WHITMAN – This time, when the town asked for what it needed – they got it.
In a special Town Meeting on Monday, Dec. 2, it took the 101 voters just over 20 minutes to approve an amendment to the South Shore Tech Regional Agreement, as well as two bill-paying articles and pay for cable access coverage of public, education and government programming.
“This article is about fairness,” said former Finance Committee member Rick Anderson of the SST amendment. “I just want to take this opportunity to thank Superintendent Hickey and his school district, South Shore Tech, for listening to the concerns of Whitman
The article was passed by a unanimous vote.
Town Moderator Michael Seele noted with appreciation the work of the Finance Committee as the meeting got underway.
“The work they do is important to the town,” he said, putting in a plug for residents interested in serving on the Finance Committee to see him about how to do that.
“I truly appreciate the time you’ve taken from your busy schedules to attend tonight,” said Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, thanking those voters attending. “The primary reason for this meeting is to take a vote on the proposed amendment to the Regional Agreement for the South Shore Regional School District, which was previously approved by a vote of the [SST] School Committee on Aug. 19. This amendment will impact the way in which future debt will be apportioned to the nine member towns within the South Shore Regional School District.”
SST Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey drew the most applause from the audience after explaining any potential impact the amendment would have on the school’s existing debt.
“We currently have no debt,” he had said.
“Great, I love to hear that,” the man said adding that he fully supports the article which makes things fair for Whitman.
Only the regional agreement article was the source of much discussion on the night.
“It was about a year ago that we were holding a public forum here in Whitman, talking about being in the pipeline for a potential school building project, when it was suggested to us that we take a closer look at our regional agreement language, specifically at how debt share is calculated,” Hickey had said to open the discussion.
The current agreement, written in 1960, calls for the debt share among member towns to be fixed for the life of the borrowing, based on enrollment at the time a project is approved. The suggestion was a potential 30-year borrowing is a long time and Whitman is the community sending the most students to SST now, but that has not always been the case – and it could go lower in the future.
“Doing a look-back, I can tell you, enrollment trends can change over time,” Hickey said. “A town that has low enrollment could increase, and vice-versa, so why not consider a model to where you can move debt-share language to something that’s more pay-as-you-go?”
Working with its school committee and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Hickey said SST has brought back an amendment that debt-share will be calculated based on a four-year rolling average. That is what Whitman was voting on Monday night.
To illustrate: if a town’s debt share is being calculated for the FY28 budget, the school committee will certify the budget in FY27, and it will use the enrollment reports from FY26, FY25, FY24, and FY23 to determine the debt share.
“The second part of this amendment also addresses, with a little more detail, the arrival of our newest community – the town of Marshfield,” he said.
The SST Regional Agreement had already been amended in Spring 2023 to bring Marshfield into the district. Through that, Marshfield will pay its debt share on an annual basis for now, because they do not yet have an enrollment history.
“As their enrollment grows overtime, their debt-share will grow, and their share will be used to offset the costs,” he said. At Marshfield’s current enrollment of 38 students, they are at about 5.4 percent of total enrollment. That would adjust upward over time as more students enroll.
Whitman’s current enrollment is at about 24 percent of the student body, which was why Whitman asked for the regional agreement amendment.
Following an unrelated question on per-pupil averages, which Hickey explained does not enter into this calculation.
“Tonight’s vote is to change the formula for how we borrow money,” he said. The question of per-pupil has more to do with the annual budget.”
Anderson then called the question.
“The reason this article is on this Town Meeting Warrant is because Whitman asked to have a fairer share of the debt assessment, and I think they responded in a way that Whitman really needs to approve tonight at this meeting,” he said.
He also asked the town to support the SST building project going before the voters in January.
“I ask the meeting to support, not only this article, but the project – for the future generations of students that are going to be attending the South Shore Vo-Tech,” he said.
Articles 1 and 2 were seeking free cash transfers to fund unpaid bills from the previous fiscal years. Voters agreed to pay, without much of any discussion concerning a payment to either of Article 1 – seeking to use free cash to pay 1,501.80 for bill from the previous fiscal year as requested by the Public Works Commissioners. Likewise, there was little debate over Article 2, to pay 306.04 previous fiscal year bills for Treasurer-Collector’s office supplies. Both were approved after amendments to the final amounts were approved.
Article 3, seeking $161,099.25 from the Reserve for Appropriation Cable Access Account to fund those services was approved with no discussion at all.