HANSON — The owners of an Anatolian Shepherd dog have until Tuesday, April 26, when the Board of Selectmen meet again to review the case after a dangerous or nuisance dog complaint was filed against their pet.

The Board would then follow up to ensure a fence has been completed, secured and inspected, and to check into whether the owners of the injured dog were offered some restitution.

“You’ve got to assure us that you take this seriously and that it won’t happen again,” Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “There needs to be follow-up here.”

Selectmen held a hearing Tuesday, April 5 on the complaint filed by David and Louise Coates after an incident on Saw Mill Lane Thursday, March 24.

Animal Control officer Joseph Kenney recommended that fences be secured and non-breeding animals be altered. He also recommended the dog be muzzled and kept on a six-foot leash when walking off the property and confined on the property by a six-foot fence.

Coates said he would not be comfortable so long as the dog was there and urged the dog be removed from the neighborhood.

“We have no authority to have that dog moved for one incident,” Selectman Jim Hickey said. “You can’t ask us to do something that is out of the question.”

The attacking dog came from the address 808 West Washington St., according to the incident report, Town Administrator Lisa Green said. 

“We had a small dog that was attacked by a larger dog,” Green said of the complaint. “There were significant injuries to the smaller dog and the police were called.”

Incident described

The Coates, of 59 Saw Mill Lane, said that when David had taken the dog out for it’s morning walk around 6 a.m., and was walking through his side yard to the front of the house, what he initially thought was a coyote that attacked his dog.

“I tried to get the dog off [his dog], I was holding onto the leash, and trying to kick it,” he said tearfully. “I’m fine until I have to talk about it.”

He said his dog slipped her leash and all he could do was hit the attacking dog with the leash. His dog ran to the front porch with him behind her and the other dog seemed to follow them, he added.

“It didn’t seem interested in me, it wanted the dog,” he said.

After he was able to get in the house, he called the police.

“The dog was just wandering around the front, over the neighbor’s yard … tail wagging,” David Coates said about what he could see out his window. “It didn’t seem like the police had any issues to get it under their control.”

Police walked the dog down the street.

“It wasn’t just a bite, it was a mauling,” Louise Coates said.

“The extent of the damage to your dog is significant,” Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer agreed, looking over the photos accompanying the complaint.

Louise said they had just taken their dog to the vet Monday and said her pet had to be anesthetized so redo everything because there was so much dead skin the stitches weren’t holding.

“I’m sorry you went through that,” Selectman Joe Weeks said, asking how the Coates’ dog is doing.

David Coates said she us under medication to keep her quiet.

“Physically, they say she should be fine, mentally, I’m not sure,” he said. “She’s certainly acting different and we’re leery about going out at night, now, knowing the dog is still over there.”

Louise Coates said she arms herself with a golf club when she has to take her pet for a walk.

“You should be able to go out in your own yard and feel safe and secure and not have to take out a golf club just because there’s a dog in the neighborhood,” Dyer said.

The dog’s owners Hassan Prashkov of 808 Washington St., had just moved to the address four months ago, but had bought it two years ago.

“The dog got over the fence,” he said of a garden fence that he had just repaired. He said his dog’s breed was developed for guarding livestock.

Anatolian shepherds

The American Kennel Club does not recommend that the breed be around other dogs, stating that the mastiff-type sighthounds, may be aggressive toward people and dogs they don’t know, especially without adequate socialization when they are young.

“It’s an accident,” Prashkov said. “Every time the dog barks, now, I’m nervous, too. I never expect[ed] something like that from this dog, because we’re still calling him puppy.”

The dog is 2 years old. Dogs usually mature mentally at between 1 and 2 years of age, depending on size, breed, socialization and other factors, according to the AKC.

“They’re very friendly with the kids and the humans,” Prashkov said. “They’re great to protect the unprotected people.”

He suggested the dog had been chasing a fox or something when it got out of the yard and saw the Coates’ dog.

“I don’t know what pulled the trigger,” he said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett asked the Coates how much their vet bill had been. Louise Coates said it was up to nearly $3,700.

“And we’re not done,” she said.

Selectman Kenny Mitchell asked Prashkov if he was willing to help the Coates’ with their veterinary bills. He indicated he would and would secure the fencing. Prashkov said his dog has never had other incidents and is licensed. He indicated that about 75 percent of the property is secured with a chain-link fence. The remainder out back was old wire livestock fence, similar to chicken wire in appearance, because the previous property owner had horses.

FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if he was confident a chain-link fence was sufficient and if he would consider an electric fence for livestock.

“That’s, I think, one of the solutions,” Prashkov said, noting he also has friends with a farm in Maine where the dog could be sent.

“I can’t afford for this to happen again,” he said, noting the breed is hard to train.

“I understand what he’s saying,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, noting her family owned a sheep dog when she was younger.

Hickey had questions for Hanson police officer Brian Rodday, who responded to the call, including how he managed to control the dog.

Rodday said he carries a leash in his duty bag because he frequently receives calls about stray dogs. He waited in his cruiser while the dog circled the vehicle a time or two so he could judge how it was behaving.

“It approached me, it didn’t appear aggressive,” Rodday said about its behavior after he got out of the vehicle. “It wasn’t showing its teeth, it wasn’t growling — anything like that.”

When another officer arrived, they used treats to try to calm the dog and get it into the cruiser, but walked it home when it refused. Rodday said there was an incident over the summer when the puppies got out, which was how he recognized the breed.

“It’s a unique dog for around here,” Rodday said, indicating that  Prashkov owned the male involved in the March 24 incident and a female that was at the property in July when the puppies were born. He said the litter of puppies was not planned.

“I’m a cat person,” Hickey said, “but I’ve never had an ‘accident’ with my cats. … We’ve always had our cats spayed or neutered.”

He asked if the dogs were altered. Prashkov said he was waiting until the dog involved in the attack to become 2 years old before having it neutered. Kenney said he was on vacation during the incident, but had been called when the puppy got out last summer.

“It sounds to me like it’s a perimeter issue and a security issue,” Selectman Joe Weeks said. 

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has reimbursed districts based on a mileage calculation, and would be amenable to considering a mileage-based non-mandated busing formula for Whitman-Hanson rather than the current per-pupil calculation, according to Associate Commissioner for District and School Finance Jay Sullivan.

He made the comment in a Friday, March 25 Zoom call with district and Whitman Town officials.

“That’s a viable methodology for allocating your costs,” Sullivan said, noting few districts use the mileage method, but it is viable and it is an acceptable methodology. 

“That would count every student in the district, whose butt is in a bus seat,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. “That’s what we’re working on through the Budget Subcommittee here.”

He said they are calculating based on every student to whom they must provide a seat based on distances from school of between a half-mile and 1.5 miles from schools.

School Committee members Christopher Howard, Dawn Byers, David Forth and Steve Bois as well as Galvin, Selectmen Randy LaMattina and Justin Evans and Whitman Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman joined the March 25 call with DESE.

“That makes a lot of sense,” Sullivan said of Szymaniak’s question, but he cautioned that every rider has to be assigned some level of cost, with two options for calculation — per pupil or mileage.

“The good thing about the mileage method is, the houses don’t move,” Sullivan said.

W-H has been using the per-pupil method, having just encountered the mileage method.

The Budget Subcommittee planned to meet Wednesday, March 30 to get a turnaround on a formula method to DESE as soon as possible, because time is a concern.

“If we can come up with an alternative methodology that allows us to appropriately capture a higher reimbursement amount, which will benefit both towns in the district, then that is our goal,” Howard said. 

Sullivan said such a method could maximize the district’s reimbursement, which Szymaniak said is the ultimate goal.

Galvin and Whitman Selectman Randy LaMattina reached out about a second meeting following the March 14 call, feeling there was a better way to explain their methodology to DESE.

“After watching the last Zoom Call you had with the superintendent, the town has a position that some of our concerns and points we were trying to look for clarification on, may not have been addressed fully,” LaMattina said.

While being part of a region comes with some benefits — one being regional transportation reimbursement, he conceded, the board feels, as things stand right now, the district is not submitting their true mandated or what you classified as eligible, bus costs.

“We think that by using the district’s own documents, that we can actually prove that,” he said, noting that they forwarded a copy of Whitman residents John Galvin and Shawn Kain’s proposal to DESE. “We feel the actual cost of non-mandated busing is slightly higher than $1.6 million as opposed to the 1.1 million, which gets submitted.”

LaMattina said his point was bolstered by a vote at the last School Committee meeting when a vote was taken against funding non-mandated transportation.

Galvin pointed to a Feb. 9 School Committee meeting when Szymaniak outlined what would happen if Whitman opted against providing non-mandated busing.

“Several scenarios were presented. … There were discussions in the last Zoom meeting that these were simulations,” he said. “I don’t really believe that to be true, because for several year now, Whitman has had a significant concern over the way we were being charged for non-mandated busing to the [point] where the superintendent felt the need to address it to the School Committee on what would happen if, this year, Whitman decided not to fund non-mandated busing.”

Galvin said a document produced by district Business Manager John Stanbrook broke it all down. Even removing Whitman only saved a total of $131,000, Galvin said, yet Whitman is being assessed $487,000.

He argued the actual cost for Hanson is $101,000 — not $121,000.

“It didn’t make sense to us that the district wasn’t filing for what it would actually cost them if the two town meetings voted not to support non-mandated busing,” he said.

“Number one, the town meetings can’t tell the School Committee how to spend their money,” Sullivan said.

“It was a little concerning hearing that the towns were making the decision as to whether or not to transport non-mandated students,” said Christine Lynch of the DESE District and School Finance office, repeating what she had told Szymaniak on March 10. “I don’t know what might happen moving forward.”

LaMattina said where they came up with 20 buses is because, by the district’s own admission, according to the district’s bus structure documentation, that is the number required to provide mandated transportation.

“Why is that number not the true mandated cost?” he asked, noting that, in addition, the School Committee voted at its last meeting not to fund non-mandated transportation and asked if that was their decision to make.

“It’s the School Committee’s decision to set the policy of who they’re going to transport and who they’re not going to transport,” Sullivan said, asking if that meant the district would not be transporting between 750 and 900 students to school next year.

School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard said it was not correct.

“We looked at the regional agreement … and we looked at that section specifically related to transportation,” he said, noting it reads that transportation shall be provided by the regional school district, with the cost apportioned to the member towns as an operating cost. Every year the committee votes to decide whether non-mandated busing will be paid for by the regional school district.

“The vote that was taken was that the regional School Committee would not be paying for the cost of non-mandated busing,” Howard said.

If the School Committee decides against providing non-mandated busing, which Howard stressed, they did not do, an article for Town Meeting would be presented to the selectmen of each town for approval by the voters. He said the School Committee would be seeking clarification from legal counsel what the intent of that second section means, but right now the focus is on calculating the cost.

“We’re talking about a subjective scenario here, that really has not come to fruition,” Sullivan said, noting that in 2019 — before the pandemic — the district transported between 3,000 and 3,200 students. While mandated busing is required for students living two miles or more from school, but towns are reimbursed for transporting students more than 1.5 miles of a school.

“That’s the incentive to provide the service,” Sullivan said, noting that reports from the district over the past five years indicate two-thirds of students (more than 1,500 students) live 1.5 miles or more from school and nearly 725 under 1.5 miles away. Last year the cost was $1.6 million for bus transportation — $1.12 million over 1.5 miles and $543,000 for under 1.5 miles.

Sullivan also said buses must run at least 75-percent capacity.

“The way this has always been handled is we vote the assessment, and there is a non-mandated busing cost that has been provided to both towns, and that has been handled, I believe, in both towns as a separate article,” Howard said. 

Heineman clarified that, for many years, after the School Committee votes against funding non-mandated busing, it then gets a separate assessment number … only to be interrupted by Howard, who countered that it was a decision of the School Committee and not the Budget Subcommittee, while agreeing it does pertain to the town and transportation.

Later in the video meeting, Heineman was able to ask his question about whether DESE agreed with Whitman Town Counsel, which has opined that the school district may only assess an operating and a capital assessment — and not a separate non-mandated busing assessment. An article for the latter must be done via a separate article unless non-mandated busing costs are included in the operating budget. Whitman’s town counsel is also a legal representative for several school districts.

“I’m not necessarily suggesting it’s illegal,” Lynch said of separate busing assessments. “I’m suggesting it’s problematic” because if one town does not approve it, services would not be equal for all students in the district.

She said most regional agreements divide the cost by number of students, but recently districts are looking for new ways to calculate costs when methodology no longer works for them.

“You can’t steer the conversation away from topics you don’t want to address,” LaMattina said, explaining to DESE that the towns receive an operating assessment, a capital assessment and line for non-mandated busing that the district calls a special operating cost.

“If Town Meeting votes not to fund it, then we’ve got a problem,” he said. 

Howard asked if DESE would approve changing mandated busing costs based on the analysis they have.

“Right now there’s no intent to do it this way,” he said.

“Somehow this world is turned upside down here,” Sullivan said. “A decision’s got to be made by the School Committee about the service that they’re going to provide, they send the bill to the town and, if they don’t want to fund it, that’s fine — then you won’t have a budget, then you’ll have to go through the 1/12 process.”

“It should be one assessment number, first of all,” Lynch said. “But regardless, it is, again, the School Committee’s discretion in terms of what it’s going to offer the preK to 12 population — In both towns.”

The School Committee certified a $58,492,314.12 budget, with a general fund increase of $1,694,734 — or 2.98 percent — for fiscal 2023 at its Wednesday, March 16 meeting. Whitman’s assessment would be $16,889,943.66 — an increase of $785,040, or 4.87 percent — and Hanson’s would be $13,341,812 — an increase of $695,694 or 5.5 percent to the operating assessment.

The budget Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak presented includes: two more special education teachers; implementation of full-day kindergarten without the use of from excess and deficiency (E&D) funds; using $400,000 (E&D) for Chromebooks; and $123,000 from E&D for paying the Whitman water bill settlement — all under Scenario 3 of 11 possible spending options presented on March 9 [see related story].

Budget documents reflecting Scenario 3 have been uploaded to the school district website whrsd.org under the school district heading in the “select a school” drop-down menu. The seven professional staff members covered by ESSER3 funds, one of the uses permitted under the grant program, are also listed. The funds have to be spent by September 2024.

“This is what these monies are for — so we can provide remediation for these kids,” School Committee member Fred Small said. “To me, this is the perfect thing we should be spending this money on. … I don’t see how we don’t do this.”

Committee member Dawn Byers had urged a budget that added the $400,000 for Chromebooks, instead of using E&D funds, placing the budget at $58,892,314.12. That motion was later withdrawn, when Business Manager John Stanbrook said it would be merely a shift of the funding source for the Chromebooks, not a dollar amount voted. By moving the funding source out of E&D, he explained it could possibly increase the assessment to the towns for that expense. The committee then voted to use $523,885 from the $1.8 million in E&D to be used for a Whitman water bill settlement and the Chromebooks. There was an influx of funds in E&D from one-time COVID relief funds. 

“I feel this is extremely dangerous, but that we are facing a fiscal cliff and if we have $1.8 million in E&D right now, we are by law allowed to [retain] 5 percent, so we could keep an E&D balance of $2.9 million for emergency,” Byers had said. “Reducing this down to $1 million puts us in a position to not replenish very much next year.”

“We have to look at why our enrollment is declining,” Byers said in her initial argument for including Chromebooks in the general budget. She said it it may be more about programs they lack, rather than declining birth rates. As technology is changing education, not including Chromebooks in the general budget would be more realistic.

Committee member David Forth also said he has heard from residents who moved to Whitman and were planning families, not realizing the district didn’t offer free all-day kindergarten already.

“I know that we can do better and this is a path forward to let the towns know that this is the actual cost of education,” Byers said.

“We have a plan, too,” Szymaniak said.

The committee also voted against paying non-mandated busing costs — $121,475 for Hanson and $487,839 for Whitman — sending the cost to the individual towns as has been past practice.

Without a reduction in the non-mandated busing assessment from a purely financial concern, Whitman Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said, his town’s budget would be out of balance by about $224,000. He reminded the committee that Hanson Town Administrator Lisa Green has said her town can only handle a 3 percent assessment increase.

ESSER funds

The district is also one of six in the state taking part in a Rennie Center study, at no cost to the district, on how school districts are spending the ESSER affects learning and what happens when the grant ends, according to Szymaniak. W-H has partnered with the Rennie Center on social-emotional learning studies in the past.

Szymaniak said he is also hearing that eight retirements are coming by the time the grant expires.

The blueprint that’s going to be developed should show the district whether and how the ESSER benefit is sustainable and how they can move forward and keep it sustainable, according to Assistant Superintendent George Ferro.

Chairman Christopher Howard said he had approached Heineman for information on the town’s budget figures. Hanson was still working on their numbers, as of that meeting, Howard said. As soon as he obtains the rest of the numbers, he said it would be shared in another meeting.

Szymaniak reported about the meeting he and the Whitman Finance Committee had the previous night, adding that he requested that the schools be added to the Finance Committee’s budget schedule earlier next year.

“It was a good discussion,” Szymaniak said. “Not many questions were asked and we were able to present the budget to them … and I appreciated their dialog with us and continued work.”

Howard said he had reached out to Hanson Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Sullivan to reach an  understanding of where the town is and Sullivan had extended a tentative invitation for the schools to meet with Hanson FinCom on Tuesday, March 22.

“That would be after our assessment, so it really wouldn’t be a budget presentation, it would be simply [to] understand where the town is,” Howard said.

He left it to the committee to determine if such a meeting would be helpful. Committee members said that, while they could see no reason not to hold the meeting, their job was to certify the budget that night, Szymaniak indicated he would attend, if a firm invitation was issued.

In discussing the use of ESSER funds, School Committee member Hillary Kniffen warned that, while there are teacher retirements ahead that may help the budget, the interventionists that have been brought on to help students catch up, might need to be kept around past 2024.

“Kids need more these days and we need to give it to them, so far as funding public schools,” Kniffen said.

“It’s up to make a responsible decision on a budget,” Byers said, noting that next year — despite planning — the budget may look very different. “One of those is to accurately reflect what the cost is of education.”

Ferro said it was a recommendation that $275,000 be set aside annually for the next large numbers of Chromebooks that are expected to go off line in 2026 and 2029. The current $400,000 sought is to replace the large number of Chromebooks going offline in June.

Three curriculum purchases have been off with between three and four years before the next purchases are due, Ferro said.

“We will be OK as long as this money comes back for the next cycle that we need,” he said.

Howard said that is one reason the five-year plan is something on which the committee will continue work.

Small advocated including all the district’s needs in a comprehensive budget and make the case for it.

“This doesn’t reflect our needs, but it’s a beginning,” Byers said. Increasing programs equals increasing enrollment and getting nearer to the minimum local contribution to the budget and target share that will eventually bring more state aid.

Both Selectman Randy LaMattina and resident John Galvin both cautioned the committee about Whitman’s fiscal health if the school budget was passed at the current funding level.

“Passing this budget the way it is, you’re putting services at risk, whether they be town services or services within the school district itself,” he said. “And then it compounds, and then the use of E&D.”

He said that forcing it on the towns would endanger the school district in the end.