By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — A lengthy agenda that was primarily filled with one member’s quest for greater transparency and control  became quickly bogged down with disagreements on Tuesday night as the first regular meeting of the newly sworn-in School Committee got underway.

With chairman David Coughlin at the helm and about 35 teachers in the audience, the committee dove into a 13-article agenda that contained many items that had been requested by new committee member Joseph Knight. Knight, a frequent critic and watchdog of past actions of school officials as well as school board members, had requested consideration on a far-reaching array of topics that ranged from forming 11 new subcommittees to requesting the unsealing of the minutes from past executive sessions as well as professional contract agreements.
Knight’s request for the formation of 11 subcommittees took up over an hour of the meeting, as a divided school board wrangled over the need for the subcommittees as well as the language that had been drafted to describe their purpose. He proposed that School Committee members be appointed to separate subcommittees that included a Committee of the Whole, Labor Relations, Wellness, Personnel, Finance, Property, Affirmative Action, Energy, Emergency Management, Legislation, and Ethical Affairs.
With the exception of the Wellness Committee, which already exists due to government mandate, three of the committee members, Nicole Nordquist, Amy Breault Zolt and Joanne Bonollo, questioned the need for the subcommittees, and argued that
they would be counter-productive, and in some cases, illegal. In particular, the proposals for a Labor Relations sub-committee that was charged with “seeking monetary  savings through negotiation with union and non-union employees” was singled out for concern, as well as a Personnel subcommittee that would be charged with “all application review and interview of candidates for employment in the school department.
Zolt and Bonollo said that having such subcommittees as Finance, which proposed to seek a review of all expenditures, including Title 1 funding, and Property, whose members would be charged with “inspection and review of all reported building and facilities maintenance issues” would constitute micro-management.
Nordquist was also critical of many of the subgroups, and especially one dealing with legislation that Knight had said would give the school board some lobbying clout at the General Assembly.
Committeeman James Chellel said he would support the formation of subcommittees dealing with Wellness, Emergency Management, Finance and Labor Relations. After he successfully sought an amendment to remove language that charged the Labor Relations group with seeking monetary savings from negotiations, the committee approved a motion that would have let these four subcommittees be formed.
However, there was still disagreement over the proposed wording of the four subcommittees, and Committeeman Raymond Noonan, with questions about the Finance subcommittee language, cast the deciding vote for a 4 to 3 majority that scuttled all of the subcommittees.
The committee was in agreement to place a School Committee web-link to announce its meetings on the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s website called “E-Town Crier.” After more wrangling with Knight about his request to appoint the school department’s Information Technology Director as the point person for the web postings, the committee finally voted to have Knight, in his role as clerk, handle the duty.
The committee also agreed on a request for an upcoming discussion with Deputy Schools Superintendent Kimberly Mercer on the federal Title I funding rules and the process for adopting Title I programs.
Knight asked that several other agenda items be tabled, including a request to establish a personnel interview committee, an adoption of newly drafted rules for the 2009-2010 School Committee, and requests to unseal executive session minutes and professional contract agreements.
The Times had previously reported that School Department attorney Stephen Robinson had been asked to attend an executive session meeting Tuesday night to discuss his actions as related to a legal matter involving a Baldwin School principal’s indictment and a possible related motion to dismiss him from future service. However, School Committee Chairman David Coughlin said he would not comment at all about whether such a meeting took place.
The Times learned that Robinson had reportedly been present at the meeting to discuss other School Department matters but that specific issue was postponed.