.

That lower figure resulted in the loss of about 60 positions in the district, Superintendent of Schools Barbara Starkie has said.

School committee members could have called for a joint town meeting between Lakeville and Freetown, which supported the budget increase.

But in discussions at a July 29 meeting, the majority of committee members, while expressing disappointment at Lakeville’s decision, said that the district needed to move forward and accept the will of the voters.

Still, the vote to accept Lakeville’s budget failed to receive the needed two-thirds majority to be accepted.  At an impasse, committee members adjourned the July 29 meeting and agreed to reconsider the issue at a subsequent meeting.

Committee members stated at that return meeting on Aug. 6 that, although they do not agree with Lakeville voters, the time had come to accept their decision.

The district has reached a place, committee member Bob Clarke said, where “philosophy meets reality.’’ He said it would be “kind of fruitless to continue’’ the discussion.

Committee member Rebecca Cushing, who initially voted against the reduced budget at the July 29 meeting, expressed a similar sentiment. “We have run out of options,’’ she said.

Another committee member who had previously rejected the budget, Kathryn Trost, went along with Lakeville’s decision but said that, going forward, “we must be brave enough to ask tough questions.’’ This could include reopening the teachers’ contract, she said.

Starkie was unable to attend the meeting but had previously stated that the time had come to “repair the relationship with the two towns.