Whitman-Hanson Express

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Warm welcome home

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BLESS THIS HOUSE: Brian Austin, left, of the New England Carpenters Training Council presented veteran Paul Skarinka with a framed photo of a message from an apprentice inscribed on a partition stud blessing the family’s new home as his wife Jennifer looks on. (Photo by Tracy Seelye)

HANSON — Paul and Jennifer Skarinka received the keys to their new home on Tuesday, April 2. The occasion, exciting for any young couple, was different than for most — it is a mortgage-free, injury-specific house built through Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors for a veteran injured in action.

“It’s beautiful,” Jennifer Skarinka said. “It’s a dream home.”

“Wow,” Paul, a Plympton Fire Department firefighter-paramedic, said after his family, including children Lilliana and Noah, toured the house. “The carpenters, the Foundation, everyone did an incredible job and it was well worth the wait. It’s truly incredible.”

It was delayed a few months due to record-low temperatures, record flooding, microbursts that knocked out power for nine days, three nor’easters, delays caused by a moratorium following the Merrimack Valley natural gas explosions — and vandalism — but the Hanson community joined builders, trade union representatives and Allen to welcome Skarinka, 39, and his family to his new home.

Skarinka, an Army veteran who lost a leg and sustained severe injuries to his left arm when his unit came under attack on a mission in Sadr City, Iraq in September 2004, said he and his family are thankful for their new home and the help of Hanson police and fire departments after the project was vandalized over the winter.

“I’m just excited,” he said. “I was nervous about moving in — it looks so nice. We’re really going to enjoy this and take a minute to kind of sit back and relax, take it one day at a time and soak it all in.”

Jennifer Skarinka said the house means her husband will be able to find comfort at the end of his working day.

“There’s no more stairs,” she said. “Taking care of other people is strenuous on his body and he gets tired [by the end of his day]. Unfortunately, in the house we were at before, he couldn’t use his wheelchair. …Now he can wheel around without having to worry about bumping into things or getting stuck. It makes me happy that he can live a somewhat normal life.”

Allen, a five-time NFL Pro Bowler, said his foundation is a way to give back to those who defend our country.

“Someone told me a long time ago, you don’t have to have a uniform on to serve your country,” Allen said. “I feel like I’ve been blessed in my life with family and work and all that. I’ve gotten a lot from this country — the ability to be free and play football and live out my dreams — so I think it’s the least we can do to show our gratitude and pay our debts forward.”

Veterans go through an application process and other veterans’ organizations “lead the way” to his program, Allen said. Skarinka also had the good fortune to be a friend of Alex Karalexis, a 1992 W-H graduate and Hanson native, who is executive director of Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors. Veterans have  say in where they want their homes to be located and work with architects and designers in creating their homes.

Allen said the vandalism was horrible, setting the project back weeks and costing money.

“We haven’t had that issue before,” he said. “But I think the way the community reacted …”

“This has been a very special project and the community has been behind us from start to finish with all the hiccups that we had in between,” Karalexis said. “The high school football team raised money, local businesses raised money, had signs at the doors and things of that nature.”

Organizers thanked the Hanson Police for their work in apprehending the vandals.

The Skarinkas had originally planned on moving in for Thanksgiving or Christmas before the vandalism to windows in the home.

“All that did was galvanize the resolve of everybody who took part in this projects,” Karalexis said of the vandalism and natural disasters that delayed the move-in day. “It really made me proud to be part of this community.”

“This was a wonderful event this morning,” said state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, whose district includes Hanson. “It’s an amazing show of community for Hanson, but also the broader community, Homes for Wounded Warriors — all the folks who played a role in building this home. As other speakers have said, they built a home, but they also built a community here, that’s what’s most wonderful about this.”

Other Hanson officials present included Veterans Agent Timothy White, Town Administrator Michael McCue, Police Lt. Mike Casey, Fire Chief Jerome Thompson Jr., Deputy Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak and Assistant Superintended George Ferro. Several officials from the Plympton Fire Department also attended, wearing their dress uniforms. Several representatives of building trades organizations also attended.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to help out a deserving veteran in the community,” said Harry Brett, of Hanson, business manager of the Plumber’s Union.

“It’s just an honor to be involved in something as meaningful as what this wounded warriors project is all about,” John Murphy, of Braintree, with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. It marked the first Jared Allen Foundation project undertaken in New England.

Brian Austin of New England Carpenters Training Council presented a framed photo of an inscription left by a second-year apprentice on an interior partition stud: “June 7 2018 — To our Warrior and his clan, Thank you for all you have done for our nation. It has been an honor to build this fortress for you all and may many great memories be made in this home. One nation under God.”

The inscription was discovered as repairs were being made two weeks after the windows had been vandalized.

“Minor road bump,” New England Carpenters Training Council representative Paul Gangemi, said of the vandalism to windows in the house. “The important ones they missed. It didn’t stop [us], we kept moving forward.”

The house featured five-foot-wide corridors and five-foot turnaround space almost everywhere inside. Gangemi said his organization had about three dozen volunteers from the council worked on the project.

“All the trades did a good job,” he said. “The painters were all apprentices — you go through that house, it looks like a professional painter’s job.”

A heart-wrenching cautionary tale

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With prom and graduation season upon us, school and law enforcement officials — along with Whitman-Hanson WILL — presented the documentary “If They Had Known,” on the dangers of mixing prescription drugs with alcohol in a program at WHRHS on Thursday, March 27.

“Prom season, graduation season are the most stressful time for high school administrators because of the level of choices that their kids can make during those times,” Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said. Statistics show it is the peak time for risky behavior.

“It’s not to make people sad, it’s to make people think,” he said of the documentary screening, which the school plans to repeat for high school students.

District Attorney Timothy Cruz briefed the audience of students and parents on the points of the Social Host Law.

He said parents who host teen parties where alcohol consumption takes place, risk both criminal charges and civil liabilities when accidents occur as a result of underage drinking.

“If you know a parent that may be considering doing that, tell them this,” Cruz said. “Tell them it’s illegal. Tell them that, if you provide alcohol to a minor at your home, and, if they leave your home, your responsibility is not over. If they drive their car, after being inebriated by drugs, alcohol or whatever and there is — god forbid — a terrible accident and somebody gets hurt or killed, you will be sued.”

Szymaniak said there had already been a recent incident in which a group of seniors were caught having a party at a home during the school day.

Cruz and Szymaniak warned that local police also file charges against parents or 18-year-olds who violate the Social Host Law.

Szymaniak said he has “buried probably 25 kids” in his years a school administrator and the described regret their classmates experienced over not taking their keys before they got behind the wheel after drinking.

“We all want to be friends with our kids,” Cruz said to emphasize the point. “My answer has always been, I’ll be friends with them when they’re 25. Up until that point, I’m their father.”

He urged the teens in the audience to take care of each other and stop them from taking risks in their behaviors to save lives.

“I applaud these parents who have worked so hard to get the word out,” Cruz said of Winchester parents Geoff and Genny Soper, who are taking a lead role in the fight against the party culture of mixing prescription drugs and alcohol after their eldest son, Clay, died after taking Xanax followed by a night of heavy drinking.

“Their strength really impresses me,” Cruz said. “They are doing what they can to make sure that other parents don’t [suffer] what happened to them.”

A family’s anguish

The Whitman-Hanson WILL program featured the documentary about their son’s last night alive, “If They Had Known,” during a pre-prom and graduation season program held at the Dr. John F. McEwan Performing Arts Center.

The Sopers were scheduled to appear at the program, but Whitman-Hanson WILL organizers explained they felt unable to cope with the emotion of reliving the experience in a public setting at this time.

Founded in 2014, Whitman-Hanson WILL works to bring awareness to the importance of good decision-making about the use of alcohol and/or drugs.

“We’ve transitioned into all types of decision-making that are core for our youth, including texting and driving, drunk driving and all sorts of substances,” Szymaniak said. “The organization works with us in the community in the schools and in community outreach both in Whitman and Hanson.”

Clay Soper, then 19, was home for a winter break while attending the University of Denver, when he and some friends got together at one of their homes in 2015 when they decided to try Xanax before going to another house party where Clay had too much to drink.

His friends thought it best to get him in bed to sleep it off, but the mix of the prescription anti-anxiety medication and alcohol caused his heart and respiratory system to fatally slow down.

Friends’ efforts at CPR, when he was found to be pale and unresponsive were unsuccessful. Clay was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“You know who mixes,” Szymaniak said to the teens in the audience after the documentary was shown. “You know where the parties are, who know who brings what, you know what’s out there, and you know [what can happen] if you choose to do this or not.”

Hanson School Resource Officer William Frasier, Whitman Lt. Dan Connolly, Whitman Deputy Police Chief Timothy Hanlon and Hanson Lt. Mike Casey also attended the event in case parents had questions or concerns following the program.

Gauging town’s fiscal mood

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Dr. Melinda Tarsi (Courtesy WHCA9TV)

WHITMAN — Residents support their town services, but are reluctant to look toward an operational override, preferring a targeted approach to support specific departments or projects.

Bridgewater State University Political Science Professor Dr. Melinda Tarsi presented the results of the survey to a small gathering in the Town Hall Auditorium Wednesday, March 20.

“Several months ago, we met in this room to talk about doing a community survey,” said Town Administrator Frank Lynam, noting that Tarsi has offered her services as well as the university’s for the project.

Tarsi thanked those who showed up on a “pretty nice spring evening to look at survey results” and thanked those in town’s participation, questions and overall interest in the project.

“I think we saw from the level of interest … from the community and the kinds of questions they were asking [indicated they wanted to] make sure everything was done correctly and making sure we got their survey, to me and my students indicates how much people care about the community,” she said.

The bimodal survey — conducted both on paper and online — was done between November and the beginning of February. The university, which provided all paper, postage and other costs through the university, sent a single copy of a paper survey to each household, with a QR code that could access additional copies online. Additional paper copies were also provided on request.

Despite the short response window and the size of the response sample — 1,062 of which 640 were online and 422 on paper — Tarsi said it still gave adequate information for discussion about priorities and budget issues.

“This is part of an approach to plan ahead,” Lynam said. “It’s not going to answer all the questions that we need [answered] for this years’ budget, but it gives us an idea of what the community as a whole is looking at.”

Tarsi said it was equally rewarding for her students, many of whom are now interested in obtaining internships in local government.

The full report is available on the town website Whitman-ma.gov.

The most important issues facing the town, according to the survey, were: schools and education — 36 percent; property tax rates — 36 percent; opioid and other substance abuse — 23 percent; business/economic development — 24 percent; roads/transportation and upkeep — 31 percent. There were several other issues drawing lower percentages and some write-in responses that are viewable online.

People were allowed to select more than one issue on the survey.

Where raising revenue is concerned, almost half preferred increases to licenses and fees; 8 percent suggested raising excise taxes; 17 percent would increase property tax rates; and 28 percent had other views.

“Increasing licenses and fees tends to be a more popular option generally, in whatever case we’re talking about, so this follows what we might tend to see in any municipality when they’re being presented with options on how to increase revenues,” Tarsi said of research on the issue.

To control costs; 42 percent said all departments should be asked to cut their budgets by a certain proportion; 15 percent wanted to see town employees’ salaries level with no raises; 14 percent said to reduce Town Hall hours; and 13 percent said reduce town services. Only 1 percent of residents suggested layoffs.

Overrides were defined in the survey and residents were asked if they favored that option. Forty-two percent said they would back an override, but only for a particular reason; 38 percent said no to an override for any reason and close to 20 percent support an operational override for any part of the budget.

“What this indicates for us as survey researchers, is that there is some acceptance of the idea of an override, but, understandably, voters, residents, taxpayers want to know why,” Tarsi said.

Departments preferred to benefit from any override were: schools, police, fire and public works. Veterans services were also quite high.

Of school services, smaller class sizes, instructional materials for teachers and full-day kindergarten were the top priorities. For the DPW, road repair, snow removal and maintaining town buildings were top concerns.

People responding to the survey reported that 72 percent did not attend the 2018 Town Meeting, while 28 percent said they did attend.

Of those respondents, 47 percent owned a home in Whitman; 19 percent have had children in the schools in the past; 11 percent currently have children in the schools; 10 percent volunteer in town; 5 percent are renters; 2 percent own a business in town; another 2 percent works for a Whitman business; and 1 percent works for the town.

The residents responded that 27 percent have lived in Whitman between 31 and 50 years; 21 percent between 11 and 20 years; 15 percent from 21 to 30 years with another 15 percent fewer than five years; 11 percent have lived in Whitman more than 50 years and 10 percent from five to 10 years.

As Selectmen had previously reported about the results most people scored Whitman well on quality of life and as a good place to live and raise a family, but poor as a destination for entertainment.

Residents also indicated they liked the level of town services they receive, but recognize that cuts may have to be made in a budget crisis, according to Tarsi.

School funding review

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WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday, March 26 to advise the Finance Committee, it could not support a 10-percent increase in the town’s assessment for the W-H School District.

Last week, Selectmen, meeting with the Finance Committee discussed two budget scenarios, one of which provided for a 6-percent school assessment increase and the other, 10 percent.

“Of those two scenarios, one of them would be devastating to every other department in the town — the one with the 10-percent increase,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said. “The other column still presents cuts in the amount of money that goes to departments, some of which would have to be personnel, and all of that rests on an override to overcome it.”

Kowalski said with the schools asking for 15 percent, the Finance Committee’s seeming willingness to give them 10 percent and the potential effect on the town’s services, he would entertain a motion to inform the FinCom that “the 10-percent option is really not on the board.”

“The idea right now is 10 percent isn’t going to work for anybody and you know how hard it is for me to say that with my history with the schools,” said Kowalski, who has served on the School Committee in the past and is an educator himself.

Selectmen Daniel Salvucci, making the motion for discussion said any budget option should leave the town “as harmless as possible.”

“It seems like we’re controlling our [costs] and holding down the raises .. and I’d like to see that maintained,” he said. “[The schools] need to look at their budget and come up with something that helps both communities.”

Kowalski said Hanson is willing to give the schools somewhere between 5 and 6 percent — amounting to a 6.5-percent increase for Whitman, or $862,562, and $579,367 to Hanson.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said his talks with Hanson Town Administrator Michael McCue indicated Hanson could afford 6.5 percent.

“They’re not going to be happy with 10, so obviously, they’re not going to be happy with 6 … however, it’s more realistic to say that at this point in the game, we need to think not just about the schools, but the other departments, too,” Kowalski said. “I think I’d like to send a signal that 10 percent is not something that we can consider at this time.”

He said he wanted to avoid  splitting the town up between the schools and the other departments.

Lynam is also working to reduce the override needed to close the budget gap and, if the debt exclusion to remove the police station from within the levy is approved, that could also add to the funds available.

“What we’re trying to do is keep everybody as harmless as possible,” Kowalski said. “I don’t want a situation where everyone is thinking an override is just for the schools — it’s an override for the town.”

“As I understand it, you are working on a version of the budget yourself, somewhat different from the Finance Committee,” Kowalski asked Lynam. “What should happen between now and next week [when Selectmen next meet] is you’ll give us a report in writing and we’ll be able to discuss it as a board … so that we can give direction to the Finance Committee.”

Kowalski said it made sense to give the Finance Committee a bit of direction that night as school officials were meeting with the FinCom at the same time, and Lynam was scheduled to join the Finance Committee’s meeting after Selectmen concluded their meeting.

In other business, Salvucci said the MBTA advisory board has indicated Whitman’s assessment will be reduced from $74,166 to $49,908 — a 30-percent saving of $24,258.

“I’m really afraid to ask why,” Lynam said, suggesting that Whitman is also part of Brockton Area Transit an suggested perhaps the reason was that the BAT assessment increased.

Salvucci said the MBTA pointed to the “make-up of the town” and fare increases for the reasoning.

Selectmen also approved a Class II Auto Dealer’s license for Ally Motors, 934 Temple St., limiting the amount of cars permitted to 60, as currently allowed by the license, and giving the owners 14 days to remove an additional 25 cars now on the property.

Building Inspector Bob Curran, after he and Lynam visited the site last week, said there had been complaints about vehicles blocking sidewalk access in the area and that there were too many cars on the property.

Abutter Craig Donahue, who lives behind the business on Sportsmans Trail, said he and an elderly neighbor said Donahue had purchased a buffer lot between the two homes and the business.

“They’ve been fairly good neighbors,” he said of the car lot. “But over a period of time, they have been parking more and more vehicles in that field behind their business.”

He expressed concern that a dump truck, used to spread substrate for a parking lot hit utility wires, causing a power failure to the area last summer. They are also concerned about how a building on the site is being used.

Business owners apologized for the dump truck incident and pointed out they called the fire department and NStar as soon as it happened and that the building in question is used only for detailing, no mechanic work.

Tempers flare over Whitman budget

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WHITMAN — The unveiling of Whitman’s latest draft version of the fiscal 2020 municipal budget on Tuesday, March 19, led to more than an 90 minutes of often heated debate, in which charges of failure and political grandstanding were exchanged between Selectmen.

The board met in a joint session with the Finance Committee.

The budget document offered two financial scenarios — both of which would require an operational override to prevent layoffs.

The budget’s reduction of $3.3 million features uniform cuts to al departments and cuts $676,779 — a 10-percent cut — rom the school district and $2,623,221 from all other departments, Town Administrator Frank Lynam said.

“These reductions will cause significant impacts on all of town services,” Lynam said, noting the town will be seeking an override. “To implement this would be devastating to the town. This is worse than [Proposition] 2 ½ was, because 2 ½ caused us to redefine our structure as a town and there have been very few additions to employees since then. … What we’re talking about is a cut that would wipe out anything we have done over the last 20 years and would make many of our services part time.”

Without an override, cuts would include $36,176 in the best-case scenario to $65,728 in the worst without an override to the three employees involved in the Selectmen’s budget; $14,123 or $25,660 for the two employees in the accountant’s office; $19,813 or $35,998 to the assessors office; $45,310 or $82,325 from the collector’s office; $40,496 or $73,578 from technology; $20,306 or $36,895 from the clerk’s office; $22,930 or $41,662 from the single maintenance employee; $428,886 or $779,254 from the 26 sworn officers and three other Police Department employees; $482,354 or $876,402 from the Fire Department; $19,397 or $35,243 from inspectional services; $80,560 or $146,372 for the DPW; $21,374 or $38,836 from health; $28,879 or $52,471 from the Council on Aging; and $54,322 or $95,065 from the library. The vocational school assessments remain the same and a best-worst case scenario could not be offered for WHRSD because of financial commitments.

Other reductions being looked at involve street lighting, park maintenance, bylaw committees, veterans’ graves and Whitman Counseling.

Unemployment compensation would increase because of layoffs.

Some lines, such as the law account, are required and cannot be cut.

questions raised

“Has this board, in the last seven or eight months, done anything to bring us any further to an answer [of] what sustainability would mean in this town, and the answer is no,” Selectman Randy LaMattina said, to applause from police and firefighters’ union members in attendance. “We should be embarrassed. … We’ve heard the phrase ‘kicking the can down the road,’ well, are we going to keep kicking it or are we going to fix it?”

Lynam said he met with the Finance Committee last week to discuss reductions to bring the town’s finances within the levy limit.

“The Finance Committee continued to evaluate the most effective approach to conclude this budget cycle,” said Chairman Richard Anderson, who said they followed Lynam’s recommendation to suspend a second round of meeting with department heads in order to devote the entire March 5 meeting to drafting a budget for Article 2. But, he added, the committee continues to meet in an “often contentious process” with the town departments to review budget requests and provide them with a “real time update of where the board stands” for a recommendation to Town Meeting.

The result, Anderson said, was a “responsible draft for an extremely difficult recommendation.”

The deficit was calculated at 6 percent of the total budget, basing cuts on the percentage each department had been allocated in the previous budget cycle.

“It was generally agreed that this approach was the most fair and equitable distribution of the liability,” Anderson said. “In a narrow majority, the board most recently recommended increasing the line item to fund a larger percentage of the school’s estimate … then to further redistribute the additional liability to all the other departments.”

While Lynam said there are no villains in the process, the elephant in the room is the cost of education and is something with which the town can’t keep pace.

The recent Community Assessment Survey, conducted through the offices of Bridgewater State University showed that 62 percent indicated support for an override, Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski noted. Of those people, 69 percent said some of the money from an override should go to the schools, 56 to the police and fire departments and 40 percent wanted to fund the DPW with it.

Kowalski also acknowledged “some talk” around town questioning the need for Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green’s position.

“I’d like to remind people that over the two years that she has been serving, Lisa has been responsible for  $676,000 worth of grants, some of which will decrease our payments in the future on things like energy,” he said. That figure is more than 7 ½ times her $87,800 salary.

LaMattina pointed to a firefighter in the audience and said he risked his life at the Commercial Street fire and is one of those who will likely be laid off.

“What’s the value of that?” he said. “We are getting to be a joke. Imagine being that person whose job is on the line — and I’ve been in that situation — and it’s horrible, not knowing what’s going to happen. By this time, we should be able to provide some answers and we’re not.”

heated exchange

Near the end of the meeting, Selectman Brian Bezanson and LaMattina became involved in a shouting match over whether LaMattina’s comments reflected genuine concern or a political stump speech.

“We could have met every stinking day, all year, and never would have come up with that money,” Bezanson said. “So to say that this board is not doing its due diligence I find it to be outrageous.”

“I’m sorry you think that,” LaMattina said.

“You’ve had your time,” Bezanson continued. “That was a soap box speech.”

“What have you done in the last year?” LaMattina demanded.

“Not once has anybody here tonight mentioned the elephant in the room, which is the taxpayers in this town, the ones that have to foot the bill,” Bezanson said. “Everybody here has been worrying about what they have had, what they do. What about the people that pay the darned bill? Nobody here brings up the fact that some people are losing their houses, foreclosures are up — why don’t they ever get any consideration?”

Connolly tried to interject in support of resident Shawn Kain’s position that doing due diligence on the concerns of the residents, but Bezanson held his hand up to stop her.

“It’s time we started worrying about them,” he said, advocating his previous suggestion for a pre-town meeting session to outline what cuts will mean. “It’s our job to present the facts, the good, the bad and the ugly.”

Kowalski said that has been all the meeting had been discussing.

“We’re going to end this meeting and there’s not an employee or a department head that knows what’s going on,” LaMattina said. “It’s a failure, admit it.”

“No, I won’t admit it,” Bezanson  said. “Get off your stump speech, that’s bull.”

“We knew [after last year’s Town Meeting] and we did nothing,” LaMattina said.

“And what did you do?” Bezanson retorted. “Zero.”

“Here’s my budget, Brian,” LaMattina said holding papers up. “Here’s my budget, where’s yours? Here’s a legitimate budget with the taxpayer in mind, and what I have for a budget is to protect services, because that’s what I want to do.”

“You know, these used to have power,” Kowalski said, holding is gavel.

“What I’m saying is we should have done, as a board, a better job — maybe staying on top of these two people [motioning toward Lynam and Green] so that they got more got done so information could have gotten out to the public in a more timely manner,” LaMattina said. “We shouldn’t be in this position March 19 when we knew a year ago what we had in front of us.”

“They’ve been working on it ever since,” Bezanson said.

“What have we done?” LaMattina shouted. “Give me some tangibles — do you have any tangibles?”

LaMattina also questioned the regional agreement’s financial formula, in view of what he termed Whitman’s being short-changed on $450,000 in Chapter 70 funds that go instead to the region.

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes argued the main problem is the state’s unfunded mandates. School Committee member Fred Small said he could not obtain the information after two hours on the phone with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly said she had obtained that information, but not until earlier Tuesday afternoon.

“The last thing I want to see is one department against another,” Small said.

Both Small and Hayes also pointed to a an $897,000 spike in special education  transportation costs and $650,000 in unexpected tuition costs, for part of the school budget increase.

Selectman Dan Salvucci said the town side of the budget is within the $970,000 in new growth and that, if that was their only budget obligation, there would be no layoffs.

“You’ve got to look at controllable numbers,” he said.

Lynam countered that most communities devote 70 percent of their annual economic growth to the schools, which at about $680,000 for Whitman would still put the town side at $500,000 or so on the town budget would also be in excess of the town’s growth.

LaMattina then asked Salvucci, who is the representative to the South Shore Tech School Committee, why that school is thriving while the W-H budget is in such difficulty.

“It’s because you constantly get your assessments,” LaMattina said. “We’re not funding [W-H] properly, yet South Shore Tech gets their full assessment and they are a thriving school. … Why not have an override for the vo-tech?”

Hayes argued that South Shore offers a different program and that charter schools present a bigger concern.

“[SSVT] offers a way different service — it’s a fabulous school. We lose kids to charter schools that don’t even come to W-H because we don’t have all-day kindergarten … it costs us,” he said. “I don’t think anybody’s questioning the professionalism of [any department], it’s how do we fund this runaway train?”

Kowalski also raised the issue of wage freezes. Salvucci said payroll is the largest portion of all department budgets.

Anderson said the Finance Committee recognizes and has prioritized the need for a sustainable financial plan, but also has to address the town’s immediate financial need.

Fire union President Scott Figgins expressed frustration that nothing has been accomplished on the budget front.

“We’re looking at losing half our department and you’re talking about giving us wage freezes,” he said. “We bargained faithfully with this board, we’ve given up things. … That override passes, there’s no guarantee that money comes to the department.”

He said he supports the schools, but the school budget keeps increasing while others have been cut.

“It’s very unfair to put that on the employees of this town,” Figgins said.

“I’m trying to think of as many ways as possible for us to avoid that,” Kowalski replied. “A wage freeze shouldn’t be a magic bullet to fix everything.”

Lynam said his two conversations with unions, and his request that the schools have to do the same, have been met with some support and some skepticism, over school employees’ continuing to receive step and lane increases.

Hayes said the school employees’ unions are still in discussions on the wage freeze issue.

“Hanson has its own assessment issues,” said Lynam, who said he was told by Hanson Town Administrator Michael McCue and town Accountant Todd Hassett that the most Hanson can increase is 6.5 percent.

A Whitman override must provide enough to meet the current budget as well as capital needs, Lynam warned.

Selectmen began the meeting with a 4-0 vote — Selectman Scott Lambiase was absent — to approve the sale of the $5,235,000 general obligation refunding bonds of the town for the police station debt to Fidelity Capital Markets for $5,836,956.07 and accrued interest, if any. The bond, payable on June 1 2020 through 2030, saves the town $564,631.09 or about $50,000 in saving per year for the next 11 years.

Planning ahead for new WMS

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Emphasizing it could be years before a shovel breaks ground, the School Committee on Wednesday, March 13 approved the drafting of a statement of interest (SOI) to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a new Whitman Middle School.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said he has asked Facilities Director Ernest Sandland to begin work on the SOI for a grade five through eight school to address structural problems and place a new school in alignment with programs now in place at Hanson Middle School.

“This is just the process [of] what we have to do to get in the queue for MSBA,” Szymaniak said.

Sandland said all documents would have to be in by April 12, but  said he has been asked why the district is taking that route while it is facing budget problems.

“There is a process we have to go through and there’s a time frame we’ve got to go through and this is the beginning of it,” he said. “We’re trying to meet all those time frames.”

It could be two years before MSBA gives an indication that the district would be considered for funding, with eight possible categories for a district to apply under. WHRSD would be seeking funds for replacement/modernization of school facilities, one of eight possible categories. The school opened in 1972 and was last renovated in 1997. Boilers were replaced in 2007.

“We’re good stewards in trying to identify what’s going on at Whitman Middle,” he said. “It’s the story that we’re writing on the history of [the school].”

A past facilities survey on the WMS renovation outlined that the work was supposed to include replacement of the roof, a lot of the exterior façade and of lockers throughout the building — none of which was done.

“We’re going to tell that story and, once it gets to the state they’re going to read it and they’ll say, ‘OK, this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to put you off for two more years, we’re going to put you off for a year,’” Sandland said. “But at least we start the process.”

Szymaniak said the facilities subcommittee has expressed concern with mold issues at the school.

“I’d like to see where we stand,” he said. “There’s no harm, no foul at this point.”

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes said his experience with similar projects has shown the approval process for an SOI could take as long as five years.

“We don’t even know where the list is — what they are accepting, what they aren’t accepting,” Hayes said. “This is a first step. The commitment comes way down the road when you have to do a feasibility study. … This is not committing any dollars and cents.”

School Committee member Fred Small stressed that an SOI should make clear WMS has only had a partial renovation done.

Sandland said the MSBA has noted that W-H has an excellent capital plan, something 40 to 60 percent of school districts do not have.

The debt exclusion for the high school comes off the books in seven years, Hayes said.

Budget committee

In other business, Small suggested a separate subcommittee charged with reviewing the strategic plan as part of an effort to align them with small goals to begin working on the budget in August or September and obtain a clear idea from the towns about where the schools stand on the goal of developing a sustainable budget.

“I know we have to get through today first,” he said, suggesting it might be a way to determine what programs might be funded a year or so in advance through a debt exclusion.

Hayes agreed that the budget is difficult for other town departments at well.

“It costs more, it demands more, and everybody’s in this budget crisis,” he said. “Nobody’s putting the blame here. I think everybody wants better education for every student.”

Business Services Director Christine Suckow said year to-date expenditures are up by just over $13,000 for recovery high school tuition, and unexpected retirements have increased the salary reserve line. Special education accounts have increased by just over $600,000 in the current budget year due to contracted services, legal costs, transportation and out-of-district tuition costs.

Szymaniak attributed the special ed increase to a few movements of students already committed to a collaborative and transportation costs from $250 to $400 per day, depending on the company used.

The fiscal 2019 budget is currently frozen except for emergency expenses, which generally includes special education changes.

Superindendent goals

The committee also discussed Szymaniak’s midyear goals, part of the process of evaluating his job performance.

The goals involve ensuring a cohesive pre-k to grade 12 system of teaching and learning; keeping visible throughout the district to support teachers and staff; ensuring school safety and security; and a workable budget to deliver services to district students to prepare them for career or college.

“It’s out there right now,” he said of the budget. “I appreciate the support of what we’re looking at for level services … How do we progress through? I think, looking at a realistic budget that will maintain the level of services and add — without adding to the budget — a curriculum and curriculum leadership that we so desperately need.”

Szymaniak said the first goal involves reviewing which math pilot program the district would purchase as well as different programs to highlight for English classes next year. Changes in curriculum leadership are also being investigated. All changes being considered within the goal are budget-dependent, he noted.

Being more visible is a favorite part of the job for Szymaniak.

“We’re out and about looking at teachers that make a difference and celebrating that,” he said. “I’ve had several visits with principals formally to discuss things, and informally I pop into buildings to see [what’s going on]. … It’s important for me to be out, visible to teachers and staff and students know who I am.”

He said he and Ferro have both been seeing evidence of teachers doing a good job — in the absence, Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said, of an elementary English Language Arts curriculum and an expiring 7-year-old math program that is obsolete for today’s standards and cuts to the elementary science program.

Safety continues to be a priority, Szymaniak said, by keeping in communication via text with police and fire chiefs in both towns and the establishment of a district communication weather team to have the latest information in any emergency. He is also reviewing the “relatively antiquated radio system” for internal school communications. He is also exploring the expansion of the ALICE program to elementary schools.

School Committee member Christopher Howard said it would be very helpful for committee members to observe classes and programs for themselves without getting in the way.

“I think it would be really helpful,” he said. “We spend a lot of time talking about dollars and cents, we spend a lot of time talking about buildings, but the reason we’re here is for the education of children…. It would be very helpful to all of us and I think it allows us to think about how we can share that message back to the public.”

Szymaniak said there is an open invitation to all committee members to visit schools and classrooms.

“You get so much out of it,” said Small who recalled an art class in which fifth-grade students were discussing what message different colors convey in a PowerPoint presentation. “To me art class was where you take a piece of paper and draw a picture. … School has changed so much.”

Cutler book traces attack on early American press

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State Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, has published a book, “Mobtown Massacre,” that tells an interesting story of when the press really was under attack, and the story of a fiery young editor for whom the town of Hanson was named. Cutler’s 6thPlymouth District includes Hanson.The central event of the book took place in 1812 —a time when the nation was bitterly divided, plunged into foreign conflict, and polarized by growing partisanship and rising tensions with the press. Then, into the fray, stepped Hanson, the editor, who penned a sharply worded attack on the President and his policies.In “Mobtown Massacre,” Cutler shares the story of Alexander Hanson, a 19thcentury Federalist newspaper editor whose anti-war writings provoked a bloodthirsty mob, a midnight jailbreak and a brutal massacre in the city of Baltimore that stunned the nation. Hanson was later elected to the U.S. Congress, but never fully recovered from the brutal attack on his newspaper.This fateful but little-known episode in American history helped shape the course of a war and the nation’s promise of a free press. And it all started with a headline. Josh Cutler, a Duxbury resident, is an attorney, and former newspaper editor who currently serves as a State Representative. He represents a district which includes the Town of Hanson, MA, which is named after Alexander Hanson. “Mobtown Massacre: Alexander Hanson and the Baltimore Newspaper War of 1812:is published by The History Press and includes a foreword by Dr. Edward Papenfuse, a notedhistorian and retired Maryland State Archivist.All proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated to local historical societies. For more information on the book, visit mobtownmassacre.com.

Crafting a hands-on sewing class

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HOW-TO: Karen Senechal shows a finished pattern, ready for transfer to paper, crafted by a draping technique. (Photo by Tracy Seelye)

HANSON — If you ever tried, and possibly failed, to learn sewing from a mass-produced pattern — or if you just always wanted to learn to sew — Hanson native Karen Senechal wants to teach you a better way.

Her free three-month course uses the techniques of draping muslin on a dress form to create a customized pattern, sewing and some design at the First Congregational Church of Hanson, 639 High St., beginning in mid-April. Classes will take the summer off before concluding in the fall.

Fans of TV’s “Project Runway” will recall that it, and other fashion design-themed reality contest television shows, have shown contestants draping fabric on a dress form as a first step in creating their final vision.

“I have [students] use a dress form because that’s the way I did it designing,” said Senechal. “It’s the easiest way to see how you want things done.”

Materials provided

All machines, dress forms, muslin and other equipment will be provided. The church is providing workspace in the fellowship hall’s lower level for the class and storage for Senechal’s equipment.

Classes will meet for two hours once a week, with the day to be determined based on the best timing for those who sign up. But Senechal said it will be important for those taking the class not to miss one, or it will be hard to catch them up on what the rest of the class has achieved.

There is room in the class for about 10 students. For more information or to register, call 978-360-2986, and leave a message about the day and time — morning or afternoons —that works best for you, or email knsenechal@me.com.

“It’s the church that I go to, and I want to open it up to the community,” she said.

Once her students learn the technique, and are sticking pins in a dress form, they can do it on each other and literally make a personal pattern on paper, she explained.

“You really have to know in your own mind how to approach it,” she said of making patterns and clothing. “I use the female form because you have to put in the most darts because of the bust and everything. If you can do that, you can do kids, men’s, anybody’s.”

Hanson roots

As a little girl in Hanson Senechal, the daughter of veterinarian Dr. Robert Nutter, became fascinated with sewing while creating outfits for her dolls and later learned to sew with 4-H leader Esther “Tessie” Smith.

“She taught everything, from starting to tailoring,” Senechal said. “I learned everything from her.”

Senechal graduated from Endicott College with a degree in fashion design and merchandising, going to work for bridal house Priscilla’s of Boston before joining The Limited, the company that also owns Victoria’s Secret — in stores as well as the catalog —and Lane Bryant as well as Appleseed’s catalog.

“I never sewed for a living, but my sewing knowledge helped me unbelievably in designing,” Senechal said.

She has taught draping, pattern design and seweing at the California Design College and the Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School in Easton. Senechal had also taught sewing in a both a home-school co-op and a women’s center for homeless or abused women in Albuquerque, N.M., when she and her husband lived there for four years.

In the shelter classes in New Mexico, she stressed the importance never throwing out useable clothing, which can be transformed into something else. At Southeastern Vo-Tech, she drove home the need to learn how to do hems well.

“You can make money just hemming skirts and pants for people,” she said, noting that a sewing machine, too, is a machine that can pay for itself.

By the book

Senechal has translated her years of sewing technique into the textbook she created for the class, which uses simple step-by-step instructions and illustrations to explain the lessons.

“I’ve done this for years, so I just wrote it,” she said. “It just kept coming and coming and I tried everything on the form as I went.”

The book also discusses tools needed for sewing and how dress forms are used. While she is not out to sell her book, she is willing to provide it to students to keep in exchange for a donation to the church.

Once a pattern is created by draping muslin and transferring the pattern to paper, students will sew the dress in muslin and see how well it fits back on the dress form.

“There’s no mistake you can make that I haven’t already made in my career,” Senechal said. “That’s how you learn. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying new things.”

Hanson closes its TM warrant

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HANSON — The Board of Selectmen has closed the warrants for the Monday, May 6 special and annual Town Meetings, including a proposed ban on plastic shopping bags and polystyrene beverage cups.

The bans, however, may be passed over at Town Meeting if there is evidence that residents are not ready for it. Selectmen will be meeting with the Board of Health to discuss the process of educating the public on, and implementing any ban, and Selectmen Matt Dyer and Wes Blauss plan to hold a public informational meeting on the proposal ahead of Town Meeting. Dyer said he would like to see the ban in effect by July 2020.

“There’s an appreciable amount of articles, both in the special and the annual that are financial — and we’re still working through the budget …and we’re going to hone down what we can do,” Town Administrator Michael McCue,   told the board at it’s Tuesday, March 12 meeting. “We can’t afford all the requests, so we’ll go back and give you an idea of where we are in terms of what’s affordable.”

The warrant review will continue at the Selectmen’s Tuesday, March 26 meeting and McCue said he and Town Accountant Todd Hassett will also be meeting with their Whitman counterparts as well as school officials on that budget.

An article seeking a $500 stipend for employees at the Treasurer/Collector’s Office who have recently earned a certification, similar to other Town Hall staff receive, was not yet on the warrant, McCue said, noting it must be discussed further with the union. He does intend to include it on the warrant, however.

Dyer said he has discussed the Board of Health’s concerns about Selectmen’s work on the plastic bag ban with Health Chairman Arlene Dias.

“They were concerned we were putting the cart before the horse in terms of putting the bylaw in place and then educating and transitioning to plastic bag-less stores,” Dyer said, suggesting a public forum be held in early April. “I didn’t think it would hurt to have a hearing this spring to kind of see where the public is with it and — if there is strong opposition implementing a by law this spring — maybe revisiting it in the fall.”

Dias, for her part, expressed concern to the Board of Selectmen that sponsoring the warrant article was the purview of her board.

“I don’t have a problem with the ban,” Dias said. “I would like for us to take time to really look at it, come up with a good policy, and implement it. Not backwards.”

She also asked if the town has funding to cover the person who will need to handle the implementation, public education and enforcement involved. The last time Dias met with Selectmen on the issue a couple of months ago, she said they were in agreement to meet jointly to plan and conduct community forums.

“That didn’t happen and now you’re talking about implementing a ban in a couple of months,” Dias said.

Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell agreed, as did Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, who stressed it was never the intention to step on any other board’s feet.

“We have people that were particularly impassioned about it,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Maybe we just didn’t put two and two together that we should be working through you.”

She said the issue does need to be looked at, and said she was concerned with the timeline for a spring Town Meeting.

“If we can do the public forum and feel as though people’s concerns have been voiced and answered … we’ve got a place-holder [article],” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

Where major retail chains such as Shaw’s are concerned, McCue said there are “fall back positions” in place for the possibility of such bans.

“It’s really the smaller ones that you’d really want to reach out to and give them considerations,” McCue said. “It’s a path that’s already been blazed.”

Dyer has already begun talking to business about the issue, as well.

“Everyone, for the most part, has said, ‘We knew it was coming and it’s just a matter of time before it becomes a state law,’ so there wasn’t any big push-back,” he said. “Let’s have a hearing … and if the town isn’t ready for it, I’m not going to force it on them, by any means.”

Green Hanson members attending the meeting also offered their view. Member Marianne DiMascio said the website massgreen.org can supply a lot of the information Selectmen were discussing.

“It may sound daunting that there’s so much to go over, but they have some really good resources,” she said.

Marah Burt, a WHRHS student, also attended the meeting to voice her support for the ban.

“Plastic bags are something that concerns me about the town,” she said.

Another resident said education is really important because of the size of the issue and the time involved in the decomposition process of plastics, especially in view of the fact that the United States produces more than 100 billion plastic bags per year.

“It takes a couple of hundred years for those to break down, and even that is not even the final process,” he said. “It then takes, literally forever, because these micro bits of plastic get into everything, including our bodies.”

15.1-percent assessment hike OK’d

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The School Committee, in a special meeting Monday night, unanimously voted to set a 15.1 percent increase — $3,349,712 — in the assessments to the towns in support of a level-service budget. The fiscal 2020 budget has not yet been certified.

Based on enrollment, Whitman would pay 59.82 percent, in dollars a total assessment of $15,273,983 — an increase of $2,003,798 over the current assessment. Hanson would pay 40.18 percent, a total assessment of $10,259,255 — an increase of $1,345,914 over the current assessment.

The proposed budget is up by 5.4 percent overall.

“I can’t see going backwards,” said School Committee member Fred Small. “I think it will be up to the taxpayers to decide and we should let them decide. I would urge everyone to support staying the same for another year, as horrible as that is.”

“It seems to me there’s an erosion of public schools,” School Committee member Robert Trotta said. “It’s a sad commentary on the way in which public schools are looked at. It’s a shame. I think public schools are probably one of the best investments for a community and I would be disheartened if we could not support these people that we have.”

He said he would not support less than a level-service budget.

“I would love this to include some programs that we were bringing back, but I know, realistically, it can’t happen so I’m not going to ask for anything less than 15.1 [percent],” said School Committee member Alexandria Taylor.

The Committee decided to wait for a full end-fiscal year accounting report before making a decision on whether to tap into excess and deficiency because that account is down to $961,237 at this time.

Of the $8,131,147 in costs for programs mandated by the state, only $2,100,957 of those costs are fully funded, leaving $5,067,542 unfunded or underfunded for the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District. [See tables, page 3].

“It’s not just Chapter 70 money, it’s not just the governor’s budget with funding regional districts and funding towns, it’s the under-funded and unfunded mandates that are bleeding our district right now,” Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said.

Special education costs have also increased suddenly in recent days, including one incident in which a teacher ended up in urgent care because of a bite from a student with “social-emotional and cognitive issues” and another student who was making suicidal threats. Between the two issues and transportation costs, the special education budget increased by $650,000, for which Szymaniak is hoping to use Circuit Breaker funds.

“These are our students,” he said, noting he has also been approached by parents asking when gifted and talented students would benefit from programs. “We do a lot of here … and now some of these under-funded and unfunded mandates are now taking away from the decisions we make educationally for our students.”

After district officials pared $292,000 from the budget over the last two weeks “without affecting any people” in the district. That figure includes a $197,000 savings in insurances, a reduction of $20,000 from the substitute teacher line, a cut to the Chromebook initiative approved last year by $53,000, a $2,000 reduction to facilities general supplies, $5,000 from instructional supplies and a class Szymaniak is currently taking — at $10,000 — is a one-time expense that won’t appear in the fiscal 2020 budget. The budget for legal costs was trimmed by $10,000, funds for the English Language Learners program were cut by $10,000, the summer school budget was cut by $5,000.

Before the cuts, the budget would have required a 16.4 percent increase to reach level service.

“The things that we’ve already cut so far, the $292,000 [in cuts] are not people, anywhere else, we are going to start cutting folks,” Szymaniak said.

He supplied the committee with breakdown of how potential budget cuts would effect general staff, supply and program funds as well as how assessment cuts would hit class size.

“[It’s] something we’ve really tried hard to keep under wraps, so to speak — not to hide anything from the public, but to not have people get nervous and bail, or leave, or decide to apply elsewhere,” Szymaniak said. He said there was also a concern that parents were already opting to send their children to other schools, such as South Shore Tech, parochial high schools or charter schools.

Hanson Middle School is forecasting that about 106 eighth-grade students were planning to attend WHRHS, with 27 accepted at South Shore Tech and six private or Catholic School applications out.

Whitman Middle School, meanwhile, with 201 eighth-graders, has reported that 34 have already been accepted at South Shore Tech, with another 20 on a wait list and 13 applying to Catholic school.

“Those numbers I haven’t seen since I’ve been here,” Szymaniak said. “I think the word is out that there might be severe budget cuts and our eighth-graders are seeking to go to school elsewhere.”

A level-funded budget, in which no increase to the bottom line would require program cuts, Szymaniak said 54 positions — or 48 people — would be lost in the areas of tech support, counseling, foreign languages, teachers and all three school levels, facilities, paraprofessionals, administrative support, the high school library, elementary music, reading and district leadership.

Education programs hit would include elementary math, music and science; middle school Spanish and related arts; electives; financial literacy; district curriculum coordinators and reading.

Class sizes would also be impacted with elementary and middle schools losing one teacher per grade level and the high school losing one teacher per department.

“I told district staff today that we’re going to advocate for our people and our programs, things that we’ve committed to that are in the best interests of our students and our communities,” he said. Both school choice, for students moving out of district, and charter school numbers are both up.