School mask mandates are being reduced to a recommendation after Feb. 28. Mask requirements on school buses, by federal mandate, and in school health clinics, by state regulation, are still in force. In the meantime, the School Committee is taking another budgetary look at non-mandated busing costs, a decision that ultimately lies with the boards of selectmen in each town.

Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said his recommendation has been that the school district should continue to follow state education and health guidelines, as it has done since August 2020. 

He stressed, when asked how masks would be enforced for unvaccinated persons, that the policy was a recommendation — not a requirement.

Szymaniak during the Wednesday, Feb. 9 School Committee meeting, said he had a Zoom call with Education Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley, who indicated he is not asking to renew the mask mandate after Feb. 28.

“What that means for us is that after Feb. 28, DESE and MDPH are recommending masks only for students who are unvaccinated and staff that are unvaccinated,” he said. “They’ve pretty much dropped the recommendation for other folks attending preK to 12 — preK to 22 — schools, with the exception of buses.” 

Because of HIPAA and other privacy rules, no one could really ask others about their vaccination status, making enforcement nearly impossible.

School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard said that, unless the committee disagreed with the DESE/MDPH recommendation and wanted to revisit an earlier vote to abide by them, no action was required. If they wished to reconsider that vote, the only other meeting scheduled before Feb. 28 was the Feb. 17 meeting, which was planned exclusively as a budget session. 

“The uses of masks is a polarizing issue,” Howard said, noting that the committee received about 600 comments the last time feedback was sought.

“I can’t tell you the number of emails I’ve gotten from happy parents wanting to know how soon the masks can come off,” said Committee member, Fred Small, who was attending remotely be phone. He also reminded the Committee that the earlier vote was to abide by MDPH recommendations, not DESE.

He also said parents contacting him wanted to know why masks could not come off as early as the next day.

Committee member Heather Kniffen suggested that all Szymaniak needed to do was communicate with families about the latest information available so they can make an informed decision.

The Committee then followed Howard’s suggestion to amend the August 2020 vote to read that they would follow the recommendation of MDPH or DESE. That vote was unanimous.

Non-mandated busing

Szymaniak noted that the district is mandated by law to bus all K-12 students who live two miles or farther away from a school to school each day.

“This is not your vote, but I want you to be aware,” Szymaniak said of the options open to the towns. “Things shift at Town Meeting [and] it does change the assessment that we can control.”

The district received regional transportation reimbursement for anyone living 1.5 miles and out, he said. They also provide non-mandated busing for students living .5 miles to 1.5 miles around a school, with the towns picking up that cost.

“Questions have come up in the past about non-mandated busing and do we need it? What can we do?” Szymaniak said. “We truly have local regional elementary schools. There’s a lot of kids that are [within] a mile and a half to the school.”

School Committee policy also requires that all kindergarten students, whether they live within 1.5 miles or not, are bused to school,” he said. “It’s our rule that we do that.”

While there has been occasional discussion about whether Whitman should consider halting non-mandated busing, Hanson has not done so and no calculations have yet been done for Hanson as a result of that fact.

Calculations on whether to keep non-mandates busing within a certain distance from a school takes into consideration whether students within walking distance are kindergarteners, have to cross state roads [routes 14, 18, 27 and 58], where there are no sidewalks or where there are registered sex offenders living in the area, Szymniak said. It creates a tier system for bus ridership on which the budget is based. Each tier represents a school to which a given bus drives students. Four-tier buses drive students to the high school, a town’s middle school and each elementary school. Of the 20 buses contracted from First Student, six are four-tier, 12 are three-tier and two are two-tier.

School Committee member Steve Bois said traffic at the intersection near WMS has been increasingly clogged and he wants to see the state address it.

“There’s no way I’m voting to get rid of any non-mandated busing,” he said.

First Student plugs data into software that makes bus assignments within the parameters of school start times and making sure they arrive safely.

It costs $9,747.20 per day for 20 buses to transport students to school in the district. For 180 school days, that totals $1,753,329.60 plus $10,000 for a fuel clause allocation in the First Student contract.

Byers wondered if there was any way, keeping in mind the time restrictions concerning how long students are on buses and the number of students assigned to each bus, the number of buses could be used in Hanson.

“We could continue to look at this,” Szymaniak said about keeping the committee informed.

“If we increased the ridership on a bus in Hanson, that bus would take longer to do its route,” Small said. “We would probably run into some contractual differences as far as start times go within the schools.”

He also suggested the high school might have to start even earlier to get a jump-start, because the same buses are used in both towns. He suggested a Finance Committee motion last year advocated that the non-mandated bus cost not be recommended for passage. 

Pulling Whitman non-mandated busing out, the service costs $9,606.90 while changes the scheduling. Cutting out all Whitman non-mandated busing reduces the number of buses to 19, and costs $9,011.36.

Removing Whitman Middle School non-mandated busing saves $24,087 from the transportation budget and removing all Whitman non-mandated busing saves $131,284 in the overall transportation costs.

The number of students whose parents have opted out of bus travel to school in Hanson is 253 and in Whitman, it is 400.

“I have a concern, as a superintendent of students getting to school if non-mandated goes away,” he said. It would also increase vehicle traffic around schools as parents drop students off.

“It would [also] shift our assessments to the towns, because our transportation costs would remain high even though Whitman or Hanson wouldn’t be paying a line item in the budget,” Szymaniak said.

Complex calculations based on three scenarios have to begin with the fiscal ’23 general fund transportation budget, according to Business Manager John Stanbrook.

Scenario 1 starts with the assumption the non-mandated busing is as submitted in the fiscal 2023 budget at $1,7603,329.60. Scenario 2 assumes a cost of $1,739,242.69 with no Whitman Middle School busing — a savings of $54,680 — and Scenario 3 assumes a cost of $1,632,044.80 — a savings of $292,345 — with non-mandated busing for all of Whitman eliminated. Hanson’s costs would increase by $30,593 in Scnario 2 and $161,000 in Scenario 3.

“There’s still transportation costs,” he said.

“I want to get out in front of this with the committee,” Szymaniak said, indicating that traffic studies could be required if Whitman’s non-mandated busing is eliminated. “We’re trying to do our best.” 

He said getting all parents to respond to any kind of survey is difficult, so it makes it hard for the district to make substantive decisions.

“I think it will be really important for you to build scenarios for Hanson,” said Committee Chairman Christopher Howard. “Based on how things have gone in the past … I would think, if this was to happen in Whitman … it’s going to cause a chain reaction.”

WHITMAN — Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman presented a balanced fiscal 2023 budget of $38,938,294 — including $261,892 in excess levy — during a joint meeting with the Finance Committee Tuesday, Feb. 1. It would reflect a 2.8 percent tax increase in the average single family home.

Selectman Brian Bezanson was absent.

 “Contrary to the last several budgets was a necessary one-time revenue source to balance the budget, this does not envision that,” Heineman said. “Depending on what the school assessment comes in at, that may be a factor, [but] it should be a relatively small factor, based on past increases … but under this proposed budget, there is excess levy and a clear policy question for the Board of Selectmen is do we as a town, as we did last year, want to capture that excess levy and have a higher tax rate and spend it in some way …  or is there some part of the full excess levy that we as a town would not want to capture and provide in tax relief.”

There is also $1.5 million in currently allocated American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds, funneled through the county, that may be spent through December 2024. Heineman advocated reserving most of the funds for the sewer force main project — as the one-time money should be used on a one-time expense — or to consider applying to some operating budget needs. The latter is not sustainable after 2024, he reminded the boards.

“For the past couple of years of, I think, pretty good fiscal management from the town, we’ve gone from a necessary override to now producing a budget where we’re not using any one-time money, and I think that’s a huge positive in that things are going in the right direction for this town,” Selectman Randy LaMattina said. He argued that one-time money should never be used to balance a budget.

“It’s a pretty good spot to modify from if we see fit,” he said.

“We’re doing what we’re doing to maintain a workable budget for the town,” agreed Selectman Dan Salvucci. 

Heineman said some of the key budget goals and objectives are the implementation of the Madden Report, the draft Strategic Plan and new financial management policies as well as clearly defining the budget’s impact on property taxpayers and the creation of predicable and moderate increases.

Department heads requested $1,077,818 in expense increases — mainly due to increases of $194,000 for Plymouth County Retirement, $144,000 to fully fund unfilled police shifts and $102,000 for storm water management. Another increase of $402,623 is expected in the form of the WHRSD assessment, which is not final yet.

“We have this increase,” Heineman said. “It is not affordable within our property tax levy.”

To close the budget gap, Heinemaan included $239,274 in reductions were made to departmental requests, while still reaching goals.

The budget proposal also includes the allowed 2.5 percent increase under Proposition 2 1/2, as well as a conservative new growth estimate of  $400,000 and debt exclusions of $1,042,920. The spending package also includes Gov. Charlie Baker’s local aid figures.

“It does, almost fully, meet the Madden report’s recommendations regarding revenue,” Heineman said. He said the report set a goal of injecting no more than 85 percent in departmental receipts than what had been received in the previous fiscal year, an approach with which Heineman said he agrees.

“When we’re talking about departmental receipts, the big drivers of that are motor vehicle excise, building permits — any other fees the town collects that aren’t taxes,” he said. “This gets there … many of those projected revenue figures were dangerously high — up to 97 percent, 99 percent in some cases — understandable in the budget crunch that we were in, but not wise in terms of long-term budgeting and not wise in that it makes it very difficult to raise free cash because it’s not conservative budgeting.”

Without the generation of free cash, Heineman said, it can be very difficult to maintain any long-range capital plan. 

“That’s the key Madden Report recommendation that would be almost entirely achieved here in this proposed balanced budget,” he said.

The two acknowledged exceptions were that if a revenue source was almost certain to come in higher than the 85 percent, it would be acceptable to have a higher amount.

The budget fills 20 percent of the unfilled police shifts, including a full-time records clerk ($57,000), and would provide an IT position ($55,000) and a full-time Building Commissioner ($57,000) as well as a full-time facilities manager ($21,000). The town’s lack of an additional IT person, and a full-time building commissioner, were identified as weaknesses by the Madden Report.

“I think it’s a great budget rollout, and a great first step,” said Finance Committee Chairman Richard Anderson. “I think we’re all in agreement that [the impact to residents] is something the strategic plan outlined, and one of our budget objectives is to get that line a little straighter.” 

Heineman said the town is nearing predictability and the moderation point already.

Anderson asked how building projects, such as a school project and/or DPW building would affect that. He also urged that the Capital Committee be included in budget discussions.

Heineman said the level of interest rates would be a key factor in determining that. 

“This is a presentation and then there’s a schedule of events that will happen over the next series of months that involves our two bodies to cooperate and know what each body is doing,” said Selectman Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski.

Department heads submitted their budget requests by Dec. 7, 2021, with Selectmen considering the budget ahead of their vote on the town-side appropriation between now and early March for inclusion on the warrant for the annual Town Meeting on May 2. The Finance Committee will work on its review of the proposed budget from now until April 5.

Kowalski suggested adding another joint meeting with on the Finance Committee on April 12 “to see how close we are.” He noted it may be difficult to duplicate last year when the two boards were only $10,000 apart on their budget reviews.

“We disagreed on one item in that whole budget, which is pretty good,” Kowalski said.

Anderson said the schedule works fine but the April 12 joint meeting date would hinge on whether any of their other meetings are delayed.

“We had it tentatively scheduled for [April] 19, but the 12th is perfectly fine,” Anderson said. Kowalski said he suggested April 12 because he could not be there on the 19th.

“I think that’s a great schedule,” Anderson said.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Jan. 25 heard a presentation from consultants hired to conduct a De-Regionalization Feasibility Study during a joint meeting with the De-Regionalization Feasibility Study Committee.

Selectmen peppered the consultants with questions and comments.

“I think this was a great presentation, but I still find myself with so many questions,” said Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “I don’t feel I’m completely armed with the empirical data that I would need to make an educated decision about whether this is a cost-effective decision to make or not.”

She said they were “maybe halfway there” on the information needed to make an informed decision.­

“I think we are all in consensus that we need more information before we can even think about which direction we want to head,” said Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer.

Selectmen Joe Weeks and Jim Hickey had already asked a lengthy list of questions on points TMS consultants had reviewed in their presentation.

Weeks also said more local control was as much as a concern for Hanson residents as school budget costs.

“It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the data,” he said. “As a homeowner, as a taxpayer and as someone who has to take a vote on something, that’s hard to reverse. There’s still so many data points that I’m missing.”

Town Administrator Lisa Green noted that Selectmen had voted before she came on board to form a de-regionalization committee and have consultant firm TMSolutions Inc., out of Auburn study the potential and possible effects of such a move. They compiled and studied documents on assessments, revenue support, staffing, special education and other issues — and attended the meeting remotely to present their report.

The Jan. 25 presentation can be viewed on WHCA-TV’s YouTube channel as well as rebroadcast on its Hanson access channel.

Judy Houle, senior VP and chief education officer at TMS and Associate Consultant for Special Projects and Business Services Michael DeBarge presented the report. A 43-year educator, Houle has been a teacher, principal, curriculum director, superintendent and business manager for school districts. She said TMS has done three de-regionalization studies, including Hanson’s and two regionalization studies.

DeBarge holds a master’s degree in conflict studies from the London School of Economics where he studied how institutional design could be used in conflict resolution. He also provides general financial management services for K-12 schools.

“We were to provide information to the town of Hanson with regard to the question of should the town separate from the W-H Regional School District or remain with them,” Houle said.

The scope of the study was to inform Hanson officials of the educational, financial and administrative impacts. Legal implications and a potential timeline and processes for town officials’ consideration.

“For me, it’s what’s best for the kids,” Selectman Jim Hickey said. But he added that 30 percent of Hanson’s population is over age 60 and 45 percent is over 50.

“We either have people ready to go to a fixed income or already on a fixed income,” he said.

Houle responded that it was an important concern, but added that quality schools help property values to go up.

“Financial considerations have been driving a lot of this discussion, and the big questions before us are what do you save as a result of de-regionalization? What costs would be incurred as a result of that?” DeBarge said.

The three options TMS brought forth for the town to consider are to:

• fully separate for a PreK-12 district and a decision about the WHRHS faculty;

• PK-8 supervisory union and region for nine to 12 or

• maintain the status quo.

“I still find myself asking the question, ‘What would it cost to completely de-regionalize,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said noting that complete de-regionalization was not fully fleshed out. She cited legal costs and forensic accounting as two areas of concern.

“Both towns would have to vote to amend or dissolve the regional agreement,” Houle said, advising that be done by July 2023. She noted that the next steps right now would be to engage stakeholders in both towns to discuss the issue. She said the soonest any separation could be achieved, were that the decision would be 2025.

“We recommend you move slowly and methodically in this process and make sure stakeholders’ voices are heard,” Houle said. She noted that total cost would depend on the option Hanson chooses.

The commissioner of education must approve any long-range feasibility plan by Dec. 31 of the fiscal year any de-regionalization would be planned.

The first option raises issues over ownership of buildings or responsibility for building a new facility; the need for a separate administrative set up and a new school committee, the need for added staff and the loss of regional transportation reimbursement.

Option two presents some of the same considerations, but DeBarge said the impact would be lessened as special education programs would be easier absorbed and most central office services could be shared.

The third option’s main focus is collaboration in containing costs while maintaining a high level of educational programs. 

The regional agreement, first entered into in 1956 established a grade nine to 12 region and was amended in 1992 to become a K-12 district. The assessment methodology was amended in 2020 to conform with the state’s preferred statutory method based on the rolling average of enrollment in the district, and was the impetus for the study.

Hanson owns the Indian Head Elementary and Hanson Middle schools, both of which Houle and DeBarge have toured. They noted HMS’ high-priority capital needs are roof and kitchen repairs and gymnasium egress. Outstanding high-priority capital needs at Indian Head are the playground and lead paint, which is currently encapsulated.

Hanson’s share of capital costs to the town’s schools is $710,650 and $1,643,703.12 for a total on $2,354,365.12. Hanson’s liability for regional capital costs is also calculated based on enrollment.

“Your regional agreement specifies that you are liable for any capital debt that has been incurred during the process and at the time of separation,” Houle said.

DeBarge said the financial impact of de-regionalization was investigated in concentrating on three specific areas — the foundation budget, transportation and human resources. 

“From 2015 to 2021, Hanson experienced a total decline in foundation enrollment of nearly 14 percent,” DeBarge said. The decline in enrollment, however, does not translate to financial savings.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), determines the adequate spending level for a school district, based on enrollment inflation and the wage-adjustment factor, DeBarge said.

Hanson should also consider that, should de-regionalization be pursued, transportation reimbursement would disappear.

“While transportation expenses would decline, if you look at the percent of transportation funding that has been reimbursed, you see that this is not an inconsequential amount of money,” he said. If Hanson opted for partial separation, some of that reimbursement would be maintained, but it would be only at the high school level.

“The point is, transportation is a major factor to consider, and separation does not entail significant savings,” he said. De-regionalization would also increase the costs for staffing by about 4 to 5 percent, for cost of living, advancing steps and salary lane changes with additional education. Those figures do not include custodial costs. Administrative and instructional support costs must also be considered.