It’s that time of year, again when the Mass. Association of School Committees (MASC) seeks support of resolutions regarding educational issues at its annual conference.
As there are often some controversial topics on that list, this year is no different, as the W-H School Committee voted on Wednesday, Oct. 11 to support higher fines for passing school buses and changes to the MCAS test, while expressing concern about a requirement for a diversity coordinator and rejecting a safe gun storage education plan as outside a school committee’s responsibility.
The recommendation calling on the General Court to enact legislation to give cities and towns the ability to install digital detection monitoring systems on school buses in the interest of pursuing fines against drivers who pass stopped school buses as well as legislation raising those fines.
The fines are intended to be a “significant schedule of fines” as a penalty for the violations either witnessed by a police officer or recorded by a digital video monitor. The equipment would be a district expense.
Right now, the fine is $200.
“Is there a way the [expected] $41.8 million in tickets could be sent back to us?” Member Glen DiGravio asked. “That would be fantastic. It would pay for itself.”
Member Fred Small said the legislature was speaking about that possibility.
“If this came through in legislation, I’m sure there would be grant funding for safety and security from the governor’s office so that all buses would have that,” Szymaniak said.
The MASC has also recommend all districts appoint a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) coordinator to work toward anti-racism is only putting a title to a person, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. The MASC is recommending that all districts adopt the position at its annual conference this month.
“We have that person in place,” he said. “If it has to be a certain, specific title, that makes me a little anxious.”
They hired Director of Equity and MTSS Nicole Semas-Schneeweis
School Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 11, but Szymaniak expressed concern that, he would have to rename the position and take away other responsibilities.
Committee member David Forth, who will represent the W-H School Committee at the MASC asked for guidance as to what questions he should ask.
“You can get up and speak and tell why we voted that way or what our question is,” Chair Beth Stafford said.
DiGravio asked if the resolution would make the position mandatory for school districts that don’t already have it and if there are districts that don’t have such a position now.
“These are just recommendations,” Stafford said.
Stafford asked the committee for meeting norms they wished to suggest for discussion and possible adoption. They will be revisited at the next meeting, when a full committee could attend. Member Steve Bois was absent from the meeting.
The review of MCAS results is also up for a change as the MCAS seeks a more consensus-building wider approach to an evaluation system with “meaningful input from legitimate stakeholders,” investigating the extent of bias in the testing and seeking an immediate moratorium on the MCAS test while an alternative method is developed.
Stafford reminded the School Committee that the MTA is sponsoring a petition to put the issue on a ballot.
“The devil we know is better than the devil we don’t know,” said committee member Hillary Kniffen, who teaches sophomore English. “It’s not going away, they’re talking about replacing it with something else. … I worry about this.”
MTA is working to remove the MCAS a graduation requirement.
DiGravio asked for clarification about what the resolution means by “high-stakes” and “bias.” The stakes are that students must pass it to graduate.
Bias, on the other hand, pertains to cultural bias in the wording of questions, especially for students who come from another country, and problematic accommodations for students with learning differences.
“It is a flawed test, to say the least,” Kniffen said.
“I have always been against it being a graduation requirement because I have a grandson who has Down Syndrome,” Stafford said. “He’ll never be able to pass that and not being able to do a portfolio [demonstrating his learning progress], why can’t he get a diploma?”
She said he would receive a certificate of attendance instead.
“Not good enough,” DiGravio said.
Both Kniffen and Stafford said they have never taught to the test.
Another bias is that students attending private schools do not have to take the MCAS to graduate.
Szymaniak said research has never support the efficacy of high-stakes tests. The committee endorsed the three resolutions and voted on several others.
Vice Chair Chris Scriven said the committee members should “all remember that they’re one of 10. We best serve our committee and our constituents when we act as a committee,” he said.
Member David Forth said communication and collaboration are important. Members do not always see things eye-to-eye, but the two approaches have helped reach an understanding of each other that benefits teamwork.
Member Hillary Kniffen said that once action has been taken on a vote, members should support the official position of the School Committee. It is a norm she has found in researching several other such outlines of norms across the state.
“The time to discuss our viewpoints [on a specific issue] … to have those conversations with people in the community and send emails, is prior to when that public hearing and vote is going to be taking place, not after,” she said.
Stafford said she wants to see the committee come to meetings with an open mind, members should think before they speak, treat one another as professionals and have a suggestion for every complaint.
Public Comment, again focused on the proposed Whitman Middle School project with Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly spoke about an agenda item dealing with public presentations, noting there are locations available for them at libraries, the WHCA public access channel.
“I want the public to understand that school committees have very complex jobs,” she said. “School committee budgets are separate from municipal budgets – not just regionals, but also in regular towns and cities – because they have to adhere to strict laws and procedures.”
She also said school committees have to meet student achievement and reasonable cost goals to present to their towns.
“That’s a big ball to carry in a [relatively] short meeting,” she said, and they are provided with a lot of vetted information from sources including the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “To have a public entity come in and introduce something, could end up being political theater and it could be an abuse of the public trust that we swear to uphold.”
Connolly explained that Whitman’s Finance Committee and Select Board have each run into such situations unintentionally after allowing the public to come in to make presentations.
The Finance Committee had identified a weakness in busing and brought it to the schools about January 2022. Two citizens then came forward with a solution, presented as fact in a public meeting of both boards she said. The public thought the information was true, but Connolly said it was determined to be fraud in a meeting with DESE.
The problem identified by the Finance Committee still has not been solved, but “all of this theater had the public believing that it had been fixed,” and has caused political mistrust. Connolly said the people who put the “solution” forward have been looked on as experts and she fears the “face would be given” to the problem again.
Select Board member Justin Evans of Candlewick Lane, spoke to the decision the committee faces in the decision to borrow for the Whitman Middle School project: level debt vs. level principal.
“The way the town has always borrowed for projects has been by level principal, that way you take a premium the first year and the payments decline each year after that,” he said, noting there are other projects on the horizon. “That lets the town build other capital projects in over the 30 years it’s taking that debt out.”
Select Board member Shawn Kain of Forest Street spoke again about the public comment period.
“I don’t know why this is such an important issue to me,” he said, noting that he has been reflecting on why that is, but the closest thing he said he could come up with is that members of the public could come to a meeting and share. “I believe it’s very important that people can actively participate in that process,” he said of the way people used to be permitted to also speak during debate of issues before votes are taken.

HANSON – Representatives from the federal EPA and Mass. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) met with the Select Board and other Hanson officials on Tuesday, Sept. 26 to discuss the newest phase of the site cleanup at the National Fireworks location in Hanover, that includes Factory Pond which borders an area of Hanson.
“As we all know, the Fireworks site has been a topic of discussion in the town of Hanson for many years,” Town Administrator Lisa Green said. “Just recently the cleanup … has entered into a significant new territory, which has brought to our attention the need to pay attention to this cleanup.”
Funds for the cleanup, which have been in trust through the Mass. Contingency Plan, are drying up and “it’s been discovered over time that more funding is required to continue cleanup of the site,” Green said.
The EPA and DEP officials were in Hanson to talk about the site and possible further action, condition of the site will be once the trust money does run out until additional funding is obtained.
“I also want to recognize that, certainly this is not the first time we’ve paid attention to this, because I want to be sure we give credit to our Conservation Commission, to our health agent and I know you’ve been on calls and we’ve had outside counsel we’ve hired,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “So, there’s been a lot of labor behind the scenes. … There hasn’t been a decision that we’ve been asked to make until now.”
Mandy Liao of the EPA made a presentation updating the board on the cleanup [the full hearing can be viewed on the WHCA-TV YouTube channel]. Diane Baxter and Cathy Kiley of the DEP Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup also attended the meeting. Kiley has worked on the Fireworks site cleanup for several years, and noted they have held monthly meetings which Hanson has been involved in on the progress of the site cleanup.
“First of thing I want to say is there has been no contaminants from the site found in public water supply, or in private wells near the site,” Baxter said.
Representatives of the EPA Remediation Branch and Community Involvement Office and Town Counsel for the project, Michael Campanelli attended either in-person or remotely.
DEP reviewed the site history, funding, risks and completed and ongoing work at the site while the EPA representatives discussed the Superfund and National Priorities List (NPL) process as well as outreach and community engagement. EPA/DEP and town meetings with towns began in June 2023 in Pembroke and Hanover and with Hanson in July. A joint meeting with all three towns took place July 17 followed by hybrid meetings such as the Sept. 26 session with the Select Board.
“MassDEP and the towns have been working toward the same goal for many years – and that’s to get the site cleaned up,” Baxter noted, reminding attendees that the former National Fireworks site contains mercury, lead, organic solvents and propellants and explosives used in the manufacture of munitions for the government and commercial pyrotechnics between 1907 and 1970.
“A tremendous amount of work has been done over the years to identify areas of soil and sediment contamination as well as surface water and groundwater contamination,” Baxter said. Unexploded ordnance has also been addressed at the site where munitions and explosives have been found in the soil and in Factory Pond.
Risks that have been found for people are from direct contact with contaminated soil and sediment, which are being addressed temporarily by restricting access; from ingestion of contaminants found in fish (for people as well as fish-eating birds and wildlife); and from people accessing the southern portion of the site, including Factory Pond.
Steps toward
Superfund
Between 2017 and August 2023, more than 190,000 munitions (35,510 pounds or 17.75 tons) have been removed from the site, of which 21,080 items (11 percent) contained explosives destroyed on site by Mass. State Police.
Munitions removal is expected to be completed by October 2024.
As a result of a bankruptcy settlement, DEP received about $73.84 million in trust for the cleanup, according to Kiley. There is about $10.31 million left after investigation and response activities, and work that has been authorized, but not yet billed. Predicted costs for completing the required environmental remediation is estimated to be more than $200 million.
“As a result of this, the [DEP] requested EPA involvement to consider an option for cleaning up the site and how we might be able to proceed [through the Superfund NPL process],” Kiley said.
The Superfund allows the EPA to clean up a contaminated site and force responsible parties to either do that work or reimburse the EPA-led cleanup work, according to Laou. The NPL is a list of sites the EPA determines require a more detailed investigation, which can determine whether long-term threats to human health and the environment exist. Only NPL sites are eligible for Superfund resources.
“Right now, we are conducting a site reassessment to review the data that has been collected between 2012 … and now,” Liao said. “We want to determine what data gaps are there and what available reports that DEP produced.”
If EPA pursues an NPL listing, they will conduct an expanded site inspection, develop a Hazard Ranking System (HRS), obtain a letter of concurrence from the governor, which takes about a year, and propose the site to NPL. A 60-day comment period follows that.
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked what happens if a property owner refuses to give permission to access their land for the EPA site assessment.
“We’ll try to work around it, but we have attorneys that will work with the property owners to help them better understand the process and why their cooperation is need for us to help clean up the site,” Liao said, noting their presence was to make sure the town agreed to participate in the process. While letters of endorsement are welcome, they are not required.
Select Board member Ann Rein asked how long it would take to resume the cleanup.
“We would need to first list the site on the NPL list to even get the resources to start cleanup,” Liao said.
“The only reason I’m asking is I’ve been, as a person, following this for many, many years. Decades,” Rein said. “So, to think we’re just now at the point where we’re going to go this route – it should have been done a long time ago. That’s why I’m a little impatient that it’s going to go.”
She added that she has heard the $200 million estimated as necessary for environmental remediation by EPA representatives, was closer to $400 million.
“We knew it was going to be more than $200 million, but we don’t know what the amount is going to be,” Kiley said. “One would think [EPA] was going to do their own investigation, their own character of the full nature of contamination [but] we were making estimations of funds with the limited information we have, knowing that … it’s well beyond what we had in the trust fund.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked what specifically was involved under those figures. Kiley said previous figures were in regard to remuneration above Factory Pond Dam as well as removal of unexploded ordnance, but she was uncertain if that referred to if the dams were removed.
Water issues
Rein and FitzGerald-Kemmett said those plans involved damming the Drinkwater River, draining and dredging it to remove contaminated soil.
“We’ve had somebody since come and talk about it to a point past Factory Pond Dam,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Kiley recalled there was permitting in place to consider different options including how to best address that contamination.
“Going forward, those numbers could very well change in terms of how EPA decision is in terms of how they further refine, get a lot more data,” she said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett also asked, should the area become a Superfund site, what happens if the price tag does go above $200 million?
“I’ll say Hanson has not been treated as a full partner from the beginning in this process and that’s a universally held opinion by the citizens of Hanson,” she said, adding they want some say in the way EPA is addressing the issue in the town for their citizens.
Depending on when they finish the site reassessment to review the data that has been collected between 2012, the timeline for completing the work depends, in part, on how quickly they can get started as a Superfund site, Liao said. Worst-case scenario, that could be “a couple of years.”
While Hanson wants to get on the NPL list for being considered a Superfund, Select Board Vice Chair Joe Weeks asked what happens if another town doesn’t want it on the list?
Baxter said that while letters of support to the governor are not necessary, they are helpful as the DEP works to convince the governor it is the right thing to do.
“One of my worries is that squeakier wheels trying to get it off the list will prevail, and I’m just curious what the process is …so our voice is weighted as much as a larger community might.” Weeks said, seeking assurance that Hanson’s voice will receive as much weight as a larger community.
“It isn’t veto power, per se, from any one town,” Baxter said. “It’s just a matter of whether the governor agrees that it’s the right thing to proceed. We hope to have support with the three communities, obviously.”
“We are too,” Weeks said.
“This site has always had one town that did not want to have anything done about it,” Rein said. “That town is going to have to get over it, because it’s time.”
Liao said that community involvement staff will also determine if more joint meetings with the towns are wanted after they meet with Pembroke this month.
Conservation Agent Phil Clemons stressed the importance of recognizing that the site does not follow political boundaries.
“It is a watershed which is somewhat extensive and really very prominent in terms of its quality and its value to, not just the immediate towns in this region, but to the state and New England – and you can go as far as you like…” he said. “Our part of this region has been under-studied.”
Conservation Commission Chair Frank Schellenger said, while the EPA wanted the meeting, in order to obtain Hanson’s support, it is very important that Hanson residents participate in that. He said more residents should be informed and that there are at least four towns downstream that are potentially impacted by the site and cleanup effort.
“The water and sediment issue has to be addressed,” he said. “The only way to do that is with the EPA and the NPL.”
Fire Chief Robert O’Brien said information about site contaminants has not trickled down to public safety officials unless Health Agent Gil Amado brought it back from his meetings, since he became chief.
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if the EPA would be willing to hold a public information meeting.
“We’ll get better feedback if we have an educated public and if we give people an opportunity to ger educated, I think we’ll all be the better for that,” she said. Both the EPA and DEP representatives agreed.
Former Select Board member Matt Dyer, who works with the MWRA, said that agency would be meeting the week of Oct. 2 to further discuss the project. FitzGerald-Kemmett asked Green to add a page to the town Facebook page dedicated to the Fireworks site as a way to further inform the public.

WHITMAN – Police officer Kevin Harrington officially became Sgt. Kevin Harrington, during a promotion ceremony held at the Tuesday, Sept. 26 Select Board meeting, with his mother and his wife pinning on his new badge.
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci presided in the absence of Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski. Member Justin Evans attended virtually.
The board had voted at its previous meeting to approve Harrington’s promotion. He was administered the oath of office by Town Clerk Dawn Varley before his mother Marilyn, who attended with his dad Edward and wife Windy pinned on his sergeant’s badge.
“Oh, can I stab him?” Marilyn Harrington joked.
“Oh, go for it!” Salvucci laughed. “If you stick him, we have the service dog here.”
Harrington is the handler for the department’s therapy dog, Nola.
State Rep. Alyson Sullivan-Almeida, R-Abington, presented him with a citation from the General Court and congratulated him on his “well-deserved” promotion.
“I know the community is going to benefit from you being a sergeant in this community that you love,” she said. “I think your post on Facebook choked me up a little bit – it could be hormones, though.”
Sullivan-Almeida had given birth to her first child recently.
In other public safety business, Fire Chief Timothy Clancy reported to the board about an unsolicited letter received in the mail by the fire department, from Donna Callahan including a gift of $5,000 in the name of her parents, James and Betty Geary, who had been Winter Street residents of Whitman and thanking the department for taking care of her parents in their later years.
“We reached out to her, and you can see the amount of money there, to make sure this is what she was looking for and what she wanted,” Clancy said. “She said she just wanted to help the fire department in any way [she could].”
After discussing it with Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, he said it was decided that the best use of the funds was to place the money in the gift account.
“We thank her very much for her generous donation,” Clancy said.
Callaghan also gave $30,019.99 in her mother’s name to the Whitman Council on Aging.
“Her mother had actually left that to the COA,” Carter said. “She really enjoyed attending the Council on Aging – playing cards, bingo, taking chair yoga were some of her favorites – and they were just very pleased to see this money go to the Council on Aging.”
“That’s an exceptional amount,” Salvucci said.