There are two more World-Cup caliber soccer players in the region.

About six months after Hanson native Samantha Mewis and the U.S. Women’s Soccer team won the World Cup, 24-year-old twins Andrew and Troy Chauppetta have been named to the U.S. Powerchair Soccer Team’s 12-player roster — and could be competing for their country at the sport’s World Cup in Australia next year. The Fédération Internationale de Powerchair Football Association, (FIPFA) headquartered in Paris, is the international governing body of the sport, and runs the World Cup program.

The young men have been battling Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy since they were children when playing soccer was a favorite sport.

“We’re training to go to Australia,” Andrew said during an interview at Brack’s Grille & Tap in Brockton, where a burger on the menu benefits the family’s Wheelchair Strong nonprofit charity. The Twins also run their own T-shirt business, at twinteeshirts.com.

“Teams from all over the world will be competing for the gold medal,” Andrew said.

They have been playing power chair soccer for about 10 years now, and went to a tryout in Minnesota where 24 players competed for the 12 spots on the team.

“Three weeks after that, the coach called us and selected us to be part of the 12-man roster,” Andrew said.

Troy explained eight players will ultimately be selected to travel to the World Cup tournament, with four serving as alternates in case of injury or other reason why a player can’t go.

In the meantime, in addition to settling into their first independent housing in Bridgewater, the twins will be participating in 10 training camps followed by selection of the eight players who will travel to Australia.

“They made Team USA at our national tournament in June,” said their dad Mark Chauppetta, a WHRHS grad. “There’s hundreds of wheelchair soccer players that play in Indiana [and] Troy and Andrew had a basic tryout there.”

While a proud achievement, selection to Team USA also brings a big financial commitment, Chauppetta said, including the cost of travel to training camps all around the country. The estimated cost is about $25,000 per player. A personal care attendant must also travel with the family to help Chauppetta, which adds to the expenses.

They just returned from Tampa, Fla., and will be headed to Indianapolis, Ind., in April and San Antonio in July.

The family has set up a GoFundMe tab on their website wheelchairstrong.com and are looking for corporate sponsorships. Wheelchair Strong’s 501 (c) 3 status means tax deductions can accompany donations.

“Troy and Andrew are willing to put the logo any local business has straight across their foreheads, if the price is good enough,” Chuppetta joked.

Team selection

The national team’s coach was scouting at the Indiana tournament and invited them to an October selection camp in Minnesota where the team was narrowed to 12.

“Like the coach said, ‘How could I pick one and not pick the other?’” Chauppetta said of both his sons being selected for the team. “They play very similar styles.”

The coach has Andrew playing forward right now to give him more roster options, but his natural position is as goalie. Troy, who currently leads their home league in goals scored, is a forward. They play for the Pappas Chariots, based out of Canton.

“We have to practice more than one position,” Andrew said of the national team.

“We’ve been playing power soccer for about 10 years,” Troy said. “We travel all over the country playing in tournaments every couple of months.”

Troy said the sport is an important part of their lives.

“The best part of being able to play power soccer is being able to get that competitive edge back that we used to have as little kids when we were able to run around and play sports in the yard,” he said. “Finding this sport has really changed our life, just from the sports perspective.”

Their father said the Chariots, which used to be affiliated with the Mass. Hospital School, since they lost ambulation at age 12.

Andrew said it was an emotional experience to lose the ability to play ambulatory sports.

“Being extremely athletic kids, and being very rambunctious kids, I was sort of bummed out that there weren’t any sports they could play anymore when they went into wheelchairs,” he said.

A friend in the Muscular Dystrophy community suggested wheelchair soccer. The twins were all for it and fell in love with the sport, which has evolved a great deal in the ensuing years.

“Back then, they were using their personal wheelchairs and putting a crate on the front to hit a [13-inch in diameter] soccer ball,” Chauppetta said. “The athletes were running into a lot of problems with their chairs getting damaged and insurance not covering it.”

The Power Soccer Shop — a Minnesota company — invented the Strike Force Chair now required for use by every player who wants to play at the elite level. The chairs cost more than $10,000 each.

The twins took out loans through Santander Bank on their own to purchase their chairs.

“I guess you could say they went from Little League baseball to the Major Leagues,” Chauppetta said. “Troy and Andrew are the only two players [on Team USA] from New England.”

Travel with the chairs is stressful, Chauppetta said, but as they travel more, they become used to how to instruct flight crews how to handle the chairs to prevent damage — and they film the loading process on their phones for insurance purposes.

They had always wanted to play either with or against a particular player they admired and, as they went through the process of advancing in the sport, they decided Team USA would be their eventual goal.

The sport takes more mental preparation and getting accustomed to the chairs banging into each other than physical conditioning, Chauppetta said.

“I think the club team prepared them,” he said.

The School Committee on Wednesday, Jan. 15 declined action Whitman resident Shawn Kain’s suggestion it consider some kind of compromise between the statutory assessment formula favored by Whitman and the current alternative formula sought by Hanson.

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes said that the issue, not included on the evening’s agenda, would not be something on which members could act.

“There are a lot of discussions concerning budget with both towns right now,” Hayes said.

He noted Hanson Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff’s reminder to Selectmen that seven votes — or two-thirds of the School Committee, regardless how many are present — are required to pass a budget.

“To me it seems pretty clear that it would be difficult to get seven votes with such a split on the budget,” Kain said, noting that could lead to continued division in the budget process from there. “It’s really setting us up for the whole process to go down toward the state taking over in December, which sounds terrible to me.”

Taking that, and Whitman’s decision to follow the statutory method, he suggested “it might be helpful,” if the School Committee, particularly Whitman members, to reconsider their recent 6-4 vote — split along community lines — to favor the statutory assessment formula.

“Long-term, sustainable funding for education will only come through consensus, and this, right now, is not consensus,” Kain said. “I think to slow down, reconsider and take another look at that vote would be helpful.”

The School Committee will hear the district’s fiscal 2021 budget presentation at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 5 in a meeting where it will be the only item on the agenda, according to Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak.

Another meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 26 will feature a regular agenda.

Interim Business Manager John Tuffy provided a year-to-date report on revenue and expenditures.

“At this time, there is not one particular line item I’m terribly concerned about,” he said. “We’re up to date with our bills, we haven’t spent quite as much of our budget as we had this time last year and that’s relatively good news.”

Szymaniak said a recent meeting he had with the Whitman Finance Committee was a positive one, with an improvement in tone over a session at the same point in the budget process last year.

Kain then asked for the assessment formula reconsideration.

“We don’t need it,” said School Committee member Steve Bois. “We already voted an assessment method, and we’re moving forward.”

He told Kain that, with all due respect, he should let the committee do its job.

“We’re in this all together, so I think it might be helpful to keep together,” Bois said. “You’re kind of tearing us apart in a way that … we’re not even looking at it that way.”

Bois pointed out that the School District has not even had a chance to meet with the Hanson Finance Committee.

Kain countered that without a Hanson School Committee member changing their vote, the assessment would fail to pass the committee and, ultimately, it would lead to a state takeover of the school budget.

School Committee member Fred Small said he fully expects that the panel will come up with a budget, but that the assessment is a secondary item that will go to town meetings.

“It’s our job to try and do a budget that is going to meet the needs of our pupils,” he said. “We also did an assessment method where you also look at what you feel is fair and proper as we are charged to do.”

Small charged that, “by coming here and continually going after these things,” all Kain was doing was beating a dead horse and not allowing the committee to do its work.

Hanson School Committee members Christopher Howard and Robert O’Brien Jr., however said some of Kain’s concerns are very relevant.

“It puts the folks that represent Hanson in a very difficult position to support a budget with an assessment methodology that isn’t supportable,” Howard said stressing that he was speaking for himself. “I would heed Mr. Kain’s words and think them through, because … you had four people from the town of Hanson unanimously vote against that methodology, so to make the leap that that’s over and done with and we’re just going to move into budget — that’s a tough leap for me to make.”

O’Briens said he echoed everything Howard said.

School Committee member Dawn Byers and Whitman Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly cautioned that a state takeover “sounds really scary” and — while it can be, because it is the unknown — it is not the same as state receivership, which is based on underperformance in academics.

The schools will operate normally, and classes will be held.

“When the state takes over, it’s always in the best interests of the students, too,” Byers said. “Fiscal control of a district by the state is just because we couldn’t get a budget and they help us to get there.”

Hayes added that, in the event of a state takeover, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education could increase the school budget, if they determined more funds were needed. Dighton-Rehoboth schools have gone through the process.

In other business, Director of Student Services Lauren Mathisen provided a report on the department. DESE’s coordinated program review of special education, civil rights and English learner education programs resulted in recommendations for minor changes in the English learner program, she said.

Another DESE audit, of the 2009 Circuit Breaker claim has ranked W-H among the top 5 percent of special education, districts they have reviewed, she said. An independent transportation audit will be conducted in a couple of weeks, she said.

“Transportation continues to be a big financial burden for us,” Mathisen said. “We are projected to spend about $1.1 million this year in transportation of our students.”

She said $875,000 had been budgeted, but the tuition and salary contracted service lines in the budget should cover the remaining amount, Szymaniak said.

She did, however, express some optimism that the recently passed Student opportunity act, that some reimbursement for out-of-district transportation costs is on the horizon. A deficit is foreseen in contracted services due to medical or maternity leaves and a resignation that had to be contracted out.

Mathisen also shared her in-district program goals for special education, particularly in the form of an autism program at the high school as well as an elementary-based language program.

WHITMAN — There will be no Proposition 2 ½ vote in Whitman for the fiscal 2021 budget, Selectman Randy LaMattina told the full board during its Tuesday, Jan. 14 meeting.

A fiscal 2022 override, however, has not yet been ruled out.

During a marathon three-and-a-half-hour meeting the previous night, the Budget Override Evaluation Committee decided.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said a joint meeting between Selectmen and the Finance Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 21 will further discuss the issues.

“We had quite a bit of discussion [Monday night] that probably will be best served giving one presentation next week at a joint meeting,” LaMattina said. “It’s a very complex budget — lot of questions still up in the air, issues still in flux with the schools — but what has been determined is that … with the adoption of some policies that the consultant has recommended, it was the determination of the board last evening that we will not seek an override for fiscal year 2021.”

He added that, more than likely, an override for fiscal 2022, even with the option of more stringent policies, may still be on the table.

“But we feel confident that departments will be sustainable, some may actually see growth and we will have money to fund a very solid part of the Collins Report for capital projects,” LaMattina said.

LaMattina added that a strategic budget plan was “the only missing piece” and, with the work done by the Budget Override Evaluation Committee, “80 percent of it is there.”

That will be addressed at next week’s meeting, as well.

“You’ve done the groundwork for being able to come up with something in writing,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said. “The strategic plan is impossible without the work that your committee has done.”

LaMattina credited the members of the Budget Override Evaluation Committee: Selectmen Justin Evans, Fire Chief Timothy Grenno, resident Christopher George, Finance Committee members David Codero, Scott Lambiase and John Galvin, School Committee member Dawn Byers, Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak and DPW Superintendent Bruce Martin for the time they committed to the work over the past couple of months.

Capital projects focused on were Whitman Middle School and the DPW building.

“The Budget Override Committee is definitely recommending some type of article be places on the May warrant for a feasibility re-evaluation of the DPW building,” LaMattina said.

Selectman Brian Bezanson lauded the committee for doing a lot of work in a short amount of time.

“It brought to light a lot of information for everybody that we otherwise might not have had,” he said.

“We thanked the committee, but I think we also have to thank Randy,” Kowalski said. “It was a huge task to lead this group, and the most important work that this board has done for a while.”

Road project

In other business, Lynam announced that, after two years of work by the DPW, the town has received a grant for $363,674 to redesign and layout the intersection of Essex Street and Park Avenue.

“That has been a challenging intersection over the years because of the way it merges,” Lynam said.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Jan. 7, supported the drafting of a letter to the School district saying they are — in conjunction with Whitman — conducting an audit of school expenditures in hopes the district will “open up their books” so the work can be done when an auditor is hired.

Outgoing interim Town Administrator Meredith Marini said a retired official that Hanson Town Accountant Todd Hassett had recommended is already swamped with post-retirement consulting work and will not be able to take on a School District audit for Whitman and Hanson town officials. He did provide some names, and she has been in communication with Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam on the matter and Marini has also been looking at regional agreements, especially those involving two communities, for comparisons to W-H.

“We are united, Whitman and Hanson, in being committed to looking at the books to see where money’s being spend and kind of ticking and tying that to the ask that we’ve got before us,” said Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “I don’t want to hire an auditor only to find that we’re not going to have access to those records. I’m not suggesting that’s the case, but I just want to make sure.”

Representatives of the Whitman and Hanson boards of selectmen were slated to have another discussion on the school assessment issue Wednesday.

“This is a very specialized discipline, to be able to audit school books,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “It’s not your garden-variety auditor that you’re looking for … it’s a much more specialized discipline so it may not be easy to find this person, but we need to find the right person to do the job.”

She said there is nothing to discuss in terms of revising the regional agreement until an audit is completed.

“We don’t know where the money’s being spent,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

She also noted that, with a regional agreement still in place, she did not see how Whitman officials could be insistent on using the statutory assessment formula instead of an alternative one as the district towns have done in the past.

The statutory method takes into account a town’s minimum per pupil expenditure designated by DESE — the minimum local contribution — which fluctuates based on inflation, wage adjustment, town’s total earned income, property values and municipal revenue growth. Anything in a budget over the minimum local contribution goes to the regional agreement, based on pupil population, for any other operating expense.

There is no requirement for unanimous agreement by both communities to use the statutory method.

The agreement/alternative method uses strict per-pupil representation to assess the communities, the method currently used by the district. Both communities have to pass the assessment methodology prior to the budget distribution or at town meeting in order to use this method. If one town does not vote the budget forward and the other does, it does not constitute unanimous agreement for the method to be used.

Town Counsel Katherine Feodoroff had been asked to brief Selectmen on the process going forward if a statutory budget is presented and what “potential plays” the town can make, especially if a state take-over of the schools occurs.

“It seems to me that we control the [Town Meeting] warrant,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I can certainly see the writing on the wall … but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be comfortable knowing there’s a regional agreement in place, voting for statutory as a selectman.”

She said she does not think it is in the best interests of citizens and said her preference would have been for negotiations to have been opened prior to Whitman and the School Committee voting to go with the statutory formula. FitzGerald-Kemmett said she did not think that would be in the best interests of Hanson.

“Everybody wants the budget approved, because when you don’t approve the budget a whole bunch of automatic processes go into place,” Feodoroff said.

Town Meeting options are to amend from the floor.

She said despite the past drafting of the regional agreement, the new state law was passed requiring the statutory assessment.

“Your option is to vote it down — and then they don’t have an approved budget,” she said. That sends it back to the School Committee to either acquiesce to what the dissenting town wants or come back with a different assessment, which the town would have to vote up or down at another Town Meeting. With no budget by the new fiscal year on July 1, the state imposes a 1/12 budget based on the assessment of the previous fiscal year — through the statutory method.

The next step would be a “super town meeting,” with the state able to take over a district if that fails to produce a budget by Dec. 1.

“Nothing gets done without the state signing off,” Feodoroff said. Sometimes the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) approves a budget greater than was originally requested.

“The sad part is the kids are being held hostage by this,” said Selectman Wes Blauss. “In the end its not even Whitman vs. Hanson.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if the situation didn’t boil down to a breach of contract.

“We’re being painted into a corner and it just doesn’t seem fair,” she said. “I know the law isn’t always fair but it’s befuddling to me that a confluence of facts and events would get us to a place where a town literally has very little control over what we are going to spend on our schools.”

HANOVER — The South Shore Tech School Committee has been presented with a fiscal 2021 budget increase of 4.09 percent —$589,319 — increase that would also decrease the total assessments to member towns. An increase in non-resident tuition is expected to offset the budget increase, according to Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey.

State aid figures for Chapter 70 funds are not yet available, but the district assumes level funding will be continued. Regional transportation reimbursement, meanwhile, is being assumed at 80 percent — up from 70 percent in fiscal 2020 — and the budget total assumes that stabilization funds will remain at $37,280 to defray bus lease costs.

The committee heard Hickey’s annual budget presentation on Wednesday, Dec. 18.

“Whatever we value, that’s what we budget for,” Hickey said to open his presentation. “We build our budget from zero.”

A Jan. 22 public hearing on the budget is planned.

Supplies and technology costs, such as for steel or tools, will increase in some programs. There is also $89,644 in new personnel requests, such as moving a graphic communications instructor to full-time as well as adding English Learner and horticulture instructors and a horticulture aide.

Capital requests for 2021 total $782,414 — including septic and roof repairs on the building.

The project design cost included in the 2021 budget comes to $199,936 for the design and $69,978 for an owner’s project manager.

Hiring an owner’s project manager and design will be the first steps toward deciding what the district will go out for bid for planned capital projects. The work could be done separately, the roof one year and windows the next, or do it all at once. The original cost estimate from fiscal 2018 came in at $1,236,800 for the roof and $396,625 for the windows, and $1,777,425, including the cost of metal panels under the windows. For fiscal 2021 the 4-percent hike brings the total cost to $1,999,361 with a 6.5-percent contingency plan of $129,958 built in.

Cost increases anticipated at 4 percent per year, brought the combined projects cost to $1,848,522 in fiscal 2019 and to $1,922,63 in fiscal 2020.

Accomplishments for the past year include continuing strong growth in MCAS scores and student attainment of third-party vocational credentials. The school is also actively involved with area workforce development boards and the South Shore Chamber of Commerce and has implemented work-based adult education programs.

The district has also used skills capital grants to bring in $300,000 for capital purchases. It goes into the fiscal 2021 budget year owing only the final interest payment on the 2010 roof and window project debt.

Another roof and window project for the newer wing of the school is among the capital goals.

Other budgetary goals include expansion of the horticulture and landscape program, building a “clean room” with grant funds for the storing of metal fabrication and machining inspection equipment, expansion of adult education and workforce development partnerships and for analysis of school operations accountability as well as social-emotional learning initiatives.

Student attendance and expansion of the breakfast program participation are also planned.

WHITMAN — With winter beginning to take hold, Town Administrator Frank Lynam proposed a change to the budget process for snow and ice removal to the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Dec. 17.

“Obviously, we are going through some difficult mechanisms right now with the budget,” he said. “However, we start every year in the hole [for snow and ice removal] with the exception of two since 2007.”

The town appropriates $120,000 for snow and ice and the costs, when it hasn’t been able to pay for it have varied from $249,000 to $475,000. He argued that, if the starting budget was increased to $250,000 the town would have still seen nine deficit years out of the last 13; at $300,000 Whitman would have seen five deficit years.

He cautioned, however, that any increase must be looked at in view of how it might affect the current budget.

He urged the board to look at the issue toward deciding whether more money should be committed to snow and ice in order to get an even start to the year. Lynam also provided his cost analysis to the finance committee.

“I’m not looking for a vote, I’m just bringing it forward to say it’s something we need to look at as part of our overall revamp of our budget process,” he said.

Selectmen Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci said he had always been told by the DPW that, once the snow and ice budget was increased, it could never be decreased.

Lynam said that is not correct, but if a town increases the budget line and ends up with a surplus, it would be capped at what that budget is the following year.

“It’s just for the year following the reduction, you’re not permanently enjoined,” he said.

Lynam told the board that he was recently contacted by state officials about their work to update flood maps, including a change in procedures.

Once the maps are updated, the town must update them through its bylaws, according to Lynam.

Building Inspector Bob Currant will be the point person on the project.

Selectmen also heard a report on the Dec. 4 meeting of the New Regional Agreement Amendment Committee.

“What can I say? We met, we dissolved,” Lynam said.

“I will tell you the dissolution of the committee was definitely a … both towns agreed on it and just feel it’s the best way to handle things, the assessment being one of the major hurdles to get over,” said Selectman Randy LaMattina, who attended a Dec. 4 meeting of the committee with Lynam, Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski and their Hanson counterparts.

“We just felt that the towns really needed to happen in a smaller group and tackle that issue rather than take on a whole regional agreement at this time,” LaMattina said.

Lynam reminded the board that informal discussions had been held on the issue previously and he said he was sure that could happen again.

While he said his goal is to ultimately get to the statutory assessment method, but LaMattina said without hard numbers or a measure of voter preference in Whitman, he said Kowalski had recommended a center-lane approach that is neither statutory nor alternative/agreement method. LaMattina, however, argued that the statutory method is the most equitable. Whitman also voted to support the statutory method.

“I know it’s uphill for Hanson,” he said. “It self-corrects. You don’t get into a situation that you go 31 years under an agreement that has really shifted.”

The School Committee — divided along community lines — voted 6-4 on Wednesday, Dec. 11 to use the statutory formula for calculating the towns’ assessments for the fiscal 2021 school budget.

The six Whitman members supported the move and the four Hanson members voted against it.

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes outlined a Dec. 4 meeting of the new Regional Agreement Committee, including him and Vice Chairman Christopher Scriven, two members of each board of selectmen and school district and town administrators.

“It was a very lively discussion about the statutory method vs. the alternative method,” Hayes said. “It was all very valuable information with everybody sort of on the same page and working at it.”

The statutory method takes into account a town’s minimum per pupil expenditure designated by DESE — the minimum local contribution — which fluctuates based on inflation, wage adjustment, town’s total earned income, property values and municipal revenue growth. Anything in a budget over the minimum local contribution goes to the regional agreement, based on pupil population, for any other operating expense.

There is no requirement for unanimous agreement by both communities to use the statutory method.

The agreement/alternative method uses strict per-pupil representation to assess the communities, the method currently used by the district. Both communities have to pass the assessment methodology prior to the budget distribution or at town meeting in order to use this method. If one town does not vote the budget forward and the other does, it does not constitute unanimous agreement for the method to be used.

No votes were taken at what Hayes described as a largely organizational meeting until assessments were discussed. But by the end of that session the group agreed to ask the School Committee to temporarily disband the Regional Agreement Committee until the towns are ready to work on all aspects of the agreement.

The School Committee approved that motion unanimously. The Regional Agreement Committee had also asked the School Committee for its vote on the assessment method to be used in the fiscal 2021 budget. That required only a majority vote of the School Committee.

“What they didn’t want to do was violate any laws by having quorums and discussions that they could be having with each other,” Hayes said.

Scriven said he thought it was a “pretty positive dialog.”

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro characterized the request as an effort to formulate a budget this year and then come back to examine how the whole plan looks from a language, process and building perspective and look as long-term impact.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said the assessment debates have taken up the bulk of attention over the past five months and that he was “struggling” with requests from both towns for an independent audit of their schools’ operating costs — and a town administrator’s suggestion that the school district needed to “tighten its belt.”

“I’ve been superintendent for a year and a half and I worked really hard last year to do what’s best for the kids,” Szymaniak said. “So, if you want to do an audit of what we do, bring it forth … but to question the integrity of both George and I — and this committee, who put forth a budget last year that cut $1.8 million — I’m offended by that.”

He said the cost of an audit could be better spent on Chromebooks for the high school.

School Committee member Christopher Howard of Hanson said he was concerned that none of the community representatives on the Regional Agreement Committee were present to offer their thoughts about the Dec. 4 session.

“All I can say is they specifically asked us to vote on this in and effort to kind of move forward,” Scriven said.

Whitman member Dawn Beyers expressed concern that disbanding the Regional Agreement Committee “allows them to have sub, sub, subgroups” and she would prefer to see open conversations.

Discussion of the assessment formula revealed that the two towns are still far apart on financing the school budget.

“It was implemented, really, to benefit all the children,” Byers also said of the statutory assessment formula. “As a committee, I’ll hope we’ll recognize our charge — it’s student achievement, it’s continuous student achievement, and we need to talk about how the availability of the statutory assessment does help our budget. It does help our students.”

She said that, as tighter budgets narrow what the district can offer, students will go elsewhere and it will ultimately cost W-H more.

Howard said it is the budget itself that is key, rather than the assessment method.

“The assessment is just how we’re charging the affected towns the cost,” he said.

Hayes said unfunded mandates have a huge impact, as well.

But Whitman member Dan Cullity was more blunt as discussion moved onto the next budget projections.

“To turn around and tell you to tighten the school budget belt — we’re the only department that’s cut, laid off, dropped services — I don’t think we can be tightening the belt any more than we have,” he said. “That really ticked me off, not only as a School Committee member, but as a citizen in the town of Whitman.”

He stressed that assessments to the towns do not necessarily reflect an increase in the school budget. He said either legislation to free up some of the state surplus to fund unfunded mandates, or tax increases would be needed to close the budget gap.

Cullity noted education is the only service required by the state constitution.

“I’m sorry, I’m here for the children — that’s why I was elected,” he said. “I don’t want to pay more taxes, [but] that’s the only way this is ever going to be resolved.”

Byers said W-H is not alone in dealing with unfunded mandates.

“It goes back to our towns and how they choose to support education,” she said.

Szymaniak said the preliminary fiscal 2021 budget is $57,492,938 — an increase of 9.66 percent or $5.9 million.

“That’s giving you what we need to move forward,” he told the committee. That figure includes full-day kindergarten, changing start times, reducing class size in elementary schools and other things that have been “talked about for years and years” that have been cut.

Required expenses total $2,291,200 — including salary increases. Special education transportation costs are up $275,000; special education tuition is up $110,000 and facilities costs are up.

Curriculum upgrades the district needs are also factored into the recommended budget.

“We’ve tightened our belts as much as we can,” Szymaniak said. “This committee has always supported kids and I ask them to continue to support kids. I know you are responsible to your local communities as well.”

WHITMAN — Saying “nothing here is cast in stone,” financial consultant John Madden returned to a meeting of the Whitman Budget Override Evaluation Committee Monday, Dec. 2 to review his draft analysis of the town financial conditions.

“It was what we expected,” said Town Administrator Frank Lynam. “It was what we’ve been talking about.”

The report is posted on the town website whitman-ma.gov.

“Make no mistake, you guys have done a great job,” Madden said. “You’ve gotten to where we are today, when other communities may have decided, ‘You know what? This is too much work. I think we’ll try for an override and see what happens.’”

He lauded what the committee and town government have done to balance the budget and “postpone what appears to be the inevitable.”

Committee Chairman Selectman Randy LaMattina said the panel did have some questions and sought clarification on figures in the report, specifically a 5-percent increase for the schools.

Madden said if department heads have compelling arguments for the Finance Committee, board of Selectmen or other decision-making board to consider for figures outside of his recommendations, that is the decision of that committee or board.

“Something has to give or you prepare to go to the voters with a general override,” he cautioned however, adding the recommendations come from an effort to mitigate the cost and delay the need for such an override.

He said that he recommended 5 percent for the schools, based on what he has seen in other communities.

“I’ve seen lower, I’ve seen higher,” Madden said.

Resident member of the committee Christopher George asked if the figure represented a 5-percent increase in the assessments to the towns or a 5-percent increase in the schools’ overall budget. Madden said it was the figure from the towns’ Article 2 budget.

School Committee member Dawn Byers noted that, as a regional district, more than 50-percent of the WHRSD budget is from state aid and is not giving Whitman a 5-percent increase.

If the recommendation involved a 5-percent increase from Whitman and Hanson individually, as well as from the state, it would paint a different picture, Byers said.

“I think that would be a nice opportunity to fund the schools appropriately, but with 0.45 percent Chapter 70 increase, 5 percent from the towns doesn’t equate to an overall 5-percent budget increase,” she said.

Lynam said the committee hired Madden in an effort to identify where Whitman is and where the town is headed with the regional schools posing a particular challenge because so much of that budget is fixed.

“In fairness, our concern was for you to focus the factors that affect Whitman,” he said. “You have done that.”
Madden agreed that the towns are charged with providing an education to the children of Whitman and of Hanson, as well as some school choice participants, that keep students coming into the district.

“You’ve got to fund an education that keeps people in school and not looking elsewhere,” he said.

George also asked if there was any area in which the town was spending too much money as compared with others. Madden said nothing he has looked at or recommended actually solves individual issues. He said the report identified some areas of concern such as IT, but said it was up to the town as to whether they want to tackle them sooner rather than later.

Selectman Justin Evans, noting the suggestion in Madden’s report that the motor vehicle fine account could be moved into the general fund to defray salary expenses in the operating budget, asked if the town could do that on its own, since the town had petitioned the state to create the fine account in the first place.

Lynam said the town would have to rescind its approval of home rule legislation, but he would investigate the process.

“There’s so many things that would be perceived as negative in that type of revenue process,” he said. “I believe right now the police act in a responsible way to ensure public safety — that’s their job and that’s what they should be doing — they shouldn’t be focusing on hit counts to raise money, and I wouldn’t want to see us going back to that.”

Madden said he suggested the fines go back into the general fund since they no longer cover the cost of vehicle leases.

Lynam said even if the change was not made, the town could look at the revenue coming in against the purchasing needs of the public safety departments and use what remains for general fund purposes through Town Meeting warrant articles.

“We’re not really changing anything,” George said. “It’s an accounting practice in terms of the way things work. … We’re not really talking about any significant changes or reductions for how we spend that money, this is just about best practices from an accounting standpoint.”

Madden said that was basically what he was recommending for budget flexibility and protection from anomalies.

“We have utilized our funding sources to the maximum available,” Lynam said. “That’s where we are today.”

LaMattina noted social media posts to the effect that the town spends too much money and asked Madden for his assessment of Whitman’s spending practices. Madded said that, while free cash has been used to pay debt over the past few years, he considers debt to be part of the budget, and worked hard to do that, but at some point the town will have to consider an override. Other than that, some staffing issues are the only sources of concern Madden said he found, including overtime use.

He was asked if Whitman’s average tax bill is $5,450 in fiscal 2020, up 6 percent from last year and 24 percent in five years, is common or if it seemed high.

“Not necessarily,” Madden said. “I’ve analyzed a community that went up 13 percent in one year.”

He said if the overall budget were to increase 3 percent, it would not necessarily be a bad thing.

“There are a number of things the public doesn’t see that drive a budget,” he said.

Finance Committee member Scott Lambiase said the BOEC has to digest Madden’s report and discuss it with the Finance Committee and Selectmen.

“But we have recommendations on the table, and we have to decide what we want to do with those recommendations — whether we want to adopt all of them, some of them — and then move forward with that,” he said. “Right now, we have a budget to put together and then we have to decide do we want policies to come out of this? Do we want to adopt them? We want to make sure we can stick with them.”

Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green also advocated adopting the Community Preservation Act, which can bring in state funding for recreation, open space conservation, community housing and historic preservation projects.

WHITMAN — In the end, it took less time for voters at the Monday, Dec. 2 special Town Meeting to complete the work of acting on the four-article warrant than it did to achieve a quorum.

When voter number 150 entered the Town Hall Auditorium just before 8 p.m. — the session was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. — she received a warm round of applause.

Less than 23 minutes later, voters had transferred funds to pay an engineering bill for repairs to Hobart Pond; accepted another transfer to fund accrued vacation time for former Police Chief Scott Benton; and OK’d an appropriation to pay for sewer bills to Brockton and the engineering, consulting and permitting costs involved in repairs to Whitman’s sewer force main. A fourth article calling for a transfer of $7,209 from the law account to the Animal Control account was passed over.

A $900,000 appropriation from sewer-water retained earnings to pay $121,676.23 in additional sewer bills to Brockton as well as $88,083.70 for preliminary work on a sewer repair expected total of about $8.2 million.

Lynam said the sewer bill was the result of renegotiation of a contract with Brockton begun in 2015 and tentatively agreed on within the last month.

The cost includes capital costs Whitman has not paid in the past and is now responsible for, and the remainder of the transfer will fund the planning and design for a new 16,000-foot pipe in the ground to replace a pipe that has failed twice already.   

The Hobart Pond article transferred $4,500 from the Norfolk County Agricultural H.S. in the May 1019 annual Town Meeting to pay a prior year’s bill to Collins Engineers Inc., for their work

A resident asked why the transfer was necessary and if it would be repeated in the future. The funds were intended to cover funds owed an engineering firm that helped the town repair a breach in the Hobart Pond dam.                                             

“Each year, we have to make an appropriation the first Monday in May to pay for whatever students are going to Norfolk Aggie,” Town Administrator Frank Lynam explained. “We don’t necessarily know who’s going until June.”

Lynam explained the town always has to estimate that two students will attend the school for budgeting purposes. This year there was one surplus student and the line was a “reasonable place” from which to transfer money. A 90-percent threshold was required to pass the article, and voters passed it with 97 percent voting in favor.

A second transfer — of $15,500 — from Norfolk Aggie involved in the 2019 Town Meeting vote, as well as a $22,818.57 transfer from the 2019 law account to fund the police chief salary line for the balance of fiscal 2020.

Lynam amended the article to correct a misprint in the warrant from $37,918.57 to $37,318.57, but a voter pointed out that the figure still didn’t add up until it was further amended to $38,318.57.

A voter asked, once the amendment was approved, if it was designed to pay unused sick leave time, which Lynam said was not the case. He explained the transfer would settle up accrued, unused vacation time and noted that the Board of Selectmen had recently voted to limit the carryover of unused vacation time to no more than nine days per year.

HANSON — Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett has asked town counsel Jay Talerman to reach out to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to discuss regional school assessments with Christine Lynch of the DESE’s Office of Regional Governance.

The board also voted, on Tuesday Nov. 19, to conditionally appropriate not to exceed $30,000 for Hanson’s share of the cost for an independent audit — based on passage of an audit request in Whitman. The Whitman Board of Selectmen approved the audit request the same night. The report would be provided to both town administrators.

The request for information from DESE came before Lynch’s appearance at a School Committee meeting Nov. 5 to provide what FitzGerald-Kemmett called an excellent explanation of the Education Reform Law and how it impacts school assessments.

Lynch had strongly suggested the two towns work together to solve the issue, which led Whitman Selectman Randy LaMattina to invite some Hanson officials to do that.

FitzGerald-Kemmett reported to the board about the Nov. 12 meeting she, Selectman Matt Dyer and interim Town Administrator had with Whitman Selectmen LaMattina and Justin Evans and Town Administrator Frank Lynam concerning the regional school assessment issue.

“The purpose of our meeting was to just lay it on the line that, regardless of what the School Committee votes … there has to be a path forward,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’ve got an agreement in place and I think the right thing to do … would have been to have folks from Whitman come to us and say, ‘We believe that we can’t sustain the regional agreement the way that it is now.’”

She pointed to Whitman’s financial constraints in suggesting that officials there could ask to discuss a way forward.

“I’m not saying we would have agreed to do it, but we would have at least had a dialog about it,” she said, noting that, instead people have been lobbing verbal hand grenades on social media. “We’re going to end up at super town meeting anyway you look at it, regardless of what the School Committee does.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said she thinks Hanson is at a place where they still need the School District’s figures on what it is costing each community to educate children this year and how much money each is getting from in the way of Chapter 70 state aid.

“I’m not trying to be incendiary at all because I do appreciate the spirit in which Randy and Justin reached out,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

The committee formed by the School Committee to look into assessments has named Chairman Bob Hayes of Hanson and Vice Chairman Christopher Scriven of Hanson to it. Whitman has officially appointed LaMattina and Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski to that committee. Hanson Selectmen Nov. 19 voted to appoint FitzGerald-Kemmett and Selectman Jim Hickey to sit on the assessment committee.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said she is looking for a private auditor to examine the School District finances to offer an impartial examination — a move Whitman Selectmen backed the same evening in their meeting. The cost of the audit, estimated at between $45,000 to $50,000 would be split between the two towns and could take about four to five weeks.

Selectman Kenny Mitchell said it was a step they should take.

Selectman Jim Hickey said he still wants to know why the 2007 DESE language change was never mentioned in School Committee minutes.

Hayes said the School Department is required to hire an independent auditing firm to report to both the Committee and DESE each year.

FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested the new audit’s lens would be more broad than the one required of the schools.

Another point of contention for the towns with the revised Regional Agreement centers on the de-regionalization process, both towns stress is not imminent, but a point of concern centering on the process and costs if it ever came to that.

“It’s probably not the move, we’re so attached at the hip right now, but I think the question is being asked,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “So, I feel it’s something I feel we need to have some [discussion] around. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on it. … I want people to feel we’ve looked at all the options.”

Mitchell said the assessment discussion is needed.

“We can be right, but it’s not going to get us what we want,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “What do we have to lose? If we don’t go to the bargaining table, it’s going to happen. At least if we sit down to the bargaining table, we may effectuate some change.”

Hayes addressed questions asked by a resident, who used to work for the School District business office about how the statutory assessment change came about. He noted that the state made the change through an amendment to the Education Reform Act.

“The state contributes a ton of money to school districts,” he said. “They are stating that Hanson has more ability to pay before you get to the 60-40 split [in student population].”

Personnel moves

In other business, the board voted to hire Carol Jensen as supportive day coordinator at the Hanson Multi-Service Senior Center.

After an internal posting, there were no applicants, but a general posting brought in two applications, Marini said. She and Senior Center Director Mary Collins interviewed both well-qualified candidates.

Jensen has experience in working with dementia and Alzheimer’s patients through Braintree Hospital.

“That’s what the social day care program is and we think she will be a good fit for the position,” Marini said.

The board approved a request from Police Chief Michael Miksch to appoint full-time student police officer Mario Thompson and part-time officer Bryan Rodday.

Thompson, who grew up in town is a part-time officer who has completed a program the full-time officers go through.

“He’s actually working in a cruiser once in a while on his own and has done a great job doing it,” Miksch said. Thompson currently works full time for the Duxbury Harbormaster. He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Bridgewater State University and coached youth football as well as a basketball program for the Special Olympics.

Town Meeting approved the funding for Miksch to hire two officers in January to help offset the move to a regional dispatch center. Thompson would be one of those two and the department has secured an academy slot for him beginning Jan. 6.

Rodday has been a full-time dispatcher in Scituate who applied for a Hanson dispatch job, but also applied for a position as a part-time officer for HPD. A Hanover native, he also holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Bridgewater State, and has worked as a special education teacher in Hanover schools as well as home-schooling autistic children.

Miksch called attention to the beard he has been growing — as some other police officers in his department are — for “Mowvember,” during which men are encouraged to grow a mustache and/or beard to fight men’s cancers as well as suicide and to support mental health programs. Hanson Police are participating to raise funds for Cops for Kids with Cancer.

Selectmen also voted to appoint Matthew Cahill of Duxbury as new highway director and heard an update on the Highway Department from interim Surveyor Curt MacLean.

The director’s job and new title was posted after the recent death of Highway Surveyor Bob Brown, according to Marini, who said one internal application has been received for the posting.

“Although his service to the town and experience was extensive, we just wanted to open it up to see if we could get a higher level of qualifications,” she said, noting that six applications were received.

Marini, MacLean and Blauss conducted the interviews.

“All the applicants were well-qualified, but one just stood above the rest, with being a civil engineer and he comes to us from MassDOT [with] 10 years’ experience in the maintenance division and construction division,” Marini told the board. He also has experience in snow and ice removal.

Cahill said he was excited to begin working for Hanson.

“Well, we’re excited to have you before the first snowfall,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

MacLean said his biggest concern when he began as interim was snow and ice, but the crews have worked to ensure sanders are ready for winter.

“If we have an event tomorrow, we’re all ready to go,” he said, and thanked Marini and the town’s department heads for being “great to work with” during his tenure as interim surveyor.

MacLean said the current Highway building if “functional” but offers extremely tight quarters and no longer state-of-the-art.

“If you ever had a fire you’d lose all your equipment int hat one building,” he said. “It beats working in a lean-to.”

He also reviewed the protocol for obtaining road signs. For the full meeting, visit the Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV YouTube channel.