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.”

WHITMAN – It’s up to the voters now.
The Whitman Middle School project is one of the 15 articles on the warrant for the Monday, Oct. 30 special Town Meeting at 7:30 p.m., in the Whitman Town Hall auditorium. The $135 million project will now cost the town about $76 million, with the the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) voting on Wednesday morning, Oct. 25 to increase its funding for the project by $14 million — to $59,159,717, according to Building Committee member Kathleen Ottina. The vote lowers the amount the town would pay.
Voters must approve it at both the Town Meeting and a special Town Election held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4 at Town Hall.
School district officials have been holding public informational forums and tours of the Whitman Middle School to demonstrate the need for a new building, with the last one held Saturday, Oct. 21. Beginning in the school’s cafetoruim, the tours included an overview of the MSBA process and determination that “we needed a project,” Building Committee Chair Fred Small said on a Sept. 28 tour [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ti9g2SzvtQ]. Project architects, School Committee and district officials, and former Building Commissioner Bob Curran were on hand to discuss the project.
Videos of the tours are posted on the WHCA-TV YouTube channel for those who were unable to attend one of them.
“We wanted to make sure this got out on cable,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. “[There’s] a lot of information here. It’s going to be pretty detailed.”
The video is also posted on the district website whrsd.org.
The district has had a statement of interest for a new middle school before the MSBA since 2018.
Szymaniak became superintendent in February 2018 and former WMS Principal George Ferro was named assistant superintendent in March 2018.
“By July [2018], when we walked into Central Office, one of our first goals was to get an SOI (statement of interest) for this building because we thought five years before there should have been an SOI and it didn’t happen,” Szymaniak said. “In 2014, there was a major mold issue in the [WMS] gymnasium, similar to what we had a couple years back.”
But discussions about getting a new roof never got off the ground, Szymaniak said. He and Ferro decided their first priority was for it to happen this time, knowing it would take a while.
“Given the history I’ve had with the MSBA, you never get it the first time,” he said of acceptance into the project pipeline. “We wrote the statement of interest, they brought it to the core program, who did a site visit out here and the comments were: ‘Oh, my goodness, this building needs to be fixed. Who’s your facilities director?’”
But, Szymaniak said the facilities department has to do a lot without a lot.
“Rubber bands and paper clips,” he said.
The district was invited to Boston in December 2019 and were accepted.
“First time,” he said. “First run. I was there with people sitting next to me who had been [to MSBA] five times. … I’m nervous about having to reapply somewhere in the future because MSBA is very selective.”
Curran outlined how the town would have to fund repairs without MSBA help, if that choice is made, and once repairs reach 30 percent of the building’s value, code upgrades for fire safety – the school predates the first fire code in 1975 – as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act (1991) apply for the entire building and would increase the cost.
“This building has been a problem since I started,” he said, noting he had been building commissioner in town for 24 years. “This building was never built to be accessible. I don’t think they thought about that much back then.”
A slide presentation illustrated architectural and systems deficiencies of the building as well as for amenities that can bolster academics in a new school, such as the need for small, flexible learning spaces to help students catch up after the pandemic.
The forums also delved into the various options considered by the Building Committee and the financial implications of them.
Other articles on the Town Meeting warrant include:

• Appropriate the sum of $1,143,271.15 for a new DPW building and determine whether funds shall be raised by a transfer from excess funds originally raised for other capital projects;
• A $21,400 wing snowplow for the DPW;
• Portable radio replacement [$9,138.65] for the fire department, from the original appropriation for Whitman’s share of resurfacing the WHRSD track;
• Matching funds for a fire department brush truck [$14,090.72] and a $5,554.29 fire training grant also from the track appropriation remainder.
• A $36,459 municipal fiber technology grant from the balance of unexpended funds from the original appropriation to reimburse WHRSD for a chairlift installation at Duval School;
• A $142,793.60 appropriation from the Cable Access account to fund PEG cable access services;
• Acceptance of Little comfort Circle as a public way; and
• A Right to Farm bylaw.

WHITMAN – Borrowing for the proposed Whitman Middle School will be done through a level principal approach the School Committee voted 8-1 following a joint meeting with the Select Board on Tuesday, Oct. 17.
That approach calls for a larger first-year payment of $8 million – $3 million in principal and $5 million in interest – in order to greatly reduce the annual payments for the rest of the 30-year loan. With a level-debt bond, the town pays $6.2 million not only for the first year of the bond, but for all 30 years.
School Committee Dawn Byers voted no, because, she argued a level-debt structure with even payments was the more affordable option for taxpayers. Member Glen DiGravio was unable to attend the session, which will be rebroadcast on WHCA-TV and posed on its YouTube Channel.
The town must approve the issuance of debt for the Whitman Middle School project at both the special Town Meeting on Monday, Oct. 30 and at the Saturday, Nov. 4 special Election ballot in order for the current MSBA project to move forward.
The town’s share of the $135 million project is $90 million, with the Massachusetts School Building Authority funding $45 million of the cost.
“Understanding that these are not going to be exact numbers because we’re not there yet, we’re trying to give the taxpayers an idea of what’s to be expected to the best of our knowledge,” School Committee Chair Beth Stafford said. “It’s not going to be great and easy either way, but – and I won’t be here for the 30 years, I’m sure – I have to look at the future, too, for the town of Whitman, just as I look at the future for the children with a new school.”
She had initially been in favor of the level-debt structure, but hearing about the savings to the town changed her mind.
“I’ll find a way,” Stafford said.
The School District has also added website, wmsproject.org, providing information, videos, schedules and more about the project.
The $5 million in interest would be the same payment owed in the first year of the bond, but only $1.2 million of the principal would be paid that year under the level debt method.
“Basically, [on the level-principal approach], we’re paying more principal up-front and it’s working the interest down over the life of the loan,” Select Board member Shawn Kain said. “If you add the difference between the two over time, it’s about $19 million difference.” A level-debt bond, in other words, would cost the town an additional $19 million in interest on the life of the bond.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said the cost of that $19 million difference to the average homeowner with an average assessed valuation of $420,530 over the term of the bonds will be $4,385.51 more under a level debt structure than they would under a level principal structure, projected on an estimated rate of 5.5 percent. She stressed that figures discussed are estimates based on $90 million in borrowing with an interest rate of 5.5 percent, on the average assessment on a home valued at $420,530.
“I do not recommend the level debt service structure for the Whitman Middle School project borrowing,” Carter said. “I recommend the level principal structure.”
The town can seek to refinance a bond structure after 10 years, Carter said. Kain noted that after 10 years the principal will have been paid down by about $31 million under a level principal – but only by $17 million under a level debt structure.
“That’s exactly what we did with the high school,” School Committee member Fred Small said. “It saved the towns on the assessment, while not lengthening the term at all.”
Carter said that both the district and the town share the same financial services firm advising them, Unibank, but each works with a different representative. The town’s advisor has stated that he cannot think of any reason why a municipality would choose a level debt structure over a level principal structure for a building construction project due to the “significance in interest,” Carter said.
School Committee member Dawn Byers said she “could think of every reason why we should not go level-principal, because at this moment, every taxpayer probably thinks both options are probably out of reach for them.”
She pointed to her own mortgage, which is level debt for 30 years.
“Maybe that’s not the best practice for municipalities, but we can look at the last decade, and I don’t see that some best practices have been followed here,” she said. “To now want to follow the largest jump, the most significant increase to our neighbors and ourselves, puts this building completely out of reach.”
She argued that a level-debt approach was a more stable approach.
“I’m hopeful the school department will do as it has done in the past and work with the town to choose the more fiscally responsible debt service structure for the Whitman Middle School project borrowing,” she said.
“If approved, the district will be the borrower of the debt for the Whitman Middle School project,” said Carter. “They will be what I consider to be the conduit for the borrowing for this project. The town votes to approve this project and the town votes to pay the debt through an assessment from the W-H Regional School District each fiscal year.”
The town will make the payments as a debt exclusion – debt outside the levy voted by the town, with the district making the payments to the issuer.
Both short-term borrowing called bond anticipation notes (BANs) and long-term borrowing, or bonds, with interest rates for each based on the district’s bond rating, not the town’s.
“It’s your decision to decide but [Stafford] wanted to talk to us about it – to decide which method of borrowing we would use for the new Whitman Middle School,” Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said.
Carter and Kain prepared a presentation about the value of level principal borrowing over level debt borrowing.
“We’re very fortunate to have a town administrator who was a treasurer-collector for a long time,” Kowalski said.
Using information from the financial consultant the town has been working with, Kain outlined the difference between the two borrowing methods.
The Select Board recommended the level-principal method.
“What the level principal means is you take [the rounded-off] $90 million, which is how much you have to borrow and you divide it up into 30 years,” Kain said. “That’s $3 million a year – that’s the level principal.”
In the first year, the town would be paying the interest – at 5.5 percent – is about $5 million for the amount being borrowed. Carter compared a level-debt structure to a fixed mortgage in which, while the debt payment each year remains constant, reducing the early-year principal payback in order to lower principal and interest payments on the front end, but the level of outstanding debt-to-interest costs stay at a higher level, increasing interest costs over the term of the bond.
“Level principal pays of the outstanding principal faster over the term of the bonds and thus reduces interest costs,” she said.
Because the towns payment declines over time, the assessment to each homeowner will decline over time with level principal. Whereas with level debt the Town pays the same amount every year and assesses that amount to the taxpayers. For example (average homeowner with a 420K house) in year one might save $329 with level debt, by year 30 they pay an extra $569.
Stafford said that is a $26 difference between the two bond structures for the first year.
“In the beginning years, you’re paying less with level debt than you are with level principal, just the first 10,” Carter said. “People have to realize that that difference they see when the first year is quoted as a comparison is only in year one.”
By the eleventh year, however, the level debt structure is costing more than the level principal structure.
“With each year, you can see how it’s getting smaller with each year,” Kain said. “The reason it’s getting smaller is because, you’re still paying the $3 million principal, but the interest is getting slightly smaller each year.”
On the last year of the bond, the town would pay only about $3,150,000 in principal and interest to finish off the debt.
With a level-debt bond, the town pays $6.2 million not only for the first year of the bond, but for all 30 years.
“We also have to think about how it’s going to fit in line with some of the other projects,” Kain said of the school borrowing.
A rumor circulating in town, arguing that the school district can “use the next year to redesign the project as a grades six to eight school without an auditorium can stay in the MSBA pipeline” and still receive funding, is not accurate, school officials have stressed in public forums.
The MSBA has confirmed that the project scope and budget are locked in following the board’s approval and that the MSBA has never allowed a district to substantially change a project after a failed vote or continued a project to move forward under the same statement of interest. If a debt exclusion ballot vote fails the district has 10 days to update the MSBA on the failed vote and any re-vote must be for the same project.
The district would have to submit a new statement of interest and begin the MSBA process over again, with any changes or build any alternative plan at the district’s expense with no MSBA reimbursement.