The School Committee shall consist of seven (7) members elected at large to serve a term of four (4) years and until each one’s successor is elected and qualified. Members shall be elected in staggered fashion and no member shall serve more than two (2) consecutive four (4) year terms.
Members of the School Committee shall be qualified electors of the Town and shall hold no paid public employment in the service of the Town. Any person serving as a member of the Rhode Island General Assembly shall not be permitted to serve as a School Committee member. No member of the School Committee shall hold or be appointed to any paid public office of the Town during his current term of office. If a School Committeeman shall cease to possess any of these qualifications or shall be convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, his office shall immediately become vacant.
[Amended 11-5-2024]
Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the membership of the School Committee by death, removal, out of town, resignation, or by neglect or refusal to qualify, or for any other cause, the right to assume the office shall be afforded sequentially by the council to the first, second or third runner-up from the preceding election. If none of the top three runners up assume the office and it is less than one year since the preceding election, a special election shall be held; or if none of the top three runners up assume the office and it is at least one year since the preceding election, the Council shall attempt to appoint a qualified person to the office.
No member of the School Committee shall vote on any proposition through which the member, or an immediate family member,[1] could personally benefit, directly or indirectly.
[1]
Editor’s Note: An immediate family member is defined as a spouse or dependent child as well as a person who is related to any public official or public employee, whether by blood, adoption, or marriage, as any of the Following: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, grandson, granddaughter, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half-brother or half-sister.
The School Committee shall determine and control all policies affecting the administration, maintenance and operation of the public schools and shall have all the powers and be subject to all the duties as prescribed by the laws of the State.
[Amended 11-5-2024]
The School Committee shall determine its own rules and order of business and the time of its meetings. The School Committee shall make provisions for a session of open comment prior to adjournment of each meeting.
[Amended 11-5-2024]
The School Committee shall submit its proposed budget in the prescribed format and with line-item details as required by the Board of Finance to the Director of Finance. The proposed budget shall include line item comparisons to the prior year’s actual and budgeted amounts as well as actual amounts for the two years prior to the previous year. The allocations of the amounts appropriated shall be determined by the School Committee and be prepared consistent with a Uniform Chart of Accounts (“UCOA”) as promulgated by the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (“RIDE”).