HANOVER – An early forecast for the South Shore Tech fiscal 2025 budget proposal, which increases by 5.62 percent – or $16,139,669 – was presented to the School Committee on Thursday, Dec. 20.
Breaking down the increase, said Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey explained that the operating budget itself is up 3.88 percent (or $320,000), with capital expenses up 0.92 percent ($180,000) and district election costs for the MSBA project will raise the budget another 0.81 percent. Of the MSBA costs, $125,000 will come from excess and deficiency to avoid impacting local assessments.
“If this wasn’t the year to budget for this election, the overall budget increase would be about 4.8 percent of which about 3.88 percent is to operate the school house,” he said.
The ballot question for the MSBA building project is being planned for late January 2025. If it is passed, borrowing would begin in 2026. A preferred schematic plan – based on a preferred planned enrollment goal – will be presented to the MSBA later this month. The MSBA vote would come in August.
“I want to be able to lift up the hood on this,” he said. “We bring our communities one assessment number … Whatever we need, whether it’s a piece of capital or just running the schoolhouse, it all funnels down into one number.”
Hickey said he also thinks the district will be able to procure new buses using a combination of stabilization and existing funds, putting money toward a second year’s payment. The district had leased a dozen propane buses in 2017 and paid the lease off early, saving money and enabling the district, through equity in the buses to enter a successor lease. Last summer the district had some surplus revenue allowing the purchase of three buses for about $435,000.
“We have said goodbye to the last of the diesel buses that were 10-plus years old,” he said. Even with Marshfield joining the district, Hickey said they should be able to delay the need for more buses by a year.
The specifics of how that assessment breaks down by town will be available at a planned Jan. 25 School Committee meeting after the governor’s budget comes out.
The December budget presentation is traditional for the district.
“We are a little bit earlier than some communities because our regional agreement calls for us to have a certified budget 45 days before our earliest district Town Meeting, Hickey. “Historically, we have at least one town that schedules Town Meeting for early April, so that triggers a budget certification in February, preceded by a budget hearing in January.
SST uses a “zero-based” budget formula.
“While there are fixed costs, every department head and cost-center supervisor is asked to look at their budget with fresh eyes and focus on the year ahead and also on long-range capital planning, but do not simply add a few percent onto last year’s number,” Hickey said. “If we all did that, there would never be enough money for the things that pop up.”
Hickey said the district is monitoring Chapter 70 aid and the effect of changes in state regulations regarding non-resident students, while in-district student enrollment increases with the addition of Marshfield, raises the question of how a drop-off based on non-resident kids graduating in June will impact revue.
The inflation rate being used to calculate state aid is under 2 percent, raising the question does a lower rate mean the member communities may have to absorb more of the costs.
“Does the state aid match the drop in [non-resident] revenue?” he said. If it does not, there is a revenue gap that must be addressed either by adjusting the budget down or pass more costs to the communities.
“We will know what the right answer is as soon as we see the governor’s budget, the estimated state aid – and I’m prepared with a Plan B if there’s a gap,” Hickey said, indicating budget cuts would be the most likely approach.
The budget also aims to move $137,407 in personnel salaries funded by grants into the budget. New personnel eyed in the budget include $75,000 for a physical education/health teacher and $40,000 for a medical assisting teacher budgeted as an aide position. The $40,000 would be paid by a Perkins grant, should it come through.
Among the accomplishments which are always included in the budget presentation: SST now has the highest enrollment in its history with a strong program placement and student application pool, outside funding has been secured via Rethinking Grading, Skills Capital and a recent $2.1 million CTI grant. There has also been progress with the MSBA project and the district has expanded to include Marshfield as of July 1, and programming for student supports have been expanded, Hickey said.
“We are killing it on state grants,” Hickey said. “We’re doing a fantastic job of showing the world that we thrive after hours and we’re serving our day kids and our nighttime adults with great distinction.”
Enrollment trends show Whitman going up by 14 students and Hanson going down by eight from last year’s enrollment. Debt service is based on a town’s average Oct. 1 enrollment in the three years preceding a debt authorization and debt amounts are fixed.
Right now, the debt service number is zero.
Goals ahead include the NEASC accreditation in 2026, expansion of community and culture goals of expanded workforce development, creation of a Student Equity Club and strong student participation in athletics. The MSBA process is the main facilities goal and implementation of a grading initiative is another instructional goal.

WHITMAN – Select Board voted on Tuesday, Dec. 19 to send two sample bylaws to the Bylaw Study Committee – to potentially allow solar farms or battery developers to locate in town.
Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski was unable to attend the meeting.
The town does not have anything at all in the general and Zoning bylaws to set any limits or have any rules or have any means of doing much to regulate solar, argued Select Board member Justin Evans.
He noting that, during the auction of the Peaceful Meadows property, the auctioneers mentioned some solar developers were interested and bidding on the property, according to state law, solar farms up to a certain size are allowed by right and because Whitman is a green community, anything above that is also allowed.
But there are no protections on the books for the town to use in controlling or reviewing potential developers.
“We don’t have anything at all in the general and zoning bylaws to set any limits, have any reviews – there’s nothing to protect the town from a developer and coming in and doing whatever related to solar,” Select Board member Justin Evans said. “But we do have the ability to put in place … bylaws. On batteries, that’s less of an already existing issue and more of an opportunity.
He said Carver, like Witman, has a large electric distribution substation, he said, noting the property off Sportsman’s Trail near the Brockton line.
“[That] would be a very desirable place for a potential battery developer to put something,” Evans said. “The project in Carver is estimated to cost about $175 million on six acres. In Whitman, in our personal property taxes, that would be a little over $2 million to the town if someone like that were to come in and do a project [like Carver’s].”
He said it is an opportunity the town could look at.
The board also discussed the extension of sidewalks from Hogg Memorial Drive to the Brockton Line.
Board Chair Dan Salvucci said he has spoken to the DPW Commissioners, as the board’s liaison to them, and reported that, while the commissioners feel it is important to have a sidewalk there, it is not their main priority. That priority is Plymouth Street from the Rotary to the Hanson line, where there are a great many houses never served by a sidewalk. It is also an area closer to the MBTA station, to which a lot of commuters walk and for which parking is scarce.
Salvucci also noted there are no sidewalks in Brockton on Route 14.
“So, [the proposed section] would stop there, and anybody wanted to walk further, Brockton doesn’t have it either,” he said. “They need to make the decision [about] what they want to do, try and get a grant and then bring it to Town Meeting. I don’t think it’s our decision to do that.”
Board member Shawn Kain noted the DPW has a formal plan with about 15 specific priorities, so the Hogg Memorial area is on the complete streets plan, it’s just not at the top of the list right now.
“I think, if the timeline worked out well, and they were to get the money, they’re looking at closer to 2026,” Kain said.
“The town can’t afford to put all the sidewalks in,” Salvucci agreed. “They’d have to go with a grant – complete streets and things like that. … As far as the Joint Transportation Committee – I will push for anything that the town is looking for.”
Kain said it is on his list of priorities as well.
An Auburnville Way resident said meetings about the issue with the offices of state Rep. Alyson Sullivan-Almeida, R-Abington, and Congressman Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., has resulted in guidance that the Select Board’s prioritizing the Route 14 sidewalks could result in the faster release of state and federal grant money.
Both Salvucci and Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said it would be better to discuss that with the DPW Commissioners first, as they are also an elected board and it would avoid over-stepping the commissioners’ authority.
SST concern
Resident Robert Kimball also spoke during the public forum on the informational meeting held by South Shore Tech on Dec. 14 regarding its upcoming building project.
“One of the big concerns was the percentage of paying moving forward, and I hope the Board of Selectmen can take a real good look at it,” he said, noting that Whitman’s share should be based on current enrollment.
Salvucci, who is also the Whitman representative to the SST School Committee, said Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey thought the opinion is credible and is looking into it.
“I asked him, since I’m on the committee there, to look at the enrollment for the past 10-15 years and see how the enrollment was, because there was one year, we went down a few students,” he said. “There was one year we went up 10 students.”
But, he added, interest in the school in Whitman remains high. There were more than 100 families touring the school during the registration process for next year’s freshman class recently.
“All I’m asking is that you take a good look at it and analyze it and do what’s best for the community,” Kimball said. “I want you to analyze it, not have your mind made up right now.”
Carter said Hickey had sent her an email about meeting to discuss the issue.

WHITMAN – While 2023 ended with the question of whether a new Whitman Middle School would be built, in the coming year the same question faces voters – as one of nine member communities being asked to support a new South Shore Tech.
“Our goal is not to build the absolute biggest thing we can build,” said SST Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey, as some voters brought their questions to an informational meeting held in Whitman Town Hall on Thursday, Dec. 14. “We have to build something that is as affordable as possible.”
He was joined by Project Manager Jen Carlson from the firm LeftField, Educational Consultant Adele Sands, and Carl Franshesci from architectural firm DRA. Whitman’s representative to the SST School Committee, Select Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci also attended, as did Select Board member Justin Evans, who also serves on the Whitman Middle School Building Committee.
Whitman Finance Committee members Kathleen Ottina and Rosemary Connolly also attended and asked several questions.
“We’ve accomplished a lot as a building committee in the last few months,” Hickey said, as he began with an overview of the project and its status before taking those questions. “I promise you there are slides that say ‘Show me the money.’”
Opened in 1962, SST is the second-oldest regional-vocational school in Massachusetts with the original member communities of Abington, Cohasset, Hanover, Norwell, Rockland and Scituate, with Whitman and Hanson joining the region in the 1982-83 school year. Marshfield is now in the process of joining the district and Pembroke is considering that move.
“If we decide to bring in more communities that are not part of a regional voke later on, we’ll bring them in knowing they’ll help with cost-sharing, but those conversations are entirely separate from this,” Hickey said.
Marshfield will be paying a portion a share of the project in fiscal 2026, the first anticipated year of bond anticipation notes.
“Marshfield’s annual debt share will adjust with their enrollment, as they add students for fiscal ’26, ’27, ’28 and ’29,” Hickey said. “Then, on Oct. 1, 2028, as we’re preparing the fiscal ’30 budget, Mansfield’s share will be fixed.”
For example, if Marshfield sends 20 kids per year, it would put them at 11.9 percent of total school enrollment, translating to an 11.9 percent cut for each of the towns. It would be the district’s largest sending community with an eighth-grade class of more than 250 kids.
Whitman’s eighth-grade class is currently 174.
“Second-oldest doesn’t mean [it’s a] decrepit building,” he said. “We’re a well-maintained building, but we just happened to be the second one in Massachusetts to experiment with this model.
With a larger school building, Hickey said plumbing and veterinary technician can be added to the 12 shop specialties taught to the 670 students already attending SST.
Hickey said people have been asking him for decades why the school hasn’t offered a plumbing program, but the space limitations have not permitted it.
“Over the last 10 years, the number of kids who would like to come, but there is no space, has averaged out at about 68 students,” he said. “That’s an important number for me to factor in when making recommendations about what we could potentially build for – what is the demand?”
The average freshman class now numbers between 175 and 180 students. Each town is apportioned a number of seats each year, based on the number of eighth graders in each town and there is an application process. While some towns use all their seats and have excess demand, of which Whitman is one, with the highest population in the school for a few years. Other towns, like Cohasset and Norwell, have seats left unfilled and are reapportioned to communities with excess demand.
SST has been filing statements of interest with the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a school project since 2015, and were invited into the process in March 2022.
“We’ll have something that’s safer, that will allow us not to have modular units,” he said. “The bread and butter of our school is our shop space … to teach kids the trade skills they need.”
As an example, he said that, if all the school’s carpentry students stopped or were unable to go out on cooperative learning work in the upper grades, Hickey doubts there would be room for all of them to safely work in the Carpentry Shop.
The useful life of the building and its systems is also a concern.
SST’s education plan and preliminary design program are now under review by the MSBA. The building committee looked at several design options and five different enrollments, narrowing it to three plans. All information about the SST school design options and cost projections are available on a website: southshoretechproject.com.
“By the end of January [2024] we, as a building committee, will make two decisions – which design do we want to push forward and what will the enrollment number be?” Hickey said. “Then we go into 2024, working with the MSBA … and, ultimately and hopefully, they will then approve a project, with a project funding agreement and reimbursement rates in August.”
The process would culminate with a ballot question going before voters in late January 2025.
SST is also on a small site with environmental limitations, including wetlands, which is why at least one design is for an addition/renovation – which would bring no MSBA reimbursement – but Marshfield will be helping with cost-sharing.
“That amount is not something voters would know when making an educated decision on the project, but it is likely to assist,” he said. “We’re looking at an add/reno and two projects for new construction that we’re calling ‘2.0’ and ‘2.1.’”
The main differences between them is the layout of athletic fields where the current school is as well as the location of a multi-purpose auditorium – with retractable stadium seats so the space can be used for sports and other programs as well as performances – dining commons, gym and locker rooms.
“Every square foot that we’re asking for has got to have more than one purpose,” he said. “Having [all that] in one area is an important theme. Of the three floors this one probably has the most unique elements.”
Design 2.0 places them to one side of the school building center. Design 2.1 puts them in the center of the building.
Hickey said the decision on locating the common areas are still under discussion, but fundamentally, the general layout of both designs are the same.
Two enrollment figures have been prioritized for the new building – 805 and 900. The building space, now at 130,000 square feet on one level, will expand to between 240,000 and 260,000 square feet on multiple levels.
“The first floor is focused on our shops,” Hickey said.
Any new construction will have to be to the rear of the property, where baseball and football fields are now.
If the MSBA gives its approval in the summer of 2024, a district-wide ballot question will go before voters in January 2025 and the project will enter the design phase in 2025 to early 2026, entering the construction phase in 2026 to mid-2028 to be opened for the 2028-29 school year.

WHITMAN – Year-end financial snapshosts continued last week as the Select Board on Tuesday, Dec. 5 met in a joint session requested by the Finance Committee
“The Finance Committee always looks forward to a joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen just for an update since we last met during the special Town Meeting,” Chair Richard Anderson said, introducing new member Mike Warner. The meeting reviewed revenue projections, and reach concensus on overall expenditure levels, use of reserves and generaly allocation of resources as well as the distribution of budget guidelines to department managers to enable them to prepare appropriation requests.
“The benefit from this process … has helped us, I think, better prepare for Town Meeting,” Anderson said.
Finance has already met with police, fire, veterans’ services, the treasurer-collector and were meeting with the Building Department and assessor later that night.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter reminded the two panels that the town aimed to begin the budget process earlier this year. She met with Anderson, Assistant Town Administrator Kathleen Keefe, Hanson Town Administrator Lisa Green and Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak in July to discuss a preliminary budget timeline and the 5-percent increase budget increase over last year’s appropriation. She followed that up with in October with a request for all budget submission with 2.5 percent salary increases and level-funded expenses.
Carter began meeting with individual department heads in November and met a second time with Green and Szymaniak about what the two towns can afford for a school budget increase in fiscal 2025.
“This process will continue for the next couple of months,” she said.
So far this month, she has met with the assessor, treasurer-collector and accountant to prepare information for Town Meeting budget Article 2. She also drafted a budget based on the submission criteria she supplied to department heads.
“This budget is very fluid and is a work in progress,” she said.
Select Board member Shawn Kain said conservative revenue projections put the current levy is $30,971.437. Adding the Proposition 2 ½ increase of $774,286 and $450,000 in new growth raises the projected levy to $32,195,723. New growth estimates of $9,999,746 brings the total to $42,195,469 – a $1,143,299 increase over fiscal 2024.
Expenses in salary and insurance cost hikes and regional schools increases, among others, brings the town’s expenses up to about $1.4 million over last year – higher than revenue increases. That puts the town at a $273,060 deficit.
“We’re trying to get better and better at forecasting,” Kain said.
“This information is more comprehensive than anything we’ve ever had,” Anderson said. “I think it’s good that we’re here together to talk about where we need to end up at an earlier time than we have in the past.”
Carter is also reviewing approved expenditures at previous town meetings that could have come in under-budget, but funds of which, were not returned to the town – as was discovered about some DPW budgeted funds that were discovered unspent during the lead-up to the November special Town Meeting.
“I want to condense that …, but there are several articles with balances for projects that have not yet been started or completed,” she said of a plan to boil out some information.

WHITMAN – While the nation seems to grow further divided with each passing day, a group of Whitman residents have looked to area towns for an idea aimed at bringing residents together.
It’s called the Whitman Freedom Team (WFT), and perhaps the holiday season is the best time to explore it.
Former teacher and principal Thomas Evans, and School Committee member Steve Bois are heading up the project, based on similar efforts in Natick and Scituate. There is no limit foreseen regarding the number of people who might choose to become involved, to aid in drawing on expertise specific to a situation.
Evans pointed to the fact that he and Bois are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
“He’s a very dear friend of mine, he’s very fair, and that’s what I want,” he said. “I don’t want people to agree with me, I want people to tell me what the problem is, define it and then go to reconciliation.”
Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said both Bois’ and Evans’ involvement speak well of the program.
“My attitude about finance committees changed when Steve became the chair of the Finance Committee,” Kowalski said. “And you, Tom, absolutely best principal I have ever seen.”
“You don’t know any others,” Evans said.
“I know a few,” Kowalski said. “To have you as the headpin on this will work out perfectly and I’m looking forward to working with you.”
The freedom team mission: “to preserve freedom through unity in the community,” according to Scituate’s website scituatefreedom.org.
“This is something that is going to take a while to germinate and to become official,” Evans said in his first public opportunity to discuss the program and its aims. “It’s something I’ve been working on since last March after watching a TEDXNatic talk on the program presented by Jamele Adams. TED Talks are influential videos from expert speakers on education, business, science, tech and creativity. The X in the program’s title denotes it is an independently organized TED event. A former dean of students at Brandeis University Adams is the first Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Scituate School District in Scituate.
He gave the TED talk in Natick, dedicated to inspiring others to “be L.I.T.” – as love, inclusion and trust are keys to bringing communities together.
“We’re going to do it,” Evans said. “The more we talk about things and the more that we talk about how our country is, is moving toward being as good as we can be. We can help with that.”
Evans said Adams was not only passionate about the idea of Freedom Teams, but was also willing to help people form teams in their own communities. When no intervention is needed, they discuss ways to improve their communities.
“That’s why I’m here tonight, because of my friend, Jamele Adams,” Evams said, noting that Adams, of Franklin, has been very supportive of his efforts to form a team in Whitman. “My hope is that those who might be interested in helping in making the WFT a reality will give me a call and then we’ll go from there.”
While he supplied the Select Board with some information on what a freedom team is, he began his remarks on Tuesday, Dec. 5 by stressing what it is not.
“It’s not political,” Evans said. “It’s not partisan and it’s not a law-enforcement agency. The WFT is made up of Whitman volunteers and is based on the 10-point communal engagement model that roots pillars of the community, and people central in the community as a team dedicated to love, inclusion and trust. It might sound corny, but that’s what we’re about.”
While not a law-enforcement agency, Evans said the key to the team’s success will be the police chief, a person trained in what is lawful and whose expertise the team would defer to in such matters.
Chief Timothy Hanlon, for example, has advised that should the WFT set up a hotline number as Scituate has, it cannot be affiliated with the police department because of town liability issues.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter and Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak have also had helpful discussions with the team, Evans said.
“The superintendent … has offered us support,” Evans said noting issues often come to the attention of freedom teams through the schools. “He has allowed [Director of Equity and MTSS] Dr. Nicole Semas-Schneeweis … to speak with students who are interested in getting involved.”
Parents, a lawyer, clergy, and local political officials (including three Select Board members) are involved. Evans said he is working to include a social media expert, a mental health clinician trained in trauma and multicultural lenses and a transformational justice facilitator.
“We hope that more people will hear about this will learn about it, respond to it and come forward,” he said. “Tonight is just the beginning. There’s still much more to do before the Whitman Freedom Team becomes a reality, but rest assured, it will happen.”
The WFT is also working to organize as a 501 (c)3 non profit, which will allow it to stay independent of the town, raise funds to finance some of its goals and programs.
Select Board member Shawn Kain, who does similar work professionally, urged caution in dealing with people in crisis, even as he supported the effort.
“Point well taken,” Evans said, noting that members of any organization should know their limits.
Police chiefs in Franklin and Natick have been supportive of their communities’ freedom teams and the positive impact they have seen from the teams’ work.
“The Freedom Team assists in helping our community heal when needed, and will join the network of the freedom teams, of which Whitman will be number eight,” Evans said. “It exists to listen and facilitate discussions for individuals and groups, encouraging people to be ‘up-standers,’ not by-standers in interrupting racism, bigotry and prejudice wherever it’s encountered, preserving freedom through unity and a commitment to gaining new understanding in the community.”
Those goals have been adopted from the teams in Scituate and Natick.
While Evans said he is not looking to be the only person making decisions in the team but he has suggested the motto: “Find a Way,” in memory of the late J.P. Drier, a young man who had so much to give to our community. The former W-H student athlete died from complications of Type 1 diabetes in July.
“The mission of the Whitman Freedom Team is to preserve freedom through unity in the community,” he said. The team will meet monthly, usually via Zoom, to explore ways of offering dialog in support of individuals and the entire community in the goal of moving beyond tolerance to celebrate and share the community’s diversity.
“We’re beginning to change, and we need to change,” he said. “We can be different, but we can also work together.”
Evans said he was advised by the seven other freedom teams in eastern Massachusetts – including Natick (where the first team was started in 2016), Hingham, Frankin. Hopkinton and Scituate – to adopt some of their organizational frameworks and goals. rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.
“Once we’ve formed officially, the members will decide what the wording should be, but this is where we’re starting” he said.
When a report of hate, bias-motivated threats, harassment or violence related to race, color, sex, gender, gender or sexual identity, age, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability or class, is received by the team it will offer a safe, private and respectful place to discuss such an incident, using a transformative justice model.
“We respond to violence without creating more violence,” Evans said. “We are trying to be healing – having parties come together, be educated and de-escalate situations.”

WHITMAN – While unanimously voting to set the tax rate on Tuesday, Nov. 28 the Select Board also signaled its concerns for residents who might be forced out of their homes by the decision.
The board to adhere to historic precedent and set a single tax rate for fiscal 2024 during the town’s annual tax classification hearing. The Board of Assessors had voted to recommend adoption of the single tax rate, with no commercial or residential exemptions, which is also customary. They estimate the excess levy capacity to be $4,435.48.
“The town has always voted a single tax rate, as opposed to a split rate,” Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said.
By a vote of 4-0 the Select Board voted in favor of the recommendations. Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski was absent.
Resident John Galvin, of 41 High St., who has served on the finance committee as well as the Whitman Middle School Building Committee, voiced concerns about the ability of elderly and low-income residents to bear the tax burden.
“I stand here challenging the [Select Board], to start taking the lead instead of just letting all of this happen,” Galvin said. “In the last year, this board just let this all happen.”
He said it was time the board consider how to help seniors and low-income people, who are in “significant risk” of being forced out of their homes.
“I don’t know what, but we have to do something in order to help those taxpayers out,” he said.
The Board of Assessors has vowed to “leave no stone unturned” in an effort to help low-income and senior residents.
Select Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said that in his 30 years on the Finance Committee and Select Board, the town has always done a factor one tax rate. Why?
“By not doing factor one, we put more pressure on the businesses in town,” Salvucci said. “What’s going to happen is we’re either going to drive businesses out of own or they’re going to increase their prices. … Rents are going to go up. It’s going to hurt the citizens one way or the other.”
Businesses are what keeps the town going he said, but also expressed his concern for seniors.
“I’m a senior, but we have a town to run and businesses are a big part of it,” he said.
Select Board member Justin Evans agreed with Salvucci’s point on businesses and noted that a couple of other towns have begun to look at tax exempt properties and trying to negotiate a pilot payment from them.
Select Board member Laura Howe, who said she, too, is a “pretty much” a senior, too but noted Galvin brought up low-income residents and expressed her willingness to work with anyone who has a solution to help taxpayers in general.
“Low-income is huge,” she said. “There are people suffering and I have made note of that several times of what not being able to pay your bills does to a family. It’s very destabilizing and it affects [people] across the board.”
Galvin’s questions centered on the estimated status of tax receipts, and whether an exclusion has yet been taken for the middle school project.
“I’m thinking, now that we are out of the feasibility study that there will be significant expenses this year as we move forward in design, and I don’t know if that’s going to be something that we wait for the district to put that through in the upcoming budget, or is that something that needs to be considered?” he asked. “With the estimated receipts not being certified by the DOR, with an excess levy of only $44,000 as of right now, if there are any estimated receipts that are not necessarily approved, so that number comes down a little, do we still have room to adjust?”
Carter agreed with his characterization of the process that the town would have to wait until the district makes the assessment for the middle school project.
“We have not done any borrowing yet for either the DPW or the middle school,” Carter said.
Assistant Town Administrator Kathleen Keefe said the estimated receipts are never approved until the town submits them to the DOR to set the tax rate. The tax classification held this week is the first step in that process.
Figuring it out
Principal Assessor Wendy Jones provided a presentation to update the board on the town’s fiscal situation including approved values by the Department of Revenue for the valuation of all classes for the town of Whitman and approved new growth figures, most of which is new construction.
“This is the point at which we can vote to distribute, based on the percentages of the levy in each class, and shift the burden with factor ratings from residential, commercial, industrial and personal property classes,” she said. “This is something we do every year, based on when the values have been approved and adjusted based on [property] sales.”
The valid 2022 sales, also approved by the DOR, were the primary reference point.
“Based on those sales, it determines how much we adjust each class and what types of adjustments we do for each class,” she said. “We’re also looking at the properties in terms of the assessment as of Jan. 1.”
As a Chapter 653 community, Whitman is allowed to assess new growth and construction beyond Jan. 1, as well as sending out supplementary bills on new construction, Jones added.
A full property revaluation, also known as certification is completed every five years. The last one occurred in 2022. Interim year adjustments are based on the market sales analysis during non-certification years, Jones explained.
Whitman’s total approved valuation for 2024 is $2,510,191,250 – of that, 89.5 percent, or $2,246,581,005 is residential; 4.6 percent or $114,771,466 is commercial; 1.1 percent, or $27,947,905 is industrial and 4.8 percent, or $120,890,874 is personal property.
Estimated numbers still to be finalized and approved by DOR put the total amount to be raised, as voted by Town Meeting, at $50,522,578.95, with the town’s total estimated receipts at $18,542,742.43. The tax levy needed to be raised by property taxes is $31,979,836.52.
“That is the levy, based on last year’s levy, plus 2.5 percent, plus new growth and then the debt exclusion, and we haven’t exceeded that, so that’s good,” she said.
The tax rate is reached by dividing the tax levy by the total value of the town. Tax rate shifts, in 5 percent increments are permitted, up to a factor of 1.5, if the Select Board wished to vote in that way.
The usually supported factor of 1.0 puts the tax rate at $12.7 for all classifications. If a factor of 1.5 was to be approved, it would bring the residential rate down to $11.99 by increasing the other classifications up to $19.11.
Shifting the burden in such a way would be detrimental to the town’s business climate, the board has argued.
The average single-family house, valued at $470,189, would bring a tax bill of $5,990 in a 1.0 factor, with a factor of 1.5 bringing the bill down by $174, while increasing the tax for commercial, industrial and personal property classes of $1,588.
Galvin had asked if only single-family homes were included in the calculations, and Carter assured him they were.
“In a lot of the analysis that we were doing on the middle school we were just seeing how it affected single-family homes and not necessarily multi-family homes,” he said. “I sat here last year at this meeting and I voiced my concern over the impact that the taxpayers were going to get hit in the next year or two years, three years. Two of those projects – the DPW building and the WMS building. I have been voted and approved by voters of Whitman. Now we’re looking at South Shore Tech … low-income residential exemption – seniors. … In my opinion, there’s a crisis with that class – low-income seniors.”
Galvin noted that Whitman would not have a lot of say in the South Shore Tech project.
“I stand here, challenging the [Select Board] to start taking the lead instead of just letting all of this stuff happen,” he said, “In the last year, this board just let this all happen … and it all happened and, yet, we’ve got taxpayers – seniors, low income – who are in significant risk of being forced out of this town.”
A small commercial exemption, for property owned by a certifies business that employs fewer than 10 people and is worth $1 million or less, is permitted, but the board has not supported it because most small businesses lease their space – which benefits only the property owner. Residential exemptions are permitted for higher-priced owner-occupied homes or large numbers of rental properties.

The School Committee reviewed the Nov. 4 special election on Whitman Middle School project during its Wednesday, Nov. 15 meeting – offering thanks to those who worked to inform voters, while pointing to the need of continued efforts to inform residents on the impact and timing of taxes related to the Whitman Middle School project.
“Thanks to the diligence of the Whitman Middle School Building Committee and the Whitman Education Alliance, a group of parents, I believe we were granted a school building which we hope to open in 2027,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. “From the start, Ernie Sandland and Crystal Regan for putting together the SOI [statement of interest] in 2018, [Assistant Superintendent] George [Ferro], for adding a tremendous amount of influence for what that building’s about.”
He added that there had been quite a few roadblocks along the way and the Town Meeting was a good discussion – not so much confrontational as information-seeking.
“And then, the amount of people that came out to support the project in Whitman shows me, as the superintendent that Whitman is behind education, behind the school and that, when we’ll be breaking ground in the next 12 months as we move forward with this project,” he said. “I just can’t thank the parent organizations – The Whitman Education Alliance – for getting out there and motivating people to come out and vote, giving them appropriate information on what their choices were, but really advocating for the students in the town of Whitman and the community as a whole.”
Vice Chair Christopher Scriven joined in those thanks.
“They were out going door-to-door and distributing flyers, giving people information on the project,” he said. “To me, that’s a great example of how, if you get engaged, you can make a difference.”
Chair Beth Stafford says the Alliance members plan to stay involved in other education issues within the district.
Member Dawn Varley credited the Whitman Finance and Capital committees with supporting the project.
“[They] did the outreach, did the work, it was just an outstanding community effort by so many people,” she said, noting that, as students will still be in the current building until the new school is built, air quality in Whitman Middle School will continue to need monitoring.
Byers also said the district business office should continue to inform the residents of the timing and impact of the project on tax rates, as well as the interest rates under which the district will be borrowing and its impact on budgeting.
“It is the school district and our bond rating that goes to the borrowing,” Stafford said.
“We can explain to the borrowers, you’re not going to see a tax increase this year, or probably not next year, because we’re not building anything yet,” Byers said, urging that the public be apprised of that fact as well. “Thats really important that we continue to share the right information.”
The Committee reviewed data from the annual Brockton Area Prevention Collaborative/Whitman-Hanson WILL survey on drug
Anna Dowd of BAPC – the grant-funded entity that supports W-H WILL – said the survey informs the organization on their successes as well as areas where improvement is needed.
They conducted 1,000 surveys of students in grades six to 12. Percentages of 30-day use in middle schools was predicably low, she said, but added the students apparently had a misconception of what was being asked about prescription drug use.
“Our research associates are going to work to tweak that question to make sure it’s more grade-appropriate for the younger ages,” she said.
High schoolers’ responses were similar to that age group across the region, with vaping and marijuana use are higher than other substances, but vaping within ninth grade was the highest seen at 25 percent. Dowd, cautioned that only 55 students had been surveyed.
Where perception of risk is concerned, middle schoolers have the bigger number of responses indicating a moderate to great risk is involved with all four of the substances surveyed, which is very similar to the high school.

By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor [email protected] WHITMAN – The day after the former Peaceful Meadows stand reopened under its new ownership as Hornstra Dairy Farms Ice Cream, the Select Board on Tuesday, Nov. 14 voted to permit contracting a soil survey of town land to identify farmland of local importance. “It’s not just this one particular area of land, through these maps and aerial surveys that they do or cost for this designation,” Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said. “There’s no downside to this.” The town overwhelmingly passed a Right To Farm Bylaw at the Oct. 30 special Town Meeting, which was placed on the warrant because of the Peaceful Meadows auction in which Hornstra Farms was the winning bidder. “With the goal of retaining either an agricultural of a conservation restriction on this property, it would be advantageous to the town to have the designation of ‘Farmland of Local Importance.’” Carter said. “This designation will increase the amount of farmland eligible for federal preservation funding.” The town has the opportunity to contract with a certified professional soil scientist from the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and American Farmland Trust to conduct an aerial soil survey of Whitman to determine if other areas should be designated as farmland of local importance. There is no cost for the survey and no soil testing digs are required. “There is no regulatory association with listing soils as farmland of local importance,” Carter said. “Inventories of important farmland soils do not constitute a designation of any land area to a specific land use. The designation does not affect property tax rates for parcels under Ch. 61A.” It simply increases USDA federal funding eligibility for farmland preservation by recognizing farmland of local importance. “This would be the logical step prior to forming an agricultural commission and I’m requesting permission to engage this [NRSC] service on behalf of the town,” she said. “I think it’s important to say that one of the reasons we want to look at either an agricultural or conservation restriction on this land is so that, if at some point in some point in the future, this [Hornstra] property were to go up for sale again, it would be less stressful than the auction we went through recently,” Board member Justin Evans said. “If there’s an agricultural restriction it has to remain farmland, if there’s a conservation restriction it would have to remain open space or farmland.” The distinction provides leverage for the town. Select Board members also voted to set the 2024 trash rate at Carter’s recommendation of $335 per unit, based on half the impact of the new lowest-bid contract signed with Waste Management. DPW Superintendent Bruce Martin had calculated the fiscal ’24 rate at $338 per unit. The fiscal 2023 rate was $300. The change was an effort to keep it at a $5 increment, coming down $3 instead of going up to $340. Bills go out in mid-November and are due in January. “We do have a senior rate, when you fill out the forms and that is usually $25 less,” said Vice Chair Dan Salvucci. Carter confirmed that figure. To qualify for that $310 rate, one must be 65, own a home and only one $25 discount per household is permitted. While he agreed that the board should approve the discount, Evans said they should bear in mind it is being passed on to the DPW expense line. Last year 345 discounts were approved for a total of $8,625. In other business, the board voted and signed a provisional deputy fire chief contract with Jay Mahoney during an executive session at the beginning of the meeting. They also welcomed two new members of the Whitman Police Department – Robert Hoey and Patrick Hickey. “This is the end of an era when a person interested in policing could attend a part-time police academy and work at a police department to see if the job was a good fit for the officer as well as for the department,” Police Chief Timothy Hanlon said. “There are no part-time academies anymore and no ‘farm teams’ to recruit to the ‘big leagues.’” Hoey was an auxiliary officer from June 2008 to September 2017. “He had served up until now, up to 15 years of service within this department, and he stuck with it until he made it here as a full-time officer,” Hanlon said. Hoey then served as a permanent intermittent – or reserve – officer through Civil Service, until May 2023 when he entered the full-time police academy. He has also worked for the Massasoit Community College Police Department, and had attended the bridge academy established by the Police Reform Law. Hickey was also a reserve officer through Civil Service, attended the bridge academy and the Randolph Academy with Hoey. Both were in the top five of the class academically, with Hoey receiving top honors and finished first. “Both officers have served this community to the best of their ability previously, as part-time officers, and now we welcome them to the noble profession of law enforcement in Whitman as full-time officers,” Hanlon said, noting they are now taking field training and are expected to take shift duty in December.

WHITMAN – The Whitman Middle School building project will be settled by voters at the ballot box on Saturday, Nov. 4 at Whitman Town Hall. The debt exclusion question is the only item on the ballot during voting hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The ballot question would allow the borrowing of the $135 million for the project, minus the $59,159,000 MSBA reimbursement, the MSBA’s required language in a debt exclusion.
A crowd of 336 voters – ony 100 are required for a quorum at special Town Meetings – turned out Monday, Oct. 30 to voice overwhelming support for the project, for which the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), will reimburse the town $59 million. The MSBA had increased its reimbursement by about $13.6 million on Oct. 26, bringing that figure to $76,129,555. The new school is anticipated to last at least 50 years.
Before the MSBA vote, the town’s share was $89 million.
WMS Building Committee Chair, and School Committee member, Fred Small opened the discussion of the project with his thanks for the encouraging turnout, followed by a brief video on the project, narrated by Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak.
Officials opted to borrow for the project based on a level-principal bond, which puts the snapshot of the tax impact for the average taxpayer – which in Whitman is a house valued at $420,530 – at a $1,264.21 increase for the first year calculated on a 5.5-percent interest rate, and gradually declining over the life of the 30-year bond because so much of the interest is paid early. The average bill over the life of the bond is estimated at $860.71. The last payment on that average home would be $502.59.
After 10 years, the town can refinance the bond, according to Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, who said a level interest bond would cost the town another $19 million in interest on the project.
“The most cost-effective way is to go with a level principal,” she said. “This article will simply allow the Whitman Middle School building project to proceed to a ballot question to be ultimately decided by the voters at the special Town Election … Nov. 4.”
That first year’s tax increase would not go into effect until 2027.
Beal Avenue resident Julia Sheehan asked what the cost to the town would be to make repairs alone to the current middle school.
Small said the estimate for repairs alone is about $60 million, none of which is eligible for MSBA reimbursement.
“It would have to be bonded differently,” he said. “It would be a 20-year bond. … Who knows what a project like that would look like? Would it be done in stages? And that’s the town’s responsibility. Period.”
While several residents spoke in favor of the project as a much-needed replacement for a building that was constructed before modern building codes and has been plagued by mold problems in the gymnasium area. The new middle school’s auditorium, while the focus of much discussion Monday, is only one of the details of the plan that is needed for the school’s educational plan. The video also included information on the use of natural daylight and light-weight solar technology to reduce utilities costs, and safety features of the building as well as community use opportunities and small-group learning spaces and concentration of each grade level into its own wing or “neighborhood” to facilitate team teaching and collaboration as well as healthy social interaction between students.
One resident argued that a grade six to eight school without an auditorium would be the more economical way to go. Older residents, especially, voiced concern about the effect the project would have on their taxes – and their ability to stay in their homes.
“We’ve examined one-story, two-stories, three-stories, [grades] five through eight, six through eight, with an auditorium, without an auditorium,” Small said. “The Building Committee has been very diligent in doing a lot of exploring.”
He said when the vote on cutting the auditorium and moving to a grade six through eight school was rejected by the building committee, it could not be reconsidered.
While not a component covered by MSBA reimbursement, several in the audience stressed the importance of an auditorium for the benefit of Whitman’s students.
One mother, who graduated W-H in 2007 and attended both the old and new high schools, recognizes the same challenges of water damage and accessibility issues, as well as failing and insufficient facilities at the current middle school, which her child attends.
“Back when we first started – back when the word COVID meant nothing to anyone we were discussing what the cost of the project would be,” Small said, noting the range as recently as three years ago was $50 million to $80 million. “Costs grew … the will of the committee was an auditorium and a grade five through eight was the most educationally proper and sound project to be putting forward.” At that time, as recently as a year ago, the town’s share was estimated at between $67 million to $73 million.
Whether one favors or opposes the project, Small said it was wrong to suggest that the town doesn’t need a new middle school, because it does.
“It’s disgusting and it’s despicable,” he said of the current conditions at WMS.
Parent Heather Clough of Beulah Street said her son could not attend WMS because the school could not meet his special needs. Building a more accessible and inclusive school could save the district in placement costs, among other issues, she said.
Assistant Superintendent George Ferro, who was principal at WMS for 15 years, said the age span of students in grades five to eight – ages 10 to 14 – is very appropriate to place in the same building.
“If you look at the changes that take place in the human body and the changes that take place in the minds and feelings of students in ages 10 to 14 … at fifth grade, they are too old for their elementary school years,” he said. “That age range of 10 to 14 should be together and that is what research shows.”
He also pointed to Hanson Middle School’s grade five to eight population and the presence of an auditorium in that school.
“We should not deny our children the right … in developing who they are – developing their skills, developing what they want to do,” Ferro said. “We have ball fields. We have turf. … But every single student deserves the right to learn how to express themselves.”
Former Town Administrator Frank Lynam noted the 336 people attending and said there would be about 2,000 citizens able to make that decision at the voting booth.
“I think we would be a lot better off forwarding and giving a larger part of the populace the opportunity to say yes or no,” he said.
Select Board member Shawn Kain said the town’s work with a financial consultant to manage Whitman’s debt.
“Before we make what will be the biggest investment in the town’s history, we should have an understanding of our debt, how we came to be this way and the repercussions, if we do support it, moving forward,” he said.
Both Kain and Small pointed to increased building costs and lower reimbursement that the W-H region received from MSBA – including that this is not a regional project – as to why the project will cost so much more than the high school did in 2007
“With this in mind, we recommended that this be a 30-year bond, not a 20-year bond, to help with our kids,” Kain said. But he also pointed to future debt – the DPW building and a proposal for a building project from South Shore Tech – as things to be aware of when voting on the project, as well as capital needs of other town buildings.
“It’s a difficult decision,” he said. “Two of our strategic priorities are education and finance.”
But Small argued the WMS Building Committee has worked hard to repeat the success of the WHRHS committee.
“It would be my intention [to do] the same as for the high school,” he said. “We came in on time and on budget.”
Carter said the $17.8 million DPW project approved by voters last year calculates out to an added $352.28 on the first year of a 20-year bond for that $420,000 average home taxes – down to $170.39 in the last year. The DPW bond rate is based on the town’s rating, while the school’s borrowing cost will be based on the district’s rating.
Leila Donovan of Old Mansion Lane asked if there was a representative from the assessor’s office present who could provide information on tax abatement programs for residents. Assistant Town Administrator – and former Assessor – Kathleen Keefe said there are programs that can assist elder residents, veterans and blind people in applying for abatements. A call to the Assessor’s Office can offer that help, she said.
Select Board member Laura Howe said the issue has divided the town and this was a decision that should be made in an effort to bring the town together.
“When I make a budget, I make it to be what I can afford,” she said. “I hope … that we all reach out a hand to each other, because there’s nobody in this town that does not like children.”
Finance Committee Chair Rick Anderson said Building Committee Vice Chair Kathleen Ottina, also a FinCom member, has – along with other FinCom members – evaluated the various options and MSBA grant process.
“Following lengthy discussion, the Finance Committee recommends this article unanimously,” he said, while they are also members of the community who pay taxes.
“Our students and educators deserve something better,” he said, pointing to the unanimous consensus of the FinCom, Capital Committee, School Committee and Building Committee in support of the article. “The time to act is tonight.”