IPSWICH — About 80 school supporters crowded into the Selectmen's Meeting Room last night, taking every chair and lining the three walls at the back of the chamber. They were there to hear the board vote on two things: whether to put a nearly $1.49 million dollar override on the warrant for Town Meeting and whether they would support it.
They went one for two.
As the selectmen's hearing on the override opened, Chairwoman Elizabeth Kilcoyne said the board was there to listen and vote on making it a warrant item but not take a position on it.
That surprised School Committee Chairwoman Joan Arsenault.
Saying she was "disappointed," she said Kilcoyne had told her in an earlier telephone conversation that the board would take both votes. Kilcoyne said she apologized for any miscommunication, but Arsenault persisted.
"If you're not going to vote tonight, when?" Arsenault said, noting the large number of people who were already giving up an evening.
She didn't get a date, but a promise that the vote would be on the agenda of a future, posted meeting.
Schools Superintendent Rick Korb went on to make the presentation for the override, pointing out the number of teacher positions that will have to be cut and programs to be axed if the override fails.
He got a mostly favorable reception but did face some sharp questioning from Kilcoyne and other board members.
Selectman Pat McNally pointed out that more and more people take to the Internet when they need information, and he questioned whether textbooks are "something really necessary."
High school Principal Barry Cahill responded that textbooks still drive the curriculum in high schools, and when students were given some course material on a CD, they preferred to use their books.
If the override passes, Kilcoyne repeatedly asked what percentage the budget would be increasing over last year's and asked if it amounted to 7.5 percent.
School Committee member Jeff Loeb said the school board had never looked at that but rather focused on how much money is needed to safeguard a good education system. The percentage increase didn't matter, he said.
"It matters to us because we're at 1.5 percent," Kilcoyne said, alluding to the increase established by the Finance Committee, adding that the school board might need better answers than that come Town Meeting.
"I didn't do that math, somebody else did it," she said. "It's out there, and people are talking about it."
Argilla Road resident William Wasserman offered one explanation.
"A 7.5 percent increase is for more than a one-year problem, isn't it?" he asked Korb. "Isn't it for several years?"
Korb nodded his assent, and Kilcoyne said that was the kind of information that would be beneficial for school supporters to make available.
Wasserman also got some of the loudest applause of a night filled with ovations for override backers who spoke.
"I moved to Ipswich in 1960," he said. "It's been a slow and painful process, but after (nearly 50) years, this town finally has a first-class school system."
Besides the applause, you could almost hear the suppressed cheering.
