Officials unveil level-service plan, make case for ‘Student Success’ budget

As promised, the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District rolled out two budget proposals during the Wednesday, Feb. 3 School Committee public hearing on the fiscal 2017 budget.

A $45,714,344 level-service budget, already reflecting a $1,388,214 deficit due to increases in fixed costs, was outlined by line item, followed by the review of three goals that would be incorporated in a “Student Success” budget that would add $3 million to the bottom line.

What form the budget will ultimately take will be decided by the School Committee in the coming weeks.

The current fiscal 2016 budget of $45,688,067 had been increased only .01 percent — reflecting an increase in local assessments of 3 percent, or about $500,000.

Several officials from both towns’ select boards and finance committees were joined by the district’s state legislators and dozens of educators and concerned parents at the annual budget presentation.

“I have in front of me a stack of letters from constituents of the School District to all of us,” School Committee Chairman Robert Hayes told his members. “I also had come to the district a stack of letters from a second grade group of students talking about restoring libraries. We’re hearing you. We’re going to be discussing it.”

He implored concerned residents to attend meetings during which the budget is discussed.

“We believe in education, that’s why we’re on this board,” he said.

The budget is available online at whrsd.org along with information on state Chapter 70 aid reviewed by Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) representative Melissa King.

Whitman is currently 8.5 percent — or $1,322,998 — short of the target share sought by the state in its Chapter 70 calculations. Hanson is 5.21 percent below target share — $1,170,654.

Two Whitman residents urged adoption of the student success budget.

“I think the students deserve that,” one resident said. “They’ve lost a good amount of things over the years.”

“Our kids deserve every last bit of this,” Marshall Ottina said. “How can we, in any good conscience, not vote for this $3 million?”

“This is the beginning of the budget process for the district,” said Hayes in his introduction to the hearing. “The superintendent meets with the leadership team and they go over and present the budget and formulate what you have in front of you. This is the first night.”

He stressed that the final budget may not end up looking “anywhere near” the presentation as the committee works toward a vote on a spending plan for fiscal year 2017. That vote must come in mid-March, 45 days before the town meetings.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner made the budget presentation, beginning with an overview and historical background. She then discussed grants/other funding sources, revenue and the budget proposals in turn, pausing for questions as they came up.

“This has been a long process, and probably one of the most challenging ones we’ve done,” Gilbert-Whitner said. “It’s going to cost 2.25 percent — or approximately $1.1 million — more just to do the same thing [as in fiscal 2016].”

The average per-pupil spending statewide, according to DESE, is $14,518 (fiscal 2013-14), but W-H spends $11,126 per pupil — 10^th from the bottom, she noted.

Perceptions

“I think we do a great job in this district in terms of getting a lot out of a dollar,” Gilbert-Whitner said of the student success budget proposal. “But there’s a lot we’re not doing. For many years we’ve been told W-H cries wolf because we’re getting good results and, darn it, look what they can do. But this year we couldn’t fix it.”

The “three pillars” of the proposal — healthy bodies/healthy minds, a cohesive prekindergarten to grade 12 system and safe/secure schools — include budgeting $500,000 toward reducing elementary class size, $400,000 to implement free all-day kindergarten, $320,000 to restore the library program, $240,000 to replace the grant funding the elementary science curriculum, $70,000 for middle school foreign language programs and about $170,000 for music and art, among other line items.

Professional development expenditures have declined to $35.17 per pupil, vs. a state average of $217.34. Enrollment had also been declining in recent years, but has begun to stabilize. One lower-than-average expenditure Gilbert-Whitner highlighted was administrative costs — 2.77 percent of the budget. The state average is $500.15 per pupil, while W-H spends $314.81.

“We often hear in the district that people think we are administration-heavy,” she said. “We put our money into classroom and specialist teachers.”  [W-H is at $4,437.61 per pupil with the state average $5,441.36.]

Grants augment revenue in several key programs, but some the district receives are expiring and competition for some others is becoming more keen.

“There aren’t nearly as many grant opportunities available, but we certainly need them,” Gilbert-Whitner said. “We are funding 81 positions outside of the LEA budget.”

School Choice, accepted for high school students only and bringing in $5,000 per student from sending districts, funds programs for that school only. WHRHS is using the funds to hire the teachers needed to help implement a schedule and program of studies change next year.

Hayes vehemently denied rumors that the high school recruits school choice students. It is also against MIAA rules.

The bulk of revenue, however, comes from Chapter 70 and local aid funds.

State representatives Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, and Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, as well as state Sen. Mike Brady, D-Brockton, have signed onto a letter to the House and Senate Ways & Means committees seeking an increase in the Chapter 70 funding formula. The increase would change the minimum aid increment from $20 to $50 per pupil. It was $25 per pupil last year.

“It’s a protection,” Diehl said. “Chapter 70 is a formula because it protects those funds from being politicized.”

That said, he noted legislators on both sides of the aisle recognize more funds are needed. Diehl also credited Cutler for his networking on behalf of regional schools on Beacon Hill.

“We try to bump up the numbers wherever we have the ability to do so,” Cutler said about the minimum aid. “It is something we are all in unison on.”

Brady said the school budget funding formula is reviewed every year.

“But at the end of the day, we have to balance the budget,” he said. “In the meantime, we can try to file any amendments you’d like to try to adjust the budget.
Projected revenue for the WHRSD level service budget now stands at $45,326,130 with no assessment increases from the towns other than to account for population shifts.

Debt payments for the high school are about $100,000 lower for the towns after a refinance in June.

Non-mandated transportation assessments in the FY 2017 budget are $351,012 for Whitman and $96,280 for Hanson — also calculated by enrollment, a figure that also drives local assessment calculations.

Organized by school, the FY 2017 level service budget line items show, for example, that elementary principals’ travel and supplies funds were eliminated and teacher salary changes reflect contract or status changes and any use of revolving funds. District expenses also reflect changes in debt service and reductions in legal fees not needed after teacher contract negotiations concluded.

Still keeping her Hanson hometown near to her heart, Kristen Merlin will be home in just a few days to perform after her recent move.  She is settled in Nashville, after relocating this fall, where she said she is deeply immersed in writing and defining her musical profession.

Kristen Merlin has moved to Nashville, to further her music career. Photo courtesy www.kristenmerlin.com

“As much as I love the adventure of playing original music, I truly miss my hometown fans and their energy,” she said. “I’m looking   forward to experiencing that again at the ‘Country Voices Collide’ concert on Jan. 23 at Plymouth’s Memorial Hall.”

Merlin who will perform at the all-ages show with a full band plans to entertain with her originals from her CD, “Boomerang,” as well as all the fan favorites.

She is anticipating playing her new originals and giving fans a taste of what she has been accomplishing in Nashville.

She regularly participates in writers’ rounds, usually attending two writes a day for several hours with other artists and writers.

“It is a great night of networking and a new sense of adventure for me,” she said.

Merlin has always wanted to take her talents to the next level with her original music.

In an interview with the Express less than two years ago Merlin said becoming known for her own music was her ultimate dream.

“On a national scale I hope for my own words and music to be impressing to others,” she said in 2015.

Merlin has proved time and again that she can belt out all genres of music and has demonstrated her vocal strength in her cover shows developing a fan following on the east coast.

Discovering new stomping grounds, she has been performing before live audiences at some recognizable pubs in Nashville — The Listening room, The Dawghouse Saloon, Tin Roof Bar, known for its laid back style and live music sets, and the Pour House to name a few.

“It’s nice to have fans come to listen to your original material,” she said. “The Listening room has certain nights dedicated for musicians to showcase their talents. I have been performing and writing. It’s been busy.”

The move to Nashville was a worthy choice as she was continuously traveling back and forth.

“I can be a lot more productive while I am here. It felt like the right time to make that next step to be full-time in Nashville,” she said.

She was exhilarated to recently co–write with Lance Carpenter, a well-known songwriter who penned “Love Me Like You Mean It,” performed by rising pop-country singer Kelsea Ballerini.

Over the Christmas holiday Merlin performed with “Country Girls in the City” at Loretta’s Last Call in Boston.  The group was combined with regulars who perform in the group: New England to Nashville.

“We played to a packed house,” she said.

Merlin’s last all ages show, which was jammed with hometown fans and friends was at the annual Marshfield Fair last summer.

She recently became part of the McPherson guitars family last year and is endorsed by Kevin Michael carbon fiber guitars. The guitar is made of carbon fiber and is unlike any wood guitar.

“The McPherson guitars caught my attention with the Kevin Michael line. It has become one of my new favorite toys.  The sounds that I can get out of this guitar are beautiful,” she said.

The process of writing sometimes is built on a single word or hook.  With her ear trained on sounds, for Merlin, writing rounds are often inspired by simple conversation.

“Something usually jumps out. Listening and working with different writers has brought diverse experiences in each session and each level is a step towards creating a song,” she said.

Honed in on her writing she is motivated to challenge herself and steadily evolve musically.

Merlin recently sat and wrote with Jake Worthington runner up on NBC’s “The Voice: Season Six.”      

“He’s a friend first, and fellow musician. I enjoy trading stories . . . checking in and seeing his path musically,” she said.  “Each one of us is still taking the journey she said of her fellow Voice competitors. Merlin progressed to the top five on Team Shakira on NBC’s Season Six in 2014.

MSBA denies Hanson Maquan funds

HANSON — The question of what to do with Hanson and Whitman school facilities is taking on a new urgency now that the Massachusetts School Building Authority has declined Hanson’s most recent application for financial and technical assistance for a Maquan School redevelopment project.

The School Committee plans to meet on Wednesday, Jan. 13 to identify priorities and plans for school buildings and programs, and consider drafting a new statement of interest seeking state assistance.

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. in the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School library. State representatives Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, and Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, as well as state Sen. Michael Brady, D-Brockton, will attend. The meeting will focus on state education funding, said Whitman-Hanson Regional School Committee Robert Hayes.

Hanson selectmen plan to attend. Selectman Kenneth Mitchell suggested a joint meeting for the school and select boards, and said Hanson Selectmen could vote at the Jan. 13 meeting to submit whatever statement of interest results from the meeting.

Hayes, who attended the Tuesday, Jan. 5 Hanson selectmen meeting, said there has been some discussion of shelving plans for the Maquan School and instead seeking assistance for putting an addition onto the Indian Head School, although nothing is etched in stone. The last project that failed was to combine the Indian Head and Maquan schools.

“You have to submit a statement of interest. It’s a very lengthy process,” he said. “There are definitely no guarantees.”

Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young said nothing has changed with the Maquan School building except that problems there are now a couple of years older.

Young said the statement of interest starts the process of getting assistance, but nothing is guaranteed.

“This is the foot in the door,” he said.

In a Dec. 18 letter to school Superintendent Ruth Gilbert-Whitner, the school building thanked the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District for their interest in the state’s 2015 statement of interest (SOI) grant program for school building construction, renovation and repair.

The MSBA fielded 97 statements of interest from 67 school districts last year for consideration.

“In reviewing SOIs, the MSBA identifies the school facilities that have the greatest and most urgent need based on an assessment of the entire cohort of SOIs that are received for consideration each year,” reads the letter, signed by MSBA Chief Executive Officer Maureen G. Valente and Executive Director/Deputy CEO John K. McCarthy.

“Through the MSBA’s due diligence process and review of the 97 SOIs that we received for consideration in 2015, the MSBA has determined that the Maquan Elementary School SOI will not be invited into the MSBA’s Eligibility Period at this time,” the letter states.

Selectman James McGahan said he wanted a more specific reason in the letter for why the regional school district did not get MSBA approval for the Maquan School project.

Three or four years ago, the town applied to the MSBA for the project and got approval, yet the town did not get approval for it this time, McGahan said.

Hayes said the MSBA letter indicated that the regional school district, if they would like for the Maquan School to be considered for future collaboration with the MSBA, should file a new statement of interest for 2016. The MSBA was scheduled to start accepting SOIs on Jan. 8.

“The letter is somewhat vanilla, but they say they are still interested,” Hayes said. “There’s only so much money to go around.”

Hanson resident John Barata asked if the state’s denial of Maquan School application in 2015 had to do with the town voting down funding for the school project.

Hayes said the MSBA is not supposed to look at past projects and is supposed to look at each project as it comes.

“They have to go on need,” he said.

Young said the MSBA would not hold a grudge against Hanson.

Not all of the school building news Tuesday was bad.

Hayes told selectmen that final costs connected to the Indian Head School came in under contractors’ estimates. As a result, a $645,290 contract will be decreased by $4,510.

Hanson will see an additional savings of $3,500 for seeding and loaming in connection with the roof project, Hayes said.

Interim Town Administrator Richard LaCamera said the school department has submitted a $5million capital request for next year, which, he added, realistically is impossible to fund.

LaCamera said Town Meeting is going to come very quickly, and the capital improvement and finance committees as well as his office need more information on what should be done, and how town capital funding next year would be affected by an MSBA grant application.

“What are we supposed to be doing?” he said.

Hayes said the school district still has the responsibility to address and fund capital needs, regardless of MSBA approval, and that Whitman-Hanson maintains a matrix or list of capital needs.

LaCamera said this year’s school capital request lists a number of items with notes that architects and engineers would need to do studies to estimate project costs, itself an expense.

Hayes said the School Committee planned to discuss and prioritize capital needs items at the next meeting.

Hanson resident Leigh-Ann Silva asked how the credit from the Indian Head project would be re-allocated, and suggested that voters at Town Meeting draw from it for architectural and engineering studies to estimate at least some of the school capital need costs for next year.

Hayes said the credit would be returned to the town, and LaCamera said money for one project cannot be reallocated to another unless Town Meeting approves.

Hanson resident Kimberly King praised school and town officers for working well together to accomplish the Indian Head school building project. King said this time, Hanson should think about not just an addition to the Indian Head School, but maybe looking into an addition at the middle school.

McGahan said there is an idea being floated, though generally not well received, for a regional middle school.

“All of these options will be vetted out,” he said.

In other business, Selectmen tabled and took under advisement a request by Green Harbor Dispensary for a letter of approval or non-opposition and, ultimately, a special permit from Hanson to open a medical marijuana dispensary and/or cultivation site in Hanson, perhaps on Winter Street near the Hanover line.

In a Dec. 23 letter to board Chairman Young, Robert Schnibbe, chief executive officer of the Green Harbor Dispensary, said the dispensary hopes to be invited to have an opportunity to present their program to town administration and selectmen, as the special permitting process moves forward.

“The Green Harbor Dispensary has an impressive management team, a comprehensive security solution and well thought out vision for our dispensary. Our team is composed of business professionals that live and work in the immediate area and are committed to being responsible corporate citizens and good neighbors,” states the letter, signed by Schnibbe.

Young said Green Harbor would be a first in Hanson and that selectmen act as the licensing authority for licensing medical marijuana facilities.

LaCamera said the town would need to negotiate a payment in lieu of taxes agreement, as Green Harbor is a non-profit organization and non-taxable.

The dispensary must still apply for a special permit and go through the zoning Board of Appeals, he said.

Hanson author writes about Boston El trains

HANSON — For Hanson resident Lawrence D. Mills, retirement has literally opened a new chapter in his life — several of them in fact — as he recently completed work on a book saluting Boston’s erstwhile elevated train system.

The book [“Main Line Elevated,” Xlibris, 83 pages, hardcover $61.99/large format paperback, $51.99/E-book, $24.99] is not a history, but rather a photo essay of the last years of Boston’s Main Line elevated train.

“It describes what it was like to see and use this transportation on one of the heaviest transit lines in the city of Boston,” Mills states in his promotional materials.

The elevated trains also afforded the chance for Mills and his sister to spend hours of locomotive and people watching at Dudley Station from a display window in Roxbury’s Ferdinand’s Furniture Store where his parents met on the job and his father worked again after WWII.

The Charlestown elevated route ended in 1975, followed by the one in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain in 1987, and “there are adults today that never saw it” he said of his reason for doing the book.

“It’s a way to see what life was like in those days because you see everything — the cars, the way people dressed, the ads — the whole business,” he said. “My view has always been that these pictures don’t do any good sitting in a closet. They should be where people can see them.”

While he never worked for a railroad or the MBTA, Mills continued his lifelong interest in railroads and transit systems during his military service, which included postings in Germany, and during a career with the Federal Protective Service, which protects federal buildings, for more than 35 years. His FPS service was largely in Boston and other New England sites.

“I’ve had this as a hobby all my life,” he said of his collection of El photographs. A book he bought about the Third Avenue Line in New York City provided the spur to create his own book.

Most of the photos are his from a personal collection dating back to 1964, except for a half dozen from Rockland resident George Jason, a few from a retired Boston Fire Lt. Jim Teed and some black white photos from Mills’ father Thomas.

“This was something I have been thinking about for years and when I retired, we sat down and [decided to] do it,” he said. His wife Michele, a former librarian, used her expertise and connections to find Xlibris, a self-publishing firm in Bloomington, Ind.

“The quality of the book turned out well,” he said. “I was impressed with that.”

Mills had done all the scanning and layout of photos on his home computer.

“That’s one of the good things about his pictures, he has all the old cars, the old buildings, the old signs,” Michele said. “They’re historic.”

Mills plans to make appearances at train and hobby shows — such as one held in Springfield next month — as his primary merchandising avenue, but the book is also available online via Barnes & Noble and Amazon and at rail museums.

Michele noted that the book will also be in The Library Journal so town libraries and special libraries may purchase it if they wish.

The book provided Mills with a project during last winter’s worst weather. He is now looking toward the next project while he continues interest in trains.

Even his move from Brookline to Hanson hinged on the Commuter Rail service, as his job did not initially include a “take home” vehicle.

“It was a convenient commute and they were building the area up,” he said.

“We worked together on the house,” Michele said. “Larry told me what he wanted and I worked with Jack Conway himself [to design it].”

Conway had been a friend of her family in Cohasset for years.

Dance show aids Whitman food pantry

The Dance Dimension School of Dance and Theatre of Whitman held its annual winter showcase at Whitman Hanson High School on Saturday evening.

HOLIDAY DREAMS: Students from Whitman’s Dance Dimension School of Dance and Theatre perform a number costumed in holiday PJs during the annual winter showcase Dec. 12. Photo by Stephanie Spyropoulos.

Collectively they raised $1,300, which was presented in a check by Owner and Director Laurie Healey to Bruce Perry for the Whitman food pantry at the start of the event and more than 100 pounds of food were donated for the pantry during the event.

There were 25 to 30 toys donated to the Whitman area toy drive through the efforts of the Whitman Hanson drama club. Along with the dance teams several vocal soloists from WH drama club, and chorus performed an array of holiday musical arrangements.

Mrs. Claus was portrayed by a local woman who volunteered her time for the event after overhearing the director talking about it.

“Our hope is to continue to grow this (event) into other performance groups and people in our community. It is such a great town we live in,” said Laurie Healey’s husband and school co-owner Mike Healey.

— Stephanie Spyropoulos