HANSON — The Board of Selectmen is looking at override options to close the town’s $2.18 million budget shortfall.

“People are asking how would you get to $2.18 million?” Town Administrator John Stanbrook said. “Should we go for the entire amount? Should we cut what we can [first]?”

The board will be meeting again on April 6 to finalize the budget.

Should an override fail, he said, the school district would have to cut about  $750,000 — with Hanson realizing 40 percent of the cut.

If free cash were used to keep the transfer station open, for example — $118,000 is needed — it’s a dollar that can’t go into the town’s budget. If retained earnings were used for the transfer station, it would return $60,000. No additional OPEB transfers would bring $25,000 back to the budget coffers; $616,000 in the budget would close the gap a bit more than has already been discussed; Ambulance receipts could mean another $100,000; overlay surplus holds another $215,000 with the potential to free up $200,000 toward the deficit; $20,000 in the tax title line is not needed this year; boosting the local receipts by $80,155 — or a 4 percent increase — would also produce deficit savings. Finally, cutting the town budget where it can be cut to the fiscal 2020 level, would bring back $847,053.

The $847,053 represents “real money and would mean real cuts” to police, fire, highway, Town Hall, Council on Aging, library and transfer station.

“All of those together would be the $2 million-plus amount that we’re looking at right now,” he said. Using free cash is using money the town won’t have next year, however, because the town would be cutting the budget as close to the bone as possible.

Stanbrook said the town cannot afford the 4-percent increase in the assessment sought by the school district.

“That gives us a $1.9 million deficit,” he said. “It’s really every dollar that the school district does not charge us is a dollar amount that we could use on the town side.”

He suggested the Article 4 budget line could be presented in two columns, representing the budget impact with and without an override. Or divide the two budgets between two separate articles.

Selectman Chairman Kenny Mitchell advocated for a single column, arguing that two columns would be too confusing.

“It seems to me as though this is an all-or-nothing [approach],” said Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, asking if a tiered approach would be better. “I’m always afraid when it’s almost like you’re calling people’s bluff.”

She suggested counter-arguing for the need of an override.

“We haven’t taken this lightly,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “John’s crunched the numbers beyond crunching and there’s no way around it.”

Selectman Wes Blauss said a tiered approach has been tried before, and did not work well. He advocated providing voters with both options as a method for helping them decide.

Town Moderator Sean Kealy suggested the information could be provided to voters in a handout, because two columns in Article 4 could be very confusing.

Selectman Jim Hickey agreed with Kealy’s suggestion.

“When you say this is what we’re going to have or this is what we’re not going to have, you’re talking jobs and you’re talking services,” Hickey said. He argued that the message has to center on what the town could be missing.

“When we debate the override — and it’s going to be debated — is someone going to make a presentation on de-regionalization, or at least speak to that issue, because I anticipate it coming up,” Kealy said.

Town Meeting, to be held at 7:30 p.m., Monday, May 3 at the WRHS gym as a priority one site, with an outside location at the high school as priority two.

Mitchell advocated for keeping the date and the original location at Hanson Middle School.

“Especially when you’re talking about an override, I think going to the ballot first before Town Meeting is a little deadly,” Mitchell said.

Town Clerk Beth Sloan agreed with keeping the meeting date on May 3. Her only question was how to fit people in the auditorium while observing proper social distancing if an override is to be discussed.

“I don’t have any objection to keeping it on May 3,” agreed Kealy. “Was there an argument for keeping it May 3 other than more people would be vaccinated by then?”

Mitchell said, so far as he was aware, that was the only argument.

“You’ve got to be thinking about overflow,” Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff said about the potential for a large turnout. “It really depends on what infrastructure you have at that building and I just don’t know.”

Sufficient technology would be needed to enable people in overflow rooms to hear and participate in the proceedings.

“I think our last July Town Meeting went very well and I think there is going to be an overflow crowd,” said Blauss. “I think we’re dealing with a large number of people, and I think that putting it on the field — it wouldn’t be able to start at 7:30 p.m. — rather than worry about where we are with vaccinations, which I think is still going to be a huge issue at the beginning of May, I think we should start off [acknowledging] last year worked great.”

Selectmen advocated checking with the School District to see if the Town Meeting can be held outside at the high school.

Kealy, expressing weather concerns, said the October Town Meeting held in the high school gym, worked well. He noted that social distancing could be observed there and the school has the proper ventilation to keep people safe.

“It may not be as good as outside, but outside would be tough because of the weather,” he said.

The School Committee on Wednesday, March 17 voted to approve and certify a fiscal 2022 budget of $57,572,579 — with an operating assessment of $16,575,019.22 for Whitman and $12,951,002.72 for Hanson — after non-mandating busing and some other costs, brings the total divided to $55,572,579.

“This is the beginning of sealing the budget process,” said Chairman Bob Hayes.

The votes were:

• Approve the fiscal ’22 budget at $57,572,579.40 with a vote of 8-1-1 [Committee member Fred Small voted no and Hayes abstained because his daughter teaches in the district.]

• Approve the operating assessment of $16,575,019.22 for Whitman with a vote of 8-1-1.

• Approve the operating assessment of $12,951,002.72

for Hanson with a vote of 8-1-1.

Committee member Dawn Byers asked for source material on the often-repeated assertion that once budget figures are set they cannot be increased — only decreased.

While he was not able to cite a specific law or regulation, Hayes said that  has always been the assertion and asked Business Manager John Tuffy for clarification.

“I’m not sure I agree with you,” Tuffy said. “I’ve heard that here a couple times and, perhaps we should talk to district counsel. I believe that, up until Town Meeting, the budget can change and the assessments can then change because the budget changed.”

But once a budget is voted, certified by the treasurer and delivered to the towns, the budget cannot go up by any action of the school committee. At that point, it would take Town Meeting action for that to happen.

“I can only say I hope the committee supports what we’ve added for increases this year,” said Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak. “I know we spoke about potential federal money — and I believe that federal money is coming — however, tonight’s the night I don’t have a check from the fed. Tonight’s the night where you certify a budget.”

Szymaniak said he believes the federal funding will be “significant” but doesn’t know specific numbers yet.

“I believe what we asked for is prudent, it’s fiscally sound, knowing that both communities have some financial difficulties,” he said. “I just need some clarity from both communities on what’s affordable.”

The district is using the statutory assessment formula only this year.

“My desire here is for accuracy,” Tuffy said. “This is not a policy statement. This is mathematics, and if there are any errors or issues, we can work them out and make some changes.”

Estimated non-mandated transportation figures and would likely change when the district gets better information about ridership.

“The total amount won’t change, but perhaps the distribution will,” he said.

The cost of the HVAC work at Hanson schools will also change, according to Tuffy, and will only affect Hanson’s assessment. The minimum local contribution has increase $795,538, with Hanson’s up $320,803 and Whitman’s up $474,735.

At about $100,000 Medicaid reimbursements seem on par with previous years and the district expects to use about $600,000 in Circuit Breaker funds to offset the budget. Last year, $700,000 was used.

Projected regional transportation reimbursement is $697,269.

Interest income to the district is at $20,000; school choice revenue is estimated at $246,000; and charter school reimbursement is expected to be $124,000.

Costs for students going out of district through special education placements and outgoing school choice and charter school students are included in the budget lines, according to Tuffy.

“Obviously, we’d like to have an infinite pot of funds that we can draw down, but it’s good to take a step back,” said Committee member Christopher Howard. “Two years ago we basically spent a year on assessment methodology and this last year we tried to keep the wheels on the bus as a result of COVID … there are so many pieces that we could look at in terms of pulling this thing together.”

He suggested that the committee begin, perhaps during the summer, going through what things they would like to see and work toward working them into the budget a year from now.

“I think this is really good, given where we are — where we’ve been and what we’re going to do — and I support what you’ve put together,” Howard said.

Whitman Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said an override is not being considered for his town this year. Hanson, however, is looking at a significant override.

“Hanson is driving the bus this year, as from a financial perspective,” Heineman said. “I think it’s important for a school budget that includes an assessment that will pass an override in Hanson.”

Byers said that is a “dangerous conversation” to have.

“I feel the towns have been driving the bus on our school budget for decades and, essentially, that’s why we’re at the bottom [in per-pupil spending],” she said. “At this point the committee has a duty to consider the students’ needs first and put forth a budget that meets our needs and the towns will decide how they fund it.”

Committee member Fred Small said every town is different, but that the district has been lucky to have received more in Chapter 70 funds over the years than other towns and districts, but noted that annual increases for Chapter 70 aid W-H has been miniscule.

School return
update

Szymaniak also gave a re-entry plan update, noting that the facilities department has been working to place desks in classrooms with proper spacing and showing principals what the configurations look like. Assistant principals and school nurses are measuring all distances to ensure social distancing regulations are met on a geometric basis to aid contact tracing, if it is needed.

Whitman officials reached out to the district and told school officials that they will use CARES Act funds to help purchase the desks for Whitman Middle School required to group students at the proper distance, because trapezoid-shaped tables require pupils to face each other from within three feet apart

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said the district had received 314 bus change requests as of March 16, but said 98 percent of them were from parents calling to confirm they are driving their children to school.

“What it [now] looks like on most of our bus routes is two to a seat and the bus routes look manageable,” Ferro said. New routes will be updated on the infinite campus web portal, under transportation, this week.

Enough middle school students are signed up for in-person learning, that live-streaming of classroom work will not be necessary except when administrators deem it an extenuating circumstance not limited to COVID.

“There safe operation of school is taking place,” Ferro said. “There is a return to normalcy, just like, hopefully, next September.”

The School Committee, on Wednesday, March 10, conducted a line-by-line review of the proposed fiscal 2022 school budget.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said the $57,572,579 budget — down by about $300,000 after the spending plan was examined line by line.

Another meeting was set for Wednesday, March 17 to vote on the budget and assessments for the towns.

“That’s a different number than was presented two weeks ago,” Szymaniak said. “It’s lower. We made some adjustments, we found some errors in the line items. … This has been a really challenging year, especially in personnel, because we have people all over the district working remotely, we’ve hired a lot of folks and we had some double numbers.”

He said he feels very comfortable with the new number, which is more accurate.

Szymaniak also reported that the W-H Regional School District is set to reopen Monday, April 5, a reentry plan the School Committee voted to accept.

Wednesdays would be half-day instruction with the remainder of the day set aside for teachers’ professional development, which the committee approved 9-0-1, with Hayes abstaining because his daughter teaches in the district.

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes said the budget line items would be presented for discussion as they are at Town Meeting, with committee members asked to place holds on lines they wanted to question or discuss.

Holds for questions were placed on some costs and reviewed when the committee reconvened for a special meeting on Monday, March 15.

Those holds included: teacher salaries; elementary instructional materials; general supplies; photocopier supplies; SPED teacher, SPED paraprofessional and speech salaries; guidance salaries; library supplies; athletics salaries, supplies and equipment maintenance; graduation expenses; co-curricular acting salaries; central office business/finance clerical salary; tuition to other schools; school choice; tech services salaries; health insurance; SPED tuition to other schools; district liaisons and police detail expenses; transportation contracted services; facilities contracted services building maintenance, emergency repairs and supplies; and other supplies at various schools.

Member Dawn Byers sought explanation of per-pupil spending and how many teachers are funded by each school’s salary line, class sizes and whether the increase account for steps, lanes and any salary increases that might be agreed to during negotiations.

“We have a lot of money that we’re spending and we need to be sure we’re spending it wisely that we’re targeting these dollars where we should,” she said.

Szymaniak explained that teacher salaries could not be discussed in detail due to contract negotiations, but that School Committee members could discuss them in executive session. He did say that steps and lanes are calculated in as well as an earmark for contract negotiations.

He said that, while still low, per-pupil expenditures have increased in recent years.

“Any time I saw anything kind of change, just looking to understand the why behind it … [I’m] just looking to understand the reason for the bump,” Member Christopher Howard said of his questioning special education costs and salary lines.

Director of Student Services Lauren Mathieson said the TLC program, which reintegrates students to classes following any hospitalizations, as well as a speech program at Indian Head. The number of behavioral specialists, speech therapists and paraprofessionals has also fluctuated at schools.

Byer’s questions on numbers of children in the TLC program drew a caution about privacy from Szymaniak and Hayes.

“Students have a right to confidentiality,” Szymaniak said. “By saying how many, that could potentially put their names out there.”

“I believe that we hire the superintendent because he has a license and we have to have some sort of trust,” Hayes said. “We hired the SPED director and [Assistant Superintendent] George [Ferro] for the same reason. … We have to have some sort of faith in what goes on with our leaders.”

Member David Forth asked why salary lines were divided by school rather than grade level. Business manager John Tuffy said it was largely past practice.

Szymaniak said general supplies are building-specific and needs based.

Copy costs have decreased with technology use, but some of the funds in the line can be used for technology costs as well as paper copying.

School Committee members also asked for specifics about the “other expenses” line for WHRHS, which Principal Dr. Christopher Jones said includes Community Evening School and the Ingenuity program, association memberships for teachers.

Howard suggested that, in future any way of providing more detail than the heading “other expenses” would be better.

“We’ll probably ask the same questions in another year when we see other expenses,” Howard said.

An increase from the $17,000 budgeted for the 2019 graduation and $30,000 in the proposed budget is intended to cover added expenses, such as a sound system, for holding graduation outside.

Reopening

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said the district is going to be using student desk configurations that permit the proper social distancing for student safety. He said the purchase will use internal funds, but noted school officials are working with the towns to determine if there is more COVID relief funding available to reimburse the schools.

Szymaniak said the timing is more an issue than whether the funding would be available.

He also sought to clarify state information on reopening.

“The media is misquoting the Commissioner [of Education Jeff Riley] right now,” said Szymaniak, who described the result as a lot of phone calls from “really nervous parents.”

Commissioner Riley said on Tuesday, March 9 that he will not be accepting asynchronus learning time from hybrid models or remote models.

“People who are in our remote program automatically said, ‘Well, the commissioner said no remote is allowed,’” Szymaniak said. “We have a solid remote program, which is acceptable by DESE in our return. On April 5, as of today … all my parents who have wanted to stay remote, stay remote. All my parents who wanted to move from remote to in-person have notified their principals.  All my parents who wanted to move from hybrid to remote should have notified their principals.”

He said the K-12 remote program is in full swing. In K-8, is the classrooms they have had since September and nine through 12 is live-streaming.

“It’s OK, nobody has to worry about it — nobody needs to panic,” he said. “You can stay remote if you choose to stay remote.”

Student representative Anna Flynn noted that the prospect of returning to schools has “crossed the minds of everyone” in the W-H community.

“I have heard from many of my classmates that they’re nervous that people will not follow through with the respectful way to wear their face masks and [observe] the rules of social distancing,” the junior class member said. She reported that students have expressed to her that they want to see stronger consequences for improper mask wearing.

Flynn also noted concerns about how lunch periods will be conducted.

Ferro said lunches will be six feet apart, but will be using different areas.

“These questions have caused students I know to opt out of the full return and remain in full remote [instruction] online,” she said. “I believe that W-H has the knowledge and consideration for what the results will be when students return in April.”

School Committee member Christopher Howard said he appreciated Flynn’s sharing the student perspective with them.

“I think, for all of us, we’re a little disconnected — moreso that we’d like to be at this point — so I appreciate you coming to these meetings and sharing what’s going on,” he said.

School Committee member Dawn Byers, who is also the mother of two WHRHS students, also thanked Flynn.

“The students’ voice is important for us to hear, as well as [for] the students to hear you representing them,” Byers said.

Another challenge will be making sure the district gets all its ChromeBooks back to be used in classrooms, while students staying with remote learning able to retain the devices for at-home learning.