A winter school program is beginning this semester at WHRHS, as an alternative to summer school for some students who are falling behind.

“Winter school is basically the idea of taking summer school and moving it into the winter to head off a student failing midway through the year who has no light at the end of the tunnel, so that at the end of the first semester they know they are pretty much sunk for the year,” Principal Dr. Christopher Jones.

Teachers and departments have selected the most important benchmarks for subject mastery and put them into a computer-based program for curriculum for credit recovery courses. The more specific course helps students move from a failing grade to a 60 — the lowest possible passing grade for a course.

“The whole idea is they get the concepts they need to be able to be successful in the second semester, because if you fail the first half of biology, odds are, you’re not going to pass the second half,” he said. “We are already loaded up and set to go with 44 students and three coordinators.”

It retains the integrity of the grade because students are required to pass the concepts the school requires in a course. Summer school, which can be taken in other school districts may not always achieve that.

Jones said that, while it is not easy, about 92 percent of the students taking winter school in his former district passed for the year and did not have to attend summer school.

The program is done after school, with coordinators required to unlock access to pre-tests and assessments. Secure browsers prevent them from finding answers elsewhere online.

“There is no financial impact,” Jones said. “It’s a self-funding program.”

Each student pays $50 to participate to take winter school, significantly less than summer school, and may take two courses because the fee is for entrance and not levied per course.

“Right now, we’re seeing a profit, which I don’t like,” Jones said. “I’m not looking to make money off of this, I’m looking to self-fund a program that is to help students succeed.”

The three hours per week required for the program must be arranged between the student and the coordinator.

“I like the innovation of it,” Committee member Robert Trotta said. “People are thinking of ways to improve things, especially for our students. … I think this is what education is all about, to look at what you have and to change things, if necessary, for students to enjoy success.”

“The accessibility of this program for the kids is awesome and the innovative nature is very encouraging,” member Chris Scriven agreed.

W-H Regional High School is also working to make summer reading more enjoyable for students with the inauguration of the Summer Reading Smack Down.

Reading madness

Partly an exercise in NCAA March Madness Bracketology, partly the PBS Great American Read, it’s a project that invites all high school students and staff to propose titles for the one book all students will be required to read as part of the summer reading list.

Jones said the idea is to promote summer literacy by offering an opportunity for students to help select a book they may actually read.

Students and faculty are asked to take suggested books out, fill out a 1-to-5 rating on a book mark survey and a committee will select a book in April.

The titles will be placed in a March Madness-type bracket with a panel of mostly students — and some staff — selecting “winners” in each bracket, based on 30-second pitches for each book.

“Everybody votes as to which book moves forward,” Jones said. Interdisciplinary days based on the selected book will kick off the school year in August — for example if the book, “Code Name Verily,” about female British pilots during WW II, is chosen, a math department could talk about codes, history classes could focus on the historical aspects of the book and a science class could focus on flight instruments.

“Isn’t it nice to do something that’s awesome instead of talking about budgets and negativism,” School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes said.

“I love this idea,” member Alexandria Taylor said. “I love to read … [but] summer reading killed me. I hated it. I hate being told to read a book that I’m not interested in, so I love the idea that you’re getting students involved in choosing a book.”

“Reading should not be punitive,” Jones concurred. “We talk about helping our teachers work. This idea was brought up in the English Department.”

Program of studies

Jones also outlined a revised program of studies that shifts 21 courses to keep pace with changed in curriculum programs. For example, Intro to TV and Radio Production has been changed to Video Production as television and radio “becomes outdated,” as well as changes to math programs such as courses that prepare students for AP Calculus. The School Committee approved the changes.

School Choice was also approved for 20 freshmen and 20 sophomore students — and upper classmen whose families have moved out of district and want to stay at W-H through graduation — again for the 2019-20 school year. Approval is an annual requirement for the program to continue. There are now 62 students attending the high school through the school choice option, some from other towns, but most are those whose families moved and they want to stay and graduate from WHRHS, Superintendent Jeffrey Szymaniak said.

Last year 20 freshmen and 20 sophomores were approved.

“We did not hit those numbers,” Szymaniak said. The average school choice student brings $5,000 into the district and those with IEPs can mean from $15,000 to $18,000 to the district’s coffers.

“That doesn’t drain programs, it’s special education services we already provide,” Szymaniak said.

District Business Manager Christine Suckow confirmed that the school choice program has enabled the district to hire six teachers, funded through the program.

The school will also be taking part in a state DESE Youth Risk Behavior Survey at the high school among freshmen and sophomores, referring them to the school adjustment counselors for some further discussions.

“This survey gives us information on substances and different things that students are exposed to,” Jones said.

Information gleaned provides a picture on substance use and frequency and social-emotional issues. At a certain threshold of affirmative answers, the student is referred to an adjustment counselor for further discussion and/or alternative treatment.

“The only hitch with that is that [adjustment counselors] can’t necessarily divulge that information to the parents,” Jones said. “It’s really having the kids in an anonymous or confidential atmosphere.”

HANOVER  — The South Shore Tech Regional School Committee certified by a 6-0 vote its $13,816,873 fiscal 2020 budget on Wednesday, Feb. 20. The vote satisfied the two-thirds margin required to pass — members John Manning, of Scituate and Robert Mahoney of Rockland were absent.

Hanson would be assessed $1,002,913 for the 76 students it sends to South Shore Tech or $13,196.22 per student.

Whitman’s assessment of $1,605,208 covers the second-highest number of students at the school — 145 — for a cost per student of $11,070.40. Only Rockland, with 159 students, sends more pupils to the school. Rockland’s assessment of $1,929,248 breaks down to $12,133.63 per student.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cohassett, with only three students at the school, would be assessed $56,033 or $18,677.70.

Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said he has already begun making the rounds of the district’s eight member towns to discuss the budget and assessments.

Overall, the towns are being asked to contribute $92,444 less in the aggregate, than last year, Hickey said.

“Those numbers sound good, something’s less, but it all comes down to what an individual community is being assessed,” he said. “Operationally, the budget did not go up very much, if you’re willing to set aside capital.”

Committee member Dan Salvucci of Whitman lauded the district for providing numbers on sending towns’ per-pupil costs.

“The one important factor that I would point out when looking at a per-pupil assessment is that, because we go to our communities with one number that includes capital and debt — if we were preparing a per-pupil cost to a K-12 district where the per-pupil costs might solely involve operating expenses of the school district — that debt might not normally be counted as part of a per-pupil expense,” Hickey said. “The numbers that Dan is referring to is simply our entire assessment, because we always go to the towns with one number.”

SST is anticipating a 70-percent regional transportation reimbursement rate.

propane buses

Committee members also discussed transportation, specifically a cost of $238,660 per year in leases for the 12 new propane-fueled buses, paid in a lump sum each January, according to Secretary-Treasurer James Coughlin.

Member Robert L. Molla of Norwell asked why the cost was entered under leased equipment rather than transportation. Coughlin explained it was because of the five-year lease on the vehicles.

“The big factor is, when we do the end-of-the-year report for the DOR (Department of Revenue) and for DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education), the leased equipment is part of transportation [for state reimbursement] … but for our purposes, we just segregate our regular transportation costs — our repairs and fuel and everything — into [the transportation] line,” he said.

Coughlin said it gives a clearer picture of the daily operating costs of the buses, separate from the lease costs.

“Seems like a hard way of doing it, but if it works, it works,” Molla said.

Hickey added that the three “newest” diesel buses remaining in the fleet — the three oldest diesel vehicles were a trade-in as part of the lease agreement — are used as spares and expected to last through the life of the lease.

“When the lease is over, we own those [propane] buses, so we’re in a pretty good position in terms of assets, and the ability to flip them into another lease or whatever the best decision at the time is for keeping some and letting some go,” Hickey said.

Farrell Propane fuels the buses on-site about twice a week.

“A couple of times already since January, at 5:15 a.m., Mr. Hickey has texted me being very thankful that we have propane buses because they turn right over,” said Principal Mark Aubrey. “We do not need diesels and we do not need to plug them in, so there is an added benefit, they turn right over and they are nice and warm for the students when they get on the buses, so it’s a win for everybody.”

Coughlin added that the propane buses save the district, which had been spending $90,000 per year on maintenance of the diesel fleet, as maintenance and fuel costs for the propane vehicles are much lower.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak has pledged that he will “look at district-wide administration … anything that will keep teachers in their positions,” first if budget cuts must be made, he told the School Committee at its Wednesday, Feb. 13 meeting.

There is little he can do about the 2-percent increase in special education costs, he cautioned.

“I’d like for this committee to hear from the towns before I tell my staff or we’re looking at cuts first because I think that Whitman and Hanson are spots,” he said.

Whitman town employee unions have been asked to consider wage freeze in light of that towns’ budget crisis, according to Szymaniak, who attended a department head meeting there on Monday, Feb. 11. District Business Manager Christine Suckow and Facilities Director Ernest Sandland also attended that meeting chaired by Town Administrator Frank Lynam.

“Frank has met with all of the union reps in Whitman except one, and I don’t know which union — he didn’t say which one he did not meet with — about taking a zero-percent [increase], or a wage freeze for two years,” Szymaniak. “I know he had a conversation with WHEA about that.”

Szymaniak said the meeting with teachers’ union representatives, which was criticized by Hanson School Committee member Michael Jones, was not arranged through his office.

“We voted for you for this position — you work for us,” Jones said. “What you say we need, that’s how we vote. Frank Lynam doesn’t tell you, us, anything [about] what we do. I just want to be clear on that.”

Jones asked if Lynam was meeting with district department heads and Szymaniak outlined that the Feb. 11 meeting was a town department head session but that Lynam had met with the teachers’ association without his knowledge.

Jones and School Committee member Dan Cullity agreed that was wrong.

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes said the committee would be “wreckless” to discuss beginning cuts to the budget before they receive numbers from the towns, stressing that their job is to advocate for students. He said he didn’t think anyone in either town is hiding numbers at this point.

While he came into the meeting prepared to discuss a transfer from excess and deficiency to help trim the budget deficit, Hayes said at the conclusion of the meeting he would rather the committee wait until they see where they are at when town budget numbers come in. School Committee members agreed.

“It’s just something that is kind of out there with our teachers, we haven’t had a conversation at all about taking any type of wage freeze,” Szymaniak said of the wage freeze discussed at the Whitman department heads meeting. “We haven’t had a conversation about anything about our contract yet as we don’t have any numbers from either town. … I already have some teachers that are concerned.”

Another Whitman department head meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m., Tuesday, Feb. 19. Szymaniak said he would bring back any further information to the School Committee at its next meeting at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 27.

“This is a level-service budget to provide the services we have in place, and I think we’ve been very creative in restructuring some of our units to make sure we can provide services to our kids in a different way than we provided last year,” Szymaniak said.

He said that police and fire personnel work very hard at high-risk jobs, but teachers also face difficult situations managing classrooms of 25 children while responding to parent concerns and directives from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

Szymaniak also offered School Committee members a line item-by-line item look at increases and decreases from the current budget to the fiscal 2018, ’19 and ’20 as requested by the committee.

Overall, the budget’s facilities, insurance costs and salaries, are up 3.6 percent, with special education costs up 2 percent, Szymaniak said.

“The bottom line at the end, stays the same, but as far as percentages, if you look at it … if you look at those numbers last week, it’s close to $1 million,” he said.

Some of the increases are; paraprofessional and special education salaries, the latter to increase some staffing to bring the district back into state and federal compliance; substitute salaries for an increase in the numbers of substitutes; cost of living for clerical salaries; school psychologist salaries; charter school and school choice costs and legal costs.

“When we talk about social-emotional pieces, the [number of] students that are coming in who need more than the average classroom teacher is growing at a need that is out-pacing what a school can do and that’s not just here — that’s everywhere,” Szymaniak said of special education, including $884,000 in out-of-district placements, and psychological services costs. “That last option is out-of-district and when I’m looking at an $800,000 cost, know that out-of-district placement can go anywhere from between $50,000 to $363,000 depending on if it’s residential or not.”

He said the school district’s legal firm can challenge a DESE recommendation for out-of-district placement, but must be relatively certain of success, because the district can be liable for legal fees for both sides as well as the placement if it is overruled.

A change in curriculum coordination represents a shift of focus to the elementary schools.

“If we feel we have a good case and we go to hearing, [I’m] all for it, but that’s still an attorney fee,” Szymaniak said. “We want to make sure we do the right things for our students and our staff and also [legal representation] keeps us away from litigation.”

Some of the decreases are: instructional materials and general supply costs; superintendent salary; contracted services transferred to facilities costs; and salaries in district transportation after a restructuring.

“Our teachers are busting their butts with not a lot of supply,” Szymaniak said. “We were shocked coming into this office at what little we give our teachers to teach with.”

School Committee member Fred Small said the current budget situation is similar to that of four years ago when Whitman voters were presented with two budgets on which to vote — one reflecting an override and one without, which would have created the need for the committee to vote on a reassessment.

“Knowing at least on the Whitman side where they’re at … do you envision taking a pencil sharpener, seeing whatever you can do to this budget that you’ve presented and having level services or close to level services …

“This is level right now,” Szymaniak said. “What I’d like the committee to do is look at what we need for our schools, listen to both town administrators about numbers of what they’re looking at in their towns … I’m not trying to disrespect the town administrators, but nothing has been presented to this committee in terms of where they’re at. I’ve heard override. I haven’t heard a number on a specific override.”

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said in the last 10 years the budget has always be presented knowing there would be cuts before the towns’ numbers were presented.

“This time we decided to come out of the gate and say where we’re at,” he said. “We need the guidance to see what we need to come up with so we can end up there.”

School Committee member Robert Trotta said that, with the Town Meetings on May 6, time is growing short for hearing budget structures from the towns.

“There doesn’t seem to be a plan,” he said, noting his priority is maintaining class sizes and extra-curricular activities. “It seems like we’re trying to hang on as best we can.”

Cullity argued the school budget is more a same-services plan than a level services one.

“We should be at a better point for our kids,” he said.

“We need to look [voters] in the eye and tell them what we need,” Small said.

Szymaniak said he and Suckow met with a Collins Center representative on the creation of a capital plan in Whitman, saying he plans to come back on Feb. 27 about a new Whitman Middle School “down the road.” He said the Collins Center representative had commented on the district’s recent habit of kicking capital issues down the road.

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to do a statement of interest, it has to move forward, but we have more and more facilities issues at Whitman Middle and it’s something we’ve talked about, so I’m going to leave it to the committee to see where we’re at,” he said. “I do have growing concerns about the state of Whitman Middle School.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak told the School Committee that, during the government shutdown, affected parents with school-aged kids could be assured the district will do what it can to help.

“Please contact your principal,” Szymaniak said. “Our principals have been reaching out, seeing what we can do, but [families] might go unnoticed. Not everyone knows what mom and dad does for a living, but we are looking to make sure that if anybody is on furlough because of the shutdown, we’ll take care of the kids in the school.”

Szymaniak said that could mean efforts such as finding $10 to ensure a student can take part in a book fair.

“Those are the incidentals that, I’m afraid … they could miss out on because of the shutdown,” he said.

He said the shutdown has not yet affected services offered by the schools, but there has been concern noted in the national media over when the shutdown could start impacting school lunch programs.

Contracts extended

The School Committee voted to extend contracts with S.J. Services for custodial work and the First Student bus contract after Business Services Director Christine Suckow, at the committee’s direction, sought reconsideration of price increases.

Both said no and the contracted hikes of 3.5-percent increases for fiscal 2020 and 2.5 percent for fiscal 2021. For S.J. Services it is 3 percent in 2020 and 2 percent in 2021.

Both contracts go out to bid again in two years.

food pantry donations

National Honor Society adviser Ellen Galambos and NHS President Katelyn Molito presented checks totaling $5,000 divided between the Whitman and Hanson food pantries raised at the annual Miles for Meals 5K last fall.

“Volunteers like Mrs. Galambos and the National Honor Society have been helping us for quite a few years now,” Bruce Perry of the Whitman Food Pantry said. “They do a tremendous job, they do 99.9 percent of the work. … They’re just phenomenal kids and we just can’t say enough about what they do for the food pantry and for the community as well.”

“You can be so proud of the kids in the school system, because we’ve had so many kids come through and help us rake and pack and unpack and collect donations — and raise funds through their fundraisers,” said Christine Cameron of the Hanson Food Pantry. “You can be real proud of these kids, they are part of our future.”

HANSON — As a snow squall moved in ahead of a winter cold front Thursday, Jan. 10, a strange-looking tracked vehicle passed back and forth in the marshland of Smitty’s Bog.

The last time the vehicle had been seen working in the conservation area off Route 58, the town’s Conservation office received about a dozen calls from curious residents.

What on earth was going on here?

“What we’re doing is taking this area which was obviously all about cranberry cultivation and we’re restoring, as much as possible, to wetlands and their natural ecological function,” said Conservation Commission Chairman Phil Clemons. He described the process of removing invasive phragmities from the bog — the work being done by the vehicle owned by Solitude Lake Management of Virginia with offices in Shrewsbury, Mass.

The casual onlooker might not know the name phragmities, but would recognize the towering reeds with the fluffy plumes.

“This is part of the wetlands restoration management plan that the Conservation Commission, the town of Hanson and the Natural Resource Conservation Service have been working on,” Clemons explained as tall, dried phragmities fell before the “MarshMaster’s” cutting blade. “We’ve been spending seven years preparing a plan and now we’re finally starting to do it.”

The machine is used for mowing marsh areas because its extremely wide track spreads the machine’s weight over a wide area to avoid harming underground roots. It is less likely to get bogged-down in a bog, as well.

“It’s environmentally sound,” Clemons said of the vehicle. “It’s a good thing, even though it looks terrible and we want people to know that.”

An EPA-approved herbicide was sprayed on at least three acres of  phragmities-choked areas by Solitude Lake Management in September and, on the plant tops after the fluffy seedheads died back for the winter, the company was cutting down the plants. In the next growing season it will be much easier to find and treat what remains of the plants, Clemons said.

“Mowing [alone] wouldn’t do a thing,” he said. “It would probably just encourage it. There’s multiple steps over multiple years.”

The phragmities, a common reed, is an invasive species from other continents.

“We never used to have it around here until a few decades ago,” Clemons said. “When I was growing up there was none of this in Hanson. It comes in and takes over a wetland and wipes out all the other native plants.”

Cattails, lilypads and other native plants have all paid the price of the phragmities’ success in the region, according to Clemons. It also has few animals feeding off it. The plant’s “impenetrable mass” chokes shallow water bogs and natural marshes, with negative effects to stream flow and native wildlife.

“Nothing eats it,” Clemons said, noting phragmities is one of 100 plant varieties that are now illegal to sell in Massachusetts. “It is a wolf in environmental sheeps’ clothing. It’s an environmental disaster, is what it is.”

Removing the phragmities will permit the return of native plants that want to come back and insects, fish, amphibian and bird species that use that wide diversity of plants can also return.

“They will get much more benefit from that diverse mix of vegetation instead of a solid wall of junk.” Clemons said.

Common in alkaline habitats, phragmities also tolerate  brakish water and is associated with larger methane emissions and greater carbon dioxide uptake than native New England salt marsh vegetation that occurs at higher marsh elevations, according to plant researchers in a 2015 environmental report. Both the state and federal governments have policies that seek to control the spread of phragmities wherever possible.

“The only thing is, it’s difficult to control and this will be a multi-year task,” Clemons said.

Federal funds are paying for the project.

“At the moment, we’re working and the contractors are working, I’m sure they will catch up with us,” he said of the potential financial impact of the federal government shutdown.