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‘Hands and feet of Christ’: Hanson church reaching out to community

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HANSON — Pastor Kristian Skjerli of Calvary Baptist Church, may not have planned on leading a church, but since he was a teenager he knew he had a calling to serve God in his community.

“It’s something I knew God was calling me to do back when I was 17,” he said. “It just took a little bit of a winding road that I didn’t expect. But it was a good road.”

Skjerli, 56, was approached to become senior pastor at Calvary Baptist about a year and a half ago, while serving as a deacon and member of the search committee to fill the vacancy in the pulpit after the Rev. Jeffrey Lavoie left to found The Well Community Church in Halifax.

“The thing that we want to make sure of, is yes we’re here to serve the needs of the community — whatever that is,” Skjerli said during an interview at his church Thursday, Dec. 1.

The church is a center to administer vouchers for families in need to contact the Salvation Army — the Hanson Senior Center fills that role for the elder population. The church also has begun an annual Thanksgiving dinner for dementia patients as well as an occasional thank you breakfast for the region’s first responders.

The church works with the Hanson Food Pantry as a collection location, as well as hosting a monthly support group for families who have lost children to addiction and is reaching out to determine how it can assist a program at East Bridgewater’s Covenant Community Church.

A group of Calvary Baptist members with trades backgrounds are joining forces to help people in need of minor repairs on their homes but can’t afford to hire a repairman. Residents purchase the material and the group performs the labor.

Calvary Baptist is also becoming involved as a participant in the Hanson Holiday Fest. Church member Jamie Bevelaqua is leading community outreach initiatives.

“The goal is to extend the hands and feet of Christ — that we are, literally, those hands and feet — so that as there is a need people can sense that we’re reaching out not only because we’re nice people, but because we have a message that drives us,” Skjerli said. The church also supports 39 mission projects around the world, as a way to aid its global community.

It’s the type of community outreach to which Skjerli has always been called.

“I started public speaking when I was 12 through a mission down in New York [City],” he said of a Baptist church group he belonged to that volunteered at an Episcopal mission, ministering to the homeless.  “I started sharing my faith and scripture as simply as a 12-year-old could.” Skjerli recalled.

Their mission was to provide information about services available to the homeless and to “give them hope because of Christ.”

“You have to look at things through their eyes,” he said. “Walk beside them at least, and feel what they feel, to get an idea of who they are.”

He recalled one man, a journalist from Los Angeles named Thomas O’Brien, who had struggled with alcoholism, and moved to New York for a job he was unable to find.

God’s love

“I asked him what the hardest thing was on the street, and he said, ‘Knowing that nobody cares about me. That — if I were to die today — nobody would know,’” Skjerli said. “I was able to share God’s love with him and that transformed me into recognizing the deepest need of people is to understand that somebody loves them, and God’s love is real and we understand it as we talk about this time of year through Christ.”

As a teen, Skjerli also helped found a program in his home church in the Brewster, N.Y., area to pick up kids and families who had no transportation on a church bus to provide rides to church and Sunday school.

“My heart was beginning to expand then, and my mind toward the needs of a community,” he said.

Born in Stamford, Conn. and raised in Danbury and in Brewster, N.Y., Skjerli, he and his family have lived in Scituate since 1994 — moving to care for his wife’s ailing parents. He graduated from Word of Life Bible College in upstate New York and at Cedarville College in central Ohio where he studied liberal arts and a Bible major.

His first ministry experience was as a teacher in a Christian school in Danbury. Eight years later they moved to Massachusetts, joining New England Baptist Church in East Bridgewater, where he was again asked to teach in a church-run school, doing so for 10 years.

While he never had the opportunity to go to seminary, Skjerli has preached at church and in a home church setting in addition to working with kids and learning sign language while at New England Baptist, which brought them to Calvary Baptist seven years ago. Skjerli now plans to continue study toward a master’s degree in counseling. It has been an unusual journey to the position of pastor, but one the church elders felt was strong enough in Biblical and pastoral knowledge to earn him the job.

“I have a strong Biblical education … I have a lot of experience in the pulpit,” he said. “Ministry has always been a part of my fiber.”

Skjerli served as a deacon under Lavoie and, as chairman of the deacons, the “leadership kind of fell into my lap when Jeff left,” due to a difference in philosophy. Skjerli then shared ministry with others trained in ministry while the search committee did its work.

When the time came to decide on whether to call three final candidates to serve as a guest minister so the church could get to know them, one of his fellow deacons asked Skjerli he would first consider being the new pastor.

He felt the decision needed thought and prayer, but accepted the post after undertaking a two-and –a-half hour question and answer session that ordained him.

“They needed to know who I was,” he said. He then preached a Sunday as a candidate pastor before being overwhelmingly winning votes from the congregation.

Refuting Kiwanee report’s claims

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HANSON — A lawyer for five former Recreation Commission members named in labor lawyer Leo Peloquin’s report on mismanagement of Camp Kiwanee has filed a report refuting Peloquin’s findings with Peloquin, who has forwarded copies to the Board of Selectmen.

The report dated Nov. 28 charges that Peloquin’s findings were “designed for the sole purpose of justifying the expenditure of $62,905 … for an investigation that far exceeded its scope,” according to attorney George H. Boerger of Duxbury, who is representing Kiwannee caretaker James Flanagan and former Recreation Commission members Maria McClellan, Sue Lonergan, Dave Blauss and Janet Agius.

At the Nov. 29 Selectmen’s meeting, however, the issue was not posted on the agenda at the recommendation of Town Administrator Michael McCue, following discussions with Selectmen Chairman James McGahan and Peloquin.

“There was information provided that went to town counsel and he’s reviewing it,” McCue told Selectmen at the Nov. 29 meeting. “I believe town counsel will be before the board at the next meeting on Dec. 13 to advise the board on his recommendations and findings.”

McCue assured Boerger in an email about the agenda decision that he would “make the Board aware of your request to come before the Board at a future meeting,” McCue.

McCue was not available for further comment this week due to illness.

Boerger’s report said his clients do not have the resources to respond to every single allegation in Peloquin’s report, but highlighted “key facts and errors, which should call into question most, if not all of the allegations.”

According to Boerger’s report:

• The original audit conducted on Camp Kiwanee’s operations did not lead to the investigation ultimately conducted;

• The Recreation Committee had been prohibited from accessing camp files for the last two years;

• There was cooperation among commission members with the investigation;

• Issues raised concerning the Kiwanee Cash program were resolved more than two years ago;

• Allegations of improper rates charged are not accurate;

• David Blauss’ cousin was permitted to stay at the camp to bolster security and stopped when ordered to; and that

• Criticism of his clients for attempting to micromanage the camp are unjust.

• He also stressed that McClellan was not the “administrator” of Kiwanee Cash, as Peloquin had repeatedly described her, but had only volunteered to type records because, as a retiree, she had the time.

cooperation

Boerger wrote that investigation interviews with Lonergan, McClellan and Dave Blauss were either never scheduled by former interim Town Administrator Richard LaCamera or were delayed. McClellan, for example offered to meet with Peloquin as early as May 3, but was not contacted for an interview until Sept. 19.

McClellan, Lonergan, Dave Blauss, Agius and James Flanagan are now hoping they will have their chance to review Boerger’s report in a public meeting.

“I am so disappointed in this investigation and the people who could have handled it so differently,” McClellan wrote in an Oct. 20 letter to McCue and McGahan attached to Boerger’s report. “You have beaten up some very great people by accepting evidence from people with clear agendas to keep their own jobs and destroy other people.”

Boerger also opined that the scope of the investigation and Peloquin’s report were “an attempt to destroy the reputation” of his clients as well as being extremely detrimental to the town, which relies on volunteers to fill many positions.

“Could operations of Camp Kiwanee been improved? Certainly,” Boerger wrote in his conclusions. “Was there ever any intent by the respondents to gain any improper advantage from their role with Camp Kiwanee? Absolutely not!”

under review

Selectman Bruce Young, who has been supportive of the Recreation Commission, declined comment on the rebuttal report at this time.

“I will refrain from making any comments on this, until we receive the formal response and possible amended version of the original investigative report from Atty. Peloquin,” Young stated in an email to the Express Tuesday, Dec. 6. Young noted that Peloquin is preparing a response to Boerger’s rebuttal, which he plans to email to Selectmen before the Dec. 13 meeting, and urged the board to hold off on permitting Boerger to make a presentation until after the board has received his response, “i.e., everything is in.”

McGahan said Dec. 6 that he felt the Recreation Commission already went over many of the points touched on in Boerger’s report at the Oct. 18 Selectmen’s meeting.

“I don’t want to go into complaints about how things were done,” McGahan said. “I want them to go into hard evidence. They’ve been accused of misusing the camp up there for their own purpose and I’d like them to come back with some sort of concrete evidence — ‘Here’s my cancelled check’ — but I’ve not seen anything to refute any of those specific charges.”

Recreation members have been seeking a public forum to present their rebuttal. In answer to a question from James Flanagan at the Aug. 23 selectmen’s meeting, McGahan said that, in his personal opinion, once the investigation was complete and on paper, it should be made available to all parties involved, which was done in October.

“I would like to see that,” McGahan had said, agreeing with James Flanagan’s request that a public session be held to discuss it, including refutations from those named in the investigation.

“Open discussion on that document would be open to the public,” McGahan said in August, but contends the Oct. 18 meeting provided that forum.

Selectmen, at that meeting decided that those named in the report could have until Nov. 30 to file corrections with Peloquin’s office.

McGahan had cited the Nov. 30 deadline in his statement against voting to appoint a new Recreation Commission at that meeting.

“Maybe something else is coming up, I don’t know,” he said. Selectman Kenny Mitchell agreed, saying he wanted the Camp Kiwanee issues behind them before a vote.

No replacements

Some residents have expressed dismay at the board’s decision not to vote on the slate of applicants which is: former Recreation Commission members Audrey Flanagan and Kevin Cameron, John Mahoney, Diane Cohen, Brian Fruzetti, Brian Smith and John Zucco.

“I felt we’re still doing the investigation on this [commission],” McGahan said Tuesday, Dec. 6. “I also want to check on what the director’s position description is, I want to make sure that’s where it should be.”

He also said he’d like to see some new faces on the commission.

Young asked when the Recreation Commission members could expect to publicly refute the report as they were told they could expect to do.

Weighing Whitman grow site

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WHITMAN — Selectmen will again discuss a proposed medical marijuana growing location in Whitman at its next meeting at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 13. Residents are welcome to attend and voice their opinion on the issue.

The proposed location is at 233 Bedford St., behind Sweezey Fence.

“It will be a fully enclosed building — probably a steel building very similar to a commercial garage,” Town Administrator Frank Lynam said on Thursday, Dec 1. “It will have security as required by the state”

Ben Smith of Fresh Meadow Farm, who gave a brief review of the process during the Selectmen’s Nov. 15 meeting, will return Dec. 13, asking Selectmen to approve a letter of support or non-opposition regarding the project.

Lynam and Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green are researching the issues pertaining to the town’s obligations and rights should a grow facility be permitted, with the aim of preparing a recommendation for the board.

Lynam stressed that the town is not interested in a dispensary facility.

Medical marijuana dispensaries must be in plain view and people entering must be viewable to passersby to ensure any security issues are obvious, but it is not sufficient to sway Lynam’s opinion of how far the town would be willing to go.

He added that the one call he has received on the issue so far was “emphatically against dispensaries and OK with a grow facility.”

The letter of support or non-opposition is the next step the company, Mission Partners — to be known as Fresh Meadow Farm — must complete toward obtaining a Department of Public Health license. Because they are already in the licensing process, company officials said they qualify for the pool of applicants for a recreational marijuana license, but are now solely focused on the medical-use growing facility they hope to locate in Whitman.

“I would not be surprised to see these folks coming back to expand to the recreational piece once the dust settles on that vote,” Lynam said. “Right now the only regulations out are on medical marijuana, so it’s going to be difficult to determine how to regulate or approve a facility that’s for recreational marijuana.”

He said the grow facility is designed to be unobtrusive — there will be no signs and the hydroponic growing operation will be entirely done inside the building. Air scrubbers would  prevent any odors from reaching neighbors.

Lynam also discussed the future of Whitman’s regional animal control contract with Abington, now that Hanson has opted to withdraw from the erstwhile three-town program.

“The intent to creating a district approach for animal control is to take advantage of the geographical area that encompassed Abington, Whitman and Hanson,” Lynam said. “We recognized at the time we did that, that adding Hanson to the mix was going to significantly increase the area of coverage and we had some concerns about it.”

He said the Whitman-Abington program will continue to be reviewed, adding he tends to measure the success of programs in which Whitman participates by the number of complaints received.

“We have not had any issues either in Whitman or, of late, in Abington,” Lynam said. “I would say so far it appears to be working. I’m going to evaluate that, as we normally would any program, as we move forward in the fiscal year and determine if we have the right staffing and the right coverage.”

Whitman’s part-time animal control officer resigned to attend the academy to become an environmental police officer, leaving  the current animal control officer on call 24/7 to cover both towns, paid on a stipend basis. Calls are prioritized as to level of need.

Hanson Town Administrator Michael McCue had met several weeks ago with Lynam and Abington Town Manager Richard Lafond, at which time the three concluded that either they go in different directions or obtain more funding to hire additional staff. McCue determined Hanson would be better off going solo and the other towns agreed. Hanson Selectmen voted Nov. 29 to appoint Ron Clark as interim animal control officer for Hanson. A permanent position would be posted in the spring.

“Apparently there were issues in Hanson that they feel they were not adequately being provided for and they have requested to be released from the contract early,” Lynam said. “I have no intention of holding anyone captive.”

He said he wishes Hanson well and will bill them only for the period the contract was in force.

Board forges ahead at Kiwanee: Hanson BOS supports McCue interviews for new Recreation Director

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HANSON — The town has reached amicable agreements to part ways with regional contracts for IT and animal control services, but Selectmen are divided on when and how to reappoint a new Recreation Commission.

The latter issue cropped up as Town Administrator Michael McCue reported to the board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Nov. 29 that the town has received eight applications for the Recreation Director job posting, which closes Friday, Dec. 2.

“We have some fairly strong candidates for that position,” McCue said, asking the board for guidance on how best to proceed. “I don’t think we will have a full [Recreation Commission] reconstituted within the next couple of weeks or so … unless the board directs me otherwise, I would like to move forward in bringing these people in for interviewing them.”

McCue said he would like to have a director in place by Jan. 1, 2017.

Selectman Bruce Young then advocated for meeting as soon as possible to reconstitute the Recreation Commission as the board has received seven applications from people interested in serving on the commission.

“The ideal situation would be if we could meet briefly next week to appoint the Recreation Commission, then they could organize and assign a person to sit with [McCue] and go through the process,” Young said. He noted that McCue and that Recreation representative would then conduct the interviews and recommend a couple of candidates to submit to the fully reconstituted Recreation Commission to appoint, as outlined in the Town Administrator Act.

The board voted 5-0 to appoint Selectman Bill Scott to sit in on interviews with McCue in order to prevent a hiring delay that could cause some applicants to withdraw.

Selectmen Kenny Mitchell and Chairman James McGahan advocated that the investigation process completed before sppointing a new commission so the town can move forward.

“The problem I have with it is we’re probably going to expect some input [from the town’s attorney] because we also have a deadline on Nov. 30,” McGahan said of a previous decision to give Recreation Commission members named in Labor Counsel Leo Peloquin’s report time to rebut its findings.

“I don’t want to make any decisions on any Recreation Commission members until after this Camp Kiwanee [investigation] is completely done and over so we can move forward,” Mitchell said. “I want to start fresh — a nice, clean slate.”

Young asked how Mitchell and McGahan thought the investigation could affect a new Recreation Commission.

“You’re talking about appointing a new Recreation Commission,” Young said. “You might end up with two members from the last board, but those members probably weren’t even involved in that whole scenario. … I don’t see that any of the prior people who resigned put applications in.”

“A statement was made when they resigned,” McGahan said. “I’m not going to hurry up and get somebody in just so they can get that position, which is probably just going to sit there and allow Mike to just do the interview.”

Young argued that five or six new people have applied and should have a chance to go through the selection process in order to get the Recreation Commission back to work, noting the Town Administrator act does not give that post appointing authority. McGahan countered that Selectmen had voted to place McCue as the Camp Kiwanee administrator until a new director is hired.

“I don’t have any problem with him being the interim head of the Recreation Department, and I don’t have a problem with him even being a personnel manager and doing the interviews,” Young said. “I do have a problem with circumventing the Town Administrator Act.”

McGahan said he does not believe that is being done.

Contract changes

The contracts Selectmen voted to withdraw from involve an IT services contract with Whitman-Hanson Regional School District and the regional animal control agreement with Whitman and Abington.

McCue said that, in both cases, Hanson’s withdrawal was being done under amicable circumstances. The IT contract, which Selectmen had approved and authorized McCue to sign an amended contract with the school district through the end of the fiscal year. The town will only pay the $37,500 for a nine-month contract with an option for coverage over a full year.

“It’s unfortunate,” McCue said. “I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault. … This gives an awful lot of lead time to figure out what makes sense both in the short term and long term for the town of Hanson.”

McCue said a meeting with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner and members of the district’s IT staff over the current agreement revealed the schools’ in-house demand on that staff has greatly increased, making it difficult to continue serving Hanson’s IT needs as well.

Whitman had gone its own way on IT services four or five years ago, hiring it’s own IT director Josh MacNeil.

“If they’re in a position that they feel they can’t really support us to the degree that I think we were hoping for, it makes sense — and both sides were in agreement on this — that the town of Hanson [should] move in its own direction on this,” McCue said. “They were very generous to let us out of the contract.”

He said either a consultant or a full-time IT person could be budgeted for and he has begun meeting with consultants to gauge the cost involved.

In supporting McCue’s advice that the town should also back away from the regional animal control agreement, Selectmen also voted to appoint Ron Clark as interim animal control officer for Hanson. A permanent position would be posted in the spring.

“I’m certainly a proponent of regional agreements when they make sense,” McCue said. “Unfortunately, this is another instance we’ve run into where the workload has basically surpassed the ability of the staff of the agreement.”

McCue had met several weeks ago with Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam and Abington Town Manager Richard Lafond, at which time the three concluded that either they go in different directions or obtain more funding to hire additional staff. McCue determined Hanson would be better off going solo and the other towns agreed to that.

Author takes a poetic view of history

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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.”

Planting for the future: Vo-Tech plans horticulture curriculum

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HANOVER — A proposed horticulture curriculum at South Shore Regional Vocational Technical School has taken another step forward.

Science Department Chairman Matt Fallano gave a PowerPoint presentation to the SSVT District School Committee during its Wednesday, Nov. 16 meeting, outlining how the program would start by offering a landscaping program. No vote was taken on the proposal.

Scituate member John Manning, of the Capital Projects Subcommittee, reported that Fallano and the group has toured facilities at a couple vocational schools that offer horticulture programs. School officials have met with counterparts at Silver Lake and Upper Cape regional schools regarding the cost and logistics of starting such a program.

All specializations would cover botany as well as soil properties and sciences, according to Fallano, who noted that small engine maintenance would also be covered.

“Right off the bat, if you’re starting to think what kind of jobs [are students being trained for], you can imagine what sort of background could be used or applied for,” he said.

The landscape and turf management program would include instruction on safety, design and estimation, maintenance and installation as well as turf management practices. Arboriculture, or tree sciences, would involve safety, equipment standards, tree climbing, tree maintenance and removal. Floral design and interior landscaping would teach greenhouse management, production and floriculture business operations.

“We would never start off with all three of them, so what we’re looking at is the soil sciences to begin with,” Fallano said. “You would not get this type of training at any other normal sending school. It’s perfect for a vocational-based school.”

It would eventually be a training ground for students interested in careers such as hardscape designers or architects, greenhouse and grounds workers, arborists, nursery or turf grass mangers and even farm managers.

“There’s a big push for small farms in the local area,” he said. “Having a resource that those farms can reach out to has been a [goal] for this area.”

There is also no feeder program for local horticulture businesses and a program at SSVT can also lead to college degrees. Students can also graduate with licenses or the bookwork for a license test when they are 18. That can boost earning potential.

Fallano also touched on the credentials the district should look for in a program director and committee concerns about accreditation. Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas Hickey is also looking toward grants to help fund the program startup.

Committee Chairman Robert Molla of Norwell indicated the start-up cost estimate would be included in preliminary fiscal 2018 budget figures when the committee meets again on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

In other business, Principal Margaret Dutch reported the MCAS performance of SSVT students in the Class of 2018 has been akin to moving mountains, describing how it translates to a graph.

“Because we are a regional school, we do not educate anybody until they get to grade nine,” Dutch said. “We take our students as they come from the eight sending towns, and wherever else they come from, and we try and get everybody on the same page and get them ready in less than two years to be successful on MCAS.”

The current junior class had 51 students who had failed the exam in grade eight — the first “mountain” on the grade chart, Dutch said. As sophomores taking the MCAS exam at SSVT, the same class had shown vast improvement.

“We [had] decided there was something we needed to do in order to make sure we didn’t have 51 10th-graders failing the MCAS,” she said. Targeted remediation and working with teachers to address problem areas for those students made that improvement possible. The high point of the scores curve last year — the second mountain — showed an increase in higher scores over the class’ grade eight marks.

“We’re not trying to compare ourselves with anybody else or what anybody else is doing because we are a unique entity,” Dutch said. “We are very proud to know that our teachers, with targeted intervention, can move mountains.”

Whitman Committee member Daniel Salvucci reported on some of the innovative vocational school projects highlighted at the recent Massachusetts Association of School Committee conference. The projects were tiny houses built by Southeastern Vo-Tech in Easton; an applications project at Assabet Valley to show teachers how effective a lesson plan was by symbols scanned by a free app on a teacher’s smartphone; a veterinary program offered at Norfolk Aggie and Massasoit as well as the new Essex Agricultural and Technical High School’s teacher mentoring program.

Salvucci said the tiny house project was popular with students because of the size.

“What they liked about doing it is that you had carpenters and electricians working so close together that they taught each other, and they worked together,” he said.

The committee also recognized Abington Graphics Communications senior Ryan Glynn as November Student of the Month and English teacher Allison Provost as Staff Member of the Month.

“Ryan is a focused, high-achieving student in class, but is also a great and caring person,” one of Glynn’s teachers wrote.

Another nominated Glynn as a “great overall citizen of the [SSVT] community” another noted he is a well-liked student-athlete saying, “No one had had a bad thing to say about Ryan.”

Assistant Principal Mark Aubrey said Provost was the student’s honoree for Staff Member of the Month after only two months as a teacher at the school. She had been a student teacher at SSVT about 10 years ago.

“When students nominated her they spoke of her being ‘very helpful, patient and kind, is that not something we want from every person in our lives, not just our teacher,’” Aubrey said.

Brightening the holidays: Whitman Area Toy Drive kicks off annual appeal

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WHITMAN — Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday have become ingrained in the seasonal habits of many shoppers between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

A group of Whitman residents are hoping the community has come to know the Sunday after Thanksgiving as Whitman Area Toy Drive Day. For 15 years, volunteers have been taking time on that day to kick off the annual toy drive, setting up shop in the Whitman VFW Pavilion, 95 Essex St.

The drive, which will also host a Photos with Santa party at the pavilion from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 4, is the first of several holiday events — many featuring St. Nick — in Whitman and Hanson. [See box].

On Sunday, Nov. 27 a small army of volunteers, including veterans, families, members of the Whitman Mothers Club and the WHRHS Drama Club gathered at the pavilion to sort gifts already donated onto tables representing gender and age ranges.

“What you see here now is maybe one-tenth of what we do through the whole Christmas season,” said toy drive founder Donnie Westhaver, gesturing toward tables already covered with toys. “We don’t want any kid to go without a toy. I don’t care where they’re from.”

The need

Westhaver said 90 to 95 percent of toys collected would go to Whitman families with the remainder to help families in need in Hanson, Abington and Rockland when organizations there run out of toys.

“I hope I’m around for another 20 years to be able to do this and when I’m not around I hope someone picks it up and keeps it going, because there are a lot of families out there in need,” he said. “There are actually families you wouldn’t expect — it might be your next-door neighbor. You might think they’re doing well, but they’re not.”

He said families that are just scraping by for the rest of the year have an especially hard time at the holidays.

“Christmas is for kids, but it’s also for us — you never lose that spirit,” Westhaver told his volunteers.

Large donations have been received from: Whitman VFW Men’s Auxiliary — $1,500; Whitman Mothers Club — $500; Sons of the American Legion — $500; Getchell Plumbing — $300; Whitman Firefighters Union Local 1769 — $250; and Fred Small — $250. Monetary donations helped the 501 (C)3 charity do some shopping on Black Friday for toys and boosted efforts to obtain grocery gift certificates at Wal-Mart for Christmas dinners.

Donations of $2,000 worth of toys from Brian Dennehy and his mother Jackie; toys collected at a family party hosted by Kevin Mayer and John Cookson at the Hanson AA and Reebok clothing from Kristin Nelson Ross were a few of those received already. Donation boxes, including three at WHRHS for the first time, can be found at the following businesses: Marcello’s Sub Shop, Whitman American Legion, Whitman VFW, Rockland Trust and Mutual Bank Whitman branches, Joe Goldsberry Photo & Video, O’Rourke Insurance, Whitman Knights of Columbus, Dancer’s Dream, Duval’s Pharmacy, Damien’s Pub in Hanson and Bailey’s Tri-Town.

For more information on donations or registering as a recipient family, contact Donnie Westhaver at 781-447-6883.

Lunch Menu Correction

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There is no early release day at the high school Friday, Dec. 2. Lunch served that day will be: Cheese pizza, tossed salad, carrot sticks with dipping sauce, chilled and fresh fruit and milk.

 

Whitman sets fiscal ‘17 tax rate

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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.”

Conference granted Kiwanee discount

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HANSON — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Nov. 15 voted 3-1 to approve a request by the Watershed Action Alliance of Southeastern Mass., to use Camp Kiwanee for a one-day conference at a reduced rate. Selectmen Bill Scott voted against the discount based on his concern over the group’s intent of charging participants a registration fee.

“We had asked that any deviation from the rates of usage of Camp Kiwanee — any reduction in the rate — be brought forward to this committee,” said Selectmen Chairman James McGahan in the meeting broadcast on Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV. Selectman Kenny Mitchell was absent from the meeting due to illness.

The WAA submitted their request in a letter to selectmen, outlining their purpose and explaining that the alliance holds biennial conferences and workshops in intervening years. The coalition of 12 watershed groups’ regional conference was last held at Plimouth Plantation, which waived a fee in return for publicity as an event partner, in 2015.

They are seeking a similar sponsorship from the town to use Camp Kiwanee from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., March 16, 2017. The usual one-day conference rate for Camp Kiwanee is $1,000. The WAA requested a 50-percent discount.

Many conference attendees either work or volunteer for nonprofits with small budgets, the letter explained. It also offers reduced registration rates for students and low-income participants.

Two participating organizations, the Taunton Watershed and the Jones River groups, have connections to Hanson.

Town Administrator Michael McCue created a form for a discount request, which WAA representatives filled out, including backup information about the program and participating agencies.

“This would be a positive advertisement for Camp Kiwanee,” McGahan said.

“They charge a fee for people to attend, they’re not considered a nonprofit organization,” Scott said. “They generate funds from outside groups. I think it’s a good idea what they’re trying to do but I just wonder if we’re setting a precedent.”

McGahan and Selectmen Bruce Young suggested the registration costs might be a mechanism for covering the cost of the event and asked McCue to advise them if there is any reason to believe the fees are a profit-making device.

In other business, the board approved revisions to the complaint and service animal policies.

The only change to the complaint policy is that persons filing a complaint be the offended party or a parent or guardian. The service animals policy is a new one, allowing admission of service animals to town property for handicapped persons who need them. Under the guidelines, therapy animals are not considered service animals.

Selectmen also voted to place a Board of Water Commissioners vacancy, created by the Nov. 1 resignation of Mary Lou Sutter on the May 20, 2017 Town Election ballot, because the appointment made to fill the post was a short-term one.

Selectmen and Water Commissioners then voted 7-0 to appoint William Garvey of 66 Morton St., to fill the vacancy for now. If Garvey wishes to remain on the board he would have to run for election in May.

A South Shore Vo-Tech graduate, Garvey has an HVAC trade certificate, an applied science degree from Massasoit Community College in HVAC service and design and work experience in the field and has served on the Indian Head and Maquan Priority Repair Committee.