WHITMAN — A late end date to the school year and a low number of signups for the first school summer vacation week, has the Recreation Commission eyeing a July 4 start to the summer park program.

The Recreation Commission, meeting on Thursday, March 3 also discussed a potential end date of Aug. 13.

Member Michelle LaMattina, who chaired the meeting, suggested asking park program staff about their availability for an extra week. Many of the program employees are college students, and there is a need to determine how long they are available. The number of counselors has a bearing on how many children can be accepted.

“With the outcome we had last year, we are expecting a lot more kids,” said Gabby Callahan, who runs the camp program. She noted that, while there have been years when the program only ran five weeks, so either six or seven would work.

“I think we’re going to have a really strong program this year, that is rebuilding,” LaMattina said. “I think it’s only going to get better.”

The ability to make plans for the weeks the programs are operating just became a little easier, as more members have been found to replace some departing commissioners.

Selectmen representative to the Recreation Commission Dan Salvucci, briefly attending the meeting, saying his attendance was due to an issue the commission was having in gathering a quorum for meetings. He outlined, as he did for the Board of Selectmen Tuesday, March 2, how he and Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman had made some phone calls in an attempt to attract some new volunteers to help out at Recreation meetings.

I don’t usually go to meetings of boards or committees I’m a liaison to … unless I’m asked for, or there’s a issue that I can help out with,” Salvucci said. “This is your board and [as] with any other board, they do such great work, that why would I interfere?”

Salvucci noted that, without a full board, the Recreation Commission could not effectively plan for summer programs.

“The reason I’m here is to let you know that what you do is very, very, very important and the members of your commission need to show up at all your meetings, and make sure your programs work,” he said. “I’m just glad you have a full board now.”

Salvucci also mentioned an article planned for Town Meeting that would permit associate members to step in and vote at a meeting when a quorum of regular voting members is not present. 

“There are a few [other boards in town] that are like that Chairman Michelle LaMattina said.

Member Kathleen Woodward said the commission’s fiscal 2022 budget is balanced with funds available for programs that are planned to start off the summer.

“As we know, we didn’t have the programs the prior year so we were basically running on empty, so it’s nice to have something to help start us off with,” she said.

The proposed fiscal 2023 Recreation budget keeps the director’s salary at the same level  and the pool line increased to $10,000 — mainly for maintenance issues — a $2,500 increase is also being asked for the needed July 4 program and other activities funding.

Four town organizations use town fields, W-H Youth Soccer, W-H Softball, W-H Lacrosse and Whitman Little League, and are in the process of determining their needs for the year so Woodward can organize schedules.

An apprentice counselor training program for rising eighth-graders is also being considered for the park program.

HANOVER — The Massachusetts School Building Authority has voted to invite South Shore Tech into its Core Program, Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey has announced.

The MSBA board made the decision on the first step in the process of determining which schools might win eventual approval for a renovation or new building at its Wednesday, March 2 meeting.  SST’s eligibility period extends from April 4 to Dec. 30, 2022. 

“This is welcome news for the school district (on its seventh application!), and we will begin the orientation process with MSBA in April,” Hickey wrote in a letter to town administrators and managers. “An important factor to mention early is that this invitation will not require any additional funds from our towns as part of our FY23 budget.” 

He shared the letter, and one to him from MSBA Executive Director John K. McCarthy, with The Express last week.

“The letter basically puts in a pretty exclusive club — at least 17 schools out of at least 58 received this letter saying, ‘Your needs that you identified and our own research confirms that you have been invited to show us in the next nine months that you are ready to begin this process,’” Hickey said Sunday. “We’ve been applying since 2015.”

He said those previous applications, and the funds set aside during those years, puts SST in a position to move very quickly through this first phase.

An important part of the news for SST down the road — as a vocational school — is they have to tell MSBA what school officials think the school’s program of study should look like. What programs in a revamped school does SST want to offer?

Hickey said they will get a few months to outline that on paper, something the school has been doing internally for a long time.

“Is there a chance that we might want to consider offering new programs? Yes,” he said. “But that has to be tied to a local labor market.”

Electrical is the best example, Hickey said. 

“There’s a strong market,” he said. The school could only place 20 out of 38 students who wanted to take electrical after the shop exploratory phase this fall.

“We need a bigger instructional space so we can take more kids,” he said. There are other programs that are adequately sized based on student demand, and others that are not now offered, but for which there might be a labor demand if they were offered, including the growing EV market.

“Part of what I want to do is make sure our programming is not so rigid and siloed that we could not be adaptive,” he said. “If, down the road,  what we need to do is to have some of our automotive majors take courses taught by electrical teachers, we need to make sure that we’ve got the space to do that.”

For example, the school would need to adapt space for electric vehicles and charging stations, he said. 

MSBA will be forming its own team of experts to examine SST’s vision for what the school should offer for the next 50 years. The school has also been approached by Marshfield to see how that town might be accepted into the district. The school currently fits 650 students. For next year, he already has 292 applications for 170 seats.

While about 20 percent who are offered admission decline the offer, he estimated they could still end up with a waiting list of between 50 and 70 kids. Non-resident students can no longer be accepted as freshmen.

“We’ve been very supported by our eight towns and we’ve been able to set aside funding for the feasibility study,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest reasons they give the schools nine months to get things in order.”

But McCarthy was careful to warn that school officials should not “get ahead” of the MSBA without MSBA approval, or they will not be eligible for grant funding.

“All that we need to do right now is show the MSBA that we are willing to set aside the funds if we get moved to the next step,” Hickey said. “The good thing is we don’t have to go back to our eight towns in the middle of a budget cycle and say, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to need about $800,000 for a feasibility study.’ We’ve been saving that money in our stabilization fund.”

A vote of the SST regional school committee is all that is needed to show that the district is ready to undertake a feasibility study since they have the fund in place, according to Hickey.

The next step is a series of procedural votes demonstrating that district officials understand the terms and conditions of the program and forming a building committee. 

Another positive is that SST can act toward the next steps in less than the nine months allotted, placing them at the top of the list to onboard. While SST has been given an April start date for that phase, some other schools have been slated to begin it some six months after that.

“This is a multi-year project … and if we can expedite some of the easier parts of it, that’s great for everyone, I think,” Hickey said.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said state Rep. Josh Cutler, whom Hickey said has been very helpful in advocating for the school, including speaking at the MSBA meeting.

“It’s a first step, it’s a big step,” Cutler said of the MSBA letter. “The fact that they’ve been invited to this round is very significant… There’s still lots of work ahead.”

Cutler also credited state Rep. David DeCoste, R-Norwell, with who, he teamed up on a bipartisan way to advocate for the school, for helping achieve the successful outcome.

“They want to make sure you have local support, that you have feasibility funds that you need, that you have plans that make sense,” he said of the caution not to get ahead of things. “[SST] has put some thought and time into this. I have every confidence that they’re going to fulfill all the particular requirements.”

Despite the “don’t get ahead of things” warning, Hickey said he thinks the letter is good news that’s worth getting excited about, because there is support for the project that would permit SST to go before the MSBA with a project team and manager in place before working with the MSBA on design.

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.