When school begins on Wednesday, Aug. 29, there will be some new faces in the principals’ offices of W-H schools.

With the retirement of former Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner at the end of June, the selection of then-WHRHS Principal Jeffrey Szymaniak to succeed her, the hiring of then-Whitman Middle School Principal George Ferro to fill the vacant Assistant Superintendent position and the departure of two elementary school principals for new jobs, that means three new principals, and new assistant principals at WMS and Hanson’s Indian Head School.

Former Assistant Principal Michael Grable was appointed principal of the school in June. At South Shore Vocational Technical High, former Assistant Principal Mark Aubrey has been promoted to principal following the June retirement of Margaret Dutch.

The Whitman-Hanson Express is beginning a series of interviews this week with new school administrators, starting off with WHRHS Principal Dr. Christopher Jones.

He was born in Oregon and “grew older” in Meriden, Conn., where he graduated high school.

He first attended the University of New Haven on a football scholarship, before transferring to Bridgewater State College. He later earned his master’s degree from Salem State and his doctorate from Northeastern in history and education.

Jones took a different route to teaching. A former coppersmith and self-described history buff, Jones’ passion for U.S. history often found him camping at the Gettysburg National Military Park and guiding family members on a day-by-day retracing of the three-day battle. One of those talks, about the first day of battle — in which Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana soldiers of the Iron Brigade, known as the Black Hats for their unique headgear, helped halt a Union retreat — found a family member staring past him to a tour group that had stopped to listen as Jones spoke.

“You know, you should really teach because of your passion for it,” his relative said. After he thought about it, his career path changed.

He has taught at an alternative high school in Bridgewater, and a charter school in New Bedford, where he opened it’s high school division, then worked with the special education department and assistant principal at Groton-Dunstable Regional High School, before most recently serving as principal at Seekonk High School. Jones, 47, and his wife Mary — who teaches seventh-grade English at West Bridgewater — have two sons; Thomas, 11, who is a wrestler and Scott, 9, a soccer player.

Jones is an “out-of-office” principal who schedules time to get out into the school classrooms for short stop-ins to see what students are doing. While he does give teachers feedback after such visits, he said he is not always there just to evaluate a teacher.

When the Express sat down with him in his new office at WHRHS, Jones was awaiting a new gray-blue paint job in his office to change up the “rather aggressive” yellow on the walls before putting his personal stamp on the décor.                                                                   

Q: What drew you to a career in education?

A: “I chose a career in education because I wanted to make education a better experience for everybody involved — that’s teachers, students, parents — I went to high school and I remember thinking to myself that there’s got to be a better way. I didn’t feel challenged in high school. I didn’t feel incredibly engaged. … That forms a lot of my core beliefs about what education should be. … You can try to motivate students, you can try to motivate staff, but when it comes down to it, it’s got to be intrinsic — they’ve got to find something inside themselves that motivates themselves to buy in and be engaged.

“You can do engaging activities, but what happens when the activity is over? You have to create a culture and environment where people want to be. Educational jargon now is “student-centered” … yes, the end result is to have students benefit the most they possibly can, but your research shows that the biggest impact on student engagement, student motivation and student success is your classroom teacher.

“I’m more teacher-focused. I want to create a good culture and a good environment and climate for students and teachers, but I want my teachers to want to come to school. … I do that by creating a lighter atmosphere at school, having that relationship where … they [feel] they can come talk with me about issues they have, if they are struggling with something and they need to improve or they need support in another area, I go about supporting them in any area they need. We talk about life. While I expect teachers to come in and teach the best they can and to the best of their abilities, I understand that sometimes life gets in the way. … Much like I ask teachers to build relationships with students. Research shows students learn best when they have a relationship with the person that’s teaching them. Really, that’s true for all of us. … That’s why coaches are so successful. By the nature of what they’re doing they build a relationship with students.”

For the full interview, please refer to the printed or digital copy of this weeks WH issue July 19,2018

It will take some advertising sponsorships and fundraising by the athletics department to fund it, but the School Committee on Wednesday, June 20 approved the negotiation of a lease agreement for a new scoreboard for W-H’s Dennis M. O’Brien Field.

A $25,000 donation from the J.J. Frisoli Foundation has provided the down payment for the Daktronics scoreboard, estimated to cost about $100,000, with the remaining amount to be raised by the athletics department. Neither the district nor towns of Whitman and Hanson will be liable for the costs.

Athletics Director Bob Rodgers had initially suggested asking the towns to contribute to the cost as a capital project, but both the School Committee and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner advised against that amid tight budget circumstances.

“I think, overall, this is a fantastic project and I’m 100-percent in support of it,” School Committee member Christopher Howard said. “My only concern is the obligation of the district. I know it’s tough, but we’ve had a lot of financial pressures on us, and where we’re spending money. That’s where I say I’m leaning more toward a pause, do the math, put some money into it, but really try to raise the money to the point where we actually have the money to purchase it.”

Gilbert-Whitner expressed the concern that a funding request to the towns, in addition to all the other capital requests the district has, might not go over well.

“This is nothing [the towns] have ever seen on a capital matrix,” she said. “So, I think I’d be much more comfortable as well with the idea that the athletics department would be responsible.”

With Rodgers’ pledge to raise the additional $75,000, the School Committee unanimously supported the purchase. He had also pointed out that the athletics department transferred $40,000 to the general school budget to help meet district needs for fiscal 2019.

“It will not come out of the school budget at all,” Rodgers said, explain that the purchase order had to be submitted before the end of the week in order to have the scoreboard in place by the fall. “It will be through the fundraising via panels that are on the board and fundraising during the different events.”

The other option was to spend $4,000 to $5,000 to repair the current scoreboard to get it through the next year and make the purchase to have a new scoreboard in place for the following year. Replacing it with the exact same kind of scoreboard as the broken one would cost about $20,000 but would limit the ways it could be used he said.

The Daktronics scoreboard will be purchased from a local company, Scoreboard Enterprises in Mansfield. It is not the same as the one Rodgers described at the June 13 meeting, but has a larger video screen 8.5 feet high by 16 feet wide and has a life-expectancy of about 15 to 20 years with a five-year warranty. The broken board is 13 years old.

It provides six places for sponsoring advertisers that Rodgers expects will bring in “at least $60,000 in revenue.” Additional ads would be sold for display on the video screen.

“I think that, over the long term, we’re going to be able to make this a revenue-generator for us, and maybe bring in some money to the athletics program for uniforms we currently don’t fund,” Rodgers said.

He added that Daktronics screens have been “revenue-makers” at schools across the country.

“This is a real advertising investment for a company,” he said. “They’ll have 1,000 people at a football game on a Friday night that will be going someplace for dinner after the game and [a restaurant] could have a special on that screen that everybody is going to see. They’ll want to advertise.”

The school administration will establish advertising policy and the School Committee will set the rates.

One advertiser has already given verbal commitment to a sponsorship and a few others have expressed interest with some parents a agreeing to help sell ads. Facility Director Ernest Sandland has agreed to have his crews putting the beams up and pulling wires as part of the prep work involved in moving the scoreboard to the right for better visibility.

“I’m willing to commit to do what I have to do to make this work for our kids,” he said.

At the earlier meeting only one bid had been received, with a few more presenting bids since then.

“The one that I was going to go with actually doesn’t play live video unless you go with a huge upgrade to it,” he said. “We have 10 teams alone at W-H that will use this scoreboard in addition to all the youth teams. I think it’s a good investment.”

The screen will also allow the school to conduct programs such as a movie night recently suggested by students, and will permit moving the sound system to that end of the field for better reception and hearing by the crowds.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen welcomed the town’s first female fire officer Tuesday, June 19 with the official swearing-in of Lt. Sherilyn Mullin, who has been working in that capacity since May 8.

After the ceremony, Selectmen approved a marijuana application process designed to protect the town until a bylaw article on recreational cannabis can be voted on at next May’s annual Town Meeting and Town Election.

Lt. Mullin fills the vacancy created when Dept. Chief Robert O’Brien was promoted to that rank.

Under the department’s collective bargaining agreement, the promotion process requires that applicants score 70 percent or higher on a written exam, followed by an assessment center involving exercises in a fire problem and a structured interview.

Seven members of the Hanson Fire Department participated in the promotion process, according to Chief Jerome Thompson Jr.

“Although we only had one position available, I believe that those members in our department benefitted by taking the time to study the materials and prepare themselves for the process,” he said. “She has been a great addition to our command staff. Lt. Mullin will be the first female fire officer to serve the town of Hanson.”

A native of Abington and a 2006 graduate of Abington High School, Mullin holds a bachelor’s degree from Bridgewater State University in 2010. She then trained in EMS and became a paramedic and was hired as a full-time Hanson firefighter/paramedic in 2015. Mullin is a graduate of Mass. Firefighting Academy Class No. 234.

Her fiancé Sean Malley pinned on her badge after Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan administered the oath of office to Mullin.

Marijuana policy

Town Counsel Katherine Feodoroff briefed Selectmen on the cannabis policy and bylaw process before the board voted 5-0 to approve the policy.

Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked about how the policy protects the town.

“If people vote yes [on the Town Meeting warrant] then it will go to ballot,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “However, in the interim, we’re talking about having something in place just in case someone comes forward. We don’t want to be left out in the cold without having something that we at least can manage the process until we get to Town Meeting.”

The new article — proposed after this year’s Town Meeting approved a zoning bylaw to allow siting of all recreational marijuana establishments within certain areas of town — would seek to ban retail marijuana sales.

Selectman Jim Hickey asked for simpler language on the ballot question so residents better understand how to vote their opinions.

The article, Feodoroff said, makes it clear an affirmative vote is required at both Town Meeting and on the election ballot, but agreed the ballot language can be difficult to understand.

“To me, it could be confusing to a voter because if all someone is thinking is, ‘I do not want marijuana in Hanson,’ they’re going to vote no,” Hickey said. “But [a no vote] is actually confirming a vote to have marijuana in Hanson. Can that question be simplified?”

Feodoroff said legislation requires the text of the bylaw on the ballot, but said the style of the question and its summary can be changed for clarity.

“You’re asking if the town wants this bylaw,” she said. “You want to make sure everyone votes and their vote is then counted in way they expect it to be counted.”

Procedure outlined

Feodoroff outlined the procedures applicants would be required to follow under the policy.

“What you want to do, because it’s not necessarily spelled out in the law, what the order should be in terms of local approvals, so you want to create a policy like this,” Feodoroff said. “That’s for every type of establishment, including your retailers, your cultivators, your manufacturers and your testing facilities, because all of them are required by law to execute a host community agreement.”

Such an agreement must be executed by would-be businesses before they can even apply to the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) for a license to operate.

The agreement requires submission of a letter of intent to Selectmen identifying the type of special permit sought, with copies sent to the Police Department. Applicants must then hold a community outreach meeting in accordance with state regulations and broadcast by local cable access TV.

Applicants must obtain a special permit from the Board of Selectmen and site plan approval, providing Selectmen with a synopsis of the community meeting, copies of the special permit/site plan vote and draft application of intent and supporting documents. They must also present a proposed draft of a host community agreement, which Feodoroff said town counsel can help with.

local impact

“One of the impacts that you’re going to find is the Board of Health is going to have to ramp up because they are now the inspection agency,” Feodoroff said. “Where, with medical [marijuana] it was under DPH and not the purview of the Board of Health, so we’re going to have to do training — we’re going to have to think about staffing, depending on the number of establishments that are planning on siting in Hanson.”

Police will also require additional training, she said.

The town can lock in a dollar amount in fees, rather than a 3-percent tax over the sales tax, but Feodoroff said the town should not do so at this time, because the 3-percent figure could represent a higher amount.

“When you have a general bylaw in place, there’s no grandfathering [of existing businesses], unlike zoning bylaws, which have a grandfather component,” Feodoroff said. “But what we have proposed for this Town Meeting is both a general and a zoning bylaw.”

She said Attorney General Maura Healy has recommended both kinds of bylaws to avoid cases where general bylaws were invalidated because courts saw a failure of proper procedure to pass them. Zoning bylaws require a two-thirds majority to pass after protectionary procedures.

“If both measures pass and aren’t challenged or are challenged and not properly defended, there’s no grandfathering,” Feodoroff said. “So it is complicated and there are risks in this kind of interim period.”