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Burnout claims another Hanson staffer

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HANSON – The Select Board discussed the workload in the Selectmen’s office – and whether there is, or has been adequate staffing to keep up with it – during the Tuesday, June 28 meeting.

The topic came up as the board was voting to recognize with regret the resignation of Administrative Assistant Lucia Silveira. She is the second assistant to resign over the workload. Administrative Assistant Greet Getzen resigned following the Oct. 4, 2021 special Town Meeting, during which disparaging remarks about her performance in the job during a discussion about a request for $9,179 to hire a recording secretary to help with the backlog if meeting minutes. The separation process between Getzen and the board was finalized on Nov. 2 2021. Silveria was hired in Jan. 10 2022.

The board is looking to a Town Meeting warrant article and need to discuss affordability and sustainability with Town Accountant Todd Hassett, further documentation and a task breakdown over who would do what in the Select Board office.

“One of the things we’ve been discussing with Lucia and Town Adminstrator Lisa Green is, quite honestly … with the prior town administrator and executive assistant … is the volume of work that the office does is leading to burnout – rapid burnout,” said Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “I got thinking about why is that happening.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett questioned whether too much is expected of too-small a staff, whether they are not paid enough, a matter of prioritizing – or a bit of all those things.

“I did ask Ms. Green to take a look at the towns around us and see how they are staffing this office and what are the jobs that are being required of this office in this current time that weren’t necessarily required, say, five or 10 years ago,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I want to be clear that Lisa is not complaining. That’s not why it’s on the agenda. This was my observation, saying, ‘Holy [self-censored]. This is a lot of work.’”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the Select Board has a lot to do and needs the staff to get it done, especially when they meet every week.

“It’s probably two days’ worth of work [preparing] for every meeting that we have,” she said. Volunteers, however, such as seniors volunteering for tax abatement, can’t do quite a bit of the work – which is privileged and confidential.

Green reported that of the towns close to Hanson – all of which are close to the same population – all have three staff members in the Select Board office. Abington has a town manager and two administrative assistants, one of which concentrates on media coordination and other activities; Rockland has a town administrator, and assistant town administrator and an executive assistant; Pembroke has a town manager, an assistant town manager and an executive assistant; Easton has a town administrator, and assistant town administrator, a human resources coordinator and an executive assistant; Halifax has a town administrator, a select board assistant and a select board secretary and Plympton – with a population of 3,000 – is the only nearby town with only two staffing the Select Board office: an administrator and an administrative assistant; and East Bridgewater has a town administrator, an assistant to the town administrator and a principal clerk,

“We’re the only town around, other than Plympton … that has only two people in the Select Board office,” Green said. “It’s not shifting papers around. Our office requires reading, learning, writing, creating documents.”

At the last Select Board meeting, the list of 110 annual appointments triggered the need for the office to generate 87 letters the next day so those folks could come in and get sworn in, she said.

“We are bombarded with records requests,” Green added, much of it requires research, redacting where required and compiling information. “We answer the phones, we answer complaints – open meeting law complaints. Private roads have been a big issue lately. For two people trying to do all this work – it is exrtemely overwhelming.”

Minutes requests are the most time-consuming.

“Minutes don’t take minutes,” she said. “It takes hours to generate meeting minutes.”

Two or three-hour Select Board meetings can mean six to eight hours to generate accurate and can include executive session information, all done while people drop in for other business.

“That’s in addition to preparing the Annual Town Report … to the two Town Meetings which, as you can see … half of the year is spent talking and planning for Town Meeting,”  FitzGerald-Kemmett. “And then, I think most importantly, all the personnel issues.”

The board has also been urging Green to obtain grant money and town-owned properties sold and onto the rolls.

“The previous board spent a lot of time advocating for not just another administrative assistant and/or assistant town administrator, but we were also talking about an HR person that we can bring in to take some of that burden off of [Green] as well,” said Select Board member Joe Weeks. “We should continue on with that.”

But the need to continually “put out fires” gets in the way.

“It’s a perfect opportunity for us to sit back and take it seriously,” he said. “No municipal government run off of a revolving door of staff.”

Select Board member Jim Hickey expressed concern about how the town would be able to afford the salary of another staff member.

“I just feel sorry that we’re losing someone that I barely know, but I know she’s been effective and there is nobody in the wings to come and take her place,” said Select Board member Ann Rein. “It doesn’t sound like that is a good plan in the long run.”

Rein said the best plan would have been to find help before Silveira reached the point “where you needed to walk.”

Select Board member Ed Heal said that every time he goes into the office, “both these two are working as three people.”

Ethics disclosures

The board also discussed the disclosure of potential conflict of interest from Conservation Committee Chairman Phil Clemens. The routine form in which town officials outline upcoming issues before their board or committee that could potentially cause a conflict of interest for them.

“Historically, it was not always the practice of this board to receive disclosures and to discuss them in an open meeting, which to me always seemed contrary to the very principal of disclosing things – particularly if you are an appointing authority,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. 

Clemens indicated he had no comments to make other than his wish to understand the process, as he was uncertain if his was a typical situation.

“But, as an abutter to a potential project we can see coming, I just thought I’d try to get out ahead of it,” he said. Clemens said his main question was whether he should leave the room when Conservation discusses the project, should it come up in the future.

“We can’t opine on what you should be doing,”  FitzGerald-Kemmet said. She advised Clemens that he could call the attorney of the day at the state Ethics Commission with specific questions. “The lens that we’re looking through, primarily, is, ‘Is there something you’ve disclosed here that would give us pause [concerning] you being appointed to a position [by] this board.”

Clemens said that whenever a project of any significant size is proposed to a town board, abutters are notified, in this specific situation the abutters potenitally affected by an upcoming project is the First Congregational Church, where he is a moderator at the church’s business meeting as well as a member of the congregation.

“Who knows what the discussions might lead to?” he said. “I would be concerned about appearances as things get further down the road.”

He indicated he would consult the Ethics Commission.

“You’re on the right track and disclosing … and being aware,”  FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “That’s like half the battle.”

She asked that Clemens update the board on what the Ethics Commission’s ruling is.

Strategic plan

In other business, the board heard a presentation from Anne Donner about the town’s strategic, for which Town Meeting voted funding. Donner recently worked with the town of Whitman on their strategic plan.

“As unbelievable as it might seem, the town of Hanson has actually never had a strategic plan, which would be a vision … that is put together by collecting the thoughts of various department heads and stakeholders and gives us a point in time [as to] what we think the priorities for the town should be,”  FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’re not flipping and flopping on our objectives in terms of where our money’s going to be spent, where our resources are going to be spent. We have a vision.”

While priorities may change, this would provide a starting point, she indicated.

Donner, a management consultant since 2004, has worked in both the public and private as well as nonprofit sectors, and described a strategic plan as an organzational management activity to focus energy and resources, set priorities, strengthen operations of an organization and provide agreement around the intended outcomes.

She has already begun gathering data and interviewing department heads and Select Board members to learn their perspectives on what the town’s priorities should be. A citizens’ survey will be conducted in August. A workshop with stakes is being planned for after Labor Day.

Family Fun Day wraps Whitman Park in red, white & blue

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The Whitman Recreation Commission held its annual Family Fun Day on Sunday, July 3 in Whitman Park. Above, entrants in the Bike and Carriage Decorating Contest pedal off from theBike parade start, above. At left, Riley Becker gets tattooed by mom Hayley. See more photos, page 6. Photos by Carol Livingstone

New gem in Whitman center

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WHITMAN – It’s  an empty storefront at the moment, with only new carpet and paint and a sign posted in the window suggesting what is to come, but by Friday, July 15 second-generation jeweler George Alexander plans to have the town’s new jewelry store – Alexander Jewelers – up and running. That’s less than a month after local institution Menard Jeweler closed after owner David Menard officially retired.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to own a store,” Alexander said on Tuesday, July 5 as he worked to prepare for the opening.

And there will be a familiar face at the store – for a while, at least – as Menard returns the favor Alexander once did for his shop by working there, while he shows his friend the ins and outs of watch repair.

It’s also a nice transition for customers.

“He’s going to make himself present here and help out, show me stuff that I don’t know about watches … it’s a good friendship.”

While Menard was conducting his going-out-of business sale, he also distributed 200 of Alexander’s business cards to customers.

“They were all asking who’s going to take over,” Alexander said of Menard’s customers. Menard also spoke about Alexander’s plan to the Express as his retirement sale was getting underway.

“I want to gain the people’s trust,” Alexander said. “The one thing I want people to know is I’m going to treat them the same that Dave did.”

But, for now, Alexander is playing a version of “Beat the Clock,” as he works to ready the space at 14 South Avenue for his opening goal. That work started about two weeks ago.

“I had to wait for the carpet to go down, get the wood ready [there are no counters or shelves in the space at the moment], I had to order signs, I had to have the alarm put in, the internet put in,” he said, listing the projects either completed or yet to be done.

He also had to wait for Menard to close his store before he could open.

“I would never do that to him,” he said about the idea of opening his store before Menard closed his doors for the last time. “Even Duval’s [owner Craig Duval] wouldn’t have let me open without his approval.”

Menard had offered the lease of his store space to Alexander, but, while the store seemed tempting, he admitted that Menard’s plan to sell the building complicated the prospect.

“Even though the space here is small, it’s all I need to do the work,” he added.

And Alexander was willing to wait out of respect for someone he has known for a long time.

Alexander said he’s been working side-by-side with Menard for nearly 20 years, doing custom jewelry making as a good friend and colleague.

He described his work as more behind the scenes.

“I’m more of a wholesaler,” he said. 

He said the space is going to be filled with machines for jewelry production, with a small counter area in front for customer service and retail business. He works in everything from 14 or 18 karat platinum, silver – anything. Alexander designs and custom makes jewelry. 

Like Menard, he learned the business as a boy working for his father’s jewelry business.

“I’ve been doing this since I was, probably, 10,” Alexander said, recalling his days going into the Jeweler’s Building in Boston where his father worked. “He brought us [Alexander and his brother] in, taught us the things we needed to know.”

The whole building, filled with jewelers with different specialties, provided an real education in everything from hand-setting to engraving and more.

“I went around to all the jewelers and became friends with them, and learned a little from each person,” he said. “I’m not a master at casting, a master at stone-setting, but I’m very proficient and – custom designing and working with metal, I’m the master at it.”

He sees going into business for himself as an easy transition. It’s always been the area in which he did wholesale work.

“Whatever work comes through the door … it gets handed to me, and the I do it,” he said of that experience. “When Dave closed, I could have continued doing that, but I wanted to be in the retail business. It’s more profitable and I get to deal with the customers directly.”

Speaking of clocks, that’s one item he doesn’t plan on working with, but he will be learning watch repair from the master.

“Dave is a watchmaker,” he said. “I can do watches, as far as batteries and stuff, but he himself said ‘Stay away from clocks,’” Alexander said with a laugh. “It’s just too complicated.”

Alexander stressed that Menard gave his customers the best prices possible compared to chain jewelers in malls, where a portion of their profits have to go to the mall owners – and their stock is lower-quality product, much of it made overseas.

“Handcrafted jewelry is becoming a dying art, and I truly enjoy it,” Alexander said. “Where an era of Menard jewelers has come to an end, I would like to offer my services to the town of Whitman, and surrounding towns and live up to the standard of great  service that Menard jewelers offered to the people.”

Fighting cancer with hope

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WHITMAN — We all see the effects of global inflation stemming from the economic strains of the pandemic — now imagine trying to cope with those increased costs while you have to pay for gas for those extra trips into Boston on top of medical costs, when your child has cancer.

Cops for Kids With Cancer, a 501 (c) 3 organization helping parents in just such circumstances, knows what families are going through and provide financial gifts to families facing the sometimes crippling financial effects of their child’s cancer diagnosis.

Some of the group’s members have been there themselves.

MCPCA Director of Law Enforcement Chief Thomas Grenham is one of them. Serving on the Board of Directors, he is a retired state trooper and the proud father of a now healthy and lovely teenaged daughter, who was diagnosed with leukemia as a small child. 

He brought comfort to a the Eagan family of Whitman last month in the form of a $5,000 check from Cops For Kids With Cancer, and a swag bag of gifts for their son Jared, who was diagnosed on Oct. 26, 2021 with T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia – a very aggressive cancer.

“We’re very early on right now,” mom Charyn Eagan said. “We still have a year and five months of treatment to go.”

It’s a form of cancer that requires a long-term treatment plan, she said, because it’s a blood cancer and it likes to “hide out” in different spots in the body. Early on, the amount of cancer Jared had and missing the threshold for continuing with one course of treatment including an additional round of intense chemotherapy, required him to stay in-patient at Children’s, so he has not been able to be in school since his diagnosis, according to Charyn. 

The extent of his fatigue from the cancer has meant even remote classes to keep up with school were not feasible.

“We pretty much missed this whole year,” Charyn said. “I have to be grateful that we got through this phase, things are looking good [and] he’s responding really well to treatment.”

But, for months they’ve had to contend with the nausea, fatigue, neuropathy, which has left him unable to walk at times.

“Still, you’d never know he was sick, because he’s an outgoing, spunky kid,” she said.

What does the Cops for Kids with Cancer donation mean for the family?

“My, god,” Charyn said. “Relief. I can’t even tell you how much we’ve been suffering – not financially suffering, but it’s been tough.”

Jared, 13, is a fan of fishing who has caught some sizeable bass in Hobart’s Pond, 

“I have a picture [from when] someone caught a 10.5-pound large-mouth bass,” he said, noting that the fisherman let it go so another angler could have a crack at it.

“He has these tackle boxes with all this colorful stuff in there and he knows what they’re all for, what they all are,” his mom said.

His dad Angelo said Walmart in Abington has given Jared fishing equipment, as well.

“It’s really good, because he goes fishing and some kids don’t even have gear, so they’ll use his stuff,” Charyn said.

The community has also been supportive.

“I already knew Whitman was a great place to live,” she said. But I felt that in my heart and soul when this happened to us.”

Charyn and Angelo both grew up in Boston, but have been slowly heading away from the city, where they both still work. Angelo works for the Air Force and Charyn is an engineer. They built a house in Whitman and say it was the best decision they ever made.

The checks, funded largely through the organization’s participation in the Boston Marathon as an annual fundraiser, as well as community fundraisers, police department project and individual website donations, helps families in any way they need it.

“With support from police departments like Whitman and others and we’re able to help families,” said Grenham, who has been on the board of directors for four years. “My daughter had leukemia as a kid and she’s 19 now and in college.”

Those costs could be non-covered treatment or medications, travel and parking for hospital stays, eating away from home, babysitters, possible home alterations — whatever they need — especially when one parent has to quit work to be available for their child at all times.

Every month the charity divides $40,000 between eight families. The $5,000 they each receive comes with no strings attached.

“You do what you want with it, whatever makes your life easier,” Grenham said. “It’s our pleasure to help you.”

“You’ve definitely made an impact on our life and I can’t thank you enough,” MOM said. “It’s awesome, but it’s kind of sad at the same time that you have to do this for families. … The only thing we can do is give back.”

Jared’s sister Gabby, who will be a senior at WHRHS in the fall, isthinking about Bridgewater State for college, but is unsure what she wants to study.

“She doesn’t need to know,” her dad said, adding there’s plenty of time for her to figure that out..

The charity, which started out in 2002 as a golf rivalry between a Boston Police team and one from Ireland’s Garda Siochana, or national police service. They decided the event should raise funds to donate to a local hospital to help children with cancer. It is now run by a 20-plus person volunteer Board of Directors, mostly active and retired police officers and friends of law enforcement.

While the funds initially went entirely to children’s oncology units at MGH and the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, a portion of the funds they raise now goes directly to families.

“We can all help,” the website copsforkidswithcancer.org states. “Our donations have, for example, saved a family from eviction, helped pay down overwhelming bills and paid to repair the only vehicle used to travel back and forth to the hospital. The situations are heartbreaking and all too real.”

A hot time in Whitman

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The Boston Wailers Band performs during the inaugural Whitman Day festival in Whitman Park on Saturday, June 25, above, as a giant Toll House cookie looms behind them. At left, Volunteer Maddy Allen had the coolest job in town as she hit the water as Olivia Westhaver dunked her by running up and hitting the lever. See more photos, page 6.              Photos by Carol Livingstone

Hanson eyes municipal electricity pact

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HANSON — The Select Board met virtually with Sprague Energy regarding the town’s municipal electricity supply contract for municipal buildings while an aggregate plan is explored to offer a group price for all town residents.

The board voted to authorize Town Administrator Lisa Green to negotiate a 36-month electricity contract with Sprague to get the town through the period before the aggregation goes into effect — during which energy costs pose a concern. 

 “I don’t blame you for looking into aggregation, but because that’s not going to happen for another year and a half to two years, it’ll leave you extremely vulnerable where the town could [end up paying] double, triple, potentially quadruple the supply rates that they’re paying right now,” Sprague Energy Portfolio Manager Robert Savary said, in reaching out to Green regarding the town’ electricity purchasing.

Green noted that the town has been working with in regard to a plan to join a bulk-purchasing arrangement — an energy aggregate — with the aim of saving money on natural gas costs.

“We are entering an aggregate group, but that’s still a year to two years out,” Green said. “We thought it would be a good idea, since energy costs are expected to sky rocket over the next few months, to have Sprague give us a presentation and see what they can do to save money on our electricity.”

Select Board member Ed Heal asked what Savary if the town entered into a short-term contract, would it also renew in December and what would that financial impact be.

Savary stressed he was discussing one-, two- and three-year contracts.

“You don’t want to sign a one-, two- and three-month contract, because that would put you absolutely in the middle of winter, which would be devastating,” he said.

Savary said the Mass. Public Utilities Commission (PUC) website can provide a list of alternative energy suppliers residents can contact and what their rates are.

“Make sure if you are going to do that, when you check off the boxes, that you check off “fixed rate,” not variable, that’s the most important thing,” he said. Early termination fees is another benefit residents should look for.

“If you could put something together that we could pop up on our website, that would be amazing,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “This is going to hit a lot of people in the pocketbook.”

Headquartered out of Portsmouth, N.H., Sprague has been in business since the late 1800s, said Savary, who has worked with the company for about 13 years.

“Because we are so big — we’ve got 10,000 customers — we’ve developed such a great relationship with every electric supplier out there,” he said. “I do mean every legitimate electric supplier.”

He said his job is to help customers navigate upcoming changes in energy costs. Those changes can have roots in power plant costs, transmission and distribution systems, weather conditions, regulations and international upheavals, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

He addressed natural gas and electricity costs, specifically.

“We are in a really precarious situation right now in New England with regard to natural gas electricity costs,” Savary said. “If you haven’t heard, or you haven’t seen pricing already, it’s going to get real bad real soon.”

The U.S. House passed the Consumer Price Gouging Prevention Act in May, with every Republican and four Democrats voting against it, but it stalled and is unlikely to pass in the evenly divided Senate. 

Both versions of the bill seek greater transparency around gas prices and would give the Federal Trade Commission additional authority to monitor and crack down on allegations of price gouging by energy companies and the Senate version would require the U.S. Energy Information Administration to publish more information about markets to help ensure fair competition and transparency.

Savary forecast that natural gas, where Hanson is now paying 81 cents per therm with the utility, has contracted rate Hanson signed for in January is 70.8 cents per therm.

That contract expires in April 2024.

“On the gas side, you’re very well protected right now,” he said, recommending they talk again about six to eight months before that contract expires.

Price indexes

Natural gas, traded on the NYNEX, and was trading at $5.44 per unit, but two weeks ago that price per unit was $9.30. This week it was back to about $6.30 due to influences such as an explosion at a CNG terminal in the Gulf of Mexico, which forced natural gas back into the pipeline before it could be converted to liquefied natural gas (LNG), offering a temporary supply boost.

“We do not expect that it’s going to stay there,” he said.

Hanson is currently saving about $3,200 on it’s annual natural gas costs within its contract.

“That savings is going to grow tremendously over this next coming winter,” he said.

Electricity is another story, Savary said.

The current utility rate is 10.37 cents per kilowatt hour (KHW), with the current contracted rate of 9.6 per KHW, which is good until December 2022.

National Grid has already announced its new rate is going to be 21.01 cents per KWH by August.

“That is a huge jump,” he said. “August, September and October are traditionally some of the least expensive months of a year for traditional electricity costs. That tells us that we are prepared to go into a winter and there’s going to be some crazy, crazy rates.”

He said Eversource Massachusetts, last winter, was charging 31 per KHW. Since New England utilities generally follow each other’s rates, Eversource New Hampshire has informed its large accounts that their rate in January will be 48 cents per KHW — their current rate is about 12 cents per KHW.

“That just shows you what’s happening in the future and why you want to go ahead and get things under control now,” Savary said, noting his customers are all going for 36-month contracts (with a current rate of 15.3 cents per KHW, which allows a price that can help them weather the energy price storm, as he called it, relatively unscathed. Had Hanson been ready to sign an agreement for 36 months in January 2022, the rate would have been locked in at 12.49 per KHW.

“The short-term is the most dangerous term,” he said. “There’s nothing on the horizon that tells us the market is going to take a dip anytime soon.”

He said the Russian war on Ukraine, the Gulf explosion — with gas reversing in the pipeline and being transformed into LNG for shipment to Europe — as key price factors.

Sprague is not permitted to contract with residents for their electricity rates, but noted the rate increases would hit residents and said he would make himself available to the board in case they wished to look at their residential rates as a courtesy.

“I appreciate that, but I do question whether we should be afforded a privledge that isn’t afforded to the rest of the citizens in town,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “There may be pitfalls for the unwary in that.”

Planning new life for Maquan

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HANSON  — Town Planner Tony Defrias presented an outline of a vision for the former Maquan School property to the Select Board on Tuesday, June 21.

“This is just step one of 100,” he said. “This is just to talk about it.”

Defrias has made the presentation to the Maquan Reuse Committee, the Planning Board and the Economic Development Commission as well.

“Tony was thinking about generally the needs that the town has for the Library/Senior Center, sports and highway, was the original driver of the whole thing,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I want to emphasize that nothing has been done to effectuate change in moving in the direction of what Tony’s about to present.”

If the board found value in it, a public forum or hearing could be scheduled.

Defrias noted that there had been discussion of library renovation expansion, what to do with the former Maquan School and the needs of the Highway Department when he came on board in Ocober 2021.

“I took it upon myself to take a look at this area to try to determine what might be the best use for those three parts of Hanson — Library, Maquan School, Highway Department,” he said. 

Defrias calls his proposal the Maquan Area Reuse Plan.

The school site at 60 School St., is a 17.8-acre parcel of open fields and woods as well as the school building and its former parking lot. The Library/Senior Center building at 132 Maquan St., takes up 3.33 acres with a building the two departments share and parking area and green space. The Highway Department at 797 Indian Head St., takes up 6.1 acres with multiple buildings and three youth baseball fields, a skate park and basketball court.

The three properties are more or less adjacent, with two roads and the Indian Head School between them.

“These are three pieces of land that the town controls,” he said. “You own them.”

An MSBA feasibility study conducted during the aborted new elementary school process in 2012 noted that while it was well-maintained, most of the fixtures were original to the building and were nearing the the end of serviceable life.

“I felt that one of the best uses for this is to raze the existing building — get rid of it completely — and what would be constructed there would be something [working title] Maquan Youth Athletic Complex,” Defrias said. He also suggested the facility could be named for Ruth Masters or carry over the Boiteri Field name, moving the ball fields, skate park and basketball court over to the school property and build a structure for concessions, public restrooms and offices with 93 parking spaces.

The small playground would be relocated.

“This is something that could generate money for the town,” he said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said there has been “very strong feedback” that the property not be sold. Defrias also noted the building is not feasible for elder housing.

A 2019 Library study, meanwhile, has concluded that building is undersized to meet the needs of town residents. Additions could be made to both parts of the current building without interrupting services, or a new library could be constructed on the Maquan site.

The Highway Department, which is now two miles from all town borders, would be even further —  leaving a longer response time to the entire north end of town — at the Hawks Avenue site now under consideration. Expanding and improving facilities at the existing site could allow the Highway Department to remain in a central location and would be most feasible, Defrias said.

Office space for the IT director could also be relocated there, he said.

“If there’s any department in Hanson that is going to need to expand, its Highway Deprtment,” Defrias said. “Hanson has 70 private ways and that’s a large issue in town.”

Select Board member Ann Rein is going to chair the “resuscitated” Highway Building Committee, FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

In other business, the board voted to authorize the use of new election equipment, starting at the September state primary.

The new equipment, Poll Pads, for which funding was approved at Town Meeting.

From graduation to the State House

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Less than a month after her inspirational graduation speech earned her a standing ovation, W-H Class of 2022 Valedictorian April Keyes appeared at the State House for recognition at a formal legislative session of the House and Senate last week.

Keyes, who has a speech impediment, which causes her to stutter, earned a standing ovation at the June 3 commencement ceremony. She is also a talented athlete who was captain of her track and field team and a member of the National Honor Society. 

“After watching her speech, our legislative delegation, including Rep. Alyson Sullivan [R-Abington], Sen. Mike Brady [D-Brockton] and myself, decided we wanted to recognize April for showing such determination and courage,” state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, said. “We invited her and her family to the State House to be recognized at a formal legislative session of the House and the Senate. We were also able to pay a visit to Gov. Baker’s office. 

It was truly a delight to get to know April and be able to thank for being a role model for all of us.” 

As a younger student, she often feared speaking out in class, or even raising her hand on account of her stutter, Keyes had noted in her speech. She joked that had her younger self known she’d be up at the podium giving this big speech, “I would have passed out!” she said.

And yet April overcame her fears to give a remarkable speech, talking openly about overcoming obstacles and being one’s true self. 

“As her principal recounted, April is not afraid to put herself in an uncomfortable place, challenge popular beliefs, make mistakes or miserably fail. She can navigate through those ups and downs with confidence and an understanding that with patience, effort and a positive attitude, anything is possible,” Cutler said.

“Thank you to WHRHS Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak and W-H Principal Dr. Christopher Jones for joining with us and helping to make this wonderful visit possible,” he said. “April will be attending Harvard this fall and no doubt will continue to do remarkable things!”

You may watch her graduation speech here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dRd2lBqpdQDg1Vr3yvz5fat6QcoFWJ5e/view?fbclid=IwAR3Jr3AhS2T5XmZMkwBnCW8n2AG-OL-4tKGlJ8oq2hZ-vr-tpvBOFBR0vb8.

Szymaniak had announced the State House visit during a Wednesday, June 22 School Committee meeting.

On the evening when the School Committee was entering into an pre-meeting executive session Wednesday, June 22, Chair Christopher Howard offered residents who attended for a public comment period the opportunity to speak, even though it was not included on the posted agenda.

Stephanie Levesque of 113 Temple St., in Whitman, a former special educator who now works at Lesley University in Cambridge, with children in the school district, requested that a working group be established to consider the high school start time.

“It helps all of us work and serve the adolescents,” she said. “We know so much now, people in the community have already shared some research, some numbers, some data, so I know that’s a continuing conversation.”

While she echoed the data on adolescent brain development at sleep needs, she allowed that it wouldn’t be a simple fix.

“I think it’s a worthwhile endeavor that a working group could do a task analysis and look at carefully and see if we can come to a resolution to help balance what we know is best for children’s development and respond to the needs of the community,” she said.

Jessica Cook of 48 Hogg Memorial Drive spoke on the same topic.

“I also have children in the district, an incoming freshman and a little one over at the Conley,” she said, noting she is also a special educator in another district.

“I’m requesting that the School Committee choose to make this one of the topics they discuss over the summer during and their workshops,” Cook said. “When you look into it, all of the schools – all of the schools in our area – all of them [have later start times].”

She said Duxbury has an 8:20 a.m. Start time, Scituate starts the day at 8:15 and Quincy, the district where she works has a 7:45 a.m. Start time at the high school level. She noted that with the early W-H start time, some student-athletes are putting in 14-hour days before they start their homework.

“If we can buy them an hour, and it’s possible to look into … logistics, and I know that there’’s tons to go along with it, but I would just ask that you consider it.”

Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said the key to changing start times is aligning all the schools.

“It’s not just the high school,” he said during a discussion with school administrators on possibile topics for strategic plan working group discussions. “It’s moving our elementaries to a similar start time – our three elementaries are different. Our middle schools are the same. All the principals agree that should be a focus for us next year.”

The executive session scheduled was to discuss strategy regarding collective bargaining or litigation and an open meeting could be detrimental to the committee’s position, regarding the WHEA Unit A teacher contract.

On returning to open session, the committee voted to ratify the Unit A contract.

WHEA representative Kevin Kafka thanked Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak for the opportunity to have open dialog during the negotiation process.

Howard said the contract will be posted on the district website for public access.

The committee also discussed topics to be included in it’s strategic plan workshops over the summer, including STEM and preparing students for the post-high school world in the 21st century, related arts, early childhood education initiative, diversity, social-emotional learning, substance abuse and student support, school start times, safety and security, professional licensing programs like CNA such as offered at South Shore Tech, early college courses, and combining some of the ideas where possible.  

The committee will discuss the list further at it’s July 6 meeting and welcomes public feedback.

Coda on teaching careers

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It hasn’t been as dramatic as “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” but retiring W-H Regional High School music teachers Devin Dondero and Donald Legge can see the difference they’ve made for students in the 20 [for Legge] or the 25 [years for Dondero] in which they have taught at the school.

“We just don’t have to see any students off at the bus depot,” Legge laughed, referring to a scene in the film revolving around a teen with Broadway dreams.

And, while they are also not anticipating an alumni orchestra performance of a secret composition on their way out the door, as in the 1995 film, they said it is gratifying that they are able to participate in selecting the three new teachers.

Legge came to W-H after a stint teaching middle school in New Bedford after teaching nothing but high school in Florida.

“Coming up here and starting with a whole new group of kids, age development wise, was just totally different and I just wasn’t used to it,” he said of the New Bedford job. “Plus I was doing more general music [there], where in Florida it was all performance.”

Dondero said former W-H music teacher Tom Oliveiri brought him to the district from Abington, where he also worked with Oliveiri.

Dondero said they are very thankful to the people of Whitman and Hanson for allowing them to work with their kids all these years.

“The townspeople in both communities have been very supportive of the program over the years,” he said.

There will be things that will be missed a bit less, such as the fundraising needed to pay copyright fees involved in performing musicals or songs from them.

Mattress sale, bake sale and pancake breakfast proceeds went toward the $12,000 to $15,000 the Show Choir has had to pay out over the last three to four years in copyright fees.

Now that their next chapter begins at the end of the school year, both say more opportunities for performance — jazz trombone for Dondero and guitar for Legge — await, bringing their musical journey full circle.

They’ll be giving some lessons, but performing is their main focus now. Dondero, who also plays bass, is part of a blues trio for bass, but said the trombone gigs pay better.

Legge said he’ll be performing and traveling, the latter more out of necessity since his daughter lives in Oregon and his dad is in Florida.

“I think we realized at the stage of our development here as music educators, it was the time to go,” Dondero said. “For two very important reasons — it’s going to be better for the department because now they’re hiring three people, which is really good because that means the department will take a huge step forward.

“And the other reason is we were just getting along in years and we wanted some younger people to come in.”

Legge said he’s been teaching for 37 years, starting his career in 1985.

Dondero is a graduate of Boston University and Legge attended Westfield State and then went to Miami.

Teaching hadn’t been their first goal in music, both initially looking toward performance.

“At first, I’d have to say I wasn’t absolutely sure [about teaching], but I decided to go for the education degree because I knew that it would be a good idea to have it, if I wanted to teach,” Dondero said. “But, then, when I started teaching, I just enjoyed it more and more.”

In college, he said he preferred hanging out with the performance majors, rather than those concentrating on education.

“They were the ones that seemed to be doing more performing — and just having more fun, I felt,” Dondero said.

“I was going to be a rock star,” Legge said with a laugh. “And I did, I hung out with that group.”

Legge’s undergrad degree was in performance and it was his master’s degree focus until his last semester when his dean asked him is he really needed a master’s to perform in a club or orchestra, and suggested switching around a few classes to get a pedagogy degree. He didn’t even have to wait to use it as a fall-back, because the day of graduation another student told him of a teaching opportunity that required guitar skills they did not have – but Legge did.

Finding that they were skilled at teaching, as well as finding that they enjoyed it, made the change all the more rewarding.

“There are some people that just can perform like crazy, but they can’t get that message out,” Legge said. “They can’t articulate how to do it and [have] the patience — I think that’s the key — and liking kids.”

They are also aware that studies endorsed by musicians, as trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has long advocated, that music can help students develop other skills such as math. 

“I would definitely say our music students are probably more well-rounded, better academically, than probably most of the students here,” Dondero said. “I just think it’s that type of student.”

“We get a lot of the AP kids,” Legge said.

But he acknowledged it can create scheduling challenges as AP classes are only offered during certain periods, which can coincide with the band/chorus period.

“We borrow kids from each other,” Legge said, noting band and chorus kids are often moving between the two music rooms.

Their advice for the new music staff at W-H?

Legge advises keeping an open mind.

“The best thing is not to change everything that came before,” he said. “I would think you’d want to build off the strengths that were here already.”

“We’re happy to see that [the district] will be hiring two, full-time high school teachers,” Legge said on Monday, June 13, noting interviews were beginning that day. There were six to eight candidates for the position and Legge and Dondero participated in those interviews.

Another will be hired to direct the middle school band program out of Whitman Middle School, but serving both towns. There are already two full-time chorus teachers at the middle schools.

Whitman ready to review regional pact

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WHITMAN – School Committee Chair Christopher Howard met with the Select Board on Tuesday, June 21 to gauge the board’s appetite to get together and rework the regional school agreement and thoughts on makeup of the current subcommittee.

“I think Whitman is committed to our partnership and definitely looking to stay in the region and fully aware we need to do something with the agreement,” Select Board Chair Randy LaMattina. 

A scheduled discussion with Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak concerning mold remediation at Whitman Middle School was tabled as Szymaniak was out on bereavement leave.

“In several School Committee meetings we have continued to talk about the regional agreement,” Howard said. “As the board knows, that agreement is 30 years old.”

A “subtle amendment” has been done to include statutory changes on the state level, but it is an old agreement and, Howard noted a subcommittee of two select board members and two School Committee members from each town, both town administrators and at least one citizen at-large sat on that “fairly large group,” he said.

“We wanted to approach both the Whitman [Select Board] and the Hanson Select Board and just really ask two simple questions,” Howard said. “One — what is the appetite for us to, because it is a tri-party relationship between the schools and both towns, to get together and rework this? And then two —do you have any feedback on the composition of the committee?”

In the spirit of cooperation and collaboration, Howard said his committee felt it was a good idea to at least have a preliminary conversation to get thoughts from the select boards in each member town before creating the subcommittee

“From an outside persepective, looking in, I thought that committee was a little too large,” LaMattina agreed. “[The size] could have ham-strung things a tad bit, and I think, probably, a lot of the legwork with the regional agreement has been done.”

He said the remaining sticking points to be worked out would require narrowing down the size of the subcommittee.

Select Board member Dan Salvucci asked how Hanson’s Select Board feels on the issue [See story, page one].

“We haven’t met with them,” said Howard, who added he planned to attend the next meeting of Hanson’s board on July 12. “Obviously, it’s a three-way tango, if you will, so we need all three dancing partners to come to the table and do this together.”

Any revised regional agreement would have to be approved by both Town Meetings.

“A lot of the legwork is already done,” said Select Board member Justin Evans, who was one of the Whitman Select Board representatives to the last subcommittee. “I agree with our chairman that less is more in this kind of situation, especially where it has to come back to the full School Committee, both [select] boards and then Town Meeting for final approval. We’re not leaving out any opportunities for public input, it’s just trying to get an agreement together.”

Select Board member Shawn Kain said he would like to see, in the interest of best practices, someone who has been involved in these negotiations and has been involved in regional agreements be consulted for guidance as far as how things are often done.

“Having somebody involved that can really speak from experience … can be helpful, because there’s certainly some hot-button issues that could be a sticking point,” he said.

Salvucci said the subcommittee was able to have input from Whitman’s Finance Committee chair as well as legal counsel, helped update the agreement, but some of the issues such as the statutory formula for assessments was either not discussed, or was assumed to have been. He advocated for a member of the Finance Committee or the state to join the committee. Salvucci worked on the agreement revision in 2017 and Evans did so in 2020.

“We’ve done this a couple of times recently,” Evans said. 

Howard said they are reaching out to the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) also must approve any revised regional agreement.

“I think smaller is better because it has to go through a rigorous approval process,” Howard said of the committee size. “I just don’t know what capacity you’d feel comfortable [with].”

LaMattina said it would require a Select Board member and the town administrator, which Evans agreed to.

“I would say no more than 10 members,” Evans said. “Even 10 is a lot, but it’s manageable.”

On other busines, Auburn Street traffic delays have generated a “Significant amount of complaints from the public, LaMattina said, but he said that, while there is significant impact to area residents and people driving on the street, the sewer force main work being done is crucial for the town.

“We’re trying to work through it,” he said. “We ask people to be patient and follow the signs. … It’s quite a large undertaking, but it is critical infrastructure for the town. It needs to be done.”

LaMattina emphasized that it is not just a developer inconveniencing residents and motorists.

“This is major water and sewer work, and it needs to be done,” he said. “We are trying to figure out, on a daily basis, a better way to do things.”