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. 

WHITMAN – The Select Board and Finance Committee agree that it will likely take an override to resolve the town’s deficit situation. The question remains how big and whether it would be a one-year or a multi-year one?
Some important numbers, which would allow a projection, are not in yet, which is one reason another joint meeting is planned for Tuesday, Feb, 25, after the School District budget is released on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
“It might make sense to have more joint meetings than we’re accustomed to, said Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski during the Tuesday, Jan. 21 joint meeting. FinCom Chair Kathleen Ottina attended remotely be phone and Finance members Mike Flanagan, Jason Hunter, Vice Chair Mike Warner, Rick Anders and Al Cafferty also attended. Select Board member Laura Howe was absent.
W-H Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak also attended the meeting.
Select Boad member Shawn Kain opened the meeting with a brief review of the latest revenue and expenditure projections before the two boards got down to discussing the financial outlook for fiscal 2027.
“The preliminary budget numbers indicate that an override is necessary [his emphasis] to maintain level services,” Kain said, announcing that current revenue projections and expense outlook put the town at a deficit of about $1.7 million, inviting a discussion “on the size and scope” of an override this year.
That figure already factors the 2.5 percent increase for town department and adding a progression of 1 percent and so on, dividing the calculations to 1-percent increases, without interrupting that negotiation.
But what kind of override? That was his question regarding the size and duration of such a move.
Flanagan said Kain’s last budget review on Jan. 7 “opened my eyes a little bit,” and he found some sense in Select Board member Justin Evans’ proposal of a possible multi-year override, “to spread it out a little bit.”
Winter also favored a multi-year override.
“I would be concerned each of the following years … that we have to go back each year to hope that [voters] would go for another one,” he said. “We’re hearing it from the departments. We have some pretty major capital outlays that need to be made.”
All union locals for both the schools and town are due for contract negotiations this year, Evans and Szymaniak also noted.
Looking at a deficit that big, Ottina asked if a grant from the state secured by Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter that allows her to project the impact of different union contract raises on the budget
Carter confirmed that information.
While not wanting anyone to tip their hand in a contract negotiation, Ottina wondered what the pact of a 1-percent rise, “just or the sake of having a piece of information out there.”
“On a multi-year override, I don’t think we explained exactly how that works too well,” Evans said. “So, my thought was, if we have reasonable expense projections out, say, three years, is override to the level that you would need to be at in those three years, and not tax to the levy in the first two years.”
By intentionally leaving excess levy, which [the town] had not been doing for the past three years, so that we’re no hitting the taxpayers at the maximum level,” he said. “It would be one override vote, but it would step up, almost like it was a couple of overrides.”
It would increase by 2.5 percent plus new growth during the interim years, but it’s all projection right now.
“For me, I’m thinking that we should have the smallest possible override that we could ask the people to consider, knowing that we’re sacrificing, we’re demonstrating our sacrifice, and asking them to sacrifice in a way that’s a complement to our own, so we can just get by with level services, but that is a different message” he said.
While going back before the voters each year is a harder route, Kain said it would be the better route.
Andrews said he agreed, noting that a year-to year override is a better option because, it gives the town options.
Where the budget stands
“If we look at what we had in revenue last year, and what we have in revenue this year … we’re looking at a little over $800,000 in new revenue,” Kain said. “We’re pretty sparse, is the message that was sent out to the department heads.”
Among the bigger expenses officials are keeping an eye on is an 11.32 percent (or $323,260) increase in Plymouth County Retirement. “It’s a huge number for us,” Kain said. Medical and health insurance is estimated to increase by 7 percent.
“We’re not exactly sure where that’s going land, so that’s just a place-holder,” he said.
WHRSD, about a $20 million assessment line for Whitman, and $200,000 for every 1 percent it increases. Kain therefore put an estimated increase of 5 percent sits at close to $1 million.
“It is also important to note that we had discussed as a board earlier that a creative way to get them some revenue that’s not currently used in the operating budget, is the funding that we used to fund our OPEB liability,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to fund our OPEB liability, it’s just that it would go in the queue at Town Meeting and we’d ask for the Town Meeting’s support to pay for it with free cash.”
Resident John Galvin asked why free cash has not yet been certified by the state.
“We can’t talk about it unless we get it certified,” he said.
Carter said she had the town accountant’s office to check on the free cash certification status on Tuesday. The tax rate had been set in mid-December and took priority as well as a lot of year-end documents to be reconciled by the treasurer-collector’s office.
“I was told today that, where we have a new accountant in place full-time, the DOR is putting us at the top of the list and were working on it this afternoon,” Carter said, adding that it was hoped that task would be done that afternoon and could be available as soon as Wednesday, Jan. 22.
The budgeting situation means that the district is “missing critical components” in the district budget.
“They don’t have an educationally sound budget at W-H Regional School district, so they need more funding,” he said. “But they’re getting less money from the state because [of] this hold-harmless situation, so they’re in a bind.”
Instituted in 2021 to help with funding gaps as pandemic-related enrollment losses, hold-harmless provides funding stability for districts experiencing declining enrollments.  It can take several forms, such as limiting changes in state aid from year to year, providing supplemental funding for districts with declining enrollment, or using past enrollments in grant calculations, but some argue it may unintentionally disadvantage districts that were seeing steady enrollment or increases before the pandemic.
“We know they’re in a difficult situation with their current budget,” Kain said, noting that Szymaniak has reported to the School Committee on the specifics of the problem. “That’s definitely going to hurt when it comes to hold-harmless, which means we’re not looking to get more money from the state.”
South Shore Tech’s Whitman enrollment is down a bit, as well, Kain has included a level-funded number as a place-holder, but SST Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said that number would be reduced some to reflect that decline.
Kain noted that Whitman Fire Department’s budget is down by 2.36 percent, due mainly to recent retirements.
“We used free cash last year [$509,212], so that puts us behind the eight-ball a little bit this year,” he said.
Resident Robert Kimball of Auburnville Way said his calculations put SST at a 10-percent decrease in Whitman students for an $80,000 decrease in that budget.
Galvin noted that SST’s budget is a zero-based plan calculated on a three-year rolling average of the enrollment for each community.
“Even though [Whitman] is down 18, that average isn’t going to come down that much, it will, but not that much,” he said.
Kimball also pointed to a new cannabis retailer expected to open by mid-year, and expressed the expectation that it might help reduce the hit on taxpayers. He also questioned how WHRSD enrollment numbers could be continuing to decline when “we seem to have more and more people moving into the community.”
Szymaniak said the high school is down by 109 this year, and indicating the same trend has been true for lower grades – although there is anecdotal evidence of some classes bouncing back a bit. But the high school number “isn’t surprising” because some students opt for SST or carter and parochial schools.
“It looks like grades one and two are continuing to build back up to areas that might be sustainable, but those [families] aren’t having four or five kids anymore, they’re having one or two.”
“I’m very pleased that we’re having this discussion in January,” Ottina said. “The information has to be gotten out to the public.”
Noting that Hanson is using ARPA funding to help them illustrate the override need to its residents through the use of Guilfoil Public Relations, a firm already used by Whitman Police and Fire, as well as the schools to inform residents a how an override could hep the town’s fiscal outlook,
“Supporting an override doesn’t mean that you want the override to pass,” Kain said “But I do think the right choice is to allow the town to make that desicion.”

HANSON – The Select Board on Tuesday, Jan. 14, voted 4-0 after nearly an hour of discussion, to use Guilfoil Public Relations to assist them in presenting the case for an override in the run-up to the annual Town Meeting and Town Election in May. Member Joe Weeks was absent from the meeting
Guilfoil, already on a retainer of unused hours under which had initially been hired with ARPA money, to help the board deal with an election-related issue at the town’s water tower in October, had presented a media plan, including guest editorials to the Express and website information on the potential financial effects to the town if an override failed.
Select Board member Ed Heal balked at the whole idea, before finally voting on the proposal, because of concerns about cost and ownership of the site, how much of the work the board might be expected to do and whether it might come cross as an attempt to “sell” the public on supporting an override.
“When you say ‘educate the community,’ I think there’s probably going to be people out there who are going to say, ‘You’re not educating us, you’re trying to sell us,’” George said.
Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said the intent is that the board is fulfilling its job responsibilities of fully informing the public.
“We’re not trying to sell anybody,” she said. “It’s just the facts. … I would say ‘inform’ is a better term [than educate].”
Concerns aired
All four members present had some initial concerns on one point or another, but were swayed by the closing window for getting information before the public.
“I’m looking for the value in it, and I’m not seeing the value in what they are providing,” Heal said at the outset. “We’re still providing the data and information to them. They’re just going to host it.”
“They are going to work with us,” Town Administrator Lisa Green said, noting that her office had approached John Guilfoil Public Relations Agency and said they would be working with the town on press releases, the website posts, fliers and mailers, slide show presentations and guest columns for the Express.
“They were very good with helping us respond to inquiries and things like that,” Green said about the water tower issue. “With the hours that they gave us for that proposal, we only used about seven hours out of 36 [contracted for]. We still have 29 hours, which they [can use] to help us with communication of budget education and override education for our residents and the public.”
Green also pointed out that, at mid-January, time is not on the board’s side for getting information before the public to be of use for a May Town Meeting and Town Election and that, if not used, the ARPA funds would be lost. She had already spoken to department heads to have them start getting information to Guilfoil.
“We are working as quickly as we possibly can to start getting this information to them,” she said. “There’s a lot of moving pieces on this.”
She said their proposal includes creating a website for the town that will present all information regarding the budgets the budget process, an override and that process, look at town departments to provide “as much information as we can get out there” on town finances, services it provides to residents, to potential effects if an override fails.
“Their proposal was very, very reasonable,” Green said. “We will be using ARPA money to pay for this. They [will] keep the website up to date …”
“Can we talk about funding?” asked FitzGerald-Kemmett. “Where is the money coming from for this? We are in fiscal crisis and we’re heading into an even bigger fiscal crisis.”
Green said the town had ARPA money that had already been paid for the October crisis communications services and the remaining contracted hours will be used toward the budget education services.
“In other words, we bought a package of hours and we didn’t use them all up,” said member Ann Rein.
The $9,000 in ARPA funds would now be used toward the website design, Green explained.
“We have a year’s worth of service on this and the website is ours always,” she said. “I believe they’ll make a link to it so that people can go on our website and click on the link and come right to this website that will have calculators, questions, answers, it will have budget information for each department …”
Website
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if it would be similar to the one that South Shore Technical High School has for their project, which is like a micro-site devoted to the building project.
“Which I really love, because it I don’t want to read about everything else related to [SST] I don’t need to,” she said. “I can just go to this thing to read about the SST article and everything I want to know is right on that link. … It’s been very thoughtfully put together.”
Green said Guilfoil has done the same type of project for other towns and school districts, noting that they are professionals who know how to word things.
“And they understand that we’re not advocating…” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“It’s the facts only,” Green said. “It’s going to be beneficial because we’ve never had something like this before. We haven’t had an IT director, so having somebody with this knowledge build [the site] and, once we do get our IT director on board, they can help build it, as well.”
Earlier in the meeting the Select Board had voted to approve the hiring of Steve Burke as IT director on the recommendation of Green and Planning Board Chair Joseph Campbell (who has extensive professional experience in IT and helped with the interview process).
“But for now, we have these folks on board and they can start the process,” she said.. “We’re going to start feeding them the information – the budget process, and things like that.”
“If it’s ours afterward, I would truly love to use it prospectively, for future town meetings, to help with all the information that people need for Town Meeting on that one site,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Rein said the town is paying the monthly fee after the first year of the website for domain registration.
“We’re going to own that, all we have to do is host it,” she said.
Heal said he had asked the same questions FitzGerald-Kemmett was posing and made notes on the proposal sheet and hadn’t received answers.
“Basically, we get the first year for free,” Green said of a budge webpage. “There’s no charge for the first year of hosting and supporting a website. After that, it’s $199 a month that we put into the technology line, but they will continue to host the site, software updates, nightly backup .. 24/7/365 support.’
He countered that, while the town owns the domain, and as long as the town pays Guilfoil, they will keep the site up and the town’s URLs will work.
“The minute we stop paying them, our URL that somebody gave somebody else is gone and we can’t get it back,” Heal said. “We can’t take it in-house. The domain is not the data.”
Rein said she would want the details looked over with respect that the town would have the ability to take the site over.
“This does not allow that,” he said.
“We could negotiate it, is my point,” Rein replied. “We can’t afford $200 a month. … It would be nice to know that we have that option to buy our stuff outright.”
“We could make it more sustainable for us to take the wheel,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said it wasn’t a deal-breaker, but that the board would feel “a lot more encouraged about it” if they were able to get some assurances that Guilfoil would be good partners and give the town the wheel at some point.
“For at least one year, they’ll get us through, the information we need to get out there,” Green said.
But Heal’s objection was that Hanson would be providing the data and words to Guilfoil.
“They’re not massaging our words,” he said. “They’re basically putting them up on the site. Correct?”
Seeking value
Green said that was, indeed, correct, but if Guilfoil decided a submission could be worded better, they will put their PR skills to work. She said she would ask the firm for the specifics Heal and George were seeking.
Heal agreed on that point, but said he was “looking for the value in it.”
“They need to clear it up,” George suggested.
“The reason you hire a PR firm is to do this kind of work,” Rein said. “I don’t think there’s anything nefarious here. I think we’re getting what, at least we understood what we’re going to get.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said that, when she spoke to them, Guilfoil staff said that is what they said they would be doing.
“They’re going to be managing the communication project, which we do not have the staff to do,” she said, including suggested website postings and press releases.
“I would feel comfortable if Steve Burke feels comfortable with this,” Heal said of the data management plans. FitzGerald-Kemmett said she would like to hear his thinking on sustainability and cost.

WHITMAN – The Select Board on Tuesday, Jan. 7 accepted a recommendation from Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter to set up a joint meeting with the Board of Assessors as soon as possible.
In her report to the board, Carter outlined in a lengthy statement, billing errors by the Assessors that have could have cost Whitman taxpayers millions of dollars on real estate bills before they were due, while failing to collect boat excise taxes or to mail other bills last year.
The current Board of Assessors has a total of 21 years of combined experience as board members, Carter noted.
When the Select Board holds its joint meeting on the budget with the Finance Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 21, the will schedule a February meeting with the Assessors.
“The magnitude of these recent errors is alarming to both the assistant town administrator and me,” Carter said, noting that just this past weekend the town’s printing vendor had found a fiscal 2025 Actual Real Estate Bill issue: the square footage on the bills is incorrect and it was confirmed that the file sent to the temporary treasurer-collector for printing by the Board of Assessors contained a database error.
Similarly, in December 2023, warrants to collect for actual real estate bill liens totaling $926,534.32 were not voted or signed by the Board of Assessors until May 21, 2024.
Warrants to collect are required by the Department of Revenue to be issued by the Board of Assessors to the treasurer-collector before payments can be accepted, Carter pointed out.
On Dec. 17, 2024, the Board of Assessors signed the official fiscal 2025 Actual Real Estate Warrant to Collect – the document empowering the treasurer-collector authority to collect real estate payments for the town. However the warrant and the corresponding billing file initially sent to temporary treasurer-collector Sharon LoPiccolo for third and fourth quarter real estate bills had an erroneous total that was $16,124,289.21 greater than what should have been billed to taxpayers. The fiscal 2025 real estate lien file, which should have consisted of unpaid water, sewer, trash and water bills from fiscal 2024, had an erroneous total $750,508.24 less than what should have been billed to taxpayers, according to Carter.
“Luckily the new temporary treasurer-collector realized there was an issue, and she reached out to me to review the warrants to collect before she posted the bills for printing and mailing to our taxpayers,” she said. LoPiccolo alerted the Board of Assessors of the erroneous files, which were replaced with corrected real estate and lien files.
“These two recent billing issues are quite concerning,” Carter said. “If the real estate bills had been sent out, as a result of these bills, the taxpayers would have been billed for basically a total of six quarters instead of the usual four quarters in fiscal 2025.”
They were only some recent examples.
In April 2024, the Board of Assessors sent a warrant to collect to both the treasurer-collector and the interim town accountant for 11 boat excise tax bills. But the Assessor’s office never sent the corresponding billing file, Carter said. As a result, the May 2024 boat excise bills were never issued and the revenue unable to be realized last fiscal year.
It was, in fact, never sent to the treasurer-collector for billing and the file was deleted from the Assessors’ software module titled “Add new accounts and omitted bills” on Nov. 25, 2024.
“I am hopeful that the Board of Assessors will commit the 2024 boat excise bill in fiscal 2025, so the revenue can be realized this fiscal year,” Carter said. “An additional concern is the fact that only 11 bills were voted on by the Board of Assessors. In the previous five years the town billed about 53 bills each year.”
From the data that Carter and Keefe were able to review, they “strongly believe” that data voted for the 2025 boat excise bills should have contained about 53 bills, as I has for the last several years, not just the 11 bills they intended to commit.
“The assessments and the related billing produced by the Assessors’ Office, which are under the control of the Board of Assessors, directly impact the revenue and, therefore, the town budget,” Carter said. “I feel it is imperative that the Select Board and the Board of Assessors meet in open session to discuss the numerous issues that have come to light regarding billing issues, as the enormity of the issue has escalated over the past year and a half.”
Carter also said that the Board of Assessors had made it “abundantly clear” in open sessions during more than one of their meetings last year that they “didn’t want any interference from the Assistant Town Administrator or me.”
“For well over a year now, the Assistant Town Administrator Kathy Keefe and I have been extremely concerned about several billing issues, which have been brought to our attention regarding the Assessor’s Office,” Carter read from her prepared remarks. “To avoid any confusion, it’s worth noting that the Select Board does not govern the Board of Assessors. The Board of Assessors is a separately elected board that is comprised of three members. Thw Board of Assessors is solely responsible for the operations in the Assessor’s Office.”
She added that, while the Select Board does not have authority over Assessors, “I feel that we need to take this action to call for a joint meeting between the two boards to better discuss our ongoing concerns.”
Carter had met with the Chair of the Board of Assessors John Noska early last year and in August with another Board of Assessors member she described as interested in those ongoing concerns.
“I presented and reviewed the issues that were brought to our attention up to that point,” she said. “Rather than Board of Assessors being receptive to our comments and concerns, they instead issued a letter dated Aug. 29 to the Select Board, accusing both Kathy and me of harassment and interference. More importantly, to date, the Board of Assessors has not taken corrective action on several of the billing issues that were revealed to them.”
The Select Board sent a letter to the Board of Assessors on Oct. 24, 2024 to inform them that, after reviewing the information in the Assessors’ letter, they had determined that the Board of Assessors allegations of harassment and interference were not supported and asked Carter and Keefe to continue making them aware of any future concerns about billing.

HANSON – Sometimes just because you’re told you could, doesn’t mean you can.
The Select Board on Tuesday, Dec. 10 reviewed the cannabis social equity policy in the wake of new regulations recently put forth by the Cannabis Control Commission, and unanimously approved it – more as a protection vehicle than anything else, they said.
This requirement gives teeth to the CCC determination that social equity factors such as race and gender must be considered in awarding cannabis licenses by communities.
“The CCC requires each community to adopt and put into place a social equity policy with regard to cannabis, whether its retail or medical type of sales within a community,” Town Administrator Lisa Green said.
Hanson’s specific policy was drafted by town counsel, and Green reminded the board that Hanson has not approved any retail licenses, and that Town Meeting voted not to allow types of that business in town.
The language under consideration, however, is language town counsel added showing that Hanson has restricted cannabis to the point where, so far, a grow facility is the only marijuana business in town.
Once adopted, the bylaw just outlines the social equity guidelines in the program and how the town would go about making decisions on the license applications, if anything would change in the future.
“This policy [also] contemplates that we will limit the licensing to the one license we already have, but that we would not be offering any additional licenses,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “That’s more protective of us and more in keeping with what we talked about. Absent that language, we don’t have any limits on the number of establishments.
She did point out than any applicants would still have to meet planning requirements and location limitations.
“That’s just additional protection for us,” she said.
Selectman Ed Heal said the limit on the present business the town has is not clearly spelled out.
Town Planner Anthony DeFrias said, in a purely hypothetical example, if someone wanted to increase the number of cannabis businesses to two or three, and a social equity business applies to the town, they must receive the second license first. Until that business is up and running, if a third business applied, but did not meet social equity criteria that business could not be approved for a license until the social equity business is up and running.
“Right now, you have just one license,” DeFrias said. “This is almost like a liquor license. You have only X-amount of licenses.”
Board members, including FitzGerald-Kemmett and Heal were left with the impression they could hold at the one licensee they approved.
“This is your policy,” DeFrias said. “You’d have to go to town meeting is you want more than one license.”
“Which we’re not planning on doing,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“This keeps you in conformance with the law,” DeFrias said.
The Select Board voted to accept, with regret, Frank Milisi’s resignation from both the Camp Kiwanee and Capital Improvement committees – a development Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said was “rather sad.”
Milisi is going back to school, which she said is a wonderful thing for him and his family.
“We fully support that and really want to thank Frank for all the excellent work that he’s done over both of those committees and a number of other things,” she said.
Heal asked, in a light-hearted vein, if she had tried to talk him out of it.
“That’s the first thing I did when I got the call was, ‘What can I do to keep you?,’” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.