The School Committee, meeting on Wednesday, May 10 discussed members’ concerns over a proposed wording change in the Regional Agreement revision that could surrender its authority in determining what costs go before Town Meeting.
Committee Vice Chair Christopher Scriven presided at the meeting, as Chair Christopher Howard had resigned effective following the May 1 town meetings. Committee member Fred Small was also absent as he was traveling.
“I’m outraged,” said Dawn Byers, who chairs the Capital Operations and Technology Subcommittee. “Everyone on the School Committee should be outraged that the Board of Selectmen in Hanson made a decision that they don’t have the legal authority to do. We need to understand this, and it’s so important.”
She said that, while the Select Board has the authority to place things on the warrant, it is not their place to reject an article voted by the School Committee, according to MGL Ch. 71 ss16 (h). She urged the committee to have School District legal counsel to send a letter to the towns, reminding them of Mass. General Law language on the issue.
While Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak thanked the town meetings and residents who turned out and supported the school budget without question on May 1 as well as support for capital technology items on the warrant in Whitman, he noted that Hanson had not placed the capital items on the warrant.
Town officials, he explained, plan to place them on the October special Town Meeting, but the move to reject it from placement on the Hanson warrant caused outrage and concern among School Committee members.
The installation of the new switches and interactive boards will move forward in Whitman schools. For the high school, with Whitman’s funding approved, once Hanson approves it, the work can begin with placing the boards in January.
Szymaniak said he did speak with district council as well as that of the Mass. Association of School Committees and the Mass. Association of Regional Schools (MARS). The only thing select boards are obligated to place on the warrant is the assessment, he was told.
The operating and transportation assessments and capital get asssment for immediate needs must be placed, he said.
“An operational capital item, a want, a truck [for example], they can choose not to put that on a warrant,” he said.
Those “wants,” select boards are entitled to decide whether they want to do, noting that Hanson Capital Committee Chair Frank Milisi told him the town was putting zero capital articles on the warrant this year, so the district was aware it would not be there.
“You don’t ever hear them rejecting something from South Shore Vo Tech, which is another regional school district,” she said. “The reason it was on the Whitman warrant is because they knew they couldn’t reject it.”
Byers noted that Assistant Superintendent George Ferro called the move the “will of the Hanson voters,” but she said that characterization was incorrect.
“The Board of Selectmen pulled that ability away from the Hanson voters,” Byers said. “I’m certain the voters want this in Hanson, but they didn’t have the ability because the Board of Selectmen did not give the voters that choice.”
Szymaniak said if the Hanson Select Board does not place it on the October warrant, town meeting rules permit the article to be placed by citizen’s petition.
Byers said if the Hanson officials were going to look at the School Committee’s capital articles as requests, they should send their entire capital matrix along to the Capital and Finance committees. Charged with prioritizing needs, Byers said her committee did so by forwarding the technology needs.
“Maintenance is going to have to take a back seat for the year,” she said. “All of those conversations happened.”
School Committee member Beth Stafford said towns traditionally place the articles, but pass over them at Town Meeting if they feel it is necessary.
Scriven thanked Whitman Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter for her comments at Town Meeting about the need to start budget discussions earlier and engaging more with Hanson officials in that process.
Regional agreement
The Regional Agreement Committee (RAC), meanwhile, is in a pause with Howard’s departure from the School Committee, Szymaniak said. To reorganize the RAC panel a revote of a representative from Whitman and one from Hanson will be necessary. Hanson will have to name a new Select Board representative, as well. That reorganization meeting will follow the Town Elections, which will be held on May 20.
Questions asked of counsel stemming from the discussion on consensus votes for the revised agreement were discussed last week, however.
Byers questioned the addition of the word “consider” following a phrase outlining how Select Boards “shall” forward warrant articles to Town Meeting.
“It completely changes the dynamic of what our 10-member committee has the authority to do – which is vote for things, and it shall go to Town Meeting,” Byers said, noting that changing one word only says select boards “shall consider” doing so. “Basically, this committee gives up our authority to the towns for them to make the decision.”
Byers said that was her reason for asking that the agreement come back to the School Committee before going forward for review by MARS or legal.
“There is no doubt it was going to come back to this committee,” Scriven said. “That’s the final process. We’re sending it out to MARS and our legal to help us clean up our language that we come up with in our meetings.”
Final drafts with changes clearly marked will be brought back for RAC to review again.
Szymaniak said when it comes back to the RAC it will also be forwarded to the full School Committee and both Select Boards before it must go before both Town Meetings and then to the Department or Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
“This is still a long process,” he said.
Member Glen DiGravio asked what recourse the committee would have if the wording change is deemed illegal.
“What do we do about it, file a lawsuit?” he asked.
Szymaniak replied the committee has talked about such a move in the past, but that it’s like suing the state.
“I think that’s a conversation with the town,” he summed up. “But our modus operandi has to change on how we assess things.”
Budget reviews
In other business, Business Manager John Stanbrook reviewed the state aid outlook for fiscal 2024 saying that while the House Ways and Means budget breakdown for Chapter 70 is out and the Senate version has just been released, the latter has not yet been broken down to the town and district levels.
“This will be updated very soon by the state Department of Revenue,” he said.
The House version had transportation reimbursement at 100 percent.
Stanbrook said the overall net in Cherry Sheet funds over last year is $503,949 or 2.01 percent.
“But you have to look closely at the numbers there,” he said, noting that regional transportation is listed as $449,379 of the $503,949 related to the change from a per pupil to per mile formula, without which, the increase would be $54,000 or .22 percent.
“There’s still a long way to go,” he said of the state budget.
Where the current fiscal 2023 budget is seeing concern is in Charter schools – already $18,000 over budget with two months to go, leaving him to anticipate a shortfall of about $70,000 more by the end of the fiscal year, but transportation is about to be over by about the same two amounts, because costs have been lower than was budgeted. Homeless transportation costs are still incomplete.
“That’s kind of the amount that will make or break whether we hit our revenue budget,” he said.

HANSON – Voters at Hanson’s Monday, May 1 Town Meeting approved a tighter than tight municipal budget and a host of other articles ranging from the financial future of the transfer station to the design of the state flag, and quite a bit in-between.
A quorum was easily reached as more than 225 people crowded into Hanson Middle School’s auditorium for the annual session, with some still checking in when moderato Sean Kealy lowered the opening gavel.
The Town meeting began with $859,461 available in free cash and $1,637,674.21 in the stabilization fund, Moderator Sean Kealy said.
“This budget scares me,” said Steve McKinnon, of Steven Street, a former Finance Committee member, noting that voters had approved a Proposition 2 ½ override for about $1.9 million two years ago. “We’re still upside down. We never want to fund operating expenses with free cash.”
He was the only person to place holds on budget line items during the initial run-through of the budget article, pointing out the town was using $400,000 of free cash to fund the operating budget.
“We live in a town where maybe 80 percent [of the budget], maybe higher, is associated with salaries,” he said. “In times like these, I don’t think it’s the prudent thing to do to take the money out of free cash unless you squeeze everything you can out of your operating budget.”
He reminded the Town Meeting that the state’s policy is to us free cash for one-time expenditures in seeking an explanation about Town Hall salary lines.
Finance Committee member Michael Dugan explained a part-time assistant position was added – split between working for the Select Board and the Planning Department in one line item. Under Conservation, the increase in salary was the conservation agent, upgraded from part-time to a full-time post at the October Town Meeting.
“Maybe I spent too much time in the private sector, but you don’t increase staff when you don’t have the money,” McKinnon said. “You don’t have the money.”
The budget was passed with a wide margin of support.
Transfer station
An article ceasing the operation of the transfer station enterprise fund, effective fiscal year 2024. The article addressed the financial impact of China’s 2017 decision to halt its acceptance of recyclables from outside its borders and the cost of disposable recyclables has been added to the transfer station’s fuel and operating costs and inflation and hauling costs have increased the expense above wage, utility and indirect cost increases.
The enterprise fund had been established under MGL Ch. 44 Section 53F1/2 in 2014.
“The transfer station is no longer self-sustaining as an enterprise fund,” Kealy read from the article’s explanation. “The cost to operate the transfer station has consistently and increasingly exceeded the revenue from stickers, bags and trip tickets year over year.”
Absent “substantial increases” to user fees, the enterprise fund model is unsustainable and transfer enterprise revenue would be directed to the town’s general fund under the article’s provisions.
Resident Bruce Young, who opposed the article, noted he had spoken against a similar article, which Town Meeting had defeated in 2020. He noted that the law permits free cash to help the enterprise fund make up shortfalls.
“It has never been entirely self-sustaining as an enterprise account,” he said, noting that every year since 2015 the town has used taxation or free cash to help fund it, with the exception of 2023.
“Why pick on the transfer station?,” he asked. “It’s an efficiently run department with only two employees.”
Dugan responded that the article is intended to create transparency and a simpler way of doing things.
“Expenses continue to rise,” he said, noting that recycling went from costing the town nothing to $120 per ton as of February to move it and solid waste now costs $144 per ton plus additional fees.
The idea is to create a town department fully funded with an availability of cash and allows the use of a line-item transfer to help alleviate any short-term cash flow needs.
Health Board Chair Melissa Pinnetti underscored Dugan’s points and said the board has spent a great deal of time reviewing the growing revenue and expense gap in the transfer station budget.
“The budget is pretty tight and, quite simply, the overwhelming cost of operation coming from hauling and disposal, we spent a lot of time thinking about ways to decrease the overall cost by decreasing the tonnage hauled,” she said. “This article is in no way intended to change the structure or function or operation of the transfer station, it it simply a matter of accounting.”
Dugan reminded the Town Meeting that every department “got a haircut” in the budget presented. He added that a task force has been created and is reviewing all opportunities, whether to maintain the transfer station as is, combining with other towns, or going to a curbside model.
No decisions have yet been made.
“Nothing is going to change for the current fiscal year and the next fiscal year,” Dugan said. “Quite frankly, anything that would be put in place, would take 18 to 24 months before it could even be implemented, given the need for potential equipment and upgrades of that nature if we did something else, Transfer station is here to stay for the next few years.”
He said the town had to trim $700,000 from all departments to balance the budget. The article would work the same way as the ambulance account, which helps the general fund as well as financing new fire equipment.
Resident Frank Milisi said there has been a contraction of available private trash haulers, as well.
“Getting someone to give you a reasonable price on nearly anything now is a really hard predicament to be in,” he said. “This is the right direction to go. I think it’s smart and it makes it easier to fund the transfer station, not harder.”
New Playground
An article seeking $65,000 to build a new playground at Cranberry Cove was challenged by former Select Board member Matt Dyer, who also serves on the Final Plymouth County Reuse Committee. He asked why the funds could not be built on the portion of the former Plymouth County Hospital site located on High Street.
The Town Meeting voted to table the article after a resident asked if the playground could be relocated away from the beach area.
Maintaining more than one playground does not make financial sense, Dyer said, noting a playground is being planned for the High Street site.
“The CPC process is pretty rigorous,” said Milisi, who chairs the Kiwanee Commission. “The playground we’re going to do at the pond is going to do a lot or recreation for some of the younger kids, who may not know how to swim, but their older siblings will. We should have a park within one square mile of every kid in this town, to be honest with you.”
Milisi pledged to work with the committee planning a high street park, should the Cranberry Cove article pass.
Conservation Agent Phil Clemons said a question that did not come up with the CPC was whether the Cranberry Cove playground was envisioned to be useable 12 months out of the year.
“If it’s not in use the rest of the year, I’m not so sure about it,” he said.
Milisi said the playground would only be available during the summer months when the cove is open because of safety concerns so near the beach and park security. He also noted that the five-member CPC voted unanimously to support the playground, including Clemons.
Dyers asked for an opinion from town counsel on whether a playground, behind a fence, at Cranberry Cove would present an “attractive nuisance” to would be trespassers, and whether it makes the town liable for injuries or worse.
“I’ve never been to the Cove and I don’t know [what is encompassed by behind the fence],” Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff said.
Dyer said the end of the fence is in the water and there are already “patrons,” or trespassers going down into the water and around the fence to get down to the Cove.
Milisi said there have been many instances of that in the offseason and multiple security cameras have been installed in the beach area for that reason. He added the Camp is in the process of attaining insurance for the playground, as it does for other insurance at Camp Kiwanee.
“It doesn’t come out of the town budget,” he said, noting that the playground, estimated to cost about $75,000 will only be available for use by people paying admission to the beach at Cranberry Cove.
“There’s a risk of liability, of course, with any sort of opportunity for kids to hurt themselves,” Feodoroff said. “When you build a playground, what the attractive nuisance means is that it is something even more enticing than what is normally attractive to a child.”
She added that insurance affords protection.
State flag
The Town Meeting also approved, by a vote of 71-48, a citizen’s petition in support of revisions to the design of the state flag, official seal and motto. Sixty-two other towns and cities have also approved the redesign.
“I supported this article because it is time to take action,” said Marianne DiMascio, of Indian Head Street. “For four decades people on the state level have been trying to have the flag and seal and the motto changed.”
She noted a bipartisan commission of historians, legislators, tourism officials, Native American leaders and designers had been appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2021to begin that work, but an extension has been deemed necessary. That issue is due to go back before the legislature this fall.
The article only voices support for the ongoing work of the commission and takes no stand as to what a new design should look like, she said.

“I’ve had conversations with local tribal leaders and have come to learn how objectionable the current seal and flag is to Native American tribes throughout the state,” she said.
DiMascio noted that the arm and sword on the flag and seal is inspired by the sword of Miles Standish, who is known for killing native peoples and displayed the head of Metacomet’s head on a spike not very far from Hanson, in Plymouth.
“We’re in the area where so much indigenous history happened,” she said. “Our children learn about the seal and motto in third grade … how do you explain why there is an arm holding a sword over a Native American’s head? It’s a very bad, violent image.”
She said it is time for a seal and flag design that represents the very best of Massachusetts.
One resident, expressing initial ambivalence about the redesign, said he was probably more opposed to it because it is based on an idea that we should go back and rewrite our own history and “kind of villainize ourselves.”
He said the motto is not directed at Native Americans, but at British Gen. Gage, the royal governor of the Boston area in a letter written at the beginning of the Revolution. The downward arrow is also a symbol of peace, he said.
Metacomet’s head on display was an historic tradition of a war trophy that all cultures have practiced over the millennia, he said.
“I’m not saying it’s good or bad or right or wrong, it really frustrates me when there’s one perspective put out there and trying to villainize one side of the other,” he said. “We have to look at history for what it is and not villainize ourselves now for stuff that happened, 200, 300 or 400 years ago.”
Select Board member Ann Rein recalled visits to historic sites in the South.
“You can’t judge history through our eyes,” she said. “You have to be there and be living in that time. It is what it is.”
Nick Donahue of Indian Head Street said he believes deeply in honoring the past, but also in changing for the better, even if it’s uncomfortable.
“Our history in the Commonwealth and nation is woven with the history of the native people since they welcomed the Pilgrims 400 years ago,” he said. “It’s been a mixed history and I agree completely you can’t see it clearly from today’s perspective, but I think that’s being generous.”
While he agreed with some of the questions raised, he said we can do better today.
“The Native communities in Massachusetts are asking for this change for good reasons, and I think their ideas should be considered,” Donahue said, noting that Massachusetts has been a leader the ideas of civil rights, women’s right to vote and workers’ rights at times when such ideas were not popular.
He said, if it is changed, the current flag should not be discarded, but curated and cared for in a museum.

WHITMAN – The Select Board voted to hold a special Town Meeting on Monday, Oct. 30 and a special election on Saturday, Nov. 4 to allow residents to vote on a debt exclusion for the new Whitman Middle School.
WMS Building Committee Chair Fred Small said at the Select Board’s meeting on Tuesday, April 18 that the project manager and architect, AI3, delaying vote for few months could possibly mean additional costs for the project.
He said the original presentation had the process leading to a ballot question culminating this October.
“They want to hang in, because as they’ve told me, ‘We want the project after the fact,” Small said. “That’s what the goal is.”
He noted that Building Committee member John Galvin had proposed an Oct. 30 special Town Meeting, followed by Nov. 4 ballot vote. He said it would get a resolution in line with the OPM and architects’ timeline.
“It perhaps may not be the beautiful hot weather of May that I know we’re going to get, but I think we could look forward to some decent weather in November and most certainly won’t have to wait, if we delayed, until the January timeline [when] we could have a inclement weather day that may prevent people from coming out,” Small said. “I think everyone’s on the same page – the goal is to have as many folks that want to get out to the polls and vote, be able to do so, and I wholeheartedly believe that that October/November time line would work to that effect.”
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, having spoken with the town clerk, said the main concern is the October and November dates would be set before the final MSBA meeting and vote on funding the project. That meeting is slated for Oct. 25 or 26.
If the MSBA did not support funding for Whitman, the Town Meeting could be cancelled, but the ballot could not.
Galvin said Colliers, the OPM, Whitman would not be attending that MSBA meeting unless the project was “all set.”
“This is not something they’re going to look at and say, ‘Oh, no. You’ve got to fix this, this this and this,” Galvin said. “This is a meeting where everything is in order. It’s pretty much a congratulatory move forward.”
He said Whitman would be taken off the agenda weeks before that meeting if the project were not at a point to move ahead.
If Town Meeting rejects the project, the ballot question would still go forward and the town would have one year to allocate the funds for that or a similar project.
Buildable designs would not be produced until after funds have been allocated, Small said, because the town is not paying for those designs as of yet. Galvin added that October would decide the schematic design funds with construction plans not completed for another year with costs calculated by an independent estimator before bids and go out to contractors.
“No matter what the timetable was, and within any MSBA project, you would never have those buildable plans when you’re voting to go to a Town Meeting and then a debt exclusion vote,” Small said. “It just doesn’t happen. We will have a lot of things narrowed down.”
In other business, the board held a public hearing concerning the application for a livery license and livery driver’s certificate for the premises at 56 Vincent St., by Mary Fries DBA All-Star Transports. The board approved the application unanimously.
Proof of registration of the vehicle with the RMV as one to be used as a Mass. Livery vehicle, updated insurance certificate and license fees.
She said she has been doing the same kind of work for other people for almost 20 years and wanted to try doing it on her own to provide livery services to the local community, whether going into Boston to the airport or out of state.
She said she had just obtained the vehicle and is in the process of obtaining the needed certifications, but required Select Board approval first.
The board won’t issue a license for the business at this stage, but the vote will mean F wil receive a letter stating they approved her application so she can to go to the next step in the process of getting the livery plates from the RMV.

No one was happy about it, but a School budget representing a 5.96-percent assessment increase [$17,739,500] for Whitman and a 3.75-percent increase or [$13,907,233] for Hanson were approved by both Select Boards. Whitman’s budget shortfall is now $160,893.
Hanson’s assessment leaves the town with budget gap of $166,000.
All three boards stressed displeasure at what they saw as a lack of coordination of effort, as well as the reliance on one-time funds to balance the respective budgets.
“This is the textbook definition of insanity the way we do this,” Whitman Select Board Chair Randy LaMattina said. “This has to be done differently next year. I’m going to vote for the $160,000 [increase over the 5-percent increase Whitman was prepared to shoulder] because it’s the right thing to do.”
“We feel we can do this using one-time money, which is a recurring theme,” Hanson Select Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said of her board’s vote. “This board is rarely divided,”
The votes came after the School Committee opened a joint session at Whitman Town Hall on Tuesday, April 18, with the two select boards, by approving a $500,000 appropriation from the district’s excess and deficiency fund to reduce the assessments. Committee member Fred Small made the motions for the E&D appropriation as well as the two assessments and a vote to certify the fiscal 2024 School District budget at $59,985,158.
All four School Committee votes were 8-1, with members Dawn Byers voting no and David Forth absent. School Committee members Glen DiGravio and Michelle Bourgelas attended remotely by phone.
The select boards were likewise split, with Hanson voting 3-2, with Ed Heal and Ann Rein voting against accepting their assessment and Whitman voting 3-1, with member Shawn Kain voting no. Whitman Selectman Dr. Carl Kowalski was absent.
“The board doesn’t really feel comfortable taking a vote on whether we can make a modest increase to what we’ve got on the table right now,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said to open the meeting. “But, as a board we really wanted to know the School Committee was committed to that reduction.”
School Committee Chair Christopher Howard said the meeting had less than an hour before Whitman Select Board members had to enter into an executive session, so discussion was kept brief and to the subject of the motions.
“I do feel it’s important for us to take this action, otherwise, I would have not made that motion,” Small said. “I do want to caution everybody that it will be our job as a School Committee to go into next year, knowing that we’re putting ourselves behind the 8-ball.”
He stressed they will be responsible for making up those funds before they get to any increases for next year. School Committee member Hillary Kniffen said no action had been taken last week because they didn’t know where the towns stood.
Dawn Byers stressed that a large portion of the school budget increase was due to a state-approved increase in out-of-district residential tuition for special ed students, which starts the FY 2025 budget with a $100,000 deficit.
“Faced where we are today with the education of the students, coming out of COVID, providing level services that are still needed, we have no choice, unfortunately, right now other than to do this to be able to take a step forward,” Small said. “I believe it’s a necessary evil that we need to do.”
Committee member Beth Stafford reminded town officials that School Committee budget discussions are open to the public adding that some prior notice when town budgets were being discussed so School Committee members could attend would be helpful.
“We always talk about getting together and talking about things beforehand and we keep doing this every year,” she said.
Coordination of budget planning was a theme several officials touched on during the meeting.
“The School Committee doesn’t have any ability to raise revenue,” Howard said. “So, while I appreciate Mr. Small’s comments, I absolutely want to make it clear that there’s a larger conversation that involves all these groups locally in terms of what we do going forward, because I think that’s the only way to go.”
While the select boards eventually voted to approve the assessments, they also made clear their reservations and frustrations.
“It’s a recurring theme amongst all these boards,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “This is one-time money, which means the problem’s going to be worse next year.”
Selectman Jim Hickey made the motion to use that one-time money “to get it done, the way we need to do.”
But he said that, while his term of office is coming to an end, he would recommend to all three committees that they sit down and discuss the issue so they don’t go to two weeks before Town Meeting to make a decision.
“At least we get through this year, but we’ve never done this before,” Hickey said. “What we need to do is look at the future and get these three boards together to discuss this long before April.”
Selectman Ed Heal said he was against it, because they are still taking funds away from other town departments. Select Board member Ann Rein also voted against the assessment, saying other Hanson town departments were already cut to the bone.
Selectman Joe Weeks said supporting the budget was not an easy decision.
Whitman officials were equally dissatisfied with the decision before them, as LaMattina described it as a process of “narrowly spending our way to disaster,” and that the town faces a fiscal cliff next year. He also reminded the meeting Whitman had committed to a 5-percent increase and, through some good budget work, they were able to meet that commitment while avoiding layoffs – the town’s number-one commitment.
“If it doesn’t pass despite a good-faith adjustment by the School Committee, there is still some time, but how it could possibly play out is back to where we started,” LaMattina said. “I can’t argue with it, but to me, it’s a horrible decision to make tonight. This could be one of those times where the wrong decision is the right one.”
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci was more vehement in his anger over the situation, but also voted in favor of the assessment. He wondered if, when the School Department began the budget process and asked what the towns could afford, in going through the budget process, as they started adding up the dollars, and realized they were getting close to going over what the towns could afford, they need to make cuts and not add.
“I’m not ever going to put other departments in jeopardy of stripping money from their budgets,” he said. “We asked them to look at their budgets closely and they made some significant cuts … but now, it’s more than that and we have to use one-time money.”
He termed the school budgeting process unprofessional.
Select Board member Shawn Kain read a prepared statement about the need for fiscal responsibility and sustainability.
“How do we identify a sustainable path forward that provides an incremental growth for our school department?” he asked. “In my opinion, this is the essential point to consider.
In 2012 the district had 212 teachers in 2022 there were 249, he said. That poses a significant improvement while enrollment has decreased by more than 700 students – important as enrollment is directly connected to funding, he noted.
“It is reasonable to assume that our enrollment will drop again – and likely by about 50 students, and when that happens, as the last 10 years has demonstrated, the decrease in enrollment will have a positive impact on the student-teacher ratio,” he said. “That trend needs to be considered when making this decision today.”
He said the 5 percent increase agreed to, as recommended by the Madden Report, is a good balance.
“I think we should listen to it, the solution is not to look to one-time path,” he said.
Select Board member Justin Evans said he supported using the one-time funds this year.
“It gets us over the immediate concern that, in a couple of hours the Finance Committee will begin voting a budget that includes this school assessment,” he said. “We’re pulling from savings to make this work as Dan said, but it does work, it gets us through the year and it buys us time.”
He urged the boards to use that time to work so they don’t find themselves in the same situation next year.
While he agreed “100-percent” with everything Kain said, LaMattina warned, if the budget doesn’t pass through Whitman now, it creates a bigger problem,
“This is not, and we all know it, a fiscally responsible thing to be doing,” he said. “I stood at a School Committee meeting a year ago, knowing what was coming down the line, and was chastised that night. We knew this was going to happen – and it’s worse next year.”
He said the town is looking at $3.1 million for level service, and asked where it is coming from?
This is the textbook definition of insanity the way we do this,” he said. “This has to be done differently next year. … I’m going to vote for the $160,000 because it’s the right thing to do.”

WHITMAN – Select Board members heard concerns about potential municipal layoffs as a result of budget pressures, public meeting decorum and progress on a proposed DPW building during their Tuesday, April 11 meeting.
In the wake of last week’s joint select board meeting with Hanson counterparts, the board received a bleak financial forecast.
“We have presented a level budget here,” said Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, adding that the town has used almost $293,999 in free cash to balance the budget, making their calculations based on a 5-percent increase in the school assessment. Most of that free cash is used between the warrant articles and closing the gap on the budget, with only about $9,000 left
“We’ve used everything on this budget, so it’s very tight,” she said. “I trimmed a lot as I went through the budget. It’s balanced.”
Chair Randy LaMattina warned of “significant cuts” to town services if the school budget not reduced. He said that, at some point, the board must be ready to make close to $600,000 in cuts if the schools do not make reductions at the Wednesday, April 12 School Committee meeting.
“The cuts are going to be real, so we’re probably talking about multiple firefighters, multiple police officers, possibly closing the library, and it’s unfortunate,” he said.
“We’re talking about significant cuts,” Carter agreed noting that, considering municipal salary levels, some 10 to 12 positions might be lost. The town personnel staff is “a little over 100 people, she said.
“It will be significant and several departments will be impacted, there’s no way around it,” she said if the schools do not make budget cuts.
Meeting decorum
The budget picture, and some of the emotional discourse surrounding it, has motivated former Town Administrator Frank Lynam, who had been serving as an interim TA until Carter was hired, to sponsor a citizen’s petition article for the Town Meeting warrant on public meeting decorum and the recording of public sessions as a way of ensuring it, while furthering transparency.
The bylaw revision would require all town boards and committees to make either an audio or video recording of all meetings, excluding executive sessions, and transmit the recordings to WHCA for broadcast or streaming on its YouTube channel for future access.
He noted that a number of boards and committees meet publicly and the information they discuss and the presentation of those meetings are public.
“I have an issue with a particular board that seems not to be very concerned about either propriety or professionalism – and I am talking about the Finance Committee,” he said. “In several meetings that I have listened to audio recordings of, they participate in a bantering discussion that belittles the employees of the town that present to them, myself included.”
While Lynam said he is “not that thin-skinned,” he finds it difficult to understand why a board charged with the responsibility to make financial recommendations to the town “would take such a side road into personal attacks on the various people that present to them.”
He suggested the way to sure that is to make sure everyone participates in the public process.
“If it was going on cable rather than for the benefit of the nine members of the committee and perhaps the four or five people present from the public, you would see a different demeanor and a different presentation,” he said.
Town employees work very hard and diligently to do their jobs often facing public scrutiny and concern about what they are being paid, what they “really do” and how hard they work, Lynam. Still, he doesn’t take umbrage when people unfamiliar with town government ask such questions.
“But I really resent it when somebody who should understand it, and has been involved in the process, chooses the route of character assassination to talk about the town administrator, or the director of technology or any of the other department heads that have appeared before them to present budgets,” he said.
Lynam said he has listened to it enough and thinks it’s time to professionalize things.
“In the end, you’ll have access to more information,” he said.
Select Board member Shawn Kain, expressing mixed feelings on the issue because he has served on the Finance Committee, but he has also felt some of the tension Lynam referred to.
“For selfish reasons, I’d like it if [meetings] were either on cable or if there was an audio because I’d like to – on my own time – just to go through and listen to some of the meeting to gain more knowledge,” he said, adding that transparency in that way does hold people accountable.
Lynam said he received recordings under public records request in researching the petition. The logistics are relatively simple, he argued because the technology already exists, but current practice for some boards and committees has been keeping an audio recoding until minutes are done – at which time they are supposed to be deleted. He was able to obtain them as a result of his request because that process is not fully followed.
“We are accountable for how we conduct business,” he said. “I don’t see it as punitive, I see it as informative.”
He pointed out that Hanson already follows the practice of either audio or video recording all of their committee meetings, posting them on YouTube.
Lynam has discussed the issue with the Finance Committee chair, who is opposed to it out of concern that recordings would make people less likely to speak candidly.
LaMattina said he “100-percent agrees” with the article Lynam proposes.
“Although we’re on TV and we might have a crowd sometimes, the lack of a crowd does not mean you can just talk about people, slander people, lie about people and think, ‘this is what we do,’” he said.
Recent discourse at the Finance Committee meetings have centered on Carter allegedly receiving a job she didn’t deserve, that Lynam’s service didn’t amount to much.
“It’s pretty disgusting, to be honest with you,” LaMattina said.
While Cultural Council Secretary Julia Manigan expressed concern over the discomfort cameras in meetings could cause, School Committee Vice Chair Christoper Scriven argued it’s “the least we can do to be as transparent as possible.”
“I think we owe it to the residents of this town to conduct all of our business in a civil manner,” he said.
Select Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said all meetings should be recorded to avoid finger-pointing at a specific committee.
Select Board member Justin Evans agreed it is a “good move toward transparency.”
DPW project
DPW Commissioner Kevin Cleary updated the board on what the DPW is doing to educate the public about the new building project, upcoming events and current cost estimates. The Building Committee has been working on the project since $1.1 million was appropriated at the last annual Town Meeting for hiring the owner’s project manager (OPM) and architect/engineer, and they have been working through schematic designs over the past four months, he said.
Another day of public tours is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., on Saturday, April 22. A few trucks will be available for children to explore, and hamburgers and hot dogs will be available as refreshments on that date.
A question-and-answer presentation on the project is slated for 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 26 in Town Hall auditorium. The OPM and architect and Building Committee members will attend and provide a short presentation.
The website is also up and running at whitmandpw.com.
Cleary said the project’s design work began with three different options and went with the option for a complete facility with administrative, storage and mechanic’s workspace.
The front building will be demolished and the back building refurbished, using as much as they can retain. The design work is between 50 and 60 percent complete at this point.
Initial cost estimates make for an warrant article seeking $17.8 million in addition to what has already been appropriated. Cleary said he was confident in the cost estimates he has been receiving.
“We are still looking at that number, talking about what we can do to lessen it without taking away from the size of the building,” Cleary said. Sub-bids would be sought in early to mid-June if the article is successful, followed by general bids and a 12-to-13-month construction period.
Evans and Kain expressed their concern about holding a Town Meeting vote before the numbers are firm. LaMattina said it just makes sense to finish the building right, rather than have an outlying building that will need serious renovation after that.
“The cost is in the forefront of everybody’s mind, which I greatly appreciate,” he said.
“What we’re doing now is trying to lower the cost,” Cleary said. “We’re not going to add anything more that’s going to increase it…. We’re getting information so, if anything, we lower the cost.”
Kain was impressed by the building design and agreed it is warranted and necessary, but he also has reservations about the timing.
“Especially with the climate of us borrowing money and the number of projects on the table I think really being thorough and taking time and doing things right, I would rather wait and have the number in hand rather than go without the number,” Kain said.
Building Committee member Frank Lynam said the project cannot go to bid before Town Meeting votes even if all the numbers and estimates are in hand.
“Until Town Meeting votes, we don’t have a project,” he said.
COVID update
Giving the regular COVID update in Fire Chief Timothy Clancy’s absence, LaMattina reported that there were 212 tests performed since the last board meeting, with five positive cases for a positivity rate of 2.36 percent.
“Once again, [it’s] trending in the right direction,” LaMattina said.

HANSON – Members of the Hanson and Whitman select boards unanimously voted, in a joint meeting on Tuesday, April 4, against either endorsing or supporting the fiscal 2024 WHRSD budget as presented to the two towns. Each board voted separately on the motion.
They have requested their respective town administrators to send letters to the district about the vote, and stressed it was not intended to signal a lack of support for education.
“The thing that I really love about you guys being here is that this opens up a dialog between the two boards which is very much needed, in fact, it’s a dialog between the two towns, which is very much needed and, in fact a dialog between all parties is very much needed,” Hanson Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said in opening the session she termed historic. “We’re here to talk about the elephant in the room, which is the school assessment.”
Members of both boards stressed their concerns and votes were not an indication of any lack of support for education, but of fiscal sustainability for their communities. The boards met in a joint session at Hanson Town Hall to discuss the financial implications of the school spending plam on municipal budgets, the urgent need for sustainable school budgets and their disappointment that there was a need for the towns to unite on budget issues in an effort to prevent cuts in other departments
“We’re really struggling right now,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said of her town’s budget, which she said could afford a 3.75-percent assessment increase, but still has more than $600,000 worth of cuts to make somewhere – after one round of budget trimming had already been done.
“When I say cuts, I want to be crystal clear that we have not targeted a department or people or positions, or anything. We may have to look at capital improvements and the like.”
She said cuts do not always translate to people’s jobs being cut.
Whitman Select Board Chair Randy LaMattina said that community is at a point where it can shoulder a 5-percent assessment increase right now, but “not a single penny more.”
“Anything more than that, we will have to start cutting,” he said. “If this [school] budget, as presented, were to go through, we would be facing crippling cuts within our town departments.”
While LaMattina declined to speculate on cuts, he cautioned they will be real, they would include jobs and would be “disastrous” for the town.
“I don’t think it’s the same as previous budget years,” he said. “We’re basically less than two weeks away from having to post our budget and I don’t think we’ve ever come down, since I’ve been involved in town politics, to a situation like this where it doesn’t seem we’ve really been listened to.”
He said that while Whitman has been pretty clear for a while about what the town could afford, “it seems to have gone over people’s heads” and he hopes the boards’ unified position will be clear.
“Their ask is what we’re really here to talk about,” LaMattina said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed that the budget the towns are being asked to agree to would eviscerate Hanson’s budget.
“I don’t even want to speculate about what it would look like,” she said, making it clear that the Hanson Select Board is one that supports education, and she expressed confidence that Whitman officials feel the same way.
“You are looking at the daughter of a career high school history teacher,” she said. “I am not an anti-education person by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve spent years of my life raising money for the schools in a variety of capacities.”
When budget asks are reasonable – or even slightly beyond – she said she could probably support it.
A couple of years ago an override effort carried the threat that, without it police and fire layoffs would be needed, FitzGerald-Kemmett said, adding she is certain the residents do not ever want to see the town go through that again.
“There’s no way that this board can include the budget presented to us in our warrant,” she said. “We just can’t.”
Hanson Select Board members Joe Weeks, Ed Heal, Ann Rein and Jim Hickey were especially vocal in agreeing with FitzGerald-Kemmett that, while education is important, there are members of the Hanson community that simply cannot afford what is being asked.
“My grandparents live in town, and other people’s grandparents also live in town and we don’t want to tax people out of the town,” Weeks said, noting that, as Hickey has pointed out before, that a third of Hanson residents are of retirement age and on fixed incomes.
“We have to be mindful that we are advocating for the entirety of our constituency – not just a portion of it,” Weeks said, adding that the schools are doing their job advocating for education. “I may agree with that, but in tough times like this, it becomes incredibly more difficult, for us as leaders, to make incredibly hard decisions and lead and try to come to a decision that makes sense for everybody,”
“I’m against mismanagement,” Hickey said, emphasizing that he is not against education. “There are positions that are not needed. … The district got money from COVID, as the towns did, what did [the schools] do with that money if we were giving so much more of the one-time money?”
LaMattina said the boards, as policy makers in their respective towns, cannot support the school budget, but also stressed it’s not an education issue.
He also said the boards have to look at what got them to this point with the school budget, arguing it’s the district’s use of COVID funds such as the one-time ESSER grants for recurring cost positions, that concern him most.
“I actually used the word ‘reckless’ last year,” he said.
Using the funds to institute all-day K, while a predictable and needed risk, was still a risk and Whitman is having to use some one-time funds of its own this year to afford the 5 percent.
“We’re not seeing any growth in any other department,” he said, noting that both towns have been very vocal in where they’ve made cuts and what they can afford.
He said he was also disheartened to learn that the budget has not been included in the Wednesday, April 5 School Committee agenda.
Whitman Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said even a 5-percent increase would hurt other departments and that, like Hanson, Whitman has already made cuts.
“We’re running real thin to get to 5 percent,” he said.
Ambulance service challenges as well as staffing issues have cropped up in both towns due to the need to transport patients to hospitals at greater distances since the Brockton Hospital fire late last year.
Whitman’s Shawn Kain also pointed to sustainability as a key concern.
“We’ve gone to great lengths to understand how to create a financial plan that’s going to keep us in a sustainable situation,” Kain said, noting that Whitman has been lean on public safety over the last few years, but that the hold-harmless situation with the schools is eating most of the revenue.
“I think the 5 percent represents a number that allows us to fund the schools at a level that is sustainable, but also gives us some revenue to work with in other departments,” he said, but added a argument could be made that even that is not enough. “It’s not an easy dilemma.”
Whitman Select Board member Justin Evans also pointed out that, even at 5 percent the town is projecting about $270,000 in free cash.
“Because the schools are building the one-time money they used last year into their budget, into the assessment this year, we are using one-time money to keep up with it,” he said.

WHITMAN – The timing of a debt exclusion vote on the Whitman Middle School building project is still an open question, as the Select Board works through the process of deciding when to schedule a vote and how many ballots would be involved.
The Board on Tuesday, March 21, again discussed whether a separate election day should be set for a school funding vote, or whether it could be included on another voting day, since 2024 is also a state Presidential Primary election year.
The Board is slated to take up the issue again at its Tuesday, April 4 meeting.
“I’m most curious on what the impact would be on your department, either holding a special Town Election before a Presidential Primary – when we’re probably already early voting – or is it possible to have it concurrently with a single, two-ballot election?” Select Board member Justin Evans asked Town Clerk Dawn Varley.
Varley strongly cautioned against scheduling it for the same day as a March Presidential primary election day, because that election always involves more than two ballots.
“You’ve got three parties, then you have absentee/early voting ballots,” she said. “Now there’s six ballots, then you have the debt exclusion ballots, plus, that has to have an absentee ballot, so you’re talking about my office juggling eight ballots.”
A special election in conjunction with the annual Town Election is the simplest, cheapest way to accomplish the goal, Varley said, describing it as a “whole election,” including both ballots. She said if the town can’t wait that long, the best alternative is a special election.
“My position has always been that I think we need to look at what draws more of the voting population out,” Chair Randy LaMattina said. “We have to look at this and say, consistently, we have more voting population brought out during a Presidential Primary.”
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci agreed.
“The voices of as many town residents that we can get on the vote is the main thing,” he said.
Evans said the turnout numbers are certainly higher on the Presidential primaries, but in years where one party did not had a competitive primary, the numbers are more in line with an debt exclusion election.
Member Shawn Kain said the decision should hinge on whether it is the right thing to do.
“I’m not concerned with more work and more money,” he told Varley. “If it’s the right thing to do I think we can find a way to help you out.”
Varley said she was more concerned about confusion.
“The whole process is very confusing,” she said.
“A single day, two-ballot election is disastrous, especially with it being a Presidential Primary,” Varley said. “What happens is, you basically run two elections. You have to have two check-ins … You can’t “sell” the ballot [ask people if they want a school election ballot when a person asks for a primary ballot]. … I would strongly recommend not to do that.”
Presidential primaries generally have a higher turnout – 34 percent in 2000, 16 percent in 2004 – and in 2002, 22 percent of Whitman voters cast ballots in an initiative for the Fire Department. Other override elections have had turnouts in the range of 39 to 48 percent, however.
Varley said that her only requirement would be 35 days’ notice in which to schedule a vote.
“If it’s advertised – which I think it would be – and the interest is there, you would have the voters come,” she said.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said having a single election with two ballots would save the town the cost of a separate election in some ways, and would reimburse some costs, but not for two elections.
The town does not use check-out tables any more. The town also “owns” the school referendum ballot, she said, explaining Whitman wouldn’t obtain state reimbursement for election costs and early voting would also be required because the state permits it for the primary.
Varley said mail-in ballots for absentee voting in the school election would have to be mailed separately with different labels on them. She also has them printed on different colored paper along with the needed instructions.
It would also not be possible to know – or check – to see if the ballots were put in the wrong directions, she said, adding that Town Clerk staff would not be permitted to switch ballots if they believe ballots are in the wrong envelopes.
In the last election using two separate ballots, Varley said she mailed them out separately about a week apart to help with confusion, but early ballot depositing would also necessitate the rental check-in machines to maintain separate voting lists for each ballot.
A person voting in the primary, however, could return to Town Hall to cast a vote in the school vote, because they are separate elections.
Evans asked if it would be possible to schedule the special Town Meeting required before the school project goes to the ballot, in early enough before the MSBA vote in the fall before to capture the remaining excess levy before the tax rate is set.
That would be sometime in late September, according to Building Committee member John Galvin. He and Evans both made the point that the Board could schedule the process early enough to provide the 35-day window to schedule the special election, and permit the special Town Meeting on the ballot question for 14 days before that.
Galvin said both the owner-project manager on the Whitman Middle School project, and the designer said the full financial documents could be available to the Select Board in time for an end of September Town Meeting.
Both would take place before the final MSBA vote.
“We have been told by both the OPM and the designer – the MSBA meeting is on Oct. 26 – but the meeting is pretty much a celebratory meeting,” Galvin said. Whitman would not even be scheduled for that meeting if the answer was going to be no.
Carter said she was not sure if the excess levy capacity could be known by November.
“It is definitely an artistic science,” Galvin said.
Kain said any confusion about the timing of a vote would not be helpful.
In other business, Fire Chief Timothy Clancy gave his regular COVID-19 report, saying the town had only 11 cases out of 227 tests performed, for a positivity rate of 4.85 percent.
“This number is remaining steady … since two weeks ago when it went down 50 percent,” he said. “Overall, we are trending down with our COVID numbers.”
The town has also been approved for the wastewater testing machine, which will help with the monitoring of COVID levels in wastewater.

The School Committee approved a fiscal 2024 budget of $60,638,657.69 an increase of 3.67 percent over last year, on Wednesday, March 15. The spending plan adds foreign language and STEM/robotics programs to a level-services package.
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak had presented the level-service budget of $60,485,257.69 – an increase of 3.41 percent over last year – but said his recommendation was that $153,400 for foreign language Option 1 and a STEM/robotics curriculum be added to it.
The foreign language option costs $98,400, which would add $60,083.04, or .36-percent increase for Whitman, and $38,316.96, or a .29-percent increase in grades six through eight and to add robotics in K-grade eight curricula.
STEM and robotics costs $55,000, which would add $33,583 – or a .2 percent-increase to Whitman’s budget and $21,417 to Hanson’s budget for 1.6 percent increase to Hanson.
“At minimum, I recommend this committee sets the budget at $60,485,257.69 – or a 3.41-percent increase – but seriously consider adding foreign language Option 1 and STEM and robotics, which adds $153,400, or adjusting the budget to $60,638,675.69, to put us at an overall increase of 3.67 percent over last year,” Szymaniak said. He said the committee has heard from students and curriculum administrators about how students are progressing.
“I think they need opportunities as presented, but at minimum stick with our level service and a 3.41-percent increase to our budget,” he said. “I felt I need the committee to know where we’re at. … You’ve been able to see what the towns have presented us and, I appreciate what they’ve presented us.”
“My fear is the towns just don’t have the funds,” said member Fred Small, noting that Whitman had penciled in a 5-percent increase in the assessment. “I just don’t know where they come up with the money to pay.”
Hanson’s interim Town Accountant’s letter indicated even a 3-percent increase would leave them with deficits, Small said.
“One of two things happens, it’ll get shot down on the Town Hall floor, or their going to divvy is up and push it on an override,” he said. “My opinion is, if it comes to an override I’’d rather see us hold firm.”
Vice Chair Christopher Scriven said he came to discuss and vote on assessments as it stated in the agenda, to have the extra consideration of language and STEM/robotics program costs at that point made him pause and need time to consider it.
“I don’t know if I’m really ready to consider this,” Scriven said.
Chair Howard said a budget had to be voted that night.
“I’ve presented a budget with those two options in February, and they’ve been there,” Szymaniak said. “It’s something the committee doesn’t have to approve.”
He said district counsel Andrew Waugh recommended the budget not be increased after March 15.
Small, while supporting the students supported the original level-service budget minus the lanquages and STEM/robotics because the towns’ fiscal positions are so tenuous.
Member Beth Stafford stressed that, while the towns are facing financial challenges, the committee and school district are not asking the towns to foot the bill for the data breach they had last summer.
“This is level-service,” she said. “Level service is not always the greatest thing, folks [it] means you don’t go anywhere further.”
She also noted the familiar territory of the strain between town and school committee roles.
“This is the conversation that always comes up,” Stafford said. “And the conversation is, ‘What’s our job here on the School Committee?’ Yes, we represent the towns, but our main focus is the students and what we have to do.”
Member Dawn Byers noted the budget doesn’t address start times or strengthening the school-community connection, but while they could do better, she said the budget reflects the real cost of the district’s needs for education. She also argued that an increase of 3.41 percent is below what both towns have certified with the DOR as their annual municipal revenue growth factor – 4 percent for Whitman and 3.9 percent for Hanson this year.
Whitman Selectmen Shawn Kain and Justin Evans also weighed in on the school budget.
Kain said the hold-harmless situation created the “tragic dilemma” for the towns.
“Because we’ve been in hold-harmless for so long, we aren’t getting enough state aid t sustain the budget,” he said. “That’s the answer. That’s it.”
The situation frequently pits town departments and the school district against each other at Town Meeting, often forcing a decision between funding other town departments or seeking an override.
Evans said the 4.3 percent projected municipal revenue growth comes to a bit less than $1.7 million of total growth to spend everywhere.
Between the level-service plus two additional programs for the schools and the Plymouth County retirement assessment of about $300,000, all that money is used, he said.
Finance Committee member Kathlen Ottina, however urged the committee to hold fast to Szymaniak’s recommendation.
“It’s early in the budget process,” she said. “We still have budgets to be heard at the Finance Committee level and, if you don’t ask for it tonight, you can’t ask for it later.”
Member David Forth advocated for the language and technology programs to prepare for the long-term needs of educating students for the future.
“If we don’t add services now, we kick the can once again for level services,” he said. “What are we doing next year? … We really need to think about the long-term aspect.”
Howard said figures reviewed the five-year in September that included a budget with a 3.13 percent increase for level services.
“Our students are not getting anything more with this budget,” member Hillary Kniffen said. “A level-serviced budget is the best that we have. The cost of educating children has increased.”
“I will not accept that there’s a surprise when we start talking about some of these numbers because we’ve talked about them for over a year,” he said.
Szymaniak said the South Shore Superintendent’s group met with legislators and informed them how problematic a 14-percent increase in out-of-district special education tuition was, but he has not included that increase in the FY ’24 budget.
The final figure is still to be determined, he said.
“They’re bringing some of those thoughts back to the House,” Szymaniak said. “However, if nothing is done, we will receive tuition bills this summer, and we’re obligated to pay them.”
The committee, last year, decided to keep a one-year Circuit Breaker allowance in reserve to either apply to the following fiscal year’s budget or to use it for extenuating costs or circumstances.
A portion it is being used for the budget and a portion will be used for the latter, using them once they are appropriated in October to pay off the debt for that increase.
“I’m hoping it won’t be 14 percent, but I doubt that it will be the 3 percent that I allocated within the budget,” Szymaniak said. “Best case, it may be 7 [percent].”
If Circuit Breaker is not needed, it will go toward the FY ’25 budget next year.
Where excess and deficiency is concerned, $1.718 million is in that account, and the district will have to access $605,000 to pay invoices in excess of our insurance coverage to make the district whole in the wake of the computer and data breach it sustained in July 2022.
“We’re not going to the towns to make us whole from that breach,” he said. “The transfer will leave $1.13 million in E&D for FY ’24.”
Whitman has made its town budget available to the district and information has been received from Hanson regarding the funds they have earmarked for the district.
Member Steve Bois agreed with Howard that the committee has had all the numbers and criteria for the budget.
“We can do better,” she said. “It’s not in this budget right now, but we have room for improvement.”