A majority of East Providence's outgoing school committee voted tonight to approve unprecedented three-year contracts for more than 20 members of school administration.

Outgoing school committee chairman Anthony Carcieri said the action was prompted by rumors he and others had been hearing that the incoming school committee and people affiliated with them wanted to come in and make a lot of changes.

"Well, we didn't give them the opportunity to do that," Carcieri said after the vote. "We took away some of the things people would meddle with."

Three school committee members voted in favor of approving the contracts: Carcieri, Steven Santos and Shannon Barbosa. Robert Faria and Luisa Abatecola, the only returning school committee member, opposed it.

But approving the contracts was an action that incoming school committee member Charlie Tsonos went to Providence Superior Court this week to try to stop after seeing the item on the school committee's agenda in a legal notice published Monday in The Providence Journal.

He said the incoming committee was just trying to react, because none of them saw this coming. Central administrators have typically worked without contracts under the current school committee, he said.

"We were trying to delay what they did in there tonight, but it didn't happen," Tsonos said.

Tsonos sought an injunction against the rushing of the vote as a private citizen, he said, but also indicated that he was an incoming school committee member. The action was filed against the sitting school committee collectively and its members individually.

But Tsonos said he had support from other incoming school committee members. Both Christine Rossi and Ryan Tellier also questioned the new contracts.

The judge in the case decided that though what the sitting school committee was planning might not be in the best interest of the city, the committee had the right to approve the contracts, Tsonos said.

But he said the wide margin of the recent election indicated that the incoming school committee had a mandate. He said the incoming committee would have liked to address the issue itself as members will be dealing the school system's finances going forward.

"The economic situation isn't getting any better, and we have to be very cautious how we spend our money," Tsonos said.

Tellier added that at this point, not many people even know what the contracts actually say.

Before the vote at Wednesday night's meeting, Rossi said that Carcieri had been "thrilled" for the past two years to have at will employees. She asked Carcieri what would happen if the school committee approved the contracts and the incoming committee couldn't afford them.

"We're not sticking the city," Carcieri said. "What we're doing is looking out for the students."

He also said that despite rumors that 39 people in school administration were making more than $100,000, only four are, plus the superintendent.

He added that despite criticisms that the school system is top-heavy, administrative salaries comprise less than two percent of the budget, which Superintendent Mario Cirillo said is about $75 million.

Carcieri said after the meeting that the contracts have been in the works for the past two and a half to three weeks in response to concerns from administrators that they should start looking for jobs.

The positions, which didn't have contracts before, included the chief financial officer for the school administration and other officials. 

Carcieri noted that the committee had already approved recently approved another contract for Cirillo that's two years and said that it made sense to keep the team he had painstakingly assembled in place.

He also pointed to the school system's many accomplishments over the past two years.

Lonnie Barham, the school's chief financial officer, said during a presentation during the meeting that the personnel would not get raises, but could receive pay increases or decreases based on their performance as part of the contracts.