03/26/2026
I had the following exchange with Ms. Louise Dinsmore, Chairwoman of the Chariho School Committee.
On Tue, Mar 24, 2026 at 8:33 AM Jeff Noble wrote:
Chairwoman Dinsmore,
At the March 10th, 2026 school committee meeting, you stated that you have “guard rails” for the $750,000 of proposed cuts for that evening’s motion. Later, on the Richmond Republican Town Committee Facebook, you stated you have “5-pages” of proposed cuts. At this time, none of your “guard rails” or the “5-pages” of proposed cuts have been made public. The only statements you have made are simply that the budget is too high.
You need to make this information public. All voters, parents and taxpayers deserve to know what the consequences of voting “yes” or “no” to the budget question are. While it might serve your political interest to keep these cuts secret, the lives of students and families will be impacted. This is not an acceptable situation for those individuals you represent. If your proposed cuts are not published by 12:00pm on Thursday March 26th, I will assume that you have no cuts to propose and were misleading the public at the previous school committee meeting as well as your followers on the RRTC private group.
It is my intention to make this letter public as well. I believe it is your duty to respond if you are concerned with the future of this town and school district.
Sincerely.
Jeff Noble
From: Louise Dinsmore
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2026 5:34 PM
To: Jeff Noble
Subject: Re: Proposed Chariho Budget Cuts
Mr. Noble,
Please feel free to publish my response wherever you'd like.
As you are the President of the Richmond Community Alliance, an organization that touts civil dialogue - your dialogue is anything but civil and you are a poor representation of this community organization as represented by demanding tone and "threat" to make this email public by a certain date and time. Your email is highly unprofessional and inappropriate.
The Superintendent saw my notes of proposed budget cuts. I was sitting right next to her. The fact of the matter is, the FY27 school budget is coming in front of the voters on April 7th. My proposed cuts are a moot point now. I don't respond to demands or threats from you or anyone else for that matter. I recommend that you as the President of the Richmond Community Alliance practice what you preach in promoting civility and a "neighborly" spirit. Isn't that what your first promotional postcard mailer to Richmond residents stated as the values of your Alliance?
What I will say is the Richmond Town Administrator contacted me not once but twice expressing her strong concern that Richmond cannot sustain a $1.252 million impact as a result of this FY27 school budget. That's the figure Richmond will pay to Chariho over what they paid last year.
Moreover, you spouted off incorrect figures about the catastrophic impact to Richmond at the Town Finance Committee meeting last week, as a result of this school budget increase. You Chair that Committee and didn't have the correct figures. And to add to that, Richmond's proposed FY27 Town Budget will increase by a projected $700,000 in spending from an $8.1 million budget to an $8.8 million budget. That's an 8.64% projected increase if my math is correct. So it's apparent that you believe the taxpayers can sustain an unprecedented tax increase between the town budget and school budget, but I'm less optimistic. The writing is on the wall. Richmond taxpayers should brace themselves for what's ahead in the very near future.
I believe that Chariho should be supported in a way that balances student needs so they can achieve to the best of their potential - but there has to be a balance. There are those in our community who don't aspire to finding a balance where we can support our students and be mindful of what our town's taxpayers can bear.
If the Community Alliance was truly non-partisan, then do the community the service of publishing on your social media and by sending a postcard to the Richmond voters what the true impact will be to the Richmond taxpayers as a result of the proposed FY27 budget.
Sincerely,
Louise Dinsmore
