Cooking is the leading cause for home fires and injuries, and so State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey and Chief Dennis Condon, president of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of Massachusetts (FCAM) are urging residents to use caution while cooking in a statewide cooking fire safety public awareness campaign. This campaign has two main messages to prevent home fires: Stand by Your Pan to prevent cooking fires and Put a Lid on It to safely put grease fires out.

“Cooking is the number one cause of fires in Massachusetts, but they spike during the winter holiday season,” said Ostroskey “Leaving pots and pans unattended can be a recipe for disaster. So it is important to always stay in the kitchen when cooking.”

The Department of Fire Services has developed public services announcements (PSA’s) to educate the public on the importance of standing by your pan in the kitchen. They feature firehouse chefs from Holyoke and Methuen talking about cooking safety and sharing their favorite recipes. Lt. Maria Pelchar from Holyoke provides us with her recipe in Spanish. The PSA’s serve up two key messages on cooking safety in these television and radio spots: “Stand by Your Pan” to prevent fires and “Put a Lid on It” to put out a stovetop fire.

“Safety is the key ingredient in any recipe. The leading cause of fire injuries to everyone and especially to seniors is cooking,” said Condon, “which is why it is important to put a lid on a stovetop fire.” He suggests keeping a pot lid or cookie sheet handy when cooking.

Important cooking safety tips:

• Stand by your pan, when cooking. Never leave food, grease or oils cooking on the stovetop unattended.

• Put a lid on it. In the case of a pan fire, slide the lid on it to smother the fire, and then turn off the heat. Do not move the pan until it has cooled off.

• Water or fire extinguishers will not work. They will only spread the fire.

• Never move a burning pan. You can be badly burned or spread the fire.

• Wear short or tight-fitting sleeves when cooking, because loose fitting clothing can easily catch on fire.

• If your clothing catches fire, Stop, Drop, Cover and Roll to put out the flames.

According to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System (MFIRS), there were 9,816 residential fires in Massachusetts involving cooking in 2018, which resulted in one civilian death, 46 civilian injuries, 29 firefighter injuries and an estimated $5.4 million in property damage. Cooking is also the leading cause of injuries to older adults (people over the age of 65).

Some public housing authorities have started installing smart burners on stoves that limit the temperature burners can reach. They get hot enough to boil water but not hot enough to ignite a piece of paper. Another safety device that can be installed is an in-hood fire extinguisher. They contain an extinguishing agent in a small can installed by magnets in the hood over the stove. There are many examples of these devices putting out stove top fires in Massachusetts. The cleanup is minimal compared to a fire.

State and local fire officials are asking the public’s help in reducing the number of cooking fires this holiday season. “We’re challenging the public to reduce cooking fires this year by remembering to stay in the kitchen when frying, boiling and broiling, and checking on baking frequently,” said Ostroskey.

For more information, please visit mass.gov/cookingsafety.

The School Committee on Wednesday, Nov. 13, voted 8 to 1, with member Fred Small dissenting, to appoint a member from each town — Vice Chairman Christopher Scriven from Whitman and Chair Bob Hayes from Hanson — to a smaller Regional Agreement Amendment Committee, which began meeting Tuesday, Nov. 12. School Committee member Rob O’Brien Jr., was absent.

Whitman Selectmen Randy LaMattina said he and Selectman Justin Evans met with Hanson counterparts Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett and Selectman Matt Dyer — along with town administrators Frank Lynam and Meredith Marini — met in a “very informal” manner Nov. 12 to begin discussing an effort to find a way forward.

“I would describe the dialog as quality and respectful,” LaMattina said. “I would not say we came to a conclusion, but I would say we were very cognizant of each others’ concerns. The door is open.”

“I can’t promise anything,” FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed. “We don’t know what’s going to happen … ultimately it’s the taxpayers who decide.”

LaMattina said he would like to see the School Committee involved in the process, but noted that, at the end of the day, it is the selectmen who will be going to the taxpayers for “the check that we need to have cut.”

While he said Whitman is firm on the position that the statutory method is the most fair and equitable way to ensure state aid is going where it is intended.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the meeting Tuesday was a good one and “We understand where Whitman’s coming at.”

She said both boards of selectmen are trying to do what is in the best interests of their residents.

“In the end, I think we’re cognizant that, while we’re trying to do what’s best for the citizens in our respective towns, we don’t want to see the schools harmed in the process,” she said.

She did, however, ask the School Committee for transparency and clarity, specifically on the current operating cost numbers that Marini has asked the district to provide in an effort to determine a path forward. LaMattina said that, while Whitman is still committed to the statutory assessment formula, the town may need to make concessions if Hanson is to be eased into the scenario, which can only be achieved if the next budget year’s figures are available.

“We need a budget,” he said.

“It would be bananas for us to try to figure out any kind of an agreement if we don’t have those numbers,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said of the information Hanson wants. “It’s literally like working in the dark.”

The two towns are still at odds over the assessment formula to be used by the district.

“It’s all going to come down to timing,” Hayes said.

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

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

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

“The agreement pretty much only needs a couple of tweaks here and there, but they’re big tweaks,” said School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes in beginning the discussion. He asked for thoughts on how the Regional Agreement Committee could move ahead with fewer people, but the discussion quickly veered back to a debate on the merits of a statutory vs. agreement/alternative method of determining assessments to the towns.

“If that’s what we’re forming a committee to do, I don’t know that it’s the School Committee’s charge … you’re getting too many people in a room and too many chefs trying to make a stew,” said School Committee member Fred Small. “That should be between the two towns.”

He advocated the statutory formula is the fair way to go, but said if selectmen want to work together in the spirit of community to see if there is some give and take on the issue, a month’s delay to see if they could come to a solution might be in order before the School Committee formed a committee.

School Committee member Christopher Howard agreed the selectmen needed to meet to figure it out, but member Dawn Byers said the School Committee should have a voice in that process.

School Committee member Dan Cullity, however, said enough time has been wasted.

“We should have been doing this two months ago,” he said. “We can’t wait around any more, we’ve got to get this done.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said she agreed with Small’s contention that the state will end up taking over.

“We know each side has sort of picked its weapons and worked out their position,” she said.

Town positions

LaMattina said Whitman remains a strong supporter of the regional school district.

“We know Hanson has been a good partner,” he said. “We will try to work through it, but neither town is going to back into this. I think we need to see a budget.”

While Whitman is looking to what the schools future needs are, “We cannot formulate a plan with an unknown number,” LaMattina said. “I don’t know if we’re going to come to a great kumbaya agreement, I do think we can get there but I think we need to know where ultimately we need to be.”

Hanson wants to see the district’s current operating costs, FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

Small said there is a “lot of misinformation” on social media.

“There’s no such thing as a wealth-based method,” he said. “If we were two separate towns the monies that we’re talking about would be Whitman’s money just going to Whitman, because it’s part of Whitman’s Chapter 70 money.”

He said the statutory method was the only one available back in 1993, until an amendment in 1995-96 permitted an alternative method.

“When half of our money — $25 million — comes from the state, and they’re only increasing their revenue by half a percent, our town can only pay so much,” Small said.

One Hanson resident, who has worked in the school district in the past, said it sounded to her like the committee was trying to rush a decision. She said FitzGerald-Kemmett’s request for current budget numbers made sense to her.

“I understand Whitman is in a crisis, but is this the way to go?” she said, noting Hanson’s assessment could go up by $1 million.

School Committee member Christopher Howard advocated rushing into a dialog if not a decision.

“I think both towns are making very valid points,” Howard said. “My concern is, if we give some folks in one town some information, and some folks in the other town other information, I’m just very concerned about … folks selectively picking and choosing certain data points to make certain arguments,” he said. “There’s value in people coming together as a group.”

Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam said he understands the reason for FitzGerald-Kemmett’s request for a breakdown of costs by school building.

“We want to get deeper in the budget process,” he said. “We want to understand what the costs are individually and where they are coming from.”

He also said detailed information is needed for what is being sought for fiscal 2021.

Small and Whitman resident Chris George, meanwhile, became involved in a heated exchange with Hanson resident Bruce Young about the assessment formulas.

“Since 1993, when educational reform was passed, and since the state has been giving out Chapter 70 aid differently than they did in 1991, when our agreement was struck, aid to one town — in some years Hanson and in some years Whitman — has been reallocated from one town to another,” said George. “That’s what not following the statutory method does. Since 2015, that’s close to $4 million from the town of Whitman.”

When the region received state aid, Young countered, it is not allocated to the towns or specific students in the towns, it is allocated to every student in the district.

“This is a region, not two towns within a region,” he said.

Small said the state has different minimum contribution formulas for the two towns because they receive different Chapter 70 aid funds.

“When you get up there and say it doesn’t exist, you are telling a falsehood,” Small said. “I’m calling you out on it.”

School Committee member Steven Bois had heard enough at that point.

“You make me think I want to start a night class here,” said Bois, a longtime school volunteer and former Whitman Finance Committee member. “There has to be a point — and this is coming from a Republican — you have to have the ability to pay. I volunteered at both schools and, never said this anywhere publically, but I’ve seen differences between Whitman kids and Hanson kids and I know where the needs really are.”

He said he has listened to the debate without comment for three meetings, and had had enough.

“Mr. Young, I don’t think you’ve been on our side at all,” Bois said. “I know I got an email from your wife when I first won election, ‘Oh, a Republican got in, thank goodness.’ No, that ain’t it, it’s still all of us.”

WHITMAN — On Monday, Dec. 2, five days after consuming that Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings, Whitman voters will be asked to attend a brief special Town Meeting seen as vital to the town. The Town Meeting would start at 7:30 p.m., in Town Hall Auditorium.

Among the items on the four-article warrant is funding toward repairs to the town’s wastewater system — and a quorum of 150 registered voters is vital for that business to be addressed, according to Town Administrator Frank Lynam.

The Board of Selectmen, in an unusual afternoon meeting followed by an equally unusual Tuesday meeting of the School Committee [see related story], voted 4-0 to approve date and warrant for the Town Meeting. Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski was not present.

“The DPW is in need of an appropriation to begin the work to replace the sewer force main,” Lynam said. “I know it’s difficult, sometimes, to have special Town Meetings at this time of year and I’ve asked that we do this early in order to have the maximum amount of time to promote this meeting because our ability to continue to use our sanitary system, is dependent on that force main — and it is failing. We’re at a critical point, now.”

That work is being addressed under article four on the warrant — which seeks $900,000, of which $121,676.23 is to pay for a retro-assessment for sewer service in 2016. Another $88,083.70 is for fiscal 2017. Both are due to Whitman’s negotiation of a successor contract with Brockton since July 1, 2015.

“We have finally reached a point where we believe we are in agreement,” Lynam said. “We won’t know that until we see final document language.”

Whitman has not been billed for fiscal 2018 yet.

“Those items, along with the cost of designing and building a force main will be somewhere near $900,000,” Lynam said. By appropriating that amount, he said the town should have sufficient funds to do the work and any left-over funds will be returned to the sewer enterprise account.

The first article is to transfer $4,500 from Norfolk County Aggie to pay a prior year bill to Collins Engineering, who helped the town with the repair evaluation of Hobart’s Dam.

Article two would transfer $37,918 from both Norfolk County and the law account “because we would really like to pay the [police] chief we just hired for the whole year,” Lynam said.

Article three is a transfer up to $7,209 — perhaps less would be needed, but that is not clear at this point — to cover for the Animal Control Officer, who has been out on workmen’s compensation.

“Even though there are only four articles, those four articles are very important,” said Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci.

Selectman Justin Evans said he had an issue with taking funds from the law account for part of article two.

Lynam said those were the funds most likely to be available, as the town does not have additional levy space. Any resulting shortfall in the law account would have to be addressed in the May special Town Meeting, he noted.

“Frankly, I didn’t want to use free cash,” he said.

Lynam said he has been meeting with the assessor and they have determined that this year’s excess levy has “dropped dramatically.”

It is now $3,982.

He said the information would likely give the town an appropriation levy of $27,241,000 and a tax rate of $15.86, figures to be clarified at the tax classification hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 19.

In an effort to reduce postage costs in fiscal year 2020 Whitman began mailing real estate and personal property bills twice a year instead of four times a year. In July taxpayers were mailed a double coupon “preliminary” tax bill which included a remittance slip for the quarterly bills due both on Aug. 1 and a Nov. 1. The “actual” tax billing in December will also include two remittance slips for the Feb. 1 and May 1 due dates. Please retain the second slip for the next due date.

Please refer to the “preliminary” real estate and personal property double coupon bill mailed in July for the second quarter remittance slip which is due on Nov. 1.

 If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact the Collector’s Office at 781-618-9721.

HANSON — While most of the work is taking place over the town line in Hanover, Hanson residents had the chance to voice their concerns with state officials last week.

Mass DEP representatives Deborah Marshall-Hewitt and Gerard Martin provided an overview of the work done on the former National Fireworks Site — and a look ahead to the next phase of the work— during a Wednesday, Oct. 16 meeting at Hanson Middle School. Town Moderator Sean Kealy presided over the session attended by Selectmen Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, Matt Dyer and Wes Blauss.

“The board thought that it was important to ask these folks from MassDEP to be here tonight to answer questions that might be unique to Hanson citizens,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett who chairs the Board of Selectmen.

Most of the questions at the Hanson forum focused on water contamination and blasting at the site.

Marshall-Hewitt, a 26-year veteran of MassDEP, is the Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup Audit section chief and project manager for the Fireworks site cleanup. Martin is deputy regional director for the Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup in the Southeast region.

She described the cleanup process contaminated waste goes through, location of munitions on the site and contact information for MassDEP and the state attorney general’s office. Video of the meeting can be viewed on the Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV website.

“No public or private water supply wells have been impacted by the contaminants released at the site,” Marshall-Hewitt said. “That’s a really important piece. I think a few residents in Hanover didn’t quite understand [that], but we have tested groundwater — a lot of the wells in the area receive drinking water from municipal water supply wells. Those municipal water supply wells are tested separately from what we are doing at the fireworks site.”

She said the results have been fine.

Martin added that municipal wells are also required to tap into Zone 2 acquifers, a zone of groundwater no where near the fireworks site.

Right now access to the fireworks factory site is restricted and patrolled by Hanover Police, who have made a number of arrests and stopped several others from entering the site, according to Marshall-Hewitt. People who fish in affected water will not be harmed by handling the fish, but are advised not to eat the fish.

“There has been a fish advisory out for a long time,” she said of mercury contamination. Phase three will focus on dredging sediment to remove heavy contaminants such as mercury, as well as an Immediate Response Action for any more munitions found on the site. The estimated cost, to be shouldered by the parties responsible for contamination is $92 million, including dredging and disposal of dredged sediment.

The work is estimated to take three to four years, Marshall-Hewitt said, but Martin expects it to take longer.

“I think this could be optimistic,” he said. “This is a very involved project. They’re not even sure how they are going to do the dredging yet.”

The process has already taken 10 years, a resident said.

“There are a lot more than we anticipated that are being removed,” she said.

The site involves 240 acres bounded by Winter and King streets in Hanover and Hanson and had been used for the manufacture, testing and storage of fireworks and military ordnance from 1907 to the 1970s.

A Mass. Contingency Plan for the remediation of various chemical contaminants — primarily mercury and lead — is entering a third phase three, for which the public comment period closes Friday, Oct. 25.

“We will not comment on the phase three report until we get all the comments from the public,” Martin said. “We want to consider what your concerns are when we’re looking at this report and figuring out how to move forward.”

Phase three will include the evaluation and selection of cleanup alternatives, a draft of which was submitted to the MassDEP in July.

The Hanson town website (hanson-ma.gov) has links posted for information about what the project has accomplished and what is ahead.

Questions posed from a handful of Hanson residents Oct. 16 focused on the health impacts of lead and mercury contaminants, found in sediment of Factory Pond and Indian Head River.

Mercury was detected in sediment, soil, groundwater and fatty tissues of fish — as well as lead and volatile organic compounds — during phase two. Additional work included indoor air and irrigation well sampling, both of which were concerns expressed by Hanson residents.

State Street resident Peggy Westfield asked about cancers possibly related to the contamination from a personal vantage point. In 1988, her son Matthew died from leukemia at age 7.

“Does the DPH have all that information?” she asked about a Hanover brain cancer case being checked for a connection to the contamination. “Should I give them the information? If you look at people around this room … there are other kinds of cancer that I believe to be caused by this site.”

She pointed to the Indian Head River as a potential site. Martin said she should contact the DPH, which has two people investigating the connection with contamination.

Another asked about irrigation well contamination and explosions — the latter of which have caused cracked foundations not covered by homeowners’ insurance, and stress to pets that has led to destructive behavior.

“Everybody tells me it’s not their responsibility,” said one resident who noted only interim Town Administrator Meredith Marini has tried to help.

FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested the funds from responsible parties funding the site cleanup, should also be tapped to help homeowners.

Paul Nichol, a Winter Street resident, said his dog has suffered a great deal from the blasting.

“We’ve had thousands of dollars of damage caused by my dog,” he said. “The dog hears the siren and knows the explosion is coming, so he starts running through the house, throws himself through a glass door, tried to actually eat his way out of the house through a door.”

He has had to put the dog in day care.

“It’s too bad when these things follow you home,” said Conservation Commission member Phil Clemons, who has worked for 35 years in the environmental health and safety management in the corporate world. “This is the kind of project where you have a lot of overlap between environmental issues, wildlife issues, human health and human safety issues.”

As a youth, he said he used to fish in Factory Pond, expressing interest in the fish studies, as well as those into human health.

“A very high interest will continue to be sampling or removing sediment from the pond or from the streams,” he said. “Lots of things go on with sediment we don’t usually pay attention to or see, but, by golly, this calls for attention.”

A Sept. 24 public hearing in Hanover, described by most who attended both sessions as contentious, also featured representatives of the Mass. Department of Public Health, as well as staff members of U.S. Rep. Bill Keating and U.S. senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren — who were not present in Hanson.

Marshall-Hewitt said the MassDPH is now conducting a cancer study among people who live in proximity to the fireworks site, and provided general information at the Sept. 24 meeting.

Another meeting is planned for 6 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 14 at Hanover Town Hall, 550 Hanover St., to discuss an upcoming grant opportunity and planning process to identify and implement restoration projects that will restore fisheries, rivers, and wetlands in the North, Indian Head, and Drinkwater Rivers as well as Factory Pond. We recommend potential applicants attend to discuss project ideas before the North River Watershed Restoration Grant Announcement and Application (GAA) is issued in Fall/Winter 2019.

The potentially responsible parties from whom $68 million has been placed in an expendable trust for reimbursement or payment of response action costs are: National Coating Company, MIT, the bankrupt Susquehanna Corp., and Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. (Tronox-bankrupt), which make up the Fireworks Site Joint Defense Group and the Defense Department.

HALIFAX — Mystery writer Edwin Hill is developing a following.

Most of the dozen or so people attending his talk about his second Hester Thursby novel, “The Missing Ones,” had already enjoyed his debut novel “Little Comfort,” and were happy to hear this newest work, too, strays into the realm of the creepy.

“Let me just ask, real quick — and there’s no wrong answer to this — who has read the first book?” he asked. Hands were raised around the room at the Holmes Public Library Saturday, Oct. 5. “A lot of you have already been introduced to the characters. … I have some repeat offenders who have come to see me before, which I really appreciate.”

Thursby, a Harvard librarian who stands all of four-feet nine inches tall, takes care of her 3-year-old niece, her non-husband Morgan Maguire and a Bassett hound named Waffles. She works on missing persons cases in her spare time.

Or, worked in missing persons cases.

“The Missing Ones” makes clear early on that Hester no longer does that kind of work, in fact she’s been avoiding working at all as she struggles from PTSD after a harrowing experience in the first published book.

Picking up 10 months after then end of “Little Comfort,” Hill was determined to reference things that happened in that book while writing “The Missing Ones.”

“Hester had made some pretty serious mistakes in the last book and I wanted her to acknowledge that,” he said. “I also wanted to show she had feelings of having been in a life-or-death situation.”

Hill referenced older books and TV series where the hero is shot in the shoulder in one storyline and it is never referred to again.

“I wanted the books to work together,” he said.

It opens on two small islands off the coast of Maine, loosely based on the real island of Monhegan. The prologue relates a ferry boat accident that caused a 4-year-old went missing for a time and the island’s constable is at first credited with saving the boy. While he is dealing with town gossip about how that incident played out, another child goes missing.

“I always tell stories from multiple points of view,” Hill said. “In ‘Little Comfort,’ there are five points of view … In this book I used four point-of-view characters.”

He credited readers with suggesting story line changes, including more for Hester’s “not-quite husband” Morgan to do.

A failed attempt at publishing a book in the early 2000s left him discouraged until he found the kernel of an idea in the Christian Gerhartsreiter — AKA Clark Rockefeller — a professional imposter who kidnapped his daughter and was later convicted of murder. By 2012 Hill was back to writing with an agent by 2014 and selling it two years ago.

“You’ll see the seeds of Clark Rockefeller in there, but it’s not completely based on that,” he said.

A library is another source of his inspiration.

Hill’s grandmother, Phyllis Hill was the librarian in Whitman from the 1940s to the late ’60s.

“For a while, she was going to be a chef,” Hill said of Hester Thursby’s day job. “Then I thought she might be a psychiatrist — a lot of mystery series have psychology at their core — but there are a lot of people doing that, and they do it very well, and I thought let’s do something different.”

He said librarians are really curious people, who have resources available to them that are not available to the average person, especially in 2010 when he wrote “Little Comfort.”

He started with a lighter touch, writing that Thursby’s caseload featured whimsical cases such as long-lost prom dates or lost dogs.

“The novels are not light,” he said. “They wound up becoming much darker as I worked on them over time.”

One whimsical touch he retained was making Hester “clinically messy” and Morgan a “neat freak,” along with their caring for Morgan’s twin sister Daphne’s headstrong 3-year-old daughter Kate.

“The novel went through three or four different changes and stopped being funny,” he said. “It’s not funny at all, it’s a psychological thriller.”

“The Missing Ones” carries that theme over, as well. Hill read an excerpt from the book’s first chapter and answered audience’s questions from the researching, writing and publishing process, the challenges of writing a second book, and his third book. Set in Boston, primarily in Jamaica Plain, that book involves a for-profit university and is due out in December.

To flesh out the characters of three individual preschool children, hill put out a Facebook request to parents about what they noticed about their kids as they aged from 3 to 4.

“People were really generous with things they shared,” he said, including how they start to grow more solidly and that they developed little obsessions.

“They listed off all these different things their kids had been obsessed with — bugs, and counting, Thomas the Tank Engine, and poop and peeing on trees,” he said. “If you have three 4-year-old [characters] they can end up merging together in your mind if they aren’t disinct, so I just assigned each kid an obsession.”

WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen has voted to approve a town-wide vacation policy for municipal public employees. Employees may now carry over no more than nine vacation days, and is affected by collective bargaining agreements already in place.

Any days over the nine not used within a fiscal year will be forfeited.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said during discussion on the issue Tuesday, Sept. 24. He said the new policy is not meant to affect people’s right to vacation time, but to encourage them to use it instead of carrying it over year after year.

“One of the issues that we’re addressing in the updated policy is the carry-over of vacation over the last few years,” said Lynam. “We have had financially significant payouts for accrued and unused vacation.”

The 4-0 vote — Selectmen Chairman Dr. Kowalski was absent from the meeting — came after months of discussion in executive session, because the policy included compensation issues that needed to be negotiated, according to Lynam.

“The nine days that we settled on is not arbitrary, it was the maximum vacation rollover in a collective bargaining agreement,” Selectman Justin Evans said.

Lynam said the new policy will mean meetings with “a couple of people who have far in excess of the nine days that will be permitted” under the new policy in an effort to help them use the time rather than lose it.

Lynam said that, in connection with the new policy, a vacation accrual line item will be in the next budget cycle to recognize the remaining vacation time liabilities.

In past years, he noted the town has had to pay out amounts exceeding the appropriation for the current and future plan. Lynam said the issue has been brought before the board a number of times.

“I’ve always felt, working 43 years at the same company that I worked for, that vacation time is very important and needs to be used,” said Selectman Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci. “You need to be able to divorce your mind from the job, rest your mind, get a vacation, enjoy your family — whatever it takes.”

He said not taking vacation time to roll over vacation pay is not the right thing to do for a person’s mental health.

“You need to take the time,” he said. “They need to understand that vacation time is there for a purpose and it’s there to relax your mind so that, when you come back, you can do a better job.”

The W-H School Committee, dismayed at the absence of a representative from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) at the Wednesday, Sept. 18 public hearing on the regional assessment method quizzed a school district attorney on the legal points surrounding the issue.

Hanson School Committee member Christopher Howard observed that the amended regional agreement’s funding formula seems to contradict the alternative/agreement method traditionally used by the district, and asked which takes precedence — the state’s new assessment regulation or the binding regional agreement.

School district lawyer Kevin Bresnahan said the existing regional agreement “does reflect an appropriate and allowable alternative assessment under the law and under the regulations,” as well as annual approval of a school budget constituting approval of the method. In any year that a budget is not approved by both towns and a district-wide meeting is needed, the regulations dictate that “the statutory method is the only can be used in that circumstance.”

“I would not be confident advising the committee that you could take a vote, given your existing regional agreement, to utilize the statutory method to calculate your initial budget without confirming that with [the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] DESE,” Bresnahan said. He argued the committee could not put forth a statutory budget under the current terms of the regional agreement.

Bresnahan said “unanimous approval of the towns” means that all towns in a district must approve it, rather than a town meeting vote total.

“We can talk about changing that, but we need to follow that,” Howard said of the alternative funding method currently used.
Hanson Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett spoke for her board, stating that the assessment formula has always been per-pupil within the regional agreement.

She also confirmed the regional agreement revocation article is on the Oct. 7 warrant as an effort to neutralize the issue and give people a chance to be thoughtful.

“We really did not comprehend — and I mean to the person — the change that was being made to the agreement and it fell upon the Board of Selectmen to do what we felt was right, to rescind the original vote … until such time as a different agreement is struct,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We stand ready to do what is in the best interests of the citizens of Hanson. We look to the School Committee to make a decision about what your next move is going to be.”

She said any participation required from selectmen, the board is ready to help. “Throwing hand grenades over the wall at each other” is not going to help improve education.

“We have an answer about what’s happened in the past, the question is what do we do going forward,” said Whitman School Committee member Christopher Scriven. He arugued that, unless the regional agreement is changed, the statutory method should be used as DESE regulations stipulate, going forward.

Whitman Budget Override Evaluation Committee member Chris George noted that the handbook Finance Committees in both towns follow outlines that assessment calculations for regional district member towns should be calculated on a statutory basis, noting that the SJC has affirmed that education assessment methodology in the DESE regulation supersedes any individual regional school agreement. Districts may opt for an alternative formula, but it must be approved by member communities each year.

“To me it’s pretty clear,” he said. “The 1991 agreement is superseded by state law. The reason why? Because they changed the way they did state aid. Following the regional agreement as it’s stated does nothing except reallocate aid entitled to the residents of Whitman to the residents of Hanson — it’s that simple.”

Hanson resident Bruce Young said Chapter 71 governs regional school district budgets, which W-H has been following since 1991.

“What I find strange as a citizen and taxpayer is that DESE would make a ruling that, in spite of all these things, the majority town can hold out for a super-town meeting … and the town with the most voters can impose its will on the minority community,” Young said.

Whitman Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly, said that last year no one knew what the statutory method was, and that voters in both towns thought the law was being followed when it wasn’t.

“Essentially, $1 million of welfare money was diverted over to Hanson, and that’s the truth of it,” she said. “It is state aid intended for poor students.”

Connolly said the alternative method is there for “compassion, not exploitation.”

Whitman resident Shawn Kain said that, if people in both towns dug their heels in, nothing will be solved.

“I think we need to find a compromise,” he said. “I think there could be a third way that would still be an alternative agreement, but could be a multi-year step one way or the other.”

Kain said neither community is in a position to absorb $1 million in their budgets.

“If people dig their heels in, it’s going to get ugly,” he said.

School Committee member Dawn Byers of Whitman, noted that South Shore Tech uses the statutory assessment formula and that DESE has that in mind for all regional districts.

“From my reading of the Education Reform Act, they want minimum local contribution to provide equity to all students,” she said. “They want all students to have the best opportunity to learn equal to their neighbor and all the neighboring towns and all the towns across Massachusetts.”

She said DESE recognizes different towns have different abilities to pay.

Small said Whitman is currently paying $3 million more than its minimum contribution, while Hanson is paying just to their minimum level.

Bresnahan said the 1991 agreement will have to stand until approved by both towns and approved by the commissioner of education.

“Clearly, there are considerations on both sides here that should be part of the discussion about whether the existing agreement should stay in place or be amended,” Bresnahan said. “I’m just trying to tell you how things stand now what the law requires and what has been allowed in the past.”

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said he would be calculating a budget based on the alternative method, because that is the formula in place.

“That’s where I feel our office did not provide accurate information for the committees and the selectmen to know there was another method,” he said. “People dropped the ball in our office and we are dealing with it.”

The situation has been distressing for School Committee members, as well.

“I can’t say this enough — I hate this entire conversation,” Howard said. “We’ve got to figure this out. I think everyone agrees, this is not going to move us forward as a district.”

He said a new regional agreement committee might be needed to do that. School Committee member Fred Small of Whitman agreed.

“We need to fix the problem and fix it fast,” Small said. “Our administration right now is spending way too much time worrying about this and taking its eye off the ball, which is educating kids.”

Szymaniak agreed.

“We haven’t done anything but this for almost a month and a half,” he said.

Whitman Finance Committee member David Codero commended Small for his comments, while disagreeing with one point on which Small had agreed with Young.

“Majority rule considered tyranny? There’s another word for it — it’s called democracy,” Codero said. “It’s a democratic procedure. For anyone to categorize it otherwise from the gallery? They’re wrong.”