HANOVER — The South Shore Tech School Committee has been presented with a fiscal 2021 budget increase of 4.09 percent —$589,319 — increase that would also decrease the total assessments to member towns. An increase in non-resident tuition is expected to offset the budget increase, according to Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey.

State aid figures for Chapter 70 funds are not yet available, but the district assumes level funding will be continued. Regional transportation reimbursement, meanwhile, is being assumed at 80 percent — up from 70 percent in fiscal 2020 — and the budget total assumes that stabilization funds will remain at $37,280 to defray bus lease costs.

The committee heard Hickey’s annual budget presentation on Wednesday, Dec. 18.

“Whatever we value, that’s what we budget for,” Hickey said to open his presentation. “We build our budget from zero.”

A Jan. 22 public hearing on the budget is planned.

Supplies and technology costs, such as for steel or tools, will increase in some programs. There is also $89,644 in new personnel requests, such as moving a graphic communications instructor to full-time as well as adding English Learner and horticulture instructors and a horticulture aide.

Capital requests for 2021 total $782,414 — including septic and roof repairs on the building.

The project design cost included in the 2021 budget comes to $199,936 for the design and $69,978 for an owner’s project manager.

Hiring an owner’s project manager and design will be the first steps toward deciding what the district will go out for bid for planned capital projects. The work could be done separately, the roof one year and windows the next, or do it all at once. The original cost estimate from fiscal 2018 came in at $1,236,800 for the roof and $396,625 for the windows, and $1,777,425, including the cost of metal panels under the windows. For fiscal 2021 the 4-percent hike brings the total cost to $1,999,361 with a 6.5-percent contingency plan of $129,958 built in.

Cost increases anticipated at 4 percent per year, brought the combined projects cost to $1,848,522 in fiscal 2019 and to $1,922,63 in fiscal 2020.

Accomplishments for the past year include continuing strong growth in MCAS scores and student attainment of third-party vocational credentials. The school is also actively involved with area workforce development boards and the South Shore Chamber of Commerce and has implemented work-based adult education programs.

The district has also used skills capital grants to bring in $300,000 for capital purchases. It goes into the fiscal 2021 budget year owing only the final interest payment on the 2010 roof and window project debt.

Another roof and window project for the newer wing of the school is among the capital goals.

Other budgetary goals include expansion of the horticulture and landscape program, building a “clean room” with grant funds for the storing of metal fabrication and machining inspection equipment, expansion of adult education and workforce development partnerships and for analysis of school operations accountability as well as social-emotional learning initiatives.

Student attendance and expansion of the breakfast program participation are also planned.

WHITMAN — With winter beginning to take hold, Town Administrator Frank Lynam proposed a change to the budget process for snow and ice removal to the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Dec. 17.

“Obviously, we are going through some difficult mechanisms right now with the budget,” he said. “However, we start every year in the hole [for snow and ice removal] with the exception of two since 2007.”

The town appropriates $120,000 for snow and ice and the costs, when it hasn’t been able to pay for it have varied from $249,000 to $475,000. He argued that, if the starting budget was increased to $250,000 the town would have still seen nine deficit years out of the last 13; at $300,000 Whitman would have seen five deficit years.

He cautioned, however, that any increase must be looked at in view of how it might affect the current budget.

He urged the board to look at the issue toward deciding whether more money should be committed to snow and ice in order to get an even start to the year. Lynam also provided his cost analysis to the finance committee.

“I’m not looking for a vote, I’m just bringing it forward to say it’s something we need to look at as part of our overall revamp of our budget process,” he said.

Selectmen Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci said he had always been told by the DPW that, once the snow and ice budget was increased, it could never be decreased.

Lynam said that is not correct, but if a town increases the budget line and ends up with a surplus, it would be capped at what that budget is the following year.

“It’s just for the year following the reduction, you’re not permanently enjoined,” he said.

Lynam told the board that he was recently contacted by state officials about their work to update flood maps, including a change in procedures.

Once the maps are updated, the town must update them through its bylaws, according to Lynam.

Building Inspector Bob Currant will be the point person on the project.

Selectmen also heard a report on the Dec. 4 meeting of the New Regional Agreement Amendment Committee.

“What can I say? We met, we dissolved,” Lynam said.

“I will tell you the dissolution of the committee was definitely a … both towns agreed on it and just feel it’s the best way to handle things, the assessment being one of the major hurdles to get over,” said Selectman Randy LaMattina, who attended a Dec. 4 meeting of the committee with Lynam, Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski and their Hanson counterparts.

“We just felt that the towns really needed to happen in a smaller group and tackle that issue rather than take on a whole regional agreement at this time,” LaMattina said.

Lynam reminded the board that informal discussions had been held on the issue previously and he said he was sure that could happen again.

While he said his goal is to ultimately get to the statutory assessment method, but LaMattina said without hard numbers or a measure of voter preference in Whitman, he said Kowalski had recommended a center-lane approach that is neither statutory nor alternative/agreement method. LaMattina, however, argued that the statutory method is the most equitable. Whitman also voted to support the statutory method.

“I know it’s uphill for Hanson,” he said. “It self-corrects. You don’t get into a situation that you go 31 years under an agreement that has really shifted.”

The School Committee — divided along community lines — voted 6-4 on Wednesday, Dec. 11 to use the statutory formula for calculating the towns’ assessments for the fiscal 2021 school budget.

The six Whitman members supported the move and the four Hanson members voted against it.

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes outlined a Dec. 4 meeting of the new Regional Agreement Committee, including him and Vice Chairman Christopher Scriven, two members of each board of selectmen and school district and town administrators.

“It was a very lively discussion about the statutory method vs. the alternative method,” Hayes said. “It was all very valuable information with everybody sort of on the same page and working at it.”

The statutory method takes into account a town’s minimum per pupil expenditure designated by DESE — the minimum local contribution — which fluctuates based on inflation, wage adjustment, town’s total earned income, property values and municipal revenue growth. Anything in a budget over the minimum local contribution goes to the regional agreement, based on pupil population, for any other operating expense.

There is no requirement for unanimous agreement by both communities to use the statutory method.

The agreement/alternative method uses strict per-pupil representation to assess the communities, the method currently used by the district. Both communities have to pass the assessment methodology prior to the budget distribution or at town meeting in order to use this method. If one town does not vote the budget forward and the other does, it does not constitute unanimous agreement for the method to be used.

No votes were taken at what Hayes described as a largely organizational meeting until assessments were discussed. But by the end of that session the group agreed to ask the School Committee to temporarily disband the Regional Agreement Committee until the towns are ready to work on all aspects of the agreement.

The School Committee approved that motion unanimously. The Regional Agreement Committee had also asked the School Committee for its vote on the assessment method to be used in the fiscal 2021 budget. That required only a majority vote of the School Committee.

“What they didn’t want to do was violate any laws by having quorums and discussions that they could be having with each other,” Hayes said.

Scriven said he thought it was a “pretty positive dialog.”

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro characterized the request as an effort to formulate a budget this year and then come back to examine how the whole plan looks from a language, process and building perspective and look as long-term impact.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said the assessment debates have taken up the bulk of attention over the past five months and that he was “struggling” with requests from both towns for an independent audit of their schools’ operating costs — and a town administrator’s suggestion that the school district needed to “tighten its belt.”

“I’ve been superintendent for a year and a half and I worked really hard last year to do what’s best for the kids,” Szymaniak said. “So, if you want to do an audit of what we do, bring it forth … but to question the integrity of both George and I — and this committee, who put forth a budget last year that cut $1.8 million — I’m offended by that.”

He said the cost of an audit could be better spent on Chromebooks for the high school.

School Committee member Christopher Howard of Hanson said he was concerned that none of the community representatives on the Regional Agreement Committee were present to offer their thoughts about the Dec. 4 session.

“All I can say is they specifically asked us to vote on this in and effort to kind of move forward,” Scriven said.

Whitman member Dawn Beyers expressed concern that disbanding the Regional Agreement Committee “allows them to have sub, sub, subgroups” and she would prefer to see open conversations.

Discussion of the assessment formula revealed that the two towns are still far apart on financing the school budget.

“It was implemented, really, to benefit all the children,” Byers also said of the statutory assessment formula. “As a committee, I’ll hope we’ll recognize our charge — it’s student achievement, it’s continuous student achievement, and we need to talk about how the availability of the statutory assessment does help our budget. It does help our students.”

She said that, as tighter budgets narrow what the district can offer, students will go elsewhere and it will ultimately cost W-H more.

Howard said it is the budget itself that is key, rather than the assessment method.

“The assessment is just how we’re charging the affected towns the cost,” he said.

Hayes said unfunded mandates have a huge impact, as well.

But Whitman member Dan Cullity was more blunt as discussion moved onto the next budget projections.

“To turn around and tell you to tighten the school budget belt — we’re the only department that’s cut, laid off, dropped services — I don’t think we can be tightening the belt any more than we have,” he said. “That really ticked me off, not only as a School Committee member, but as a citizen in the town of Whitman.”

He stressed that assessments to the towns do not necessarily reflect an increase in the school budget. He said either legislation to free up some of the state surplus to fund unfunded mandates, or tax increases would be needed to close the budget gap.

Cullity noted education is the only service required by the state constitution.

“I’m sorry, I’m here for the children — that’s why I was elected,” he said. “I don’t want to pay more taxes, [but] that’s the only way this is ever going to be resolved.”

Byers said W-H is not alone in dealing with unfunded mandates.

“It goes back to our towns and how they choose to support education,” she said.

Szymaniak said the preliminary fiscal 2021 budget is $57,492,938 — an increase of 9.66 percent or $5.9 million.

“That’s giving you what we need to move forward,” he told the committee. That figure includes full-day kindergarten, changing start times, reducing class size in elementary schools and other things that have been “talked about for years and years” that have been cut.

Required expenses total $2,291,200 — including salary increases. Special education transportation costs are up $275,000; special education tuition is up $110,000 and facilities costs are up.

Curriculum upgrades the district needs are also factored into the recommended budget.

“We’ve tightened our belts as much as we can,” Szymaniak said. “This committee has always supported kids and I ask them to continue to support kids. I know you are responsible to your local communities as well.”

WHITMAN — Saying “nothing here is cast in stone,” financial consultant John Madden returned to a meeting of the Whitman Budget Override Evaluation Committee Monday, Dec. 2 to review his draft analysis of the town financial conditions.

“It was what we expected,” said Town Administrator Frank Lynam. “It was what we’ve been talking about.”

The report is posted on the town website whitman-ma.gov.

“Make no mistake, you guys have done a great job,” Madden said. “You’ve gotten to where we are today, when other communities may have decided, ‘You know what? This is too much work. I think we’ll try for an override and see what happens.’”

He lauded what the committee and town government have done to balance the budget and “postpone what appears to be the inevitable.”

Committee Chairman Selectman Randy LaMattina said the panel did have some questions and sought clarification on figures in the report, specifically a 5-percent increase for the schools.

Madden said if department heads have compelling arguments for the Finance Committee, board of Selectmen or other decision-making board to consider for figures outside of his recommendations, that is the decision of that committee or board.

“Something has to give or you prepare to go to the voters with a general override,” he cautioned however, adding the recommendations come from an effort to mitigate the cost and delay the need for such an override.

He said that he recommended 5 percent for the schools, based on what he has seen in other communities.

“I’ve seen lower, I’ve seen higher,” Madden said.

Resident member of the committee Christopher George asked if the figure represented a 5-percent increase in the assessments to the towns or a 5-percent increase in the schools’ overall budget. Madden said it was the figure from the towns’ Article 2 budget.

School Committee member Dawn Byers noted that, as a regional district, more than 50-percent of the WHRSD budget is from state aid and is not giving Whitman a 5-percent increase.

If the recommendation involved a 5-percent increase from Whitman and Hanson individually, as well as from the state, it would paint a different picture, Byers said.

“I think that would be a nice opportunity to fund the schools appropriately, but with 0.45 percent Chapter 70 increase, 5 percent from the towns doesn’t equate to an overall 5-percent budget increase,” she said.

Lynam said the committee hired Madden in an effort to identify where Whitman is and where the town is headed with the regional schools posing a particular challenge because so much of that budget is fixed.

“In fairness, our concern was for you to focus the factors that affect Whitman,” he said. “You have done that.”
Madden agreed that the towns are charged with providing an education to the children of Whitman and of Hanson, as well as some school choice participants, that keep students coming into the district.

“You’ve got to fund an education that keeps people in school and not looking elsewhere,” he said.

George also asked if there was any area in which the town was spending too much money as compared with others. Madden said nothing he has looked at or recommended actually solves individual issues. He said the report identified some areas of concern such as IT, but said it was up to the town as to whether they want to tackle them sooner rather than later.

Selectman Justin Evans, noting the suggestion in Madden’s report that the motor vehicle fine account could be moved into the general fund to defray salary expenses in the operating budget, asked if the town could do that on its own, since the town had petitioned the state to create the fine account in the first place.

Lynam said the town would have to rescind its approval of home rule legislation, but he would investigate the process.

“There’s so many things that would be perceived as negative in that type of revenue process,” he said. “I believe right now the police act in a responsible way to ensure public safety — that’s their job and that’s what they should be doing — they shouldn’t be focusing on hit counts to raise money, and I wouldn’t want to see us going back to that.”

Madden said he suggested the fines go back into the general fund since they no longer cover the cost of vehicle leases.

Lynam said even if the change was not made, the town could look at the revenue coming in against the purchasing needs of the public safety departments and use what remains for general fund purposes through Town Meeting warrant articles.

“We’re not really changing anything,” George said. “It’s an accounting practice in terms of the way things work. … We’re not really talking about any significant changes or reductions for how we spend that money, this is just about best practices from an accounting standpoint.”

Madden said that was basically what he was recommending for budget flexibility and protection from anomalies.

“We have utilized our funding sources to the maximum available,” Lynam said. “That’s where we are today.”

LaMattina noted social media posts to the effect that the town spends too much money and asked Madden for his assessment of Whitman’s spending practices. Madded said that, while free cash has been used to pay debt over the past few years, he considers debt to be part of the budget, and worked hard to do that, but at some point the town will have to consider an override. Other than that, some staffing issues are the only sources of concern Madden said he found, including overtime use.

He was asked if Whitman’s average tax bill is $5,450 in fiscal 2020, up 6 percent from last year and 24 percent in five years, is common or if it seemed high.

“Not necessarily,” Madden said. “I’ve analyzed a community that went up 13 percent in one year.”

He said if the overall budget were to increase 3 percent, it would not necessarily be a bad thing.

“There are a number of things the public doesn’t see that drive a budget,” he said.

Finance Committee member Scott Lambiase said the BOEC has to digest Madden’s report and discuss it with the Finance Committee and Selectmen.

“But we have recommendations on the table, and we have to decide what we want to do with those recommendations — whether we want to adopt all of them, some of them — and then move forward with that,” he said. “Right now, we have a budget to put together and then we have to decide do we want policies to come out of this? Do we want to adopt them? We want to make sure we can stick with them.”

Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green also advocated adopting the Community Preservation Act, which can bring in state funding for recreation, open space conservation, community housing and historic preservation projects.