Whitman-Hanson Express

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Emergency fund tapped for Chromebooks, water bill settlement

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The School Committee certified a $58,492,314.12 budget, with a general fund increase of $1,694,734 — or 2.98 percent — for fiscal 2023 at its Wednesday, March 16 meeting. Whitman’s assessment would be $16,889,943.66 — an increase of $785,040, or 4.87 percent — and Hanson’s would be $13,341,812 — an increase of $695,694 or 5.5 percent to the operating assessment.

The budget Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak presented includes: two more special education teachers; implementation of full-day kindergarten without the use of from excess and deficiency (E&D) funds; using $400,000 (E&D) for Chromebooks; and $123,000 from E&D for paying the Whitman water bill settlement — all under Scenario 3 of 11 possible spending options presented on March 9 [see related story].

Budget documents reflecting Scenario 3 have been uploaded to the school district website whrsd.org under the school district heading in the “select a school” drop-down menu. The seven professional staff members covered by ESSER3 funds, one of the uses permitted under the grant program, are also listed. The funds have to be spent by September 2024.

“This is what these monies are for — so we can provide remediation for these kids,” School Committee member Fred Small said. “To me, this is the perfect thing we should be spending this money on. … I don’t see how we don’t do this.”

Committee member Dawn Byers had urged a budget that added the $400,000 for Chromebooks, instead of using E&D funds, placing the budget at $58,892,314.12. That motion was later withdrawn, when Business Manager John Stanbrook said it would be merely a shift of the funding source for the Chromebooks, not a dollar amount voted. By moving the funding source out of E&D, he explained it could possibly increase the assessment to the towns for that expense. The committee then voted to use $523,885 from the $1.8 million in E&D to be used for a Whitman water bill settlement and the Chromebooks. There was an influx of funds in E&D from one-time COVID relief funds. 

“I feel this is extremely dangerous, but that we are facing a fiscal cliff and if we have $1.8 million in E&D right now, we are by law allowed to [retain] 5 percent, so we could keep an E&D balance of $2.9 million for emergency,” Byers had said. “Reducing this down to $1 million puts us in a position to not replenish very much next year.”

“We have to look at why our enrollment is declining,” Byers said in her initial argument for including Chromebooks in the general budget. She said it it may be more about programs they lack, rather than declining birth rates. As technology is changing education, not including Chromebooks in the general budget would be more realistic.

Committee member David Forth also said he has heard from residents who moved to Whitman and were planning families, not realizing the district didn’t offer free all-day kindergarten already.

“I know that we can do better and this is a path forward to let the towns know that this is the actual cost of education,” Byers said.

“We have a plan, too,” Szymaniak said.

The committee also voted against paying non-mandated busing costs — $121,475 for Hanson and $487,839 for Whitman — sending the cost to the individual towns as has been past practice.

Without a reduction in the non-mandated busing assessment from a purely financial concern, Whitman Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said, his town’s budget would be out of balance by about $224,000. He reminded the committee that Hanson Town Administrator Lisa Green has said her town can only handle a 3 percent assessment increase.

ESSER funds

The district is also one of six in the state taking part in a Rennie Center study, at no cost to the district, on how school districts are spending the ESSER affects learning and what happens when the grant ends, according to Szymaniak. W-H has partnered with the Rennie Center on social-emotional learning studies in the past.

Szymaniak said he is also hearing that eight retirements are coming by the time the grant expires.

The blueprint that’s going to be developed should show the district whether and how the ESSER benefit is sustainable and how they can move forward and keep it sustainable, according to Assistant Superintendent George Ferro.

Chairman Christopher Howard said he had approached Heineman for information on the town’s budget figures. Hanson was still working on their numbers, as of that meeting, Howard said. As soon as he obtains the rest of the numbers, he said it would be shared in another meeting.

Szymaniak reported about the meeting he and the Whitman Finance Committee had the previous night, adding that he requested that the schools be added to the Finance Committee’s budget schedule earlier next year.

“It was a good discussion,” Szymaniak said. “Not many questions were asked and we were able to present the budget to them … and I appreciated their dialog with us and continued work.”

Howard said he had reached out to Hanson Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Sullivan to reach an  understanding of where the town is and Sullivan had extended a tentative invitation for the schools to meet with Hanson FinCom on Tuesday, March 22.

“That would be after our assessment, so it really wouldn’t be a budget presentation, it would be simply [to] understand where the town is,” Howard said.

He left it to the committee to determine if such a meeting would be helpful. Committee members said that, while they could see no reason not to hold the meeting, their job was to certify the budget that night, Szymaniak indicated he would attend, if a firm invitation was issued.

In discussing the use of ESSER funds, School Committee member Hillary Kniffen warned that, while there are teacher retirements ahead that may help the budget, the interventionists that have been brought on to help students catch up, might need to be kept around past 2024.

“Kids need more these days and we need to give it to them, so far as funding public schools,” Kniffen said.

“It’s up to make a responsible decision on a budget,” Byers said, noting that next year — despite planning — the budget may look very different. “One of those is to accurately reflect what the cost is of education.”

Ferro said it was a recommendation that $275,000 be set aside annually for the next large numbers of Chromebooks that are expected to go off line in 2026 and 2029. The current $400,000 sought is to replace the large number of Chromebooks going offline in June.

Three curriculum purchases have been off with between three and four years before the next purchases are due, Ferro said.

“We will be OK as long as this money comes back for the next cycle that we need,” he said.

Howard said that is one reason the five-year plan is something on which the committee will continue work.

Small advocated including all the district’s needs in a comprehensive budget and make the case for it.

“This doesn’t reflect our needs, but it’s a beginning,” Byers said. Increasing programs equals increasing enrollment and getting nearer to the minimum local contribution to the budget and target share that will eventually bring more state aid.

Both Selectman Randy LaMattina and resident John Galvin both cautioned the committee about Whitman’s fiscal health if the school budget was passed at the current funding level.

“Passing this budget the way it is, you’re putting services at risk, whether they be town services or services within the school district itself,” he said. “And then it compounds, and then the use of E&D.”

He said that forcing it on the towns would endanger the school district in the end.

Towns to receive non-mandated busing bill

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Whitman residents John Galvin and Shawn Kain were given the opportunity to provide the School Committee with a brief presentation on Wednesday, March 16 about the non-mandated busing funding formula they had discussed with Whitman’s Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee the previous evening. Szymaniak said he had also received guidance on the matter from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and Mass. Association of Regional Schools (MARS) to present at the meeting.

The session devolved, however, into accusations of whether the committee or town representatives were presenting a complete and accurate portrayal of the issue.

“The bottom line here is — and I appreciate Mr. Kain and Mr. Galvin doing some work, they did a lot of work,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. “It’s awesome to see somebody looking at things through a different lens.”

But Szymaniak said state education officials told him that, the way in which the scenarios were presented were not necessarily good for the district. 

If the committee chose not to pay for non-mandated busing costs, it goes to the Board of Selectmen for their vote as to whether or not it is placed on a Town Meeting warrant, according to the regional agreement. That is how the committee voted later in the meeting. The committee voted against paying non-mandated busing costs — $121,475 for Hanson and $487,839 for Whitman — sending the cost to the individual towns as has been past practice.

“We also have to have a follow-up conversation on how the article is presented to the community,” Szymaniak said. 

He said that examination from outside affords them the chance to vet and think through the issue.

“On the short list of things the Finance Committee in Whitman has been concerned about, non-mandated busing has been one of them,” Kain said, noting that their study gave them a solid idea of how non-mandated busing worked, and the numbers behind the methodology. Previous consideration of transportation costs did not consider that cost savings did not equal is being paid for with non-mandated busing.

When Business Manager John Stanbrook recently discussed numbers, Kain said it provided further insight into the numbers and calculation method used to determining the cost of non-mandated busing.

What “didn’t sit well,” with him, Kain said, was that if the committee decided to discontinue non-mandated busing, the district could receive “significantly more” mandated state reimbursement. He said they approached it from an interest in simply finding inefficiencies, not to play a “gotcha” game with the district.

Szymaniak said he reached out to DESE and, during a “spirited conversation,” they discussed the idea. MARS, when he spoke with them, recommended using the terms eligible and not eligible rather than mandated and non-mandated. The discussions focused on a figure of $1.8 million for everybody.

“Then we bill the town[s] … the difference of  $1.8 million to what non-mandated folks are,” he said, but it wouldn’t be cut. “For Whitman that would be $400,000, and for Hanson it’s $100,000-plus.” After that deduction, the state would be billed $1.3 million.

Szymaniak said they were told that, unless the district can justify how other students were transported on the end-of-the-year report. 

He outlined the proposal to bill the state for $1.7 million, but would like to transport everyone.

“We can continue to look, but we can’t bill for one and do both,” he said, noting the DESE representative told him: “If John submits the annual report, and you have $1.3M instead of $1.7M this year, I’m going to flag you for an audit,” not giving out any money until the district could justify it.

Every student must be accounted for.

“If we make a change like this, we are going to proactively share with DESE what we’re doing, and then do it, not do it and create god-knows what kind of issue after,” said School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard.

Committee member Fred Small asked for a vote to place the recording of Szymaniak’s Zoom call with DESE and MARS on the district’s website in the interest of transparency after discussion with the DESE. The committee approved the posting. 

Whitman Selectman Randy LaMattina argued that it was a public meeting and should be posted in any case. Szymaniak said it was not a posted public meeting, but he would request permission from DESE to do so.

“There seems to be a lot of confusion in the initial proposal and how it was presented to DESE,” Galvin said. “I’m disappointed that, as the author of that proposal, that Shawn and myself weren’t invited to that meeting and possibly could have had a different way of explaining it to them.”

He said their examples were not “scenarios” but were actual costs of eliminating the programs, and disagreed with Kain that their proposal can’t be used.

“I find it odd that you’re not willing to share the video [of the Zoom call],” Galvin said. “It just doesn’t sit right with me.”

Information they could obtain from the call would provide the opportunity to modify their proposal, if necessary.

They are not advocating use of a new formula on the end of year fiscal 2022 report. He had emailed DESE for guidance while compiling the report and was told they had none.

“Now all of a sudden, they do?” he said.

LaMattina stressed that the numbers at issue came from the district business manager, not Galvin and Kain.

“I think we would welcome an audit at this point, because, clearly, what we see is the town of Whitman is subsidizing mandated busing,” he said, noting the public doesn’t know how the question was presented to DESE. “I’m sorry, but this feels eerily similar to a couple years ago where, [he heard] ‘It’s legal, folks. What we did was legal. We talked to DESE.’”

Howard responded “because I’m not going to have things made up.”

He said the request that was made was — what would it look like if we eliminated non-mandated busing?

Whitman Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly pointed out there is a video, from when the schools attempted to split busing costs 60-40, only to be told by former Town Administrator Frank Lynam that the towns had elected to pay more. She added that, while she is uncertain the schools did anything illegally, there is reason to question past practices in the town.

Menu of budget scenarios offered many options

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The School Committee heard a rundown of 11 alterative plans for potential uses of one-time funds, such as excess and deficiency and ESSER grants, at its Wednesday, March 9 meeting.

Those senarios are:

• Scenario 1 — Half of full-day kindergarten, costs from E&D, with a 3.48 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 4.35 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 2.98 percent;

• Scenario 2 — All costs of full-day kindergarten, costs from E&D, with a 2.09 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 3.19 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 2.98 percent;

• Scenario 3 — No full-day kindergarten costs from E&D, with a 4.87 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 5.50 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 2.98 percent;

• Scenario 4 — Kindergarten, using $200,000 per year over four years from E&D, with a 4.12 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 4.88 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 2.98 percent;

• Scenario 5 — No full-day kindergarten (maintain half-day program with tuition-based, full-day K), a 2.09 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 3.19 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 1.98 percent;

• Scenario 6 — Full-day kindergarten, using no E&D with professional salaries funded from ESSER rolled into budget, a 6.92 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 7.2 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 3.94 percent;

• Scenario 7 — Full-day kindergarten, using $370,000 from E&D with professional salaries funded from ESSER rolled into budget, a 5.5 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 6.04 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 3.9 percent;

• Scenario 8 — Full-day kindergarten, using $370,000 from E&D with professional and paraprofessional salaries funded from ESSER 3 rolled into budget, a 6.19 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 6.59 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 4.25 percent;

• Scenario 9 — Full-day kindergarten, using $370,000 from E&D with BCDA and EL teacher salaries funded from ESSER rolled into budget, a 4.21 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 4.95 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 3.33 percent;

• Scenario 10 — Level service — A .57 percent increase assessment for Whitman and 1.94 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of .05 percent;

• Scenario 11 — Full-day kindergarten using no E&D and funding only BCDAs (behavior specialists) and ELs from ESSER, a 5.61 increase assessment for Whitman and 6.11 percent for Hanson. Overall budget increase of 3.33 percent.

Szymaniak recommended the School Committee adopt Scenario 3.

“We’re committed, through ESSER 3, to use some of that money for staffing,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. “How we use that is up to us, but I can’t buy things [with it].”

The rules of the grant require some of the money be used for professional staff, according to Szymaniak, stressing the coaches working on learning regression, behavior specialists and English Learner staff were needed after the pandemic.

“These two ELs wouldn’t have been needed in October this year,” he said. “Because we had a bubble come up, I need them.”

He doesn’t know if that enrollment bubble will go away and he can’t responsibly say those instructors should be put into the district budget because the need for them could go away in two years.

“We’ve seen an uptick in behaviors in all of our buildings,” he said. “ESSER money is perfect for this because it addresses what we’ve seen post-COVID. … ESSER money is for post-COVID people.”

Whitman Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said the town could afford the 3.48 percent increase included in Scenario 1, but Hanson Town Administrator Lisa Green said her town could only afford a 3 percent increase.

The assessments, slated to be up for a certification vote at the March 17 meeting can always be reduced right up to Town Meetings, but cannot be increased.

Committee member Fred Small said he has received several calls on busing cost calculations and how much of the ESSER 3 funds would be used in Scenario 3. Szymaniak sat the $2.3 million in ESSER 3 was being looked at to pay for eight positions. 

“It has to be COVID-related,” Szymaniak said. “We have to be ethical in using the funds.”

Chairman Christopher Howard said the new non-mandated busing formula proposed by Whitman residents John Galvin and Shawn Kain is still being looked at and savings projections could not be made at the moment.

“It helps the five-year [plan], it still could have an impact, but we’re not there yet,” Howard said.

Szymaniak also briefed the committee on his progress with his goals for the year, including a continued effort to institute a full-day kindergarten program in the district.

“No matter what happens out of School Committee as we move this budget forward, I think this is a topic that will continue if it doesn’t move forward,” Szymaniac said to the committee about his progress on goals for the year on March 6. “We’ll continue this discussion on early childhood education, which I think we have to start branching off to pre-K as well, looking at where we are as a district.”

The intervention program aimed at helping students regain any educational ground during the remote learning of the 2020 to 2021 period is also part of those goals.

That is being pursued via coaches at both at district as well as individual school level, according to Assistant Superintendent George Ferro, mentioning the positions that had been referred to as interventionists.  They are now being steered toward co-teaching with classroom teachers.

At high school, the work to close gaps due to the pandemic are being addressed in intervention study halls as the district works to catch students up in real time as they also keep up in class with their peers.

The district will also be striving to present representative depictions of students in literature and history being taught.

Ferro noted that the MCAS exams include a verbal survey at the end for certain grades, asking, among other questions, whether students “read and see people in literature that look like you, or that look like your classmates.”

More than 40 percent of students at different grade levels have been answering that they do not.

“When we talk about equity, we have to start thinking about the characters that we teach [about] in literature, the books that we read, the authors that we look at, the gender of the people that we look at, to say, ‘is this representative of everybody in Whitman-Hanson,” Ferro said. “Those are the things Jeff is promoting … as this project moves forward.”
Szymaniak added that family and parental outreach is also being pursued and presented an informational slide program about full-day kindergarten that is viewable on the WHCA-TV’s YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m0UY_Vlld0].

Creating communities around transit

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HANSON — When a commuter rail line runs thorough it, a community now needs to plan for multi-family housing within a half-mile of a commuter rail station, T-station, ferry terminal or bus station, according to a new state zoning law.

Commuter rail communities are required to contain a minimum of 15 percent of total housing stock — 750 units in Hanson — that qualify under the statute as multi-family. As of 2020, Hanson has 594 of these units.

“But the commonwealth has set the floor at 750 units,” Town Planner Tony DeFrias. “But what I want to let the board know is that the multi-family district unit capacity is not a mandate … to construct a specified number of housing units, nor is it a housing production target.”

He explained that a community is only required to have a multi-family zoning district of a reasonable size.

“The law does not require the production of new multi-family units within that district,” DeFrias cautioned. “There is no requirement nor expectation that a multi-family district will be built to its full unit capacity.”

While the Selectmen expressed concern around some specifics like tax support for schools, septic demands and character of community, there was some appreciation of the environmental mission at work.

“It sounds to me like they’re trying to address energy issues with the housing crisis, but you also don’t want to lose the flavor of what it is to live in Hanson,” said Selectman Joe Weeks. “I’m very eager to see what you guys come up with — I think it’s going to be an exciting by-law to kind of build and see what you can do.”

Selectemen voted to acknowledge that DeFrias made the presentation, as the state requires a copy of the minutes to verify that it was done.

It’s part of MBTA draft guidelines for communities with public transit facilities, in accordance with the omnibus economic development [Chapter 358 of the Acts of 2020], signed by Gov. Baker in January 2021. Among its provisions is a new section — Chapter 40A of the Zoning Act (MGL) that apply to MBTA communities.

“Hanson is a Commuter Rail town,” DeFrias said. “Because it is a Commuter Rail town, the commonwealth has issued guidelines that require towns with transit to create a multi-family zone by right.”

The commonwealth requires that the guidelines be presented to the Select Board at a public hearing, and town/city planners must prove that has been done, along with the filing of a form with the state before May 2. The deadline for interim compliance is Dec. 31 and for the action plan, the deadline is July 1, 2023. New zoning regulations must be adopted by Dec. 31, 2024. Towns have until March 31, 2024 to apply for termination of compliance.

“This is just the first step,” DeFrias said of the hearing before the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, March 15. “Next will be crafting a by-law that will put all those mechanisms in place.”

All this means Hanson, like other MBTA communities “shall have” a zoning ordinance or by-law providing for at least one district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right, providing that the multi-family housing has no age restriction and is suitable for families with children. The commonwealth would require a gross density of 15 units per acre, subject to the Wetlands Protection Act and Title V of the State Environmental Code.

Chapter 40B requires at least eight units per acre and 40R, which is mixed use, requires at least 12 units per acre, DeFrias noted.

“The minimum size they want for this area is 50 acres,” he said. “Taking a half-mile radius from the train station, that would encompass a land mass of about 500 acres. They’re looking at about one-tenth of that to be dedicated to the multi-family zone.”

The districts should lead to development of multi-family housing projects that are “consistent with a community’s long-term planning goals.”

There are 267 pieced of property within the half-mile radius of the Hanson MBTA station, according to DeFrias. Not all are developable. While there are some large properties in the area, they are under private ownership.

“As of right” means that construction and occupancy of multi-family housing is allowed in that district without the need for any discretionary permits or approval. But it does allow for a site plan and approval process, permitting regulation of issues such as motor vehicle assess and circulation on a site, architectural design of a building and screening of adjacent properties DeFrias said. But site plan review can’t be used to deny a project allowed as of right or to impose conditions that render it unfeasible or impractical as of right.

“The town will have some control … similar to a site plan similar to a commercial site,” he said. “The town will have to decide which board will control that site plan review process.”

A heavily regulated overlay plan will be allowed for consideration.

“What will probably decide the size and number of bedrooms in Hanson, is this is a non-sewer town,” he said. “The Wetlands Act can be a restriction.”

To determine compliance the state would consider factors such as general district information, location of districts, reasonable size metrics, district gross density, whether housing is suitable for families and attestation, according to DeFrias.

Determinations of compliance carry 10-year terms with applications for renewal due six months before.

“It’s not forever,” DeFrias said.

Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer asked if there was any way the town could designate affordable housing units toward the program to “kill two birds with one stone?”

“My understanding, through attending the webinars is a ‘definite maybe,’ with an underlying ‘yes,’” DeFrias said. He said he has also been examining the prospects of such a blending through 40R, which is similar to this program in some of its requirements.

Selectmen Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked about the advantages of using 40R in that manner in light of the requirement that multi-family units include families with children for a community already struggling to raise revenue to deal with costs such as school budgets.

DeFrias said 40R allows for communities to get some cash from the state for creating affordable housing in certain instances.

“If the taxes that are incurred can not pay for the child, then there is what’s known as 40S — which a town can tap into to get the difference in taxes,” he said. “Because the taxes usually tend to work out, not many towns apply for that. … The two sort of go hand-in-hand.”

There is also the issue of the environmental limitations that restrict the number of septic systems allowed in the area.

Dyer also advocated for the use of trees in any developments resulting from the law in order to maintain the character of the town. DeFrias said that could be addressed through the architectural design controls included in the law.

“The state is not telling the town, ‘You have to construct this many units,’” DeFrias said. “It’s, ‘You have to create a zone to allow for the construction of that many units.’ They seem to understand it’s not a one-size-fits-all.”

Recalculating busing costs

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WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen, on Tuesday, March 15, heard suggestions on dealing with the issue of non-mandated busing and its cost pertaining to school funding from residents John Galvin and Shawn Kain.

Kain pointed to pressure the finance Committee had placed on the schools last year to do more research in an effort to find efficiencies in non-mandated busing.

“It’s been a standing item on their agenda,” Kain said. “I’ve been trying to pay attention to those guys and it’s obviously a priority for them.”

Selectman Randy LaMattina, noting the board’s support of non-mandated busing in Whitman, said he, a couple School Committee members, some Finance Committee members and Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman met about 14 months ago to discuss the escalating cost and whether there was a more fiscally sound way to bill the towns for it. The session included a presentation on the issue by Superintendent Jeff Szymaniak. A quorum of the School Committee attended Whitman’s Finance Committee meeting at the time Galvin and Kain made their presentation March 15.

 “We also had a commitment from him that he was going to look into it,” LaMattina said, indicating that the schools would be getting back to them before the school year started on ways it could be better handled.

Kain said the meeting had been helpful in outlining how non-mandated busing worked, but not the numbers behind it.

“This year, when they followed up with another presentation, we had the numbers,” he said.

The town is being charged a service for non-mandated busing.

Heineman said the cost is $411,000 paid by Whitman for non-mandated busing in the current budget, with the fiscal 2023 school budget’s initial numbers calling for $478,000. Galvin and Kain’s data indicated the actual cost is between $100,000 to $131,000.

The state reimburses for mandated busing costs.

“When they did the math on what would happen if we got rid of non-mandated busing, the savings didn’t equate to what we were being charged,” Kain said. “That just doesn’t sit well with me.”

While he noted there could be legitimate reasons for the discrepancy, but the numbers did not adequately explain it to him. For example, if the town got rid of non-mandated busing the state’s reimbursement to the district for transportation was shown to increase by $350,000.

Galvin said the district calculates their cost by every rider, whether mandated or not — about 2,700 riders — and come up with a cost of $646 per pupil, which they then multiply by the number on non-mandated riders they have — 755 in Whitman — to arrive at the $478,000 they indicated Whitman would be assessed. The same calculations are done for Hanson.

“Isn’t that a double payment?” Selectman Dan Salvucci asked.

Kain said that was his first conclusion.

If the non-mandated students were taken out of the equation, Galvin said the numbers provided by the school district showed only about $131,000.

“Isn’t that the true cost of our non-mandated busing?” Galvin asked. By Galvin’s calculations, Hanson’s saving would be $101,000.

Galvin said the group that met 14 months ago, including Business Manager John Stanbrook, have agreed that the formula he and Kain are suggesting is one that made more sense than the way they are doing it now. He said state officials have told them that there is no state guidance on the matter because all regions are different. Heineman suggested there might also be a concern with the fact that it has already been assessed to the towns and therefor not reimburseable and Galvin said there is also a concern that DESE might ask for an audit.

“This is far from a simple topic, there’s no question about it,” Galvin said. “But we’re all in agreement that the way they do it now, isn’t the way we’re going to accept it anymore.”

“It may be that this exact formula doesn’t work,” Kain said of their work. “But something like this could be really beneficial.” While the towns could be paying less in busing costs, the district could stand to receive more in state aid.

“It’s a win-win,” he said.

Galvin said the distribution of savings would have to be done carefully. There are four other busing scenarios the school district has been calculating as well.

“When you make the shift … it’s the second year you see the savings and the bid reimbursement coming back from the state,” Kain said, regardless of what formula is used.

“You’d think you’d want to file your actual costs on your end-of-year report,” Galvin said. “It almost falls into the perfect use of one-time funds.”

That added to frustration among Whitman Selectmen about the previous week’s joint meeting with the Hanson board.

“That time came and went and, as you may be aware, a couple of weeks ago this hit a School Committee agenda where I don’t believe our board was painted in the best light,” LaMattia said. “We were kind of portrayed as looking to cut this out to save a few dollars, which I don’t believe was ever the case.”

LaMattina contends the Board of Selectmen has always supported non-mandated busing and the service it provides for parents and their kids.

“The fruits of that meeting were actual numbers placed on this,” he said. “Once you saw the numbers, it’s pretty obvious that the town is subsidizing non-mandated costs, as well as possibly the town of Hanson to a far lesser extent.”

“Both towns have been hurt by this — Whitman considerably,” LaMattina said.

Whitman could only cover its costs in a certified school budget if the town realizes savings on non-mandated busing, Heineman said.

“The [district’s] numbers didn’t make sense,” LaMattina said.

Selectman Brian Bezanson asked if the School District has either questioned or challenged Galvin’s numbers.

“I don’t even know if this has even been presented to the full School Committee yet,” LaMattina said. “It’s been handled by the budget subcommittee.”

That subcommittee sent an email indicating the members agree with Whitman’s numbers, according to LaMattina.

“At our meeting last week, we were chided as not being good partners,” Bezanson said. “Is it disingenuous? Is it a shell game? Is it mistakes? … It’s a little bit of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.”

Bezanson said he found the situation offensive and that Whitman officials are owed an apology from the chairman and vice chair of the School Committee.

“To me, this just reinforces the need for an audit,” Selectman Justin Evans said.

“I’ve always been an advocate of the town taking care of its non-mandated busing people, because I know that the impetus for that came from townspeople a long time ago,” said Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski. “But, I tell you, my faith is shaken right now.”

On the COVID-19 front, Heineman said Whitman has now registered its lowest positivity rate — 2.64 percent — since Aug. 5, 2021, and the lowest number of positive cases at 17 since that date.

Whitman Rec panel plans for summer

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WHITMAN — A late end date to the school year and a low number of signups for the first school summer vacation week, has the Recreation Commission eyeing a July 4 start to the summer park program.

The Recreation Commission, meeting on Thursday, March 3 also discussed a potential end date of Aug. 13.

Member Michelle LaMattina, who chaired the meeting, suggested asking park program staff about their availability for an extra week. Many of the program employees are college students, and there is a need to determine how long they are available. The number of counselors has a bearing on how many children can be accepted.

“With the outcome we had last year, we are expecting a lot more kids,” said Gabby Callahan, who runs the camp program. She noted that, while there have been years when the program only ran five weeks, so either six or seven would work.

“I think we’re going to have a really strong program this year, that is rebuilding,” LaMattina said. “I think it’s only going to get better.”

The ability to make plans for the weeks the programs are operating just became a little easier, as more members have been found to replace some departing commissioners.

Selectmen representative to the Recreation Commission Dan Salvucci, briefly attending the meeting, saying his attendance was due to an issue the commission was having in gathering a quorum for meetings. He outlined, as he did for the Board of Selectmen Tuesday, March 2, how he and Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman had made some phone calls in an attempt to attract some new volunteers to help out at Recreation meetings.

I don’t usually go to meetings of boards or committees I’m a liaison to … unless I’m asked for, or there’s a issue that I can help out with,” Salvucci said. “This is your board and [as] with any other board, they do such great work, that why would I interfere?”

Salvucci noted that, without a full board, the Recreation Commission could not effectively plan for summer programs.

“The reason I’m here is to let you know that what you do is very, very, very important and the members of your commission need to show up at all your meetings, and make sure your programs work,” he said. “I’m just glad you have a full board now.”

Salvucci also mentioned an article planned for Town Meeting that would permit associate members to step in and vote at a meeting when a quorum of regular voting members is not present. 

“There are a few [other boards in town] that are like that Chairman Michelle LaMattina said.

Member Kathleen Woodward said the commission’s fiscal 2022 budget is balanced with funds available for programs that are planned to start off the summer.

“As we know, we didn’t have the programs the prior year so we were basically running on empty, so it’s nice to have something to help start us off with,” she said.

The proposed fiscal 2023 Recreation budget keeps the director’s salary at the same level  and the pool line increased to $10,000 — mainly for maintenance issues — a $2,500 increase is also being asked for the needed July 4 program and other activities funding.

Four town organizations use town fields, W-H Youth Soccer, W-H Softball, W-H Lacrosse and Whitman Little League, and are in the process of determining their needs for the year so Woodward can organize schedules.

An apprentice counselor training program for rising eighth-graders is also being considered for the park program.

A story of abolition and mob violence

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HANSON — While most Americans spent the pandemic lockdown spring of 2020 perfecting their sourdough bread baking, watching “Tiger King” on Netflix, Zooming with friends and family or bleaching their hair blond, state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Pembroke, was researching and writing his second book.

His first, “Mobtown Massacre: Alexander Hanson and the Baltimore Newspaper War of 1812” had been published by The History Press in 2019 and he was looking into another incident of media-related political mob violence — this time set in Boston 23 years after his first story took place.

“Hopefully we can come back [for another talk] and the third book can have a new or a big, renovated library to host folks,” he said.

“How long is it going to take to write that?” a member of the audience joked.

Alexander Hanson was the man for whom the town of Hanson was named, Library Director Karen Stolfer said as she introduced Cutler for a talk on his new book Thursday, March 10. That book, “The Boston Gentlemen’s Mob: Maria Chapman and the Abolition Riot of 1835,” centers on the mob violence, racial unrest and attacks on the press which took place two centuries ago.

“I’m sensing a theme of mobs and violence in your writing,” Stolfer joked.

“It’s sort of a little theme — maybe a perverse theme — of mob violence. It’s unfortunately the same kind of occurrence that we see today, so it was sort of a fascinating intersection of things that were of interest to me,” said Cutler, who is a former newspaper editor and publisher himself.

Libraries had proven an essential ally in Cutler’s efforts to research the book during the pandemic lockdown.

“This was my pandemic project,” he said when an audience member asked if he wrote the book before or after Jan. 6. “When you’re the state Rep. and you can’t go to the meetings every night that you’re used to going to, you find time between your Zooms to do other things. … This is a great pitch for library websites.”

He especially made use of the Boston Public Library’s site. Photocopies of letters from featured figures, local newspaper accounts of events surrounding the main story going on in Boston at the time and similar materials were provided him in emails from libraries. 

Hanson had been an anti-war publisher in a city that was decidedly in favor of it, which was one of the reasons he had been attacked by the Baltimore mob.

Cutler had mentioned that, when researching his first book, he found it interesting that a lot of South Shore towns were named after towns in the colonists’ native England or native American tribes, but Hanson was named for a Baltimore newspaper publisher.

“There must be a story there, so I decided to write it,” he said.

The new book, focuses on the early days of the abolitionist press and organizations in Boston, a town that — at the time — did not share those views.

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was attacked by the titular mob and Cutler’s book examines how that all came about.

“What’s interesting about this mob … was that it was all of the upper crust of Boston,” Cutler said. “It was the merchants and the bankers and the militia members, who swarmed in the streets and committed violence against Garrison.”

The mob had carried Garrison to the Frog Pond on Boston Common, where they had intended to tar and feather him.

“We think of Boston as this progressive bastion of abolitionist spirit that was leading the charge against slavery, and at that time [1835] it really wasn’t the case,” he said. The story also has a lot of “cool connections” to the South Shore, Cutler said.

Much of Boston was anti-slavery and anti-abolitionist, benefitting from slavery either directly or indirectly, with many fearing that freed Blacks in the city and the end of slavery in the South would economically damage Boston.

“For many, preservation of the Union was more important than any measured distaste they may have [had] for the growing institution of slavery,” Cutler quoted from his book.

Maria Chapman was a Unitarian who grew up in Weymouth, the oldest of eight children. Her father in-law was a prosperous ships’ chandler, living in a Boston where most streets were compressed dirt and oil lamps provided illumination at night. Andrew Jackson was president and Daniel Webster was a Massachusetts senator at the time. Boston’s mayor was Theodore Lyman.

Garrison, publisher of The Liberator abolitionist newspaper, was becoming a growing influence on abolitionist circles since its founding in January 1831. He favored immediate emancipation of all enslaved persons, as did Chapman.

Her husband also a committed abolitionist, Chapman, had recently joined a women’s anti-slavery society, having harbored those sentiments herself even as a young woman, and had become a growing force behind the scenes. She was 28 in 1835.

That spring, abolitionists had waged a correspondence campaign against slavery, sending mass mailings of their literature to the south, where a mob in Charleston, S.C., had broken into the Post Office, stealing the literature which they burned in the street.

A citywide meeting was called in Boston’s Faneuil Hall in August 1835 to reject abolitionist aims and express support for their Southern brethren. The meeting, chaired by Mayor Lyman, was attended by 1,500 of  “Boston’s most respectful citizens.”

The meeting, touted as more anti-abolitionist than pro-slavery, was an attempt to quell the “poisonous influence of abolitionism” in Boston.

Chapman’s group, The Boston Female Anti-slavery Society met for its annual meeting in October, spawning a rumor that despised British abolitionist George Thompson. The rumors were false, but the group still had some difficulty finding a venue because of their work. They met near the Old Statehouse, but a well-dressed mob of anti-abolitionists had gathered outside.

Garrison realized his presence was causing the problem and fled by jumping out a second-floor window, but — while the women had left safely — Garrison was caught and dragged through the streets to the Common …

At that, Cutler ended his talk, admonishing the audience that they’d have to read the book to learn more.

“The Boston Gentlemen’s Mob: Maria Chapman and the Abolition Riot of 1835,” The History Press, 2021,  263 pages, is available on Amazon.com.

The audience included members of the Hanson Kiwanis Club, which also had a meeting slated at the library at about the same time.

Copies of both his books were available for sale, with proceeds, benefitting the Friends of the Library. Cutler signed books for those who purchased copies.

No serious injuries in Hanson house fire

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HANSON–The Hanson Fire Department extinguished a house fire Wednesday evening, according to Hanson Fire Chief Jerome Thompson.

The Regional Old Colony Communications Center received a report of a house fire at 66 High Street around 7:45 p.m. The first responding firefighters arrived to find heavy fire in an enclosed area under a rear porch of a home, which sits off the road. Firefighters gained entry to the home and knocked down the fire.

All of the occupants were out of the home when firefighters arrived. Paramedics evaluated one of the occupants at the scene for a minor injury, but the occupant was not transported to a hospital. No other injuries were reported.

The enclosed area under the porch suffered heavy fire damage. The home is uninhabitable due to heavy smoke damage.

The American Red Cross is assisting two adults and three children who lived in the home.

A working fire assignment brought firefighters from Whitman, Pembroke and Halifax to the scene to assist. Hanover firefighters provided station coverage. Hanson Police provided traffic control.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Hanson Fire Department and the State Fire Marshal’s office. The fire doesn’t appear to be suspicious at this time.

Boards debate budget partnership

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What had been billed as a discussion of the effect of the school district’s budget on town finances, on Tuesday, March 8, devolved for a time into a debate on the intentions of the Whitman and Hanson Select boards and the meaning of partnership, but concluded with some firm ideas of how future budget planning should be conducted.

Whitman Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski chaired the joint select board meeting, as Hanson Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer unable to attend due to work commitments.

Kowalski said he and Dyer “had a nice talk” about the meeting objectives on Monday. 

“There’s been, apparently, some varying opinions about what this meeting was all about,” Kowalski said, opening the session. “Matt and I kind of agree [on] what we think the meeting is about, so we wanted that, in his absence, I communicate that to you all, too.”

That focus was to be simply a joint meeting of the two select boards, stemming from a meeting among the town administrators and selectmen Randy LaMattina of Whitman and Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett of Hanson, who thought it would be a good idea for the two boards to meet together to look at the fiscal 2023 district budget and — at some point, pay some attention to the long-range school district sustainability, according to Kowalski.

While he concluded the meeting saying it may have been a mistake to set up a meeting just between the select boards, even as he said some objectives had been met. What needs to be worked on, he said is a process for next year’s budget cycle, not this year’s.

 “I see the meeting as our giving the schools advice for their certification meeting next week,” Kowalski said. “As the two boards of selectmen get together, might be able to let them know what we think we can handle for the next year over this year and what might happen in the future.”

When Hanson Selectman Joe Weeks offered appreciation for both the Whitman Selectmen and the School Committee for meeting with them, less than 20 minutes into the session, School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard complained that he was not invited, although Whitman Selectmen did express their intention that Howard, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak and Business Manager John Stanbrook to be invited to the meeting.

“Wow,” someone could be heard whispering into an open mic.

“We’re here to observe,” Howard said. “Before we talk about partnerships, we’re here to listen, but we were not included or invited to this conversation.”

Hanson Selectman Jim Hickey said he was against the meeting, while he favored the premise, but excused himself because he was under the impression that a formal invitation had been extended.

“I don’t have any authority,” Howard said, stressing that he is only one of 10 votes on the School Committee.

Kowalski suggested there may have been a communication problem between himself and Howard.

“I made it clear that I did not want the Superintendent to feel he needed to make a presentation … and was clear that they be included in the meeting,” Kowalski said.

Heineman wanted to make it clear that he wanted to send a formal email invitation … but his explanation was cut short by Hickey’s walkout. He later said that Szymaniak asked him to hold off on a formal email until he could talk to Howard, who issued his own email saying he would be there.

“The question is not the invitation, it’s the expectation,” Howard said. “We do not have the authority to work with the boards of selectmen on the budget.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said a process needed to be documented to settle the issue by discussing best practice and a possible timeline for solving it, for another meeting.

Whitman resident Shawn Kain lauded Howard’s five-year budget plan to foster sustainability in the regional budget.

“If the schools are laying all their cards on the table for the next five years, it would be very helpful for both towns to do the same,” he said. “Then you have a more productive conversation about this year and you could predict what’s going to happen in the next couple of years.”

Whitman Selectman Justin Evans had expressed concern at the outset about the schedule of budget talks between the towns and the school district, which has, over recent years, waited until the statutory deadline to vote a budget before presenting it to the towns.

“That begins our process of trying to make everything work out,” Evans said. “If the whole process could be moved forward a little bit, it would make balancing the town budgets a lot easier on our side, for Whitman, at least.”

He said that he imagined Hanson was in a similar predicament.

“If we wait until we get numbers from the schools, it’s often mid-March, late March mid-April by the time we’re all sort of in agreement — one year, even up to town meetings,” he said.

Kowalski asked the town administrators about what they foresee as the assessment figures their towns could handle.

Whitman Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said the assessment figure, which called for a 5.76 percent increase, presented by Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak on Feb. 2, would require the use of one-time revenue — free cash — in Whitman. The 3.67 percent increase quoted on Feb. 16 would fit within Whitman’s levy without the use of free cash, but he expressed concern about that being the case for fiscal 2025 and beyond.

“What the schools are asking now we can handle within our levy,” Kowalski confirmed.

Hanson Town Administrator Lisa Green said she and Town Accountant Todd Hackett had to use some placeholders to calculate the budget, working with a 3.25, 3.5 and 4 percent assessment variables. 

“We thought we were safe with a 3.5 percent assessment [increase],” she said. “When we came to the meeting and saw the 5.76 [percent] and they rounded it down to 3.7 [percent] … The tuition-free all-day kindergarten is a huge chunk of money ($740,000) … Hanson cannot afford that.”

She said Hanson is hoping to find some ground with schools so they don’t have to tap into one-time funds to make the budget work.

“We don’t want to decimate our town departments, which we have just really built up to where they need to be,” she said.

Kowalski asked what percentage Hanson can handle. Green said Hackett is comfortable with 3 percent. Whitman was comfortable with the 3.67 percent figure the town had already received from the schools.

Whitman Selectman Dan Salvucci said that, while W-H doesn’t need to certify a budget as early as South Shore Tech, which has member towns that hold April town meetings, but said budget figures should be available sooner than they currently are.

He urged using the governor’s January budget numbers, which he said were “99 percent” solid and develop a budget to present to the towns in January or early February.

“The sooner we know the numbers, the better,” Salvucci said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed with Salvucci’s suggestion, adding that, “something has jumped the tracks in the last couple of years.” In past years, selectmen received the budget in an email from the superintendent, who would come to a selectmen’s meeting to make a case for the budget they were presenting.

“I recognize COVID may have complicated that, from happening — I think it still could have happened virtually — but I would like to see us get back on track with an earlier conversation, more documentation, more engagement and partnership with the two boards of selectmen so that we aren’t making hasty decisions on the fly. That really isn’t a way for us to make budget decisions.”

While she said selectmen to a person value and respect schools, but that it is disrespectful to town employees to have to make important budget decisions last-minute.

LaMattina said he is looking for a more transparent process.

“If we’ve learned anything over the last few months of the school budget, it’s been active citizens that have notified us … of Circuit Breaker issues,” he said. “We now see a transportation issue that wasn’t addressed over a year and a half ago that, with better management, you’ll see a savings to both towns.”

He also reminded those at the meeting that he has called the FY ’23 school budget reckless because it is not a 3.94 percent overall increase.

“If you look at the amount of money that’s being tucked into this budget with one-time funds … dedicated last year and now have somehow changed … the process has jumped the tracks,” he said.

“We talk about partnerships, well, where is the partnership?”

LaMattina said he really does not see much partnership from the school district, pointing specifically to a remark at the last school committee meeting that Whitman Selectmen were trying to cut transportation to save a dollar, when they were merely advocating for better management of it.

“This budget is disastrous for the towns,” LaMattina said. “If they’re allowed to put this much one-time money in, by their business manager’s own accounting … serious deficit in 2025.”

He’s said the same thing for the last three or four years.

“If we’re talking partnerships, then be a good partner,” he said.

Weeks agreed that the towns are looking at a massive fiscal issue that won’t be solved this year and that it was important to have a civil conversation about it.

“I think there was some confusion around what was the purpose of this meeting,” Howard said. “I said [Szymaniak] and I would be at the meeting to listen … we are certainly willing to share and add perspective but we [were] not preparing any presentation or prepared to discuss what should or should not be in the budget.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said she never thought there was an intention to negotiate any portion of the budget, so a full presence of the School Committee was not needed.

“There was never any notion that we’d be asking you guys to negotiate, on the spot, some budget thing,” she said. “That wasn’t ever a concept, so it was unnecessary to have a full School Committee there.”

Salvucci said he doesn’t understand why it is so difficult to provide a number of what they may need to run the school district, recalling past W-H budget presentations on a Saturday with all members of the towns Select boards and Finance committees attending.

Szymaniak said those weekend budget releases fizzled out because half the people didn’t show up. He said budget work begins when enrollment figures are available in October, but it’s the January governor’s budget that really sets the tone.

“I don’t know what Whitman and Hanson can afford because no one has given me the numbers, either,” he said. “So when I say it works both ways in a partnership — send me something.” He admitted that the budget uses one-time funds, but said it was the best that could be done.

“I have a solid office, now, financially,” he said. “If we need to have a joint meeting like this, I’m all for it … I can make a presentation.”

But he needs a commitment from both towns that people will attend. Weeks said a substantial amount of time had been spent on an email, and he wanted to see some process in place to get beyond the email conversation.

“We have to move forward,” he said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said that, while there’s a lot of work to be done by all three partners, what she was hearing was a willingness to partner and to process.

“That gives me hope,” she said.

MSBA invites SST into Core Program

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HANOVER — The Massachusetts School Building Authority has voted to invite South Shore Tech into its Core Program, Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey has announced.

The MSBA board made the decision on the first step in the process of determining which schools might win eventual approval for a renovation or new building at its Wednesday, March 2 meeting.  SST’s eligibility period extends from April 4 to Dec. 30, 2022. 

“This is welcome news for the school district (on its seventh application!), and we will begin the orientation process with MSBA in April,” Hickey wrote in a letter to town administrators and managers. “An important factor to mention early is that this invitation will not require any additional funds from our towns as part of our FY23 budget.” 

He shared the letter, and one to him from MSBA Executive Director John K. McCarthy, with The Express last week.

“The letter basically puts in a pretty exclusive club — at least 17 schools out of at least 58 received this letter saying, ‘Your needs that you identified and our own research confirms that you have been invited to show us in the next nine months that you are ready to begin this process,’” Hickey said Sunday. “We’ve been applying since 2015.”

He said those previous applications, and the funds set aside during those years, puts SST in a position to move very quickly through this first phase.

An important part of the news for SST down the road — as a vocational school — is they have to tell MSBA what school officials think the school’s program of study should look like. What programs in a revamped school does SST want to offer?

Hickey said they will get a few months to outline that on paper, something the school has been doing internally for a long time.

“Is there a chance that we might want to consider offering new programs? Yes,” he said. “But that has to be tied to a local labor market.”

Electrical is the best example, Hickey said. 

“There’s a strong market,” he said. The school could only place 20 out of 38 students who wanted to take electrical after the shop exploratory phase this fall.

“We need a bigger instructional space so we can take more kids,” he said. There are other programs that are adequately sized based on student demand, and others that are not now offered, but for which there might be a labor demand if they were offered, including the growing EV market.

“Part of what I want to do is make sure our programming is not so rigid and siloed that we could not be adaptive,” he said. “If, down the road,  what we need to do is to have some of our automotive majors take courses taught by electrical teachers, we need to make sure that we’ve got the space to do that.”

For example, the school would need to adapt space for electric vehicles and charging stations, he said. 

MSBA will be forming its own team of experts to examine SST’s vision for what the school should offer for the next 50 years. The school has also been approached by Marshfield to see how that town might be accepted into the district. The school currently fits 650 students. For next year, he already has 292 applications for 170 seats.

While about 20 percent who are offered admission decline the offer, he estimated they could still end up with a waiting list of between 50 and 70 kids. Non-resident students can no longer be accepted as freshmen.

“We’ve been very supported by our eight towns and we’ve been able to set aside funding for the feasibility study,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest reasons they give the schools nine months to get things in order.”

But McCarthy was careful to warn that school officials should not “get ahead” of the MSBA without MSBA approval, or they will not be eligible for grant funding.

“All that we need to do right now is show the MSBA that we are willing to set aside the funds if we get moved to the next step,” Hickey said. “The good thing is we don’t have to go back to our eight towns in the middle of a budget cycle and say, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to need about $800,000 for a feasibility study.’ We’ve been saving that money in our stabilization fund.”

A vote of the SST regional school committee is all that is needed to show that the district is ready to undertake a feasibility study since they have the fund in place, according to Hickey.

The next step is a series of procedural votes demonstrating that district officials understand the terms and conditions of the program and forming a building committee. 

Another positive is that SST can act toward the next steps in less than the nine months allotted, placing them at the top of the list to onboard. While SST has been given an April start date for that phase, some other schools have been slated to begin it some six months after that.

“This is a multi-year project … and if we can expedite some of the easier parts of it, that’s great for everyone, I think,” Hickey said.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said state Rep. Josh Cutler, whom Hickey said has been very helpful in advocating for the school, including speaking at the MSBA meeting.

“It’s a first step, it’s a big step,” Cutler said of the MSBA letter. “The fact that they’ve been invited to this round is very significant… There’s still lots of work ahead.”

Cutler also credited state Rep. David DeCoste, R-Norwell, with who, he teamed up on a bipartisan way to advocate for the school, for helping achieve the successful outcome.

“They want to make sure you have local support, that you have feasibility funds that you need, that you have plans that make sense,” he said of the caution not to get ahead of things. “[SST] has put some thought and time into this. I have every confidence that they’re going to fulfill all the particular requirements.”

Despite the “don’t get ahead of things” warning, Hickey said he thinks the letter is good news that’s worth getting excited about, because there is support for the project that would permit SST to go before the MSBA with a project team and manager in place before working with the MSBA on design.