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State’s probe updated

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The School Committee heard an update on the investigation underway by the Inspector General and Attorney General’s offices at the Wednesday, Nov. 18 meeting, but questions remain.

Szymaniak said he emailed Committee member David Forth after the last meeting to request documentation he supplied the state as well as any contact information he had pertaining to the state’s investigation about the committee and towns. Forth returned the contact information he had, according to Szymaniak.

Committee member Christopher Howard asked for an update on what else Forth can supply. Forth replied he has contacted the state to determine if the Inspector General or Attorney General has any issues with his providing the information and would do so if they replied he could.

He added that any time the Inspector General’s office has called him, they have not identified themselves by any particular name.

Small said he has called the IG and Department of Revenue and had no problem receiving permission to release contact identification.

Howard asked that the school district’s legal counsel be asked to remotely attend the December meeting to discuss legal options for obtaining the information. Szymaniak said both towns have also put their respective town counsels on notice about the issue as well, reminding the committee that all those calls come with associated costs.

He also cautioned the committee that the district will be looking at some administrators where interims are now serving and business office turnover where the town’s interim business manager will be leaving at the end of the year.

“The first thing [people do] is Google the district and they see the W-H Regional School District in the Express [about a] state investigation under finances,” Szymaniak said. “It’s going to be hard for me to get a quality person if this resonates into next spring, when we’re in hiring. We have to put this to rest some way or another.”

He also expressed concern that other administrators or teachers might leave.

“People don’t want to be involved in controversy,” he said. “This district is an excellent district and I don’t want anybody to be turned off by a headline.”

Committee member Dawn Byers reminded the panel that a Whitman selectman had also advocated an investigation back in July.

“This is not one person’s doing on this committee,” she said, noting she does not want to see the headlines, either. “There was a long period of time when certain statutory laws were not followed by this district, and a long period of time when funding was at seventh from the bottom out of all the towns in Massachusetts, so I agree answers need to come, but there are a lot of questions still to be answered.”

Small asked what other questions Byers had in mind, explaining when she appeared to take it as a cross-examination, that he was curious about whether her questions pertained to issues that had not occurred to him.

She then replied her questions centered on the district’s past financial policies that did not center on the state’s statutory formula.

“It’s not the fact that an investigation is going on, it’s the fact that we’re being told there’s an investigation [and] when you try to find what the status is, who’s handling it … it needs to be done as expediently as possible without the mystery of what was sent, [and] who was spoken to, if possible,” Small said. “That’s the frustration point I know I’m feeling and, I’m sure, others are feeling because things are so wide open and up in the air.”

Baker COVID policy causes confusion

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The School Committee on Wednesday, Nov. 18 supported the school district’s hybrid learning format in the face of what Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak termed confusion over Gov. Baker’s change of school reopening policy.

The committee agreed to wait until after the December break to make any decision about remote learning based on what data Szymaniak can amass on the potential impact of the proposed changes in that time.

The district will be reactivating its COVID team, as well, to look at the realistic feasibility of bringing students back to school full-time.

Baker urged a move to all in-person education “if feasible” for districts in lower-risk communities moved Szymaniak to ask the Committee to support the hybrid model. He noted some parents have already been abusive over the phone with district staff.

“We want to get our kids back in, but I also want to make sure they’re safe when they’re here and our teachers are safe,” Szymaniak said, noting Baker must determine if remote instruction will be offered at all next year.

“The biggest thing that we’re talking about is feasibility,” Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said. “That’s the question that’s out there in society right now.”

To meet the governor’s urging, evidence is needed that social distancing of less than six feet in school and on buses, is needed, according to Szymaniak.

Ferro noted that the district bus capacity is now 24 students on a 72-passenger bus.

“Their seat is still theirs,” Ferro said in response to Committee member Michael Jones’ question of what to do about families who sign a child up for bus transportation at the start of the school year, but don’t use it. “Whether they take it or not, as a regional school district, we really don’t have a say.”

Ferro said the district may also anticipate a shortage of drivers if COVID causes more illness and assigned seating makes contact tracing easier if a student falls ill.

Committee member Christopher Howard agreed with Szymaniak and Ferro’s approach, but said parents who have changed their mind about sending their child to school on the bus should advise the school district as soon as possible so their child’s seat can be reassigned.

Committee member Dan Cullity said the governor is “way off on this.” While Cullity favors full-time in-person school it is not feasible nor is it logisitically or financially possible right now.

“The governor’s own words were: Every district is going to be different,” Committee member Fred Small agreed. Small pointed to New York City’s announcement that all schools went to remote Nov. 18 this week after a 3 percent positivity rate in COVID tests. Hanson’s is 2.78 percent and Whitman is at 4.71 percent.

There are things at school — like hand-washing reinforcement and easier contact tracing — that is keeping kids safe, said Committee member Hillary Kniffen, who is a teacher, but students are also in the groove of a routine with hybrid instruction right now.

Placing desks at closer than six feet would require the purchase and daily cleaning of Plexiglas dividers and safety must be taken into account, placing accurate contact tracing at risk.

“I like Gov. Baker and I’ve agreed with a lot of what he’s done, but to give a blanket statement that’s going to direct what we do is a challenge for me,” Szymaniak said. “The safety piece for me is huge. The mixed message around three and six feet, educationally … that doesn’t sync when you’re trying to teach a child safety protocols.”

Logistics also present a problem for a district with 13 trailers stuffed with furniture cleared from rooms to accommodate Baker’s six-feet guideline. Facilities Director Ernest Sandland has estimated it would take 1,000 man hours to switch back.

Thanksgiving

Szymaniak also outlined the school district’s holiday travel policy.

Students and staff who planned travel over Thanksgiving to non-low-risk states “and I don’t know if there are any anymore in the country,” must quarantine for 14 days or provide a negative COVIS-19 test administered 72 hours before arrival back in Massachusetts before being allowed to return to school, Szymaniak reported. School Committee member Fred Small participated in the meeting remotely via telephone.

The test must be an FDA/EU-approved molecular PCR test, rather than a rapid test. The alternative is to obtain the test after returning to Massachusetts and quarantining until after obtaining a negative result.

One staff member recently ran into a complication with travel when New York was removed from the low-risk state list over the Nov. 14-15 weekend.

“I anticipate some people traveling,” Szymaniak said. “I anticipate some issues after Thanksgiving.”

He said that, while some districts are mandating quarantines, W-H is not doing so, but rather is hoping people respect the guidelines.

“I hope people are smart,” he said, noting a discussion with students on the issue led to his being asked to remind the public that little kids must still wear masks for dance or karate classes and other activities outside school.

“The second [message] was there are parties going on in Whitman and Hanson,” Szymaniak said. “There are large social gatherings at people’s homes with parents that they are allowed to have. ‘Can you please tell them to knock it off.’”

Students asked him to remind people to be smart about COVID because they want to come to school.

Large social gatherings in Scituate and Cohasset have led to schools returning to all-remote learning for two weeks.

Szymaniak reported there are three students now quarantining in the district and four had tested positive between Nov. 4 and 18.

There were 65 students in “various stages of quarantine” during those two weeks. And two staff members were positive during that period, with one still under quarantine.

Since the start of the school year, 22 students and three staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, Szymaniak said. There were a total of 122 students and 36 staff who had to be quarantined at some point, due to close contact with others testing positive or awaiting test results. Staff quarantines included pre-travel quarantines and those awaiting test results.

“Kids want to be in school,” Szymaniak. “I’m just asking people to do the right thing.”

There are already 521 students in remote learning by parental choice throughout the district, which averages between $2,500 and $5,000 per pupil if the district had to pay for the program.

“My concern is more parents are going to choose to move to remote, if we move to an in-person model, and we won’t be able to afford that,” Szymaniak said. There are 3,583 students who attend classes on in-person days within school buildings now, along with 38 out-of-district students.

Last year there were 33 home school students in Whitman and Hanson. In 2021 there are 96 signed up.

“I’m hoping some parents see, as we turn the corner, if we’ve contained [COVID] in our hybrid model,” he said. “There’s no student-to-student contact in terms of positive cases in the school yet.”

Szymaniak said he is hopeful the hybrid model has helped with that. Cases in the district have centered on a youth hockey cluster and a birthday party involving remote students or parents had tested positive.

Hanson again continues cannabis hearing

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HANSON — Impressed LLC’s proposal for a cannabis product manufacturing aspect of their cultivation business at the town’s industrial park took another step on Tuesday, Nov. 17.

A special permit hearing continued from Oct. 13 was held in a joint session between the Board of Selectmen and Zoning Board of Appeals, which, because of the number of people attending was held in the Hanson Middle School auditorium where acoustics, participants’ speaking through masks without using provided microphones and background noise made it difficult to hear for viewers.

The hearing, broadcast by Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV, concerned Impressed LLC’s application for a special permit for a marijuana cultivation and manufacturing business.

Project engineers reported on their responses to comments and questions from, town officials at the October hearing session, including information that a traffic study — not required by the application — has not been conducted.

Wastewater issues, odor mitigation, storm water retention, external security, parking and ease of truck access, as well as other concerns, were discussed by Selectmen and the engineering firm.

Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell said he wanted to see an updated plan submitted to the ZBA before any final decision is made.

“We’re close,” Mitchell said. “You guys talked about a lot of stuff, and I personally want to see that updated plan.”

“It’s great that these plans appear to be compliant and he’s done a sanity check on them. … We want to make sure what we approve is actually what’s built and that the systems are the same,” Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said agreeing that suggested plans need to be verified, especially in areas such as odor mitigation where the community would feel the impact. “Our responsibility is to the folks that live nearby, so that they’re not having to smell that 24/7.”

She advocated a peer reviewer, chosen by the town and paid for by the applicants to ensure that Mitchell agreed.

Selectman Matt Dyer suggested the board was getting “carried away” a little bit by demanding third-party review.

“Impressed LLC, in their best interests, want to make sure [an air purifying system] is installed properly, they want to hire professionals to do it. It’s kind of like having a Chevy mechanic trying to discover what’s going on in a Kia. Are they going to be able to say ‘with this piece of equipment, you activated this right or you activated this wrong.’”   

Mitchell said Dyer was entitled to his opinion, but maintained that odor is a “big factor in this.”

The company agreed to the peer review and the hearing was continued to Dec. 15.

Correction

The headline on the story about the de-regionalization committee in the Nov. 19 issue of the Whitman-Hanson Express [“Hanson de-regionalization panel votes to disband”] was inaccurate. The committee was not disbanded, but has temporarily suspended it’s work until a consultant can be hired to help with the study.

Tri-Town area salutes veterans

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ROCKLAND — Like most everything else since March 13, the Tri-Town Veterans Day observance was different this year.

The annual parade honoring Abington, Rockland and Whitman veterans was canceled over the summer, and replaced on Wednesday, Nov. 11 by a memorial ceremony, broadcast on Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV, outside Veterans Memorial Field at Rockland High School.

Participants included Veterans Agent for Rockland and Hanson Tim White, who acted as master of ceremonies; Air Force Col. Joseph Morrissey a Rockland High graduate; and members of the veterans organizations from Rockland, Whitman and Abington.

“It was not an easy decision for us to make not to have a parade, but under the circumstances, we all felt that it was the proper thing to do for safety and health reasons,” White said.

After an opening prayer was offered by Navy Chaplain Lt. Kristy Coburn.

“When the need was greatest, these brave men and women stepped forward to defend our freedom and, for that, we are eternally grateful,” she said. “Help us today, in the midst of the most challenging time in our history, to give proper honor and appreciation to those who served the cause of freedom.”

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and the national anthem played before Col. Morrissey, assigned to the Hanscomb Air Force Base, delivered the keynote address in front of the memorial and stadium dedicated to Rockland’s veterans.

He recalled playing youth football at the stadium where he would gaze on the names engraved in the large bronze plaques, not old enough to understand what the meant.

“In the winter of 2017, while in Iraq, I was brought back to this stadium in my mind,” he said. “As I stood on the tarmac and watched flag-draped coffins that were being loaded on C-130s on their final flight home, those same goosebumps (he had felt during the national anthem at football games) returned to me.”

He noted there are memorial street signs throughout Rockland and the updated memorial outside the stadium was dedicated.

He said that kind of respect and town cohesion are why he and his wife chose the town as the place they wanted to live and raise their children.

The Rockland Police Honor Guard fired a ceremonial salute followed by “Taps” and a closing prayer by Lt. Coburn.

Hanson de-regionalization panel votes to suspend

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HANSON — The Hanson De-Regionalization Feasibility Committee has voted to disband because its mission to investigate the possibility of dissolving the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District is beyond its capacity.

The Board of Selectmen heard the decision as part of an update on the committee’s work during its Tuesday, Nov. 17 meeting at which they authorized Town Administrator John Stanbrook to explore the cost of hiring a consulting firm to take over the work.

“While we have very skilled, passionate and dedicated people on this committee that have been working tirelessly, the intricacies of a valid feasibility study are beyond our varied skill set, especially when acquiring the necessary data has become difficult and, at times, impossible,” committee member Kim McCoy read from a letter from the panel, which has been meeting since Sept. 23.

The committee has recommended that Selectmen hire an unbiased consulting firm that would have more authority to obtain the information needed to make a legally, fiscally and educationally informed decision.

“After facing multiple roadblocks in obtaining the necessary documents to prepare financial reports and other analysis, and after analyzing the level of detail in the East Brookfield feasibility study — which is a 27-page document — it’s become apparent that our volunteer, part-time, citizen group is not equipped for a task of this complexity,” McCoy read from the letter. “There are too many components that have to be considered in order to make an informed recommendation about de-regionalization for a group such as ours.”

The committee has “reviewed various documents and brainstormed ideas of what information and documents we would need” to fulfill its mission of making a data-driven decision on whether it makes sense for Hanson to split from the district.

They acquired some documents from the district, but the information was not complete enough to form a “full picture,” of the cost of educating Hanson students within the district according to McCoy.

The committee was also unable to obtain Pembroke’s feasibility study involved in successful de-regionalization efforts. It was able to obtain that paperwork from East Brookfield, however.

“Please know the committee is not making this recommendation lightly and without a heavy heart,” McCoy read.

The committee also pointed to the audit of the school district Hanson and Whitman have funded as a source of important information, but Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett questioned how much information from it would be useful and how much a consulting firm would cost the town.

Selectmen Jim Hickey said he would approach Stanbrook to issue either an RFP or obtain at lease three bids. Hickey was the Selectmen’s representative on the De-Regionalization Feasibility Committee.

“These people [on the committee] are dedicated and we’re trying, but the last two times that it actually worked was in East Brookfield and in Pembroke, and they both had [consulting] firms that did this,” Hickey said, estimating the cost of the entire process would run in the millions of dollars. “For seven people, no matter how dedicated they are and how much time they put in, we just can’t give it what it deserves.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the decision makes sense because the volunteers have full-time jobs and lives, suggesting the consulting firm could work with the de-regionalization committee.­­­­

“Know we know what we don’t know,” she said.

McCoy reported that the Pembroke consulting firm is no longer in business, but the firm East Brookfield used is and the committee has reviewed its website.

“You guys still may be needed if we’re ever able to hire a firm,” Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell said.

Hickey said the approval process is too far away after that to venture any guesses.

“We just want to get a price on what it’s going to cost,” he said. “These guys are champing at the bit just to get answers.”

School resolutions questioned

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The School Committee voted 5 to 4 — members Fred Small, Dan Cullity, Mike Jones and Chairman Bob Hayes — with member Christopher Howard abstaining, to support a Massachusetts Association of School Committee resolution on inclusion and diversity in school curriculum.

Those opposed expressed concern over what was described as the “narrow language” of the resolution.

The committee also voted 8-2 against supporting a resolution permitting 16-year olds to vote in municipal elections. Members Dawn Byers and David Forth voted to support it.

Byers, who was to be the W-H delegate to the MASC meeting held via Zoom Saturday, Nov. 7, was urged to speak to the concerns of the committee members who opposed or abstained on the matter. Amendments are possible from the floor during the meeting.

Committee member David Forth said the window for amending resolutions has closed. Small expressed concern that doing so could be in violation of the open meeting law.

“I just think it’s unfortunate that this congregation of people — it’ll be on record that W-H School Committee did not support this initiative,” Vice Chairman Christopher Scriven said of the inclusion and diversity resolution. “I think that speaks to something.”

“My fear is, you support something like this and you have people that are forgotten in the wind,” Small argued. “There should be no place for racism in our society today. Period. We should do everything we can to give a diverse, proper education to every student.”

Byers asked those voting against or abstaining to forward her a summation of their objections and she would present them.

A paragraph urging a curriculum teaching the history of racial oppression and works by Black authors and works from diverse perspectives, drew the most criticism from opponents.

“I think it is too narrow of a picture,” Small said. “I think it, while definitively there is no place for racism in our schools or in our lives, I feel it’s very narrow and doesn’t address the racism that many different classes face and I can’t support a resolution that would be so narrow in scope.”

Small instead argued that races to be included in instruction be specified.

He cited the Japanese internment camps during WWII, and anti-semitism, among other issues that are not addressed.

“All we’re trying to do is support this effort,” Scriven said, noting he has no problem with the resolution and believes the schools should do everything in their power to hear all voices.

“If this is the start of what you’re looking for, Mr. Small, to include more voices, then I feel we should absolutely support it,” Scriven said.

Member Hillary Kniffen said language of inclusion and diversity within the resolution addresses the populations Small spoke about.

“I don’t see this as being singular, I see this as equity, diversity,” she said agreeing.

Byers read part of the resolution — which concludes with “all lives cannot matter until Black lives matter” — into the record.

Small said that language should be changed to reflect that all lives matter.

Howard said there would likely be broadly supported, but said there is some “challenging language” within it. He noted that he found difficulty with the term “systemic.”

Cullity agreed.

“When you start specifying one race over all other races, that’s racism in itself,” Cullity said.

“Say we all had a word that we didn’t like … do we get the spirit of this?” Scriven asked. “Is this even binding or is this just to show that we’re conscious of these particular issues?”

Scriven said that, as far as he could tell it is a non-binding document.

“Are we going to nit-pick it or are we going to say this is a pretty good idea?” he said.

Howard noted that abstention was always an option.

“Someone took the time to write these words, and these words do matter to me,” he said, noting the MASC will use the resolutions to lobby on Beacon Hill.

“If we vote in the negative, or abstain, I feel as though we miss an opportunity for the bigger issue at hand,” Scriven argued. “I think it’s incumbent upon us to support any efforts toward diversity and equality.”

He said that, while it’s not necessarily going to be perfect, the district would be on the right side of the issue.

Kniffen said the purpose of public schools is inclusion and that should be focused on.

Voting age

Forth supported the 16-year-old vote resolution, saying the youth vote in the 2020 election was at record numbers, according to Harvard Institute of Politics exit polling.

“It seems to be a growing trend and more people are being invested in civics education, they’re trying to understand what’s going on politically,” he said, noting he registered to vote at 16. “I do feel there would be more engagement, especially at the local level.”

Forth argued the measure, if successful, could inspire more young people to become invested in local government.

Kniffen said it would align with the civics course work that students in would have to take in 2022, but as someone who interacts with 16-year-olds on a daily basis, she said she has a lot of concerns.

“There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with placing a vote and I just don’t know if a 16-year-old has that maturity,” she said, stressing that she was not making a blanket statement.

Small said that, since people cannot enter into a binding contract at 16, or buy a vehicle or obtain a credit card.

“There are many things you are not allowed to do as a 16-year-old,” he said. “There are federal rules and regulations that are imposed on [them], and I just don’t know if it will be the wisest thing. A vote is a privilege, a vote is a precious thing.”

The U.S. Constitution, however, describes “the right to vote” in Section 2 of the 14th Amendment, and imposes a penalty on states that abridge or deny “the right to vote.” Exceptions outlined in the document pertain to questions of citizenship or criminal conviction, which some states have challenged recently.

Small also questioned the capacity of people that young to take voting seriously or fully understand all the ramifications of it. He also said schools need to do a better job of teaching civics.

Resolutions opposing MCAS and high-stakes testing; supporting state funding for COVID-19; supporting federal stimulus spending for K-12 education; retention of Medicaid revenue; limiting U.S. funding for private schools during COVID; membership of a school committee member on the DESE board; providing equity for LGBTQ+ students, faculty and staff where gender identity is not listed as a protected class in federal laws; and monitoring of student attendance during the pandemic were supported unanimously.

Mystery probe debated

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The state is investigating the school district and both towns committee chairman and vice chairman were alerted by member David Forth on Friday, Oct. 30, according to Superintendent Jeffrey Szymaniak, who also received the letter.

No one seems to have a clear idea what the subject of the investigation might be, however.

Forth said he had reached out to Inspector General and the Attorney General’s office in August about the process “if the committee needed to look into having an investigation or have the state get involved.”

The Inspector General followed up with him a couple of weeks later, requesting documentation from him, which he provided.

“A couple of weeks after that, they called to just inform me that the investigation was referred to the Department of Revenue and that the DOR is investigating the towns of Whitman and Hanson and the school district,” Forth said. “That is, honestly, all the information I have. … I didn’t ask for it, request it, but I was informed of it. They asked me for documentation, so I provided it.”

Committee member Fred Small asked what documentation was provided, but Forth said he was not certain he was permitted to say.

“I don’t want to do anything that could get me in trouble with the state,” he said, noting he was not even sure his complaint carried the weight to ignite an investigation. “How they went about that choice, I do not know. You would have to ask them.”

Member Christopher Howard made a motion, in the spirit of transparency that Forth provide the committee with any and all communications he has had with any state agency pertaining to the school district.

Forth, who said he wanted the school district and committee officials, as well as town administrators to know about the investigation, also indicated he would comply with the request for documentation if the state agencies involved would allow it.

Small said the committee should be permitted to have access to the same information as other parties to the investigation unless the agencies have specifically indicated is was privileged.

The committee voted 9 to 1, with Forth dissenting, to have the information provided.

“I haven’t been notified from the state,” said Szymaniak, who contacted town administrators in Whitman and Hanson about the matter. Neither had heard of the situation.

Whitman’s interim Town Administrator Lisa Green said her town had not received “notification from any state agency regarding an investigation.”

She put town counsel on notice and reported they, too, had received no notice from any agency.

“You noted that there was an ongoing and an active investigation, however none of us have received any notice of any type of investigation, which is highly unusual for the state,” Green said to Forth.

Hanson Town Administrator John Stanbrook also said he had not been notified, either.

“I’m a little bit baffled by the whole thing, and I hope we can have some sort of explanation,” said Stanbrook, who attended the meeting remotely.

Meeting in-person Wednesday, Nov. 4, the committee was cautioned by Chairman Bob Hayes that it could be switched back to virtual meetings if Gov. Charlie Baker determines that is necessary because of the increase in new COVID cases. Small also attended the meeting virtually for the second time in as many sessions.

Szymaniak called district legal counsel on Monday, but he has not yet received notification from the state.

Committee member Mike Jones asked how long Forth had been on the committee. When Forth replied five months, Jones noted this was the second occasion an issue raised by Forth resulted in a “house full of lawyers.”

“What’s going on, man?” Jones asked.

Forth countered that Jones had no right to address him directly and accuse him of causing some sort of chaos.

Hayes also reminded members to address each other through him.

Green, an attorney who has, in the past, done business with the Inspector General and AG’s offices as well as the DOR and the Division of Local Services, said “Something is not making sense here.”

“If you made a phone call to a state agency, and you made a complaint, they’re going to investigate it,” she said. “But you sit here today and say you do not know what type of documents they asked you for or [are] you not revealing the type of documents they asked you for?”

“Am I being cross-examined right now?” Forth countered.

Green replied that she was asking simple questions as a representative of the town of Whitman, which is one of the subjects of an investigation they have little to no information about.

“This is not an accusation, we’re asking you simple questions that you are not answering,” she said. “If somebody calls me and says, ‘I want your tax return for 1982, I want a copy of your marriage certificate, I want a copy of your birth certificate,’ these are documents. For you to sit here and say you do not know what type of documents were requested …”

Forth interrupted saying there was no request for specific documents, but rather for any documents he had in his possession and would be willing to supply copies to the towns.

“I’m not withholding anything,” he said. “I just don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Oh I gave this document and we look into it [only to find] I actually gave a different document.’”

He said he did not know whether or not the towns had been contacted.

Szymaniak expressed his frustration that Forth didn’t tell him, the chief executive of the district until Friday afternoon, Oct. 30 “that there is an ongoing investigation of our district and I have no idea what that is.”

He ticked off issues that would raise alarm is the subject of investigation: budget, academic, MCAS.

“Did we do something wrong?” Szymaniak said. “When I asked you on Monday to follow up, I got nothing from that, so I don’t even know what agency is looking at us right now.”

Forth said he was assuming it pertains to the budget because the Department of Revenue is involved.

Szymaniak said Forth has another records request filed with the district, which Forth said is unrelated to the investigation. The cost of records requests are $25 per hour plus copy costs, which would be billed to Forth as the requesting party.

Member Dan Cullity asked if Forth was asking as a citizen or a member of the School Committee when he called the AG office. Forth said he told state officials he was calling as an individual and was not reporting a complaint, only asking what the process would be.

Cullity said if Forth got a call back, he must be considered the one who filed a complaint.

“They just don’t come out to somebody and say, ‘Hey, by the way, we need documentation,’ unless you called to put in a complaint,” Cullity said. He added that the School Committee can’t afford to go chasing down rabbit holes and asked if Forth was going to continue to act as a citizen or a member of the School Committee.

Forth maintained that the state’s call for documentation led him to believe they were already investigating the district. Howard asked why Forth was informing them about the issue.

“I’m just trying to be on the same page,” Forth said.

Committee member Hillary Kniffen asked how “wasting a half hour” on the issue helps educate children during a pandemic. Jones asked what the issue involved is.

Forth said his issue was with the assessment and school funding formulas were done correctly, but stopped short of confirming that is the state’s investigation.

“He honestly believes that, after calling the state, the state just calls him and starts randomly asking these questions,” Jones said.

Whitman looks at quorum reduction

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WHITMAN — COVID restrictions on public gatherings have motivated Whitman officials to consider lowering town meeting quorum during their Tuesday, Nov. 10 meeting.

Hanson had done the same for its special Town Meeting in October, lowering their quorum to 25 voters who met physically distanced in the gymnasium.

“Due to COVID, we would like to follow what other towns have done,” said interim Town Administrator Lisa Green. “We were hoping to pull something together and have this for December, however, [according to Chapter 92 of the Special Act of 2020 centering on COVID] in order to consider adjusting the special Town Meeting quorum … Selectmen need to publish seven days before the vote or when the discussion takes place, of adjusting the quorum.”

The Town Clerk must also report the adjusted quorum vote to the Attorney General, who must approve it.

Selectmen will be discussing an adjustment to the special Town Meeting quorum at the Dec. 1, meeting. Town Moderator, Michael Seele will be consulted and with his approval will prescribe the number of voters necessary to constitute a quorum for the special Town Meeting to be held in January 2021 regarding the DPW force main project, according to Green.

Under its by-law, Whitman requires 150 voters for a Special Town Meeting.  The Governor’s March 10 declaration of a state emergency allows a town to act “by a vote of its Board of Selectmen to lower a quorum that is less than the number that would be required by law, town by-law or town charter. The number of voters necessary to constitute a quorum shall not be less than 10 percent of the number that would otherwise be required,” Green stated.

“Where the governor just lowered the COVID restrictions and the number of people you want in a room, I don’t think we should move forward with 150 people for a special Town Meeting,” said Selectman Justin Evans. “I don’t think there’s much more to discuss than that.”

That guideline is currently no more than 10 people within a space and the town is not certain that includes town meetings, according to Green. No motions by Selectmen were required.

During her COVID update, Green noted that as of Nov. 10 there were 15 new positive cases in Whitman. The week before there were 39.

“We are still designated as high-risk, still in the red,” she said. She also reported hearing at a regional meeting that Brockton has 463 new cases as of Nov. 10 with a total of 5,615 and 306 deaths.

“Right now, the virus is running rampant in Brockton,” Green said. “The positive tests are now in the 20-to-40-year-old age groups … the deaths are in the 76 to 90 range.”

The spike among younger people is attributed to parties and a failure to take it seriously.

“Fortunately, it’s not spilling over to Whitman,” she said.

In other business, power outages related to traffic lights at routes 14 and 18 were discussed during a joint meeting between Selectmen and the DPW commissioners.

Parks and Highways Superintendent Bruce Martin said outages have been frequent and, on occasion, of long duration and asked for a letter from Selectmen and/or the DPW commissioners to MassDOT requesting some kind of back up system at that intersection.

Salvucci asked, and Green agreed, for a letter from the town to that effect, which Selectmen and the commissioners can all sign onto.

“The last outage, I believe, was approximately 12 hours,” he said.

MassDOT was contacted in the middle of the night for assistance and could offer none, he added. All the DPW could do was place stop signs on traffic barrels and illuminate the intersection with a light tower in an adjacent parking lot.

“[It was] very unsafe with high speeds going north and southbound on Route 18,” Martin said. “It’s just not a very good situation.”

The DPW reached out to MassDOT engineer currently working on the project the next day to ask if battery backups were available to automatically make the lights flash red.

“We were told there currently wasn’t anything like that in service in the state and that was pretty much the end of it,” Martin said of the state highway intersection that is not maintained or controlled by the town DPW. “We plan on continuing on doing what we have to do to make it a safe as possible during these frequent power outages up there.”

There are systems powered by either batteries or solar, available, according to Commissioner Kevin Cleary.

Shaken as we stirred

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Residents of Eastern Massachusetts were jolted on a lazy Sunday morning Nov. 8 as a 3.6 magnitude earthquake, centered off Bliss Corner, near New Bedford.

Cracked walkways were reported on Twitter by Taunton residents, and houses shook in Whitman. More than one resident of the region compared the sound and feel to “an overly loud truck” on nearby roads.

“I thougt it was a very low flying plane,” a Rhode Island resident reported to the NWSBoston/Norton Skywarn Twitter feed.

Farther north in Cambridge and Hingham, people reported hearing, but not feeling the quake, which had intally been estimated as a 4.2 temblor by the U.S. Geological Survey. It was downgraded before noon to 3.6.

COVID-19 funding reviewed

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WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen on Thursday, Oct. 29 voted to ask Fire Chief Timothy Grenno to get quotes for cleaning town buildings with it’s Plymouth County CARES Act funding.

Going forward they are looking to fund expenditures to prevent the virus in the short-term, with vaccine distribution costs to be calculated when a vaccine is available.

Treasurer Mary Beth Carter said the deep cleaning of common areas in Town Hall would likely have little difficulty gaining reimbursement from CARES Act funds.

Purchasing priorities discussed, to be revisited for discussion Tuesday, Nov. 10 include supplies for vaccine distribution logistics, IT equipment, first responders overtime, electronic signage and permitting costs. The funding deadline is Dec. 30.

“It’s our duty [however] to look at what other items we could use the CARES Act funds for,” Carter said, noting a couple of things to consider are submissions for which the town has not yet been reimbursed. “I’m concerned about spending too much money and not seeing the money come in. … I just want to keep that in mind. I’m always looking at cash flow.”

Without reimbursement, COVID-related expenses would have to come out of the municipal budget.

Town Accountant Ken Lytle said Whitman was allotted $2,322,000 in the funding after five phases, with the first submission received last week. The second and third are currently in the review stage and a fourth was ready to go out Oct. 29.

Selectman Justin Evans said he wanted to ensure that all the expenditures already made would be covered. Lytle said the current submission should make the town current.

WHRSD has send in a first submission and Lytle is waiting for the documents on the second. He has also received a second submission from South Shore Tech as of Oct. 2.

WHRSD Business Manager John Tuffy said PPE and computers to bolster remote learning were priorities for the district right now.

Whitman still has $1,109,000 left after those submissions are processed.

Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Timothy Grenno said former Town Administrator Frank Lynam oversaw the CARES process.

Selectman Randy LaMattina said he was under the impression the meeting was intended, in part to put a team back in place to “give a more global position over what is submitted” for CARES Act reimbursement. Selectman Dr. Carl Kowalski said that committee still exists.

Grenno said he is processing a “large PPE order to get us through next summer.”

“Our biggest concern was our town buildings, our employees and making sure they had everything they needed to keep themselves safe,” Grenno said. “We have no town employees that are positive that I know of.”

The PPE he is ordering includes fogging machines, hand sanitizers, gloves, masks and face shields.

Grenno has been discussing with Carter and Lytle as to what the town needs to get through the next phase of COVID as well as capital items the town needs to “navigate those waters,” as they look to use the remaining $1.1 million.

The town has been advised in the meantime, that the CARES funds cannot be used for anything that is budgeted or part of any capital plan.

Grenno has also consulted fire chiefs from several communities in the region as to how they plan to use funding and was told they planned to do what Whitman had already begun to discuss — a drive-through vaccination program once a vaccine becomes available. Regular flu vaccines, however, are not covered under the CARES Act.

“Logistically, it’s a nightmare, but it’s nothing that we can’t deal with and put together,” Grenno said of a COVID vaccine program.

“A deep cleaning for Town Hall, when you’ve had probably more the 65 percent of the town roaming in and about Town Hall, it is one of those things that is going to be a no-brainer,” LaMattina said. He said that, if other town buildings are getting a deep cleaning against COVID, there is no reason why Town Hall should be excluded.

Kowalski agreed, noting some residents taking part in early voting have not paid heed to limitations on where in Town Hall they were permitted to go.

Selectman Brian Bezanson also backed the proposal for a deep cleaning of Town Hall.

“The Town Hall will probably be the busiest place in the town during this election and the pandemic and for us not to do our due diligence and completely scrubbing down and disinfecting that would be a dereliction of duty, I think,”’ he said arguing it should be done “first and foremost” within the next week or so.

Grenno said he is certain there is money available for that kind of cleaning and, if the whole building needs to be cleaned, it should be done.

They will be leaving $750,000 on the table for now, with the CARES funds lasting through March 2021, giving the town the ability to keep public safety operational if it is needed later this winter.

LaMattina said he is also concerned that a second spike in COVID could lead to the firefighters union to ask for renegotiation of contract language concerning working conditions and the effect that could have on COVID response.

Lytle said COVID-related overtime is already tracked on payroll forms.

Grenno said he does not disagree with LaMattina’s concerns, but his direct concern is getting the town ready for vaccine dispersal when a vaccine is available. The union agreed to do so, but a local pharmacy has agreed to do it, with the fire department providing logistical support.

Both the state and federal approach is to have the National Guard do it.

“That’s not going to work,” Grenno said.

He fully expects the Guard to depend on first responders and private ambulance companies.

“There are several towns that have spent all their money and it’s gone,” Grenno said. “I’m totally against that, because if we have … one shift exposed [to COVID come January] and I lose six guys, we need CARES money to keep public safety operational.”

He said they are trying to be frugal knowing that the funding could ­­­­­­­also end in December.

Josh MacNeill suggested talking to other communities about concerns regarding reimbursement for what the town spends under CARES, noting the Bridgewater Library used the funding to purchase a 3-D printer that could be used to make PPE, if needed.

“No IT requests have been rejected to this point,” he said. “We’re not going to see this opportunity come by again, so if there are needs we can identify as in response to COVID, let’s just do it.”

LaMattina also said technology is needed as part of the new normal that makes the town run effectively during COVID.

Acting Selectmen Chairman Dan Salvucci argued that, when vaccinations are available it is a commendable goal to organize an approach, but he prioritized preventive issues such as cleaning buildings right now.