By Stephanie (Crisp) Diaz
Special to the Express

MIAMI — “Miss Crisp, you gotta listen to this song,” a former student of mine named Dave told me recently. Most songs that my students share with me speak to their experiences in some way, and the opening lyrics of this one grabbed my attention.

“Am I wrong for thinking out the box from where I stay? Am I wrong for saying that I choose another way? I ain’t trying to do what everybody else is doing,” the duo Nico and Vinz croon. Although this wasn’t the typical hip-hop musical recommendation that I receive from my students, I knew immediately why the song had resonated with Dave. As a Teach for America corps member at a Title I high school in Miami, the students I worked with every day faced a constant struggle to, as the song suggests, think beyond the norms of their neighborhoods and aim for a higher education. The song struck a chord with both Dave and I because that push to think differently and work toward college was a constant refrain in our classroom for the two years that I worked with him and his classmates, most of whom would be the first in their families to attend college and some who would be the first to graduate from high school.

Two summers ago, the Express featured a story on my students selling their original poetry books to raise money for a trip to visit colleges in Boston. I dreamed up the trip as a way of exposing my students to both a college experience and the world beyond their city, something to which most of them had very limited exposure. I felt that by giving them the experience of actually living in a dorm, eating in the dining halls, and visiting a city that is simply full of college students, it would become real for them, allowing them to actually see this path as an option for them.

No sooner had I hatched this plan and gotten the school on board, however, than I realized what a huge undertaking it would be to actually finance the experience. As a Whitman-Hanson alum and a former Express intern, reaching out to my hometown paper to get the word out seemed like a great first step, but I wasn’t really sure what to expect. After all, the citizens of Hanson and Whitman had their own schools and students to support; asking for donations to help a school in Miami seemed a lot to ask.

After the article was published, however, I was truly overwhelmed by the response from the community and the way that my former teachers, librarians, neighbors, and friends contacted me to help the cause. Ultimately, community donations helped us meet our goal of raising over $6,000 towards bringing 22 teenagers to stay at the dorms at Boston University for five days last June. In a thank you to our donors, Dave wrote, “Because of you my mind is now officially set on going to college,” while Latosha explained that, “I learned that it was okay to branch out and try new things and new places.” James told me recently that he plans to move to Boston when he finishes school because he fell in love with the city. 

And yet the piece of the experience that almost all of the students said was their favorite part of the trip was the day we spent at my parents’ house in Hanson, meeting friends, family, and community members, including State Rep. Josh Cutler, who later in the week met us again for a tour of the State House. This community played an enormous role in influencing the futures of 22 young men and women, and this past year, another group from our Miami high school made the journey to Boston, extending the opportunity to a new group of students.

On May 30, almost exactly a year after our plane took off, I watched every single student who had accompanied us on the trip cross the stage and receive their diploma. Our group included students who had experienced being homeless, being shot, and facing the criminal justice system, as well as students who were essay contest winners, employees of the month, volunteers, athletic champions, members of National Honor Society, and the valedictorian. Considering all that they had overcome and all that they had accomplished, it was truly incredible for me to realize how many of the people who have been so influential in my success also played a role in helping my “kids” to realize their potential as well.

In September, some will begin their new lives in such big-name colleges as the University of Miami and University of Florida, others will attend smaller schools, and one will join the military. They will major in engineering, child psychology, nursing, physical therapy, marketing, film, and business, among others. They have, in the end, been able to “think outside the box” and avoid its limitations.

Like the graduates of Whitman-Hanson, my students are both nervous and excited for the next steps in their lives. I, too, am incredibly excited to see all that they will do and become, and will continue to be grateful to all of those from Hanson and Whitman who became an additional community ally in our fight for a positive future.

By Dave Palana
Express Contributor

Patrons of the Whitman Town Pool will notice some changes when they go to change their clothes courtesy of Eagle Scout candidate Matt O’Brien.

Tuesday night, O’Brien and his helpers put the finishing touches on a much-needed facelift to the pool house in Town Park O’Brien completed for his Eagle Scout project. The scout from Whitman’s Troop 59 power washed and painted the inside and outside of the pool house, added shelves to the locker rooms and helped organize the materials over the past week and a half.

O’Brien said he decided to pursue the project after his mother’s Girl Scout troop wasn’t able fit it in, but was under the gun to complete the project and submit the paperwork before he turned 18 this week while also having to work around the pool’s hours of operation. He and his helpers did the bulk of their work after the pool closed at 7 p.m. during the week but also made an early-morning trip on Saturday to get some work done.

“It was challenging, but I think it was worth it,” O’Brien said. “We didn’t really run into too many roadblocks we got it done faster than I expected.”

The outside of the pool house was speckled with patches of different colored paint to cover up various graffiti, but the bulk of the work O’Brien did was to the interior which Michelle Winnett of the Recreation Commission said had not been repainted in her 15 years with the commission.

“We could scrub all we want, but that battleship gray was just awful,” she said. “He worked really hard and we’re very grateful. It will definitely make the bathhouse cleaner and more cheerful.”

Winnett said the Recreation Commission has long wanted to overhaul the pool house, but had not been able to set aside the funds. So when O’Brien came to them with his Eagle Scout proposal, they were more than willing to accept the help.

“It’s definitely been a wish list item of ours for years, but we just didn’t have the staff or the money,” Winnett said. “It was desperately needed.”

To raise the money for his project, O’Brien collected bottles and cans while also securing crucial donations for home improvement store Lowe’s and paint supplier Valspar. Between the two companies, O’Brien said he received more than $700 in donated paint and supplies.

“Without them we would be in trouble,” he said. “I’m very grateful for everything they did for me.”

With the project completed, O’Brien is now preparing the paperwork the paperwork that goes to the board of the review for his Eagle Scout badge and will await his summons before receiving the rank. Pool users will be able to take advantage of his work for at least another month with the pool set to close the week of Aug. 17

By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor [email protected]

HANSON — The Schools Priority Repair Committee got down to business Wednesday, July 9 — and one of its immediate tasks included scheduling a tour of the Maquan and Indian Head schools on Wednesday, July 16.

The committee was to convene that session at 6:30 p.m. at Maquan for the tours with W-H Facilities Director Ernest Sandland and Assistant Superintendent of District Operations Craig Finley.

In planning the tour, members were especially interested in the state of the slate roof on Indian Head School.

But the first order of business for the new panel was organization. They voted to name Selectman Bruce Young chairman; Michael Jones, who is employed as an HVAC project manager, as vice chairman and Brian Campbell, who works with a construction management firm, as secretary.

The panel then reviewed its mission statement and open meeting regulations and scheduled a 7 p.m. Wednesdays meeting time at least until Aug. 20 — when member Bob Hayes must attend the School Committee meetings he chairs on the third Wednesday of each month, and at times more frequently.

The mission statement calls for developing and presenting to the Board of Selectmen a “viable and realistic plan to identify immediate capital and related repairs” to keep the two schools safe, secure and comfortable for students, faculty, staff and the community.

One goal is to have at least an estimate for engineering costs ready for the October Town Meeting.

Young stressed the committee would work closely with the School Committee, its Facilities Subcommittee and Selectmen to accomplish that goal.

Hanson Town Administrator Ron San Angelo, attending as a supporter of the committee, provided members with information on the municipal design and construction procedures and a copy of the State Open Meeting Law.

Committee member Christopher Howard had questions on both the meeting law and the process of determining how the process of how the panel will make repair recommendations and estimated costs.

“When you do municipal procurement it’s a whole different animal than it is if you’re doing it in the private sector,” San Angelo said. “You have to follow state procurement laws. … A person who provides an estimate cannot bid on the job.”

Eventually and owner’s project manager (OPM) will have to be hired to make sure the specifications governing such estimates are drawn up correctly, San Angelo stressed.

Young provided the panel members with a copy of the Regional School Agreement and a timeline of the former Building Committee’s work over the last several years.

“The town actually leases the schools to the School District under the stipulation that the Regional School District has care and custody of those buildings for 50 years,” Young said of the lease last revised in 1998. Elementary school repairs over $5,000 must be approved by Town Meeting.

Member Maria McClellen asked if a “figure not to exceed” a certain amount could be presented to Town Meeting for, as an example, immediate repair of boilers at Maquan School.

San Angelo said he believes Town Meeting voters would prefer to see a “real solid number of what they would be voting a debt exclusion for” in a given article.

A resident attending the meeting asked at what point the state might be asked for funding.

The statement of interest required by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for accelerated repair projects are accepted at certain times of the year, Young and Hayes agreed.

“If there was a catastrophic event with the boiler, the school district would have to fund a repair, obviously, and keep the building open,” Hayes said. “They would come back to us, say spring Town Meeting, with the bill saying this is what the repair was.”

But longer-term repairs are a different process through MSBA.

“There are a lot of different triggers involved in that,” he said.