EAST PROVIDENCE — Standing in the cold outside East Providence High School yesterday, a lone spokesman for the East Providence Taxpayer Association said public school teachers are being misinformed by their union in their ongoing dispute with the School Committee.

“We are pleading with our teachers not to let an out-of-touch leadership lead them off a cliff that perhaps will result in layoffs, missed payrolls or even the closing of the school system,” William Murphy said. “Solidarity is little consolation at the bottom of the abyss.”

In a statement, the association said one misconception is that the teachers were “attacked and victimized” by the School Committee when it decided earlier this month to reduce the teachers’ salaries by nearly 5 percent and force the educators to pay 20 percent of their health insurance costs. The taxpayers group said the changes were “in no way motivated by the ill will toward teachers.”

Murphy also said union leaders “falsely assert” that the city’s financial crisis is caused by current School Committee mismanagement. Murphy said past board members — “retired teachers, School Department employees and union officials who had horrendous conflicts of interest” — approved a contract for teachers the city could not afford.

“They and members of their family were receiving benefits from the very contracts they were negotiating,” Murphy said. “They took care of themselves, their friends and their families; not the school children or the general public.”

The city is now running a deficit estimated at $8.3 million.

Nearby was Patrick Crowley, an assistant executive director with the National Education Association Rhode Island, parent organization for the East Providence Education Association, which represents more than 500 city teachers.

“It’s more misleading information from people who don’t know everything that is going on,” Crowley said after Murphy spoke. “The teachers, from as early as 2004, have been giving concessions.”

apina@projo.com