Charlestown's share of Chariho costs to increase 5.02%

Chariho School Committee votes down proposed budget, then reverses course and passes it

Steve Ahlquist

Pass the budget or violate the law.
Committee decides to flip-flop

In the end, it took a warning from their legal counsel to convince the Chariho School Committee to pass a Fiscal Year ‘27 budget for voter approval.

You can watch the meeting here: 2026-03-10 School Committee Meeting

The budget, as presented and ultimately passed, will require, upon voter approval, each of the three communities that make up the Chariho School District to increase its financial contributions to the schools. Committee Chair Louise Dinsmore opposed the budget because of the increases and, in fact, voted against it - twice. 

“I have said publicly that I will not support passing this Fiscal Year ‘27 budget, especially because Richmond has a significant increase in front of them.” 

Richmond’s increase was 7.82%, Charlestown’s was 5.02%, and Hopkinton’s was 2.1%.

After dealing with less contentious business, the committee started in earnest on the budget. There ensued a flurry of motions, procedural issues, failed votes, and public comment - all of which resulted in naught. The Committee failed to secure enough votes to pass the budget, and no motions to alter the budget passed.

The problem, however, is that Rhode Island State Law requires the committee to approve a budget. Under Section 15-3 of The Chariho Act, the state law that created the Chariho School District, the school committee must pass a proposed budget annually by the third Tuesday in March. The consequence for failing to do so is a loss of taxpayer control over the school district’s expenditures.

Three hours into the meeting, the School Committee’s legal counsel, Jon Anderson, approached the podium.

“You are working on the budget,” said Anderson. “The budget has to be done by the third Tuesday of the month. I can’t guarantee you will have another meeting. You really need to get the budget done and present something to the voters.”

If the School Committee had been unable to pass a budget, the Chariho School District would quickly be unable to do essential things, like make payroll. Once they know they will be operating in the red, Superintendent Gina Picard would be required to notify the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), who would come to the district with sweeping authority to make the district’s finances work, with no required input from school committeemembers or voters.

Over three hours into the meeting, the school committee passed the budget on a 5-3 vote. What passed was the same budget that had been voted down 6-4 almost one hour earlier.

Hopkinton resident Catherine Giusti, a former school committeemember, expressed her confusion about the debacle before the committee finally passed the budget:

“Over the last year, you’ve added about $600,000 more to this budget than was originally proposed, and I understand why. You negotiated - Mrs. Teft, Mrs. Dinsmore, Mrs. Pouliot, and Mrs. Chapman - a teacher’s contract with a 3% raise over the next three years, and I understand why, but that adds to the budget. You voted against the reduction of a foreign language teacher, even though it was recommended because of decreased class sizes. You’ve painted yourself into a corner...

“You’re kind of in a pickle, and I don’t understand why you’re sitting up there and not making recommendations for reductions, but saying you’re going to vote against the budget. This is literally the job that you signed up for. You’re supposed to be making reduction suggestions if you can’t support this budget. I don’t understand why that’s confusing to you, and I don’t know whether it’s truly confusing or if you have decided to just wash your hands of the process because you don’t want to look like the bad guy.

“You are, in fact, the bad guy. Sometimes you make difficult decisions - that’s what you signed up for. You can amend this motion and propose cuts to reduce it. If you don’t do that tonight, I don’t know who you’re serving, but you’re not serving anybody well. You’re not serving the Forgotten Taxpayers who installed you to cut the budget. You’re not serving Chariho, and you’re certainly not representing yourselves well.”

The Forgotten Taxpayers is a conservative “tax fairness” group that has advocated for lower taxes and cuts to schools and services for many years. Chair Dinsmore is a member.

The FY’27 budget now goes to the voters on April 7.

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