Jim Chellel suggests ‘regionalized’ superintendent, but Breault-Zolt wants Mercer
The Pawtucket School Committee fights about everything.
And no one, not even its members, would argue with that.
The fracturing of the Pawtucket School Department’s governing body has been a gradual one, its members tell The Valley Breeze, but they say last Wednesday’s special meeting, when members argued loudly over everything from rules of order to a lawsuit against the city, “marked a new low” in basic civility.
Member Jim Chellel, who would later be unanimously elected new chairman of the School Committee, was forced to pound his gavel early and often, while even the man who controls the microphone soundboard was having trouble mitigating the eruptions as his fingers danced over the volume controls.
Despite all the arguing, School Committee members still found the time last Wednesday to move forward with a number of big-ticket items, including approving by a 4-3 vote a Caruolo lawsuit against the city of Pawtucket and its taxpayers seeking more than $4 million in additional funds.