While hammering out an agreement over the BMS synthetic turf field, officials sparred over some larger issues, including the current funding process used by the Town Council and School Committee for various items, including field maintenance costs and a rental fee for the school department’s main office at the Town Hall. 

School Committee members voiced frustration with the current process — they said the Town Council every year withdraws money from the school department’s budget allotment for field maintenance, rental of the central office space inside Barrington Town Hall and some other items without any approval from the School Committee. They also said there is no accounting of the services provided by the Barrington Department of Public Works for the money spent on field maintenance. 

Barrington Town Council President Carl Kustell said the process is dictated by the town’s charter. School Committee members argued it violates the state law.

Kustell said he spoke with the solicitor, who said any change from the current process would constitute a violation of the charter. 

School Committee member TJ Peck said there has never been an agreement or governing document on the rental fee for the office. He said the town just takes money out of the School Committee appropriation every year.

Kustell later suggested school officials recommend a change to the town charter. School Committee member Megan Douglas said someone had done just that this year, but the recommendation was ignored by the Charter Review committee.

The contentious funding process reached a boiling point recently, when Council members levied an $80,000 increase in the annual field maintenance fee — the change was made without School Committee approval. School officials said the unexpected increase eliminated funding that would have otherwise been used to hire an additional social worker. (School officials said they later were able to fill the position using an increase in state aid.)

Town Council members countered that the schools’ contribution to field maintenance is still a very good deal and that actual costs are higher. According to a town official, the current field maintenance credit (it also includes other services completed by the DPW for the school department) is $370,668. Last year, the credit was $285,129, and in 2022-23, the credit was $271,551. The official said the credit was $258,620 in 2021-22. 

According to school officials, the Barrington School Department pays the municipal government more than $100,000 to rent the administration’s central office inside the Town Hall. Specifically, the school department pays $107,240 each year in rent, although there is no written agreement regarding use of the space. School officials were not sure how long the district has been paying rent for use of the town hall, but they agreed it was for at least a decade.

Invoice or statement

During Thursday night’s meeting, Peck said the town is just arbitrarily taking money from the schools. 

Council members eventually agreed to offer some specific accounting for the field maintenance services completed by the DPW. The invoice or statement will show what duties the DPW completed each quarter and how much was billed for those services. 

School Committee member Frazier Bell raised a question during the discussion — he asked what portion of the field maintenance at the schools was the town paying. Bell asked why the schools should have to pay 100 percent of the field maintenance costs if the school fields were also being used, at times, by youth sports leagues. 

Later, during a public comment period, School Committee candidate Tim McNamara told officials that the town also collects field use fees from the recreation leagues, essentially collecting funding from two sources for maintaining some of the same fields. 

Eventually, School Committee members agreed on there being an invoice or statement from the town specifying the services from the DPW. 

The Council and School Committee both voted unanimously to have their lawyers draft up the changes agreed upon during the Thursday night meeting.