WHITMAN – The Capital Committee members, meeting remotely Thursday, Feb. 17, took a look in the mirror to assess the panel’s role in addressing the funding of capital projects for the town.

They also reviewed some of the DPW’s requests for capital equipment in the fiscal 2023 budget.

“For the longest time, I’ve struggled with seeing if our role actually meant something,” said Chairman Don Esson, who has served on the committee for almost five years. “It didn’t seem like we had funding information to support the capital projects, so that’s what I’d to try to get my arms around.”

Essen said he was willing to take suggestions from anyone on the committee.

“The best way to understand what we can spend in capital improvements is to understand what we have for money, first of all,” he said. “If we don’t have the money, we’re talking about things we just can’t get, or we’d have to go out and get some bonds or something else.”

He said it would be easier to pick the low-hanging fruit if it was clear how much was on the tree. That way they would be able to at least authorize funds for immediate needs — and then come up with a long-term plan for projects the town really needs, but can’t afford right now.

Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman sought to redirect committee members to remembering and reviewing what was approved by Town Meeting last year via amendments to what had been the Building Improvements and Capital Expenditures Committee — the precursor to the Capital Committee. 

The new committee’s charge is to evaluate the town’s capital needs, and facilities with the assistance of the town’s facilities manager, and presenting projects and funding requests to Town Meeting. The committee also makes recommendations for purchasing equipment such as vehicles and equipment, including IT devices and software worth $20,000 or more.

“That’s where our authority flows from – from that vote of Town Meeting,” Heineman said. He said an evaluation of available funds will make those funds apparent as they receive final capital requests from town departments.

Free cash, the primary funding source for most capital needs, appears sufficient to cover all requests received so far, he said.

“The only caveat to that is the schools’ budget request is not directly in our purview as the Capital Committee, but it affects how much free cash we have and it affects what we have to spend for our one-time revenue source,” Heineman said. The schools have until March 19 to certify their budget and Heineman said they intend to take that vote by March 16.

Esson asked Heineman to take a first pass at the budget to determine what projects the Committee could afford to recommend to Town Meeting. Heineman suggested he would be able to that by early last week.

Esson also asked for Committee members’ input on whether his concern was in determining the panel’s direction.

“I think this committee, the last couple of years, has been most effective when we get into some of the technical aspects of projects, such as the generators at the elementary schools,” said member Justin Evans, who is also a Selectman. “We’d rather the projects be done right than done fast and we kind of pushed back on those.”

Evans said the question isn’t always one of determining what they can afford to address through free cash, but one of vetting out the projects themselves.

“With the technical skill set here, I think that is what we bring to the table,” Esson agreed. “I just don’t want to spend a ton of time on things that we just can’t afford.”

Member Fred Small, who also serves on the School Committee asked if is up to them to decide what the town can’t afford or, rather to make a recommendation on a project’s validity and, if it is wanted, how it could be paid for, because — technically —  anything could be affordable through a debt exclusion.

“I sort of look at our committee as being the vetting [agents],” he said.

Esson said he sees the committee’s charge is one of prioritizing.

“It’s important to vet and push back,” Member Justin Casanova-Davis said, noting that it’s easier to achieve capital goals when the free cash is more than the bottom line for the capital improvement projects. But he sees a role for the committee.

“I do think it’s the roll of the committee to present a priority list, [when there it not enough free cash to fund everything] for Town Meeting to know what we would do with X amount of funds,” he said.

“It’s up to Town Meeting to decide if they want to fund something, whether we recommend it or not,” said member Aaron Taylor.

Member Josh MacNeill, the town’s IT director, agreed, noting there is now a lot of confusion going on as far as who’s actually doing what, pointing to instances when the committee’s recommendation against a project had been overturned by the Finance Committee.

“We’ve got multiple decisions being made across various committees,” he said.

Esson agreed, but said he does not see the Committee’s role as overruling department heads, deciding that projects are a “waste or money” or not necessary.

“We need to let our department heads run their departments, but maybe with some our skill sets that we can bring to the table,” Esson said. “Maybe to help them look at things a little bit different or to actually expedite something or to make it a better system or a different design — or whatever.”

Esson said he didn’t think they should ever nix a project, but could perhaps add to it.

The Committee members agreed solidly with that approach.

Building Inspector Robert Curran pointed to the Madden Report’s recommendation that the town should be putting so much money a year into a capital improvement account.

“We don’t have that number,” he said. “I think we should start getting that.”

Absent that, Curran suggested asking departments if there is a funding source for projects, and where there isn’t one, “they’ll have to go somewhere else to figure that out.”  He said, however, such an admonition should come from the town administrator.

Heineman said money is being set aside. In June 2021, Town Meeting voted to set aside $100,000 to the capital stabilization fund. He is cautiously optimistic that funds could be added to the fund this year.

In other business, the Committee discussed DPW requests, including the need for a new building, which Esson fully supports.

“I drive by it three or four times a week and I can see that it’s falling apart,” he said. “I know they need a building.”

He does have questions, however, including whether enough time is allotted to study and analyze data concerning requests. 

Curran said requests for public safety vehicles or generators need not always be put off for further study. 

The tool truck used for response to water main breaks needs replacement, Water Superintendent Dennis Smith said a new vehicle could allow the department to place a compressor and generator in it. The estimated cost is just under $160,000 with all equipment on it, but because of supply chain concerns, he said it could be at least a year until they obtain it. The vehicle would be used daily — as the present truck is. The funding source is water and sewer retained earnings. Additional emergency generators, to replace those lost during the January nor’easter, are also being sought.

“That was certainly an unexpected storm and we certainly learned a lot of lessons of how [for example] we can’t rely on the cell carriers — that was probably the biggest lesson. How they fell down,” Heineman said. “People should know how much we need this.”

Esson also said he would like to see a five to 10-year plan for more stationary generators.

Heineman urged that a vote on the capital requests be delayed until all departments’ capital requests are in, to vote on them at the same time.

“I think the time that would make the most sense is probably early April,” he said. The Capital Committee is slated to meet with the Finance Committee on April 19.

WHITMAN — Consultant Ann Donner presented the final version of the town’s strategic plan to the Board of Selectmen during the Tuesday, Feb. 15 meeting.

Selectmen voted to approve the plan, which is now posted on the town website and may be obtained as a paper copy as well. The plan will be used to guide budgetary decisions through 2027.

“We’ve been looking at this version of it for a couple of weeks,” said Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski, noting that officials were welcome to call Donner if they felt changes or revisions were needed.

“From what I understand, nothing needed changing,” Kowalski said. “It’s an impressive document. …We need to hold ourselves accountable, and hopefully, there will be people who hold us accountable, too.”

Kowalski credited Forest Street resident Shawn Kain for ensuring the board stayed on-task with the project.

“He saw the importance of it, and we’re seeing the fruit of that right now,” Kowalski said.

Donner thanked the board for the opportunity to work with them on the plan.

“What was impressive was the amount of care and effort that everyone put into this,” she said. “The success of any strategic plan is that everyone’s got their shoulder to the wheel … in order to achieve those results, part of it is keeping track of it.”

Donner said the town’s goals for the plan were realistic, and encouraged them to review how it is being followed, whether on a bi-annual or quarterly basis.

Kowalski agreed that a biannual review is a good idea.

“What we don’t want is for something that you’ve all put so much work into to sit on the shelf,” she said. “I think the way the plan was formulated, it’s really a plan that can be shared with people.”

Budget update

On the heels of approving the strategic plan to help guide budgeting decisions, the board heard Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman’s budget update.

He noted that the Finance Committee is now working on its review of the budget.

“We went through the broad strokes two weeks ago,” he said, noting that he wanted to provide the board with opportunity to take a more nuanced look at it.

Heineman pointed to a couple savings options that, he said, demonstrate “how we can succeed in different areas and find some efficiencies.”

He has instructed IT Director Josh MacNeil to “take a look globally at our telephone operations” with an eye to perhaps buying less expensive plans for some phones or to get rid of some landlines altogether. He also looked into a new firm to oversee ambulance billing, which resulted in some savings in exchange for better service.

Heineman said he is also looking to return the visiting nurse fund to what historically has been there, after the service funding had been transferred to CARES Act funds that are now ended. Additional funding to senior citizens’ bus transportation as well as veteran services, are also being sought in the budget.

Assistant TA

In other business, Selectmen discussed the process for finding a new assistant town administrator.

Selectmen, were forced to table next steps in the assistant town administrator search after the town failed to agree to terms in contract negotiations with designate Rogeria Medeiros-Kowalczykowski last month.

 “What needs to be done now … is to advertise it [again] and go through anther search process,” Kowalski said. “Hopefully, one that will end in having someone in the position.”

He also asked Heineman to consider another position, one that could be called a human resources and operations director, one that could include procurement responsibilities, “with grant-writing on the side.”

Kowalski said such a position, by its very title, would be more focused. He asked that Heineman work on it and present a couple of alternatives to the board for continued discussion at the board’s meeting the first week of March.

When Building Inspector Robert Curran retires on May 26, the town will also be looking into the possible hiring of a full-time building commissioner. A transfer of funds at the May Town Meeting would be required to make a full-time position possible.

“I think now is the time,” Heineman said, proposing that a new job description be drawn up for the position. He argued that the position include a requirement that more support and advice be provided the ZBA and Conservation Commission.

While many towns of a similar size have a town planner and conservation agent, it may not be something Whitman is looking at now, but a full-time building commissioner would be a help.

“I don’t think that anytime soon it’s anything the town wants to look at, but I do think, and the chairs of that board and that commission seem to agree, it would be worthwhile to have some professional assistance for them in their work,” he said.

Selectman Justin Evans agreed that it was a good idea long overdue. Selectman Randy LaMattina said zoning issues and code enforcement also need to be big part of the position, but he didn’t want to get too far ahead on it until the budget is better firmed up.

HANSON —  The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Feb. 8, voted to downgrade the Town Hall mask mandate to a recommendation, left to people’s comfort level.

The change went into effect Wednesday, Feb. 9.

“Last time that we met and were considering it, the numbers were over 400,” said Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer. That number was down to 60 as of the time of the Selectmen’s meeting.

Dyer said that trend echoed the state’s numbers and that the schools’ mask mandate will end Feb. 25, as the DESE and MDPH are reverting to a recommendation only that masks be worn by unvaccinated students and staff [see story, this page].

“I think where we are in terms of the public health crisis, is we’re getting toward the end, or at least we can drop the mask mandate for now and, if it flares back up at a later time, we can always impose this again,” Dyer said, knocking on the wooden table.

Selectman Joe Weeks suggested checking in with the mood of Town Hall employees.

“I don’t want to release mandates, or enforce mandates without checking with the people we’ll be enforcing them on,” he said.

Town Administrator Lisa Green said the majority of people working in Town Hall have been wearing masks when they leave their offices.

“That hasn’t been an issue with anybody,” she said. “I would just recommend that, if people feel they want to wear masks, they can do so. … At this point, I don’t see any need to continue with the mask mandate in Town Hall, unless people on their own, decide they’d like to wear them.”

“That’s the only recommendation I need,” Weeks said.

A disclosure of potential conflict by Town Hall custodian Charlie Baker was deemed unnecessary because he is a member of a Highway Department union and is not a private contractor.

“He plows at night, outside his hours as custodian/maintenance technician for highway in their trucks,” Green said.

storm response

In that vein, Weeks urged Selectmen also commended public safety personnel for their response to last month’s blizzard.

“They just had the biggest storm ever,” he said of the January 28 storm.

The board hadn’t met since before the blizzard.

The board extended thanks to the Police, Fire and Highway departments contract plow drivers and National Grid employees for the work they did clearing streets, responding to motor vehicle crashes and keeping the power on.

“The way they worked together to get it all done, I think we’re blessed to have these people in place,” Selectman Jim Hickey said. “They all knew their parts.”

Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett offered special congratulations to Highway Director Jameson Shave, who experienced his first major storm in Hanson during a year when it had been difficult finding plow drivers.

WHITMAN – The Capital Committee, meeting remotely on Thursday, Jan. 13, voted to recommend the two articles under its purview at the Monday, Jan. 31 special Town Meeting.

Chairman David Codero said Capital items were the only business on the agenda, and were appearing for the first time so his intent was for the committee to discuss them and brainstorm on vetting the requests.

Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman sent committee members the warrant special Town Meeting, suggesting the committee review the two articles — $60,000 for public safety ballistic vests under Article 2 and Article 7 seeking $1,098,100 to create shovel-ready architectural drawings of a new DPW building.

The committee voted 8-0-1 (Codero abstaining) to recommend the Town Meeting vote to approve the ballistic vests, and votes recommended the DPW building architect drawings by the same vote.

“The Police Department’s vests are in need of replacement and we just discovered that the Fire Department vests are in need of replacement, that they are past their warranty,” Heineman said, adding that the amount sought out of free cash would rectify that.

“If I’m not mistaken they have an expiration date and they are either at or past that,” committee member Fred Small said.

Heineman said Fire Department vests’ warranty has expired, rather than a situation of an expiration date per se. 

“I certainly feel like we don’t want to take any chances with that and when the warranty’s out, we should replace them,” Heineman said. “If a firefighter is injured and that vest was out of warranty, I don’t think that’s acceptable.”

Small indicated for some people expiration dates might seem flexible, but agreed with Heineman.

“Could we squeeze another year out or two because it’s out of warranty but not ‘expired?’ Sure. But, on balance, I don’t think that’s an acceptable [decision].”

“You shouldn’t play with people’s lives,” Small said.

“Exactly,” Heineman replied.

Member Joshua McNeil also said the town takes on a big liability risk if the vests are not replaced.

“It’s also just the right thing to do, as far as I’m concerned,” Heineman said.

Fire department protective vests contain ceramic material, and are heavier, but used less frequently, according to Heieman who added that 26 Fire Department vests and 33 Police Department vests in total are being sought.

“It’s less of a firefighter issue and more of an EMT issue,” he said, noting that some overdose calls might warrant their use.

Small asked if, going forward, the chiefs could begin asking for replacements a little early so the town could start staggering the amounts over more than one budget year. While arguing that it is an appropriate capital expense, that could be suggested. Any vests that have not exceeded warranty or expiration date would be kept in use because to do otherwise would be wasteful.

Member Justin Casanova-Davis agreed with Heineman’s suggestion that in the long-term consideration could be to stagger purchases could move the request to the operating budget.

“I don’t want to put strain on there, but if it’s a regular recurring item – stagger it in the operating budget,” he said.

Codero, however, asked if a lot of fire equipment, including engines, also come with a warranty – that often expire when the equipment is still in use.

“Based on the same logic that the fire chief is providing, every piece of equipment they’re using that isn’t warranteed, isn’t safe,” he said. “That’s what I’m hearing.”

Heineman disagreed because, unlike the vests, a vehicle being out of warranty is not an imminent threat to the safety of that firefighter.

Small, who works in the insurance business, said vehicle warranty’s are protection from any defect in the parts or workmanship when it is created.

“When you’re wearing a vest, we may be calling it a warranty, it’s more of a performance guarantee under certain circumstances for X amount of time,” he said. “I think that’s a big differential.”

Chemicals used to make bullet-proof vests effective do break down.

“It would be easier to rubber-stamp this if the word ‘expiration’ was inserted instead of ‘warranty,’” Esson said.

Heineman said, that to his understanding, there is no expiration date in relation to vests. The term the manufacturer uses is “warranty.” During the meeting, Small researched bullet-proof fire vests on the Internet and reported that while both terms are used by manufacturers, the important consideration is how fibers break down over time and is the main reason the warranty stops. The terms, Small said, are used interchangably.

McNeil also said a $60,000 price tag for vests is much less than the potential financial implications for the town should someone be killed because the vest was actually expired.

“Yes, this is a financial piece, but more than that … it’s the right thing to do,” Heineman said.

DPW building

“We are in desperate need for a DPW building that is safe and sanitary for the employees and that allows them to do the work that they need to do to service the town,” Heineman said.

He noted the several past attempts to do that over recent years.

A feasibility study completed and peer-reviewed late last year put the minimum cost of a new building at just under $11 million at the current location. Selectmen decided to propose at Town Meeting the expenditure of 10 percent of that figure for architectural plans. Selectmen also established a DPW Building Committee to oversee procurement and oversight of the plans and building project. The funding sources are available from current funds, Heineman said of the plan funds – $713,000 from water and sewer retained earnings based on the estimated space those employees would use in the new building, $234,335 from free cash and remaining monies from the capital stabilization fund, which requires a two-thirds Town Meeting use to be included.

“It is also a gauge for how the town feels about moving forward with this needed project,” he said.

“That’s pretty strategic,” Casanova-Davis said of the two-thirds vote requirement. He asked if it was considered to put the whole project price before Town Meeting to take advantage of low interest rates.

Selectman Justin Evans, who also serves on the Capital committee, said there was a lengthy discussion between Selectmen and the DPW Commissioners on how to proceed with the project.

“The DPW Commissioners initially wanted to fund the whole project now,” Evans said. “The Selectmen had some concerns that it just wasn’t ready to ask to borrow that large amount of money for a big capital project. … We thought this was the better path to take.”

Codero asked if there was a reason why the feasibility report was not forwarded to the Capital Committee. He asked department heads to send project requests by October and none were received although all departments had told him there would be no problem.

“I don’t know if it’s a blatant disregard of the will of the people or the department heads just don’t care or they’re incompetent,” he said. “I don’t know.” He said he was glad Selectmen formed a building committee.

Casanova-Davis also said he would like to see the feasibility study, but said he would vote for it.

Building Inspector Robert Curran said, with every passing month, the cost will go up and urged the committee to vote to recommend the article.

Small noted that, once the money is voted, it will be under the complete control of the building committee. That committee was formed by Selectmen Jan. 18.

McNeil asked why a new building committee was being established, when the Capital Committee has already worked on the new police station as well as renovations to both Town Hall and the fire station. Heineman said Selectmen felt a building-specific committee was preferable.

Reorganization

Don Esson was elected chair as the committee, effective at the next meeting – with some new additions recently appointed inspiring a reorganization – and Fred Small was elected vice chairman. Heineman was elected clerk.

Before the School Committee’s scheduled discussion of Circuit Breaker funding on Jan. 5, Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak updated the committee on COVID-19.

“I think your words were best when I was going to provide the overview – ‘It’s bad,’” he said to School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard. “COVID’s pretty bad right now.”

Of the high school’s 1,095 students, 114 were out on Jan. 4 and 201 were out on Jan. 5. Of Whitman Middle School’s 514 students, 87 were out on Jan. 4 and 87 were out on Jan. 5. Preschool saw 7 of its 99 students absent on Jan. 4 and 17 out on Jan. 5 Conley School had 94 of 493 students absent on Jan. 4 and 82 out on Jan.5. Duval School, which teaches 426 students, 61 were absent on Jan.4 and 63 on Jan. 5.

In Hanson, of the middle school’s 459 students, there were 77 students out on Jan. 4 and 70 out on Jan. 5, and at Indian Head, where 498 students attend, there were 54 absences on Jan. 4 and 53 on Jan. 5.

“Now [the absences] could be for a variety of reasons – COVID related, it could be illness, parents keeping their kids home –  some people could be on vacation,” he said.

Szymaniak said there are some students stuck overseas, where they were traveling, when they tested positive for COVID.

Of the district’s 540 active staff members, 93 were out on Monday and 107 on Tuesday and 108 on Wednesday. That figure does not include bus coaches, after school staff or bus drivers.

“I had 40 teachers out today, 28 looked like they were from COVID,” Szymaniak said. “That could be because of close contact or quarantining or they tested positive.”

Szymaniak said he had a phone meeting with Education Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley earlier in the day during which KN95 masks were urged.

“We received 15,000 masks for our teachers,” he said. “From the commissioner’s meeting today, our masks were not the masks that were MIT certified [for medical use].”

The MIT-certified masks went somewhere else in the state, and a story in The Boston Globe, meanwhile, has raised questions about the efficacy of the MIT KN95 masks and the other ones, Szymaniak said.

“We still offered the masks to our teachers – they’re in the principals’ offices if they choose to take them,” he said.

Teachers were also supposed to be tested as of the return from holiday break, and the district was supposed to receive 730 test kits containing to tests each, but that was changed to only half that number of kits which were to be available for pick up on Jan. 1. The kits were divided in half so each staff member was able to pick up one test kit on Sunday, Jan. 2 to make sure they were safe to come back to school. An open house for teachers was held Jan. 2 to get a test to all teachers who wanted one. Tests not distributed that day were sent to nurses’ offices for teachers when needed.

A Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) decision on the mask mandate, which is slated to end on Jan. 15, was expected to come out early this week, Szymaniak reported.

“We are still not allowed to take a remote day,” he said. “[Riley] said ‘Use a snow day if you can’t staff your school. He is not waiving excess snow days yet.”

Riley is not yet considering the three days lost to a nor’easter in October or the snow on Jan. 7.

“Everybody is putting in as much as they can to keep kids in school, we all know it’s good to keep kids in school,” Szymaniak said. “We did receive a message from a doctor on our call today, saying it’s important to keep kids in school for their own mental health and to make sure we that we keep our hospitals running.”

The doctor said 35 percent of hospital employees have kids and rely on their kids going to school to keep working.

“I can’t say enough for our teachers, who are working real hard, covering and covering, our paras who are covering – everybody’s picking up,” Szymaniak said. Coworkers are picking up the slack in all departments from cafeterias to the principals’ offices, he said.

School Committee member Dawn Byers said that cooperative effort was appreciated, but that she was concerned about a breaking point.

“When do you not have enough coverage to keep students learning and safety?” she asked.

“It’s building-specific,” Szymaniak said. “I think [at the] high school, we can utilize spaces better, If I lose four fourth-grade classes at Indian Head I don’t know if I have coverage.”

“At this time we have not had to combine classes or groups of students in order [to have] coverage,” Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said. “At some schools we’ve had to cancel meetings that were planned because the people who were supposed to be in the meetings were out covering somewhere else.”

School Committee member Fred Small, attending remotely by phone, asked if the district has been able to get substitute teachers.

“It’s a major problem,” both Szymaniak and Ferro said.

“We do not have subs, and some of the college students who came back to sub, four of them currently have COVID,” Ferro added. “So our small force is finding difficulty.”

The district has a dozen dedicated substitute teachers who are working every single day, Ferro said.

“We have some funds set aside for building subs, but we don’t have the people in order to do it,” he said.

Transportation, due to a lack of bus drivers, is an issue as well, according to Szymaniak.

“I don’t see light yet in that busing issue,” he said.

Social distancing is back for lunchtime, as well.

Schools that can distance students at six feet are doing so for lunches and, when not eating, students must wear masks at lunchtime. Middle schools are using extra tables in a zig-zag pattern.

But a problem is evident at the high school where cafeteria tables are round. Last year, according to Ferro, some extra desks were used for distancing students at lunch, right now they are trying to work out where to put desks for that purpose if they are able to obtain them.

The School Committee, on Wednesday, Dec. 22 decided to table a suggestion that the district contribute to the cost, as a gesture of support, of an independent audit planned by both Whitman and Hanson officials. 

The School Committee plans to revisit the issue at it’s Wednesday, Jan. 12 meeting.

Committee members expressed concern about the funding needed and the added workload on an already taxed financial crew at the main office.

 “From my perspective, I think I would encourage both towns to do the audit,” School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard said.

He updated the committee, reporting that both select boards have seen discussion on their plans for independent audits of the school district’s financial operations.

He said Business Manager John Stanbrook has already identified things that the district could improve on.

“I’d really like to show support for the towns in doing that audit, because one of two things is going to happen,” Howard said. “Either we’re going to get an audit and it’s going to show that there isn’t any additional items to look at, or we’re going to flush all this out – as John is presently doing – and identify things that are going to make us better or things that we need to improve.”

As a gesture of good faith, he encouraged the school panel to take on one third of the cost, with excess and deficiency as the funding source. He said the audits should, indeed, be done independently and the School Committee should get the results.

Committeee member Steve Bois said he liked the idea of paying one-third of the cost, not so anyone could think they are trying to have an impact on the audit, but to relieve some of the impact on the towns.

“We all come together in the end, and I think this is the same type of thing,” Bois said. “We all come together and we’re pulling in all of our resources, they’re pooling all their resources – we’re just going to know.”

School Committee member Dawn Byers was also concerned about the perception of the committee’s motives in paying one-third of the audit cost.

“I wholeheartedly welcome the audit and open doors,” she said. “I think it will restore public confidence in our community because there have been so many questions over the past couple of years.”

Byers, who works in the accounting field, said an audit is going to be a tremendous amount of work.

Howard said he views it as a consulting opportunity from which the district can learn something as the towns are looking to review financial operations and some of the issues that have been uncovered over the past few years. 

Byers also noted there are several kinds of audits and suggested that it might be an idea to determine the type of audit intended.
“We’re trying to get by the surprises of, we have an assessment issue, what John has uncovered in terms of how we’re doing circuit breaker, other things that we can identify,” Howard said. “Let’s get them all flushed out now.”

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said they also have to think of the effect of all the work now being done by the 4.5 people in the business and HR departments.

“When this happens, it is going to be a massive undertaking, one that we will participate in, but I think I would be remiss if I didn’t speak on behalf of the people who work tirelessly everyday for this budget, do their best … come to work and so this is going to take place, which is fine,” Ferro said. “But I do think we need to reflect on is there the human capacity in that department to do whatever audit somebody else wants and still perform the job that we have to.”

Howard said he thought about that before he broached to topic with Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak before the meeting.

“It starts with the understanding of what needs to be done,” he said.

Szymaniak said he fully supports the audit, as well.

“Tell me what we’re doing right, tell me what we’re doing wrong,” he said. “A fresh set of eyes always helps us grow. … I can’t fix it if I don’t know it’s broken.”

School Committee member Beth Stafford also expressed concern over the additional work being put on fewer people in the district’s main office.

“I’m having mixed emotions about the whole thing because of the fact of putting more work on our already busy personnel,” she said.

Howard said the committee could delay a decision until the Jan. 12 meeting if members wanted to think about it more, which they decided to do.

The School Committee also approved a job description, based largely on one recently approved in Marshfield, for a bilingual family liaison position.

“In 2010 I would never have thought we’d have a need for a bilingual family liaison – we had nine students in-district that were classified as EL, now we’re in the 90s and we could be up to 130, depending on their classification of where they’re at in their fluidity in the English language,” Szymaniak said. “I don’t know if this person’s out there.”

Starting as a part-time post, Szymaniak said one of the reasons it is needed is that there are students in the district recently arrived from Brazil and this is their first New England winter and students are coming to school not dressed for the weather.

“The culture of students in Brazil is a little more rough-and-tumble than American students,” he said, noting that playground games are leading to misunderstandings. “The students are getting into trouble because there’s nobody to explain to a parent, necessarily, what it’s like to be in Whitman or Hanson or Massachusetts.” 

Principals have asked for the service for that reason and others, such as the recent uptick in parents who don’t speak English and the increasing diversity of the district.

“I assume this is going to be a full-time job,” Szymaniak said but he wants to pilot it on a part-time basis.

“The biggest issue is the outreach when new students are identified,” said Ferro, who added that the need for additional staff will also be looked at because the district is “running thin.” 

“This is just the link back to the family to make them comfortable,” he said.

Budgeting to pay for the position is the next step, Szymaniak said.

A dress code change would allow students to wear “multiple types of headgear without restriction” except for obscene and profane language was also approved.

Principal Dr. Christopher Jones said the change started with allowing students to wear do-rags, bonnets and other headcoverings of that type and is expanding to include baseball caps in the interest of having an equitable policy.

Byers congratulated Jones for bringing the change forward and voiced her approval for it.

“My concern is still going back to the original dress code policy that we have,” she said. Part of the handbook guidelines are not enforceable because the district does not have a policy per se, she said.

The policy committee is looking at the dress code in their work this year.

“As we became a more diverse community, it came to our attention that some students were wearing do-rags in school and were sent down [to the office for discipline] for violating the handbook for having headcoverings,” he said. “In speaking to and listening to those students and then educating ourselves … we came to the conclusion that we needed to do something about it as far as allowing them to wear do-rags.”

He said enforcing policy can be tricky because violations have to be proven to cause a disturbance to the educational environment.

Several surrounding districts either allow hats and sweatshirt hoods, or still have dress codes prohibiting the headgear, but look the other way. Jones said that rather that have an unenforced dress code, it should be revised. W-H will not be permitting hoods at this time.

Student safety and COVID were addressed by district officials during the W-H Regional School Committee meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 22. Both have been the subject of concern among the high school’s student body in recent days, according to student representative Anna Flynn,

“We’ve had some serious issues around student safety the past couple of weeks,” said Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak, noting the Monday, Dec. 6 indirect threat to schools on the South Shore posted on the social media site Snapchat. A police investigation narrowed any credible threats to Brockton and Taunton high schools.

“Whitman-Hanson was not on this alleged Snapchat,” Szymaniak said, noting he also received an email from the Brockton High principal concerning an increase of safety. “We have an outstanding relationship with our school resource officers and our police departments, and they brought a police presence to the high school, which was nice.”

He said that presence “wasn’t huge, so cruisers were not evident everywhere” – it was, rather, very discreet – but there were officers on campus as students arrived. Principal Dr. Christopher Jones was away dealing with a family issue in Connecticut and Szymaniak was home with COVID and communicating by phone with the district and public safety officials.

“Later that morning, [Assistant Superintendent George] Ferro was in charge, with [Assistant Principal David] Floeck, running a tight ship,” Szymaniak said. “Later, I got a call – and this is important – some students took a photograph off of Snapchat or Instagram, of another student who was playing airsoft (a team game similar to paintball) in the summer, and he was dressed in full cammo. They put a tag under it ‘Don’t come to school today.’”

The student in the photo had nothing to do with it, Szymaniak stressed.

The students who were involved, while very compliant and cooperative, were nonetheless “consequenced” with police and the high school office.

The juvenile justice system now has those students in process, Szymaniak said.

“The young man in the picture was being harassed a little bit and people were afraid of him,” Szymaniak said, noting a second email had to be sent out emphasizing that “he didn’t do anything wrong.”

Another national TikTok threat was known about by school officials, but police were not brought in. Szymaniak stressed that resource officers see and hear what’s going on.

“However, it’s causing some anxiety for students,” he said. A lot of students sought dismissal on Monday, Dec. 6 and he said he didn’t blame them. He met with Whitman and Hanson public safety personnel Dec. 20 to discuss what the school does already to address such situations and they will be reviewing ALICE protocols and retraining all teachers in the emergency response system during January.

Szymaniak said he will also hold a public forum as soon as the police chiefs can coordinate their calendars “somewhere between January and February break.

“Both SROs are actively going to work on a video, using our students, to show our students what should be done in a crisis,” he said. “It’s outstanding, because you can see kids in your own building doing things in a worse-case scenario.”

Age-appropriate instruction for all students K-12 will take place in January through April, as well.

“We don’t want to scare students, we just want them to know what to do in case of an emergency,” Szymaniak said. “COVID has put down a blanket of ‘Let’s deal with COVID.’ Well, these issues are happening as well, so we want to make sure our staff and students are prepared.”

Ferro said that, pre-COVID, W-H was on track to be recognized as an ALICE National School.

“In doing so, we had a contract with ALICE for professional development,” Ferro said. Every teacher would have at the beginning of the school year, three weeks to take a self-guided video program to obtain certification. The next step would be tabletop exercises and “things of that nature,” he said. The video is being updated and will be used as part of the on-boarding process for all new employees, including substitute teachers.

COVID protocols

“We did take a stop because of COVID, and now it’s time to bring that back.”

Where COVID itself is concerned, last week 17 high school students and two staff members tested positive, along with seven Whitman Middle School Students and four staff members; two students and one staff member at Hanson Middle School; eight students and one staff member at Duval; 10 students at Conley and seven students at Indian Head schools; one student and one staff member at the preschool have tested positive for COVID.

“It’s escalating – you’re seeing it on the news,” Szymaniak said.

An Education Commissioner’s meeting Dec. 22 discussed a number of issues, including the mask requirement, which the commissioner was slated to lift Jan. 15, has not yet been changed.

“He said he’ll have some information in the next five to eight days, depending on where things go,” Szymaniak said, noting his whole family had been ill with COVID, all with different levels of symptoms. Both he and his wife and their son are fully vaccinated and his daughter had one shot when they became ill.

“The protocols we use with DESE are verbatim,” he said. “Our school nurses know more about COVID than most DPHs.”

While Szymaniak said he understands parental frustration that the rules for vaccinated vs. unvaccinated students don’t make sense, he argued to the Commissioner that schools should be allowed to test close contacts from home. The Commissioner has so far said no, as they are looking at data.

“How many students do we have here [like his son], asymptomatic, close contact with dad or mom,” he asked. “Nobody’s doing anything wrong. We’re following the protocols.”

South Shore superintendents have drafted a letter to the commissioner asking for the leeway to change testing protocols.

“Things have changed with vaccination statuses, things have changed with medications, things are now changing with quarantines,” he said. “This is a fluid situation, I’ll brief you on the fifth as we go forward.”

In the meantime, parents of students who test positive over Christmas break should contact Lead Nurse Lisa Tobin about the process for them to follow.

The flu is also going through school districts, Szymaniak said.