HANOVER — If MCAS improvement placed all students at the 10-yard line on a football field, South Shore Tech students would have advanced to the three-yard line this year.

Principal Mark Aubrey outlined the improvement in last year’s scores for the School Committee at its Wednesday, Oct. 17 meeting.

Aubrey reiterated that the state is looking more at how any students achieve proficient and advanced ranking, rather than how many pass the test.

“We’re focusing on learning,” he said. “We’re trying to take a hodge-podge of different curriculums [from sending schools in and out of the district] and put everybody on the same page and move them forward.”

In the English Language Arts (ELA) test, there were 43 students who scored as advanced in 2017 out of 143 students tested, this year 63 students achieved those scores. In math — Aubrey said, using percentages because the data was reported differently — the school went from 79-percent proficient/advanced to 84 percent over the same period.

“Student growth percentile (SGP) measures how far we’ve moved them down the football field,” he said. “This school in ELA was 12^th in the state … on moving SGP. That is a phenomenal effort by your staff, every single day, coming to school.”

Still, one student did earn the perfect score of 280 on the mathematics MCAS test this year.

“The math department [based on SGP] was number three in the state,” Aubrey said. “That is teaching and that is learning and that is what this building is about.”

In science, 109 students scored proficient/advanced last year, this year there were 125 scoring at that level.

“We’re moving in the direction the state wants us to move in,” he said. “It’s not just passing. We are moving kids further up the ladder to where they need to be and where the state expects them to be. … This is done by the entire staff.”

Related instructors use math and ELA skills, through reading and bookwork in the latter case, to reinforce classroom instruction.

Hickey thanked School Committee members who were able to attend the Saturday, Oct. 13 open house, during which 265 students were registered for 175 to 180 available places in next year’s freshmen class — 161 applications were completed and 125 interviews were also completed. Of the 265, 198 were eighth-graders and 44 were seventh-graders taking an early look at the school.

“When we only have so much room and we have to turn around and say to parents ‘I’m sorry, but we don’t have room for your children,’ We should be able to get them all in the school that are looking to be here,” said Whitman School Committee member Daniel Salvucci.

Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said the data received from MCAS scores and the number of applicants the school receives should help SSVT’s position when the Massachusetts School Building Authority makes its decisions on statements of interest in December.

School Committee member Robert L. Molla Jr., of Norwell agreed with Salvucci’s comments about the number of students that are placed on waiting lists.

“The parents, especially, were positive [at open house] about this school, that’s why the students are here,” Molla said. He noted tat parents from Rockland have been disturbed that SSVT has not been allowed to go to Rockland to conduct interviews with student applicants during the day.

School Committee member Robert L. Mahoney of Rockland said he has already spoken to his town’s school officials.

“The bottom line is public education has become a competitive market and we are in that competitive market a lot stronger than we used to be in the past,” Mahoney said. “What the towns are not realizing is we have to be held to the same standards as they have to be held by the state.”

He said the competition public schools are now experiencing from private, charter and parochial schools are costing them a lot of students and the state funding that goes along with them.

“The frustrating part of this is it’s not about kids, it’s about money,” Mahoney said. “It’s about the money they’re losing, and it’s about the money we’re losing because we’re not big enough to take in more.”

Vocational schools are, however, public education, Mahoney stressed.

“We are the second public school,” he said. “We are succeeding in the public market out there, that’s the problem.”

In other business, the school’s new vocational coordinators, Keith Boyle of Hanson and Robert Foley, reported on their new initiatives at the school.

“These gentlemen are responsible for overseeing and being the direct supervisors for half of our vocational-technical programs,” Hickey said. “Their job is to get to know the teachers and the students, the advisors in these programs and they have both done a phenomenal job from Day One.”

Boyle, formerly a horticulture teacher at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Bourne, is also a cranberry grower in Hanson. Boyle is a graduate of Norfolk County Agricultural High School. He is developing SSVT’s horticulture program as well as serving as a vocational coordinator where he is working to expand the cooperative work program.

Right now 33 seniors are working at approved coop sites and have earned a collective $22,000 in the first month of the school year, Boyle reported. He has also started a school chapter of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) program, a career and technical student organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education from horticulture and animal husbandry to forestry and agri-business.

Horticulture students have already been working to improve the outward appearance of the school, Boyle said, including planter boxes at the restaurant/salon entrance and are working to install a well at the front of the building to provide irrigation.

Foley, a former lead carpentry teacher at Blue Hills Regional Vocational Technical High School in Canton, is a Kingston resident. He was president of the SkillsUSA Board of Directors, which he had to forego the position as he is no longer a teacher. He is still a board member and will soon become director of the state SkillsUSA competition.

“I’m excited to help invigorate a very rigorous program that’s already in place here,” Foley said.

A licensed builder with a heavy construction background, he is assisting with construction of the new greenhouse for the horticulture program, and is planning a pre-apprentice vocational school training program sponsored by Mass. Laborers International Union, on Monday, Nov. 5.

That program, part of the UMass Transportation Committee and Workforce Development Program funded by a federal transportation grant through MassDOT. Instructors will work with 25 students from various shops for week, after which students will be certified in first aid, CPR and AED with all hours involved qualifying as pre-apprentice hours transferrable to carpenters, laborers, electricians, sheet metal workers, pipefitters and operators unions. A free CDL license will also be offered through the New England Tractor-Trailer Training School.

“It’s a great opportunity for our kids,” Foley said.

“This is a very exciting time to be in voke-ed,” said Assistant Principal Sandra Baldner. “We’re really in a good spot right now and I think you’re going to see lots of growth in our school.”

An additional Chapter 74 grant is being sought to offer a license in web design and programming, which could help students throughout the school.

HANSON — Bridges over sometimes-troubled political waters — and the late Charles W. Mann’s role in spanning political divides throughout his career in public service — was the theme of the Oct. 12 dedication of the Hon. Charles W. Mann Bridge.

“Today, we come together to commemorate a man who built bridges between communities, parties, people … that when we leave, in the days to come, we would be able to help build bridges, as well,” Pembroke Assembly of God Pastor Joe Quaresimo prayed in his invocation.

The Charles W. Mann Bridge, spanning the Drinkwater River — which flows under Winter Street — connects the towns of Hanson and Hanover. Mann’s public service, too, spanned the two neighboring towns. A very short distance downstream the Drinkwater joins with Indian Head Brook to form the Indian Head River and further downstream it is joined by Herring Brook in Pembroke and there turns into the North River.

Most of Friday’s emotional ceremony was moved from the bridge to Hanson Town Hall, where a collation had already been planned in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room. But once the morning rain abated, the actual unveiling of signs took place at both ends of the bridge.

“It’s very evident that Charlie did not have many ‘fair weather friends,’” quipped host and Hanson state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, about the large turnout as torrents of rain fell outside. “I think it’s very appropriate that we’re here at Hanson Town Hall in the Selectmen’s Room. … We know that Charlie was a consummate public servant who served his district and Commonwealth for five decades.”

Cutler added that the only location that would be as appropriate was Sandy’s Coffee Corner, where Mann often held forth over coffee with members of the community.

“He loved to talk to people, connect with people and help people,” Cutler said, noting that Sandy’s is where he first met Mann while campaigning for Mann’s old Sixth Plymouth District Seat. “Even though we were from different generations, different towns, different political parties, I’ve always admired him, and respected him and appreciated the civil discourse he brought to his endeavors.”

Friends and political colleagues and family members spoke at the ceremony about Mann’s dedication to reaching across the political aisle in the interest of serving his state and constituents back home.

Fifth Plymouth District state Rep. Dave DeCoste, R-Norwell; state Sen. Mike Brady, D-Brockton, Hanson Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell and retired sheriffs Peter Flynn and Charles Decas shared memories of their work and friendships with Mann before his daughter, Karen Barry spoke for the family.

Brady noted that Mann’s service in the State House in 1966, “when I was only 4 years old,” noting that Mann was an Army veteran who epitomized bi-partisanship.

“Unlike what we see in Washington today, we were very fortunate to have people like Charlie Mann, because he was able to work across the aisle,” Brady said.

Cutler and DeCoste — who co-sponsored the bill to name the bridge after Mann — also alluded to the bipartisan effort to honor Mann, whose legacy was one of bridging the political divide.

“I was a strap-hanger in this whole effort,” DeCoste demurred. “Josh is the guy who did it. … There were so many people who came out of the woodwork [to support the bill]. They saw it on the agenda that the [Hanover] Selectmen were going to approve it.”

DeCoste said Mann’s legacy has lived on as one of the people who went to Boston to get something done and not for political perks.

“Your dad was able to put together coalitions of people on a broad political spectrum and make things happen,” he told Mann’s daughters Barry, Theresa Cocio, Debbie Stauble and Jennifer DiCristofaro.

Mitchell also continued the bridge metaphor in his remarks, while noting Mann also served on the School Committee, the North River Commission and as a Town Moderator.

“I think it is very fitting that we are dedicating this bridge in his memory,” Mitchell said. “Charlie was a uniter — someone who tried to bring people together and bridge divides, just as this bridge does now.”

He thanked the Mann family for sharing him with Hanson all these years.

Flynn and Decas, who were close friends of Mann’s shared personal stories of the Charlie Mann they knew — a guy who loved a card game and a good cigar with a close friend who was fighting a losing battle with cancer, Flynn’s brother David.

“I was on the periphery, but they were really friends,” Flynn said In a choked voice. “David was dying … I’m sure they talked about the past, I’m sure they talked about the present and I’m sure they talked about Dave’s future.

“I think that was one of the toughest bridges that Charlie had to build — the bridge, for my brother, between here and there,” he said, pointing skyward. “Charlie probably didn’t know how much he meant to our family for what he had done.”

Decas said passing over the bridge will be sure to bring back memories of Mann to all who knew him.

“When special people touch our lives, then suddenly we see how beautiful and wonderful our world could really be,” he said.

Barry said Flynn and Decas were a tough act to follow, and thanked all those who attended. She also thanked Mitchell and the selectmen in both towns who chose to dedicate the bridge to her father.

“More than anything, it’s the wanting to do this that’s most meaningful,” she said. “I believe that our father considered his public service as a privilege, not a job, he loved these communities, never left them … and he loved the people in them.”

She said the bridge was a fitting legacy to a man who believed in bridging divides.

“He made it clear that he represented everyone,” she said.

Among the people thanked by Barry and Cutler were the Hanson and Hanover town administrators and boards of selectmen, Hanson Selectmen’s Assistant Meredith Marini, the Hanson Historical Commission, Hanson Police, Fire and Highway departments, Plymouth county DA Timothy Cruz, the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department, Country Ski & Sport, Legislative Aide Cole Angley and the staffs of Brady and DeCoste.

WHITMAN — It was a literary homecoming.

Author Edwin Hill spoke about the process of writing his debut novel “Little Comfort” at the Whitman Public Library on Thursday, Sept. 27 — to a crowd that included old friends and family members of the writer whose grandmother Phyllis Hill was the librarian in Whitman from the 1940s to the late ’60s.

Many in the room had not yet read the mystery-thriller featuring Hester Thursby, a petite Harvard librarian who takes care of her 3-year-old niece, her non-husband Morgan Maguire and a Bassett hound named Waffles while working on missing persons cases in her spare time.

The book has been out for just over a month with Hill still a bit nervous in only his fifth book talk, and the first without a moderator, in support of the novel.

His talk focused on how the novel developed, focusing on three main characters — Hester, Sam Blaine and Gabe DiPuriso.

“I actually worked on the novel so long [eight years], that I actually forgot a lot of this and it’s been fun over the last month to just discover it,” Hill said, noting that the Clark Rockefeller case was his entry point. Christian Gerhartsreiter — AKA Clark Rockefeller — was a professional imposter who kidnapped his daughter and was later convicted of murder.

“I saw that story and I thought, ‘I always wanted to be a writer, I’m going to write something,’” he said. The resulting two-and-a-half-page theme sat on his computer for years. He knew his villain would be named Sam and that he had “done something bad, and left town.”

Hill would open the file occasionally, read it and think to himself, “That is terrific.” Then he would close it again.

In between jobs he started to write a novel on it, but ended up keeping Sam, but needed a foil. Thus Hester was created.

Hester’s living situation with her non-husband in a three-family home where they kept separate apartments, and her fondness for dark films featuring strong women, informed her character, Hill explained.

He read from his book to illustrate how he introduced each of his three main characters.

Hester, for example, drinks her coffee with cream and seven sugars — a passage that has drawn knowing laughter in each of his talks so far.

Sam is based on that friend everyone seems to have who can get away with anything, but he’s also a serial killer who always knows when to get out of town.

“He really knows how to get into these people’s lives,” Hill said, explaining that Sam’s crossing paths with a librarian like Hester, for whom finding information is her job, illustrates how information has changed life in the Internet era. “If you wanted to disappear right now, you’d really have to work at it. It’s really hard.”

That also serves to shift the theme from the search for someone to what happens after Hester finds him.

Gabe, meanwhile, is Sam’s human collateral damage.

“For me, he sort of turned into the heart of the novel,” Hill said. “He’s the character who changes the most — from someone who seems very lost, who seems very disconnected from the world — and he changes in the novel in a way that, I think, he and Hester certainly have a strange bond at the end.”

He uses narrative discourse for all but the most essential dialogue from Gabe to keep the reader at a distance from the character, especially at the beginning of the story.

Audience members asked if the characters — or story — came first and are they based on real people, how he picked Boston/Somerville as the setting and how Hester ended up being so short.

The title has nothing to do with Whitman, save that it used to be called Little Comfort and he always liked that phrase.

Hill put a bit of himself in Hester’s love of horror movies and her sloppy habits and used his understanding of loneliness in creating Gabe, but tries not to base whole characters on real people.

He said the scene he wrote all those years ago, while not in the book at all, was his gateway to finding Hester.

A writer who likes contrast, Hill was looking for traits that made it hard to not notice, an occupational drawback for someone who follows people for a living. He also wanted her to be someone who has to fight a little bit.

“It was story first, then character, then story, then character, and with a mystery novel, you always want to make sure that there’s tension and that there’s forward momentum in that story,” he said.

Hill lived in Somerville for several years and works in Boston.

“The easiest reason is write what you know,” he said. “Hester basically lives in the [imaginary] house next door to the one I lived in. … Somerville has a nice mix of population.”

Beacon Hill gave him a chance to “play with class” and in Boston one can travel from an urban to suburban or rural area easily.

Hester returns in Hill’s next book, “The Missing Ones,” due out in September 2019.

WHITMAN — Police Officer Mark Poirier was presented two citations for his arrest of murder suspect Allan Warner who was wanted for the death of his estranged wife Shana Warner last week in Marshfield.

Police Chief Scott Benton of Whitman police addressed colleagues as well as family and local politicians to praise Poirier’s swift apprehension.

“I have this opportunity certainly to highlight some great police work — that I am not surprised — was done by Officer Mark Poirier of our police department,” Benton said. “He apprehended homicide fugitive Allen Warner who had brutally murdered his ex-wife –to- be in Marshfield the day before (Monday, Sept. 24).”

Poirier has been a patrolman and a detective for the Whitman police. He is a lifelong Whitman resident and graduate of the W-H class of 1990.

“Mark is conscientious about what he does and how he does his job,”said Benton.

On Sept 25  there was a call to police about a hit-and-run involving a flatbed tow truck that struck potted plants at Dunkin’ Donuts drive through on South Avenue. Poirier contacted the truck company and found out it had been stolen.

During the investigation, Poirier witnessed the truck pulling in to the company where it was stolen and engaged the operator who tried to back up and flee.

He recognized the suspect despite the change in his appearance. Benton commended Poirier for his vigilance in the capture of Warner doing so safely in which no one else was hurt, he said.

“We are lucky to have him here, I am thankful to have him here and the citizens of Whitman are certainly served well by Mark as a police officer,” said Benton.

A Citation from the Massachusetts General Court was presented by state Rep. Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, commending the actions of Poirier. After a summer of upheaval for officers across the country, Diehl said he was pleased to see a local officer commended for doing his job right.

“I think Whitman is such a lucky town to have great leadership under Scott Benton our Chief and the great training that has led to the apprehension that could have gone a whole different bunch of ways — but in this case it went the right way and Officer Poirier was able to successfully apprehend someone who was a threat to the community, a threat to the South Shore,” said Diehl.

He also acknowledged Poirier’s family as the backbone of support for a job that is so dangerous.

“I think the other thing that goes unnoticed is the family behind him that supports what he does every day. When you are an officer in Massachusetts, across the country or right here in Whitman when you go out there to serve the public what you are doing is saying- no matter what the case is I’m going out there and keep you safe,” said Diehl.

State senator Mike D. Brady, D-Brockton, also commended the work of Officer Poirier and presented him with a citation on behalf of the Senate.

Poirier’s wife Stephanie, daughter Savannah, 15, and son Mark Jr., 18, along with his parents Pete and Marilyn were also present to congratulate him.

HANOVER — Don’t call it “the Vo-Tech” anymore.

While the official name, as recorded in its regional agreement, is still South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School — a rebranding effort is under way to more accurately reflect the more demanding nature of school programs as well as its commitment to community.

“We wanted to get rid of the term ‘Vo-Tech’ … in part, because, unfortunately, there are people in the community who still refer to us as ‘Slow-Tech,” even though that is far, far from the truth of what we do in this building and where our students go to college and high-paying careers,” said Principal Mark Aubrey as he outlined the process during the Wednesday, Sept. 19 School Committee meeting.

“If you call the school, we refer to ourselves as South Shore Technical,” he said. “We are South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School, we are SSVT, and we are the same school we were in June.”

The same technologies are taught and the same equipment is used, but community members may not be aware of the school’s high standards, Aubrey said, noting the change is important to accurately reflect the kind of education they provide.

“I agree, but bear with me,” joked School Committee member John Manning of Scituate noting that he still refers to the Tobin Bridge as the Mystic River Bridge.

“You have to make the school proud and the students proud of the school,” said School Committee member Robert Molla of Norwell.

School Committee member Robert Mahoney of Rockland supported the move, but noted he had been surprised by it because the website and other social media have not yet been updated to reflect the rebranding.

Aubrey said the IT department has been working on the changes and that Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey has purchased the website and name South Shore Technical, but stressed it will take more time. In the meantime, the website will come up if one searches for “South Shore Technical.”

A task force of faculty, staff members, students, parents and community members were brought together in recent months to discuss the rebranding idea. The school is also putting together a branding guide that covers school colors — what they are and can be for use by school teams and clubs. All students, starting with the seniors, will be given black polo shirts with the new South Shore Technical High School logo to wear with neat slacks when out on cooperative education work, field trips or to college fairs.

“That’s just another little thing we can do to get ourselves out to the community and let them know that we exist and what we do — and what we do very well every day in this school,” Aubrey said.

New-look Vikings

Even the Viking sports logo will be getting a makeover.

Students will have the opportunity to compete in a contest to design the new logo, personal to South Shore Technical alone, with the aim of having a new one selected by February.

“It kills me to drive through East Bridgewater and see the same Viking head,” he said. “I don’t mind sharing with the Minnesota Vikings, that’s fine, but to be just two towns away and have somebody else with the same Viking …”

Molla recalled that he had brought up the suggestion to give the Viking “a facelift” about two years ago, but noting had come of it.

“I’m glad to see it,” he said. “It’s time to change it. Put a smile on his face or something.”

Recycling effort

SSVT is also moving to a paperless environment and recycling culture in school operations.

School accounting is using the Cloud for an improved workflow for online purchase orders, payroll system and giving employees greater access to pay stub information.

“It’s an exciting time in the business office,” quipped Treasurer James Coughlin. “There’s been a lot of webinars and so forth over the past six weeks. … Right now there’s a big box in our office that produces a lot of heat and a lot of noise as a server and we’re going to take that offline and we’re going to the Cloud.”

Tyler Technologies, a secure national vendor, provides that service.

“That is a theme throughout the building,” Aubrey said of the paperless effort. “We are going to more of a waste-reduction method within the building.”

That includes recycling in all classrooms and shops. Head teacher Matthew Fallano has led the Science Department in training students on correct recycling practices.

“We have staff members in the building that are trying to run their classrooms 99-percent paper-free,” Aubrey said. “They’re using Google Classroom and all the technology that we have supplied to them to be able to run their classrooms without having to do the ‘paperwork shuffle.’ … We are truly hopeful to do a lot of good for the environment and do a lot of good for our students, teaching them proper recycling skills and things like that.”

Welcome

Assistant Principal Sandra Baldner outlined yet another change to the South Shore Technical culture.

Pineapples.

Pineapples are the traditional symbol of welcome, dating back to America’s Colonial days, and were incorporated in welcome-back packaging for faculty. It has since been expanded to use in another new project at the school.

“We are now welcoming staff into each other’s classrooms as part of a pineapple charting initiative,” she said. “It’s an industry trick. You post what’s happening in your classroom on a pineapple poster … and welcome you in to see the good things going on in their classroom.”

The pineapple posters list times of events during which visitors mat observe and ask questions about curriculum initiatives after the lesson.

The school library is now known as the Career and College Center, where students can expand their knowledge of career and college opportunities and interact with professionals in both areas — particularly on First Fridays, when the school will host career socials. The next is at 1:30 p.m., Oct. 5 when the school will hold a health services event.

“The objective of First Fridays is to provide students with the opportunity to practice interpersonal communication with adults, while acquiring the information they need to be successful post-secondary career and/or college,” she said.

Baldner also extended kudos to teachers and students for surviving the oppressive heat during the first week of school. Hickey said the school had a very smooth opening.

WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen, on Tuesday, Sept. 11, discussed two requests from the district received in recent days, one pertaining to the failure of an air handle at the Conley School and another seeking additional parking at the Duval School [see related story left] to accommodate increased staff.

The Conley repair has been made on an emergency basis and the district at the next special Town Meeting will seek reimbursement. Both requests will be discussed at the next Selectmen’s meeting.

“The question at the next meeting will be if we consider that, emergency spending,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said of the parking lot expansion, estimated at $28,000 plus $5,000 to move some playground equipment. He agreed the Conley repair met the criteria for an emergency.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said he understood the need for parking but “really had a hard time identifying that as something that constitutes an emergency.”

Kowalski agreed that the board would have to discuss the issue before deciding whether it would support such an expenditure.

The board again tabled a proposed vote on the WHRSD regional agreement because Selectmen Scott Lambiase and Randy LaMattina were absent. It had been tabled for a vote of the full board once before and was tabled most recently pending more information on amendment procedures.

Selectmen received the School Committee’s Aug. 31 certification vote of the fiscal 2019 budget for $50,523,181 — an increase in the operating budget over fiscal 2018 for Whitman of $1,054,205, the amount voted at the May 2018 Town Meeting.

Dr. Melinda Tarsi of Bridgewater State University has advised Lynam that she and her class have drawn up a first draft of potential questions for the Community Assessment survey, which will be circulated to town boards and department heads for review.

“She felt that seeking additional public input at this time would not be helpful,” he said. “They want to wrap it up [to send it out].”

Kowalski asked for the review to be done in time for Tarsi to attend the Sept. 25 meeting. Lynam noted that, while the community information meeting was helpful for the process, Tarsi had only heard from about 25 people with suggested questions since.

streetlights

Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green said more information regarding the failure rate, lack of choice for companies that handle the nodes involved and network costs for new street lights has been received.

For example, National Grid charges the same amount whether or not lights are dimmed. There is also a 3 percent failure rate on remote-controlled nodes.

One community using the system is still working to get the nodes, that control the lights remotely, to communicate together after six months.

“That, to me, is an issue,” Green said. “I don’t believe we’re a community that’s ready to deal with that type of an impact … I don’t know if it’s the right choice for us at this time.”

The manual control system has only a 1 percent failure rate, but she asked for consensus of the board.

Heat, dismissal schedules pose challenges

Despite some glitches surrounding air conditioning in general and dismissal schedules at some of the elementary schools, Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak gave the district’s opening day of the 2018-19 school year a grade of B-plus.

“I want to thank the police and fire departments from both towns who were giving high-fives to all middle school and elementary school kids,” Szymaniak said. “It was a great opening.”

The School Committee on Wednesday, Aug. 29 heard a review of the first day of school and a progress report on the new WHRHS scoreboard project.

There were some air-conditioning issues, even at the high school as the summer’s oppressive heat and humidity continued, according to Szymaniak, but he had Facilities Director Ernest Sandland purchase 60 80-bottle cases of water to distribute to the elementary schools and encouraged staff to keep students hydrated.

Szymaniak and Assistant Superintendent George Ferro toured all the schools on Tuesday, Aug. 28 to ensure they were ready for that evening’s open houses as well as Wednesday’s opener.

“Our facilities department is pretty awesome,” Szymaniak said. “We got emails from the three elementary principals saying [Sandland] got everything done, buildings looked great  … and I think parents were very excited about going to open house.”

Ferro was out directing traffic at the new inner drop-off loop at the high school and he and Szymaniak then “bounced around” from building to building to observe the opening.

When the dismissal issues cropped up at Indian Head Elementary, Szymaniak and Ferro went to the school to investigate the situation and get information out to parents “a little bit later than I wanted to, but” Hanson Police Chief Michael Miksch and resource officer William Frazier helped adjust the dismissal process.

Maquan School will officially be closed by Sept. 30, which permits time to hold yard sales of excess equipment on Tuesday, Sept. 18 for town departments to shop and on Friday, Sept. 22 for the general public.

Athletic Director Bob Rodgers announced that the new scoreboard is financed sufficiently with the aim for it to be installed for the season-opening game vs. Marshfield Friday night.

Rodgers took the opportunity to again stress that no taxpayer dollars are being spent on the project. The JJ Frisoli Foundation has donated $25,000 and will receive a double advertising panel on the scoreboard for the life of the unit. Mutual Bank and Richard Rosen have each contributed $10,000 for single panels for 10 years. Rosen will divide his panel between Rosen Realty and McGuiggan’s Pub. Two more $10,000 panels are still available and may be subdivided. Rodgers said he is in discussions with three companies that are “strong possibilities” for those spaces.

The final installation is now estimated at $110,000.

“It’s a much more complicated process than we envisioned when we started this,” he said. “But, with the scoreboard going up, I think a lot of people are going to see this and think the school must have tons of money.”

The project is being paid for outright through previous fundraising and gate receipts in addition to the donations and advertising sponsorships already received. Future fundraising will replenish those funds.

“I’m pretty optimistic about where this is headed,” Rodgers said, noting the board can be leased in a limited capacity for youth sports programs as well as post-WHRHS football game “fifth-quarter” movie screenings.

“We’re going to be able to sell advertising that will be meaningful advertising for the businesses in town,” he said. “Several restaurants” have already expressed interest.

Rodgers anticipates the scoreboard advertising will be an ongoing revenue source for the athletics department for years and can be offered to W-H clubs and organizations to sell advertising from which they can divide proceeds with the athletics department.

The School Committee also voted to accept advertising rates including “nonprofit shoutouts” for $25; 30-second video with audio for between  $100 to $400 depending on the sport and season and a digital full color display for between $25 to $100 per game or $200 to $250 per season. The committee will be updated prior to a re-vote on the advertising pricing during a meeting thhis coming June.

Special Ed PAC gears up for year

The district’s Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC) has been required since the 1970s but last year Hanson residents Tina Stidstone and James Fitzgerald took a leading role in revitalizing it.

“The plan is to make the SEPAC something more than it ever has been,” Stidstone says. “My kids have been in the district since 2002 and I never got involved before.”

She said in the past, the special education director planned meetings for parents that showed up, but noted SEPACs are intended to be parent-run organizations. Stidstone and Fitzgerald are hopeful some of the programs they are planning attract more parents to those meetings and some special events.

“This past year I emailed and said ‘all right, I’m taking it as a personal goal to get this thing up and running,’” she said. “I think we’ve done OK. … My whole thought is I have no right to say anything if I don’t become part of something to make it better.”

They started with five parents at last year’s meet-and-greet to 23 at the last meeting of the year, but with more than 600 special needs children in the district, Stidstone would like to see more parents attending.

“I think a lot of people aren’t aware of it, don’t know what it is or what it’s for,” Fitzgerald said. “It was one of those things that was slightly on my radar and with some of the changes the district was making I wanted to have an avenue to talk to other parents.”

They are also concerned about the status of Assistant Superintendent of Pupil Services Kyle Riley, who is currently on personal leave. Retired Special Education Coordinator Mildred O’Callaghan has been serving in a consulting capacity for the past few months, according to Stidstone. Executive Assistant Lisa Forbes has also been working with the SEPAC.

SEPAC meetings are held from 6 to 8 p.m., the first and second Tuesday of the month in the WHRHS library. The group’s first meeting of the school year will be on Tuesday, Sept. 11 and is the meet-and-greet session with district administrators, they noted. Other programs will center on school transition and public safety topics. A basic rights meeting also has to be presented every year.

An October meeting will focus on transition of students to new schools with the closing of the Maquan School and a November meeting will feature members of police and fire departments to discuss “our kids in the community” the duo said.

“The biggest impact of all of it was on the special needs kids,” Stidstone said. Most of them were transferred to Whitman’s Duval School, where they don’t know any of the other students she said.

“We have to know what happened good and what happened bad,” she said. “This can’t be just a ‘bash the district session,’ this has to be for constructive feedback.”

Like parents of preschool pupils with older siblings in Hanson Schools, Hanson parents of special needs students attending Duval are still working out transportation arrangements.

Stidstone said members of the group asked for the meeting with public safety personnel.

“If you see my kid walking down the road and he’s stimming (the repetition of physical movements, sounds, or words, or the repetitive movement of objects common in individuals with developmental disabilities), how are you going to react?” she said. Providing profiles for first responders of special needs children for their information in the event of an emergency is another topic they’ve discussed.

“They don’t want to send their guys into a situation where they frighten a child,” she said of the fire chiefs in both towns who are very supportive of the November meeting.
In December, they plan a meeting with the district about emergency drills at school and how the alarms can cause distress.

“During lockdowns, they are supposed to stay quiet in a corner,” she added. “My son’s not going to stay quiet in a corner. What is being done for those kids?”

Fitzgerald said during a first day of school fire drill, his son was upset when it came time to go back into the school.

“Those meetings [in November and December] are really about safety,” he said.

Parents have also asked for day meetings, and that is being looked at as possible spring and fall sessions after preschool drop-offs, perhaps in the high school’s Courtyard Café.

They are also working to plan a SEPAC family picnic with first responders perhaps bringing some of their vehicles for the children to explore. Stidstone said she, for example, has tried to bring her son to community touch-a-truck events in the past but he was too overwhelmed by the crowds.

“This will be our kids only,” she said. “It’s not going to be public. The plan is to have a picnic with our families and meet a couple cops and firefighters in their gear so that they know if a firefighter comes [to the house] he’s not a monster.”

They are also trying to plan a resource fair for the parents of special needs kids later in the school year to address the major concern parents had in a survey Stidstone and Fitzgerald conducted last year.

Fitzgerald said they are also coordinating with SEPACs in other districts.

HANSON — There was some disagreement on how the discoloration happens, but the Water Department has been asked by its board of commissioners to open a gate at High and Main streets — which directs water toward the train station —for at least a week to determine if it will clear manganese and iron deposits from water mains along three streets in town.

The idea is to direct clean water from the tank toward Hanson’s Main, Reed and South streets, where continuing problems with discolored water at their homes along those streets motivated more than a dozen residents to attend a Board of Water Commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 22, demanding a solution.

Residents were asked to return in two weeks to let the board know if the opened gate helps improve their water quality. They say the water pressure has been fine — and some left the meeting more dissatisfied than when they arrived.

“When everything’s running during the daytime, there’s a lot of water moving through the pipe,” Commissioner Don Howard said. “When everybody shuts down their house and the faucets and goes to bed, the tank fills up … the sediment sets in [dips in] the pipe. The next day, when you start using the water, it turbulates it up and it runs into the pipe and I think that’s what’s happening.”

Flow vs pipes

Water Department Assistant Superintendent Gerald Davis said he believed the problem was more likely due to the 12-inch main from Main Street connecting to another 12-inch main on South Street via an eight-inch pipe along Reed Street. He also argued more frequent flushing on the mains would also help.

But Howard maintained the gates were the likely source of the problem.

Residents, some of whom are thinking about selling their homes, voiced frustration at the expense of replacing water heaters, filters and clothing ruined by the dark brown water.

Assessor Lee Gamache, of 819 Main Street, said the situation is already hurting the real estate market in Hanson.

“If it was just one incident, I think we’d understand,” she said.

Her husband Joe asked what, if any, long-term plan there is to address the problem.

“You talk about low water costs, well it’s costing us a lot, not just for water, but we have a new hot water heater [and we’re] probably going to have to replace it,” he said, adding that they have also had to replace clothing. “There’s no real warning so financially, it’s been a burden constantly replacing things because of it.”

A couple from Gorwin Drive said they feel the problem is “creeping” in their direction.

Joe Gamache supported closing the gate in conjunction with a maintenance program including more frequent pipe flushing until pipes can be replaced.

“We’ve got to try something because we’re not going to get … pipe replaced tomorrow like we all want,” he said. “We can revisit this in a year. If we don’t see any kind of improvement, you’re going to see a ‘For Sale’ sign in my yard.”

Howard said Hanson’s 100-year-old water system now consists of three different types of water pipes in the ground, much of them cast iron.

“That pipe is the same pipe that Brockton and several other area towns have in,” he said. “The problem with it is the manganese and iron builds up in the cast iron [pipes] over a period of years.”

New pipes installed are required to be cement-lined.

“If we could to that in all of our cast iron pipes in town, we’d eliminate a lot of our problems, but the Water Department doesn’t have the money,” he said. “So we’re trying to keep the water flowing.”

More frequent flushing of pipes is not possible because of mandatory Mass. DEP water conservation regulations, Davis said. Howard agreed, noting the only flushing done in the past five years was done this past spring to try to reduce the iron and manganese deposits.

“I’m hoping and planning that we can do it again this fall,” Howard said, noting sediment sits in the pipes until a heavy use emergency such as a fire or water main break disturbs it. The July 5 fire at JJ’s Pub and an Aug. 20 water main break on Andrew Lane both caused that to happen.

Work being done by the Brockton water department on Main Street Monday, Aug. 27 was to Brockton pipes and should have no effect on Hanson water, according to the Hanson Water Department.

“How to control it? I have no way of knowing, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “I’ve worked with water since 1957. We don’t want to raise the price of water.”

Howard also said the Water Department is trying to keep water prices down, but residents attending the meeting said they would be willing to pay more for clear water and that they are already spending a lot to resolve problems the sediment causes.

They are already buying water.

“We buy so much water,” a woman said. “I won’t drink it or cook with it or give it to the pets.”

Some of the residents said they don’t even like to shower in it.

“I’ll pay more for clean water,” said a South Street resident who said he would not have bought his house had he been advised of the water issue. “We’re talking in circles here. What’s the issue? What’s the resolution? What’s the cost? What’s the time frame? That’s what I came here to hear.”

He had serious doubts that 9,000 voters in town would back higher bills to help 1,000 people having problems. Howard replied that it is hard to get a quorum of 100 voters at Town Meeting.

“We don’t want to pay anything for dirty water,” the resident said.

Commissioner Gil Amado said he was a member of the commission because, as a South Street resident, he is affected, too.

I’m frustrated myself,” Amado said. “I’m on this board to help make things better. The water has been better, but we’ve had so many issues … water follows the path of least resistance and, when it starts flowing, it’s taking whatever’s in that pipe with it.”

“With money it could be cleaned,” the South Street resident said.

Another resident said they need to hear a timetable, too.

“What we keep hearing is you have a plan, you have a plan, you have a plan, but there’s no definite date,” she said. “There’s no definite solution. It’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to work on it, but it’s going to take 20 years or it’s going to take 10 years.’”

Call with problems

In the meantime, Davis urged residents to call the Water Department when problems occur — no matter how often — instead of going on Facebook.

“People read on Facebook that someone doesn’t have water, everybody runs to their faucet and then they turn the water on,” he said. “Don’t do that! Because, if there’s a water main break, you’re bringing all the dirty water into your house.”

Howard said water should be turned off when there is a main break.

When animals depend on water during a break, Davis said owners should also call. During the last main break, Water Department staff members provided water to horses on a farm in the affected area.

When lines are flushed, he can also plan to do it where people have animals or are served by a cast iron line, the timing of the flushing can be adjusted.

“This year alone it’s been so minimal, only until we disturb the system,” Davis said.

“I don’t think people are calling,” another resident said.

“If we know where the major complaints are, we can target that area. … I don’t care if you call everyday.”

Howard initially said the pipe-replacement plan could take 20 years, but then backed away from that estimate.

When Hanson painted the inside of the water tank last summer, it cost about $335,000 to purchase water from Brockton during those three months. The Water Department budget is $1.5 million of that, another $35,000 was required in electricity costs to pump the Brockton water.

New wells being put in on East Washington Street will help a lot of the cost and discoloration problems, Howard said. A pipe replacement program will be introduced after a new water tank is put in.

A couple who moved into their 300 South St. home in 2006, however said they are already preparing to sell their house because of the ongoing water problems.

“I know a lot of people have had problems since the water tank project,” the woman said, noting they have had to replace three pressure leak valves in three years because of the sediment. “We’ve had it since 2006 on a regular basis and it has increased.”

The residents said they were still having problems three days after the water main break.

Davis said any fluctuation in pressure would make water dirty.