Freetown Elementary School - Budget-related Actions

Budget-related Actions

Tight financing for the school has sometimes caused problems, led to disputes and even changed the color of the principal's hair.

The annual Parent Teacher Organization fund-raiser pays for various programs, including transportation for field trips, special in-class programs and visiting performing-arts groups. In the 2006-2007 school year, the PTO donated $4,500 for a new school driveway. In October 2007, Principal Robert Frizelle offered to change his hair color every day for a week if the fund-raiser gathered in more than $18,000 (fund-raising had been down, with only $13,000 gathered the year before). Parents and children sold magazines, small gifts and wrapping paper in the 2007 campaign, and they met the fund-raising goal. Frizelle began his hair coloring with red, in honor of the Boston Red Sox. (He used spray-on colors sold for Halloween.)

Budget constraints forced the closing of the school library in the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 achool years. The library was reopened in the fall of 2007.

The school was forced to repay $42,000 in November 2007 to the Town, with a further $5,000 in dispute.