ATTLEBORO — On his way out the door last week, Mayor Paul Heroux made a pitch for the mayor to be chairman of the school committee.
He said a non-binding referendum should be submitted to the voters and, if they agree, the city council should vote it and the mayor should submit it to the state Legislature as a special act to avoid the complications that a charter commission could cause.
Heroux said 60% of cities in Massachusetts have the mayor as chair of the school committee.
“A mayor serving as the chair of the school committee unifies city government under one person,” he said in a letter to the city council. “The school committee chair is effectively the day-to-day supervisor of the school superintendent, who runs the largest and most expensive department in the city.”
Currently, the school department consumes 55% of the city’s $165.6 million budget, which equals $90,761,044.
Heroux resigned as mayor at 11:59 p.m. last Tuesday to take his new job as Bristol County sheriff, which he elected in November.
Council President Jay DiLisio took over as acting mayor on Wednesday and will be working full time in that role.
Heroux said he was often contacted by parents who were surprised that the mayor had no operational control over the school department.
And Heroux was against ward school board members being chairman.
He said if a ward committee member is elected chair of the school committee then only one-sixth of the city has had a say in that election.
Currently, Ward 3 member Stephen Withers Jr. is chairman of the school committee.
“The largest city department needs to be supervised by a full-time person elected by the entire city,” Heroux said. “Furthermore, the buck needs to stop with one person in the city.”
Heroux also argued the mayor needs to have some control over spending in the school department. Many Massachusetts cities have the mayor sit on their school boards, including nearby in Taunton as well as Fall River and New Bedford and Melrose.
He pointed to raises granted to Superintendent David Sawyer, which he said amounted to 33% over the last five years.
“We have also seen in the past how a mayor with no say in school spending can (not) use the power of the purse to try to curtail school spending or decisions,” Heroux said. “This is unhealthy.”
Currently, the school committee is made up of nine members, six from the six wards and three elected at-large.
If Heroux’s proposal is approved, one of the at-large positions would be assumed by the mayor.
At one point in Attleboro’s history the mayor did serve as chairman of the school committee, but Mayor Kai Shang, who served from 1986 to 1992, got the council to change it.
Withers said Heroux lacked understanding about the role played by school committees in the state.
“Throughout his time as mayor (and previously as state representative), Paul consistently displayed a fundamental lack of understanding and appreciation for the roles played by school committees throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as for the Commonwealth’s purposeful division of funding and oversight of school departments from other municipal departments,” he said in an email.
“It therefore came as no surprise that he again demonstrated such a fundamental lack of awareness in his final communication to the city council on his way out of office. I look forward to working with interim (acting) Mayor DiLisio and whomever the residents elect as our next mayor and wish Paul the best in his new position.”
The matter was referred to the ordinance committee for discussion.
