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.”

WHITMAN — Lyric poet Faye George of Bridgewater kicked off Thanksgiving week with readings and a discussion of her collection, “Voices of King Philip’s War,” at the Whitman Public Library on Monday, Nov. 21 — the 396th anniversary of the Pilgrim’s landing in 1620.

“That’s really not a very long, long time, is it?” she said. “And look what happened in that interval. … This was all forest.”

George has published five collections of her poetry. She’s been working on the King Philip book [2013, WordTech Editions, softcover, 142 pages, $20] for several years, perhaps unwittingly at first, as it flowed from her personal interest in that period of local history.

“We thought it would be topical and timely” to host George, said Library Director Andrea Rounds of the appearance, which was part of the Local Author Series funded by the Friends of the Whitman Public Library.

George related how one of her first jobs after high school was as a page in Shawmut Bank.

“They had a mascot symbol of [Shawmut sachem] Obbatinewat,” she said. The image spurred her to learn more of local history. George said her initial research was not directed, but rather sprang from idle curiosity stemming from her first realization that King Philip was not a European nobleman but the son of Massasoit.

“I’d like to know more about this,” she said of her thought process.

One reference source would lead to another and she would sit on her porch in Weymouth, where she lived at the time, and read and make notes.

George spoke of the plagues, which wiped out several small Algonquian bands prior to 1620, as well as inter-tribal clashes before the founding of the Plymouth Colony, which she termed “nothing in the way of absolute, take-no-prisoners, burn-it-to-the-ground warfare that the English brought.”

She wrote poems in the voice of several native peoples who played key roles in King Philip’s War, relying on her past research, interspersing passages from historic documents with her interpretation of how the native peoples would feel.

“The attitudes presented come from my imagination,” she said. Events portrayed are taken from the historical record, while some of the behaviors and attitudes are lost to history. George then recreated scenes within the context of their roles in events.

“I am primarily a lyric poet,” she said. “This was a total departure for me.”

After her third book, she felt the time was right to go back over her past notes, which led to the first of her monologue poems. That monologue dramatizes Philip’s brother Alexander’s (Wamsutta) refusal to surrender to the summons of Gov. Edward Winslow after Wamsutta was accused of selling Wampanoag land directly to colonists, rather than to the Plymouth colony. Alexander’s sudden death in Plymouth led the Wampanoags to suspect he was poisoned.

“… Summon me? — Wamsutta, Alexander,

Chief Sachem

Of the Wampanoag Federation!

Not for this did my father [Massasoit] and our people,

With all good will,

Give yours a place to make their homes

And dwell among us;

Not to submit as slaves to English law,

Not to live as

Children of the English governor!

Now you hear this;

We are not your children, neither your slaves. …”

— Excerpt from “Alexander: Wamsutta,” from “Voices of King Philip’s War”

“I had no idea how many voices there would be,” she said. “These characters that emerged were all from the historical record. These were real people.”

George noted that, since the Algonquian peoples had no written language, she had to depend on the histories written by white colonists, including the Christian missionary John Elliot, who had taught himself the Massachusetts dialect of the Wampanoags.

“It was a sad reality that, had they worked together, had the tribes been less competitive … they certainly, I believe, would had gotten a better deal than they did get,” she said. “Because they were just destroyed.”

WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Nov. 15 voted to set a uniform tax rate of $15.08 per $1,000 valuation for fiscal 2017 on both residential and commercial property.

Assessor Kathy Keefe presented the Board of Assessors’ recommendation for the uniform rate to Selectmen. She also reported that the Department of Revenue had certified Whitman’s valuation for 2017 at $1,518,230,876, which, along with the tax levy of $22,901,992 to estimate the tax rate of $15.08, which could shift a bit when it is input into software, but is not expected to go higher than $15.10.

The fiscal 2016 tax rate was certified at $15.59.

The residential and commercial exemptions, which are always an option, were not recommended because Whitman does not have a high percentage of rental properties and the small commercial exemption only aids businesses that own their property.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam noted that the personal property class value decreased by almost $4 million after “extraordinary growth” from National Grid property, which declines over time.

A National Grid personal property report in March  2015 added $72.8 million in new growth, raising the town’s levy limit — and was not expected to last. The anomaly was discovered during an analysis of available funds, including new growth, according to Lynam.

“I expect that within the next seven years, we’ll lose all of that,” he said. “So we have not used that money as part of our budgeting concept — and because of that, you’re going to see an excess levy because we don’t want to use that money, otherwise we’ll have to play catch-up in the years that follow.”

Selectman Daniel Salvucci asked if that money could be spent on a capital project. Lynam replied that was done this past year when about $1 million was spent on capital projects using the money from the National Grid base figure.

“It’s never precise, we have to calculate it each year and we don’t know where the numbers will come in,” Lynam said. “I do know, however, that that number is going to continue to decline and I do not want to come close enough on our budget to have to come back in the fall because we overspent.”

The perception that “everybody does it” has taken another hit.

A regional drug use survey, taken on an anonymous and voluntary basis by high school students last year, has yielded some valuable insights on the issue, according to the Brockton Area Opioid Prevention Coalition.

Specific results of the survey were released only to School Committee members and Whitman-Hanson Regional School District administrators, but general information and the types of questions asked were discussed with the Committee during its Wednesday, Nov. 9 meeting at which the panel voted to expand a drug use survey to grade eight.

“We thought it was important for you to hear the results this evening, how we plan to move forward and the opportunity to give a similar survey to the eighth grade,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner said.

Coalition members Hillary Dubois of the High Point Treatment Center and Ed Jacobs from the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office presented the survey findings. Whitman-Hanson WILL is also a member group of that coalition, whose work is funded by three regional grants.

“We want to take the limited resources that we have and focus them in the right place,” Jacobs said. “There’s a certain percentage of students who will say, ‘Yes, I’ve used over the past 30 days,’ but when you ask about their perception of do their fellow students use, that’s a far greater number.”

It’s also an incorrect perception, according to the data, which can encourage kids to avoid drugs or alcohol by showing them they are not alone.

“The actual number [of students who admit to drug use] is very small, which is good,” Jacobs said. “But the perception is ‘everybody’s doing it,’ or the majority is doing it … and that, we don’t think is necessarily the reality.”

But Dubois cautioned against complacency, saying that perception could lead to “peer-driven self internal pressure” for kids.

“When a young person is, for example, offered a prescription narcotic pain killer, if they have the belief that the majority of their peers are using it as well, they might be more inclined to try it,” she said.

In W-H, 998 high school students took part after the School Committee approved the survey last year. In Brockton High School 1,627, another 666 in Rockland High School and Middle School and 587 in East Bridgewater Jr./Sr. High School also participated.

“More so than any other district, you have a bunch of civil libertarians here at W-H who chose to not answer questions or take surveys or draw pictures,” Dubois said, noting a few may have declined to answer questions of their own potential drug or alcohol use.

Jacobs and Dubois argued that, by expanding the survey to grade eight gives a wider window for data collection so the coalition can determine if progress is being made or greater prevention methods are needed.

“We base our strategies off of an assessment that we complete in each of the individual communities as well as in the region,” Dubois said. “We use the information that comes from the survey to help inform what our next steps are in terms of working with the communities.”

That work will encompass the youth voice and perspective gleaned from the survey. Dubois said the current data would be shared with Whitman-Hanson WILL and the local Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) chapter. The survey results can also help make the argument for additional grant money in the future if problems are found.

“Rarely do we ask the kids who are most impacted by this. — What their feedback is, what their thought is, what they think speaks to their peers and … what speaks to the adults in their lives,” she said.

The School Committee also reviewed results of the spring assessment exams.

“Statewide assessments have changed and varied over the years,” Gilbert-Whitner said, noting that last spring it was a combination of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and MCAS exams.

Curriculum directors Brian Selig, Amy Hill and Mark Stephansky joined Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Ellen Stockdale in reviewing this spring’s scores and changes being made to prepare teachers and students alike for evolving tests.

Currently, because of the changes in the testing systems, Stockdale said the most consistent data is available from the high school MCAS scores.

In math, W-H performs at or better than the state average, Selig said, noting that test changes ahead will move to questions with more than one answer than the traditional multiple-choice questions featured on the MCAS exams.

English Language Arts, in which W-H students were 95-percent proficient or advanced, will also see more thought-provoking questions on future exams, Hill said.

“If we are teaching to our standards, if we are sticking to our standards, we will be OK,” she said, noting that sparking a love of reading is critical.

“They give children opportunities to see different types of texts at their level with high interest, so they keep them engaged,” Stockdale said of W-H teachers.

In science, which has never been featured in a PARCC test, Stephansky said 81 percent of W-H students scored proficient/advanced on the freshman biology MCAS compared to a 75 percent state average. Future exams, adapted from the federal standards in January, will demand new training of teachers, but there will little change this spring.

Taking it slow

Another challenge with online testing will be training tech-savvy kids to click slower on computerized exams, all the educators agreed.

The so-called Next-Generation MCAS, a hybrid of the two tests is the direction Massachusetts has decided to take in the future.

“What we really need in order to educate our children is a really solid, well-aligned curriculum with very highly effective teachers,” Stockdale said, adding the district’s teachers meet that description.

Schools are ranked on the basis of assessments according to a district’s lowest-performing school. W-H is at Level 2 — on a 1 to 5 scale with Level 5 being the worst.

“There are no Pre-K to 12 districts in Massachusetts classified as Level 1,” Stockdale said.

HANSON — The town will continue to be taxed a uniform rate for all property classifications for fiscal 2017.

The Board of Selectmen voted to set the annual tax classification rates following a brief hearing with the Board of Assessors on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Such hearings are required by MGL Ch 40 §56 before a tax rate may be set.

Assessor/appraiser Lee Gamache made the presentation to Selectmen before their vote on a uniform or split tax rate as well as whether they would accept residential or small business exemptions. She also reported that the excess levy capacity for the town is $208,477 and that the town has seen a good year for growth in residential properties and free cash.

“Single-family [property] value has increased and is increasingly going up year-to-year,” Gamache said. “We’re in a condo boom right now and people are paying a lot of money for the condos in Hanson … the values for condos are also increasing.”

At the same time, commercial properties in town have lost a little value, she said, noting there has not been a lot of business coming into town.

The board voted 5-0 to support the uniform rate. Neither exemption was accepted.

The town’s residential tax classification is the largest, comprising 91.7741 percent of the actual levy for fiscal 2017. At a uniform tax rate — meaning all classifications, including commercial, industrial and personal property as well as residential — would be at $15.98 per $1,000 valuation.

“There’s very little commercial-industrial [property],” Gamache said. “We’re definitely a bedroom town, and that’s why the board has historically always recommended a uniform tax rate — so that the shift doesn’t go on the small amount of commercial property that we do have here.”

Gamache explained that the two exemptions apply mainly to communities with a high rate of rental properties such as Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and the Cape and Islands. In Hanson, residential property is 98-percent owner-occupied so the assessors have historically recommended against adopting a residential tax exemption.

Selectmen voted 5-0 against such an exemption.

She also explained that the commercial exemption, which only benefits small businesses that own their property, is not guaranteed to be passed along to companies that rent space. Again, Selectmen voted 5-0 against such an exemption.

In other business, the board acted on Water Commissioner Mary Lou Sutter’s resignation from her position, effective Nov. 12, due to health reasons.

“It has become increasingly difficult to attend meetings as my health worsens and winter approaches,” Sutter wrote in her letter of resignation. She added that she did not want to resign without leaving a full board to address the town’s water needs.

The board accepted her resignation with regret following a round of applause from the audience in honor of her many years of service.

In a divided vote, Selectmen and members of the Water Commissioners approved — 6-3, with Selectmen Bruce Young, Bill Scott and Chairman James McGahan dissenting — to appoint Dennis O’Connell to fill a vacancy on the commission. One vacancy remains open, but was not voted on during the Nov. 1 meeting. Selectman Don Howard had two votes, as he is an elected member of both boards.

O’Connell has worked as a union electrician who has worked with the MWRA and Deer Island as well as the MBTA and Boston Housing Authority. The second applicant, William John Garvey is a South Shore Vo-Tech grad with an HVAC certification, who has worked on the town’s committee overseeing repairs to roofs at the elementary schools. Selectmen and water commissioners voted 3-5-1 against Garvey — with only McGahan, Scott and Young voting in favor and Howard abstaining from his vote as a water commissioner.

“In two weeks we can have another appointment,” Howard said.

Young congratulated O’Connell on his appointment, saying he was sure O’Connell would do an outstanding job.

“For the record, I made my decision based on experience,” Selectman Kenny Mitchell said of his vote for O’Connell. The board also voted to hire Jamison E. Shave as the new administrative assistant for the Hanson Highway Department.

Town Administrator Michael McCue said of the17 applicants — six of whom were interviewed — Shave was determined to be the best-qualified for the position. Shave’s extensive resume includes experience with the Hanson Water Department and as Fern Hill Cemetery superintendent of the cemetery.

“He comes with a plethora of experience in both administration and payroll,” McCue said. “Of particular interest was … in his capacity at Fern Hill, he was familiar with an awful lot of things that he would have to deal with in the Highway position having to do with groundskeeping and plowing and all sorts of things.”

(Express intern Michael Hughes contributed to this report).