In Move Deemed “Illegal,” School Committee Tables Vote on Chair

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA

The Chariho School Committee was expected to vote on a new Chair at the Tuesday meeting, but the position remains vacant after seven of the 12 committee members voted to approve a motion to table the vote.

The move has infuriated many residents, including Etta Zasloff of Hopkinton, who, after attending the meeting, filed a complaint with the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office, alleging a violation of the Open Meetings Act.

“I was so stunned by what had happened at the meeting that I couldn’t come down from it and knew I wouldn’t sleep,” she said Wednesday. “I felt I had to do something to get this blatant disregard for the Chariho Act and the Open Meetings Law on everyone’s radar. So, I pulled up the AG’s website looking for an answer and saw how easy it was to file an Open Meetings complaint, that I just did it at 11:13 PM. Went to bed and slept like a baby! We’ll just see how it pans out. “

When Richmond committee member Katheryn Colasante resigned recently from the School Committee, she proposed that unsuccessful committee candidate Louise Dinsmore take her place. The committee was, nevertheless, preparing to vote for Karen Reynolds, who has served as Vice Chair and more recently, Acting Chair. Reynolds and Jessica Purcell, were reelected to their seats last November. Dinsmore came third in the race and Clay Johnson was fourth.

The School Committee Meeting
There were several interested observers seated in the audience. They included Kathryn Colasante’s spouse, former Richmond Town Council member Michael Colasante, and attorney Joseph Larisa, who will represent Colasante at the upcoming adjudication of his ethics violation.

Also in the audience were Justin Price, who failed in his bid for reelection to the state legislature. Clay Johnson, who was ordered by the Rhode Island Supreme Court to vacate his committee seat after a decision affirming Jessica Purcell as the rightful member, was also present.

The discussion began with Charlestown member Linda Lyall’s nomination of Reynolds as Chair. Purcell stated that she also supported Reynolds.

When members voted, seven of them were opposed to the nomination. Hopkinton member Polly Hopkins then made a motion to table the item entirely.

“I make a motion to table this for the next School Committee agenda, with the recognition that this is Kathryn Colasante’s last School Committee meeting and somebody else will be taking her place,” she said. “I don’t want to see the Richmond voters disenfranchised with that person having the opportunity to take some of the subcommittee seats as well as have their vote included.”

Superintendent of Schools Gina Picard warned members that not abiding by the terms of the Chariho Act, which require the committee to name a Chair within 10 days of the election and certification of committee members, meant that they were in violation of state law.

“I just want to be clear that the Chariho Act is the law,” she told the committee, “and at this point, as School Committee members, if you choose to break state law, you would no longer be indemnified as School Committee members. You would have to get your own attorneys.”

The Chariho Act states:
“Within ten (10) days after the election and certification of the members of the regional school district committee, said regional school district committee shall meet and organize by selecting one (1) of their number to be chairperson of said committee.”

At this point in the meeting, several members began to speculate about the possibility of prior communications between the committee members who voted to table the item, which would constitute a violation of the Open Meetings Act.

Colasante said she had consulted an attorney, whom she did not name.

Lyall said to Colasante, “Obviously, there was some sort of preplanning if you had to consult an attorney, so you knew there was going to be an issue.”

Purcell said to Colasante, “As someone who was disenfranchised from my seat for six months, I see nothing wrong with moving forward with a vote on a chair when we’re all sitting here. You said you wanted a seamless transition. That’s why you’re here, to vote on this very pertinent issue of electing a chair. It’s eight days to Christmas, the New Year is coming up. I don’t want to go into the New Year and the new budget season without a chair.”

Colasante replied that the committee would not be choosing a chair from all the Richmond members, since Dinsmore was not yet seated.

“I believe that that person that will be legally appointed and that will be sworn in tomorrow night, I believe that that is very egregious to her, to have this agenda item which will bar her from being considered,” she said. “And, for that reason, and again, because I could anticipate this happening, that is why I consulted with the lawyer.”

Members voted, seven to five, to table the vote for a chair to the next meeting in January.

Reynolds said she felt the move had been planned, with several members appearing to read their statements from a script.

“This was absolutely planned,” she said. “Where do we go from here? We go to the next meeting and we try again and we hope people can think and vote independently and maybe some public support would be helpful.”

Former committee Chair Catherine Giusti was also skeptical of claims that Colasante’s resignation and the move to delay the appointment of the chair were not part of the local Republicans’ strategy.

“It is disappointing, though not surprising, that the Republican members of the School Committee chose to violate the Chariho Act by voting against Karen Reynolds as Chair and then tabling the decision altogether,” she said. “Their actions clearly prioritize party politics over the law, with no regard for what’s best for Chariho. Any claims of ignorance are hard to believe as this decision was the second worst-kept secret in local politics in the past two weeks. The ongoing dysfunction within the local Republican party is odd and serves only to distract its members from the work that truly matters.”

Purcell said she had felt that something was going to happen when she saw who was in the audience. “She [Reynolds] was, in my opinion, the best person you could put forward for the Chariho School Committee Chair, and so I was hoping that she would have enough votes, but at the start of the meeting, when I saw that Clay Johnson was there, Joe Larisa was there, Mike Colasante was there, they definitely gave a different vibe. It made me think back to the time they organized to keep me out of my seat and I thought, ‘okay, this is a little more political than I thought, because I think that they’re organizing to keep Karen out of the Chair position so that they can appoint their person who lost the election and is now being appointed to fill a vacancy as Chair.’ ”

Reynolds said she was worried about the future of the school district. “I have some real concerns about the direction that Chariho will go in, for the students and for our reputation and for our community as a whole,” she said. “People move to Chariho because of the school district.”