Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak reported which personnel cuts would be made within the fiscal 2020 budget during the Wednesday, June 12 School Committee meeting.

“There’s been some questions about where we ended up in terms of staffing,” Szymaniak said. There were 19 positions cut as well $292,000 cut from budget items such as supplies, legal costs and other areas. Some others were moved to other areas.

The personnel cuts include; a central office accountant, a facilities building use coordinator, the technology director, six paraprofessionals — none involved in one-to-one individual education plans, a high school business teacher, a high school science teacher, a science teacher at Hanson Middle School, a grade teacher at Indian Head, a grade teacher at Duval, two grade teachers at Conley, and a duty aide at each elementary school. A part-time music teacher who did grade five band was also cut.

“We also eliminated foreign language at the middle schools because of equity issues,” Szymaniak said. “We recycled those positions into three elementary adjustment counselors because we had to work in our social-emotional need.”

He explained the district had been inequitable in how it offered middle school foreign language.

“Before the state came at us and said there’s an issue of equity there, we recycled that with the hopes of looking at a better budget in the future — putting together a solid foreign language program, either six through 12 or, in our vision K to 12,” Szymaniak said.

He said class size was not severely impacted, but there will be a student population bubble in the fourth grade at Indian Head and the fifth grade at Conley and Duval.

Szymaniak said he is “cautiously optimistic” about returning some classroom teachers when the state budget is finalized and the fiscal 2019 budget is closed out, but is not looking to resolve any other budget issues.

School committee member Fred Small asked if a budget meeting between the committee, town administrators, selectmen and finance boards had yet been scheduled.

That meeting was slated for 7 p.m., Monday, July 22.

“We’re going to take a look at the whole budget, going a little bit backwards for comparison and see what our increases might be,” Chairman Bob Hayes said. “Maybe get a little bit better forecast for the towns before they get into their town meetings or special town meetings.”

Small said his vision is also to determine what the committee wants to see, in the event there is an override, to restore services and to enhance services the district should be providing.

“I really think we have to address our short-comings and the only way we’re going to do it is to ask the public,” Small said.

School Committee member Christopher Howard suggested a three-year look forward so the towns understand what lies ahead. Szymaniak said union and bus contracts have two more years left, which could help with that process. School Committee member Dan Cullity advocated a five-year approach.

Where money would go from an expected operational override in the fall for Whitman remains a question, Szymaniak said, adding Hanson has said nothing about any plans for an override.

Szymaniak also reported that he has received a letter from the Whitman DPW, which stated the high school’s water and sewer meters have been misread since the school opened — and $307,000 is owed by the district.

“They apologized for the error,” he said. “My problem, outside of the letter I got yesterday, is I have no budget projection on what we use for water in this building now.”

He had not consulted legal counsel yet, but had Business Director Christine Suckow call the district’s insurance company “just because.”

School Committee member Alexandra Taylor said it is her understanding that the problem is town-wide in Whitman due to old meters. Whitman has begun the process of replacing water meters this month.

Small said the sewer portion should not be a problem because of the high school’s graywater system.

The committee heard an overview of what constitutes unfunded and underfunded state mandates from Ben Tafoya, director of the Division of Local Mandates with the State Auditor’s Office.

“The Division of Local Mandates was actually created by the voters when they passed Proposition 2 ½ in 1980,” Tafoya said. “The law also said that the state could not impose unfunded mandates on our cities and towns and created our division to help guide the state auditor in determining what was or what wasn’t an unfunded mandate.”

Several hundred requests for review of potential unfunded mandates have been received since the 1980s, but Tafoya said the number has been decreasing in recent years.

“The good news is since the founding of our office, we have been able to help municipalities claim over $350 million in funding for various activities that were found to be unfunded mandates,” he said.

Cullity asked how the school district could file a request for review of some of the unfunded mandates straining the WHRSD budgets.

Tafoya said a letter should be filed with State Auditor Suzanne Bump’s office at the statehouse, advising that a single letter from the School Committee detailing the issues — or from town administrators, boards of selectmen or the superintendent of schools.

“If it’s from the School Committee it has to be an official act that is documented in the public record,” Tafoya said.

State laws passed after Jan. 1, 1981 must have cost implications for municipalities accepted by the city or town or the commonwealth supplies funding to make compliance possible, according to Tafoya.

“These were things that weren’t optional … and they represented a significant expense,” he said.

In 2017, portions of the early voting law were determined to include an unfunded mandate, necessitating reimbursements to towns for the hours outside normal voting hours for towns. In 2012, portions of the McKinney-Vento homeless transportation requirement were determined to be an unfunded mandate, with the legislature partially reimbursing cities and towns — $9 million for fiscal 2019.

Exceptions over the years have included the imposition of “incidental administrative expense” involved in the municipalities complying with the mandate as a condition of receiving state aid, or when towns have the option of participating in a program or not.

Regional school transportation is not considered an unfunded mandate because it was a requirement imposed on regional school districts prior to 1981, Tafoya said.

“But we all understand that underfunding of that kind of requirement has a substantial impact on the regional school districts in our Commonwealth,” he said.

Small, who had arranged for Tafoya’s visit, questioned special education transportation reimbursements. That expense, Tafoya said is the largest single category of the $785 million spent on school transportation by all state school districts.

School Committee member Dawn Byer also questioned special education reimbursement, particularly whether it met the requirement under Mass. General Law to be considered an unfunded mandate.

“The difficulty with that is that it’s a requirement that pre-dates 1981,” Tafoya said. “That would be its exemption from the local mandate law.”

“Where that is supposed to be funded, I’d like to ask if there’s anything that you can do to help out this region,” said Taylor.

Tafoya said the division has been informing the legislature, regional school district and other stakeholder groups about a report issued in 2017 on the issue, “To try to remind people that these expenses are out there, they’re rising faster than school aid or taxes are coming in and the reimbursement accounts are significantly underfunded.”

He pledged that the division would continue to do that.

COHASSET — During a boisterous and joyful ceremony at South Shore Music Circus on Friday, June 7, 155 students from eight communities graduated from South Shore Technical High School as “a class of true individuals.”

“You have hidden talents that many rarely got to see,” said Principal Mark Aubrey, putting on his trademark cowboy hat to the students’ cheers. “Josia Silva [of Rockland] got the acting bug as a youngster and has been performing ever since, including as an extra on the Netflix show ‘Community’ on a number of occasions … Student body President Cody Campbell [of Rockland] has flown an airplane. … you have grown in so many ways.”

Aubrey pointed to athletic achievements such as the Mayflower League Champion girls’ volleyball team, “a couple” of Eagle Scouts and the growth of “picky eater” Tim Murphy of Whitman into a Culinary Arts graduate moving on to employment in the food industry.

“[His] mom is happy to say he will try almost anything,” Aubrey said.

Others are heading into the military, including Hanson resident Trent Quinn-Percivalle who is joining the Air Force cyber-security team.

Aubrey closed by making a request of them in return for the success SST has helped them accomplish.

“Be ambassadors for our school and the excellent education we provide our students,” he said, urging them to return to speak to shops about life in the trades or in college. “As you step out beyond our doors, please know that we do not want our relationship to end with this evening.”

Student speakers also touched on academic and personal growth during their four years at SST.

Brevity was key for Valedictorian Benjamin Doucette of Abington.

“In this class before you are some of the smartest, bravest and funniest people I have met so far in my life,” he said. “After this ceremony, some of us will stay in touch and some of us won’t. Some of us will use the trade skills we’ve learned, and some of us will go into completely different fields. … We’ve grown a lot, but we still have some growing to do.

Senior Class President Alexis Burke of Hanson also expounded on the themes of personal and academic growth.

“It will be very hard to part ways with a place that has given me so much,” she said. “It was here where I cemented friendships, it was here I got to explore my passions, it was here I learned to be a better person, it was here where I discovered myself.”

Rockland’s Cody Campbell introduced himself to students who may have been “living under a rock for the last four years: I am the student body president for the Class of 2019.”

“Yeah, you are!” a fellow graduate shouted to cheers.

Campbell related how his favorite quote by hockey great Wayne Gretzky — “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

“Speaking from experience, I can say that it is impossible to have a fulfilling life in a shell, afraid to take chances,” he said. “Try something new, make mistakes, fail epically. …I am confident that you will all do amazing things.”
Superintendent-Director Thomas J. Hickey equated the education process as a way of discovering one’s “superpower,” based on the number of popular superhero movies making huge amounts of money — and a teacher’s T-shirt he recently saw which read: “I am a teacher, what’s your superpower?”

Hickey played audio of nearly a dozen seniors discussing what they see as a superpower. Academics, perseverance, art, problem solving, humor, leadership, welding, listening, story-telling and hard work were mentioned.

“You know you have and value and you are confident that you can make an impact on the world around you,” he said. “Continue to discover those super powers, in the workforce, in service to our country, for the love of your family and friends and as a positive influence on your community. The world needs heroes. We need you now more than ever.”

Local SSVT graduates are:

Cameron N. Bagley, Jacob T. Barbato, Erin M. Bizier, Dylan R. Burgio, Alexis J. Burke, Jacqueline E. Clifford, Tucker A. Cobis, Rebecca R. Cooke, Owen M. David, Cameron J. DeStefano, Jeffrey A. Ford, Shane A. Fougere, Jonathan G. Gillan, Josie C. Head, Brendan R. Hogan, John P. Hubbard, Ryan P. Keeley, Liam R. Kernan, Mackenzie E. McGraw, Kyle J. Mishou, Christopher M. Osbourne, Trent Quinn-Percivalle, Noah S. Rodri, Alex J. Spicuzza, Nicole E. Stalker and Samuel L. Stowell of Hanson.

Peter A. Achin, Jacob J. Austin, Justin T. Bennett, Evan J. Cadorette, Kaitlin A. Chatsko, Patrick F. Dolan, Laurel L. Durfee, Maxwell G. Elfman, Casi B. Ezekiel, William F. Keating Glover, Ayla A. Hebert, John B. Jolliemore, Asten N. Knight, Jillian M. Leafer, Cyairra D. Lowe, Kimberly P. McPhee, Nykera N. Mandes, Richard M. Miller, Ashley E. Millett, Kayla E. Mills, Hayley R. Murphy, Timothy M. Murphy, Codey J. Murray, Nicholas D. Podgurski, Kristen E. Saccone, Danielle R. Smith, Aiden M. Toy, Emily L. Vega-Morley, Jade A. Watts, Patrick S. Wilson and Evan M. Young of Whitman.

WHITMAN — The board of Selectmen on Tuesday, May 28 received an update on municipal finances ahead of the Monday, June 17 special Town Meeting.

The town has $971,546 in available free cash after the debt exclusion was approved in the May 18 Town Election, and $154,674 available in the capital stabilization fund.

The town voted to use free cash to pay the debt associated with a bond, but with the approval of the debt exclusion, $532,000 can be transferred from that appropriation because it can’t be replaced into free cash, Lynam explained.

Selectman Randy LaMattina suggested the board vote to recommend placing $150,000 from free cash back into either the stabilization account, which now holds $2.6 million, or into capital stabilization, which now holds $154,600. Lynam advocated placing another $200,000 into capital stabilization. The board voted to place the $150,000 into capital stabilization to build the fund back up, leaving about $824,000 available for appropriation.

“At that point we will be able to make a determination on what articles to act on and to amend the source be capital stabilization because they are all capital articles,” Town Administrator Frank Lynam said. “Certainly, if we spent all the money we had, we could approve all those articles, but I don’t think that would be a prudent thing to do.”

Lynam said he has spoken to WHRSD and Hanson officials to determine what has been voted by Hanson for school capital projects. He will relay that information to Whitman’s Finance Committee.

He said Whitman would be responsible for $17,946 for the W-H gym floor refinishing; $41,874 for a handicapped ramp at the football field (Hanson approved its share of that work in Oct. 2018); $20,973 for thumb-latches in all interior classrooms at the high school; $14,955 for repairs to the existing fire lane; $59,820 for repair of rooftop units over the performing arts center which have failed and a more expensive temporary system is being used for the remainder of the school year. Hanson had passed over the roof-top units at its Town Meeting. There is also a need to replace lighting, before Green Communities reimbursement, at the Conley and Duval.

An appropriation of $125,622 to repave the high school roadway and $134,595 for resurfacing the track at the high school are being sought as Whitman’s share. There are also articles pertaining to town equipment purchases pending.

“My guess is they’re going to have to be prioritized and it’s unlikely that all these articles will be voted,” Lynam said.

Capital plan

The Collins Center at UMass, Boston, which has been working with the town on both a capital plan and budget model, is working to correct “a number of errors” Lynam flagged before returning the draft document for corrections.

Forest Street resident Shawn Kain has asked to see the draft document, asking whether it is considered a public document.

“I’m not comfortable sending it out, because it’s inaccurate,” Lynam said. “My experience with handing things out while they’re under development is that they typically come back to bite you.”

He told Kain he would discuss it with the board, but preferred to hold it until it was “mostly accurate,” perhaps not before the next draft is received in a week or so.

A capital report has not been received as yet.

Kain asked if the Collins Center report was pubic information. Lynam replied that such reports are not generally considered public until official received by the Board of Selectmen. The Board has not yet received the report.

“It’s not public information yet,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said.

Kain said he would follow up with his concern with the Collins Center, as he argued it should be public.

“This whole process is going to be interactive,” Lynam said. “When they prepare to meet with us on a capital plan, there will be a public meeting, there will be a document presented — presumably, at least to the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee — to begin the analysis and say, does this work, where does it work, how does it work?”

He said the report draft contained misidentified departments and organizational charts.

“I don’t want to release a report like that, because it’s defective,” Lynam said.

“Those are valid discussion points, but to have it open, I think will be helpful,” Kain said.

LaMattina, who described himself as a “transparency guy,” pointed to the numerous draft Article 2s was an example of confusion caused by releasing draft documents.

“If it’s actually wrong, that’s what I don’t want put out there,” LaMattina said. He did, however request that some type of timetable be established to ensure accountability.

John Galvin, a High Street resident, asked about when Selectman Brian Bezanson might present an economic development plan, which was one of his campaign issues, to the board.

Bezanson said he has begun working with Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green on the “first leg” of the proposal.

“It’s going to take a while to get all the moving pieces together,” he said. “I have to speak with the assessors and the treasurer and collector … to get their opinion on how things are going to go and then speak to state officials on exactly what’s legal and what’s not legal and how we can go forward with this.”

He said he hopes it can go forward as quickly as possible because, “the town needs that kind of money policy.”

In other business, Bezanson said a bronze plaque that had been stolen from the Civil War monument, and was not discovered until the Memorial Day observances. The plaque has been recovered by DPW workers and they will work to replace it, he said.

WHITMAN — When Deputy Fire Chief Joe Feeney retires from Whitman Fire on July 7, his final shift will mark the end of a 32-year career with the department.

Appointed to the department by former Chief Timothy Travers in June 1987, rising through the ranks to be appointed as deputy chief in 1999, Feeney got his start in firefighting while he was a member of the merchant marine.

“Joe is a great asset to our department and to our operations,” Fire Chief Timothy Grenno told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, May 14. “His retirement is going to leave a large void, which will not only be felt by me, but all the members of our department. Joe has been an outstanding firefighter and deputy fire chief.”

A retirement party is planned for June 22 at the Whitman VFW pavilion, with tickets available at the fire station.

Feeney is a person who tries to avoid that kind of fuss, but he’s going to get one, anyway.

“[After] 32 years in, I think enough’s enough,” he said while sitting in the dispatch room on a recent 24-hour shift, but he always liked the job. “Most days are like the best day on the job. I always like the people I’ve worked with — every guy here is great and it feels like you’re playing for a winning team.”

He said relaxation is not a specific retirement plan.

“This is relaxed right now,” he said of downtime between calls. “I have a couple of things I’m working on.”

If Feeney is reticent about his résumé, his superior officers have been just as effusive.

“It’s going to be hard shoes to fill,” Grenno said of Feeney’s departure. “He’s done some tremendous things and his knowledge, his sense of humor, his wit is going to be sorely missed by all of us.”

Lt. Al Cunningham, who tops the civil service list will succeed Feeney as deputy chief, according to Grenno. Cunningham and Feeney are working together on Tuesday inspection rounds.

“Joe’s had some of the more significant fires that we’ve had in town,” Grenno said. “[He] has seen his share of grief and terror and he has seen his share of happiness around here with births in the field.”

He was the shift officer for the Commercial Street fire last winter, as well as a fire that had broken out a month before the new high school opened as well as “some of the more tragic events in town” including fatal car crashes.

For Grenno, knowing when Feeney is on shift means he can relax when he is off duty.

Feeney did not come from a family of firefighters, and describes his career path as something akin to a beneficial accident.

“In that profession, everyone had to learn firefighting,” Feeney said of his stint as a merchant marine, and he received that training while a cadet at the Mass. Maritime Academy. “I never thought that much about it, although I had been in a couple of ship-board fires and we just did our job like we were trained — it didn’t seem like a big deal.”

He was working in the field for three years after graduating and was looking for a steadier paycheck because the merchant marines offered sporadic employment. Someone suggested he take the fire exam and he thought that sounded like a good idea.

“My ultimate goal, believe it or not, was to get on the Boston [FD] fire boat, which might be one of the most boring jobs in the world, if you ask the guys who work up there,” he recalled. “But it looks cool.”

After taking the fire exam, he was called by Whitman, where he lived at the time. A native of Brockton, Feeney’s parents had moved to Whitman when he was in college.

“Tim Grenno’s father called me in and I signed for him,” Feeney said. The elder Grenno was retiring and he wanted the incoming Chief Travers to meet with Feeney. Travers sent Feeney to the Mass. Fire Academy after hiring him on and, by the time he had a spot at the academy, Feeney had been working for the department for almost a year.

“He was the first firefighter that I hired,” Travers recalled. “Joe was very well educated and [he] came in on the job with a bachelor’s degree and, in those days not too many firefighters had advanced degrees. I was impressed by that.”

Feeney and Robert Holver were the first two Whitman firefighters to go through the Mass. Fire Academy, where local academies had been used before that time.

He topped the lieutenant’s test after about 10 years, went to grad school for a master’s degree in fire science from the University of New Haven — the first Whitman firefighter to hold an advanced degree, Travers said — and attended the National Fire Academy where he was certified as an executive fire officer as well as obtaining local chief officer certification from the state academy. He holds about a dozen other certifications in fire prevention and inspections.

He then topped the deputy chief’s exam, a rank he has held in Whitman for 20 years.

“He’s a no-nonsense type of guy,” Travers said. “He didn’t get wrapped up in the politics in the fire department. Joe stayed on his own, did his own thing, did his job, and did it well.”

Travers said that after his retirement, Feeney probably could have had the fire chief’s job if he wanted it.

“I’m quite sure he didn’t want it,” he said.

Over his career in firefighting, Feeney has seen big changes in emergency medical services (EMS), which comprise two-thirds of emergency calls into the department these days. Different construction types now in use also present challenges as builders use lighter, cheaper materials, he said.

“They seem to behave poorly during a fire,” Feeney said, noting some of the materials also present health concerns for firefighters. “Some of the glues, some of the materials, the furnishings, are giving off bad chemicals that end up on us or in us — even with good equipment on.”

He echoed Grenno’s concern about cancer prevention.

“There’s a lot of cancer awareness in our job, more on restricting where in the station you can go with turnout gear that’s been exposed to smoke and fire,” Feeney said. “We keep it all basically in the apparatus floor or in the wash area.”

Responses to drug overdoses and mental illness issues are also more numerous today.

“I think, when I first started, we went to one heroin overdose a year and now we go to one a week — maybe more,” Feeney said.

“We meet people at their worst, sometimes it’s the worst day of their life,” Feeney said. “So you have to be kind of thick-skinned and don’t take it with you. … When you take the job, you know that’s going to happen and as long as you’re mentally prepared …”