HANSON — Voters approved the amendment to the Regional Agreement governing the assessment formula, to fall into line with the vote taken by Whitman Monday, July 27.

They also approved the Selectmen’s recommended school budget 434-83 and the budget as a whole, based on the Selectmen’s recommended budget of $11,214,177 — at Town Moderator Sean Kealy’s motion — after the assessment article passed.

The vote was checked by a hand count after a resident asserted that visitors may have voted.

The town convened its 200th annual Town Meeting — one of the few bicentennial events not cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic — on Wednesday, July 29. There were 518 residents attending.

The outdoor session was held, like Monday’s Whitman Town Meeting, at the ball fields behind Dennis M. O’Brien stadium.

Kealy led the meeting in a moment of silence to all those lost to COVID-19 as well as a round of applause for the health care workers and first responders who cared for those who contracted the virus.

In another concession to the pandemic, Kealy — instead of individual department heads reading articles they have proposed — read all articles into motion with Selectman Matt Dyer making all seconds. Some of the warrants’ more routine articles were combined into one of two consent motions to streamline the outdoor meeting before mosquitoes became a concern after dusk.

Kealy also appointed Barbara Arena as deputy town moderator to help recognize those wishing to speak in the dispersed gathering.

“We have a balanced budget,” said Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell in announcing that the town’s budget would balance even if the school articles passed. “This wasn’t easy at all. This was a combination of the Board of Selectmen, our financial team, FinCom, department heads, Police, Fire, Highway [departments]. Everyone worked up until last night to get a balanced budget.”

There was $1,296,088 available in free cash; $1,311,186 in stabilization; $161,647 in school stabilization; $820,493 in water surplus; $4,205 in recreation retained earnings; and $15,585 in solid waste retained earnings.

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes echoed Whitman Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski’s analogy of the “Wizard of Oz” and the need to use heads, heart and courage in deciding the school funding issue.

“Tonight we have some tough decisions to make regarding the W-H Regional School District, public education itself and our greatest assets — our children,” Hayes said, noting that Hanson has the fifth-lowest tax levy in the area and fifth-highest in spending on police and fire and lowest spending in education.

He said he had attended Whitman’s Town Meeting and wondering where Kowalski was going with his reference to the 1939 MGM adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s children’s book, “The Wizard of Oz.”

“It takes courage, ladies and gentlemen to make tough decisions, it takes brains to think things through and do what’s best for schools and taxpayers, and you need to have a heart to realize we are all in the education of children together,” Hayes said. He noted that — just as in Whitman, the Finance Committee was unanimously against the article while Selectmen had voted unanimously to recommend it to voters.

“Some people will say that we probably should have got a better deal,” he said. “This is the only deal that is on the table for both of these towns.”

Hayes said a no vote would mean Hanson could lose $570,917 and would be assessed on the statutory formula. He reminded voters that the district is already on a 1/12 budget and faced a Dec. 1 deadline before the state completely takes over the schools if a budget was not approved. The district would lose more than 40 district positions in the interim as the state made its move.

“Class sizes will get larger and difficult to manage and with COVID-19 uncertainty and the future hanging in the balance, this looks pretty bleak for the school system,” Hayes said.

He noted that the assessment formula was adapted with the Education Reform Act in 1993, but the W-H District, for some reason did not.

“Our students are the leaders of our future,” he said. “Please vote yes on this article.”

An amendment was suggested from the floor to amend the article to change wording to split calculations for the statutory assessment cost and per-pupil cost method down the middle as it has been for years, increasing Hanson’s portion by $575,000 for 2021 and a decrease for Whitman in that amount. It was argued that moving to the statutory method alone would cost Hanson an additional $1,150,000 with a corresponding savings for the town of Whitman.

Hayes said that, if the amendment had been approved, the School District and Committee would have to start over again and Whitman would have to approve any change Hanson would make. Failing that, a super town meeting would be required.

“The problem with 1/12 budget is you can’t plan for what you’re going to do for the rest of the year. You need to have a budget in place” said resident Joseph O’Sullivan, noting the concerns of the MTA on the readiness of schools to open on time because of the pandemic.

“The strength of a school system isn’t the building, it’s the teachers,” he said.

Only 1 percent of 10,000 Massachusetts teachers said their schools are fully prepared to open in September; 41 percent said their schools are somewhat prepared and 58 percent said they are not prepared. The MTA has recommended a 10-week delay in school reopening during which time educators would work to “reimagine” what school will look like with distance learning and meeting later on whether to reopen or use a hybrid.

Resident Elizabeth Welch questioned whether Hanson was footing the bill for Whitman students because of the division of student population. Kealy cut short her remarks as off-topic when she began to criticize the quality of individual teachers.

“This is a difficult issue for the town of Hanson, for sure,” said School Committee member Christopher Howard, noting that after the towns make their minimum contribution, the 60-40 split based on student population kicks in. He said Hanson’s School Committee members fought hard to protect Hanson’s interests, before the Education Reform Act proved insurmountable.

“We discovered that all roads lead to statutory,” Howard said, strongly advising against the amendment and approve the original assessment article. “But this compromise helps the town of Hanson.”

Another resident noted that Hanson pays assessments to SST under the statutory formula as one of the eight member towns.

“We’re a partner with Whitman,” said resident Kim McCoy. “The statutory method is the preferred method for the regional school districts funding their schools, the statutory method has been used for years for other partnerships in this town without uproar or problem.”

Resident Jane Durante, who disagreed with the assessment agreement, asked by the Finance Committee voted against recommending the original article.

Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Sullivan said the article cannot be supported by the operating budget.

Resident Frank Melisi, who asked why — amid the concern for budget dollars — that children were not being mentioned.

“I haven’t heard much about the kids,” he said. “Last year’s school year failed our kids, not as the fault of anyone in this school system, the teachers, School Committee or anything like that. It was for unforeseen circumstances.”

He said students do not deserve a second year of having a wasted school year.

Kealy defended his motion for the Selectmen’s budget, as did Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff.

“Town Meeting is full of tradition, for sure, and Hanson’s tradition is normally to go with Finance Committee recommendations, but that’s not necessarily a legal obligation,” she said. “As a matter of fact, the Board of Selectmen are the ones who prepare the warrant so they, under the law, have control of the warrant.”

Both the $10.4 million Finance Committee column, which did not consider the apportionment passed in Article 5, and the Selectmen’s column of figures balanced.

“If we hadn’t passed Article 5, then I would have moved the Finance Committee’s numbers,” Kealy said.

Comments from the floor objected to it as being improper.

“By all means, I’d be happy to go to Superior Court on my own behalf,” said Kealy, who stressed he does not cast votes at Town Meeting.

There was also some discussion during the special Town Meeting concerning private road improvements as residents asked why such work would be done on private roads.

Highway Director Matt Cahill said the five miles of private gravel roads are required by town bylaw to be improved twice a year in the interest of public access and safety.

WHITMAN — Before the business got under way at Whitman’s annual Town Meeting Monday, July 27, Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski likened the task at hand to the lesson of the classic film “The Wizard of Oz.”

The meeting, held outdoors at the JV ball fields at WHRHS due to coronavirus concerns, required the 165 attendees to wear masks and maintain proper social distance.

“It’s a difficult time in this country and in this town and in this state, and it feels like I ought to be introducing a band and this would be a summer concert,” Kowalski said of the unusual setting for the meeting.

He acknowledged that it took courage and commitment for residents to even attend the Town Meeting this year, given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the heat emergency conditions of the evening.

Kowalski also said the far-reaching choices to make regarding the regional school district also took the commitment of those attending.

“I have every faith that we’ll weather those storms, as we usually do, and follow the values that were so clearly described in our citizens’ survey last year,” Kowalski said.

He alluded to a statement Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly made at last week’s meeting regarding following her head and her heart in making budgetary decisions.

“It brought to mind something that has meant a lot to me for over 20 years,” Kowalski said, recalling a reading he came across about managing change, while he was on a sabbatical in Austin, Texas.

“All life has to do with how we manage change, and the key to doing so can be found in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Kowalski recalled his aunt taking him to see the movie when he was 10 years old. He noted how the film’s black and white opening underwent change with a terrible storm into a Technicolor world where she met strange people, including the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion.

“They all had qualities they were missing that they needed to find,” Kowalski said. “They didn’t think they had it inside themselves [to find those qualities]. They thought that a Wizard could give it to them.”

The film famously exposed the Wizard as a fraud hiding behind a curtain.

“They found out that they had these qualities in themselves,” Kowalski said. “We do, too. Whatever we accomplish tonight, will undoubtedly mean changes in the lives of Whitman citizens, particularly its younger ones.”

He said the meeting would talk it over, but he was convinced the Town Meeting would support the school budget request.

“We have the brains, we have the heart and we have the courage within each of us to do so,” he said. “So let’s tonight, use our heads, follow our hearts and act with courage.”

Kowalski also led the meeting in a round of applause for Town Administrator Frank Lynam, who is planning his retirement, on what may be his final Town Meeting in that office.

The School Committee on Wednesday, July 15 reviewed the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) re-opening guidelines.

“School’s about building relationships,” Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said during a discussion about the start of work on the 2020-25 strategic plan. “My priority for my kids is to get them back so they feel good about school again — and then start school, and when I say start school, I mean academics.”

The plan is not precisely to “hit the ground running.”

“The opportunity, because of the pandemic, is an opportunity to rethink how we teach kids,” Szymaniak said. “Good, bad and indifferent, it’s given us an opportunity to think way outside the box, and we’ve hit some home runs and we’ve struck out on a few things, but it’s an opportunity to do some things differently.”

Szymaniak said, despite news reports about proposals elsewhere, DESE has been consistent about requiring school districts to develop three different plans for school operations in the fall. The plans are due July 31.

“We’re looking at a full opening,” Szymaniak said. “What a full opening means is yet to be determined. … I don’t know if we have the capacity in the traditional classrooms, even in the gyms and cafeterias to be able to go back full.”

If there is a budget reduction on a 1/12 budget, Szymaniak said he cannot commit to anything full time right now.

All instructional plans will also have to be bargained with the Whitman-Hanson Educational Association, with whom Szymaniak said district officials have a very good collaborative relationship. Any remote learning plans will include a memorandum of understanding on how many hours a day of active learning will be expected.

Social distancing is another concern.

DESE now recommends a social distance of six feet with a minimum of three feet apart in classrooms. That puts and average classroom at a maximum capacity of 23 pupils. If six feet apart is required it is reduced to 12 in a classroom.

“We have no classes that are running at 12 right now,” he said. “Something above 200 sections of high school classes are above 23 right now.”

He stressed school officials can look at every available space in school buildings to have classes, but “that doesn’t mean I’ll have all the teachers I need to fill those classes.”

Teachers have been asked to remove all personal property and items not school-related from classrooms.

“Think of the old 1920s classroom where all you have are rows of desks facing the teacher,” Szymaniak said about the education commissioner’s directive. “No bookshelves, no extra chairs, no extra tables. … That’s what schools going to look like, folks, based on the requirements and recommendations.”

Each school in the district has a COVID-19 building-based team looking at each school’s specific needs, Szymaniak said.

“We have to look at scenarios about how kids enter buildings, how kids get their lunch, how kids go to the bathroom, how kids wash their hands, where their lockers are going to be, if they can use lockers, if there’s transitions,” he said.

“It’s nice to hear we need toworry about the students, but we also have to worry about the staff,” said Hanson School Committee member Hilllary Kniffen, who is a teacher, noting there is not a lot of answers from DESE right now. “I don’ t see a lot of that happening.”

Kniffen also said that students could end up eating lunch in hallways under social distancing guidelines.

“I don’t know how that’s going to be beneficial to a student’s mental health, for one thing,” she said.

Hanson member Christopher Howard also cautioned against forgetting parents and their concerns.

“I am very worried, with everything that’s going on, what that will look like,” he said. “And I also look at it through the lens of an employer.”

Howard said there are a lot of employers talking about bringing people back to the office sometime after the summer, setting up what he called a “perfect storm” of educational priorities and employers’ demands on parents. He said a survey of parents — even if inconclusive — could be helpful in that area.

“This is round peg in a square hole and there’s no direction — and it’s dark outside,” Szymaniak agreed.

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro is the point person on the district-wide planning team with Szymaniak, Special Education Director Lauren Mathieson, Facilities Director Ernest Sandland, lead Nurse Lisa Tobin, teacher union representatives Kevin Kafka and Cindy McGahan, Business Director John Tuffy, Athletics Director Bob Rodgers, Elementary Cirriculum representative Jane Cox, Food Services Director Nadine Doucette, Tech Director Steve Burke, data person Kim Barnard and Karen Villaneuva is representing transportation as well as a person heading up parent and staff surveys and a School Committee member and human resources staff.

“One size does not fit all,” Whitman School Committee member Dan Cullity said of DESE guidelines, especially six-foot distancing, which he said is not doable. “Three-foot is barely going to get us to what we need to do.”

He said the district panel will be key in finding solutions to state mandates.

DESE has dedicated $292,000 to the district for technology and COVID-related expenses. State Sen. Mike Brady, D-Brockton, state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Pembroke, and Rep. Alyson Sullivan, R-Abington, have committed $200,000 each in appropriations bills before their respective bodies.

“I don’t count those dollars until we get a check,” Szymaniak said of the bills, but noting the district already has the DESE funds in the bank.

Szymaniak also anticipates $855,000 — based on a formula of $225 per pupil — that should be coming to the district from the Plymouth County CARES grant, but it is not an appropriation, it is a reimbursement.

Szymaniak is confident the financial assistance will help the district provide a Chromebook to every student to take home if the district must go to remote learning again. He said teachers should also have a district device to use from home for instruction, as well.

South Shore school superintendents are also discussing various hybrid educational plans.

Hybrid plan options

One is a four-day-a week split-session plan for elementary students in the buildings with Fridays dedicated to virtual learning with only teachers and staff in the building. Another would have half of the elementary students in the building for a full day on Mondays and Tuesdays, the other half on Thursdays and Fridays with Wednesdays as a virtual learning day for all students. Similar plans, with different times, are being discussed for middle school students.

“The high school has a lot of flexibility in how we want to work,” Szymaniak said. “The high school schedule is going to be the toughest to operate, or it may be the easiest.”

At first the commissioner’s guidance indicated students would be expected to stay in classrooms — especially in elementary grades — including lunch, he said in response to a question from School Committee member Christopher Scriven of Whitman. That was adjusted to permit use of the cafeteria for lunch with students staying six feet apart, but he does not see how movement between classes can be avoided in the middle and high schools.

“I anticipate teachers using the outdoor absolutely as much as they can,” Szymaniak said.

He said the main challenge for any hybrid plan is transportation. Split days would require four bus runs, based on safety limits of 24 kids on a bus. The bus company has also said they do not have enough buses for that.

“I can’t afford two bus runs,” he said, noting he would likely do another parent survey on the hybrid options.

Chorus programs might also be affected by guidelines aimed at limiting the particulates into the air.

Szymaniak said the School Committee would be asked to decide which plan to use if a hybrid model is used, because setting a school schedule is one of its charges.

“The health and safety of our children and our staff should be our priority, not the economics of our district,” he said. “To say this is a daunting task — double that, and quadruple that, not having a budget,” he said. Szymaniak said he is budgeting with the assumption that the towns will support the school budget.

If there is no budget by Aug. 1, it “might take a full-time return to school absolutely off the table, and might take hybrid off the table in some respects,” as the district would be faced with staff cuts.

Szymaniak also said he is confident the commissioner of education might support a 177-day school calendar while relaxing time-on-learning requirements.

Parents also have the opportunity to choose fully remote learning at any time during the school year, which is not the same as home schooling.