Last night’s meeting of the East Providence School Committee was moved to the high school to accommodate the large crowd that showed up to support the teachers or the school board. Teachers were protesting salary cuts.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

EAST PROVIDENCE — The entire state began watching East Providence last fall when its school district’s leaders announced they weren’t going to approve another teacher contract the city can’t afford.

School officials formed an aggressive team that wanted negotiations with the East Providence Education Association open to the public, but that demand and other ground rules were never resolved. Mediated talks failed next, and the School Committee rejected a neutral arbitrator’s recommendations. At the same time, board Chairman Anthony Carcieri — who, among other things, accused the city’s teachers of “living large” — started to become a regular on radio talk shows.

Taxpayers groups and teachers from all over began to weigh in earlier this month when the School Committee, in an unprecedented move, chose to chip away at its deficit by unilaterally cutting the salaries of the city’s more than 500 teachers and forcing them to start paying part of the cost of their health insurance.

Last night’s meeting was the committee’s first since taking those actions and teachers turned out in droves — so many in fact that the city’s fire marshal moved the meeting’s venue from City Hall to the auditorium of East Providence High School. There, the board met before a packed house.

Most teachers donned Townie Pride colors, red and white. Some came from as far away as Portsmouth to lend support. One Scituate teacher came despite being nearly eight months pregnant.

One teacher displayed a sign proclaiming , “A pay freeze is fair, a pay cut is unfair.” Another sign read, “Teachers pay taxes too.”

Only a few signs among the meeting spectators supported the committee’s actions. One read, “I support union concessions and taxpayer relief.”

Boos filled the auditorium when the committee arrived a half-hour after the scheduled start time. The jeers were loudest when Carcieri, the chairman, took the stage and murmurs continued throughout the meeting.

When Carcieri was barely audible despite having a microphone, a few teachers shouted angrily that they couldn’t hear him. “Use your big mouth just like you do on the radio,” one said.

When school Supt. Mario Cirillo talked about the district’s cost-saving measures and Carcieri started to respond, someone yelled, “Tell the truth Tony.” When the schools’ finance director, Jerome Baron, reported the district had a potential $4-million deficit by the end of last month, another said, “That’s from your poor management.” And several snickered when the committee talked about its anti-bullying policy for students. A few said, “You’re the bully.”

The last agenda item was public comment, and the teachers’ union president, Valarie Lawson, was the first to speak.

“…Accept the arbitrators’ award,” she said, noting that it would freeze their salaries this year and require teachers to contribute to their health insurance costs — 5 percent now, 10 percent next year and 15 percent the year after that.

“The teachers overwhelmingly accept the award. You should, too,” Lawson told the board. “We believe it’s time to accept the independent arbitrator’s ruling so we can get back to the business of teaching …”

Then resident Thomas Riley spoke.

“The School Committee has admitted there has been mismanagement over the last 10 years,” Riley said. “The union and the teachers have benefited from this mismanagement.”

The majority of the crowd booed and Riley responded, “Go ahead and boo, the truth hurts.”

Unable to control the audience, the committee adjourned the meeting at 8:55 p.m. with others still waiting to speak. Carcieri then went to speak to reporters and the crowd’s jeers were the loudest they had been all night. A police officer warned one person to stop or be removed.

Lawson said she was disappointed everyone wasn’t heard. “We teach our students about democracy,” she said. “Everyone’s entitled to free speech.”

Carcieri said the “rhetoric” he heard reinforced the committee’s belief that it cannot give the teachers what they want.

He said, “It’s unfortunate that they don’t understand the situation in East Providence. We have no money.”

apina@projo.com