School District IT Director Chad Peters outlined for the School Committee how student data security is ensured on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak indicated that Whitman Police Chief Scott Benton had sent him and Assistant Superintendent George Ferro an FBI update on student data breaches and pirates holding student data for ransom — usually in the form of crypto-currency such as Bitcoin.

“I’m pretty secure with what we have, but I want you and the public to know your student data is secure here at W-H,” Szymaniak said.

Peters explained that data security starts with the switch three years ago to virtualization and the elimination of computers with individual drives.

“All of our data is actually in our data center,” he said. “None of the data actually resides on the individual devices.”

In addition, there are multiple layers of virus protections both on the dummy PCs and in administrative areas, but in the form of deep-scanning anti-virus protection on virtualization and on the firewall for network connections and Cloud storage facilities. Anomalies of large amounts of data traffic going in and going out of the network are checked.

Switchers, routers and wireless equipment is also monitored, Peters said, as well as email security. He said information and data servers are also encrypted and backed up so any hacks with the intent to hold data for ransom would be futile.

“From a user’s perspective [in school], we have restricted accounts where users have restricted rights,” Peters said. “When they log onto a computer or virtualization, they can’t just install things.”

It protects the system from potential viruses imported via USB sticks or other installed devices or programs.

Committee members asked what kind of instruction was offered students to help them protect themselves on the Internet.

“With a lot of things going on in society now, with data breaches … I think that’s going to be one of our initiatives,” Peters said. “We communicate a lot of that with our staff. In their computer classes they teach digital literacy and digital citizenship. … From our perspective, I think we have to push a lot of that more.”

Ferro said the district now has teachers and media center staff teaching those skills in a Common Sense Media program, as well as an educational liaison to technology on a stipend basis.

“When it comes to educating staff, that’s when we rely on the technology department,” he said.

During the meeting W-H seniors Dorothy Dimascio-Donahue and Kaitlyn Molito were recognized for having been honored by the Mass. Association of School Superintendents as the two top academic students at WHRHS.

“It’s not just in the classroom that they excel, it’s all over the place,” Szymaniak said. “They are true Panthers through-and-through — in student government, student activities, they study hard, they’re good citizens, and I think we should all be proud when they graduate this year, sending them off as ambassadors of WHRHS.”

The School Committee also welcomed interim Director of Student Services Lauren Mathisen, who has been an employee of the district for four years and an 18-year veteran educator. She started as a school psychologist and has worked at WHRHS as the special education coordinator for the last four years, focusing on inclusion and new programs on social-emotional health, including the program that helps students returning from either medical or psychiatric hospitalizations return to the classroom and school community.

In other business, Szymaniak reviewed — and the School Committee accepted — his goals for the 2018-19 school year, a process he said is one in which he is still learning some aspects of the job.

“I felt like putting ‘Survival’ this year wasn’t appropriate [to include],’ he quipped. “Some things that Ruth [Gilbert-Whitner] has left as legacy, I’ve pruned down the wording so I think they are manageable and user-friendly.”

Szymaniak’s goals, for which he outlined potential strategies,  include:

• Supporting student learning through a focus on support for the math program, English language learners, expansion of special education — with a focus on in-district programs that can best serve students while saving money for the district — and continuing efforts to provide free all-day kindergarten;

• Being visible throughout the district, with planned and un-planned visits to all schools during the week and meetings with teachers and student leaders;

• Improve and create open lines of communication in conjunction with the district’s focus on safety and security, which includes a planned ALICE training session for staff on Friday, Oct. 19 — an early release day, and grade-level safety training for students and parent meetings; and

• Development of a workable budget that will deliver services and create opportunities to prepare W-H students for higher education, the workforce and/or military service.

Member Christopher Howard asked how Szymaniak felt about the template over-all.

“I don’t love it,” Szymaniak said. “I don’t love it at all, but here’s the thing … but this is what the committee has always gone to. Ours is more of leadership, of facilities, of a professional culture and then family. … It’s kind of a teacher template and our administrative template that everybody else uses in the district.”

Howard agreed that to start somewhere it is easier to start with what is already in place, but trying to measure success is the difficult work.

“I would encourage that we start here but, at some point we rework the template,” Howard said. Szymaniak and several other school committee members agreed. Member Fred Small suggested a simpler format including, goals, measurement indicators and evidence of attainment.

“I personally am not looking at this as a hard-fast, set-in-stone report card, so to speak,” Small said. “I look at a relationship [where] everyone’s working together for the common good. … It’s important to set a goal more important to say how you are going to achieve the goal and how it can be measured.”

WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen, in a joint meeting with the Planning Board Tuesday, Sept. 24, interviewed two candidates for interim appointment to fill vacancies on that board.

Planning Board candidates Elaine Bergeron, Jerry Blumenthal and Adele Carew appeared at the joint session. The board is being sequentially reduced in membership, as voted at Town Meeting, to get down to a five-member board after the next election because of problems gaining a quorum in order to hold meetings.

One of the now-vacant positions disappears after next year because of the reduction of members. One of the two would then have to run to fill the seat that would be vacant.

Blumenthal had to leave the meeting, due to a family emergency, before the hearing, which was delayed due to an extended discussion during the public forum, could be opened. Town Administrator Frank Lynam said he is interested in serving on the Planning Board.

Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski suggested that because of Blumenthal’s early departure and the absence of a Planning Board member who wished to take part in the vote, the hearing could be continued to the Thursday, Sept. 16 meeting when he could be interviewed and a vote taken.

With five members, only three need to attend to achieve a quorum, mandatory to open mail and address bills, let alone talk to developers or others seeking to present plans to the board.

“What I’d like to do is, first and foremost … I’d like to have the definition changed so a majority of active board members, not sitting positions, would constitute a quorum, no less than three members,” said Chairman Eric Pretorius.

“Unfortunately, that would require a statutory action,” said Lynam. “It would require Home Rule legislation, because the quorums are established by law.”

To vote on membership, however, Lynam said only a majority of both boards would be necessary. Pretorius said no surveying experience is needed; one only has to be able to read through rules and regulations and ask questions.

Whitman native Bergeron served on the Finance Committee in the 1970s and has been a member of the Whitman-Hanson  Scholarship Foundation for almost 40 years as well as serving as an election worker. She is currently a senior vice president director of personal insurance, overseeing a staff of 60 both directly and indirectly, for a large insurance agency. Among her duties are figuring out what houses are worth and how they should be insured.

“I want to get back involved in the town,” she said. “I’m getting close to retirement, so I’ll have more time.

Selectman Dan Salvucci asked if she planned to run at the next election, but she did not have a definite plan for that, but intends to run.

“If I commit, I’ll commit,” she said.

Selectman Brian Bezanson, who has known Bergeron for many years, endorsed her and thanked her for stepping forward.

A 56-year Whitman resident, Carew is an Abington High graduate and has been a warden at Whitman polls for 45 years and is interested in some of the building in her Kenwood Drive neighborhood. She has also been a school volunteer.

If appointed, Carew said she would be willing to run for election “if the board felt I was adequate to do it.”

Bezanson also thanked her for her interest.

“We don’t get many volunteers for these boards and they’re not elected and certainly not paid, so any time we can get citizens to come forward, we really appreciate it,” he said.

Selectman Randy LaMattina said he has known Carew for a long time and she is someone who is committed to the town.

In other business, Selectman Scott Lambiase reported that he has reached out to several people regarding the budget working group that was slated to meet at 7 p.m., Monday Oct. 1 in the Selectmen’s meeting room at Town Hall. Agenda items were to include introductions and giving participants a “feel of what we’re here for, what we’re going to do,” important dates and milestones.

Lynam said the town would see a penultimate draft of the community assessment survey within a few days of the Sept. 24 Selectmen’s meeting.

WHITMAN — Fiscal planning procedures and priorities again took center stage during a sometimes fiery discussion at the Tuesday, Sept. 25 Board of Selectmen’s meeting.

Resident Shawn Kain again raised the issue of the need for a five-year capital plan, criticizing the Building Needs and Capital Expenditures Committee for not providing a report for the town’s Annual Report.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said the committee opted against forwarding a capital plan “until we had numbers.”

“It’s a way of thinking and, perhaps, we need to change it,” Lynam said. “On the plus side, I did apply for and did receive two grants from the Commonwealth Compact, a program that the Selectmen signed up for almost three years ago.”

The best practices grants are: a financial management approval to aid in preparing a capital improvement plan that reflects community needs set up within an annually reviewed finance plan that reflects the community’s ability to pay; and a financial management package that established budget documents detailing all revenues and expenditures as well as a narrative for the public’s benefit and clear, transparent communication of all financial policies.

Lynam credited Kain for focusing on those issues as directly as he has, and extended to him an invitation to join the Building Needs and Capital Expenditures Committee and to take over Lynam’s position as chairman.

Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski, agreed with the invitation as a good move for the town.

Kain replied that he appreciated the invitation and that the Commonwealth Compact initiatives are sound ones, but said he is not interested in joining the committee this year.

“I feel like you have the critical pieces in place to make decisions quickly and to get action done,” he said. “I think my role in that might just confuse things, honestly.”

Earlier in the meeting, Kowalski had criticized the “Debbie Downer act” Kain has been playing about the success — or lack of it — on the part of Selectmen and others in town government.

“I just need to cast some balance to that,” he said, noting he prefers the direct approach to the use of social media. “This is the way our system is sort of set up, we have an open Town Meeting, once a year, that governs the town. We have open Selectmen meetings every two weeks in which we speak to the town — speak to each other. Sometimes we make motions, sometimes we are voted down.”

Kain stressed that, with the new modes of communication out there “is the ability to stop and do research and respond thoroughly,” something that’s difficult to do even in the forum of a Selectmen’s meeting.

“I like the opportunity to speak,” he said, in agreement with Kowalski. “I’m still an old-school person [and] I love Town Meeting, but this new form of communication that allows us to do a little more depth — there are people who use it for superficial reasons, but that hasn’t been me.”

taking issue

Kowalski said that Kain’s suggestion that Selectmen were guilty of incompetence or recklessness “just doesn’t meet the facts.” The boards basic goals over the past several years, have been to keep taxes low during the recession, to lay no people off from town jobs and to address major capital needs, he noted.

“I think a look at our history will show that we’ve done that,” Kowalski said. “We’ve ranked since [over the past nine years], 11th, 10th, 11th, 10th, 11th, 14th, 13th, 15th  and 12th out of 18 [area communities], with one being the highest tax rate on that scale.”

Since 2010, the town has added $3.61 to the tax rate, which puts Whitman 10th out of those 18 towns. No town layoffs were made and only five new hires have been made over the last 10 years —other than in the schools, which have a different budget structure — while the town accomplished capital needs projects such as building a new high school, police station, K-8 school renovations, as well as renovations to Town Hall and the fire station, Kowalski pointed out.

“We are short-staffed … and that comes at a cost that keeps us from doing some of the things I know you would like us to do and that we would like to do as well,” he said. “You’re right, we need to do better with respect to formalizing and writing our planning and operating procedures.”

Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green has been working on updating procedures and policy guidelines for that reason. The process for developing a strategic plan has also begun, Kowalski noted.

Where the capital planning and operations are concerned, Lynam said the town has worked cooperatively, between the Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and himself to identify budget and capital priorities are each year.

“I will take fault in two things,” Lynam said. “That we have not reduced it to a written plan and that I have not filed the plans for the last two and a half years.”

But Lynam stressed the things that have been accomplished. He said every year a balanced budget is delivered with appropriate funding for departments and spending based on priorities. In 2014 alone, to purchase equipment, improve buildings or service debt, the town spent $956,000 on schools including new equipment and debt service on the high school; $1,289,000 on town projects, including debt service to a project completed in 1999 and another completed in 2011. Another $53,000 was spent on town vehicles; $189,000 on fire equipment and vehicles; $692,000 on debt service for new water mains; $246,000 on repairs to pumping stations and $329,000 on roads.

“The most significant source of funds for capital improvement, by-and-large, has been our free cash,” Lynam said.

The Police Department project, presented in to Town Meeting in 2008, was done because the old police station had personnel “almost under the gun” by way of a safe work environment. It would have been presented as a debt exclusion had there been a full Select Board — there were only four Selectmen and one refused to vote to present a debt exclusion.

“Ironically, according to state law, it only takes three votes to present an override, but it takes four to present a debt exclusion, presumably because how long it runs,” he said. A special Town Meeting, attended by 265 people, of whom 223 — or 81 percent — voted to support the project within the levy limit via free cash.

“To say that this wasn’t planned would be a misstatement,” he said. He also said the town has a five-year projection, but the only significant source of growth revenue is Proposition 2 ½.

‘In crisis’

“We are in crisis,” Kain had repeated. “There are a lot of people — good people — whose jobs are on the line with what we do over the next year. … I have no personal hard feelings about anybody on the board, honestly I don’t.”

But he encouraged a “hard look through a business lens,” at the way the town has been run over the course of recent years, and argued the long-serving members of the board are unable to take an objective view of that.

“I can’t yet say the situation is as dire as you say, but I’m not saying the situation isn’t serious,” Kowalski said.

Resident Mary Fox pointed to the new police station, air-conditioning in Town Hall and recently added firefighters as misuses of town funds. She also pointed to police logs as evidence that officers are not helping the town — arguing they should be writing more tickets to bring in revenue and control traffic violations — and arguing against out-of-state travel to conferences as a waste of money.

“I’ve been up here about the trips,” she said. “Now I want no trips. You thought it was bad I didn’t want you to go out of state and you pull a fast one, the guy already got his permission. … We have to cut back.”

She also argued for pay freezes.

Police Chief Scott Benton, however, had heard enough.

“This is a great country and, no matter how rational or irrational we may think somebody is, everybody gets to speak,” Benton. “I will tell you that, number one, to even question the integrity or the character of anybody on the Whitman Police Department, I find insulting. … Everybody has a story and everybody has a journey and I’ve heard yours over and over.”

Benton told Fox she never has anything positive to say, adding “it doesn’t get us anywhere.”

He answered Fox’s criticism on citation quotas by noting that same afternoon his officers arrested a homicide suspect.

Town divided

“Good police work, that’s what that was,” he said. “The residents of this town can take a lot of confidence in knowing that the people that serve the Police Department in Whitman serve it well. … I have a problem with a person that rises and sleeps under the very blanket of freedom and safety that we provide and the questions the manner in which we provide it. I’d rather you just said thank you, myself.”

He admitted he doesn’t know where the town is going fiscally, but added he is confident that the people will make the right decisions as when residents voted to add firefighters to meet the needs of the Fire Department and community.

“By offending people or attacking people, nothing’s going to get done,” he said. “All we’re going to do is divide each other — and when we’re divided, we’re going to fall.”

Kowalski agreed the town doesn’t do enough to praise the department’s work and thanked Benton for officer Mark Poirier’s work in making Tuesday’s arrest.

Kain said his purpose in using social media is not to express his disagreement with town officials. Kowalski countered that there are dangers to social media, as one member of the board found out during the previous week.

“I’m very happy you brought that up now,” Selectman Randy LaMattina said. “I welcome this discussion. The route we’re going to go, I welcome it. That was a very bad choice of words on your behalf, but if we’re going to have it, we’re definitely going to have it.”

Kowalski continued, saying that people can hijack your Facebook personality and send the wrong message to people.

“That’s what I was going to say, Randy,” he said.