Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak has announced with deep regret Wednesday, May 31 that a Whitman-Hanson Regional High School student died Tuesday night.

The name of the student has not been released out of respect for the family and no other information is available at this time.

A person described as a juvenile female was killed by a train Tuesday night, May 30, according to a statement released by Whitman Police and Fire Departments.  

MBTA Transit Police notified Whitman Police at about 8:30 p.m. that the crash occurred in Whitman involving a southbound train, which possibly struck a pedestrian on the tracks.

Whitman Police and Fire responded to the scene, where the victim was pronounced deceased.

Police officials also said the victim’s name was being withheld at this time.

“We are all tremendously saddened to hear of this tragic loss,” Szymaniak said in a statement issued through John Guilfoil Public Relations, which also handled press releases on the incident from police and fire officials. “Our thoughts and condolences go out to the family and friends of the students and all those who knew them. We also extend our condolences to our friends at East Bridgewater High School, who were also affected by this tragedy.”

Whitman Police Chief Timothy Hanlon and Whitman Fire Chief Timothy Clancy also extended their condolences to the family.

Grief counselors are available and will remain available in the coming weeks to assist students and staff as the school district mourns and for anyone needing their services.

Szymaniak said the district encourages students and the school community to talk to counselors, faculty and parents, as this tragedy is sure to raise emotions, concerns and questions for us all.

Additional resources for students and families relating to gried and loss can be found at cdc.gov/howrightnow/resources/coping-with-grief, courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, and nea.org/professional-excellence/student-engagement/tools-tips/grief-and-loss-resources-educators-and-students, courtesy of the National Education Association.

Mass. State Police detectives, MBTA Transit Police, Hanson Police, East Bridgewater Police and the Whitman Department of Public Works also responded to the scene.

The crash is under investigation by Mass. State Police detectives assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office and MBTA Transit Police.

On an election day notable for a light turnout and a rainy afternoon, voters in Whitman and Hanson sent something of a divided message at the ballot box – returning some incumbents in contested Select Board races, and opting for a change in one Whitman post. The town also approved a debt exclusion for a new DPW building, but opted to keep the Treasurer-Collector position an elected, rather than an appointed one.
Incumbent Select Board Chair Randy LaMattina, who had been the subject of other town office holders’ damaging comments during board public comment periods over the past few months, as well as a campaign of “slander” on a private Facebook account, lost out in a four-way race for two seats on Whitman’s Select Board.
Fellow incumbent Dr. Carl Kowalski was the top vote-getter with 605 votes. Animal Control Officer Laura Howe, was next with 502, to take the other seat up for votes. LaMattina Garnered 441 and Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly received 437 votes.
In Hanson, Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett won re-election in an extremely light turnout of 463 voters, receiving 291 votes in a three-way contest for two seats. Newcomer David George received 234 votes to also gain a seat on the board, and fellow freshman candidate Thomas Chambers received 176 votes
“I think it’s going to be a competitive race, “LaMattina said while doing some sign-holding Saturday morning. “You run on what you’ve done or want to do, you don’t run on slandering people.”
He pointed to concern over where their tax dollars are going was the main issue voters he spoke to mentioned.
“That’s going to be a challenge, obviously, with big projects on the horizon,” he said.
LaMattina said Monday that, while the loss was bittersweet, he accepted it without reservation.
“It stings to lose because the town means a lot to me,” he said. “But it’s politics. … The town voted, I accept it and our family will still try to contribute as much as we can to the town.
“Four people took some votes from me,” he said. “[Residents] obviously bullet-voted, because there were a lot of blanks. … I don’t mind losing, but I do mind losing to lies, slander and innuendo.”
A Facebook campaign on a private page had been spreading misinformation about his wife and daughter – including where his daughter attends school – and charging that the Select Board was corrupt, he said.
“It was all on Facebook,” he said. “It’s fine for people to disagree with you … it was just attacks on me.”
LaMattina said he knew his pushback against the school district on the budget issue would cost him votes, but he said he felt it was the right thing to do.
I am very happy that Carl got in,” he said.
Kowalski said that, while optimistic, he never knows how the voters will cast their ballots.
“There are people who would like change,” he said. “Change isn’t always as good as a rest.”
Kowalski expressed gratitude to Whitman residents for his re-election.
“I will work hard to have thus earned their trust over what may be a difficult period of time,” he stated. “Of course, I will miss having Randy LaMattina with me, for he was an extremely hard-working and talented Board member and chair, but I am sure that Laura Howe will work equally hard to fill his shoes.”
He said he was thrilled that the DPW question was passed and eager to work for the passing of the Whitman Middle School project when it comes up next fall.
Connolly, for her part, said she was running to inform the public more than in hopes of winning an election. She wanted to “get out there and talk honestly about [town] finances, something that’s not happening at the selectmen level,” she also said there is so little engagement between the public and the Finance Committee.
Howe said she plans to work on a website for herself as a member of the Select Board, as well as an animal control page on Facebook, putting the link on Whitman Pride and unfriending that group.
“I am honored and moved to represent the community that I hold so dear,” she said. “I am optimistic that together we will bring forth new ideas in a ever changing world and cement a strong foundation for the future of our community.”
“I feel things that have happened there should not be accepted or appreciated as a kind caring honest wife mother grandmother Animal Control Officer and, gratefully, now selectman,” she said.
In Hanson, the big story was a small number – that of the handful or voters who cast ballots Saturday.
“I’m really hoping that we get some good turnout,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said Saturday morning. “Things, so far, seem to be very slow. We don’t have any ballot questions [and] there’s not any hotly contested races. … I’m just hoping that people show up, because your vote counts in a town this size, and this is the type of election where people could be decided by a handful of votes.”
She said Monday that she was grateful for the voters’ support and indicated that town finances are the first
“I think I’m going to do OK,” George said. He said most of his conversations with voters have been about money and town finances.
In Hanson, there was some spirit of bipartisanship going on outside the Hanson Middle School polling place as Select Board challenger Tom Chambers helped Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett and her husband raise a pop-up tent against rain predicted later in the day.
“I look forward to working with the Select Board and keeping Hanson a great town to live in,” George said of his win Monday.
Candidates in both towns were out holding signs in the morning expressed nervous hope about the day’s result.
“I’ll wait until the end of the day,” Chambers said. “I’m not going to make a prediction.”
He said he’s been researching the state’s 40B regulations in preparation for his hope of winning a seat, as voters had been talking to him about it.
“Once I sink my teeth into something, once I find an issue, I’ll research it up and down, 110 percent and make my decision based on what’s most beneficial to the town.”
DPW Commission Chair Kevin Cleary was grateful for the support from the Select Board and other town boards as well as the members of the police and fire departments, but added it is always hard to predict what voters will do.
“They all support us,” he said of the town officials and public safety rank and file, noting that social media was a bigger tool this time out than it was the last time a DPW building went on the ballot in 2013. “We did a better job of getting out there with the website, getting information [ to voters]. Just grassroots.”
He credited the website as being a valuable tool.
“I am proud of the residents of the Town for understanding the important duties that the DPW performs and the need to provide the employees with a new facility that will have the basic features that will allow them to continue to serve our community, DPW Commissioner Kevin Cleary said. “I would like to thank the DPW Commissioners, the DPW building committee, and the DPW employees for their hard work in getting the project approved.  Thank you to everyone that stood out in the rain on election day to support the project. I would also like to thank the other town departments and our town leaders for supporting the project. We look forward to opening a new facility in the Fall of 2024.”
School Committee hopeful Kevin Mayer, who was waging a campaign for a “common sense” approach to education, garnered 447 to come in third after incumbent winners Steven Bois – with 594 votes—and David Forth – with 475 votes – to represent Whitman on the W-H School Committee. A fourth candidate, Kaitlin Barton, received 353 votes.
“I want to keep it basic – more common sense,” Mayer said of his campaign themes. “I’d like to see the schools start to get more involved in some career-driven stuff, too. You don’t always have to push college.”
He said the days of encouraging very high school student to go to college are over.
“You can make more money in the trades than you can make, a lot of times, getting out of school,” he said.
Mayer said he sees the fallout from that in his fence company, where finding employees is hard as students, pushed to obtain degrees they’re not using might be hesitant to take a job outside of their major subject.
“I like giving back to the town,” he said. “I own a business here, I grew up in Hanson. To get involved is always nice.”
Whitman Town Clerk Dawn Varley said early and absentee votes had been light, as well.
“I think it’ll be an average turnout,” Varley said during the first hour of voting Saturday. There had been under 100 absentee and only four early votes cast ahead of Election Day itself. She estimated that about 1,300 votes would be cast. By the end of the day 1,113 votes had been cast, about 10 percent of the 11,213 registered votes in town.
“They were lined up early this morning,” she said. “Usually, there’s only a couple, but there were quite a few people here. The weather might play a big part – there’s a lot of factors. … What I do think is unusual is that, politically, it’s been quiet. There’s not a lot of signs. … It’s quiet for two heavily contested races.”
Hanson Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan said there were only 86 ballots cast in three days of early voting last week.
“It is very disappointing,” she said. “We’ll be surprised if we get even 1,00 today, total, with early voting.”

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

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

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

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

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

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