By SANDY McGEE

CUMBERLAND — Lost meeting minutes, the revelation of a secret vote and angry outcries from the public were just a few highlights of Thursday evening’s Cumberland School Committee meeting.

The most consequential, although not unexpected, announcement of the evening involved the superintendent’s contract.

The superintendent’s contract
Schools Superintendent Donna A. Morelle’s contract was extended after a secret vote taken during a closed-door meeting on Oct. 26, 2006, by the Cumberland School Committee, announced current committee Chairman Frederic C. Crowley.
The original three-year contract, which was scheduled to expire at the end of this school year, was extended until June 2009, said committee member Donald J. Costa.
The contract was extended with a 7-0 vote in executive session, Among that septet were current committee members Costa, Robert C. Thibodeau and Earl T. Wood.
“We did extend her contract for one year with no money attached,” Thibodeau said. “We still have to negotiate her salary.”
Thibodeau said the vote was cast in executive session because there were no salary discussions. If the committee had not taken action before March 1, 2007, Thibodeau said, the contract would have been renewed automatically in keeping with a provision of Morelle’s agreement.
According to the original contract, Morelle is slated to receive a base salary of $112,692 for her service from July 1, 2007, to June 30 of this year. She also earns an additional $3,500 for holding an advanced degree.
The superintendent has served Cumberland schools since July 2005, when she and former School Committee Chairman Paul Neves signed a three-year contract.
“She (Morelle) is a very good superintendent,” Thibodeau said. “She had a good evaluation. She’s very innovative. I’m 100 percent behind her.”
One School Committee member, however, said he does not remember the vote for an extension.
“I was told no action was taken,” Costa said. “I was as shocked as anyone. I didn’t even know she had a contract extension.” He believed he was voting to OK the superintendent’s “goals and objectives” — an opinion Costa said is reflected in the minutes of the meeting.

The November ’06 vote
The current School Committee first voted to release those October 2006 executive session minutes at an open meeting on Nov. 30, 2006.
The move to approve the session’s minutes failed after a 3-3 vote. Thibodeau, the possible tiebreaker, had excused himself from the meeting early and was absent from the vote.
The committee moved again to approve the minutes “with the exception of anything relating to student suspensions, legal actions, grievances and anything that would violate the open meeting laws,” according to the meeting’s minutes.
The result was another tied 3-3 vote, with opposition from Wood, Costa and Lisa Beaulieu.

The public response
Brian Kelly of Cumberland, former chairman of the Pawtucket School Committee, advised the committee about reconsidering the vote during the public comment session Thursday night.
“The reconsideration has to take place on the night of the vote or at the next meeting, not 15 to 16 months later,” Kelly said. “Even if minutes are not approved, you can still report out the minutes. I advise you to let all of your members speak freely.”
“This whole thing stinks,” said Jim McLaughlin of Cumberland. “Many questions have been left unanswered.”
Other members of the large audience expressed similar sentiments.“We’re here to hear those minutes,” said one audience member. “We’re voters,” cried another.
“We have a community here that’s outraged,” said School Committee member Karen MacBeth. “These are things that should have been discussed in open session since the beginning.”
“We’ve played ridiculous games tonight on when we can report out or not report out,” Wagner said.
Before the audience was informed about the superintendent’s contract, the school department’s lawyer advised the committee to move on.
“I recommend you move on to the next agenda item,” Rotella said.
Catcalls followed. “The public has a right to know,” one audience member shouted.

The petition
The superintendent’s contract announcement came on the same night the committee was presented with a petition asking that Morelle be let go.
Kelly Connerton said she has acquired 389 signatures for an online petition that states, “We, the parents and residents of Cumberland, Rhode Island, demand that the School Committee of Cumberland start to listen to our voices and take into account what we would like to see happen, for the sake of our children.
“We have no confidence in the superintendent or Central Administration. We do not want our School Committee to grant any contract extension past June 2008.”
Connerton posted the petition on Jan. 10. She explained the sentiments behind it to the School Committee Thursday.
“I believe that along with the honor and responsibility of being elected to public office, comes the obligation to listen to your constituents,” she said. “This petition represents your constituents’ voices.
“Of the residents who chose to make their names public, approximately 80 percent are registered voters. Of that 80 percent, 63 percent vote in the primary and 85 percent vote in the general election. These numbers can be confirmed by comparing the petition names to the Cumberland list of voters.”
Macbeth acknowledged those sentiments while stopping short of endorsing them. “Every single member on this committee needs to think very seriously about what’s going on here,” MacBeth said.

Lost minutes
The School Committee also voted 6-0, with one abstention, to report the minutes from an executive session held on Oct. 19, 2006. Costa explained his demurral by saying he had been absent from that meeting. 
After the vote, an anxious audience waited for the Oct. 19 minutes to be read. “It’s going to get ugly,” someone said.
Members scrambled to find the minutes from the 2006 meeting, which were missing from the table. Once discovered after several minutes, it was revealed that a vote was taken at the meeting in question to approve the superintendent’s annual evaluation, which included a review of performance against goals and objectives.
Morelle received a $2,000 stipend for meeting those objectives. Committee members refused to name the objectives in questions to the public Thursday night.