Against the backdrop of a $38.4 million school budget for next year, a variety of advocates who want to make sure funds are spent on education urged Tuesday, June 9, for a full accounting of legal costs in the Coughlin-Bouris case.

Most detailed in his pitch was Joseph Tully, who said he spoke to the School Committee as a concerned taxpayer. He handed the committee a lengthy list that seeks the total cost in the matter to date as well as an estimate of future costs.

Tully said he brought his questions to the School Committee after similar questions he made to Town Meeting the previous evening were ruled beyond the scope of a discussion of the school budget. "Take your questions to the School Committee," Moderator John Leone said after Paul Schlichtman raised a point of order.

Tully spoke during public participation June 9. Under its rules, the School Committee does not respond to public comments immediately. YourArlington has asked Joseph Curran, School Committee chairman, to comment about when the information Tully seeks might be available to the public.

According to public statements, overall legal fees paid in the Coughlin/Bouris case dating to June 2007 total in excess of $311,000. That month an investigation involving e-mails between Stavroula, then-Ottoson principal, and Chuck Coughlin, then a technology at the school and a union leader, began.

Also referring to legal costs, which are listed at $300,000 in the fiscal 2010 budget, were Ron Colosi Jr., president of the Arlington Education Association, the union representing teachers; Nanci Ortwein, veteran teachers at Arlington High School; and Anne Collozzo, a teacher at Ottoson.

Colosi said that when the next Coughlin arbitration session is held, set for June 18, it will be the 26th meeting and will tie the record for the longest-running arbitration in state history. The case has continued since January 2008. Coughlin are Bouris were fired in August 2007 by then-Superintendent Nate Levenson, who left his position last August over a legal matter that has yet to be fully disclosed.

Colosi said that attorneys for Stoneman Chandler & Miller say they cannot meet during July and August.

Ortwein, who said she has "never seen anything like this in her 41 years" at AHS, referred to a public comment made by School Committee member Ron Spangler last November. Spangler had noted the relatively small amount paid for legal fees -- 0.6 percent of the budget -- and doubted this spending has affected the education of Arlington children.

She, as well as Collozzo following her, said the $300,000 budgeted for legal fees for next year do have an impact on education. Collozzo said it would pay for six teachers.

Collozzo also said that Arlington public school teachers accepted zero percent raises in 1984 and 1994, and, under current negotiations, they were being asked to do so again.

Tully has been asked to provide for publication the list of cost items he is seeking. Tully has served at least 15 years on Town Meeting and ran unsuccessfully three times for School Committee. Colosi was asked for his full remarks, if available, for publication.

Curran and his School Committee colleague Denise Burns have previously requested accounting of legal fees, but not in the detail Tully has requested.

Sue Mazzarella, the school's chief financial officer, provided the $311,000 at Town Meeting on June 8. She said legal spending in fiscal 2008 came to $192,000 plus $119,000 the following year. Unaccounted for is an amount from June 2007. The public can estimate what that amount might be, based on a May 2008 story about fees in YourArlington.