HANOVER – During a joint meeting of the South Shore School and Building committees on Thursday, Feb. 22 the Building panel voted 10-0, with one person – School Principal Sandra Baldner – absent, to design a new school for 900 students and to authorize the project team to submit a schematic design to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) by Feb. 29.
Only the Building Committee is authorized to vote on the preferred design and enrollment for the new school. The entire School Committee happens to be member of the Building Committee and held a brief business meeting at the conclusion of school building matters.
Whitman member Dan Salvucci, who had been hesitant to vote for the larger building, said the other committee members had convinced him as he cast his yes vote.
Jen Carlson of LeftField said, in response to questions that the cost per square foot is higher for lower enrollments because the size specialized spaces like shops, the kitchen and gymnasium do not shrink much, if at all, just because an enrollment might be lower. The same is true for shared spaces such as library, cafeteria and multi-purpose auditorium and the more generic classroom spaces.
“An approximately 100-student design enrollment drop resulted in a 3-percent increase in the cost per square foot,” she said of an 805-student [$920.66 per square foot] vs. a 900-student [$880.72 per square foot] school. The same type of increases were evident in schools with lower enrollment capacity, which the committees had removed from consideration.
Construction and soft costs did increase with the higher enrollment figures being considered, however. The estimated total cost of an 805-student school would be $274 million with a a likely MSBA share of 36.34 percent, or $100 million, and a 900-student school is $283 million with a likely 37.89 MSBA share, or $107 million, according to Carlson. Districts would be responsible for 63.66 percent, or $174 million, on an 805-student school and 62.11 percent, or $176 million, on a 900-student school.
“These numbers will change, they’re for comparison purposes only,” Carlson reminded the committees. “The MSBA participates more with higher enrollment, at least in this instance, where they’ll participate a little less with the lower enrollment in this case.”
Whitman Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly told the committees that, the MSBA share for Whitman’s last building was close to 60 percent of eligible costs.
“Considering that we will be paying 25 percent of this [project’s] cost and we exceed allotted amounts by double the students, I would like you to question is there a tipping point where a town would pull out if they’re going to end up paying double the amount they would to build it outside the reimbursement” Connolly said. “You have to consider, when you’re talking about pushing these numbers so high, when will a town say, we’re going to pull out?” she said.
Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said that Connolly had raised similar questions a December public forum on the project in Whitman.
“We are in the process of communicating, and have actually initiated, outreach to MSBA to address the first issue, that Rosemary raised,” he said.
Based on the way the enabling legislation for MSBA reads, he is asking how a reimbursement rate is calculated with a regional school district and when an independent agriculture and/or technical school is under consideration.
“The MSBA, in my opinion, should look at which ZIP Codes are sending kids to the school, and that merely taking every ZIP Code that is a part of our regional district and treating them as if they sent equal numbers of kids, is what could potentially contribute to a lower reimbursement rate,” Hickey said. “That is a conversation that is still on the radar. A few percentage-point adjustments could make a big difference for everybody, there’s no question about it.”
Hickey said vocational schools are reimbursed at the same rate as regular high schools and the cost per square-foot caps are the same, regardless of the specialized spaces vocational schools use for shop instruction.
“We’ve been advocating, as a community, for a long time collectively to ask that the MSBA create a separate lane [for vocational schools],” he said. “Whatever they can do at the state level, provides relief at the local level.”
At the very least, Hickey would like them to consider the current funding formula.
If they interpret the enabling legislation to allow them to consider where students come from and the relative wealth of those communities at the time they secure a project funding agreement with SST, that could also change reimbursement numbers, which could change the bottom-line numbers, he said.
“It is not lost on me that the pace at which we can admit students cannot go any faster than the ability of our towns to pay for an operating budget,” Hickey said. Project timing and district expansion are other considerations, but the best revenue source is the MSBA reimbursement, he stressed.
Architect Carl Franchesci of DRA also emphasized that the estimated MSBA shares being discussed are not the district’s reimbursement rate.
“Your reimbursement rate is more like 50-something percent,” he said. “It’s going to be the effective rate, after you eliminate those ineligible costs.”
Both Carlson and Hickey said it was just over 55 percent for the feasibility phase.
“That ties into what I said about so many costs for vocational schools are not reimbursable, so it drags the number down,” Hickey said. “Even if we did clock in at the mid-50s for construction-eligible reimbursement, the conversation with MSBA still has to happen.”
Salvucci, a member of both the School and Building committees, said any out-of-district students the school would be able to accept would be charged at a rate set by the state and those funds could be used to offset construction costs a bit.
At the moment, there are about 80 students on a waiting list to attend SST.
“There’s a construction conversation, then there’s capacity, and finding that sweet spot between the ability to enroll and have the staff on an operating level, be able to serve kids,” Hickey said. “It seems as though, unlike a lot of schools that might have waiting lists, but every other community around them is already aligned with another school, there’s the potential for expansion, there’s the potential to open to non-resident enrollment, if necessary.”
Some of those concerns could be reconciled by a gradual pay as-you-go-model and/or an amendment to the regional agreement by the fall, he said. But, right now, the number of unused seats is being offset by an increase in applications from member towns like Whitman.
There is also interest from Pembroke in joining the district, as Marshfield is already doing.
“If Pembroke were entering the district this fall, they’d be at about 11 percent of the district, which is about an average number,” Hickey said. “Norwell’s number was very high in the 1970s.”
Norwell representative Dustin Reardon said his town was 40 percent of the enrollment at that time. Scituate meanwhile, with 54 students attending next year will be the highest enrollment for that town since 1982.
“There’s no telling when it’s a trend and when it’s a blip, but in the long term, we have considerable construction costs, a long-term investment and the opportunity to expand the region to help pay these costs – and those operating costs,” Hickey said. “When talking to the residents of our district, we have to start with the facts … Pembroke has nothing to do with MSBA, quite honestly.”
Salvucci said it seems that vocational school enrollment is increasing generally.
“I think the trend is they are increasing, obviously, and waiting lists certainly vary,” Hickey said. “Regionalized vocational education is not cheap, but it’s the least-worst option, in terms of being able to give kids from small towns access to 12 or 14 vocational programs.”

Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak presented a “truly a level-service budget” for fiscal 2025 to the School Committe on Wednesday, Feb. 7.
The proposed budget for FY ’25 funds exactly the same programs and staff now in place during the 2023-24 school year, with no proposals to add or change programs.
“What is presented tonight is apples to apples,” Szymaniak said. “With the exception that everything is a bit more expensive than last year.”
The proposed $63,590,845 budget represents a 4.7 percent ($3,105,687) spending increase because of cost increases, according to Szymaniak. If accepted as presented, the budget would set assessment increases as 11.03 percent ($19,695,553) for Whitman and 10.20 percent ($15,325,369) for Hanson.
All budget documents are available on the district webste whrsd.org.
By comparion, some area school districts are “looking at double-digit increases of their overall budgets,” Szymaniak said, citing Middleboro and Norton in particular who are looking at 11- to 13-percent increases. Most are looking at increases of 3 percent and up.
“We’re just trying to service our students the best we can,” he said. “I believe we’ve done a nice job … we’ve been able to work federal aid into the district budgets for the support of students.” Between the ESSER funding series of grants the district has received close to $4.6 million in federal aid.
After budget discussions with both town administrators in November to hear what they were allocating, Szymaniak said he told them he would get the budget to that allocation, but he was obligated to present to the School Committee what the schools needed.
A 2 percent ($61,694,861) district budget increase would require cuts of $1.8 million to the overall plan, and would place Whitman’s assessment at $18,529,713 – of 4.45 percent higher – and Hanson’s at $14,595,226 – or 4.96 percent higher. A 3 percent ($62,299,713) district budget increase would require cuts of about $1.3 million to the overall plan, and would place Whitman’s assessment at $18,901,636 – or 6.55 percent higher – and Hanson’s at $14,828,154 – or 6.62 percent higher. A 4 percent ($62,904,564) district budget increase would require cuts of $686,281 to the overall plan, and would place Whitman’s assessment at $19,273,559 – or 8.63 percent higher – and Hanson’s at $15,061,082 – or 8.30 percent higher.
“It really looks like 5.13 percent when we add the [Whitman] middle school debt … but, overall, for the assessment value of the district, we’re looking at a 4.74 increase this year to maintain level services,” he said. “Hanson is not going to be paying anything on the Whitman Middle School project. It shows in the budget … because it’s a borrowing on behalf of the school, but it’s not part of the Hanson assessment.”
Since 2016 only one other budget – when it went up 5.52 percent in fiscal 2021 posted an increase of more than 4 percent.
He also pointed out that Whitman-Hanson is still spending less, at $16,339.41, per-pupil than 11 other area communities. The state per-pupil average is $19,566.95.
“I am very thankful and grateful to say to the towns of Whitman and Hanson tonight that we’re not in the bottom third,” Szymaniak said. “We’re not up at the top tier, but we’ve made somes strong gains.”
That is an improvement from the bottom eight districts where it once had been.
Szymaniak said educational programs the towns have paid for have helped that happen, but that he is concerned about regressing.
“We all know this is a challenging time of year, as all department heads and chiefs in both Whitman and Hanson are advocating for their departments and employees,” Szymaniak said. “I’m taking risk here, but I think all town officials and leaders in both communities want a budget that will support their department and the town, and also provide the best possible service to the community. The regional school district budget proposal is no different.”
He noted that today’s students are “much different than the students we had in 2019.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on students academically, socially and behaviorally.
“Students have changed and our teachers and our district have had to change and modify how we deliver our curriculm and keep students engaged in our classrooms,” Szymaniak said. High-quality instructional materials, one-to-one technology, interventionists to aid students in making up any lost ground while helping all students, social-emotional supports, a growing English language learner population and an increase in students receiving special education both in and out-of-district, have increased the school budget over the years.
W-H is in compliance with laws, regulations and mandates from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) on high-quality evidence-based instructional materials, K- grade three screenings and interventions and enrichment.
“FY ’25 is no different,” he said. “The difference this year, is the loss of federal assistance to the amount of about $818,000, which we have incorporated into this budget.”
There are 11 district paraprofessionals ($351,388), one English language learner teacher ($90,859) and four Unit A staff members ($375,955) who were hired under the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Reief (ESSER) III funds for which salaries are being placed back in the general fund for fiscal 2025.
The budget is aligned with the School Committee’s Strategic Plan for 2023-28, focusing on what they term the four “focus area buckets” of: student access; communication; curriculum and community/culture, while simultaneously aiming to retain, recruit and develop staff as well as resources.
The budget process began with the Jan. 10 preliminary presentation to the School Committee and will continue to be discusssed at every committee meeting through April 17, if it takes that long, to finalize the budget for the May 6 Town Meetings. A meeting with the Whitman Finance Committee was held Tuesday, Feb. 6. The deadline for presenting the budget to the towns is March 21.
There are anticipated costs included in the budget, as well, Szymaniak said. These include contractual obligations, movement of costs from grants (like ESSER funds) to the budget and multi-lingual learner enrollment for which there are educational requirements the district must meet. Szymaniak stressed the multi-lingual learner population does not represent newly arrvied homeless migrants, as is the case in some neighboring districts.
“This is just direct residents of either Whitman or Hanson that has increased 198 percent over the past two years,” he said.
Unanticipated costs include specal education placements due to move-ins and increasing student mental health needs and behavioral supports.
At the same time, class size is down.
“We are at or close to, class sizes of 21 in all elementaries, if not a little bit lower,” Szymaniak said. Only the incoming kindergarten classes are not fully known right now.
High school enrollment, meanwhile, is decreasing as the town average between 60 and 70 students going to vocational schools, private schools or charter schools.
There is also 28 students supported by the district in its Community Evening School. Another 117 preschool students are also enrolled in that program at the high school.
“What does all this mean?” said Asssistant Superintendent George Ferro. “It means that we’re trying to do the right thing for the students that we have in our schools.”
That boils down to three district-based academic interventionists, 12 building-based interventionists, five district wide curriculum coordinators spanning all subject areas and a secondary data specialist. Interventionists help W-H students as teachers and paraprofessionals in math and ELA, gathering data to form intervention groups and work with staff and teachers in the buildings.
For social-emotional supports, there are five board-certified behavioral analysts, seven school psychologists, 10 adjustment counselors and transition rooms at Hanson Middle and WHRHS for students returning from hospitalization – which can run the gamut from concussions or minor surgery such as appendectomies as well as students with social-emotional issues or hospitalization of other treatment for any mental health issues.
“Our staff has done a wonderful job for the last 20 years, but we never gave them the schools that they actually needed – that are research-based, that are scientifically based, that do improve student learning that we now can offer,” Ferro said.