Following the April 13 School Committee meeting at which the committee voted unanimously to approve a 37.9 million dollar budget, Timothy Burns sent a letter of resignation to Chairman Darryl Wright citing his opposition to “the direction the school district is heading.” At the meeting, he expressed concern over the 4.49% increase over last year’s budget.
Although he wrote that his critique was of the problem-solving process and not an indictment of Superintendent Heather Perry, he accused the administration of putting forth “the most costly of considered alternatives” and making fiscal decisions “the sole responsibility of the School Committee.”
He asserted that “a cooperative and collaborative relationship simply does not exist between the Town Council and the School Committee” and shows no signs of improving, something that “serves to increase the degree of difficulty related to challenges we collectively face.”
Without identifying any persons or specific issues, Burns wrote that “self-serving special interest groups seek to pressure, manipulate and divide the administration and School Committee in an effort to have initiatives adopted that do not serve the best interests of the town and all tax payers.”
When contacted about Burns’ resignation, Superintendent Perry declined to comment on the letter. She said that she had enjoyed working with Mr. Burns and that “his voice and passion for supporting our strong educational system will be sorely missed.”
Timothy Burns was elected to the School Committee as a write-in candidate in 2012 and was reelected to a three-year term in 2015. He said that his resignation would be effective when a willing replacement was found, or immediately if the School Committee determined it was in its best interest.