Purcell takes seat on Chariho School Committee, but hints of ideological rift remain

RICHMOND – For a split second, Town Council President Mark Trimmer hesitated.

“Umm. Should I answer that question?” he asked himself aloud Friday morning. The reporters waited.

To do so risked rekindling the ideological rift over education that flared here for months. And hadn’t that just been tamped down moments earlier with the council’s court-ordered appointment of Democrat Jessica Purcell to the Chariho Regional School Committee?

In a reversal of fortune for the council’s majority of conservative Republicans, the state Supreme Court earlier this week ousted the conservative activist Trimmer and two colleagues had appointed to a vacant School Committee seat in January – even though that activist, Clay Johnson, was never a candidate in last November’s election for that seat.

The high court ruled 4 to 1 that Purcell, who had actually run for the seat and lost by 28 votes, was its rightful holder under the town’s charter. That 2008 document, the court found, was more recent and specific about how the next-in-line candidate should fill a committee vacancy than the 1958 Chariho Act, which gave the council the power to appoint anyone it chose.

Fight over School Committee seat became an ideological one

Trimmer was asked: wasn’t this controversy largely about concerns heard in Rhode Island, and around the country, about issues of gender and race being taught in schools?

“Yes,” he said. “I believe our school systems in the United States have slipped compared to the rest of the world because the rest of the world doesn’t engage in social engineering in their schools, they simply teach education.”

Trimmer said “the schools should be a place of reading, mathematics, history and so on. I believe our schools should teach educational topics. They should leave religion, gender studies and so on to be taught at home.”

More on Chariho: Who controls education? Chariho school dispute mirrors national debate on parents' rights

No 'nefarious intent' in appointment, board claims

Trimmer said “there was no nefarious intent” on the part of the three council members last January when they appointed Johnson to the School Committee over Purcell.

The council, he said, thought the Chariho Act gave them a legal footing to appoint Johnson and balance out the political philosophies on the School Committee. Not just on social issues but financial ones, as well, he said.

“We feel a balanced School Committee would have provided a spirited debate and you need solutions instead of a rubber stamp. And so with our appointment” – forming an even split of conservatives and liberals on the School Committee – ”it would have allowed for compromise. It would have forced compromise.”

“I apologize for misinterpreting the laws,” said Trimmer. “I welcome Jessica. It was no nefarious intent, nothing against an individual. It was a political process that went awry.”

Prior to voting on Purcell’s appointment, Town Council member Michael Colasante – who along with Trimmer and Helen Sheehan were the three Republicans who placed Johnson on the School Committee – said he was only following the advice of the town solicitor, who said the Chariho Act gave them the authority needed.

More from Chariho: RI Supreme Court ousts Chariho School Committee member, installs candidate from last fall

But council member Samantha Wilcox, a Democrat, who along with Republican Richard Nassaney supported Purcell in January, said “Just because somebody says you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.”

Wilcox said she was voting for Purcell’s appointment for a second time “not because the Supreme Court has ordered me to but because ... it is the right thing to do for the voters of Richmond and to uphold my oath to the charter.”

In a statement to The Journal, Johnson said his “commitment to parents rights and responsible spending has not wavered. I encourage all School Committee members to focus on helping students develop the skills they need to be successful, ending bullying in the schools, being fair to the taxpayer, and making sure that parents are involved in decisions regarding their child.”

Purcell felt “relieved and overjoyed,” following her appointment.

She said her successful court challenge to the council's earlier action was necessary “to do what’s right for the town of Richmond.”

The three conservative Republican council members who ignored, she said, the will of Richmond residents who had voted for her “were not trying to circumvent democracy. I think they found a loophole to pursue their own political agenda, which was to get someone else of their party on the school committee.”

But it was “very disrespectful to the election,” she said. “They appointed someone else at that [January] public meeting without public notice, and I felt it was a violation of my rights and all the voters' and of our town Charter.”

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Chariho School Committee member sworn in after court battle