School budget concern voiced as the School Committee honored students for good works

As the School Committee honored students for good works in both the classroom and community Wednesday, Nov. 18 they expressed deep concern over the district’s ability to sustain such excellence in the face of dropping per-pupil expenditures within tight budgets.

With several dozen members of the teacher’s union — wearing matching black T-shirts — looking on, an update on the fiscal 2016 budgetary impact evolved into a discussion on the outlook for the 2017 budget.

“Nearly everyone in this room knows that we’re 10th from the bottom in per-pupil expenditure, and every year we have budget presentations in February and in March we certify the budget, and then we are always looking at how are we going to make ends meet,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner said.

Additional state funding or the hiring of young teachers, whose salary steps are lower than retirees, has then been depended on to make it work.

“This year we haven’t been able to,” she said.

The state is trying to wean the district from Chapter 70 funds, and the assessment increases from the two towns have thus far not been enough to make up for that reduction. A teachers’ contract is still under negotiation and three other contracts for student transportation, custodial services and Copy Center are all up for renewal, too. Charter Schools are also costing the district $300,000 a year, according to Gilbert-Whitner.

“As a result we have not been able to provide everything this year that we were able to provide last year,” she said. “I’m very concerned about that.”

One of the cuts was to library programs, which raised the ire of a retired teacher who volunteers in the Indian Head School’s library in Hanson.

“I’m not happy with the way the schools are going,” said Peggy Westfield of State Street in Hanson. “My kids are done, so I don’t have a vested interest in the schools right now, but I’m very concerned.”

She voiced concern over the fact that teachers are now working without a contract and that the district has sought mediation after only 84 minutes of discussion between teachers and the negotiating subcommittee. She suggested it might be time to work to rule as a demonstration of exactly what extra services teachers perform.

“I’m absolutely appalled at how little per-pupil expenditure is spent in these two towns,” Westfield said.  “It’s absolutely disgusting. How do we change that?”

School Committee Chairman Robert Hayes said the committee has been trying to get that point across to voters for years, but few people come to meetings to offer opinions or ask questions. Both he and committee member Robert O’Brien Jr., said concerned residents must also attend selectmen and finance committee meetings and follow up by attending Town Meetings.

“For many years, people have said W-H cries wolf,” Gilbert-Whitner said. “I think it’s become very clear that, when you’re 10th from the bottom, you’re probably not crying wolf.”

She said that this year there is a real possibility of W-H sinking closer to fifth from the bottom.

“It costs a lot of money to run a school district, and where we are now is a concern,” Gilbert-Whitner said.

Committee member Fred Small agreed with Westfield that the budget should not be balanced on the backs of a teaching staff shrinking from repeated cuts and unfilled vacancies, but cautioned the district can’t write checks that can’t be covered.

“We have a big problem,” he said.

Hanson residents Michael Jones of Elm Street and John Barata of Meadow Lane also voiced frustration over the school budget.

Jones asked for an update on past discussions about forming a committee to work with the towns on a workable budget.

“We’ve not only lost library, we’ve lost a computer class,” he said. “Teachers at Indian Head have over 30 kids in their class. It’s ridiculous. What are we cutting next year?”

Gilbert-Whitner said conversations have begun on a cooperative effort.

“Truth be told, an enhanced budget involves an override,” she said.

Whitman Middle teacher Beth Stafford said she is concerned about what happens to school override funding the year after the override.

Barata reminded the meeting of financial arguments made when a new Hanson school was rejected.

“They said we have to take care of the people and the current schools we have,” he recalled. “Now’s the time to put those people’s feet to the fire, for them to pay that extra money they didn’t want to pay for the new school — which I totally understand — we need them to put that toward our teachers and, in turn, our kids.”

Hayes urged that new state Sen. Mike Brady, D-Brockton, and representatives Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, and Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, be asked to attend an upcoming meeting to discuss the state funding formula and hear people’s concerns — and follow up to hold them accountable on the issue.

Mattress sales aid WHRHS music as annual fund-raising event

If you are looking to buy a new mattress — and industry research indicates that every year 10 percent of you are— the students in Whitman-Hanson Regional High School’s band and chorus programs hope you come to them first.

The first of what is intended as an annual fund-raising event, a mattress fundraiser sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 7 as the WHRHS cafeteria is set up as a mobile mattress showroom, according to Jack Isaacs of Custom Fundraising Solutions. He runs the fund-raising events in Massachusetts.

Similar benefit sales have raised $6,500 for Easton’s Oliver Ames High School football team, $5,540 for Hingham High School’s golf team and $9,350 for Norwood High School, among programs in more than 60 high schools in the greater Boston area. The average school mattress sale raises between $4,000 and $7,000, Isaacs said, and some schools raise more. Marshfield High School recently raised $12,000 for one of the school programs through a mattress sale.

The W-H sale is aimed at purchasing band instruments and defraying travel expenses for the band, chorus and High Frequency Show Choir, according to teachers Devin Dondero and Donald Legge.

Students making referrals to the sale receive a commission in their own account.

“He showed up at my door,” Legge said of how they decided on doing a mattress sale. “I took his card, but in the back of my head I was saying, ‘This is crazy — it’ll never work.’ But, after going to his website (CustomFundraisingSolutions.com), and seeing all the other successful schools around the area, I was convinced.”

Isaacs also spoke at a parents’ meeting last week to explain the sale to them.

The sale will feature brand-name mattresses, adjustable beds, and luxury pillows with layaway and delivery, within five to seven business days, available. Cash, check and credit card payments will be accepted and varieties from firm to pillow-top, orthopedic to memory foam are included at prices up to 50 percent off retail.

“You’ll see everything you’d see as you walk in a mattress store, except because we come to the school, our showroom essentially is free — we have no overhead,” Isaacs said Friday, Oct. 30 before briefing students on how to market the sale. “All the money stays locally in the communities that everybody loves.”

Prices at the W-H sale range from $249 and up for twin size; from $289 for full; $299 and up for queen and $499 and up for king/California king.

Student referrals can not only earn $25 commissions for the students, but also bring an additional $50 off any mattress set for the referred customers. Prizes are also raffled off among students after a threshold of 40 referrals come to the sale.

Posters about the sale, being placed at local businesses also bear five $50 coupons — limit one per customer.

Custom Fundraising Solutions runs fund-raising sales from 50 locations in 34 cities nationally. All mattresses are brand new with full factory warranties.

Brady wins state senate seat: Geoff Diehl strong in suburbs as a tale of two districts emerges

By Tracy F. Seelye
and Deborah Anderson
Express staff

As many political watchers had predicted, Brockton’s landslide win for state Rep. Mike Brady, D-Brockton, Tuesday was too big for state Rep. Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, to overcome despite big wins in all but one other town in the 2nd Plymouth and Bristol District.

Mike Brady

“I’m very humbled by all the support,” Brady told supporters Tuesday night. “It was from all of your efforts all across [the district].”

Diehl, for his part, told supporters, “you have to try, you can’t just cede this race,” in his remarks at Whitman’s VFW.

“We’ve had the best supporters I’ve ever seen,” said Diehl, whose campaign out-spent Brady’s two-to-one. “A lot of people thought this race was unwinnable from the get-go. … We looked at the numbers and felt it [was] a potentially winnable race.”

But Brady held on to win the state senate seat — vacant since the death last June of state Sen. Tom Kennedy, D-Brockton — by a margin of 14,381 to 10,242 for Diehl and 643 for Halifax Independent Anna Grace Raduc.

Kennedy was much on Brady’s mind as he gave his victory speech.

“He was a great friend and mentor to myself and a lot of others and he was also a man of great faith and truth,” Brady said. “He would let me know if my tie wasn’t straight or whether I needed a haircut.”

He also thanked his two opponents in the race.

“You’ve got to give them a lot of credit, everybody ran a great race,” Brady said, noting it was now time to “keep this community and this district moving forward” citing, in particular, veterans’ legislation he is supporting.

Diehl said he views his wins in the suburbs as a “win overall,” and  made a promise to supporters.

“I will not stop working hard for you everyday as your state representative,” Diehl said. “You elected me — not power-brokers up on Beacon Hill — and I’m still going to stand up to special interests.”

Rather than look on the result simply as a loss, Diehl called it “an opportunity to gauge the work to be done” to ensure greater balance on Beacon Hill.

Brady garnered 11,193 votes in Brockton to Diehl’s 3,594. Brady also edged Diehl in the portion of Easton that falls in the district — 397 to 388 with 9 going for Raduc.

Elsewhere, it was all Diehl, but not by enough to overcome Brockton’s 7,599-vote differential.

Whitman went big for its “native son” giving Diehl 1,930 votes to Brady’s 727. Hanson cast 1,142 votes for Diehl and 494 for Brady. Halifax voted 592 for Diehl and 288 for Brady and Plympton gave 229 votes to Diehl and 90 to Brady. In East Bridgewater voters gave their state Rep. Diehl 1,037 to Brady’s 423 and in Hanover, Diehl garnered 1,350 to Brady’s 775.

Raduc received 506 votes in Brockton, 12 votes in East Bridgewater, 21 in Hanson, 13 in Plympton, 32 in Whitman and 41 in Halifax.

In Whitman, 28 percent of the town’s 9,659 voters cast ballots. Hanson saw a 23 percent turnout.

“Geoff Diehl has the hometown advantage,” Whitman Selectman Dan Salvucci said Tuesday afternoon. “In the district, I think that Geoff has worked so hard that it’s almost like he has a right  to get it, but the fact is if he doesn’t win it’s not from a lack of trying.  He’s done it all — he’s knocked on doors in all the towns in the district, especially Brockton, and win or lose, he’s done his best.”

It was a concern  Diehl supporters voiced all day.

“He’s been doing great everywhere, but Brockton’s iffy,” said Whitman resident Joe Goldsberry, holding signs for Diehl Tuesday morning, of his candidate’s chances. “Hopefully there’ll be a low turnout in Brockton.”

Whitman Town Clerk Dawn Varley  had ventured to guess shortly after the polls opened Tuesday that Diehl’s candidacy could translate into a 13 percent turnout in town.

In Hanson, where several poll workers brought knitting projects to pass the time during lulls, Town Clerk Beth Sloan said the special primary turnout in September has already been exceeded before 9 a.m. Tuesday. One poll worker competed an entire blanket during the 3-percent primary turnout in September.

On Tuesday, the projects included a baby blanket, sweaters and at least one pair of socks. Sloan was hopeful voters would be interrupting the handicrafts often, with the 23 percent turnout, she got her wish.

South Shore Vo-Tech honors staff during SSVT Committee Meeting

The South Shore Vo-Tech School Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 21 honored the first of the school’s unsung heroes to be named Staff Member of the Month.

The award salutes a teacher or other school employee — nominated by students and selected from nominees by the Student Council — for their contributions on the job.

Pam Knights of Whitman, a SSVT cafeteria employee, was selected for her dedication to student nutrition and her welcoming personality on the job.

Pam Knights of Whitman, a cafeteria employee, was selected for her dedication to student nutrition and her welcoming personality on the job.

“Vo-Tech has been a big part of my life,” an emotional Knights said of her award. “But I couldn’t do it without the students. Twenty-one years as a ‘lunch lady,’ I love it here. I just wish in my time that they had girls come here.”

She recalled the last time she had won an award was in the second grade — for penmanship.

“Thank you, and now I’m going to go home and watch the Bruins,” she said.

SSVT Treasurer James Coughlin said employees like Knights make the cafeteria program such a success.

“They make money down there,” Coughlin said. “It’s a great program.”

Knights and Student of the Month Kewayne Francis, a senior graphic communications student from Rockland, were presented awards at the meeting.

Student Advisory Council member Maddie Long read some of the recommendations from her fellow students.

“She is sweet, patient and polite to all of the students,” one student wrote. “Pam greets each student with a happy disposition and a smile on her face.”

“She is always there to make sure we eat sufficient food — she knows it’s our fuel to learn,” Long read from the student comments.

Principal Margaret Dutch said Knights, a graduate of Brockton High School, is dedicated to the students as much as her favorite ice hockey team.

“To know Pam is to know she is an avid Bruins fan,” Dutch said. “During the season she keeps the students and the faculty members up to date with the highs and lows of the Bruins season.”

She is also dedicated to the school, from which many of her family members graduated, “So really she is the only one waiting to get an award — and here it is.”

Francis was lauded by Guidance Director Michael Janicki as a mentor for new students as well as his leadership within the graphics department.

“The transition into high school can be nerve-wracking for some students and Kewayne has taken it upon himself to become a mentor for some of the new students,” Janicki said.

Re-post is delayed as Hanson Town Administrator search continues in January, aiming to lure more applicants

HANSON — Selectmen Tuesday night voted unanimously to delay re-posting the town administrator’s position until January, with the aim of having someone in the job by April 1, 2016.

The timetable issue cropped up during a discussion of the new $100,000-$120,000 salary range and the need to detail the “excellent benefits package” currently mentioned in the ad.

Selectmen Tuesday night voted unanimously to delay re-posting the town administrator’s position until January, with the aim of having someone in the job by April 1, 2016.

“I think the benefits package is a good amount of money, compared to other towns,” Selectman Chairman Bruce Young said. “If we elaborate on that then we can attract more applicants.”

The delay is intended as a mechanism by which officials hope to attract more than the 21 applicants received after the first posting, while keeping the two already selected finalists in reserve.

Interim Town Administrator Richard LaCamera suggested the delay and advised selectmen that the salary increase, dependent on Town Meeting approval, could still be offered under cash reserves already available in the fiscal 2016 budget to offer the higher salary for six months.

If the increase is then rejected by Town Meeting, LaCamera said, “It’s like any other town employee — it gets voted down. All contracts are renewable year-to-year, subject to Town Meeting appropriation.”

Selectmen Kenny Mitchell had advocated waiting until March to re-post, but Young pointed out that waiting that long could overlap the town election cycle.

“Right now it’s very slim pickings, in my opinion,” Mitchell said of the low number of applicants seen so far.

LaCamera noted, in response to a resident’s question, that the delay makes sense as qualified candidates who might be interested in applying are now busy with work on fiscal 2017 budgets.

“I’m not trying to discourage you from doing anything,” he said. “I think you should have gotten a lot more candidates that should have applied. If you do it now, I’m not sure you’ll get a lot more candidates.”

Selectmen also tabled appointment of a General By-Law Committee on LaCamera’s advice, pending a review of the current by-laws by town counsel — leaving the three applicants attending the meeting rather all dressed up with no place to go.

Joseph Campbell of 150 Woodbine Ave., who works in IT at Bay State Telephone & Security; Amy Wright of 19 Lance Lane, who works for Stewart Title Guaranty Co.; and healthcare professional Jennifer Killeen of 14 Crooker Place, were all in attendance at the meeting.

The By-Law Committee has not met in four years.

“I would suggest we look at what the charge is for this particular committee,” LaCamera said. “There’s a lot of state statutes, and stuff like that, that have changed over the years.”

He also felt the five-member committee’s need for applicants has not adequately been publicized by selectmen.

In other business, Holiday Committee member Steve Amico outlined plans for the annual Holiday Festival from 5:30to 7:30 p.m., followed by fireworks, on Dec. 12. Selectmen approved use of the Town Hall green for the event.

The Holiday Committee is also selling $5 buttons to help defray costs of the free event. Buttons may be obtained by contacting Amico at 781-293-2532, or by looking for them at local stores.

Individuals or businesses seeking to make donations may do so via the Hanson Holiday Committee account at Rockland Trust, Amico said.

Young then asked Amico if the Holiday Committee was an official town committee, igniting some low-level sparks.

“If it was [an] official town committee, I couldn’t be on it,” said Amico. As a recalled selectman, he is prohibited from serving on official boards for two years following his June 2014 recall.

Young then suggested the Holiday and Hanson Day committees should be “sanctified” as official town committees and suggested the question might be brought before a future Town Meeting “so they just don’t disappear.”

“I appreciate your input, but I think we’re going to remain independent at this point in time,” Amico said.

“It’s not your decision,” Selectman Bill Scott said in an aside.

Amico replied that a Town Meeting article it was up to the board.

Selectmen’s Executive Assistant Meredith Marini suggested a committee that will need official status — and should be formed soon — is one to plan Hanson’s bicentennial observances in 2020.

“It’s a lot of work,” she said.

Young indicated he has already heard from one Scout leader who is interested in helping plan it.