The School Committee voted unanimously on Wednesday, March 15 to certify a $48.9 million budget for fiscal 2018. The budget is 4 percent higher than fiscal 2017, and assessments for the towns have been certified at a 11.5 percent increase.

It started out with a $2.8 million gap before the insurance increases, which would have brought the gap to $2.9 million.

The School Committee had closed the budget gap to $1.9 million on Feb. 15, with a vote to transfer $750,000 from its excess and deficiency account. A decision to share utilities costs with the self-funded Food Services Department outside the operating budget also brought in $50,000 and interest-bearing accounts also yielded $13,000 before the insurance rate hike voted by the Mayflower Municipal Health Group steering committee on March 7 added just over $245,000 to the deficit, according to District Business Services Director Christine Suckow.

The gap now stands at $2.1 million with increases largely in contractual obligations, state retirement assessments, insurance rates, transportation costs and other contracts.

The  reduction of state per-pupil reimbursement to $20 in the governor’s budget also cut $135,000, according to School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner said the level-service budget also includes the elimination of the position of Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning.

Whitman Finance Committee Chairman Michael Minchello said at that meeting that it appeared any assessment increase over 4 percent would be tight. Hanson has said they can support a 6.5-percent increase.

“Right now, I don’t know where that would come from,” he said.

“Respectfully, then, get creative,” said School Committee member Alexandra Taylor of Whitman. “We need it. This is not, we would like it. … This is just for level-service.”

She argued that, “For years, every other department in town has been getting funded for what they need” while the school district has not.

Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam, meanwhile, addressed Taylor’s comments as well as the “elephant in the room.”

According to Lynam, Whitman has only added one half-time employee in 10 years. Also, unlike the school department, towns can’t increase revenue by assessing someone else. Town revenue comes only from taxes and fees or state funding.

“The biggest single problem the towns are facing right now is the school budget is not sustainable,” Lynam said. “When you’re talking about a 4-percent increase in your budget, it’s all coming from the towns.”

He said the increase being requested would mean eliminating departments — including some library and senior services — if it were taken out of town budgets, and drastically cutting police and fire budgets. Lynam said he is not certain what number Whitman can support toward the schools, but that the town will do whatever it can.

“I think it’s time that people consider very seriously what kind of community they want to be, and how much they’re willing to support that,” he said. “The support is only going to come from the community.”

A handful of parents read from prepared statements in support of the budget and urged residents to join their Whitman-Hanson Supporters of Schools Facebook page and to follow through by voting for school funding.

“At seventh from the bottom of over 320 school districts in the state, this administration can’t do any more to make up for the fact that we simply do not spend enough locally on our schools,” said Hanson resident Lisa Ryan of Birchbark Drive.

“I want to be taxed, I want to help the town … not just the schools, but the whole community,” said a Whitman resident who moved to town for the quality schools.

“Up until last year … I believed all children in the same school received the same education,” said Dawn Byers of Russell Road in Whitman, whose daughter is one of only 30 percent of Whitman Middle School to qualify for Spanish class because budget constraints limit enrollment to those with high enough grades and test scores. “This year, 287 seventh- and eight-grade students at Whitman Middle School do not have the same foreign language opportunity that my daughter has. … This is a clear example of the consequences of low funding.”

A level-service budget will not chage that, said Byers, who said all middle school students should have the opportunity to study a foreign language.

“We own this,” she said. “Collectively as a community, taxpayers bear the responsibility for not adequately funding our  schools with local tax dollars.”

School Committee member Dan Cullity also noted the state expects the two towns to make more progress toward meeting the target share of budget contributions over the minimum they now fund.

In other business, a quartet of second-grade students from Marie Sheehan’s class at Duval Elementary School in Whitman joined Sheehan and Science Curriculum Coordinator Mark Stephansky to outline what they are learning in the Know Atom science curriculum and how $45,000 for consumable classroom materials included in the operating budget are used. Know Atom, with curriculum and professional development start-up costs funded by grants of more than $300,000 from the Gelfand Foundation was started at the second-grade level in district schools. It now extends through grade five.

“This year we’ve tried to bring our students to the School Committee so that you can have a first-hand look at what our students do,” Gilbert-Whitner said in introducing the presentation. “As we make decisions about our schools, it’s always important that we remain student-centered.”

The children, giving their first names — Adam, Neve, Gabrielle and Brendan — read their reports as Stephansky held up examples of their classroom projects on habitat as well as flower and owl pellet dissection.

“You’re supporting us — you are voting to support all of the programs that these kids need — we thought you’d like to see it first-hand,” Duval Principal Julie McKillop said.

“This is a student-centered curriculum,” Sheehan said.

“They are learning engineering and science practices which are part of our new standards in Massachusetts and they are loving it along the way,” Stephansky said.

HANSON — Progress reports on building razing and raising projects, were discussed at the Board of Selectmen’s Feb. 28 meeting.

Town Administrator Michael McCue reported that removal of asbestos and other hazardous materials at the former Plymouth County Hospital building is about 80-percent complete, and Selectman Bill Scott reported on progress of the Highway Building Committee.

The PCH building tear-down is expected to take place beginning this Friday, March 10, after the Building Department issues a full demolition permit. Preliminary work was expected to begin March 1.

In the meantime, a surveillance camera has been placed at the site to monitor against further trespassing incidents for safety and liability reasons. McCue, police and demolition contractor have access to the camera feed.

The cameras were bought with funds already approved under the bond issue for the project.

Scott reported that he had received confirmation on the scheduling of cleanup at the Lite Control property ahead of construction of a new highway facility there.

“The only thing they have left to do is the actual planting to recreate some of the conservation area,” he said. “They’ve had to wait to do that for spring.” The work is expected to be done sometime in April.

“That puts off any effort on our part to move forward any potential for an article to fund a highway facility down there, because they cannot turn the property over to us until such time as all of their permits have been honored and followed up,” Scott said.

Scott said the Highway Building Committee was disappointed to see the cost reach the $4.5-million range, but stressed the cost would also include the tear-down and cleanup of the old facility.

The cleanup at the Lite Control property, on the other hand, is complete, but that regulatory agencies such as DEP and the Corps of Engineers must give final approval before the site is turned over to the town.

“Obviously, we will not be able to move forward at this town meeting,” he said.

Selectman Kenny Mitchell, also a member of the Highway Building Committee, said the first price quote received on the project was “a lot more that $4.5 million.”

“It was closer to $7 million,” he said. “We worked hard, and by eliminating things … we got it down.”

Mitchell and Scott said an open house sometime in the spring is being considered to provide residents a chance to see conditions in the current facility. Scott noted that today’s bigger trucks won’t fit inside the current garage, but have to be stored in a repair shop bay.

Facilities for staff use are also less than desirable.

“Go in there — go use the men’s room,” Mitchell said. “You’ll be quite surprised. … I wouldn’t let my dog use the facilities over there.”

Selectman Bruce Young said the current buildings were WW II surplus, transported from Maine at no cost to the town.

Resident Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if the Priority Repair Committee set up for school roof projects in 2014 could be expanded to assess the needs of other town buildings.

“I know why the focus was originally those two schools … but we own a lot of other buildings and, as we have seen, these have tended to go into disrepair and then they cost a lot of money,” she said. “I like the way the Priority Repair Committee is focused on repairs and nothing else.”

Young pointed out that members of the Priority Repair Committee are in the related trades and added that a town facilities manager would be an asset, perhaps as a shared position with another town through an inter-municiple agreement.

Selectmen Chairman James McGahan said FitzGerald-Kemmett raised a good point, recalling that former Town Administrator Ron San Angelo had composed a facilities report recommending a checklist on repair needs. Scott also indicated that former Selectman Jim Egan had recommended a facilities management company or team consult on such projects.

“It never really got any traction, but this feeds into exactly what you’re saying,” Scott said of FitzGerald-Kemmett’s suggestion. “We’ve got to take care of these buildings, otherwise we’ll be  faced with similar situations like we are with our schools.”

Egan said he had advocated was a part-time, town-funded facilities management position to track the maintenance needs of all town buildings to keep ahead of problems.

“It didn’t materialize simply because we didn’t have the money,” he said. “It was discussed at the board level, but we did not present it to Town Meeting, again, because we were in the kind of fiscal straits that were not conducive to expanding our personnel.”

Selectmen also began kicking around the implications of any School Department closing of Maquan School, arguing that in such a case a tear-down or an outright sale of the building might be among the best options for the town, financially.

HANSON — For historian Stephen Puleo, the story format is key in relating the events of our past.

“You try to put sources together to build your narrative,” he said after a Hanson resident remarked his books read like novels. “I take that as a compliment. I think that’s how history should be written and taught. The second part of that word, history, is ‘story.’ It’s people we are writing about, and they have fears and they have families.”

His narrative style — honed in his previous five books on the history of Boston, its Italian community and Great Molasses Flood, the caning of Sen. Charles Sumner on the floor of the U.S. Senate in the lead-up to the Civil War and U.S. Navy heroism during the 1940s Battle of the Atlantic — has lately brought to life the work to safeguard America’s founding documents during World War II.

“I want you to learn history despite yourself, because you’re so engrossed in the story,” he said during Sunday, Feb. 19, talk at Hanson Public Library on that new book, “American Treasures: The Secret Effort to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address,” [2016, St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, 400 pages, $28.99].

The talk, sponsored by the Hanson Library Foundation, was originally planned for Feb. 12, but had been postponed due to a snowstorm. A question and answer period and book signing followed Puleo’s talk.

“These documents were not a foregone conclusion,” he said of the “American Treasures.” “They were not predestined, they were not preordained. They were hard to come by.”

The American Revolution was only favored outright by a third of colonists, the Constitution was the product of careful negotiation and compromise, and Lincoln almost passed up the invitation to speak at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg on Nov. 19, 1863.

“They’re certainly artifacts,” he said. “They’re also symbols, very important symbols. … The lights are low [in the National Archives rotunda today]. The guards are there. You can hear footfalls walking around. Even kids recognize the symbolic shrine of this place.”

“American Treasures’” 2016 publication coincided with the 240th anniversary year of the Declaration of Independence and this year marks the 230th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, which, as Puleo puts it, is with us every single day.

“When you think about it, the history of these documents is really the history of the United States of America,” he said. “Ours is the first constitutional republic that can trace its founding back to a single document — the Declaration of Independence.”

Puleo’s narrative intertwines the narratives of the largest relocation of historic documents in U.S. history with the origins of the book’s three featured documents.

“To do that right, I needed to go back into time and look at a couple things — one was the creation of these documents and the ideas embodied in them, and two, a couple of the efforts that were made throughout our history to preserve and save these documents,” Puleo said of the reason for safeguarding the documents during WWII.

From December 1941 to about April 1942, federal officials moved 5,000 boxes of precious documents out of Washington, D.C., to secret locations out of concern over possible German bombing or sabotage. The Magna Carta, which had been on display at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, was also stored with the three American Treasures at the Fort Knox, Ky., federal gold depository for the duration of the war at the request of the British government.

The remaining works were identified as irreplaceable and essential to American democracy, triaged into six categories, cataloged, packed up and stored at the Virginia Military Institute; the University of Virginia at Charlottesville; Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., and Dennison University in Granville, Ohio.

“It would be devastating if they were lost,” he said of the founding documents. “We were doing this to preserve our national morale. They started to think about this in the fall of 1940, about a year before Pearl Harbor.”

England had already lost millions of documents to firestorms caused by incendiary bombs dropped by the Germans during the Battle of Britain. German troops also destroyed millions of books and artifacts across Europe.

“We were watching this,” Puleo said.

Germany’s wolf packs of submarines were also patrolling with impunity off the east coast of the United States in the early years of the war.

By 1943, however, things were going well enough to bring the Declaration out of hiding long enough for the dedication of the Jefferson Memorial. But when it was over, back it went.

The current political climate prompted a question after the talk of Puleo’s opinion, as a historian, whether he views the situation with any trepidation regarding the future of the Constitution.

“I’m very much the optimist on this,” he said. “One of the things about studying history is it does give you a little perspective — a way to be at arm’s length sometimes. If you look through American history … it’s often like this and that’s sometimes the way that democracy goes. The things that have held us together, in my view, are those documents. That’s where I take my optimism.”

He said there have been several periods in American history that have been far worse.

A Boston-area resident, Puleo has also been a teacher as well as a newspaper reporter, public speaker and communications professional. He has also taught at Suffolk University. A portion of his book proceeds benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

WHITMAN — It’s a family business where customers have become a part of the family.

Trio Café owners Ilian and Elena Tchourilkov are celebrating their business’10th anniversary year — since opening in November 2006. Many of their customers have ordered Trio catering services for everything from baby showers to funerals, corporate events to staff lunches.

“I know that 10 years is not that long to be in business,” Ilian said. “On the other hand, for one particular family we did a christening for their daughter, graduation parties [from both high school and college] and then we did a baby shower.”

Tears still come to Elena’s eyes as she thinks of customer-friends who have passed away years ago.

Family sticks with you.

“We become attached to them,” she said. “That’s life, it’s part of everything.”

The couple, who also owns a Trio Café in Boston, emigrated from Bulgaria 20 years ago, and moved to Whitman 12 years ago when their daughter was 2 — drawn to the community and schools.

Now she, like a handful of other WHRHS students, works in her parents’ café where the Tchourilkovs employ a staff of six plus some part-time staff. Ilian said the shop’s unusual family-oriented hours have made Trio’s a good place for students to work. Their Boston shop is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the Whitman shop closes at 4 p.m.

The small business is also a big hit with some very big companies, incluing Google, Microsoft, GoDaddy and Mass. General, as well as local businesses such as Mutual Bank, Tama  Dojo and Bike Barn.

Catering is their main focus right now, and accounts for its interesting customer base.

“For some reason, we have different types of customers,” Ilian said. “Monday through Friday, we have the big corporations, we get the offices and Saturday and Sunday its birthdays, christenings and family parties.”

The two locations work closely together, as do the Tchourilkovs. Ilian is in the Boston store on weekdays, starting as early as 4:30 a.m.

“We could extend hours, but family is family, so you don’t want to overdo it,” he said. “Up until we get 24 hours busy, there is always room to grow. We try to keep it manageable.”

That was part of the reason for a shift of focus to the catering end of things, with only Whitman offering room for a small dine-in area — Boston offers only take-out and catering services.

They also continue to do the baking for tea cart services at a few Boston hotels.

“When we started the main idea was the bakery,” Elena said five years ago. “Then we started serving sandwiches and the menu is now a lot bigger. Slowly we added the catering service.”

The catering menu was increased in 2012 to offer a lot more choices, both in dishes and how — and how big — they could be prepared.

Organization is a vital skill in the business, and there are some plans for changing a few things. Ilian’s Christmas present figures in to that — new top of the line coffee machines and grinders.

“I want to sell Starbucks coffee,” he said, aiming to become a destination for fine coffee. Trio used to sell Lavazza coffees, but the importing system from Italy was cumbersome. If there is a problem for them to overcome, its that the business is growing but the building is not.

The main goal for the future, however, is to keep up the good work with good food — no additives are used.

“We try to be more efficient — to be faster and more accurate,” he said. The pastry shelves were relocated twice before being removed and ice cream is no longer offered.

Unlike  a lot of area eateries, Trio does not go in for constant coupon deals.

“There is no hidden cost,” he said. “We think it’s fair pricing and there’s no reason for games.”

“If people come back, that means we’re doing a good job,” Elena said, adding it is not usual to see catering clients order small portions as new customers, then placing big orders after they’ve tried it.

Community participation is also important, Ilian said.

Trio continues to donate food and/or cater for events such as the Friends of Whitman Park wine tasting, the DFS A Taste of Whitman & Hanson, events for veterans groups, the Knights of Columbus and other events.

“I don’t remember saying no,” he said. “It’s a nice community, it’s a small town.”

HANOVER — South Shore Regional Vocational-Technical School Committee held its public hearing on the proposed $12.9 million fiscal 2018 budget Wednesday, Jan. 25 — about six hours after Gov. Charlie Baker released his $40.5 billion budget proposal with information on his plans for funding education.

“There’s a portion of the budget where we get the governor’s perspective on what each community’s [or district’s] Chapter 70 aid entails and what the minimum contributions are,” said Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey. “Despite me presenting a budget which is an increase of 3.3 percent, that number is not relevant when one wants to ask about individual [community] assessments.”

SSVT District Treasurer James Coughlin said the 3.3 percent reflects a total budget increase of $464,000 with member towns asked to pick up only $197,000 of that increase.

“Overall, we’ve been using other revenue sources to fund these increases to try to keep the amount of increases for our towns to a minimum,” he said. “The assessments at this point in time are preliminary. If there are any changes, up to the point in time when we can make changes, we will do that.”

He said changes would be more difficult as June 1 approaches.

Baker’s budget proposes increases in both unrestricted local aid and education, through Chapter 70 state aid to “historic levels,” according to a statement from his office.

House 1 proposes a $91.4 million increase in Chapter 70 aid — at least $20 more per pupil for school districts.

South Shore Tech’s Chapter 70 aid is expected to be $4,301,030 — or $53,470 over fiscal 2017 — according to the preliminary figures.  The district also anticipates $318,750 in non-resident tuition (up from $159,627 in the current budget) and $355,000 in regional transportation aid ($55,000 more).

Only one member of Abington’s Finance Committee, Vice Chairman Eligijus Suziedeis, attended the budget and neither he nor committee member asked questions. Hickey said he visits all eight communities to discuss the budget before town meetings.

“It’s all preliminary, of course, it’s just the beginning of the state budget process,” Hickey said in providing an early glimpse of projected preliminary assessments for the eight member towns.

Three communities — Abington, Norwell and Rockland — will likely see lower assessments based on enrollment numbers, while the other five, including Whitman and Hanson, would see higher assessments.

For Hanson, where enrollment numbers were unchanged, the assessment would be projected at $938,030. In Whitman, that figure is forecast to be $1,429,657.

Assessments are based on a formula including minimum contribution, operating costs, capital costs and debt offset by nonresident tuition, Hickey explained.

Coughlin said the budget increase includes $4,974,780 in preliminary revenue from sources other than assessments.

“That leaves the number we have to go to our member towns to ask for — 7,945,436,” Coughlin said, a figure up by $197,267 over the current budget.

In other business, the district’s auditor Bruce D. Norling reported he has given the South Shore Regional School District a “clean opinion” for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016.

“Everything was materially stated correctly and the controls and we found no exceptions,” Norling said. “Jim [Coughlin] has a small department, but a very good department. I find the department is very conscientious about documentation of expenditures and making sure revenue is recorded properly. The internal controls are operating very well.”

He said the organization has been very responsible with budgeting over the years.

Hickey also reported that SSVT’s statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), for funds to renovate and expand the school building, was not accepted this year.

“My numbers tell me that 89 statements of interest were submitted statewide from 58 different school districts,” Hickey said. “Only 17 of those projects were accepted. … The projects they are prioritizing are those in which the school districts are saying there is extreme overcrowding present or serious health and safety issues present. We can claim neither of those.”

He will bring back another statement of interest motion for the committee to vote before the April 8 deadline for the next round of funding.

“We as a school district are not going to artificially overcrowd this building [to win approval from MSBA],” Hickey said. “We will never let the building fall into disrepair. So, my hope is that one day there will be a sufficient prioritization and available resources to allow the MSBA to go deeper into the bullpen of statements of interest.”

HANOVER — Whether or not Hull joins the South Shore Regional School district with the eight member towns that already send students to the South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School, the regional agreement may be revised anyway.

“I want everyone to feel comfortable, because nothing changes in this document unless every single town says yes — or doesn’t say no,” Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey told School Committee members. “This is just the beginning of the marathon for conversation.”

The district now includes Abington, Cohasset, Hanover, Hanson, Norwell, Rockland, Scituate and Whitman. The agreement was last updated with one sentence regarding self-funded programs in 1984 after Whitman and Hanson joined the region in 1982.

The South Shore Regional School Committee met to discuss the issue following a subcommittee meeting on the expansion into Hull on Wednesday, Jan. 18.

“I think what started as a conversation about Hull possibly coming in, and amending the agreement [for that], after looking at it with due diligence we found some other areas to review,” Hickey said after the meeting. “Those are, in my mind, of equal importance as talking about Hull.”

The earliest the addition of Hull could take place would be by July 2018 for students to be admitted for the start of the 2018-19 school year, following a vote by the School Committee and at town meetings of all eight-member communities. The issue would be discussed with selectmen, finance committees and residents before going to town meetings. The commissioner of education then gets the final decision.

“There’s a fast way and a — more likely — slower way to do it,” Hickey said, as the fiscal 2018 budget is the priority. “There is no rush.”

Hull also has a planning subcommittee reviewing the numbers as it works on the question of whether that town joins the South Shore Tech region.

“We’re at the very beginning of the process,” Hickey said. “We’ll work on a figure to get the conversation started and see where it goes from there.”

Hickey also reviewed a proposed revision of the regional agreement proposed by MARS Consulting — former school superintendents and members of the Mass. Association of Regional Schools. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) offers feedback through its legal advice.

Some passages, specific to the process through which Whitman and Hanson joined, or concerning pre-Education Reform Act practices, would be stricken as no longer needed. Other sections would be translated into clearer language, update Massachusetts General Law citations or change required votes regarding financial decisions and withdraw from the region would be changed from unanimous votes to two-thirds. Most proposed deletions involved obsolete language. Financial responsibilities involved in any town’s decision to withdraw would are also covered.

“There are two parallel tracks,” Hickey said. “We are definitely talking about Hull, we are talking about the terms under which this could work, but beyond Hull, there’s also ideas to make changes in this agreement that are good for the district.”

Should both the amendments and Hull’s admission come up for a vote the eight member towns of SSVT would vote on both issues. How the two issues would come before town meetings is still to be determined. They could be a single warrant article or divided into two.

Hull would not vote on amendments to the agreement, but to the terms the committee approves for entering the district.

“Nothing moves unless this committee votes to move forward and amend the agreement,” Hickey said. “This is Step One.”

Rockland School Committee member Robert L. Mahoney wondered if this were not also a good time to open the possibility of joining the district to other communities for the 2019-20 time frame.

“No other communities have approached us like Hull,” Hickey said. “We’re pleased that Hull reached out to us. … My personal opinion is that you are right, but we cannot propose a ‘zipper clause,’ to insert future communities.”

He said that, if the committee wanted to begin a conversation outreach, that could be pursued in the near future.

“We are filling our seats, but we recognize we are the only vocational school district anywhere close to here that has multiple communities close to us that are not aligned with a regional vocational school,” he added.

Whitman representative Dan Salvucci said space was a factor limiting that kind of expansion unless the student quota per town is re-allocated.

“We don’t have the space,” he said.

“We have room for Hull,” said Committee Chairman Robert L. Molla Jr., noting that Hull already sends students to South Shore Tech on a non-resident tuition basis.

Mahoney argued that high schools in the eight member towns were also offering technology programs that reduce the number of students that attend South Shore Tech and “cutting into the Chapter 74 money” received.

“It’s where the parents want to send their children,” Salvucci countered. “I’m very strong on that.”

Where Hull’s buy-in to the district is concerned, Hickey advocated that the School Committee calculate the value of the facility as well as its programs, such as the building, the land and capital the district has in the building as well as Hull’s enrollment and transportation costs.

“There is no statute that governs this,” Hickey said. “An agreed-upon cost, similar to Whitman and Hanson, could be phased in over time.”

The question remains how to do that without “giving away the farm,” as Molla put it.

“You have to make it practical for them to come into the region [compared to paying out-of-district tuition],” Salvucci said.

At age 13, Aron Greenfield was not yet of high school age in Szczakowa, Poland when the German invasion of that country in September 1939 started the Holocaust that was World War II.

On Jan. 9 Greenfield, who is now 90 and lives in Norwood, spoke to Whitman-Hanson Regional High School students of his experiences when he was their age — just trying to survive and bear witness to the horrors of that war.

The message was a powerful one to caution against, as he puts it, believing “one charismatic idiot” willing to manipulate his way into power.

“It added a realistic aspect to what we learn in history,” junior AP history student Tom Long said. “It’s a different perspective from a textbook or a movie, it’s real life.”

Long said a problem with history, especially early history, is its reliance on how people tell it.

“Something as important as the Holocaust was, it’s something that we need to continue [speaking] on, and there’s a responsibility of everyone who knows what happened to continue telling about it,” he said. “It’s important to learn from our mistakes in history and try to change what we can.”

Both Long and Greenfield see a danger in the misinformation people so easily believe and trust. Greenfield lived through it.

“Mr. Greenfield is part of a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors, and we are so fortunate to have the opportunity to hear his story from him,” Business Technology teacher Lydia Nelson said in introducing Greenfield to an audience of social studies students. “He is passionate about sharing his dreadful experiences, not because he wants to relive them, but because he feels he must impart the stories — and the lessons — to all of you.”

From 1941 to 1945, Greenfield was sent to nine different concentration camps, including the Auschwitz complex of death camps, eventually ending up in the Gorlitz, Germany labor camp where he was liberated by Russian troops.

survival

He labored at whatever he needed to do to prolong his life. He manufactured fertilizer and dug sand for a water canal project, among other tasks. Few of the laborers survived. Any scrap of food was jealously guarded.

In fact of the nine members of his family sent to the camps, only he and one sister, Sarah, lived to see liberation. He found his sister in Poland after the war, after not knowing whether anyone else in the family was still alive.

“I met her, and I couldn’t recognize her — she was a beautiful woman — because she was so skinny and she had lost all her teeth … she had silver and in her teeth and the Germans knocked her teeth out,” he said. The gold and silver in teeth extracted from concentration camp victims went to support the Nazi war effort.

Greenfield also related how his sister had been told early in the war that she did not look Jewish, but could pass for German or Austrian.

“It just goes to show, just the [Jewish] name alone did you in,” he said.

Even before they were removed to the camps, he told students, the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe were greatly restricted in their daily lives. Besides being forced to wear a Star of David — in his case on an armband — they were limited to two hours outside per day, and food was scarce. One day he tried to hide his armband when out trying to buy milk after curfew, he was turned in by a collaborator and sentenced to three days of shoveling coal at a police station while his family feared the worst.

In both the ghettos and the camps, even family members were known to steal food from each other as a matter of survival.

“Some people were saying, ‘We’re already starving. What’s the difference in going to a concentration camp — starving here or starving there?’” he said.

His family was sent first to a Jewish ghetto, after their furniture and other possessions were given to Polish collaborators.

“They took everything away from us,” he said, noting the Germans threatened to shoot entire Jewish populations if even one person was discovered hiding possessions. “Some ask me ‘Why didn’t you fight back?’ How can you fight back when you stand in front of a machine gun?”

In ghettos, three or more families would be crowded into two rooms awaiting what was to come next. That meant selection for transport to a concentration or extermination camp.

“They never tell you where you are going,” he said of the German transports. “We stood in line, waiting, watching.”

At the camps, they were separated by age and gender, prompting his mother to tell Greenfield to put on long pants and say he was 16 — the minimum age for laborers in the concentration camps. Labor did not mean longevity, either. Selection was an almost daily ordeal as Jews faced the lash or execution if they were unable to work. Many camp prisoners ended their suffering by throwing themselves on electrified fences.

After about a year, he was reunited briefly with his brothers, who were killed two months before the war ended. More than 15,000 were killed out of revenge just before the Russians liberated the camps.

“Many times you asked where is God?” he said. “I’m still looking for God. I believe there is a God, but I don’t know how to explain God … My God is the sun, the moon, the grass growing every morning.”

After the war, Greenfield was placed in a different kind of camp — for displaced persons, as refugees were called.

“For me, this was fantastic,” he said. “I got three meals a day and I didn’t work. I gained some weight.”

His message for future generations is a simple one, as hatred is still very much part of the world.

“When you are in a situation like this here, stick together,” he said. “Don’t help the enemy just because you think you’re going to get ahead. Eventually, after he’s through with them, he’ll go after you.”

Nelson said she contacted Greenfield after reading a Boston Globe article by Yvonne Abrams and wrote her for contact information, eventually reaching his daughter, Nadine, to arrange for his visit.

Greenfield speaks to many school groups free of charge because he feels strongly about reaching out to young people so they won’t forget how distrust and hate can run the world.

Later in the week, Nelson screened the film “Freedom Writers” for students unable to attend Greenfield’s talk and ahead of the observation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

“It was a way to cover the topic in all my classes,” Nelson said. “Martin Luther King Day is not just a day off.”

HANSON — Quick, who successfully flew the first airplane?

If you are not from Connecticut, you are forgiven for answering. “Orville and Wilbur Wright.”

Constitution State lawmakers, however, unanimously passed a bill in June 2015, recognizing German immigrant Gustave Whitehead (né Weisskopf) as the first in flight and declaring Aug. 14 as Powered Flight Day in recognition of his Aug. 14, 1901 flight. He flew a plane 50 feet off the ground, covering about a half-mile in under 30 minutes, two years before the Dec. 7, 1903 Kittyhawk flight of 15 seconds for about 120 feet and from six to eight feet off the ground, Whitehead’s supporters note.

Connecticut’s declaration came two years after the “industry Bible” Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft published an editorial in 2013 declaring Whitehead First in Flight — and after a century of Whitehead supporters’ tireless work to win him the credit they felt he deserved.

“Does it change history?” asked author and “Chronicle” correspondent for WCVB-TV Channel 5 Ted Reinstein during a visit to the Hanson Public Library Thursday, Jan. 5. “My answer is — and you may think I was leading to a different conclusion — no, it doesn’t. It can’t.”

But, he argues, it places an asterisk on the Wright Brothers’ claim, as there is an “extraordinary possibility” that Whitehead flew first.

Among those not convinced are the states of Ohio and North Carolina and the Smithsonian Institution, where the Wright Brothers’ plane is the centerpiece of the Air and Space Museum.

So, why should we care?

They certainly care in Connecticut.

“It’s a community where they have grown up knowing about someone from their community who did something incredible,” Reinstein said. “In Bridgeport, Conn., they’ve simply taken it as a fact, the way you do about something you grew up with.”

Taking sides in a good feud is quintessentially American — and very much a pastime in New England.

Reinstein appeared at the Hanson Library to discuss his latest book, “Wicked Pissed: New England’s most Famous Fueds” [Globe Pequot Press, 2016, 208 pages, trade paperback, $18.95]

“Think of this as a dinner,” he said. “I’m going to start off with kind of an appetizer round of some tasty little finger-feuds to give you an idea of what’s in the book. Then we’re going to work our way to the main feud — kind of like a main course.”

The talk, sponsored by the Hanson Library Foundation, and the book focus on the Whitehead-Wright Brothers argument as well as some more regional spats.

“I don’t have a horse in this race, so I’m not pushing the Whitehead story,” Reinstein cautioned his audience. “I’m sharing it with you as a journalist who has researched it, because I think it’s fascinating.”

He also writes of arguments between Lexington and Concord over where the Revolution really started, the Bunker Hill vs. Breed’s Hill feud over battle nomenclature and where in New Haven, Conn., can one find the best pizza — as well as fried clam feuds and that baseball rivalry.

But the first in flight saga, touching on a large-scale race to be first, Whitehead’s uncertain immigration status and a language barrier are among the issues that make a good feud story.

“People are fascinated by feuds, but there’s one major exception,” Reinstein said. “Unless it’s your feud.”

Whitehead, nicknamed “The Bird” in his native Bavaria because of his obsession with flight, emigrated to America in 1900. Settling first in Milton, Mass., before moving to Bridgeport, Conn., where he continued work on motorized aircraft prototypes powered by acetylene.

His machine No. 21 made his successful flight in 1901 “when he felt he had a technical edge,” the engine he settled on, according to Reinstein.

“History, with very few exceptions, and as time goes on only records the winners,” he said.

Bridgeport newspapers, however, had recorded Whitehead’s progress and promise that he had created a craft that would fly, as well as eye-witness Bridgeport residents’ accounts after the flight.

But Whitehead flew, for reasons one can only guess, at 5 a.m. in the dark with no photographers present. That omission, Reinstein suggested, may have cost him is claim to fame. Whitehead, who for reasons that are unclear, never flew again and died in Bridgeport in 1927 penniless and unknown.

“The Wright Flyer got into the air using gravity,” he said of the steel ramp, which the plane used to attain lift. “[Whitehead] will taxi to attain critical speed and lift off just like a 747 does today.”

Historians, flight engineers and pilot — and film actor — Cliff Robertson, combined over the years to depose almost 30 witnesses to Whitehead’s flight and later created a duplicate of No. 21, which Robertson successfully flew in 1985 for almost an hour at 50 feet of the ground to prove its air-worthiness.

What was missing was a proper forensic investigation, which only the Smithsonian was capable of doing, but for decades refused to conduct, Reinstein reported. An allegedly “secret contract” through which the Wright family bequeathed the Wright Flyer to the museum, fueled years of conspiracy theories as it limited the Smithsonian from acknowledging any other pilot as conducting the first flight. To do so would cost the Smithsonian possession of the Wright Flyer, Reinstein explained.

In 2000 historian John Brown, hired by the Smithsonian to produce a documentary about the history of flight, discovered Whitehead and his work led to the Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft editorial crediting Whitehead with being First in Flight.

A New England feud was refueled.

WHITMAN — When Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green moved to Whitman 15 years ago,with her husband Ed, who works for Shaw’s markets, and now-16-year-old son Jason, a member of the WHRHS baseball team, they felt they had found a hometown, and she became involved in the community.

At the time, Green had no inkling she would be helping administer town government, but that’s where her road led. Perhaps a journey is the most apt metaphor for this public servant who began her working life as a travel agent, which she did for about 20 years before going to law school.

Green grew up in Brockton, but as her father is a good friend with James Reed from Reed’s Automotive on Temple Street, she was in Whitman a lot growing up.

“Travel was kind of going in a different direction because of the Internet,” she said of her change in career direction. “Travel agencies were kind of a dying breed … it was very much a changing industry.”

She initially went back to school with the idea of becoming a paralegal, and continued to obtain her law degree. Before beginning her new position of assistant town administrator, Green had been an adjudicator for the federal Social Security Administration.

She stepped down from her seat on the Board of Selectmen in October to meet the separation requirements involved in applying for her new post — and received the vote of all four of her former colleagues on the board to win the job.

The Express sat down to talk with Green in her Town Hall office Thursday, Dec. 8.

Q

: What drew you into public service?

A: “Social Security is considered public service. I worked there for eight years and I was also very heavily involved with the [Whitman Baseball and Softball Association] WBSA. I worked on getting scoreboards for some of our baseball fields and was successful in getting two. I liked that a lot and decided to run for selectman when I saw there was a seat open. … I enjoyed the five years of being a selectman and really learning about Whitman.

“Being a selectman really taught me about the inside — the government and running a town. I heard that [former Assistant Town Administrator] Greg [Enos] was leaving, I had given it a lot of thought and resigned from the board and applied for the position.”

Q: Is this something of a dream job — working in the town in which you live?

A: “It is. It’s funny, when people say to me, ‘What a commute you have — a five-minute, commute,’ I think I’ve paid my dues. I worked at the airport, so I traveled from Brockton to Boston every day and then I worked in Dedham when I worked at the travel agency, and then worked in Boston again — Quincy, Braintree — with SSA.

“Actually, when I became a selectman, I never thought it would lead to a full-time career in municipal management, but here I am today, and very excited to be here and very motivated.”

Q: It must have been gratifying to have the support of all four of your former colleagues.

A: “Yes, it was. I was very grateful to them for having that kind of faith in me. Sometimes you don’t know if you’re doing a good job, a bad job or an OK job — you’re not really sure. But when they all voted for me it was very gratifying. I was overwhelmed and can’t thank them enough for placing me in this position.”

Q: How is this job different from working for the SSA, other than the level of government?

A: “I mainly worked in disability, in the law end of it in the general counsel’s office. That’s where they defended Social Security against lawsuits filed against them. When I was promoted to an adjudicator for the disability applications, that’s an important job because you’ve got people’s life in your hands. … They are relying on you, basically, to help them live with disability. It was a demanding job. We were given a certain amount of cases every week and we had to make quick decisions so people weren’t waiting a long time.

“Coming down to this level of government, I’m now working for the town. It’s a small town and people are very comfortable coming in and talking with you about concerns they have, complaints that they have and I think it’s important that people know they can come to us and talk to us.”

Q: Does your SSA background help at the town level?

A: “I can answer some questions regarding retirement, but that wasn’t really my expertise … I was more involved with disability. But I can certainly put my legal and Social Security background to work to benefit the town.”

Q: What do you like best about living in Whitman?

A: “It’s a small town, which I love. It’s a pretty town. There are a lot of dedicated people who live here. They put their time into the town. The WBSA — everybody there is very dedicated to the kids — football, soccer, there’s a lot of small-town activities that go on here. Businesses support Whitman. You get to know so many people in the town. That couldn’t happen in Brockton.”

Q: How do you envision your new role?

A: “I want to make sure that I am looking into any grants out there that will help improve Whitman, either infrastructure, the environment or human services. I’m going to be taking a grant-writing course — my writing expertise is in legal writing, but I have that talent because I’ve had training — so now I want to focus that writing ability toward grants. You need to be versed in budgeting … and I need to learn what people look for [in a grant application].

“Greg was successful in getting Whitman recognized as a green community. I want to make sure I continue that, because there are a lot of grants out there for green communities … funds for the food pantry, animal control and things like that.”

Q: What’s been the biggest surprise about the job so far?

A: “I’m very touched by how welcoming everybody has been … within Town Hall and by all the town employees in Whitman. Sometimes, when a new person comes in, some people can have a little reservation toward them. I’ve had a presence as selectman for five years so they knew me a little bit. It’s a complex position, there’s going to be baby steps, Frank is a great mentor and is very patient in teaching me different things.”