WHITMAN – Questions have been raised about a Town Meeting vote on the amount of tax money vs. free cash used to balance the fiscal 2024 budget.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter reported, in response to a taxpayer’s question that a Town Meeting article to use free cash to reduce the funds raided taxation needed to balance the fiscal 2024 budget.
Dawn Byers, a School Committee member, addressing the Select Board as a private citizen asked in the public forum on Tuesday, May 23 for the clarification, aware that it would not be up for discussion at the meeting, but in hopes it could be explained at a future meeting.
“I have some follow-up questions regarding Article 42 from the May 1 Town Meeting,” Byers said. “I do hope, as you proceed with setting the tax levy over the next several months, you will perhaps be able to address this in a future public meeting.”
Article 42 asked Town Meeting to vote to appropriate a sum of money from available free cash to reduce the amount of money to be raised by taxation for fiscal 2024.
Byers asked that the board explain what is being done with Article 42, which was approved by the Town Meeting, and why the Select Board proposed the article. She noted that the Finance Committee had not voted on it because there was no dollar figure at that time it came before them, but an amendment on Town Meeting floor inserted the amount of $455,323.
“There was a lower amount and when the schools came in, we had a compromise,” Carter said. “We juggled some things around from capital and so forth, and that was the amount we needed from the remaining free cash to just close the budget.”
Carter said it had been discussed all through the budget process that the town would be using funds from free cash to close the budget.
“After that was done, there was $53,000 some-odd remaining in free cash,” she said. “That was it.”
Byers said it sounds like the town is not fully taxing to the levy, but instead chose to use free cash or is perhaps not recognizing some new growth.
The board will be returning to the issue at coming meetings, Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski indicated.
“We do often hear the term Proposition 2 ½ override, but this feels like the opposite – is this an underride and is it the board’s intention to report it to the Department of Revenue as such when the FY ’24 tax levy is set?” she said. “[It] is a significant amount of tax revenue.”
An accountant in her professional life, Byers asked what the purpose of the one-time free cash funds was, what was the benefit to the town and and who benefits by reducing the amount of money to be raised by taxation.
“I did attend Town Meeting,” Byers said, noting that it had lasted nearly three and a half hours and the article was the second to last to be voted on that night. “We were all there until 11 p.m.” she said.
“While I do agree it was approved by the voters just prior to 11 p.m., I think it’s an extremely important financial decision made by the town that deserves to be further explained,” she said.
In other business, with the Whitman Police Department down a number of officers with a couple more planning retirements in the coming months, Chief Timothy Hanlon requested that the Select Board start the process of calling for a civil service list.
The board approved the request unanimously.
“The process is going to be a little bit more lengthy than it was in the past, when we had the opportunity to reserve officers and see how they fit in on more or less a part-time basis and go through the part-time academy,” Hanlon said.
With the new police reform law, there is no more part-time police academy, however, and the department has exhausted its reserve list as two of them began the police academy May 22, but until they graduate, Hanlon said the department is going to have to fill the remaining vacancies by starting a new civil service list.
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci asked if it would affect promotions within the ranks, and Hanlon said it depends on what ranks retire, as a majority are officers and one is of rank.
The board also approved an amendment to the host community agreement with Soul Flower Inc., permitting the firm to split the company into multiple corporations – retailer Chill & Bliss LLC, product manufacturer Fusion Drop LLC, cultivator Crafted Cannibis LLC and existing licensing transporter Soul Flower Express LLC – for business purposes, according to Carter. All are Massachusetts LLCs and have been approved by town counsel.
“The HCA restricts their ability to so, so they need this amendment,” she said. “It should not change their operations as approved by the [Select Board] under the host community agreement.”
New use for old math
By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress
When NASA mathmetician Katherine Johnson needed to calculate how astronaut John Glen could safely re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere after his Gemini mission as the first American to orbit the Earth, she didn’t use “new math.”
Johnson used Euler’s Method, first published in 1768. Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler’s method is based on the theory of bending, as applied to structural beams and other structural members under different stresses to the maximum load it can take in the axial (vertical) direction before it bends.
Hardly old enough to merit the, “But, that’s ancient,” retort dramatized in the 2016 film “Hidden Figures,” but it is old math.
Now, thanks, to a math text, “Principals of Geometry,” published in the early 1800s and donated to the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, by resident Michelle Maning, perhaps history can repeat itself.
Well, maybe a student might be inspired to apply an old math formula to a project in a modern math or history class.
“It is fragile,” Manning said. “I can’t find [the printing date], it’s missing a few of the front pages, but the illustrations say 1813 – ‘Aug. 12, 1813. J. Taylor, 50 High St., Hillburn, London.’”
Manning’s stepfather, Joseph P. Deegan was born Jan 6, 1942 to Irish immigrant parents. He grew up in a brownstone on Broadway in South Boston. He was an only child and had little family in America.
Manning got the book from her father, who had been an only child whose mother died when he was 3 and his father died when he was 16. The old woman who lived downstairs in the building where he grew up in South Boston looked out for him until he was of legal age.
Joe joined local 4, the operating engineers union when he was 18 with whom he was a member for 61 years. He worked many years for Shaunessy Crane in Boston and became shop Stuart. In 1968 he purchased his small home in whitman for an astounding 17,000. He lived there happily with his wife Barbara until his death in May of 2021.
“He knew very little of his own family, because there wasn’t anybody here –everybody died so young,” she said.
When her dad died two years ago and she was clearing out the attic, she found the math text.
“It’s full of intricate mathematical drawings and illustrations,” Manning said of the book and surmised that it was owned by an ancestor in Ireland and made the voyage to America with one of his parents. It more than likely belonged to great grandparent or more. “It’s my hope that the book will inspire many students with both its history and lessons.”
“I don’t have any children and I don’t have any family now,” she said. “So, when my time comes, I don’t want anyone giving this to Good Will or worse, throwing it away.”
Then she had to take into consideration the condition of the book.
“It’s not in the kind of shape where it can be curated,” she said. “But, I figured I’m an alum here, why not give it to the math department here? I think using some of these illustrations for exercises would be hilarious.”
Math teacher Deborah Caruso said the book is a “really cool” gift and suggested a plaque recognizing the gift and placement in a school display case might be appropriate at the very least.
“I figured I’d chat with my math department and see,” she said. “We have lockable display cases in the hallway.”
She said there could also be some amazing application problems in the book, as well.
“I’ve enjoyed looking through it, but I know you guys might enjoy it more,” Manning said.
“I know the math teachers will be so excited to take a look at it,” Caruso said. “We will find some interesting ways to bring it into the classroom, for sure.”
Not only could classroom exercises be designed on illustrations from the book, there are several students who love math and would be interested in “what it used to be, and how it used to look,” she said.
“You could share it with the history department, too,” Manning said. “Books were so valuable when this was printed. …You had to be a very wealthy person to have a book. It was an art and took a long time.”
Honoring the fallen on Memorial Day
Heart-felt personal tributes by Select Board members to late family members and town residents who served in harm’s way during America’s wars, parades and ceremonies marked Memorial Day in Whitman and Hanson on Monday, May 29.
“As a community we tell their stories and we visit their gave sites
Whitman Select Board member Shawn Kain recalled the service of his grandfather, Robert Hughes, who was born in Boston in 1922. Hughes had lived in Whitman for a long time and had left at age 16 to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Depression.
The CCC was a New Deal program giving urban youths work and an opportunity to live in camps in rural or wilderness areas to get away from the unhealthy living environment of the cities.
After he became old enough, Hughes joined the Army and, during World War II, parachuted into the Normandy, France countryside on June 6, 1944 with the advance wave of paratroops as part of the D-Day invasion of Europe.
“I think of that moment and how powerful it was … and the sacrifice that he made,” Kain said. “I just can’t get over how unfathomable that is. My grandfather is my hero and, today, Memorial Day, as a community we remember our heroes. We tell their stories, we visit their gravesites.”
For those who didn’t come back, Kain said, the community holds a special place in their collective hearts for them and thank them for their service.
Select Board member Justin Evans paid tribute to WWII Medal of Honor posthumous recipient. 1st Lt. John Fox, who lies in Colebrook Cemetery. The Board had attended memorial ceremonies at Colebrook before the parade.
Evans recalled how Fox, an African-American soldier had radioed artillery fire on his position while being overrun by German forces in Italy. He had been found after the battle, along with more than 100 dead Axis soldiers surrounding his location.
“Part of the job at Memorial Day is recognizing some of these sacrifices,” Evans said, noting it took some 50 years before Fox’s family to gain the recognition of Fox’s all-Black unit. … [Another part] of that effort is continuing to fight for freedom and equality.”
Select Vice Chair Dan Salvucci saluted his father, who had enlisted uring World War II, and re-enlisted for transfer to the Pacific after the war in Europe had ended.
“I asked him why he did that, and he said, ‘My job wasn’t over.’ That’s the type of people who sacrificed of themselves,” he said “We can’t thank [our veterans] enough,”
Select Board member Laura Howe thanked residents for turning out to remember the sacrifices of the fallen.
State Rep. Alyson Sullivan R-Abington, told Whitman parade-goers about a conversation he had with a Gold Star wife in that town earlier in the day.
“There are so many mothers and fathers that we are thinking about today,” she said. “Today isn’t about a cookout or a barbecue or even the parade in an of itself. To all our Gold Star families and friends of Gold Star families, today we are thinking of you all.”
A shortened parade route then wound around Whitman Park to the Civil War Monument at the crest of the park’s highest hill where the combined Whitman middle and high school band s played the national anthem and “Taps” – the latter also performed at Town Halls before memorial wreaths were placed at Town Hall’s honor roll monument and monuments to Civil War fallen and service in al wars.
Hanson’s parade, however, had to work around band music because of what Veterans Officer Joe Gumbakis described as misunderstanding about an agreement to alternate the WHRHS band between the two towns, due to music faculty changeovers.
“The band kind of fell through this year, for us,” he reported to the Hanson Select Board on Tuesday, May 23. After discussions with the district, he said the issue has been resolved and the rotation schedule would return next year.
Conservation Agent Phil Clemons said the Congregational Church in Hanson, where he is a co-leader of a group “willing, able and preparing to lead in the national anthem and ‘God Bless America’ at the appropriate times.”
“There’s a plan in place for that, and it will not be missed,” Clemons said. “And we will not fail to do it.”
The parade, with an adjusted format, began with an abbreviated ceremony at Indian Head School and wreath-laying at Town Hall, with the remainder of the program, including the participation of the re-enactors of the 22nd Mass. Vol. Infantry, honoring the original Union regiment that served in clashes such as the Seven Days, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and the Wilderness. A family-oriented living history group. The 22nd Mass., also includes female members portraying the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which promoted healthy living conditions in Union camps.
Some of the women in the group also portray the widows and other mourning female family members of the Union’s fallen.
The American Legion Post held a cleanup Saturday, May 27 in preparation for a post-parade gathering.
“It was s a great success, we had many volunteers that helped out, Veterans from the Legion, Sons of the Legion, Ladies Auxiliary, Select Board Members, our Veterans Agent, and many others,” Legion member Selectman David George said. “A special thanks goes out to Michael Guest from MW Guest Property Services in Hanson, as they showed up in full force with a working crew to include Michaels Wife Shannon and their five children.”
George termed the day’s efforts a job well done as horseshoe area, pavilion, and the whole yard was cleaned up front and back, New flags were installed on all flag poles, mulch donated by MW Guest was spread and flowers donated by the Ladies Auxiliary were planted.
Local elections see low voter turnout
On an election day notable for a light turnout and a rainy afternoon, voters in Whitman and Hanson sent something of a divided message at the ballot box – returning some incumbents in contested Select Board races, and opting for a change in one Whitman post. The town also approved a debt exclusion for a new DPW building, but opted to keep the Treasurer-Collector position an elected, rather than an appointed one.
Incumbent Select Board Chair Randy LaMattina, who had been the subject of other town office holders’ damaging comments during board public comment periods over the past few months, as well as a campaign of “slander” on a private Facebook account, lost out in a four-way race for two seats on Whitman’s Select Board.
Fellow incumbent Dr. Carl Kowalski was the top vote-getter with 605 votes. Animal Control Officer Laura Howe, was next with 502, to take the other seat up for votes. LaMattina Garnered 441 and Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly received 437 votes.
In Hanson, Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett won re-election in an extremely light turnout of 463 voters, receiving 291 votes in a three-way contest for two seats. Newcomer David George received 234 votes to also gain a seat on the board, and fellow freshman candidate Thomas Chambers received 176 votes
“I think it’s going to be a competitive race, “LaMattina said while doing some sign-holding Saturday morning. “You run on what you’ve done or want to do, you don’t run on slandering people.”
He pointed to concern over where their tax dollars are going was the main issue voters he spoke to mentioned.
“That’s going to be a challenge, obviously, with big projects on the horizon,” he said.
LaMattina said Monday that, while the loss was bittersweet, he accepted it without reservation.
“It stings to lose because the town means a lot to me,” he said. “But it’s politics. … The town voted, I accept it and our family will still try to contribute as much as we can to the town.
“Four people took some votes from me,” he said. “[Residents] obviously bullet-voted, because there were a lot of blanks. … I don’t mind losing, but I do mind losing to lies, slander and innuendo.”
A Facebook campaign on a private page had been spreading misinformation about his wife and daughter – including where his daughter attends school – and charging that the Select Board was corrupt, he said.
“It was all on Facebook,” he said. “It’s fine for people to disagree with you … it was just attacks on me.”
LaMattina said he knew his pushback against the school district on the budget issue would cost him votes, but he said he felt it was the right thing to do.
I am very happy that Carl got in,” he said.
Kowalski said that, while optimistic, he never knows how the voters will cast their ballots.
“There are people who would like change,” he said. “Change isn’t always as good as a rest.”
Kowalski expressed gratitude to Whitman residents for his re-election.
“I will work hard to have thus earned their trust over what may be a difficult period of time,” he stated. “Of course, I will miss having Randy LaMattina with me, for he was an extremely hard-working and talented Board member and chair, but I am sure that Laura Howe will work equally hard to fill his shoes.”
He said he was thrilled that the DPW question was passed and eager to work for the passing of the Whitman Middle School project when it comes up next fall.
Connolly, for her part, said she was running to inform the public more than in hopes of winning an election. She wanted to “get out there and talk honestly about [town] finances, something that’s not happening at the selectmen level,” she also said there is so little engagement between the public and the Finance Committee.
Howe said she plans to work on a website for herself as a member of the Select Board, as well as an animal control page on Facebook, putting the link on Whitman Pride and unfriending that group.
“I am honored and moved to represent the community that I hold so dear,” she said. “I am optimistic that together we will bring forth new ideas in a ever changing world and cement a strong foundation for the future of our community.”
“I feel things that have happened there should not be accepted or appreciated as a kind caring honest wife mother grandmother Animal Control Officer and, gratefully, now selectman,” she said.
In Hanson, the big story was a small number – that of the handful or voters who cast ballots Saturday.
“I’m really hoping that we get some good turnout,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said Saturday morning. “Things, so far, seem to be very slow. We don’t have any ballot questions [and] there’s not any hotly contested races. … I’m just hoping that people show up, because your vote counts in a town this size, and this is the type of election where people could be decided by a handful of votes.”
She said Monday that she was grateful for the voters’ support and indicated that town finances are the first
“I think I’m going to do OK,” George said. He said most of his conversations with voters have been about money and town finances.
In Hanson, there was some spirit of bipartisanship going on outside the Hanson Middle School polling place as Select Board challenger Tom Chambers helped Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett and her husband raise a pop-up tent against rain predicted later in the day.
“I look forward to working with the Select Board and keeping Hanson a great town to live in,” George said of his win Monday.
Candidates in both towns were out holding signs in the morning expressed nervous hope about the day’s result.
“I’ll wait until the end of the day,” Chambers said. “I’m not going to make a prediction.”
He said he’s been researching the state’s 40B regulations in preparation for his hope of winning a seat, as voters had been talking to him about it.
“Once I sink my teeth into something, once I find an issue, I’ll research it up and down, 110 percent and make my decision based on what’s most beneficial to the town.”
DPW Commission Chair Kevin Cleary was grateful for the support from the Select Board and other town boards as well as the members of the police and fire departments, but added it is always hard to predict what voters will do.
“They all support us,” he said of the town officials and public safety rank and file, noting that social media was a bigger tool this time out than it was the last time a DPW building went on the ballot in 2013. “We did a better job of getting out there with the website, getting information [ to voters]. Just grassroots.”
He credited the website as being a valuable tool.
“I am proud of the residents of the Town for understanding the important duties that the DPW performs and the need to provide the employees with a new facility that will have the basic features that will allow them to continue to serve our community, DPW Commissioner Kevin Cleary said. “I would like to thank the DPW Commissioners, the DPW building committee, and the DPW employees for their hard work in getting the project approved. Thank you to everyone that stood out in the rain on election day to support the project. I would also like to thank the other town departments and our town leaders for supporting the project. We look forward to opening a new facility in the Fall of 2024.”
School Committee hopeful Kevin Mayer, who was waging a campaign for a “common sense” approach to education, garnered 447 to come in third after incumbent winners Steven Bois – with 594 votes—and David Forth – with 475 votes – to represent Whitman on the W-H School Committee. A fourth candidate, Kaitlin Barton, received 353 votes.
“I want to keep it basic – more common sense,” Mayer said of his campaign themes. “I’d like to see the schools start to get more involved in some career-driven stuff, too. You don’t always have to push college.”
He said the days of encouraging very high school student to go to college are over.
“You can make more money in the trades than you can make, a lot of times, getting out of school,” he said.
Mayer said he sees the fallout from that in his fence company, where finding employees is hard as students, pushed to obtain degrees they’re not using might be hesitant to take a job outside of their major subject.
“I like giving back to the town,” he said. “I own a business here, I grew up in Hanson. To get involved is always nice.”
Whitman Town Clerk Dawn Varley said early and absentee votes had been light, as well.
“I think it’ll be an average turnout,” Varley said during the first hour of voting Saturday. There had been under 100 absentee and only four early votes cast ahead of Election Day itself. She estimated that about 1,300 votes would be cast. By the end of the day 1,113 votes had been cast, about 10 percent of the 11,213 registered votes in town.
“They were lined up early this morning,” she said. “Usually, there’s only a couple, but there were quite a few people here. The weather might play a big part – there’s a lot of factors. … What I do think is unusual is that, politically, it’s been quiet. There’s not a lot of signs. … It’s quiet for two heavily contested races.”
Hanson Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan said there were only 86 ballots cast in three days of early voting last week.
“It is very disappointing,” she said. “We’ll be surprised if we get even 1,00 today, total, with early voting.”
Boards choose next leaders
Some new faces will be wielding the gavel at meetings of the regional school committee in the coming fiscal year as town boards held reorganization sessions on Monday, May 22 and Tuesday, May 23.
The School Committee kicked things off Monday by electing Beth Stafford as the new chair by a 8-2 vote on a first ballot. Fred Small had also been nominated.
The committee reorganization was the only agenda item. Hanson member Glen DiGravio attended remotely by phone.
Presiding until a chair had been voted, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak also welcomed new Hanson member Steve Cloutman, who was elected to fill out the final two years of former Chair Christopher Howard’s term after he resigned earlier this spring. Szymaniak also congratulated Whitman members Steve Bois and David Forth on their re-elections as well as Hanson member Hillary Kniffen, who was also re-elected on Saturday,, May 20.
The Vice Chair selection took two ballots after nominees Fred Small and David Forth were deadlocked with five votes each, Steve Bois had also been nominated for the first vote, but withdrew is name by voting against himself. On a second ballot, Chris Scriven threw his hat into consideration, winning the vote by a vote of 6-4.
Steve Bois was elected treasurer by unanimous vote with Dawn Byers elected assistant treasurer by 9-1 vote. David Forth received 9 votes to 1 be selected secretary-clerk.
Subcommittees and new membership for the Regional Agreement Committee were delayed until the committee’s next meeting in order to give new members time to familiarize themselves with the available subcommittee assignments.
The select boards held reorganization sessions Tuesday, where Hanson kept its officers from last year – chaired by Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, with Joe Weeks again serving as vice chair and Ann Rein elected as clerk once more.
It was back to the future in Whitman, with Dr. Carl Kowalski voted as chair, Dan Salvucci as vice chair and Justin Evans as clerk. Evans was also selected as the board’s liaison to the Regional Agreement Committee, while Hanson tabled their committee and subcommittee assignments until their board members can review their present commitments, although new member David George volunteered to serve as liaison to the Veterans Serives Officer and the Police Department. He is a veteran who worked in law enforcement before retiring.
Legal advice delays OK of flags, sidewalk paint
WHITMAN – Sometimes a singe individual can create an issue where there hadn’t been one before – for example, poet Amanda Gorman’s Biden inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” was pulled from Miami-Dade, Florida schools following a single challenge to its “appropriateness,” the latest ban of literature and history books in that state’s schools.
Whitman town officials have, in the past year, received a complaint about small pride flags, bought with an employee’s own money, to decorate flower boxes at the Council on Aging as a signal for LGBTQ elders who may have no support elsewhere, that they are welcome.
Now a request from Whitman Pride to has moved Town Counsel to advise that the town form a policy on flag displays and painted sidewalks to remove any problems from the approval process for either.
“We’re not saying no, we’re saying we need a process,” Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said.
The Select Board voted on Tuesday, May 23, to refer the matter to the By-Law Committee, after members have a chance to ask questions of Town Counsel prior to its next meeting – on June 20. While that may be too late to hinge a sidewalk painting project planned at Whitman Public Library on the annual June Pride Month activities for the LGTBQ+ community, it is a project proponents wish to advance.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said Kathleen Evans had reached out to the library about painting portions of the sidewalk in rainbow colors for Pride Month – at the side entrance to the building and a small area at the front.
“It’s something that has not been requested before and I just think that maybe it should go for a by-law[ revision],” she said.
Because of a recent Supreme Court decision involving the City of Boston and its flag displays at City Hall, after a private Christian group demanded it’s flag be placed there in response to a Pride flag. Boston receives more than 280 requests for flag displays a year, but that application was the only one rejected.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for six members of the court, said the central question in the case, Shurtleff v. City of Boston, No. 20-1800, was whether the city had created a public forum by allowing private groups to use its flagpole or was conveying its own speech by choosing and endorsing the flags it approved.
“All told, while the historical practice of flag flying at government buildings favors Boston, the city’s lack of meaningful involvement in the selection of flags or the crafting of their messages leads us to classify the flag raisings as private, not government, speech — though nothing prevents Boston from changing its policies going forward,” Breyer wrote last year.
That is why Whitman’s legal counsel advised that the town institute a policy for flag or painted sidewalk displays before taking any action on the current application.
Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said he has spoken to Town Counsel about the matter.
“It appears to me that displaying the flag – no matter what flag it is – and to paint a crosswalk, no matter what kind of designation the cause is – this has nothing to do with what is planned to be painted [at the library],” he said. “It would mean that, in the future, we would have to approve everything. Anything. It could be KKK or the [Proud] Boys, and so I thought we should be cautious on it.”
Counsel Michelle McNulty opined that, since the town does not have a policy governing crosswalk painting or flag display approval process, the town needs to have one in place before the board takes any action on any request, to protect both the town and applicants.
Kowalski suggested the matter be passed to the By-Law Committee without discussion, but as Kathleen Evans’ wish to explain her project was granted – that meant Select Board member Justin Evans, who is her husband, had to leave the room.
Select Board member Shawn Kain expressed concern over passing it to the By-Law Committee without being able to ask questions of town counsel first.
“It would be helpful to have some guidance from counsel here, because the massage I [got] as a lay person reading these documents, I thought it said if you don’t explicitly have a by-law, which states how we fly flags and that kind of stuff, then you can’t really restrict because if you restrict one, you should be restricting others,” Kain said. “There was some ambiguity about it.”
He stressed it was not the cause that caused his concern.
‘I think it’s a cool imitative, I think it’s cool for Pride Month,” he said. “I’d like to support it, but obviously I don’t want to go against what’s recommended by counsel.”
He asked if there was a way to expedite the request.
Kathleen Evans said ideally the project was intended to be done in time for Pride Month in June, but it could be done in a different month. She said that, if it paves the way for other Pride displays in town, it would be worthwhile to have the By-Law Committee create a policy.
“I’m not comfortable with Justin having to leave,” Kain said.
“She said he has to remove himself from the room, because he could affect it just by being here – and he’s an imposing figure,” Kowalski quipped. “Just by being here he could affect what goes on in the room.”
Kathleen Evans said she and a group got together last year to do the sidewalk project as an inclusive project, and that other South Shore communities, such as Hingham have done similar projects in the past year alone.
“It seemed like it would be really feasible and the library expressed interest in doing it,” she said. “I think inclusivity is important and this would be a really cool way to get people involved in a project that would last.”
Kowalski said he totally agreed with the project and the reason behind it, but the town had to “make sure we don’t open the path for people who aren’t as interested in sensitivity to other people.”
Rosemary Connolly, of Franklin Street, asked if some of the groups like the Proud Boys that Kowalski had mentioned, would be covered under hate speech regulations.
“I really think we need something in writing,” he said. “I was just using those [groups] as an example.”
Tennis teams close out season on some high notes
The Whitman-Hanson boys’ tennis team were victorious over the Silver Lake Lakers, 3-2, on Senior Night May 23, and their final home match of the season. Seniors Drew Fountain and James Goyette won in dominant fashion at second doubles (6-0, 6-0). Senior captain Zachary Lindsay and junior Tristan Baker also looked strong in their win at first doubles (6-1, 6-1).
Junior Mateo Santalucia was able to secure the Panthers win at second singles (6-2, 6-2). Senior Matt Bergin played one of his best matches of the season at third singles but came up short of the win. The Panthers improve to 6-11 and wrap up regular season on Thursday at Plymouth North. Match time 4 p.m.
The W-H team lost to Hingham Friday, May 19 in back-to-back matches, 0-5, 0-5, falling to 4-11 on the season. The team had some great games and played well, but were just overpowered by the high-powered play of Hingham.
Sophomore Mateo Santalucia had the best overall chance at a win, losing 5-8 in the first match and 4-8 in the second.
The Panthers had team defeated the Quincy Presidents May 18, 4–1, in the completion of a rain delayed match. The team played well on all five courts. Sophomore Brady Wright played three strong sets at first singles (6-3, 4-6, 6-2). Junior Mateo Santalucia won in two sets at second singles (7-5, 6-3). Senior Captain Zach Lindsay and junior Tristan Baker won in two sets at first doubles (6-0, 6-1), while senior Drew Fountain and junior George Dykens took care of their opponents in two sets on the second doubles court, (6-3, 6-3).
The Lady Panthers tennis team defeated Brockton May 22, 5-0. In first singles Alyson Tobias won 6-2,6-0 and at secondnd singles Sam Jacobsen won 6-2, 6-3.
In third singles freshman Mari Santalucia defeated her opponent 6-1,6-2. In first doubles Delaney Hughes and Sophie Ennis won 6-2,4-6,6-0 and at second doubles Mary Lynam and Sarah Regan won 6-3, 6-2.
Zooming in on Regional pact revisions
The School Committee, meeting on Wednesday, May 10 discussed members’ concerns over a proposed wording change in the Regional Agreement revision that could surrender its authority in determining what costs go before Town Meeting.
Committee Vice Chair Christopher Scriven presided at the meeting, as Chair Christopher Howard had resigned effective following the May 1 town meetings. Committee member Fred Small was also absent as he was traveling.
“I’m outraged,” said Dawn Byers, who chairs the Capital Operations and Technology Subcommittee. “Everyone on the School Committee should be outraged that the Board of Selectmen in Hanson made a decision that they don’t have the legal authority to do. We need to understand this, and it’s so important.”
She said that, while the Select Board has the authority to place things on the warrant, it is not their place to reject an article voted by the School Committee, according to MGL Ch. 71 ss16 (h). She urged the committee to have School District legal counsel to send a letter to the towns, reminding them of Mass. General Law language on the issue.
While Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak thanked the town meetings and residents who turned out and supported the school budget without question on May 1 as well as support for capital technology items on the warrant in Whitman, he noted that Hanson had not placed the capital items on the warrant.
Town officials, he explained, plan to place them on the October special Town Meeting, but the move to reject it from placement on the Hanson warrant caused outrage and concern among School Committee members.
The installation of the new switches and interactive boards will move forward in Whitman schools. For the high school, with Whitman’s funding approved, once Hanson approves it, the work can begin with placing the boards in January.
Szymaniak said he did speak with district council as well as that of the Mass. Association of School Committees and the Mass. Association of Regional Schools (MARS). The only thing select boards are obligated to place on the warrant is the assessment, he was told.
The operating and transportation assessments and capital get asssment for immediate needs must be placed, he said.
“An operational capital item, a want, a truck [for example], they can choose not to put that on a warrant,” he said.
Those “wants,” select boards are entitled to decide whether they want to do, noting that Hanson Capital Committee Chair Frank Milisi told him the town was putting zero capital articles on the warrant this year, so the district was aware it would not be there.
“You don’t ever hear them rejecting something from South Shore Vo Tech, which is another regional school district,” she said. “The reason it was on the Whitman warrant is because they knew they couldn’t reject it.”
Byers noted that Assistant Superintendent George Ferro called the move the “will of the Hanson voters,” but she said that characterization was incorrect.
“The Board of Selectmen pulled that ability away from the Hanson voters,” Byers said. “I’m certain the voters want this in Hanson, but they didn’t have the ability because the Board of Selectmen did not give the voters that choice.”
Szymaniak said if the Hanson Select Board does not place it on the October warrant, town meeting rules permit the article to be placed by citizen’s petition.
Byers said if the Hanson officials were going to look at the School Committee’s capital articles as requests, they should send their entire capital matrix along to the Capital and Finance committees. Charged with prioritizing needs, Byers said her committee did so by forwarding the technology needs.
“Maintenance is going to have to take a back seat for the year,” she said. “All of those conversations happened.”
School Committee member Beth Stafford said towns traditionally place the articles, but pass over them at Town Meeting if they feel it is necessary.
Scriven thanked Whitman Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter for her comments at Town Meeting about the need to start budget discussions earlier and engaging more with Hanson officials in that process.
Regional agreement
The Regional Agreement Committee (RAC), meanwhile, is in a pause with Howard’s departure from the School Committee, Szymaniak said. To reorganize the RAC panel a revote of a representative from Whitman and one from Hanson will be necessary. Hanson will have to name a new Select Board representative, as well. That reorganization meeting will follow the Town Elections, which will be held on May 20.
Questions asked of counsel stemming from the discussion on consensus votes for the revised agreement were discussed last week, however.
Byers questioned the addition of the word “consider” following a phrase outlining how Select Boards “shall” forward warrant articles to Town Meeting.
“It completely changes the dynamic of what our 10-member committee has the authority to do – which is vote for things, and it shall go to Town Meeting,” Byers said, noting that changing one word only says select boards “shall consider” doing so. “Basically, this committee gives up our authority to the towns for them to make the decision.”
Byers said that was her reason for asking that the agreement come back to the School Committee before going forward for review by MARS or legal.
“There is no doubt it was going to come back to this committee,” Scriven said. “That’s the final process. We’re sending it out to MARS and our legal to help us clean up our language that we come up with in our meetings.”
Final drafts with changes clearly marked will be brought back for RAC to review again.
Szymaniak said when it comes back to the RAC it will also be forwarded to the full School Committee and both Select Boards before it must go before both Town Meetings and then to the Department or Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
“This is still a long process,” he said.
Member Glen DiGravio asked what recourse the committee would have if the wording change is deemed illegal.
“What do we do about it, file a lawsuit?” he asked.
Szymaniak replied the committee has talked about such a move in the past, but that it’s like suing the state.
“I think that’s a conversation with the town,” he summed up. “But our modus operandi has to change on how we assess things.”
Budget reviews
In other business, Business Manager John Stanbrook reviewed the state aid outlook for fiscal 2024 saying that while the House Ways and Means budget breakdown for Chapter 70 is out and the Senate version has just been released, the latter has not yet been broken down to the town and district levels.
“This will be updated very soon by the state Department of Revenue,” he said.
The House version had transportation reimbursement at 100 percent.
Stanbrook said the overall net in Cherry Sheet funds over last year is $503,949 or 2.01 percent.
“But you have to look closely at the numbers there,” he said, noting that regional transportation is listed as $449,379 of the $503,949 related to the change from a per pupil to per mile formula, without which, the increase would be $54,000 or .22 percent.
“There’s still a long way to go,” he said of the state budget.
Where the current fiscal 2023 budget is seeing concern is in Charter schools – already $18,000 over budget with two months to go, leaving him to anticipate a shortfall of about $70,000 more by the end of the fiscal year, but transportation is about to be over by about the same two amounts, because costs have been lower than was budgeted. Homeless transportation costs are still incomplete.
“That’s kind of the amount that will make or break whether we hit our revenue budget,” he said.
School panel to focus on decorum
The School Committee on May 10 addressed what Vice Chair Christopher Scriven described as issues, including a morale problem, which had ultimately led to Chair Christopher Howard’s resignation.
Scriven asked that a discussion of committee protocol be placed on the agenda.
“I appreciated all that Chris did for us and the direction he moved us in, but going forward, I think we need to have a discussion and ask some questions of ourselves about what we want to be going forward,” Scriven said.
His preference is to concentrate on the district’s mission statement supporting providing students with a high-quality education that promotes student success and responsible citizenship.
“I would like to ask the committee what do we want for individuals and what do we want, collectively for our group?” he said. “To say that we have some morale issues is an understatement.”
He wants to see a continuing discussion of reasonable protocols and procedures to which the committee should adhere. Rather than being a question of getting along with other members, Scriven explained it as a search for the goal of the committee and how members fit in to accomplish things together.
“By no means is this an effort to keep someone quiet or keep them from getting information that they want to [put out there],” Scriven said. “It’s about how do we function most effectively as a committee?”
The frequency in which members reach out to administration – for whatever reason – which has been disproportionate from some members of the committee, which keeps those officials from accomplishing other things.
Member Dawn Byers said, rhetorically, what the best avenue would be toward finding information she might need. She also said there should be a way to discover if a member has a problem with something another member said, how best should those interpersonal issues be addressed and worked out.
Approaching the end of his first year on the committee, Glen DiGravio said he has had no problems with other members.
“You guys have all treated me great,” he said. “Thanks for bearing with me and … if this needs to be improved, then to me, it’s only going to get better because I expected it to be much more negative than it’s been.”
Scriven had expressed his incredulity at, arriving to the joint meeting with the two select boards over the budget, only to find out a member had reached out to one board and come up with a deal.
“Is that how we want to operate?” he asked. “I don’t have the answers, but I have questions.”
Hillary Kniffen suggested that, in a couple of weeks there might be another committee. Michelle Bourgelas aggreed.
“I’m not disagreeing with things that you’re saying, but I think it might be a good idea to table this until we have our full committee that we will have after the tow election,” Kniffen said, suggesting that members be asked to propose a few norms they want to see and discuss at a June meeting.
Scriven said he was in complete agreement with that suggestion. Beth Stafford agreed it would be an important thing to do.
“Let’s try to remember the positive reasons we want to be here,” Bourgelas said. “A lot of good things happen at this school … there’s a lot of good people here. … There’s just been too much negative things at these meetings.”
Member David Forth said serving on the committee has been one of the greatest honors and privileges of his life, of which he is very proud as he has learned a lot from it.
Building a rapport with other members over coffee has been very helpful, he said.
“I might not always agree with your position or your vote, but I respect you and your character and your position, and I respect your vote,” he said of his fellow committee members. “We have a great group of people and I try to remember that and try to … ask what’s my role to help improve upon that.”
The beauty of invention
HANSON – An actress frequently promoted – an often dismissed – as “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World” – Hedy Lamarr was so much more than just a pretty face.
In fact, we’ve evidently been pronouncing her name wrong, too.
While it takes away the running gag in Mel Brooks’ spoof of western movies, “Blazing Saddles,” (Harvey Korman’s character Hedley Lamarr was often called “Hedy,” to which he would have to respond: “That’s Hedley!”) … the stage name of Hedwig Eva Keisler was really pronounced “Hey-dee as in lady.”
It was, as dramatized in a performance for the Hanson Historical Society on May 4 by Judith Kalaora, artistic director of History at Play, just one of the things Lamarr had to correct people on over the course of her life and career.
She also spent a lifetime trying to explain how an unscrupulous Czech director duped her into the nude scene in the 1933 film “Ecstasy” and dealing with dismissal of her rightful claim to a role in developing “frequency hopping” technology for radar evasion during World War II, shopping it to the U.S. Navy.
“I have learned, no matter where I have lived, that the words ‘beautiful’ and ‘stupid’ always go together,” she said, knowing full well that life is more complicated than a Hollywood movie, and far less boring, according to Lamarr, who detested boring people and activities.
Kalaora’s one-woman play opened with a hint of her scientific contributions as her side of a telephone conversation with friend and inventing collaborator George Antheil as the two were nervously awaiting a patent for their frequency-hopping invention. They got it U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387 – awarded in August of 1942 – but the U.S. Inventors’ Council, a branch of the Navy, and urged her to sell war bonds instead.
Without this technology, today’s cell phones, Bluetooth technology and GPS might not exist. Impressive stuff, but for Lamarr, it was a hobby she put to work in the cause of freedom.
“It is too heavy?,” Hedy as portrayed by Kalaora asked Antheil, whose voice the audience does not hear. “George, how could they? You said the technology could be made so small that it could fit into a pocket watch. How can they say it is too heavy? Well, we will make it lighter.
“Yes, I am sure. This technology will help us to beat the Nazis – and I think the Navy knows it, too.”
Kalaora then took her audience back in time to trace her way to Hollywood where, when she wasn’t working on a film, Lamarr could be found at her drafting table, inventing. She also studied and copied the people around her.
“I always wanted to transform myself,” she said, of her mother who resented having to give up her career as a professional pianist and who resented her daughter for it. Her father doted on her, and was Lamarr’s hero.
As an only child, Lamarr spent a lot of time with her father who discussed the inner workings of machines with her and encouraged Lamarr in her hobby of taking things apart and reassembling them.
“No man I ever met was my papa’s equal,” she said.
She did not take the Navy’s lack of cooperation, well – and was especially angry at the suggestion she stick to selling war bonds like every other starlet in Hollywood. It was an insult to the woman who had escaped her controlling first husband, Austrian munitions dealer Fritz Mandl to whom her mother married Hedy off at age 19. A Jewish man who supplied weapons to the Nazis and Italian fascists, Mandl ended up keeping her as a prisoner in her own home.
When she escaped to London and then America after her father’s death, she was determined to fight the Nazis, having seen first-hand who they were and what they were doing in Europe.
“I was always listening … I learned that the Nazis favor wire-guided torpedoes,” she said of dinner table talk between Mandl and guests to their home. Propulsion bombs were leaving trails of bubbles in the water to enable tracking. She had learned that the Nazis used 18 pre-launch electable frequencies for their aerial-deployed glide bombs divided between 18 planes. If one pilot was shot down or jammed, the others could complete the mission.
“I knew what I was learning,” she said. “I knew it was important. It could help us to beat the Nazis.”
Keeping that in mind, she was able to use that information later in California as she worked with Antheil, a writer and composer I Hollywood, who had been a munitions inspector during WWI and whose brother had been shot down by Nazis at the beginning of WWII, on the frequency-hopping technology. A partnership had been formed.
“I wanted to invent a torpedo that hit its target every time,” she said through Kalaora. “So often the torpedoes were thrown off course so they would detonate before they hit their target. I wanted every torpedo to hit its target, and wanted all those targets to be German U-boats, and I knew George was the only person who could help me.”
“The system involved the use of “frequency hopping” amongst radio waves, with both transmitter and receiver hopping to new frequencies together,” according to the National Women’s History Museum. “Doing so prevented the interception of the radio waves, thereby allowing the torpedo to find its intended target.”
It was also a way for Hedy to keep from being bored. They came up with the idea while playing a piano game akin to Name That Tune.
“I could see it in my mind,” she said. “I could see all of those Navy men, seated around a table at the Inventors’ Council, trying to figure out how to strap a piano to a torpedo!”
Put off and told to sell war bonds despite using her real name – Hedwig Keisler-Markey – for the patent application, she channeled her anger into outselling most other celebrities in Hollywood.
“I sold $25 million in war bonds,” she said. “I did not care how I helped, as long as I helped – as long as we won.”
She also raised $7 million in one afternoon selling kisses for $50,000 each.
Three years after the patent expired, in 1962, it was used during the Cuban Missile Crisis, during which every ship in the U.S. blockade of Cuba was equipped with the frequency-hopping system.
“I always knew our invention would be used for military purposes,” she said.
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