They’ve experienced a lot in the last four years – a lot of it pandemic-related – lost dances, remote classes, ever-changing masking policies and a feeling of isolation, but the Class of 2024 emerged from the other side stronger, more resilient and more committed to community and connected to classmates, some of whom they didn’t even know four years ago.
They’ve grown up and are ready to face an uncertain future in a changing world, finding inspiration from the poetry, music and dramas of their youths.
In her welcoming address, Class President Emily Diehl of Whitman compared it to the experience of meeting a new friend from Hanson on the first day of their freshman year, neither one sure they were headed to the correct classroom, but they bonded in that moment and became best friends.
“The story of Makenna [Marshall] and me is the story of every graduating Senior who has since become friends with others from the opposite town,” Diehl said. “Together we have not only shared a physical building but have also shared an incredible journey, filled with many amazing activities and memories.”
She credited the very nature of W-H being a regional high school with having that effect, as wonder about the others from the town next door led to real connections, underscoring the thought with mention of the poem, “The Cookie Thief,” about a woman in an airport who thought she was sharing her bag of cookies with a stranger, and upset when he took the last one – only to later discover he had shared his cookies with her.
“With an eye towards future endeavors ahead, it is crucial to recognize the importance of sharing,” she said. “Whether it’s an idea, a helping hand, a smile or even a cookie, we are truly fulfilled when we share, selflessly, with others.”
For Valedictorian Ainsleigh Cobis, the 12 years the Class of 2024 has spent in school has been but a few moments in the morning of the rest of their lives, and recalled a line from her mom’s favorite movie, “Hope Floats:” : “Begingings are usually scary and endings are usually sad, but it is what is in the middle that counts”.
She related how her decision to try to become valedictorian at age 15 was an uncertain step for her, not knowing how she might feel when, and if she reached that goal, and found that going on the journey may have been the most satisfying part of it all, even as she starts another journey in the fall at Harvard College.
“Class of 2024, this is your beginning. Reach for goals that appear to have an enticing journey, not just a rewarding end, because “it’s what’s in the middle that counts,’” she said, noting that selecting an AP psychology course was another journey – into the unexpected – which led her to her passion and discovery that being a psychologist was her career goal.
“Pick goals that seem appealing, but consider how you’re going to feel, who you are going to meet, and your opportunity for growth in the middle, because that’s what counts.” she said. “So the clock reads 5:30 a.m. Class of 2024, this is your sunrise. What are you going to do with your day?”
Salutatorian Nicole Donato, also found inspiration in the arts, leaning on the lyrics from songs by Fall Out Boy, which pointed her in a direction of self-acceptance and independence. When they sang “You are what you love, not who loves you.”
“Choosing to lead yourself outside the crowd will leave you free to be yourself, and free to make your own decisions,” she said. “In the end, it doesn’t matter what anybody thinks of you, because the only person everyone is thinking of is themselves. Trust me, nobody cares what you do or what you think, and that is a good thing. Be yourself, even if nobody else agrees.
“I hope you all choose to become your own leader.
“Lead yourselves into your careers, your higher education, or any other crazy dream you have. Don’t succumb to the pressures put on you by anybody, just be you. Just do it. We spent years being self-conscious teenagers, and now it’s time to be confident and strong adults.”
Student speaker Grace Cosgrave, who won the annual speech competition to address her classmates, looked to a favorite TV show for her message, describing the uncertainty fans of “Impractical Jokers” felt when two favorite cast members departed. But noted that learning to expect the unexpected has its rewards.
“As we embark on our individual journeys, and high school becomes just a distant memory, let us carry the spirit of friendship that has defined our time here,” she said. “May we continue to celebrate each other’s successes, lift each other up in times of need, and always cherish the bond that unites us as close as the ‘Impractical Jokers’ are.”
Wrapping up the speakers’ program, School Committee Chair Beth Stafford, Principal Dr. Christopher Jones and Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak offered the advice of their experience, before the highest awards and diplomas were bestowed on the class.
“I think a word that describes this class is ‘Caring,” Stafford said. “So many of you are involved with helping each other and yourselves. You took a tragedy and started a chapter of Active Minds. … You belong to other groups, Best Buddies, Unified Sports, LGBTQ and many other inclusive groups. You look out for each other.”
She said it is a trait not always learned through education and since it has worked its way into their lives, she challenged them to keep it going.
“Relationships shape us into the people we are,” Szymaniak said, describing the Class of 2024 as inclusive, gracious, accomplished and kind. “Relationships you have developed and are committed to will last long after … all the pomp and circumstance of tonight … I hope you become the best human being you can be.”
Jones offered some non-academic pointers he referred to as “other things” the class would need to know: forces beyond your control may take away all you own except your freedom to decide how you respond; and don’t aim at success. It should be an unintended consequence of dedication to what one cares most about.
“Success in life is mostly about control, who has it and what they do with it,” he said. “The rest is about the consistent small steps that keep you moving forward, regardless of any failures along the way. .. Be who you want to be, not what other define for you,”
SST plan moves ahead
HANOVER – South Shore Tech School Committee, meeting with the Building Committee has hired a construction management firm, Suffolk Construction of Boston, and met some of the firm’s principals at its Wednesday, May 22 meeting.
Kevin Sullivan also joined the project management team from LeftField while Jen Carlson is out on maternity leave. Sullivan updated the two committees – which overlap in membership – on CMS work, the availability of feasibility funds and plan updates.
Suffolk Construction was selected from five firms interviewing on May 9 for the contract, which was recommended by the Building Subcommittee, May 10. based on scoring made based on the five firms’ proposals, the interview and price proposals: Consigli Construction, Gilbane, Turner and Lee Kennedy construction firms were also interviewed.
“There were some very talented firms showing interest in our school project and it was a very deliberate process,” said Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey who served on the subcommittee panel conducting the interviews as well as members Robert Mallo and Robert Mahoney, along with representatives from leftfield and architectural firm DRA. “I’m happy right at this point to move this process forward.”
The Building Committee voted in favor of the construction management contract award to Suffolk Construction on Wednesday, May 22, making it official with an 11-0 vote. The contract carries $50,000 for schematic design from feasibility study funds and $268,826 for pre-construction costs from general conditions fees.
Hickey said contract negotiations may include minor changes the committee will plan in deference to any changes deemed necessary the school district’s legal counsel to review the state’s contract template.
The School Committee later voted to finalize the Jan. 26 election date in member towns on the MSBA school project, before shifting back into the Building Committee session.
Sullivan then reviewed the funds paid out on the project so far and updated the committee on the budget as members approved of $67,540 for a contract amendment within the budget regarding work being done in the schematic design phase of the feasibility study, including a traffic analysis and geotechnical services regarding soil samples where the new school would go. He noted that 79 percent of the feasibility studies budget has been committed and 52 percent of those funds expended so far, expecting to stay within the feasibility budget and have $210,228 left over when the work in this phase is complete.
“We’re confident that we’ve stayed within budget and will continue to do so,” he said.
The MSBA schedule will require the schematic design report to be submitted there by Aug. 29 and a budget turned in by mid-August. MSBA will review the information at its October board meeting.
“This project will be complying with the new, very strict energy code, sort of going above and beyond, too,” Sullivan said of plans surrounding the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. “Not only will it produce an energy-efficient building with low operating costs going forward for the district, which is great, but also initially it will allow the district to receive 4 percent more in reimbursement from MSBA.”
To provide an illustration of how important that is, Sullivan used the example of a $20 million project, which would increase the MSBA reimbursement by $8 million. The project would also be in line for receiving significant utility company rebates as part of state and federal incentive programs.
“That’s not factored into the equation yet,” he said, noting that they are communicating with the state program and National Grid to ensure that the company will comply.
The all-electric powered building will mean it would produce little fossil fuel impact to the environment while being more efficient. Solar panels on the roof could be a part of that.
“We’re certainly making the entire building solar-ready,” he said.
Shop design will include lockers for all students, a work area where instructors can effectively supervise students while having space to do their work and – in high-ceiling shop bays, a mezzanine with dedicated HVAC equipment for ventilation. Vestibules between shop work areas and the hallways will help control noise.
Leaving the district administration offices in the renovated former house next door, where they have been working for about a year, will allow a smaller school building and using space more efficiently in the school will make it 2-percent smaller, which will also help with the budget bottom line, as well as re-use of recently purchased equipment, Sullivan said. The site plan is also being developed, but he said there have not been any significant changes there as yet.
Suffolk will set up on site in June 2026 in an area at the back of the property to keep impact on neighbors to a minimum as well as being adjacent to where the new building is actually constructed. They foresee being able to raze the current school building by May 2028. Athletic fields, to be situated where the school now stands will be ready by 2029.
In other business before the School Committee, members held the annual public hearing for participation in school choice. As has been traditional for SST, the committee unanimously voted not to participate in school choice for the 2024-25 school year because the district has an established process for admitting students from outside the school district.
Principal Sandra Baldner reported that, while the official report has not yet been released, the school has received a generally positive preliminary report following a recent two-day NEASC reaccreditation site visit, which had only a couple suggestions for improvement.
She also reviewed the goals of the 2024-25 school improvement plan. Those goals include: extension education; professional development; making sure short-term and long-term budget funding supports the population on campus, starting next year; as well as teaching learning and foundational element of professional practice as the School Council wants the school to focus on artificial intelligence – or AI.
“What does that mean for teachers and students – the good, the bad and the indifferent and how do we manage that and move forward as educators and learners,” Baldner said.
Cultural proficiency is another area on which the school will continue to focus, as the school has done for the past two years, but it will be more site-based than bringing in outside experts. Student mental health and the educational resources around mental health will also continue to be stressed as well as the mental health of educators.
The final details will be presented to the School Committee and posted on the school website this summer.
“We have a small School Council, but our stakeholders that we engaged in the process of identifying our needs was vast, through surveys and virtual opportunities to connect with us,” she said, thanking the council and stakeholders for their work.
Active Minds provides a caring space
Whitman-Hanon Regional High School’s organization, Active Minds, presented an update about their group to the School Committee during the Wednesday, May 8 meeting.
The group advocates for mental health among fellow students through their Read a Secret – Leave a Secret boxes at the school. Some of the messages – concerning everything from challenges of anxiety to coping with the loss of friends or family members – left were incorporated in a video presentation.
The students in the group said the messages show that mental health is a concern for everyone and that there is a real need for counselors at school, especially for students whose families might not otherwise be able to access or afford counseling.
“‘Out of the mouths of babes,’ is the expression, and what you just said, you don’t know how important that was, because we have people in the towns who think that we don’t need counselors [students] can go get their own,” Committee Chair Beth Stafford said. “They don’t understand that some people can’t just do that. They don’t have the insurance to cover [it], they don’t have the payments covered, plus you are in school all day.”
She said it was a message that was important to be said by someone other than the School Committee.
The students said they had the idea for the group after talking among themselves after the death of a friend. They made a presentation to the nonprofit group Kyle Cares for funding.
DiGravio applauded the group’s efforts to erase some of the stigma of seeking mental health services.
“The hardest part about getting help is asking for it,” he said. “Once you do ask for it, there’s this huge relief that comes over you, but taking that first step is so hard.”
Szymaniak stressed that Active Minds also runs a grief group.
“It’s really outstanding to have an organization where students feel free to share their thoughts with others who feel the same way, in a safe environment with professionals,” he said. “This will sustain and keep going.”
Tea in Mrs. Roosevelt’s garden
HANSON – What better way to follow up Mother’s Day than a Monday afternoon tea with the first lady?
A couple of dozen ladies gathered at the Hanson Muli-Service Senior Center for tea, strawberry shortcake – and Eleanor Roosevelt – and while she hasn’t been first lady since May 1944 when her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs, Ga., Eleanor looked great for woman who’s been dead for 61 years herself.
The program, sponsored by the Senior Center’s Friends Group, included strawberry shortcake as the ladies, many wearing hats or fascinators for the occasion sipped tea in an assortment of china cups.
“I’d like to welcome you to Val-Kil, Eleanor Roosevelt’s home in Hyde Park, N.Y.,” Senior Center Director Mary Collins said. “I’m just setting the tone. … It is the summer of 1949, you have been invited as guests to a luncheon. Mrs. Roosevelt has planned a recognition ceremony for those who played a major role in feeding America during WWII.”
Set after Mrs. Roosevelt’s work on the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, it takes place a couple of days after she returns from Paris and is hosting groups of old friends and fellow gardening enthusiasts at Val-Kil, her cottage on the grounds of Hyde Park.
The First Lady of the World, as she came to be known for her work for human rights advocacy, was brought back to life for an hour or so on Monday, May 13 by educator and historical interpreter Carol I. Cohen of Norton. But on this day the topic was Mrs. Roosevelt’s other passion – gardening – and the audience was part of the show.
“I’m purposefully portraying her when Franklin is gone and it’s later in her life,” Cohen said.
The second half of her presentation is a PowerPoint of garden photos and stories about Eleanor that “people don’t always hear about.”
Audience members were pulled into the narrative as everyone from a local garden club president, to fellow first lady Edith Wilson and published Henry Luce. This writer was mentioned in passing as a reporter from Ladies Home Journal.
“Edith! How are you?” she greeted the initially stunned Cathy Robinson. “When I met her … we might have called you President Wilson, referring to the period in which Edith Galt Wilson was acting president, beginning in September 1919, for a year and five months while President Woodrow Wilson recovered from a stroke.
Eleanor wanted to ensure her Washington D.C. and Virginia friends were welcomed by her Hyde Park friends.
Senior Center van driver, Bob Hyman, was addressed as a Richard D. Parker, who saved the Fenway Victory Gardens from destruction, and he also bemusedly played along.
“How was the trip up from Boston?” she said.
“Very nice, but there was so much noise on the train,” he said to laughter.
“For a very long time, I’ve wanted to do something to recognize people who did something very, very wonderful to help feed America during the war,” said “Eleanor,” before handing out “certificates” to a few in the audience.
Cohen related how Mrs. Roosevelt was interested in war gardens since people had grown them during the first world war, becoming re-introduced to them during her WWII travels as the “victory gardens” people were planting.
“I wanted to portray somebody that I believed in, that was a champion of women’s rights, but also a friend of mine at the time, who was also my student, portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt in the class,” she said.
Her student did such a great job it gave her the idea. Cohen traveled to Hyde Park a lot while researching her programs.
Cohen is also writing a short book about Eleanor Roosevelt, titled “Lessons from Eleanor.”
A college professor by trade, Cohen has taught at Leslie University.
“I teach teachers and I have a 50-year theater background,” she said before getting into character. “I wasn’t intending to do this as a theatrical thing, I was going to do a lecture, but I decided since some of my students had to portray people, I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to portray someone.’”
She used to assign her students to portray characters for five minutes, and she started at 10, but now does a half-hour on one of three program topics:
At Home with Eleanor Roosevelt; The Human Rights Declaration at 75 and this day’s program, A Walk Through the Garden with Eleanor Roosevelt.
What she doesn’t do is “the voice.” She’s been doing her interactive presentations since 2016.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s high-pitched voice was distinctive, but something she was rather embarassed by.
When Cohen performed one of her programs for a critique from her mom, she said, “It’s really great, just don’t use the voice. She was right, and you know what? I’m not an actress.”
Towns divided on MBTA communities
In the end, while Whitman residents were voting to confirm the potential of offering more affordable housing in the future through the state’s MBTA Communities bylaw amendment, the majority of Hanson residents attending Town Meeting Monday, May 6 made quite another thing clear.
They were there to say no – loudly and emphatically. Hanson’s vote, in fact could put a $300,000 state grant for the Senior Center through the Executive Office of Elder Affairs at risk of clawback of a state grant already awarded.
The grant is specifically to reinstate a supportive day program that was unfortunately unable to restart after Covid-19.
Director of Elder Affairs Mary Collins wrote it to allow a small addition of roughly 800-square feet in which the center could bring the supportive day program back five days per week. It will pay for the first-year salary of a supervisor of the program and if the past is any indication, can be self-sufficient after that year.
“We did it for over 26 years successfully prior to Covid – a one-of-a-kind program not widely available in the area,” Collins said Tuesday, May 7. “They are programs specifically designed to meet the needs of mentally frailer seniors as well as those experiencing social isolation.”
It is just one example of state grants tied to participation in the program.
Planning Board Chair Joseph Campbell introduced the amended article by proposing an amendment requesting a letter of action be sent to Hanson’s legislative delegation on Beacon Hill to immediately take action toward repealing the Baker-Polito administration’s proposed amendment of MGL Sec 3A C40A-Zoning. Multifamily zoning as of right – the MBTA Communities Act. In addition, his amendment would have referred the matter to an MBTA Communities Act Committee to be appointed by the town moderator to study and provide a comprehensive report at the October special Town Meeting on all “aspects, impacts, and assessments regarding a recommended action on the adoption or denial of MBTA Communities law” and zoning amendments.
A member of each of the Planning Board, ZBA, Select Board, two residents of Precinct 3 (which stands to be most impacted by the change), one from Precinct 2 and one member from Precinct 1 would serve on the committee and would meet no fewer than two times a month, submitting a preliminary report to the moderator, town Planner and Town Administrator no later than July 31.
While the law only requires towns to establish a district defined as “a zone of reasonable size in which an allowance for as of right multi-family housing is permitted” within a half-mile of public transportation, must comply with all Hanson building codes or be denied, and has been discussed at multiple public hearings by the Planning Board and the Select Board, which were sparsely attended and “when asked for input, the Planning Board received input from one office,” according to Campbell.
Although applicable to the Affordable Housing Act, and not the federal Section 8 program – housing is considered affordable in Hanson if one makes $92,000 a year.
“Indeed, as already seen it is having an effect on Mass. State grants applications, seen by our town of Hanson grant writers,” Campbell said. “The Planning Board has heard on numerous occasions, and agrees, this was legislation rushed through the state government machine in an attempt of quick resolution to a larger issue without thinking it through or respecting all the commonwealth’s citizens’ rights protected by our constitution.”
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said that board, meeting just before Town Meeting, unanimously voted to support Campbell’s amendment. By October, she said it would be more apparent which other towns had voted no and what kind of repercussions have they seen from the state.
Bob Windell of High Street said the amendment sounded like town officials thought they were going to be voted down.
“I say, let’s knock this thing out of the park and get rid of it now,” he said to applause.
“I believe the intention put before you was deceptive,” said Daniel Strautman of Monponsett Street, who agreed with Windell.
Moderator Sean Kealy would not permit questions of people’s motivations. Strautman countered that they push back and vote it down now.
“The Town Meeting will ultimately have to decide, maybe not even at one meeting, but at several meetings, whether the grant money is worth changing the zoning, or if we’re going to hold fast,” Kealy said.
Campbell said that his amendment would enable Hanson to push back on legislation as no other town in the state had been able to do.
“It also sends a very strong message to the government that we’re going to hold our legislators accountable,” he said, while cautioning that, saying no to the State House is no small matter. “We will warn everybody that we don’t know the ramifications to their full extent for the towns that have said no.” There have been four, so far, only one of which is an MBTA community.
Town Administrator Lisa Green said the Attorney General has required towns to comply with the law or risk lawsuits and classification as ineligible for forms of state funding, including grants.
“We don’t even have an estimate of what it would cost to fight this,” she said. “They are very serious with this. We’re trying to preserve the grants we’ve received in the last couple of years totaling $2 million.”
Selectman Joe Weeks also urged approval of the amendment.
But that was not enough to satisfy the most vocal opponents of the MBTA law, who voted it down 196 to 155.
Debate then continued on the original article, which was also rejected by a voice vote.
“We’re not done,” Kealy said as residents attending because of the MBTA law begain to leave. “We have stuff to do here. Oh, come on, you can look up the score of the Bruins game on your phone. Good, lord!”
They left anyway.
Whitman, meanwhile, approved the zoning bylaw change by a simple voice vote.
Whitman Select Board member Justin Evans noted the state mandate for the zone reqiring multi-family housing by right. Not having a town planner, Whitman sought and received to grants totaling $40,000 to hire a planning group and “turned this requirement into an opportunity for Whitman.”
“We put this zone in underutilized industrial land within walking distance of the Commuter Rail – a number of old shoe factories that had seen better days, a property that had received an EPA grant to cleanup and existing multifamily housing,” Evans said.
When Whitman fell briefly out of compliance in 2022, the state threatened to take away 10 percent of the town Housing Authority’s capital funding. Evans worked with former interim Town Administrator Frank Lynam to get the town back in compliance, and he cautioned the town has applied for $600,000 in grants that could go away if it happens again.
Planning Board Chair John Goldrosen also spoke in favor of the law, noting it protected the single-family housing areas near the zone.
“This is an opportunity for the town,” he said, echoing Evans’ remarks. “This is an area where, if it grows, will help revitalize that section of town. … Voting against this will not take out the risk of multi-family housing in town because there is always 40B.”
He also noted that most people attending Town Meeting probably know someone who moved out of state because of the cost of housing.
That special Mother’s Day gift
By Linda Ibbitson Hurd
Special to the Express
I was in my bedroom dusting and vacuuming recently and happened to look up over the closets where there’s a shelf holding several items. Among them a wooden plaque caught my eye. It’s a decoupaged picture of a little dog wearing a puffy bonnet with a little blue bird nestled into it and a thin blue ribbon tied in a bow around the brim. It brought back a Mother’s Day memory of when my son Brian was eight and my daughter Heidi was five.
After my marriage broke up I was lonely at times and had concerns about raising two children by myself. I was taking college classes at night and was exhausted, worried about finances and many other things. I got a job cleaning houses during the week while the kids were at school so I could pay the bills and put food on the table. When the kids were small I had gotten piggy banks for them to teach them the value of saving money when they received it. Brian being the oldest I was also pleased he hadn’t asked to take any out. It saved us from going hungry one night before I was receiving child support and had used the last of my money for the mortgage payment. There was no food, no money and I didn’t want to ask my parents, who had already helped me with getting a car when mine was no longer drivable. When Brian asked what was for supper that night I told him we’d have to have cereal. A few minutes later he came out to the kitchen carrying his bank with Heidi in tow carrying hers. I had forgotten all about the banks and was so relieved. When we opened them there was enough money to get food with some left over until I got paid at my house cleaning job. From the time they were little, I noticed how caring and generous they were; that’s never changed.
When Mother’s Day came around that year I was especially distracted about money I needed for a bill and also had to study for finals as the semester was ending. I often got very little sleep but that Sunday morning I slept late and was so surprised when I got up that the kids hadn’t woke me. I went out to the kitchen and they were nowhere to be found. There was a note on the table in my son’s handwriting that read, Mom we will be back. I was relieved after reading the note and thought they must be next door but why didn’t the note say that. I got dressed and was about to walk around the neighborhood to find them when they burst through the door with expectant smiles lighting up their little faces. They were carrying a paper bag and Brian asked me to sit down because they had a mother’s day present for me. I was so surprised and doubly so as I had forgotten it was Mother’s Day. They handed me the bag and Brian asked me to be careful opening it. My mind was going a mile a minute wondering how they got these things and where, as I took the bag. Brian had to ask me again to open the bag. I reached in and pulled out the wooden plaque thinking the dog was so cute with her big eyes and hat. “Keep going”, Brian said. I pulled out littlecheetah cats made out of china, some small plastic deers, a pretty candle and some candy. I looked up at them and was both speechless and torn because I was a little upset they spent money we might need again and torn because I was touched beyond words they did such a loving and unselfish thing. I wrapped my arms around them, squeezing them tight with lots of kisses. When the hugging was over I asked, “Where did you get these things and how did you get them without money?” Without hesitation and in a very confident way, Brian said, “The Runkles were having a yard sale so we took some money out of our banks to get you a present.”I started to say, “but we need to save.” That’s as far as I got. Brian came back with, “Mom, you deserve a Mother’s Day present, some things are more important than money.” This, from an eight year old. I looked at Heidi, her hearing aid was on and she was also reading our lips. She looked back nodding yes with a smile.
In that moment everything changed. I realized how consumed I’d been by worry and my own problems to the point I’d forgotten all about Mother’s Day. I also realized in spite of my worries my kids and I were okay and would remain so. I felt bad forgetting about my own mother and how awful it would have been for her and what regret I would’ve been left with. I looked at my kids realizing the real gift they had just given me. I said to them, “Why don’t we go pick out a card and a gift for Gramma and go see her today?” They got all excited as we left to spend a wonderful day together.
Kids learn the straight poop on poop
By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
[email protected]
HANSON – Birds do it, bees do it. Mammals and reptiles, amphibians, insects, fish, and birds do it.
In some areas of the oceans, entire beaches are made up of the result of fish having done it. Ants and ladybugs fight over whether aphids should even get the chance to do it – and it seems butterflies are the only creature on earth that don’t do it.
Poop happens all the time and everywhere, and it seems no one likes to talk about it more than kids.
Except, maybe Susie Maguire.
A native of London who grew up in Rockford, Ill., and Pittsburgh, Pa., the eldest girl in a family of seven children with five younger siblings, she had learned a thing about kids – and poop – over her lifetime. She now lives in southern Netherlands and takes her online Poop Museum on the road to present her educational and entertaining program for kids.
Her large family, she said, was the source of her initial interest in her subject matter.
“Constantly, there was just poop, poop, it was just funny in our house,” she said after her hour-long presentation on how excrement figures into everything from digestion and cleansing the body to marking territory, showing off for prospective mates and even – in some species – nourishing their young. “I’ve always had a very lavatorial sense of humor and, during COVID, I was doing programs online for children and mucking around with my nephew – doing his normal, poopy, lavatorial thing – and I thought, ‘I should make up a poop museum.’”
A lifelong educator, Maguire, who has lived “all over the world” brings a world of poop to her young fans.
“I love [their] energy and enthusiasm for the subject,” she said.
Her program included a taste sample of “honey dew” honey made with the sweet-tasting poop of aphids, and a whiff of elephant poop, which smells like grass, she said, because that is what it is almost entirely composed of, and a sheet of paper to take home made from elephant dung. The children also received a certificate designating them as official members of “The Poo Crew” possessing “profound poo knowledge” of the subject, after the program.
Maguire worked her way through the animal kingdom – from the tiny aphid, daintily defecating a sweet-tasting bubble that ants covet, to the emphatic “poop tornado” emitted by the hippopotamus and spread with the aid of its propellering tail to ward of threats and impress females – using stuffed toys, photos and videos to illustrate her talk.
“My name is Susie, and I just absolutely love the poo, anybody else?” she said as youngsters’ hands went up. Her mission: to convince those who did not raise their hands that “poop is very spectacularly awesome.”
“The interesting thing about poop is that it is not just brown and stinky,” she said. “Sometimes it’s black, sometimes it’s white, sometimes it’s orange, sometimes it’s yellow, sometimes it’s pink, sometimes it’s red, sometimes it’s blue, sometimes it’s purple, sometimes it’s green – there’s lots and lots of colors of poop in the world. Not only does it come in different colors, there is poop that is sweet and tasty.”
To the delight of her young audience, and to the discomfort of some of their parents she discussed the scatological habits of dozens of species, including humans.
Some highlights:
- Snails can poop all the colors of the rainbow. “They basically poop whatever color they eat,” Maguire said, especially since they eat cardboard and paper for calcium and carbonate for shell repair. “Whatever color cardboard and paper you give them, that’s what color they’re going to poop.
- Aphids’ sweet poop bubbles, that ants covet so much, causes them to fight off lady bugs, who eat aphids, so the ants can ingest said poop bubbles that are the byproduct of the aphids’ diet of the sugars in plants.
- Bees can’t poop all winter because they can’t fly in the cold. So when they emerge in spring, a lot of yellow bee poop happens. “It looks like mustard,” Maguire said. They also eat aphid poop as part of their honey production.
- Butterflies don’t poop at all because they only drink nectar, blood, urine, the water in puddles and the fluid in other animals’ poop ie: “poop juice.” But that’s OK, because as caterpillars they eat and poop constantly, and usually at the same time.
- Egg-layers like birds, reptiles and amphibians have a single sphincter called the cloaca through which they urinate, defecate and lay eggs.
- Parrot fish defecate bits of rock and coral the fish had ingested in their feeding on algae. The rock and coral are ground into grains of sand as the fish passes the indigestible material.
“If you are on a tropical beach, then the beach is almost entirely made up of parrot fish poop,” she said. Atolls are created, in part, the same way, as parrot fish poop 1,000 pounds of sand a year. - Sloths only poop once a week. They are so slow, it is very dangerous for them to do. Many are killed by predators in the attempt. But, if they survive, because they have just rid themselves of one-third of their body weight, they do a kind of dance.
- Humans, if they are healthy, very in the way of little food particles is found in the passing of the “perfect human poop,” because the body absorbs the rest of ingested food to fuel the body.
“Your body turns your food into your body,” Maguire said. - Elephants’ poop is mostly food, she said as she passed around sample to sniff.
“It smells just like grass,” she said. “That’s because it is grass. Elephants poop out enormous amounts of the grass they eat. … Animals eat each others’ poop, animals eat their on poop, but there are a whole bunch of animals that eat their parents’ poop.” - Rabbits, koalas, elephants, hippos, pandas and termites produce two kinds of poop. One is waste, the other is a partially-digested form that their offspring count on for their diet. Rabbits take it further by eating the partially digested poop for their own nutritional needs.
There are also insects that camouflage themselves as poop, or cover themselves with excrement for protection from predators.
Hanson its closes FY’25 warrant
HANSON – The Select Board conducted a final review and voted to close the Town Meeting warrant at its meeting on Tuesday, April 9.
Town Administrator Lisa Green said there were no changes to the special Town Meeting warrant, but said the annual Town Meeting warrant changed in view of the new budget figures.
“Town Counsel did review the articles and provided information, suggestions and edits,” Green said.
Vice Chair Joe Weeks questioned putting the budget article near the end of the warrant.
“I get putting the budget in the back to try to strategically keep people in Town Meeting as long as possible,” he said. “But part of me questions whether or not people are going to be able to make judgments, because you do see people that kind of follow along with what we are doing.”
Green noted the budget is Article 5.
“One of the budgets is Article 5,” Weeks replied. “If we’re giving two budgets I think they should be side by side.”
Select Board member Ann Rein asked which should be moved.
“That’s tricky,” said Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “I’m neutral about where it is, but they do need to be side-by-side.”
Weeks advocated for placing both budget articles early on the warrant. Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff agreed, more from a practical standpoint, as it is not legally required.
“I don’t like the idea of putting it early in the meeting because I fear once the decision is made about the override or no override, we’re going to have a mass exodus, and we [then] won’t have a quorum,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “That’s just a reality. I know it will happen.”
Weeks said the budgets have to be moved up, because he disagrees with having Town Meeting make decisions on capital expenditures without approving the budget first.
“I’d be afraid to put them at the end, because what I you [lose] a quorum, and then you don’t have a budget,” Feodoroff said.
Weeks agreed that would present a worst-case scenario.
“People won’t leave,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I’d bet on that and I’m not a betting person, because that’s the main reason people are going to be coming to the Town Meeting.”
“I don’t disagree, but I think we have to vote on the budget before we start spending money,” Weeks said.
The School budget, which had been Article 32, was then moved up to Article 6.
“We don’t need to know the order in order to close the warrant, because we’ve voted on placing and what order they are doesn’t really matter,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said before the board voted to close the warrant.
Town Planner Anthony DeFrias provided some information on Article 4, pertaining to a Right-to-Farm bylaw, as well.
“If you recall, in our last meeting, we just felt like we should have the Planning Board kick the tires because it was going to be a zoning bylaw [changes] and have some impact,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
The Planning Board, on April 8, met to discuss the article and offered it comments, including asking the Select Board to table it until the October Town Meeting to allow further discussion and research of the law, and that the Select Board consider seeking an opinion from town counsel as well as from communities that have implemented the Right-to-Farm law.
The board voted to postpone the article to the October Town Meeting.
“I think that’s kind of where we were at,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We just felt that we needed more info because we weren’t sure if there would be pitfall for the unwary, so I think all those suggestions are excellent.”
She added that board has asked town counsel to review the bylaw.
“Town counsel is not going to necessarily advise us on whether this is good for Hanson or not good for Hanson,” she said. “That’s our decision, but I do feel it’s a good idea to talk to other towns and find out if there were pitfalls for the unwary that [they encountered]. … And there wasn’t any particular sense of urgency to get this done. We were just trying to be responsive.”
The budget, on the warrant as Article 5, was being reviewed by the Finance Committee that night, as Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf had finished the budget article that day, Green said.
Article 6, covering zoning violation fines from the Building Department, was questioned by Feodoroff.
“If it’s housed in the Zoning Bylaw, it needs a public hearing, [and] I don’t know if that’s happened,” said Feodoroff, who attended the meeting virtually. “It needs to be published and a public hearing.”
She said that, if it is a Zoning Bylaw change as the article suggests, the Planning Board must hold the hearing. Because of the time required for posting hearing notices in the newspaper – twice within the two weeks before a hearing – the Select Board postponed the article to the October Town Meeting.
Article 10, involving new equipment for the Highway Department, using free cash, were recommended, despite Kinsherf’s warning that it is unaffordable at this time as the articles would leave only $311,000 in free cash.
Hanson Little League opens the season
HANSON – “Some days you win, some days you lose, some days it rains,” off-kilter rookie phenom pitcher Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh intoned during his first big Major League news interview in the 1988 film “Bull Durham.”
Well, it rained Saturday, April 6, on the Hanson Little League’s Opening Day parade – and no one seemed to mind much, except for the fact that the Pitch, Hit & Run contest, as well as the scheduled games, had to be postponed.
The opener marked the 25th year of Hanson Little League’s charter with Little League International, and it would take more than a little rain to dampen that celebration.
The morning began with the promise of the sun peeking through clouds after a few days of sometimes heavy rain and, while the air was raw, parents and excited players – from T-ball to the Major League levels – gathered at the Town Hall green to receive new baseball caps and T-shirts, emblazoned with the name of the sponsoring business on the back, before marching to Botieri Field.
The rain held off long enough for a Hanson ambulance and fire engine to crawl up the hill on Liberty Street, sirens blaring, ahead of the teams and family members.
But just as the opening ceremonies were getting underway, a misty rain set in, and by the time Hanson Little League President Robert Kniffen began to speak, it intensified, driven by a steady wind.
“Baseball breaks your heart,” former MLB Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote, but, as Kniffen noted, it also symbolizes community.
“Little League is a community game, played in thousands of communities across the world and there’s no better community than [the one] you are in right now – Hanson, Massachusetts,” Kniffen said. “As you can see, it’s truly a community effort, from the moms and dads, the aunts and the uncles, our first responders – so much goes into making this a special season.”
Opening ceremonies included former Hanson Little League board member and League President Paul Clark threw out the ceremonial First Pitch and a player selected from each team went to the pitchers mound to yell “Play ball!”
And the season was on.
“In addition to Paul’s 11 years serving the board, and three years as president of the board, Paul also spearheads the Damien’s 5K Freaky Road Race fundraiser, which also benefits community programs, including Hanson Little League,” Kniffen said.
He noted that Little League’s mission is to teach life lessons and build stronger individuals and communities.
“We all have an important role and an opportunity to teach and learn these life lessons through Little League baseball,” he said. “For the players, that means to … be a good teammate. To be a good friend. To do something kind – to help a teammate out. To be coachable – to listen to your coaches and what they’re teaching you.”
As glasses steamed up or got splattered with raindrops, a few umbrellas went up and several spectators turned their backs to the wind, Scouts from Troop 68 raised the flag as Brittney Prescott sang the national anthem.
Pastor Kris Skjerli of Calvary Baptist Church listed several MLB players who often credit their faith in their daily lives more than their on-field success, before offering the opening blessing.
“Thank you for men and women who have given their lives and their dreams to sports and baseball as we gather here today, and have been able to keep it in perspective,” he said in his blessing. “And I pray we can do the same this year, and have fun, play our hearts out and develop our skills. Give wisdom to the coaches, patience and understanding.”
He prayed that the players be protected from injury and that their attitudes and on-field behavior reflect respect for each other. The two attributes require no skill, but help players improve every day, Kniffen told the players ringing the ball field.
“In sports, and in anything else, there’s two things that you can control, and that’s your attitude and your effort,” Kniffen said. “It’s not how far you hit the ball. It’s not how fast you throw it. … We look for you to be a positive teammate.”
That means dependably showing up for every game and every practice, not complaining or giving up, by always trying your hardest and listening to coaches, no matter what the outcome.
“For the parents and families, it’s time to take a step back and appreciate the game in its purest form … it’s just kids, enjoying America’s pastime for the love of the game,” he said, reminding them that there are no contracts or scholarships being handed out by high-power scouts.
While there will be failures for players to experience, the consequences will be minimal, and parents were asked to keep that in mind.
“None of this would have been possible without the group and community efforts that have been put forth in the past year in preparation for today and this upcoming season,” Kniffen said. He gave a tip of the cap from the league to the players’ families’ participation and positive support; the league’s board of directors; coaches and volunteers who stepped up to lead teams this spring and the team sponsors, asking families to take note of sponsors’ advertising banners around the fields and support their businesses.
He also gave “a big thank you to the Hanson Fire and Police departments for their help in making the event a safe success.
Kniffen gave special recognition to Deputy Fire Chief Charlie Barends for donating his time to attend the annual coaches meeting to train coaches and volunteers on CPR, first aid and operating the use of AED machines as well as securing the three machines stored at the HLL fields for emergency cardiac use.
Kniffen also saluted the league’s fundraising partnership with Gold Athletics. Last year the partnership translated to $6,000 for the league, and this year they plan to exceed that.
Based on the current fundraiser’s success to date, that seems like a good bet.
Gold Athletics representative Matt Ross reported that, while, there has been success in the past two years of the partnership. Said he wanted to “address some of the pain points.”
Even though the families involved in Hanson Little League sold more than $17,000 worth of cookies dough last year, the company wanted to make it easier this year with a pretzel and waffle fundraiser in which orders will be shipped directly to customers’ homes anywhere in the country. As a result, three people are already close to their sales goal.
“We’re hoping to beat last year’s record,” Ross said. “Another new feature is somebody can actually just donate if they’d like to.”
Kniffen also asked the crowd to consider supporting Hanson Little League in other ways, such as the snack shack and raffles. One raffle, for four seats behind home plate at a Red Sox game, which will be drawn on April 26, and for tickets to an Aug. 10 New Kids on the Block concert tickets, for which more information will be soon be available about the $20 tickets.
All fundraising proceeds go directly back to the league.
Hope held out for more budget talks
HANSON – While Whitman’s Select Board was hearing a list of consequences – including layoffs and shuttered departments – of a $63.5 million level-service fiscal 2025 school budget on Tuesday, March 26, Hanson officials were seeing the same handwriting on the wall, but a flicker of communication was being nursed into the flame of another joint meeting between town officials on Monday, April 1.
“We may get to a better point,” said Hanson Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “It certainly can’t get worse. … There’s not a lot of town budget to slash.”
In the meantime, the Select Board reached the consensus that, if an override of Proposition 2 ½ is necessary, it would be a contingency school override, with dual budgets proposed at Town Meeting as Whitman is doing, allowing Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan to have the ballot printed by April 12.
The W-H School Committee on Wednesday, March 20, certified the budget, first unveiled on Feb. 1, without any of the cuts discussed the previous week.
“After many conversations that [Whitman] Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter and myself had with Superintendent [of Schools Jeff Szymaniak], we really voiced our ability to afford 5 percent assessment [increase],” Town Administrator Lisa Green. They also met with Szymaniak and School Committee Chair Beth Stafford in which she and Carter reiterated the towns’ ability to afford only a 5 percent increase.
“I think we’re back where we said we were going to be last year,” said Finance Committee Chair Kevin Sullivan. “The schools are not willing to be a rational partner, in my opinion.”
He noted that financial consultant John Madden has been telling Hanson officials that a $5 million operational override has been needed to put the town on solid financial footing.
“I don’t know how this went from such a cordial relationship over the 12 years I’ve been doing this,” he said. “We’ve never had this kind of problem. … The math just doesn’t hold up in the long run.”
He said the choice comes down to playing a “dangerous game of chicken” with the entire process and see what happens, predicting there would be another override next year and another after that; or the town can try to reach an agreement with the district this year and go for an operational override next year for FY 2026.
He said the April 1 meeting should take place after the April 1 meeting.
“If we don’t do an override, the changes are fairly draconian,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett. “I’ll be quite honest, you’re looking at library, Town Hall employees, obviously, some fire and police would be impacted. I personally don’t even want to talk about those types of cuts. … We would be talking about absolutely crippling the operations at Town Hall.”
Most of the positions residents take for granted like a full-time Building Department, Conservation and then Board of Health would all be cut.
“Why do we have to cut on our side, when the School Department doesn’t have to cut on anything?” Select Board member David George asked.
“We are not the School Committee,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
While insisting she was not trying to be critical of Szymaniak or to take potshots at anyone, FitzGerald-Kemmett, she said the Select Board “could not have been clearer any earlier than we were this year” about Hanson’s financial situation.
The town could say no and include a budget with a 5-percent in the warrant and present the school budget as contingent on an override happening. That is the avenue Whitman is taking.
Failing passage of the school budget on the town side and an override fails, cuts would be forced. If an override passes, the school budget would be funded.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said her feeling is that things would fall somewhere in the middle.
“Even if they come down a little, we literally cannot afford any more than 5 percent,” she said. “We weren’t exaggerating, we weren’t being dramatic. We cannot afford any more than that.”
Even at a 5-percent assessment increase, the town would be making cuts and “limiting spending severely,” she reminded the board. “What we’re saying is all we have is 5 percent and even that was a stretch.”
The Hanson Select Board had initially told the School Committee that all it was comfortable in allowing very moderate growth – and even negotiation with the unions – was 3.8 percent, FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“With this 5 percent, we now have to try to deal in good faith with the unions and say we don’t know what our financial situation is going to look like next year,” she said. “It’s not a great place to be as we enter into negotiations with all of our unions this year.”
Green said it was very unfortunate after attending the School Committee meeting last week.
“To see that the committee did not take into consideration any of Superintendent Szymaniak’s scenarios for lowering the assessment, which would have included using some of their excess and deficiency and circuit breaker, cutting some positions to bring the assessments down,” Green said. “They were starting to go in the right direction, but they got to 6.69 percent, a 7.68 and a 5 percent scenario.”
The Committee’s 8-1 vote took all reductions off the table and was opposed by Whitman member Fred Small. Member Michelle Bourgelas of Hanson was absent.
Green said the School Committee’s vote leaves them needing to close the funding gap and that “an override is one of our options.”
“It’s not out of the question [that the School Committee could make cuts], but we have a very short runway right now,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’ve got to make a decision and lock down our warrant, really, within the next week in order for us to be able to do this.”
Hanson’s assessment increase went back to the original 10.2 percent and Whitman’s to a 11.88 percent increase.
Green has since been working with Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf to determine what that type of assessment means to the towns – roughly $15,532,479 as an assessment for Hanson, and about $20 million for Whitman. Hanson’s free cash totals only $1.486 million.
“That brings us to a shortfall of $1,579,947,” she said. “Obviously, we don’t have enough free cash to cover that amount.”
Hanson needs to find $723,176 to balance.
Green said a chart is posted on the town website: hanson.ma-gov, that gives residents an idea of the impact of an override on their real estate personal property tax based on the average assessed value – $499,873 based on FY 2024 figures. Such a home would be a tax bill of $6,688 or about $179.75 more annually. The chart covers tax changes connected to an override on property valued from $250,000 all the way to $1.5 million.
George asked if the school district had any free cash. Green noted the districts doesn’t have enough free cash to cover it. The School Committee typically cannot empty their excess and deficiency account, even as they often contribute some of that money to help balance the budget, because laws mandating the schools educate all children ages 2.5 to 22 means they need to keep some cash in reserve in case a family with a special needs child moves into the district.
Szymaniak had suggested in one of his scenarios that $250,000 of the approximately $700,000 in E&D toward lowering the school budget deficit.
“I’m a neophyte to all of this, but it just seems to me to be extremely – I don’t even know what the word is … arrogant comes to mind – to ask the towns to cut other budgets and not even take a glance at what they could have cut,” said Select Board member Ann Rein. “I don’t understand that kind of attitude, especially in this day and age, when everything has done nothing but go up and we’re just supposed to pull it out of somewhere.”
She said non-instructional staff hired with one-time funds should go – “I don’t care what they do at the school,” Rein said. “Some of them could go.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the schools don’t have to be told where to cut, but they should have to make cuts.
She pointed out that Szymaniak had presented several scenarios in which some programs would be cut and some E&D and circuit breakers funds would be transferred to help close the budget gap.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said there will be more discussion between the two towns and the district, and that she feels hopeful that the dollar amount might be reduced, but that is hard to say by how much.
“We are dealing with the most severe case … and without any further movement from the School Committee and we’re trying to make a decision,” she said. “What are our options?”
“Hope is not getting us anywhere,” Rein said.
“I just think it’s funny that they hired a lot of people over there that are not teachers that they don’t want to lay off,” George. “They got something that they can’t afford, just like if I bought something I can’t afford, I’m going to get rid of it.”
He said the district has people on the payroll they obviously can’t afford and they are trying to retain them.
“They’ve taken a stand … they’re doing what they believe is their mission … what they were elected to do and our job is to respond and say we are responsible for managing the town’s budget,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “If you want that money we have to go to an override, and it has to be for the schools because we don’t need it for the town budget.”
She called Whitman Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski and Stafford to see if there was any potential that groups from either town or the district could come together and discuss the budget and it was agreed to, with the town administrators, Szymaniak, Kowalski, Stafford and herself to have such a discussion April 1.
“I don’’t know if that will work, but I’m willing to try anything,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Vice Chair Joe Weeks said he is struggling with the issue.
“One of the things I’m struggling with is how it, ironically affects the kids that we’re trying to advocate for,” he said, noting that a lot of people will end up in a difficult position. “We go to the ballot with something like this, you’re putting a lot of stock in that it’s going to pass. … I just don’t like being in a position like that in the 11th hour.”
He said his main concern is what happens if it does not pass at the ballot.
“It really is an all-or-nothing scenario,” he said.
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