Springfield passes school budget, says 'no' to reservoir sale

It was a momentous day at the polls, as an upstart candidate upset the Select Board chairman, the town said no to a proposal to sell a reservoir and the school budget passed on the first try. North School

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201003030376                 # # # # Springfield OKs school budget on first try • Springfield High School students Sam Hensel-Hunter, Kelsey Christensen and Ryan Gottschalk (left to right) stand outside the polling place at Riverside School, encouraging Springfield voters to approve education funding items on Town Meeting Day. • ALBERT J. MARRO / RUTLAND HERALD • By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: March 3, 2010 • SPRINGFIELD — It was a momentous day at the polls, as an upstart candidate upset the Select Board chairman, the town said no to a proposal to sell a reservoir and the school budget passed on the first try. • By a vote of 1,087-884, challenger Stephanie Gibson upset Mark Blanchard for a three-year seat on the Select Board. • "I hope to bring new vitality to the Board. There are a lot of great things coming up and I want to be a part of them," said Gibson. "I want to thank everybody who supported me." • Blanchard did not return a call Tuesday night seeking comment. • For the first time in many years, voters approved the budget for the Springfield School District on the first try. • "I'm absolutely ecstatic," said Superintendent Frank Perotti. "I have to give a lot of credit to the citizenry. They really educated themselves. They understood the issues and they realized the reason the budget is going up is because of a bond to improve our schools that they had approved." • The school budget of $25,440,521 is an increase of $279,136 or 1.1 percent more than the current budget of $25,161,385. • The operating budget actually declined by $16,105. The increase is due to interest on the $32.8 million bond voters approved in 2006 to improve the elementary schools. • The school budget was not the only one that assed. By a 1,316-788 vote, residents approved a town budget of $9,571,299, a decrease of $155,645 or 1.6 compared to last year's budget of $9,726,944. • Voters rang a resounding "no" for a pair of proposals to sell a town-owned reservoir located in Weathersfield. The proposal to sell the reservoir was defeated, 1,530-539, and an accompanying article to sell a 5-acre parcel went down by a 1,439-670 vote. • By wide margins, voters approved articles to allow the School Board to dispose of four unwanted properties: Park Street, East School, Southview and the North School, the last of which was a victory for the North School Preservation Society, which will take over the property. • "I'm extremely happy, because we got the reservoir saved and we got the school. Now our work begins," said Preservation Society Vice President Jean Willard. "It has been a long journey. I've been working on it since 1947 when I was the youngest member on the North Springfield Recreation Board." • In honor of the occasion, Preservation Society member Ed Fransen got a hair cut right outside the polls at Riverside Middle School. • "When I was a kid here in Springfield I was the first person to grow his hair long during the '60s, and I vowed to not cut my hair until we got the school," Fransen said. The right to cut off Fransen's ponytail was auctioned off, with School Board Vice Chairwoman Jeanice Garfield winning the honor. • Garfield was re-elected to the School Board with 1,238 votes. She will be joined by Ken Vandenburgh, who drew 1,123 votes to take the seat being vacated by School Board Chairman Larry Kraft. Roger A. Ward received 1,039 votes. •