HANOVER — Vocational education costs for the eight communities making up the South Shore Regional Vocational Technical School District will increase by 3.1 percent, but that may not be reflected in local assessments when they are calculated early in 2019.

The School Committee heard Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey’s presentation of the proposed fiscal 2020 budget on Wednesday, Dec. 19.

The proposed $13,816,872 budget represents an increase of $414,933 and a total assessment decrease of $10,216,what Hickey terms, in essence a “level-assessed budget” at the aggregate level.

“At the end of the day, the most important number is, ‘What is the assessment to my community?’” Hickey said. Such final figures await the governor’s budget figures released in January.

As of Oct. 1, there are 645 students, 581 within the district towns and 64 out of district. Whitman, with 145 students, and Hanson, with 76, are among the four biggest of the eight sending towns. Rockland tops the list at 159 students and Abington sends 94. All but Rockland, have seen a decrease in enrollment. Whitman’s was down by three and Hanson by four. Rockland gained five students and Abington declined by 21.

“What I’m happy to say is that, due to the projection that we have relative to non-resident tuition that we are collecting this year and a projection on regional transportation that we will get — 70 percent — the entire increase will be covered by outside revenue,” he said. Hickey is confident, based on last year’s regional transportation reimbursement that it will be the case.

“While those numbers still don’t provide any guarantee of what happens with each individual community, at least at that level, we’re able to strategize how to best deploy those available dollars,” he said

Hickey cautioned that assessments could increase a bit despite drops in enrollment.

“We’re going to say to each town, ‘this is your assessment,’ and it’s going to be based on the non-resident tuition we’re going to give back to them … and getting 70 percent [Chapter 70] reimbursement,” Hickey said Thursday, Dec. 20.

Whitman and Hanson could see increases in assessments but Hickey does not expect even  those assessments to be wildly different.

SST creates zero-based budgets, beginning each fall with classroom supervisors and department heads building a budget from nothing. “Nobody feels that, if I got $50,000 this year, I just have to add a couple of percent and call it a day,” Hickey said. “We start at zero and the way it works is, if you need it, it will be there.”

If there is a “big ask” in the budget, Hickey said it is in a $720,000 request for capital projects including $60,000 for flooring abatement/replacement in the cafeteria and a renovation of the boys’ locker room in the 1962 wing; $230,000 to add to the stabilization fund; and $430,000 for fields upgrades.

“We have an influx of money — one-time increase of that tuition — better to couple it with one-time capital expenses rather than over-building operating expenses that you then have to maintain over time,” he said. There are also no requests for major vocational equipment in the fiscal 2020 budget.

The fields work would involve drainage improvements to the practice field and baseball field, which have both been in poor condition for awhile. Once the improvements are made, the new horticulture department will be key in maintaining them.

“We have deferred maintenance on exterior needs so as to prioritize the building,” he said. “But the timing is right for such a undertaking.”

There was a setback in planning for needed renovations and expansion plans, however.

While the school’s master facilities plan is underway, the district was again passed over for Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA) funding assistance and will be resubmitting a Statement of Interest for funds next year.

At its December board meeting, the MSBA approved only 13 of 56 projects proposed by 70 school districts across the state, Hickey announced.

“But in calling the MSBA … the feedback that I got was that the level of detail we have provided is more than sufficient,” he said. A walk-through done last summer by an MSBA group, while not a guarantee, could lead to a follow-up visit next summer and provide evidence of the information in the district’s past SOIs.

“We have to continue to ask,” Hickey said. The stabilization fund will be used to fund any feasibility studies involved in future invitations into the MSBA core program. “That was the initial reason for starting the stabilization fund several years ago.”

The stabilization fund has grown over that time to a level where it can be used, if necessary to fund larger maintenance issues that might crop up, but Hickey said he sees no reason to tap it now.

Personnel requests for the year are low, with only a part-time school resource officer, a JV golf coach and stipends for after-school music and art program advisers included.

The $11.78 million in projects on the Master Facilities Plan are not being addressed in the 2020 budget.

“Having a stabilization fund is very important, but under no circumstances do I see this as anything more than our local version of OPEB (other post-employment benefits),” Hickey said. “We’re attempting to make a good effort to fund for things in the long-run, that we’re going to need. … But for now, I don’t see any crisis and so we’re not going to ask for something we don’t need.”

Staff spotlight

The School Committee also heard an update on the new Horticulture and Landscape Construction program during a Staff Spotlight on the department’s new instructors Tom Hart, who helped start the program last year, and Cassi Johnson.

Both are graduates of Norfolk County Agricultural High School and the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMasss, Amherst.  Hart was a landscape operations student at Norfolk, and earned a associate’s degree from the Stockbridge School and a bachelor’s degree through the university, taking jobs with commercial landscaping firms after graduation.

“We’re really excited about this new program,” Hart said. “Our ultimate goal for the future is to get these kids involved in small outdoor projects on the school grounds … getting involved in the industry and, essentially, growing the program to what we want it to be.”

Johnson focused on ornamental horticulture at Norfolk and earned an associate’s degree in horticulture from the Stockbridge School and a second associate’s degree in business from Massasoit Community College. She also worked with golf courses and interior landscapers and flower shops and was a manager in the floral department at Wegman’s, and earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Southern New Hampshire University when she decided to pursue a career in education.

“We definitely have a focus with landscape instruction, but we also get to touch upon things like greenhouse management — we have a greenhouse going up — and floral design,” Johnson said, noting the hope with the latter is to participate in a lot of community events. “We have a lot of ideas … and we’re just looking forward to building the shop and gaining more students.”

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak presented a proposed draft version of the fiscal 2020 regional school budget to the School Committee on Wednesday, Dec. 12 at a meeting attended by town officials, state Rep. Josh Cutler, department heads and residents from Whitman and Hanson.

“We thought it prudent to get into the budget, and discuss where we are with the budget,” said School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes. “As you know, our budget is a lot dependent on what happens with the governor’s budget, so these numbers are preliminary off the history we’ve taken over the last [seven] years.”

Hayes said the intent was to give select boards and finance committees an early indication of what the schools’ numbers might be, with a budget discussion planned for every School Committee meeting until the May town meetings.

“It will give the towns the opportunity to see what the budgets of the departments are, where we’re going, how we’re going to get there and how we can possibly make it all work,” Hayes said.

The official school budget will be rolled out in February.

“I just wanted to apologize and take ownership if I have misled anybody in the process of this budget,” Szymaniak said, noting he had planned to give the finance committees the first look at it, after internal talks began in November. “Nothing formal has come out.”

He and district Business Services Director Christine Suckow had met with a budget working group over the fall to develop a capital plan for the next five years. He presented the budget numbers to the Whitman Finance Committee Tuesday, Dec. 18, despite some social media claims that it had already been discussed.

Szymaniak stressed he would not have done that before presenting even preliminary numbers to the School Committee.

“They represent their folks in the communities,” Szymaniak said of the department heads and town officials attending. “I represent the kids and the 600-plus employees here. I want to do my best for them.”

The budget at this point — and Szymaniak also stressed its preliminary status — is $53,457,929 [See site-based breakdown at top right]. That represents $2,934,748 over current budget of $50,523,181 for a level-service budget. Szymaniak said the preliminary numbers do not include revenues.

“This is a discussion,” he said. “This isn’t our formal presentation to the community.”

A budget book will be presented to town officials and the community in February, but the rough numbers provide information on the issues the schools are facing.

“We get Cadillacs for Chevys [price-tag],” Szymaniak said of teacher and administrator salaries. “But we won’t be able to maintain that if we’re not successful in a level-service budget next year. I will need to go back and do some damage to the good things and the positive things that we’ve done.”

Szymaniak ran through each school’s site-based expenses, especially utilities, custodial, transportation, phone and trash fees as well as district technology, facilities, debt, tuitions and special education and administrative costs.

Also included in technology services — at $1,371,365 — are salaries, contracted services, equipment maintenance and replacement, supplies and travel. Facilities costs — at $1,498,591 — include salaries, snow removal, contracted services, supplies, building and equipment maintenance, emergency repairs, fuel/oil, gas, police details and overtime.

Special education costs — at $6,177,353 are up by $750,000 from fiscal 2019 and include tutoring services, administrative support salaries, supplies, summer materials, travel, contracted services, legal costs, out-of-district placements and summer salaries.

Administration costs — at $4,103,043 — include central office salaries, School Committee expenses, supplies, legal costs, principals’ salaries, curriculum directors’ salaries, photocopying costs, contracted services and instructional materials.

Insurance — $8,171,802 —and debt — $890,938 —are also included in debt calculations.

“These are rough numbers, but I wanted people … to understand where we are,” Szymaniak said. “We are not adding any programs. What [Assistant Superintendent] George [Ferro] and I have done is restructuring things that we currently have and renegotiating … which might make some funds available to add programs out of the current level-service budget. We’re not adding people, we’re restructuring positions to potentially add services that are needed in the elementary schools.”

The district employs 664 staff members, including daily substitute teachers. There are 3,823 students enrolled in W-H, ages 3 to 22.

Ferro noted that the district is “on the hook for 100-percent of transportation costs” of students educated by out-of-district placements in special education programs.

School Committee member Fred Small agreed that the district is obligated to pay those transportation costs.

“I think the one key that’s missing, obviously, is to fine-tune what the revenue side is going to look like,” Small said.

Transparency

While he agreed that some people object to the level of administrative salaries, Szymaniak ($164,532 to increase to $168,645) said he and Ferro are transparent about their pay, which he said is in line with the rest of the state, excluding areas of western Massachusetts, where the cost of living is lower.

“Whatever you need to know, you just have to ask a question,” Szymaniak said, noting he is always available to answer resident’s questions on the phone or in-person at his office or even a local coffee shop. He will not discuss budget issues on social media, he said.

“I will not answer questions on Facebook,” he said. “I can’t win.”

Hayes reminded residents that the annual reports of both towns list salaries of all School Department employees.

“There is nothing hidden in this budget,” Hayes said. “This is a large operation for both towns to run and it gets expensive.”

Per-pupil expenditures in W-H, as of last week’s figures from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, show the district spends  $12,175.19 compared to a state average of $15,449.62.

W-H gets a bit less than 50 percent of its budget from the state.

Cutler discussed the state revenue picture with the School Committee.

The legislature has already begun its budget process with the consensus revenue hearing last week, Cutler said. Revenue growth for fiscal 2018 was stronger than previous years and fiscal 2019 is so far 4.1 percent over benchmarks, with potential for upsides, as surpluses are now called. For fiscal 2020, predictions are in the range for a $29.2 to $29.38 billion, or an increase of 2.9 or 3.5 percent, including a reduction in state income tax.

“On the economy, generally speaking, if I were a meteorologist I’d classify as it as mostly sunny with a chance of showers,” he said. “They were careful not to talk about the word recession — nobody wants to talk about that word —they did stress this kind of growth can’t continue, it’s not sustainable.”

Cutler said a recession is not forecast for 2020, but a slowdown is not ruled out.

Unfunded mandates

School Committee member Christopher Howard asked if Szymaniak could quantify all the unfunded mandates facing the district. Small suggested the under-funded mandates be included in that list as well as areas where revenues can be increased.

“What I would like to see our state do, somehow, is tie up our Chapter 70 money to a percentage,” he said. “Instead of a $20 to $25 increase per pupil, if the gave us a 2 or 2 ½-percent increase … I think we could solve a very large problem.” Increased state reimbursement for regional transportation, circuit-breaker funds and homeless transportation are the areas he cited were local representatives to the General Court could advocate for the district, according to Small.

The average cost to run W-H buses every day is $8,811.64, according to Szymaniak.

“The push-back that I hear at the state level in terms of the regional school transportation issue is they don’t want to give 100 percent,” Cutler said. “They feel if they do that, town’s don’t have skin in the game.”

Small countered that the district has skin in the game, having changed starting times on bus routes to save money and made efforts to obtain a better contract.

“Lack of competition when you go out to bid on a busing contract is really, really a big problem,” he said.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen has lost patience with JJ’s Pub owner Patricia Harrison on her continued failure to meet court-ordered Dec. 15 clean-up deadline regarding debris from the July 5 fire that destroyed the building.

Selectmen authorized Town Administrator Michael McCue to give Town Counsel Katherine Feodoroff the green light to go back to court on Monday, Dec. 17 to seek enforcement of the clean-up order until it is cleaned or the property is sold to someone who will clean it up.

“From what we’re hearing, the property is under agreement,” McCue said during the Tuesday, Dec. 11 Board of Selectmen’s meeting. “I don’t disagree with this board [that] we want to see something in writing, but all that being said, it’s my strong opinion, along with the Building Commissioner [and] town counsel … that it’s not going to be cleaned up — and we’re not entirely sure that the new person who is supposedly buying this property is going to clean it up.”

Feodoroff recommended that Selectmen authorize her to go into court Monday, but was not necessarily seeking that OK yet, as she was trying to reach the potential buyer’s attorney to determine their real intentions.

“If there really is a buyer, that buyer is going to want to clean it up” McCue said, suggesting he come back with more information at the Tuesday, Dec. 18 with Feodoroff ready to go to court Dec. 19, if necessary.

McCue had argued against wasting more time and money going back to court against the current owner, and waiting until it can be determined if the property has been sold.

Selectmen were not feeling as lenient.

“We can’t control that, and I think this board has voted enough on that,” said Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell. “If it’s not cleaned up on the 15th, send [Feodoroff] to court on Monday morning. If the property’s conveyed to a new owner, then we deal with that.”

Mitchell said that would not be a bad idea in any case, because a new owner would likely clean it up. He said the board was behind “Whatever it takes to get the damn fence up” or the debris cleared.

Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed.

“Let’s get on with it already,” she said.

She said residents are fed up with the continued presence of the pile of burned debris at the site.

“You’re saying all the hearings and [court] orders and everything else that we’ve had with the current owner are going to be right out the window if that property is sold to somebody else,” FitzGerald-Kemmett asked McCue. “We’re going to have to start all over again?”

McCue said that would be the case if the property changes hands.

“How do we know if it’s in the process of changing hands right now?” she asked.

“We don’t know,” he replied. “Through the Building Inspector, we have it on rather good authority that it is going to be sold and I can’t confirm that.”

Mitchell said Harrison’s lawyer sat in a Selectmen’s meeting in October, saying the property was going to be  conveyed.

“I want Kate in court at 8:30 a.m. on the 17th,” he said. “We don’t want to talk about it anymore. Keep moving forward until somebody can bring me a deed that’s conveyed with a new owner. Then we can stop.”

McCue said a vote authorizing court action is required each time the property owner fails to comply with a previous order.

Sewer district

In other business, Selectmen voted to authorize McCue to explore a potential sewer district along Main Street (Route 27) in South Hanson with the city of Brockton and other state and local entities.

McCue has already attended one meeting with legislators and area officials “to start the conversation.” FitzGerald-Kemmett had also raised the issue at a recent meeting of the Old Colony Planning Commission (OCPC), McCue noted. OCPC indicated they would be willing to assist with evaluations and other groundwork, but the town will have to apply for a technical services grant.

“I think we’ve reached the point where, not only do I want the board’s support in going forward with requesting this grant — which we will get — but I want the board to, on a more official level, support the exploration,” McCue said. “You’re not making a commitment to go forward with a sewer district, but it is a rather massive undertaking.”

Brockton and Whitman — for carrying costs through Whitman’s system — are among the area communities involved, along with state legislators and other state government officials.

“I think it’s an extremely worthwhile endeavor in moving forward our vision for that particular stretch of road in South Hanson,” he said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said she has also talked with state Sen. Mike Brady, D-Brockton, and state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, and OCPC to find out what they can do collectively to help.

“There’s a lot of hurdles, we’re not looking to bankrupt the town of Hanson to do this project — so it’s all about state funding, grants — and because it’s contiguous to a lot of very important bodies of water, and I have reason to believe that there might be some grant money and then we can talk about how the rest of this project could be funded,” she said. “This is just a preliminary discussion.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said that, while the issue has been raised before, Brockton had not been open to allowing new connections in the past but are now revisiting it.

“Brockton has had the capacity,” McCue agreed. “They’ve had a great deal of capacity for years, but for whatever reason … wouldn’t allow any hookups.”

Maquan reuse

Selectmen also approved a request for proposals on the reuse of Maquan School. Survey responses from residents overwhelmingly favored use of the building for a community/senior center, but the Reuse Committee is not opposed to leasing at least part of the land or other underused properties in town.

“People want us to keep some playing fields there and they would like that community center/senior center,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We keep hearing the middle school-aged kids have got nowhere to go … they’re getting into trouble, and I think with the opioid epidemic and all the other dangers out there, we can’t really risk having nowhere for them to go.”

The library has already begun studies on expanding at their existing space, but the Senior Center officials have expressed interest in using a portion of Maquan.

WHITMAN — While town officials prepare the fiscal 2020 budget, resident Shawn Kain has advocated a more transparent document outlining the needs behind various funding requests.

Selectmen got a glimpse of how that might look in Fire Chief Timothy Grenno’s departmental report, which focused on how budget cuts might affect fire and EMT services in town.

Selectmen are also advocating a pre-Town Meeting, perhaps in March, to help explain the budgetary needs facing the town.

“This is the kind of document that, kind of, Shawn wants to have,” said Selectman Randy LaMattina. “As the chief was speaking, I’m thinking to myself, if this had a fixed asset list and a little bit of Article 2 numbers on it, then our Fire Department [report] is complete. The taxpayer’s going to be able to make an educated decision based off this.”

He said it may be the kind of document that all other departments should produce and, “with that, the budget document falls into place.”

Selecman Brian Bezanson said he did not think the board had ever been supplied that kind of comprehensive information before.

Grenno’s report was sobering.

“It has taken 10 years to get to where we are with six members per shift — shift staffing is what it’s all about — maintaining six people per shift gives this community the service that they demand,” Grenno said of his current budget outlook. “Anything less than what I have requested for fiscal 2020, will not be level-budgeted, but with contractual obligations, is a detriment to the fire service and the public safety in Whitman.”

Grenno forwarded his report to Selectmen, including a cost justification study. As of the Nov. 27 writing of his report, Grenno said the department had responded to 2,249 emergency calls in 2018 — 58.7 percent for EMS and 41.3 percent for fires — illustrating that the shift had gone from all fires in the 1960s to mostly EMS by the 1990s when the difference began to even out by the 2000s.

“Those numbers justify what we’re doing every day,” he said. “That type of call volume demands the level of service that we’re currently providing.”

The three firefighters added in 2016 marked the first addition of staffing to the department since it went full time in 1965, according to Grenno. Fire-based ambulance had been added in 1973 with no addition to staffing.

“It’s a document that we need this year, obviously we need it,” said Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski, apologizing that he had not yet had the chance to study the report.

On a positive note, the number of overdoses responded to by the Fire Department is down to 29, from more than 40 last year. Grenno said the availability of Narcan may be helping some people treat family members or friends without calling 911. He did caution that Narcan is short-acting and one dose is often not enough to counteract some of the opiate drugs out there.

“So the overdoes we are seeing are very significant,” he said.

Key points of Grennos’ cost justification study were:

• A second ambulance is “saving a significant amount of critical patients” who would be at risk without it. “Without staffing, these patients, who would have had to wait an excess of 10 or 15 minutes for an outside ambulance, it would have been fatal to them,” Grenno said.

• Grants are a significant revenue source, including a $6,500 SAFE grant, which funds fire education in the schools. A grant for a bit more than $230,000 replaced outdated self-contained breathing apparatus. Grenno has also applied for a $35,000 grant to replace the generator system at the fire station.

• A budget cut of between 3 and 6 percent would have a “significant impact” on services, according to Grenno, who has asked the Finance Committee for the number they predict will be available to the Fire Department before he provides a specific impact statement.

Feeling the cuts

Fiscal 2020, begins the third year of a collective bargaining agreement that would put the deputy chief on days and add new OSHA regulations, which go into effect in February 2019, under his responsibility.

“We need $300,000 just to make our building OSHA-compliant,” Grenno said. “We’ve got a lot of problems facing us down the road.”

A 3-percent reduction of $3,737,895 would eliminate that position, keeping it on shift. It also “pulls the Fire Department back 10 years from where we are today,” Grenno said, eliminating any small services for the community, including touch-a-truck events for fundraisers, banners and other events.

The IT position, which includes reporting software for providing data to the state, as well as building the database of critical information to firefighters in the field through the dispatch system, would also be eliminated. Light maintenance would also be cut from the budget under a 3-percent reduction, with out-sourced repairs costing about $260-$300 per hour.

Storm coverage would have to be eliminated, as well, Grenno said. Instead of up-staffing at a cost of between $30,000 and $40,000 to respond to downed trees and power lines as they happen, calls will be prioritized and stacked as they come in.

“When we get there, we get there,” he said.

The two-member call department would be eliminated and reduce training officer availability to eight hours per month. The EMS officer would be reduced to 20 hours per month, where Grenno had planned to negotiate placing that officer on days in a supervisory role.

“That will threaten our certification, quite frankly,” Grenno said. Call-back and overtime would also have to be reduced, risking an empty station at times.

Budget document

Kain, a former member of the Finance Committee, had kicked off the meeting with a request for an update on progress toward a capital plan and budget document during the public forum.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said the process is underway, but staffing shortages affect it. The town has received grants for both the budget model and capital planning. The Collins Center at UMass has presented a proposal and two others are being looked at for a capital plan, but all are telling the town they are looking at about three months of work.

That will be done parallel to the current process in order to complete the budget.

“Having a professional budget document is excellent, but something for the public to analyze as this process continues will be extremely helpful,” Kain said, noting that Article 2 is helpful for people who know what they are looking at, but that it is not detailed or user-friendly.

Lynam said a general outline is not yet available but that Article 2 is detailed, but that a format with historical background will take more time and argued the public has been well informed of the budget cost, increasing percentage of debt and school budget impact.

“What we have are departments projecting what would happen if the budget is cut 3 percent or if the budget is cut 6 percent,” he said. “I stated at our last meeting, I don’t think that is the approach we should be taking. We should be building parallel budgets — one with cuts and one that will identify what we need to seek in additional funding to make that work.”