WHITMAN – The town has a new Free Cash policy.
The Select Board, on Tuesday, March 25, voted to support the new policy recommended by Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, which will establish a budgetary policy for the use of free cash which includes –
Place 10 percent of the certified free cash amount, each fiscal year, allocated to the capitalization stabilization fund – not to be expended in the first year – but as a savings account that we’re slowly and steady adding to; and then, another 10 percent, especially after the remaining balance of the certified Free Cash amount would be added to the general stabilization fund each year; and we discussed placing a minimum of $200,000 each fiscal year be transferred from Free Cash to Plymouth County Retirement line until the undfunded liability is paid off; and a minimum of $140,000 each fiscal year, shall be transferred to the Article 2 line for “Other Post Employment Benefits.
The policy will begin this year.
“I think that, if we follow this every year, we are going to build a capital stabilization fund in the way that we should,” she said. “That money is not be touched. The towns that touch, the general stabilization fund are the towns that find themselves in trouble. Once they open that, and start going after that, they have nothing.”
She wanted to start the policy to build up some “good reserves” because the town needs a new fire engine, and an upgrade to financial software for starters.
“I think that this will put us on a good road for the future, if we just do this every single year,” she said.
“It sounds like a good plan,” Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said.
Board member Shawn Kain said that, when one looks at the towns that withstand some of these difficult times, and the ones that get into trouble, it’s the ones that have their financial policies set in place as the “rudder that keeps them on track.”
“There might be some difficult decisions in the future because of this, if we follow that plan it should keep us on solid financial ground,” he said.
Member Justin Evans noted that. “The unstated part of the policy will mean that 75-percent of certified free cash would be the town’s capital plan year after year.”
Whitman 150 update
Whitman 150 Committee Chair Richard Rosen also briefed the board on planned events for the towns sesquicentennial.
“Things are going very well, Rosen said. “We’re selling merchandise. There’s a lot of people buying … stuff,” Rosen said. “We want part of what will ultimately be history.”
He reminded residents that the kickoff dinner, scheduled for Saturday, April 5 at the Cardinal Spellman Center, and tickets will not be available at the door. To obtain tickets, priced at $50 each, are still available. Interested residents must contact Rosen’s office at 781- to obtain individual tickets wo reserve tables of eight or 10.
On Sunday, April 27, the burial of another time capsule on the Town Hall lawn, will overseen by former Fire Chief Tinothy Grenno and Thomas Burnett, who helped lower the 2000 event capsule on that same lawn during the centennial celebration.
A series of photos published by the Brockton Enterprise, at the time, shows Grenno and Burnett lower the time capsule into the hole made by a DPW crew.
“I found them both and asked if they’d [come back] and they both said yes,” Rosen said.
The centennial time capsule is slated to be disinterred in 2075 and the new one will be dug up in 2100.
“That way, we figured nobody would still be alive when they dig it up,” Rosen joked.
If people have items they would like to place in the time capsule, they should drop the items off at North Easton Savings Bank, Bedford St.
“North Easton Savings Bank has been extremely good to us in terms of donating money, time effort, volunteers – they’ve been great,” Rosen said.
Wondering how big items one might want to donate for the time capsule can be accommodated?
“I think anything much bigger than a shoebox isn’t that great,” Rosen said. “But I do need, like, a persons listed book and stuff like that, that after 75 years, people are going to look at it and go, ‘Wow!’ or whatever they’ll say.”
Rosen said there’s an important contest going on in the schools right now, as students in kindergarten through grade eight write essays – for the older grades, and photos for the younger children – on the theme: “Wonderful Whitman.”
Winners, chosen by teachers, will have their work placed in the time capsule, and they will be present when the time capsule is lowered – and more. Rosen said.
North Easton Savings will present the winning students with a bank account, which some have never had, and they’ll be invited to march in the parade on June 27.
The cornhole tournament signup list is still open.
The roadrace, slated for Sunday, June 8, will start next to the fire station.
“They’re going to come out of the [WWI Memorial] Arch and then do a similar route to all the roadraces that we used to have,” Rosen said.
Runners will be able to signup live on the next couple of days,” he said..
A band concert on June 14, followed by fireworks, and Sunday, June 22, fills out the celebration with a “pretty big parade,” Rosen said. “That’s [parpade] is going to be the final event that we’re doing,” he said. “I do need to set up a joint meeting with the police and fire chiefs and the DPW in the very near future, so they’re not surprised by any of this.”

A library closed, an ambulance and crew lost and with them the certainty of emergency response, a police department still short of staffing needs, and losses of senior center staff in Whitman; deep faculty cuts to district schools — are some possible scenarios if a Proposition 2.5 override fails. Hanson also faces some dire town services outcomes.
Town select boards had long ago accepted that overrides to Proposition 2.5 in Whitman and Hanson would be necessary to overcome deficits that threaten a need for potentially devastating cuts not only for the school district, but also for all town departments. But like many area towns are facing similar budget gaps in excess of $2 million, the only question was how much, of an override for how long and affecting how many years might voters accept?
It appeared that the two Whitman boards had reached a consensus on a three-year override, however, in the Finance Committee following the joint session, the Finance committee deliberated further and unanimously voted to recommend only a one-year override, according to an email sent to the Select Board from FinCom Chair Kathleen Ottina after their meeting, said Select Board member Justin Evans.
Ottina said they had not yet made the decision at the time of the joint meeting with the Select Board, but it was on that night’s agenda.
“We had some informal discussions, but there’s no firm consensus,” she had told the Select Board.
Some of the FinCom members, during the joint meeting had urged a one-year approach [a $2.4 million override] to see if more funding might be forthcoming from the state in the next two years.
“The $2.4 million is what we need for just this year,” said Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter. “If we go with just the one-year override, my fear is that, next year, we would need money, as well.”
The three-year override would be for about $4.2 million, perhaps a little less.
That would give the town a single-year override to cover the town for three years, Carter said, clarifying what a “three-year override” label means.
“It would go into the fiscal year calculation in fiscal year 2026,” she said. “We would have excess levy and we would leave that money on the table and that would roll into ’27 and ’28. That would cover us for three years as opposed to having three separate overrides.”
In the first year, the town would need $2,262,000 with an impact of $421.49 to taxpayers, based on the value of an average single-family home in Whitman of $495,736.78. The additional money flowing in during fiscal 2027 was looking like $370 tax increase for that average home. The third year would see an increase of $198.
The impact to voters is the same in the first year of a three-year override as with a one-year override.
Based on the solid waste costs are projected to go up 6 percent, so that was factored in on the revenue side, as well as unfunded liability for Pymouth County retirement and OPEB costs until that is completely paid.
She advocated the one override that covers the town for three years. rather than the one-year override.
Evans said there was the hope that the budget group and Finance Committee would receive the decision on April 7 on a one-year vs three-year override.
“The amount that the Select Board will put on the ballot [has to be] settled by Monday, April 7,” Evans said as Town Counsel wants to meet with the Select Board in executive session and they are not free on Tuesdays. “We don’t have to have the numbers exactly dialed in today, but we do have to have [the one- or three-year term].”
Kain added that going with a one-year override would put the town short next year and the year after, but is more likely to pass, with no guarantee that would happen, either.
“It’s a big decision,” he said. “A smaller override, that isn’t quite enough and we know we’ll have to cut, or a bigger override that would sustain us three years,” he said.
The Select Board will meet Monday, April 7 to decide that question, after the joint Select Board/Finance Committee meeting that began with an all-around hesitancy to risk more than one year, and ended with a consensus to decide the question next week as both boards were now leaning heavily toward three years after hearing from the police and fire chiefs on the likely effects of cuts that might otherwise be necessary.
That same evening in Hanson, however, found some Select Board members wishing they could separate a schools’ override from a municipal one.
“I wish we could separate the school out,” said Select Board member Ed Heal as the board was returning from an executive session.
“We’re actually going to have a conversation about that,” said Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.
She said several people have reached out to her to ask why the board wasn’t separating the school override portion from the town’s operational override. She also spoke to Whitman officials to find out how they are handling it.
“If you recall, if both towns don’t handle things correctly, everything gets out of [synch],” she said. “Then we end up in the same situation we were in last year.”
Based on several phone conversations she and Town Administrator Lisa Green had made, Whitman is doing one all-encompassing override as well, for about $2.3 million.
“Their feeling is they don’t want to pit the schools against their town services,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “That does not mean we have to do it that way. We could split the question in two, and let’s think through how that would work.”
Vice Chair Ann Rein said that when the questions were split they know that “the emails are going to start flying all over the place from everybody in the school side and they’re going to fear-monger that, and the tone and tenor of the town right now is they don’t want to fund the schools. They don’t want to fund us. They don’t want to fund anybody.”
She doesn’t see separating the overrides is a clarifying way to do solve the issue and FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed.
“When you have a group of individuals devoted to the task – as the Finance Committee is – it’s only the right thing to do to give some deference and some consideration to what their recommendation is,” she said.
Hanson’s Finance Committee is recommending a single override question.
“Any way you look at it,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “These [questions] are inextricably linked and, although we have no control over 43 percent of our budget … we’re where we are.”
She advised those against the school budget to stay engaged and reach out to the School Committee to reduce Hanson’s assessment.
This board has no control over the school budget,” she said, outside of pushback about the assessment figure, which they plan to do. The board voted to draft such a letter to the School Committee.
Back in Whitman, meanwhile, Select Board member Shawn Kain provided another budget update, noting that he and board member Justin Evans attended the March 19 School Committee meeting.
“They had some really thoughtful things to say about the school district and some of their struggles,” he said.
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak, School Committee Chair Beth Stafford and other members, in turn attended joint FinCom and Select board meeting.
“We’re luck to have them here,” he said.
Finance Chair Kathleen Ottina said the budget working group, which included present and past administrators, representatives from the FinCom and Select board as well as private citizens, had been a great idea.
“This lines of communication have been kept open,” she said. “I’ve learned from Shawn Kain’s thoughtful listening and issues the accounted to his position. He rethinks things, so I’m learning to do the same thing because we have two ears and one mouth. We should be listening twice as much as we talk.”
She said the group has been working very hard on a budget to provide town services and a narrative as to why they are important and what’s at stake if residents opt against supporting it.
“Although this is a difficult conversation, I think the vibe this year is different,” Kain said.
The Fire Department budget looks “pretty tight,” Kain said, and there is a safety concern about the police department’s personnel shortage that is currently leaving shifts unfilled.
Funds have been taken from other departments to be included it in the DPW solid waste line to ensure continuing trash pickup from a public health standpoint.
Who feels the pain
“If the override fails, we will be cutting police, fire DPW, Town Hall staff, Council on Aging will be effected and closing the library.
“It kills me to even say that,” Carter said. “But that is $489,000 and when I’m looking at $1.81 million plus employment costs…”
Fire Chief Timothy Clancy said he was not aware of any of the numbers discussed before the meeting.
“Our budget dramatically impacts the service we can provide this community,” Clancy said. “We’re not staffed to where we need to be – we all know that.” If he loses the four firefighter/paramedics added through the 2017 override, the department goes back to the 1970s.
“That would be shameful,” he said. “I’d have to take an ambulance out of service. … I’m not trying to be sarcastic, but I’m not 100-percent sure I’d be able to able to put anybody at your house from Whitman Fire.”
Since he became Chief of Police, Timothy Hanlon has not had all the officers his department requires.
“We’re still not there yet,” he said. “When we don’t have the resources, that adds stress to an already stressful situation.”
“A million dollars out of a town budget is a big deal,” Kain said. “It’s not as simple as X-amount of salary and one individual. It effects a whole bunch of things, like how many people on a shift.”
The schools would be losing about 21 positions.
“It’s going to hit all of us, and that’s why we all need to be a team,” Stafford said. “If this doesn’t go through, this town’s going to be not what it used to be.”
Szymaniak said the school district has looked at the five-year plan through 2028, and the town’s three-year override covers them.
For risk purposes, because it affects all other departments, Kain said technology would be getting a “slight bump,” contingent on the override.
“That leads us to the critical question, and we should have some discussion first, before we hopefully reach some sort of consensus – should we support a one-year override that’s about $2.4 million?” which Kain said is still a little bit fluid. “A three-year might be at about $4.2 million or it might be a bit less than that.”
Evans noted that it is already difficult to recruit candidates for town positions.
“If we’re going to ask, let’s ask for the one that will sustain us for a couple of years, make a very clear pitch [that] these are the service levels, now, we’re going to raise the levy incrementally … and here’s the projected tax increases,” he said. “It would require more explanation on our part, but it is the more sound fiscal policy.”
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci argued that “overrides are forever.”
“The challenge comes down to what’s the palatability of how we go about this,” said Finance Vice Chair Mike Warner. “We could do three-yearly increments or one three-year increment. The end result is the same, realistically. … The challenge I see here is, what’s the town’s and the taxpayer’s stomach for three separate votes to override, as opposed to one?”
Salvucci said it all comes down to departments’ ability to control their budgets.
FinCom member Mike Flanagan agreed, pointing to recent building ballot questions that had passed, and asked what happened to the marijuana impact money the town was counting on.
“Everyone’s in a jam right now,” he said, noting the number of overrides on town ballots this year. “Maybe the state, within the next couple of years, will loosen up some money because they see all this.”
For those calculations, he favored a one-year override.

HANSON – The Select Board on Tuesday, March 11 voted to form a Library Building Committee the list of proposed members.
Town Administrator Lisa Green reminded the board that the Hanson Public Library had received a grant for a design and planning phase for either the renovation of its space or the construction of a new building.
One of the requirements of the grant, of up to $100,000, is that a committee be created to discuss the project and follow it along, Green said. Another is that the grant funding be spent on the project or the unused portion – plus interest – must be returned.
Library Director Karen Stolfer has submitted a list of names of volunteers who have stepped forward or agreed to do so when asked. They are: Stolfer, Corrine Cofardo, Teresa Santalucia, Linda Wall, Pamela French, Antonio DeFrais, Tom Hickey, Patrick Faella, and Melissa Valcovic.
Stolfer said this week that the committee’s main job will be developing a request for proposals (RFP) for hiring an owner’s project manager (OPM), a task that must be completed by the end of the year – not only because of the grant’s spending deadline, but also because there are at least four other library projects in the state that are ahead in that process.
Once an OPM is hired, they will help in the hiring of an architect.
“Once we have all our documentation in by the end of this year, then the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners will make sure we meet their level of design,” she said, noting that the MBLC would decide on the construction grants it will award in February 2026 – which is also the time in which the town’s lawsuit over the MBTA Communities Act could come into play.
“With construction, we’re just not really sure,” Stolfer said. “That is tied into the MBTA issues, so we don’t know if we’re going to be proceeding with construction, depending on what happens with that. … We’re just moving forward in the environment we find ourselves in.”
MBLC works under a funding cap of $25 million per grant round to finance all the projects it approves, much as the Massachusetts School Building Authority makes financial decisions on school projects it funds.
While the Select Board was supportive of the project, there are concerns over how a building committee will be staffed.
“Employees really shouldn’t be voting members of the committee, but certainly [could serve as] supporting members of the committee,” said Select Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. She also called Cofardo that week to advise her that DeFrais “had limited bandwidth,” but certainly would be supportive, if the committee had specific needs for his assistance.
FitzGerald-Kemmett also reached out to offer her advice that the list of names indicated it was a rather large committee, but limiting Stolfer and DeFrias to advisory roles, the panel becomes a little smaller.
“The one thing that I would urge you guys to think about, is I know these people have expressed an interest, but I think it’s just as vital to get an at-large member coming in with fresh eyes, that’s going to look at this in the same way as an average taxpayer is going to look at it,” she said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested members who could look at the project from an outsider’s perspective.
“I will leave that up to you guys in terms of whether that’s the list,” she said.
She also told library representatives that they would need a Select Board member.
“In looking at everyone’s commitment levels, I was somewhat hoping that [David] George might be that member,” she said.
George agreed to take on that role.
“For tonight, I think what we want to say is the formation of the committee – we need to take some kind of vote [for that], and as far as who is in it … we can figure that out up the road,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
The one question the board had was whether the library committee would be considered temporary or a permanent one.
“The vote that I’d like to take tonight would be contingent on legal counsel getting back to us,” she said. “It seems that it might be quasi-temporary, although it’s going to be protracted. so it’s not a hit-and run committee. It’s not a one-issue committee, if you will.”
She suggested forming the building committee to the extent that legal counsel as well a vote to getting back to us and tells us whether we need to put it on the Town Meeting warrant, and if not, reassuring the board it has taken the action it need to.
Stolfer said Hickey’s agreeing to serve on the committee was especially helpful, since – as superintendent-director of SST, which is also involved in a building project involving a state funding authority – he has just completed many similar pre-construction work.
“I’m looking forward to it, and I want to help out,” Hickey said.
“We have to choose a site, they will do schematic designs, they’ll be looking at our library building program that we had to submit grant application,” Stolfer said. “It really lays out the kind of features the library should have, using that document to come up with a design.”
Site visits would also be included in the RFP.

HANSON – Members of the Finance Committee met with the Select Board on Tuesday, March 11 to brief the board on the budget they are looking to approve as a group, according to Finance Chair Kevin Sullivan,
“There’s a little more information in here than you all are probably aware of,” Sullivan said. “We’re trying to build a case for where we’re going in FY ’26.”
He said his goal, as always was to paint the picture of where town finances are in the current fiscal year, using numbers from either the Department of Revenue Office of Local Services or Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf.
The overall FY 2026 budget of $39,186,078 is showing roughly a $3 million deficit, including a 10-percent assessment increase from the school district. Kinsherf had pinpointed the deficit at $2,9 million on Feb. 25.
It would move the fire chief’s request for $348,000 to add personnel back into a budget line, for example.
“We’re increasing an average of 6 percent each year for the last five years,” Sullivan said. “However, it’s a 37-percent increase from FY ’21 to FY ’26.”
He characterized that kind of jump in the budget within five years is “pretty severe.”
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked what portion of that increase was attributable to the school district. Sullivan replied, “a significant portion.”
Hanson’s general government budget for FY 2026 is up by 11 percent. Public safety budgets increased by 10 percent. Education is up by 9 percent overall, but 10 percent came from WHRSD and South Shore Tech showed a 4-percent decrease. The Board of Health budget increased by 24 percent in the salary line.
“We haven’t gotten to the bottom of it yet,” Sullivan said. “This is kind of the raw numbers. … I was shocked to see some of these in double digits.”
Recreation, however, continues to be in the red.
“They are no longer self-sufficient, they are no longer turning a profit … so that will be a hit to us, combined with an estimated deficit at the transfer station of $130,000,” Sullivan said. But that figure is not included in the 24-percent increase in the Board of Health budget.
“You can tack that number [$130,000] in as well, and it will look even worse,” he said.
While the Finance Committee has not officially voted on it, Sullivan said the general consensus of the committee is that the town should seek a $3 million override to close the operational budget deficit.
Based on a property valuation of $515,000, it would increase the tax rate by $752 per year. Hard numbers for all home values are on the Finance Committee page on the town’s website (hanson-ma.gov).
“That $3 million would include everything operational,” he said. “It would include bringing another shift of the Fure Department on board, it would keep everyone on the hours that were restored in October … the $3 million would cover everything. … It doesn’t prioritize one department over the rest.”
Kinsherf said the recommendation was “right on point,” reflecting modest improvement in the town’s fiscal situation and staffing levels.
“We’ve still asked people to put in austerity measures,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett. “It’s not like we’re in a spending spree, but it does allow growth in areas that we’ve identified that we need.”
Select Board Vice Chair Ann Rein asked what increase was being allowed for the school department.
Sullivan said a 10-percent school increase was calculated for W-H schools.
“And I’m planning for the worst,” he said. “We have had no luck in negotiating that number down.”
Revenue snapshot
Looking at incoming funds, Sullivan reminded the board that 93 percent of the town’s revenue comes from taxes. If you add personal property [excise taxes] that figure rises to about 95 percent.
“Commercial-industrial taxes account for very little in this town,” he said. “We always look for these mystery piles of money. They don’t exist, other than the value of your house.”
There is no new growth, and Sullivan said it is actually down slightly.
The average single family tax bill in Hanson increased by 12 percent in FY ’20 through ’22, that was the override passed at the time. It’s actually currently decreasing, according to Sullivan, who said “the increase is getting less.”
“I look at this as how are we keeping pace,” he said. “We’re great at keeping our taxes low, because we’re under the Prop 2.5 levy, the levy restricts us, we can only raise taxes that amount – it’s sort of this interesting shell game that you can go play with the assessors and the collectors, and they say, ‘We adjust the rate based on where you are.”
Where free cash is concerned, the town uses about 20 percent of certified free cash, but since FY ’23, use of free cash levels have steadily increased, Sullivan said.
“Historically we have used it for capital expenditures, articles. The things that a small town doesn’t have the money to do generally,” he said. “We buy police cruisers, we pay for conservation, we do all the stuff that our budget doesn’t let us do.”
Sullivan, who is vice president of the Association of Town Finance Committees, said he has been arguing with his peers to change the term “free cash.”
“We’ve got to work to change it, because it gives people a false sense of hope,” he said. “You want to save that ‘free cash’ so you can buy those police cruisers.”
Rein compared it to the “Peanuts” storyline of Lucy pulling the football away.
“But here it’s like putting the football back,” she said. “I wish we could not have that roller coaster.”
But Hanson has hit a point where it’s not sustainable as town expenses grow exponentially, according to Sullivan.
In FY ’24-25 the town used almost 135 percent of the previous use of free cash.
“We’re lucky that we had it,” he said. “We’re not going to have it always. There’s a limit – there’s an end and we’ve been lucky that the town accountant’s found some sources to load back to free cash. … Free cash can be a crutch for a lot of small towns.”
Select Board member Joe Weeks said the Finance presentation was great, because it shows people what the situation is.
“Statistics can be scary if you don’t know what they’re made of,” he said. “The more information, the more data that we can get out there, the more people can make an informed decision.”
“I think this puts us on a good footing for the future,” Sullivan said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed.
“Perhaps we’ll even see some modest growth,” she said, noting that the Finance Committee has been meeting with department heads and vetting their requests against what their needs are.
“The majority of the Finance Committee is not thrilled about higher taxes,” Sullivan said. “We’re not higher tax people, we’re just coming to a point where we’re going to be hitting a wall.”
Budget survey
Town Administrator Lisa Green said a survey is being conducted through the town’s engaging of Bridgewater State University, focusing on the town budget and override. A link to the survey is available on the town website budget page (hansonbudget.com).
“As people answer the survey and submit them, BSU graduate students will be tallying the responses,” Green said. “This is really going to give us a taste of where the appetite is in the town.”
Paper copies of the survey will be available at Town Hall and will be mailed to residents at the expense of Bridgewater State.

The budget outlook for W-H schools was complicated by a move to increase enrollment at South Shore Charter School last week.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education – a different entity than DESE – had less encouraging news for the W-H school district, however, as it approved an increase in enrollment [by 225 seats over the next four years] for South Shore Charter School.
“The school’s growth plan is to increase enrollment from 1,075 students to 1,300 students beginning in FY 26 and to be completed by 2030,” Szymaniak said. “That affects not only us, but about 14 other communities where students go there. Remember, we pay tuition [for students going] to South Shore Charter.”
Other charter school districts were turned down for increases, but this decision affects W-H.
“Local superintendents sent a letter to the Board of Ed saying, ‘Please, don’t, especially in this financial climate,’” Szymaniak said. “They did it anyway. They voted 6 to 4 for it yesterday [Tuesday, Feb. 25.]”
He said W-H gets an increase each year for Charter School reimbursement through Chapter 70, but Charter School tuitions keep going up as well.
“It’s not a win for us.” Szymaniak said. “Some of the reasons parents were going to South Shore Charter was for kindergarten, because it was free. Our population at South Shore Charter has declined [due at least in part to W-H offering full-day kindergarten]. It’s a good school, don’t get me wrong, but anytime it affects me financially I want you to know.”
Norfolk County Agricultural-Technical High School’s tuition is close to $29,500.
“Ours is around $17,000,” he said. “But I’m never going to tell a student they can’t go to a certain school.”
Teachers at South Shore Charter do not have to hold a Massachusetts teaching license,” committee Vice Chair Hillary Kniffen said. She asked if that difference could be stressed by public school superintendents.
“I just don’t like it when they inflate seats, now.” Szymaniak said.
“I’m really frustrated right now, that we missed this, and took our eye off this,” said member Dawn Byers. “I’m going to ask superintendent, if anything comes across your desk in the future, could you share it with the committee? We are 10 people who could have advocated for this, and the vote was only 6 to 4 – that is so close.”
The acting commissioner wrote that he was not recommending approval of this request at this time. While the state is still without a full-time commissioner, the interim commissioner Russell Johnson resigned Feb. 25.
“This is so important and so dangerous for our budget,” she said.
“I can’t believe that they didn’t listen to the superintendent,” Chair Beth Stafford said.
“But, I can believe that,” Connolly said. “There’s a political push to undermine public education and put it into voucher, and this is the step – it’s more expensive, it’s less effective. … So, anytime you see this, we as those people who advocate for public education, and a great public education, [need to know]”
South Shore is a state charter school.
Szymaniak also updated the board on discussions at a joint meeting of the Whitman Select Board and Finance Committee on Feb. 25., expressing frustration with communication issues.
“Our numbers are not that far off,” he said, despite some points of disagreement. The next joint meeting in Whitman is March 25.
He also wanted to applaud the Whitman Finance Committee.
“The positive message about the schools was definitely heard by me and I wanted to share that with you,” he said. … “There was some good discussion of what the schools need and a couple [Select Board members] were saying the schools need more,” Szymaniak said. “Now, it’s up to the taxpayers to understand that and how it’s presented, but I think there’s a realization, at least verbally, that our budget is what it is – there’s not a lot of fluff and we’re not adding programs. It’s to sustain what we have now, to provide those programs so people aren’t going to South Shore Charter.”
He said the numbers received from an independent enrollment analysis is that W-H is leveling off at the elementary and middle level grades, but students are lost from eighth- to ninth-grade for the vocational options, because there is a national push toward vocational education and some are lost to charter schools.
“I’m an advocate of not using any type of excess and deficiency to balance the budget this year, because we don’t have it,” Szymaniak said. “The numbers we need to sustain what we have are the numbers I presented in February.”
He also stressed that Whitman officials were clear the override is being viewed as an operational override for the community and he appreciated having a seat at the table for the discussion.
Hanson committee member Kara Moser said she hopes the same invitation is extended by the Hanson Select Board.
State report card
While this district has still not caught up to the state average, it is making some progress in per-pupil spending, despite a decline in enrollment.
Assistant Superintendent George Ferro reviewed the district’s report card from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, issued to each school in the state and the district as a whole, during the meeting
“Just as a student’s report card shows how they’re doing in classes, the school and district report cards are designed to show parents and the community members how a school or a district is doing in various different areas,” Ferro read from a DESE explanation.
“They are written for people who are not necessarily involved in the business of education,” he said, noting there are also graphs involved in the report cards.
Topics covered in the report cards are:
• Who are our students and teachers? Enrollment of the school, demographic makeup and teacher information;
• Academic opportunities available to students?
• Student attendance and discipline;
• Outlook for student success after high school;
• Student performance on state tests;
• District school spending; and
• How the district is doing within the state accountability system.
The report is available on the DESE website under “School and District profiles,” Ferro said.
There are also responsibilities that state have.
“Once the report cards are online, it’s the school’s responsibility to provide a letter home to every person in the district … telling them exactly what to click on to see their schools.” he said. Once that letter is sent home, it must also be available through a link posted on the district website [whrsd.org] found on the district documents page. The 2024 report cards can be compared to previous years on the site.
If people have questions, they are asked to first contact a school’s principal – or the superintendent’s office for district questions.
School Committee Chair Beth Stafford asked Ferro if there was anything that stood out in the report to him.
“Although we talk about budget a lot, and we never have to add real programs – like more and more and more programs – we have steadily increased at least our per-pupil expenditure from the previous years of stagnation, so that was good to look at,” Ferro replied. “Also good to see were the drop-out and the graduation trends and the plans of our seniors. … It’s a better snapshot of the high school, because they provide more information for the high school students.”
For schools with lower grades, there isn’t, Ferro said, “a lot of ooomph.” But for families perhaps looking to migrate or consider moving to a new school district, it provides a good snapshot of what students need improvement and offers an idea why.
“Great job for the committee that did recognize that [the per-pupil formula at WH] was not appropriate,” Committee member Rosemary Connolly said. “We still have work to do.”
“It’s slow, but it’s moving,” Ferro said.
“And we’re moving in the right direction,” said Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak, noting there has been a steady increase in per-pupil spending from 2008 to 2024. “[But] we’re still not catching up to the state, and we’re not close to our technical or agricultural schools in per-pupil spending, but we’re not in the bottom five anymore.”
The district moved up from the bottom fifth to the bottom third, and Szymaiak to the middle of the road, at some point.

WHITMAN – Voters will be asked to vote on an operational override of Proposition 2.5 at the Monday, May 5 Town Meeting and the Saturday, May 17 Town Election, but the amount of the override has not yet been determined as the town faces a current deficit of $2.5 million.
“The budget indicates that an override is definitely necessary to maintain level services,” said Select Board member Shawn Kain, who has been working with Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter and Assistant Town Administrator Kathy Keefe, during the Tuesday, Feb. 25 meeting.
Free cash, meanwhile, has finally been certified at $2.2 million and Kain credited the town’s financial policies with keeping projections tighter.
Later in the meeting, the Select Board voted to impose a soft hiring freeze of new municipal employees because of the town’s finances, requiring approval from the Select Board, town administration so they can decide if a hold needs to be placed on a position that might be eliminated.
Execptions include a veterans services agent, which is mandated by law.
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak also attended the meeting. Select Board member Laura Howe was absent.
The Select Board and Finance Committee will be meeting to discuss the issue further at its Tuesday, March 25 meeting and to schedule some public information forums in April.
Kain on the budget, said that he favors a smaller, short-term override, with the possibility of further overrides being necessary.
As of now, both boards are leaning toward a one-year override.
FinCom member Mike Andrews also said it would be advisable to put their cards on the table and let taxpayers know ahead of time it might not be just a “one-shot deal.”
“We may need to come back,” he said.
“That’s my concern,” said FinCom Vice Chair Mike Warner. “If we do an override right now, and we just meet the deficit, that means you’re guaranteeing you’re going to have an override next year.”
He said a move that would help any decision on an override, is to mandate a five-year plan from all departments, citing one the DPW has created.
Select Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said there is no guarantee that departments would be able to stick to a five-year plan.
“I want to make sure that we’re not positioning this conversation around this school as the reason for this override,” Winter said. “There are other things … that we know have to be done.”
He said he does not believe there’s time between now and May to come up with a projection for a multi-year ask of that magnitude.
Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski asked Kain if he could have two scenarios – for a one-year and a three-year override – ready in a couple of weeks. Kain said he could do that, as they have already done a one-year, and could have some in some detail, by March 25.
An informational contingency budget will be worked on by a working group between the town administration, the FinCon and Kain as informational tool.
Finance Committee Chair Kathleen Ottina opened the discussion with her statement on the budget before Kain provided a brief budget update.
“Tonight’s a big meeting to inform the finance committee on updating the current situation – I know what it is, but my committee members don’t,” she said. “I’ve looked at the school budget. I’ve analyzed [it] and I’ve sent [Szymaniak] my copy of the analysis with 32 questions.”
Ottina noted that Whitman, as a community, as a town, completely supported [SST’s] building, were very excited about it, and they also excited about the fact that SST is introducing two new programs. For veterinary technician and plumbing.
“This is going to offer students in the 21st century, opportunities that they don’t currently have,” she said. “But when it comes to the W-H Regional School district, there was not an awful lot of support from some corners of the town for the new middle school building, despite the fact that it was desperately needed, and yet it passed – and yet there are no new programs, despite the impact of the current budget, there are no new programs in the WH school budget.”
The middle school language program is not being returned, and no robotics courses are being offered, Ottina noted.
“No future thinking … to offer our kids to have more of them stay in W-H, so I think, when we come to making decisions about how we fund the schools, we as a community have been very generous and very supportive of the schools over the years, but we need to keep in mind that we’re only going to retain the kids if we provide an equitable education for all of them.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” said Kowalski.
South Shore Tech Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey was meeting with the Finance Committee that evening following the joint meeting with the Select Board. Szymaniak will present the school budget to the Finance Committee on March 11.
Ottina, who had been attending meetings remotely of late, due to illness, said she has been working “behind the scenes” and also met remotely with Carter to keep on top of the town’s financial situation. She had contributed a couple of spread sheets during that time analyzing how things are going for the town financially.
“The key point … is the $993,176 – the amount of new revenue over last year that we can use toward the operating budget,” Kain said. One of the Select Board’s fiscal priorities is to put 10 to 15 percent of free cash into capital stabilization this year, Kain added. Another 10 to 15 percent is being eyed for stabilization.
After processing the budget figures provided by the W-H School District earlier this month, coupled with the town’s budget forecast in December and updated revenue figures for the town and its expenditures, Kain offered a brief revue to facilitate discussion.
Whitman’s “solid number” for the $797,975 as the 2.5 percent, plus $200,000 in new growth, puts the town’s projected levy limit at $32,916,982, with excluded debt of $4,346.763 and receipts form other sources at $10,872,308 brings the maximum allowable levy at $10,872,308 for a total revenue of $48,136,053.
After charges and offsets are calculated the available funds are $47,410,216. The town also used $509,000 in free cash to balance the budget at last year’s Town meeting.
“Switching over to expenses, that Plymouth County Retirement figure is a real killer,” Kain said. At $363,000 it represents an 11-percent increase. “That’s a huge increase that’s very difficult to account for.” Medical insurance is also up 7 percent. With Carter’s support, Kain said he would like to place another $200,000 from free cash to offset the major liability at Plymouth County Retirement.
“We do not support using free cash in the operating budget,” he said, explaining it as a short-tern use for the next five years, but recognizing that the schools are in a tough situation, the board recommends using $140,000 of the meals tax that was otherwise going to be used for OPEB, dedicated for educational purposes.
The other post-employment benefits liability would instead be funded with $140,000 in free cash.
Carter added that Town Hall needs an accounting software package to replace the current one, which is approaching end-of-life, and Fire Chief Timothy Clancy has been talking about a new fire engine, which could cost $1.8 million.
“In order to have money for these huge expenditures, we really need to be consistent,” said, endorsing the placement of 10 to 15 percent of free cash into capital stabilization, as well as the 10 to 15 percent into regular stabilization.
The Select Board agreed with the stabilization moves.
“When towns get in trouble is when they stop putting money into stabilization,” Select Board member Justin Evans said.
W-H’s assessment – at $1.8 million increase is 9.65 percent and SST’s assessment is actually down as Whitman’s enrollment is down and the overall enrollment at SST is stable.
The town’s salary increases at 2.5 percent is the placeholder, he added, noting that all town unions are currently in negotiations.
Expenses based on figures available in December were basically “zeroes across he board,” Kain said, adding expenses that must be paid into Article 2, to provide a little more realistic picture of where expenses need to be even with “a really sparse budget.”
Kain said the new growth figure is less than the town typically anticipates, but added that the feedback they are getting is that building is down a little bit.
“I feel pretty strongly that I think we should have a small override, one year, that we show the public how we’re sacrificing, as well,” Kain said. “Because of the debt the town has incurred with new building projects, people are going to feel the burden pretty significantly with that, and it’s understandable. To recognize that, the appropriate step forward – just my opinion – is a smaller override, one that is more palatable than adding significant services.”
Ideally, Kain said he would support a multi-year override, but he’s having a problem with the town’s ability to predict how much that would be over, say, five years, to a high degree.
“We have some unique variables in Whitman and Hanson that make it really difficult to project out that are beyond our control,” he said.
Kowalski said he had been supporting a multiple-year override, until he listened to Kain more carefully.
“I think I agree with you,” he said. “What you just described might be the way to go.”
Evans, however, said he thinks a multiple-year approach is the way to go.
“I don’t know that we have the numbers today,” he said, but didn’t think it would be too difficult to “get a good ballpark figure,” noting that the school district’s projections are available, the board can make some assumptions how on contract might go and other expenses within town departments for a three-year override, based on those assumptions. Getting beyond that, Evans did see forecasting problems.
“We could probably pencil in 10 percent for pension increases, 7 percent for health care increases – it seems like it’s going to continue to stay high,” he said.
Finance Committee members seemed to agree a shorter-period override would pose less of a burden on taxpayers, but have not discussed it a their meetings.

The W-H Regional School District presented its fiscal 2026 budget to the School Committee Wednesday, Feb. 12 – a $66,306,276,19 level-service spending plan that is up $3,375,931.19 over the $ 62,530,345 budgeted in FY 25 – a total budget increase of 5.6 percent.
As of now, operational assessment totals are 61.12 percent or ($20.9 million, a 9.65 percent increase over last year) for Whitman, and 38.88 percent ($16.4 million, a 9.87 percent increase) for Hanson.
Individual line items have not been reviewed, as yet.
Besides the budget presentation, conducted mainly by district’s Director of Business and Finance Stephen Marshall, the committee conducted a public hearing on the proposed budget to outline what is “fiscally needed for the 2025-26 school year.”
The committee also voted to limit meeting times, even if that means scheduling a second meeting some months.
The main comments during the hearing were from Whitman Select Board member Justin Evans and Hanson Finance Committee member Steve Amico, both of whom discussed the potential impact of the increase in light of their towns’ deficits and plans to seek operational overrides.
Evans reminded the committee that Whitman is looking at between $800,000 and $850,00 in new revenue and a deficit of about $1.7 million. Whitman used $500,000 from free cash to avoid a school override last year.
“It seems like were looking at an override, and that was before this number from the district,” he said.
Szymaniak said he appreciated being able to attend a recent Select Board meeting in Whitman and discussing their financial outlook and the plan moving forward, and said he would be willing to attend a similar session in Hanson. In response to Evans’ question, he said staffing costs, special education and insurance costs are the “big drivers” of the district’s budget increase.
“This is a tough year,” Chair Beth Stafford agreed. “We knew this, because, if you look at our five-year projection, this was a tougher year.”
Amico said that Hanson is looking at an override in the neighborhood of $2.5 million just for it’s town deficit.
“It seems that a deficit of $2.6 or $2.5 million is in every single [South Shore] town this year,” he said. “It’s absolutely crazy. … It just seems that’s the number.” Hanson’s accountant has been calculating based on a 7 percent assessment increase from the schools.
“There are no increases to staffing in this budget, however, we are improving programming for students with the intent of filling the positions needed to staff that, currently on our payroll,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. “This budget does, however, fund certain costs and light items that were cut in fiscal 2025 to maintain our curriculum standards and capacity for one-to-one devices.”
He noted that, over the years, his office has been criticized for both failing to ask the towns to financially support expanding programs for students, and for asking way too much.
This is Szymaniak’s seventh budget season at W-H.
The district lacks foreign language instruction in the middle schools and seeks to expand the related arts program, K-12, to expand students’ life experiences. This year, however neither program is included in the budget. Still, he stressed, W-H provides a solid education for students, prekindergarten to age 22, for special needs students.
Szymaniak indicated the one constant has been that it is very hard to provide a strong, well-rounded education while costs keep going up each year, but he said he is confident that the budget presented follows the strategic plan and provides the best opportunity for students to learn, grow and become productive people in our society.
Marshall then reviewed the major financial points of the budget.
Big factors
The strategic focus of the budget is the 2023-28 five-year plan. All budget documents are posted on the whrsd.org website under School Committee, the scroll down to “FY 26 Preliminary budget.”
Budget discussions will be an agenda item “everywhere until Town Meeting,” which is Monday, May 5.
The next School Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 26.
The goals and priorities for this budget are maintenance of: the educational plan and services for incoming and current students; current staffing levels while meeting contractual obligations; contractual obligations for transportation and custodial services; services for MLL enrollment and the services and obligations of increased special education needs.
The 2024-25 enrollment was 3.457 students, 26 less than last year.
Chapter 70, the major program of state aid for public school systems across Massachusetts, not only helps school operations with state funds, it sets the minimum spending requirement that towns must meet.
The FY25 amount of Chapter 70 was $25.6 million. In FY26 the district has a foundation budget increase of zero and will only see an increase of $75 per student minimum in the governor’s budget, adding up to only $258,675.
Total Chapter 70 aid for FY 2026 is expected to be $25,929,471.
“Chapter 70 has been a major discussion across the Commonwealth right now,” Szymaniak interjected. A letter, endorsed by the Mass. Association of School Committees, the Mass. Association of School Superintendents, quite a few local politicians, the Mass Teachers’ Association, different associations and unions has been circulating through school districts and is on its way to Gov. Healey looking to address how Chapter 70 is funded for public schools, he noted.
More than 230 Massachusetts school districts are now in hold-harmless, meaning they are getting the minimum aid of $75 per pupil.
“Something isn’t necessarily right with the formula,” Szymaniak said. “We’ve been talking about the formula for quite a while.”
He added that, while there’s been some talk that the governor’s final budget in June could include $100 per-student in Chapter 70, but he and Marshall wanted to keep their budget calculations to the numbers they are certain about.
Transportation
The total transportation budget is $1.9 million.
“This is yellow bus transportation only,” Marshall said. “There is other transportation you might see in the budget – some other lines with a transportation total which is greater than that,” he said, listing van service for special education students as an example. Mandated busing costs are budgeted for about $1.6 million and non-mandated is at $255,407.
Whitman’s non-mandated busing cost is $207,520.36 and Hanson’s is $47,887.55.
“As the superintendent stated, we’re projecting reimbursement here at 75 percent, based on the numbers that are in the governor’s budget – that’s what we believe, we’ve talked to DESE (the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) as well,” Marshall said. “They also believe that, for right now, we should not be looking for more than 75-percent reimbursement, based on the numbers that are currently in the budget.”
That projection is about $1.2 million of the $1.9 million total transportation costs, he said.
“Just let folks know, the rule is 100-percent regional transportation reimbursement, subject to appropriation,” Szymaniak said. “We have never seen 100 percent – we’ve gotten close, we’ve gotten into the 90s – but, again, we don’t want to make a mistake of over-estimating, and looking at a reduction when the budget is finally confirmed in July, June – whenever, one year it was August – and be short.”
Medicaid reimbursement offsets costs for certain healthcare services or administrative activities within the district, and the claims are very complex, requiring a third-party data management firm to assist in submitting the claims. A reduction in the line for FY26 stems from the FY25 budgeted amount being too high, Marshall said.
Circuit breaker is a percentage reimbursement for costs paid by the district for qualified special education tuition and instruction services and associated transportation costs (not included until 2021 at 25 percent) for out-of-district programs.
“It’s the extraordinary costs, is what they’re saying,” Member Rosemary Connolly said.
The cost of employee benefits is also higher, even as there are no new positions included in the budget. Property and liability insurance rates are also higher in FY26 for the district.
“Post-breach, as most insurance companies do, they’ll pay for your damage and then your premiums go up – ours went up substantially after we claimed $500,000 for the breach in 2022, and we spent $600,000 from excess and deficiency to get us whole again,” Szymaniak said. The flood caused by a burst pipe at Hanson Middle School also contributed to the premium spike.
A portion of grants received from DESE has to go toward teacher retirement, as well, so this year they made a change and paid tuitions with the grant instead to avoid that requirement, saving $85,000 so far.
“We don’t pay for retirements … That’s an anomaly that Stephen picked up on, and it’s something that we picked up on to say that we can save some money here by transferring funds,” Szymaniak said.

Length of meetings
Stafford had opened the session by noting that she had fielded comments from a couple committee members about meeting length.
“I am going to propose that our meetings will end at 8:30 [p.m.] with the ability to vote to extend [them] 15 minutes by a majority, and then another 15 minutes until 9,” she said. “The last two meetings have gone until almost 1 o’clock – I think everybody had had enough at that point.”
She added that, to work appropriately and with our minds working well, two to two and a half hours is more than long enough for a meeting.
“If we need to, we can carry [a discussion] to the next meeting,” she said. “Sometimes we might have to have a second meeting, which is better than going for four hours.”
Connolly asked how many meetings other school committees scheduled. Stafford replied that in some districts two meetings a month were scheduled.
“We used to [do that] years ago,” she said.
Connolly suggested that limiting the schedule to one meeting a month might be causing the problem.
“We want to make sure, particularly during budget season, what we do is thorough,” Connolly said.
The members agreed to the change by consensus.
Stafford said that night’s meeting was the first in which the rule would go into effect. It ended up not being needed on that occasion, however, as the meeting was one hour, 35 minutes and 56 seconds in length.
Szymaniak said two meetings per month are already scheduled through the end of March to accommodate budget work.

HANSON – The Select Board on Tuesday, Feb. 11 voted 3-1, with Ed Heal against, to sign an MBTA Communities Action Plan as requested by the state, rather than as a signal of approval.
The Board voted to support the action plan, to bring Hanson into interim compliance with the MBTA law through July.
“Please don’t rely on the Planning Board, the Zoning Board or the Select Board only to fight this fight,” said Planning Board Chair Joe Campbell. “Your voice matters when you contact your legislator.”
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett noted the General Court is taking public comment.
“They absolutely have to be vocal because our representatives have 10 people behind them, it means nothing,” Campbell said. “When they’ve got 5,000 people behind them, it means a lot.”
Town Planner Anthony DeFrias reminded the board where the legislation sits now.
“As a result of the [Supreme Judicial] Court actions, what’s happening now is that there are emergency guidelines in effect for 90 days,” he said. “Non-compliant towns are required to file an action plan by Feb. 13 to be in interim compliance, with a deadline of July 14 to be in full compliance.”
He met with the Select Board two weeks ago when Board members indicated they were feeling that would be the action they would accept, but no formal vote was taken, according to FitzGerald-Kemmett.
“That is not putting that on the Town Meeting warrant, that’s a separate discussion,” she reminded the board.
Since that meeting, state Rep. Ken Sweezey, R-Pembroke, has been able to connect with state officials on the two grants that had been pulled back from Hanson because it was not in compliance – one for $237,000 to clean up the Lite Control property and the other, for $70,000 was for a study of a property in the industrial park sought by the Economic Development Committee to determine the best use for it.
Because of a brownfields grant the town had been able to determine that there is contamination in one section of the land once owned by Lite Control.
“So, we’ve got answers, that’s great,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett. “The downside of that is we’ve got answers. … Now that we know there’s contamination, we have to take action.”
She said the town couldn’t hide from that responsibility because they own the property now. There’s no turning to Lite Control [or the parent company] for assistance. The $237,000 grant DeFrias sought was based on the estimate for the cleanup.
“Because we’re in this limbo-land between now and July, we would be considered as having interim compliance if we file an action plan,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. That in turn could grease the wheels of returning the grants.
DeFrias said he has filled out the online form, but a letter from the Board is also required stating that is their full intention for the town administrator to take necessary action to bring zoning into compliance with all requirements of MGL Ch. 40A, Sec. 3A and 1760CMR 72 to a vote of the municipality’s legislative body in the timeframe required by the action plan, and to submit a district compliance application to EOHLC (Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities) no later than July 14.
“I don’t want us to lose the money,” DeFrias said, noting a concern he has. “We’ve had some developments through the Planning Board,” which had met on Monday, Feb. 10 and he had asked them if they were interested in recommending the zoning amendment, the MBTA zoning and the overlay district.
“The Planning Board made no motion, so they will not be bringing that proposal before the Select Board,” he said. “There are multiple entities that can propose a zoning bylaw, the Planning Board being one of them. The Select Board, the Zoning Board, 10 citizens, because there would be May Town Meeting, and the Regional Planning Agency.”
It would still have to go back to the Planning Board for a public hearing, because that is part of the process, according to DeFrias.
“My concern, and this came to me this afternoon, is if we’re putting forward this statement, and we’re getting money, I don’t want us to get afoul of the law,” he said. “I’m wondering if we shouldn’t ask the question of town counsel – if we put this in, and we’re not going to comply – are we, in essence, defrauding the state?”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the Board hadn’t discussed it.
Select Board Vice Chair Ann Rein said she spoke with someone over the weekend, whose question was how far apart are officials on the issue, if the Board was to do its own zoning decisions.
“How far apart would we be from the MBTA desires?” Rein said the person asked.
“I know this is killing you,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“I don’t want to comply with the MBTA,” Rein said.
Rein and FitzGerald-Kemmett were trying to get at whether the town would be considered in compliance if town officials came up with its own overlay district allowing multi-family housing where we were encouraging local development.
“Where WE say where the district is going to be,” Rein said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested putting MBTA aside and thinking about what the town wants vs what they are being required to do.
“I think that’s an interesting concept.” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“I don’t like any of it, but what are you going to do?” Rein replied. “Whether we like it or not, things are going to develop. I just do not want anybody from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts telling us what t do.”
Planning Board Chair Joe Campbell said Hanson’s Town Planner constantly thinks of the betterment of the town solely, and DeFrias has done a wonderful job creating multiple projects, things that the town could have.
“The difference here is, halfway through his tenure, the state came in and said, ‘But we also want you to do this, not only to our town, but every town that’s affected by MBTA,’” Campbell said. “We had plenty of asks on the Planning Board side because we know the difficulties of where Our MBTA is.”
Campbell said every alternative concept they presented Hanson’s adjusted plans they were rejected.
“That’s not their interest,” he said. “They’re trying to solve a problem, I assume is to do with rideability and costs for the MBTA and they’re using this as a way to do that.”
He also stressed that the headache resulting from the plan was also dealt with by the Baker administration, which is a major waste of time for town officials.
Town Administrator Lisa Green said she would be happy to ask about what the town is being told to do, and if there is any leeway, based on Campell’s explanation.
Board member Joe Weeks said the first hurdle is determining the will of the board, in light of the fact that they have no idea what a future board is going to say.
“This has nothing to do with strategy, it’s literally what we have in front of us right now,” Weeks said.
Transitions
Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan met with the Select Board to solidify her exit strategy as she retires at the end of her term following the May Town Election. Sloan has served as Town Clerk for 15 years and had been an assistant Town Clerk for eight years before that.
“I am retiring,” she said. “I am not pulling papers to run for my position, so whoever’s coming in is going to be brand spanking new.”
Mass. General Law outlines that the new town clerk will not start work for seven days following election, so Sloan will not be working after May 17, but she left it up to the Select Board, if they wanted her to stay on to smooth the transition. If they do, it will require a reserve funds transfer or place an article before the special Town Meeting.
“Of course, it’s up to you how long you want the transition to be,” Sloan said. “Do you just want me to stay another week, would you like me to stay a little longer? It’s up to you.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett favored a specific article in the special Town Meeting warrant for the sake of transparency.
“Since we’ve got the luxury of being able to do that, because it’s just prior to the transition, and as far as I’m concerned, I’d like to build in [a transition period] – if we get somebody right off the street, which is likely, because it has to be a resident of Hanson, and as far as I know, we haven’t got a million Beth Sloans running around,” she said, asking
Sloan for her estimation of a helpful transition period. Sloan said she favored an intensive week of training and then as much of a phase-out period as the Select Board recommends. Three days a week, a number of hours a day or whatever they think would work.
“I just want to have a retirement date, so I can say I am not longer an employee of the Town of Hanson as of this date,” Sloan said.
Green said she spoke with Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf and he said, because the town already has the money is already approved in the reserve fund, that is probably a better way to go.
“We just have to work with our Town Clerk, Ms. Sloan, and then we can put in for the line-item transfer through the Finance Committee,” Green said. The town could then seek reimbursement for the amount transferred at Town Meeting.
“Of course, we want to keep you forever, but we know people have lives and we must move on, but we thank you sincerely for everything that you’ve done,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “You’ve been incredibly supportive and helpful.” She warned Sloan, however, that she would not be able to escape a more formal thank you, despite the “shooting from the hip thank you” the Select Board members offered Tuesday.

WHITMAN – A report from the audit firm The Abrahams Group out of Framingham, hired to review the books at the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District seemed to leave some questions unanswered as consultant David King presented its findings to the Select Board on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Select Boards in both towns requested the “agreed upon procedures report” on the school district. There seemed to be challenges involved from the start.
“We originally planned to do a brand-new data reporting system that the state was piloting, [but] they never piloted it until after we were done, so we used the old-fashioned methods,” King said.
He presented a series of comparison charts to rank Whitman-Hanson among four other regional districts in the area.
“We’ve been looking at these numbers for a while, and it’s nice to share them and to have conversations about them, but, honestly, I was hoping that the audit would dig in deeper and provide some analysis as to why,” Board member Shawn Kain said. “There’s some obvious questions about transportation or about some of the operational practices, and you can see where they rank among the other towns, [but] without an understanding as to why, it just feels lacking to me.”
Kain noted that, on the hard copies provided to the board, The Abrhams Group had written: “We are not engaged to, and will not perform an examination, the objective of which would be to express an opinion.”
“But, I think, in many ways, what we need is an opinion,” he said. “We need people to share opinions almost as a consultant would.”
Kain said an example would be, if a district got high marks, a list of practices they are engaged in to obtain that result, are the kind of opinions that can help the district become more efficient.
King said that was why The Abrahams Group included that statement in the introduction.
“We weren’t hired to do an analysis,” he said. “Transportation [for example] would be an entirely different study.”
The Abrams Group has done audits for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and school districts throughout Massachusetts and across the country on services; school-based performance and operations management; regionalization rules and budgeting and accounting for 29 years, according to the firm website [theabrahamsgroup.com].
“We started off with four school districts that had been suggested for comparison – Bridgewater-Raynham, Dudley-Charlton, Freetown-Lakeville and Hamden-Wilbraham,” King said. “In working with the [W-H] school district early on, they suggested we also add Dennis-Yarmouth, Dighton-Rehoboth and Dover-Sherborn.”
As the firm began reviewing data from those districts, however, the audit firm decided that Dennis-Yarmouth and Dover-Sherborn were not comparable to the other four districts, but Dighton-Rehoboth was, so it was added into the study, according to King.
“We’re going to look at a bunch of statistics,” he said in opening his PowerPoint presentation. “We’re going to go through them quickly because there’s a lot of them.”
Looking at enrollments, Bridgewater-Raynham is the biggest of the districts studied at 5,392 students, with W-H coming in second with 3,403 and and Dighton-Rehoboth is the smallest at 2,569 students.
W-H was second-highest in the number of economically disadvantage students, at 30 percent of all students in the district, to Dudley-Charlton’s 34 percent. The state average is 42 percent of any given student population, King reported.
“All of the districts [reviewed] are below that,” King said of the state average. All of the studied districts are in single-digits regarding the percentage of English Language Learners with W-H in second place at 2 percent, behind both Bridgewater-Raynham and Dudley-Charlton at 3 percent each. The state average is 13 percent.
Select Board member Justin Evans asked what year the ELL data was from.
“I know it has been a rapidly increasing population at W-H,” he said. King said student data was from 2023 and the financial data was from 2022.
W-H’s per-pupil assessment is second from the bottom in the group studied – it’s $34,340,078 operating assessment in 2022 at $9,859 per pupil. Capital assessments that didn’t apply to per-pupil costs were filtered out, King said.
W-H falls in the middle of the study group at $16,339 per pupil. Data was from state financial reports filed by the districts.
Per-pupil costs for administration and instructional leaders put W-H in the middle of the study group at $1,227. All were between $1,041 (Dudley-Charlton) and $1,447 (Freetown-Lakeville). W-H is second from the top in per-pupil costs for teachers at $6,625, with Dighton-Rehoboth in the top spot at 46,828.
“For other teaching expenses, W-H is at the bottom,” King said noting the category covers primarily teacher aides and paraprofessionals. In Technology spending, W-H’s per-pupil costs are back near the middle of the pack at $375, with Dighton-Rehoboth at $444 and Dudley-Charlton at $265.
W-H was in last place in regard to per-pupil expenditures for food services with $365, with Dudley-Charlton at the top with $575.
“This is point where per-pupil costs don’t mean a lot because of recent [state policy] with school lunches where al the lunches are free,” King said. “I wouldn’t rely too much on this figure, but it’s one of the things we looked at.”
In Trasportation, W-H is at the bottom, as well, spending $895 per pupil, with Freetown-Lakeville at the top with a $1,213 expenditure.
“These are all regional school districts who get regional aid,” he said. “Usually, every district has a different story about how they provide transportation and what their issues are.”
Evans asked if the transportation data represented the total transportation expenditure, or what the towns contribute to it. King said the data reflected the total expenditure.
“It’s nice to see where we rank, but, are there systems and practices in place that allow one town to be more efficient than others?,” Kain asked. “That would be helpful information for us as we’re thinking about [budgeting practices]. That’s some of the things I’d like to see surfaced out of an audit.”
To simply see where W-H ranks without an analysis moved Kain to say, “I don’t know what we can do with that information. I’m not saying that’s on you. It may be the way we put together the audit.”
W-H falls in the middle of the pack where operations and maintenance expenses re ranked, and is “back near the top” in per-pupil expenditures for benedits.
“A little bit of analysis – the two most expensive categories, when you break it down, is teachers and benefits,” King said. “To me, that’s where you want to spend your money – on benefits in order to get employees – and the same on teacher salaries.”
Evans noted that the teacher salaries and benefits was simply and averaging of “just total teachers’ salaries by the number of teachers.
“This doesn’t necessarily dig into whether we just have older teachers, so they’re at higher [salary] steps,” he asked.
“If you’re going to do an analysis of teacher salaries, you’d look at ages of teachers, number of years of experience,” King said. “You’d also look at benefits.”
“For us as well,” Kain said. “We’ve ben through a number of difficult budgets, having [fewer] younger teachers does kind of skew that number up.”
“I think we see that later in the report.” King said.
He also noted that W-H spends less on administration and leaders than all but two districts, spend more per-pupil on teachers than all but one districts and spend less, per-pupil than all districts,
The district also spends more than is required by their net school spending requirement by 15 percent. The state average is 29 percent, King said.
On Chapter 70, aid went up by $261,516 in 2022 as did the required net spending and the district’s required contributions went up, “but you were over the requirement anyways,” King said. “So, it didn’t affect you, but the district did get $261,000 more.”
The district was also asked to provide budget items funded by one-time sources – transitioning from a paid full-day kindergarten to a free all-day K in 2023, taking $476,627 from the revolving fund; ESSER funds were used to add positions – five teachers and 11 paraprofessionals.
“When the ESSER funds were expended, they went into the budget as additional staff funded by the budget,” King said.
In ESSER 1, was not spent on salaries, but “pretty much on expenses,” King said, adding that the district did not provide details on what the expenses were. ESSER II went mostly to salaries, a contribution to the Mass Teachers’ Retirement System that went along with those new teachers and more expenses and ESSER III again paid for teachers and paraprofessionals, stipends for attending grant-funded workshops, MTRS and other expenses.
“This is where they added the five teachers and 11 paraprofessionals,” King said.
A detailed appendix to the report, which King said was not conducive for use in a PowerPoint presentation, but he said, “it details five years of revenues and expenditures showing an excess and deficiency use over the five years,” King said. “We looked at those numbers. We didn’t see anything abnormal in them.”
The firm was also asked to look at Capital articles.
“The two parties need to get together and reconcile it, so the two reconciliations agree,” he said.

HANSON – While the town budget is at a $ 2.6 million deficit as the budget season begins, according to Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf, the town did receive some good financial news this week on the grant front.
One of those announcements came after 36 hours of concentrated bipartisan legislative pushback from state Sen. Mike Brady, D-Brockton and state Rep. Ken Sweezey, R-Pembroke, when a $19,000 grant the Hanson Fire Department has been counting on to fund firefighting equipment. was rescinded because Hanson is not MBTA Communities compliant as of Dec. 31.
Another $9,000 grant funding safety programs for children and seniors is still in jeopardy, O’Brien said Wednesday morning.
“A letter that awarded them, a paragraph that should have had a happy tone, had a whole paragraph about the future of additional grant money, and said very explicitly ALL future grant money awards will take compliance into consideration,” Sweezey said.
The grant had been awarded last November.
“Thank you very much for the support,” Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., said, adding that Sweezey had started making phone calls before he could get started working the phones. … It meant a lot to us.”
Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., also addressed the situation, thanking Sweezey and Brady’s legislative aide, and noted that, as well as Hanson officials, they were getting talks or phone calls or texts to the point where they cloud see that the grant would be restored.
“I want to thank you and Sen. Brady for your very timely support on our little ‘fire drill’ last week,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett punned during the Tuesday, Jan. 28 meeting. “I called [them] and, after a ‘therapeutic session’ with both of them, in which I expressed my very strong views [they went to work to restore the funding]. That was one of the lowest things I’ve seen in many, many years.”
Within four hours, FitzGerald-Kemmett had received a follow-up call to the effect that the state had “changed their mind.”
“I want to thank you for your ‘right out of the gate’ partnership,” she said as Sweezey attended the Select Board’s meeting to provide a legislative update. “I didn’t expect anything different, having served with you on the Economic Development Committee, but I did want to thank you.”
Sweezey said he’s had a very busy but productive 28 days in office since being sworn in on Jan. 1.
He’s also filed 26 of the 7,000 bills filed by the Jan. 16 legislation filing deadline this year.
Sweezey noted that the Supreme Judicial Court had ruled on Jan 8 that the state’s attorney general can enforce the MBTA Communities law, which they ruled is constitutional, but they did not rule on the law’s guidelines. There are 23 separate bills filed on MBTA zoning by 11 different representatives of both parties.
“I do very much believe this is going to get worse, to be honest with everybody,” Sweezey said.
The following week, the governor’s office and the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities issued emergency regulations with new deadlines. As of now, Sweezey said, every community is back into “interim compliance,” which is why Hanson was awarded the fire safety equipment grant.
On Feb. 13, all towns must file an action plan, whether they plan on being compliant or not. Hanson had done a couple of years ago before the timeline had been changed because of the court challenge, before beginning the process of bringing it back to Town Meeting by July 14.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the action plan would be further discussed and voted on at the Select Board’s Feb. 11 meeting.
“At that point, if no zone is created, then that town – if they filed an action plan – would then be out of compliance,” Sweezey said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said Sweezey liked the letter received by Hanson Fire, also came short of saying ‘You won’t get it,” she said. “But you won’t get it.”
She noted that, as the law is structured now, educational grants, first responder grants, could be on the table.
“There’s no guardrails there,” she said.
“The townspeople overwhelmingly, gave us decision,” said Vice Chair Ann Rein. “They don’t want to be in compliance. Starting that process up, makes it look like we are going against the townspeople’s desires, and trying to bring Hanson into compliance. I have to say, I do not want to be compliant.
“I don’t want Hanson to change the way they want it to change, the way they want Hanson to change,” she said.
The Hanson Public Library has also been awarded a sizeable grant – $100,000 to be funded immediately – by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners at it’s January Board meeting.
The MPLCP awards grants in two phases: Planning and Design Phase and Construction Phase. All the projects will move through the planning and design phase at the same time, regardless of status. At the culmination of this phase in late 2025 or early 2026, all projects will undergo an independent review of the MPLCP Level of Design. The immediately funded projects that pass the review will be recommended for a construction phase grant immediately.