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You are here: Home / Archives for News

Juvenile arrested after Whitman stabbing

June 17, 2019 By Stephanie Spyropoulos, Express Correspondent

WHITMAN — A 16-year-old Whitman teen is in stable condition, recovering from extensive injuries following a stabbing on Sunday evening in Whitman.

Another 16-year-old was due to face charges of assault to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury in Brockton Juvenile Court Monday.

Police Chief Scott Benton addressed the media at Whitman Police Headquarters on Monday to confirm the two unnamed juvenile males do know one another.

“There is a victim here that suffered a significant stab wound,” said Benton. “Certainly our thoughts and prayers are with the family and the victim that he makes a full recovery,.”

The Express was on scene just after 9 p.m. Sunday night as police cordoned off the yard with crime tape following a 911 call for a stabbing at a home at the corner of Washington Street and Belcher Drive.

#BreakingNews #whitman #stabbing live on scene WhitmanHanson Express Newspaper pic.twitter.com/vnT36n4giA

— Steph Spyropoulos (@StephSpyrop) June 17, 2019

A knife was removed by detectives and evidence could be seen on the grass.

A red shirt, a water bottle, and several items were lying on the lawn while detectives from Whitman police and Plymouth County sheriff’s officers investigated.  An area at the back of the house where the suspect lived was also being combed over by officers who carried a brown evidence bag to a patrol car. There were reportedly other juveniles at the Whitman home during the incident.

#whitman #stabbing Whitman police and Plymouth County BCI carry evidence. A knife was removed from grass. red shirt plastic bottle and other items were laying on ground. Victim status N/A. pic.twitter.com/bj2nksOafP

— Steph Spyropoulos (@StephSpyrop) June 17, 2019

Detectives were due to speak with the victim at the hospital on Monday, according to Benton.

Adults who were standing on the front lawn speaking with law enforcement personnel Sunday night, declined to speak to the media. They were later seen going in to the home and closing the door.

Benton reiterated Monday that the case is ongoing and active with many details not being released due to the juveniles involved. He could not elaborate on the area in the backyard or how the disagreement began because of the ongoing investigation.

“The case involves juveniles so there is not a lot I can say,” he said.

Jared Wark, 18, of Whitman said knows both the victim and suspect as a friend and former basketball teammate. He was not at the scene of the incident, he said.

Wark told the media outside the Whitman police station that the victim and suspect were “talking smack” and threats were made via social media.

“It is surreal. I never thought any of this would happen,” said Wark. “There were threats. No one thought he was serious and they were friends.”

He called the town of Whitman a “tight town” — a very small town.

“I love my town. We are all connected and word spread around very quickly. It is past shocking,” he said.

Benton would not confirm further details about the role of social media or the exact cause of the escalation.

“We are talking about juveniles,” Benton said. “There is nothing that I can imagine in your life, that at the age of 16, that is … (pause) could possibly cause the death of another person, “said Benton.

Plymouth County District Attorney Cruz’ office is reportedly handling the case going forward. The suspect was released to his parents and was due at Brockton Juvenile court on Monday.

The victim is expected to make a recovery but he has long road ahead, Benton said.

Filed Under: Breaking News Tagged With: Breaking News, News, Whitman Stabbing

State’s funding shortfall

January 24, 2019 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

Unfunded and underfunded state education mandates cost the W-H Regional School District more than $5 million a year, based on the most recent complete report from fiscal 2018. There were $8,131,147 in mandated costs during FY 2018, but only $2,110,957 of anticipated reimbursements were received [See page 5].

“We have an $8 million state mandate that no other department in the town has with $5 million of it not being funded,” said School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes. “That is a giant piece of the budget that other departments don’t have. … The point I’m making is that, when departments start getting pitted against each other, and I hate to use that term, we provide a different service was the answer that I told the Finance Committee members, than other departments. It’s very difficult to compare.”

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak offered a breakdown of those costs during a budget discussion at the Wednesday, Jan. 16 School Committee meeting.

Town administrators, select board and Finance Committee members from both towns attended the meeting.

Szymaniak said he has appreciated the opportunity to have talks with the Whitman Finance Committee and the town administrators to fill them in on where the district is at financially, he is not yet able to offer budget projections until the official budget roll-out on Wednesday, Feb. 6.

Whitman’s Finance Committee, for example, has been seeking impact statements from town departments based on 3- or 6-percent budget cuts.

“I can’t do what police, fire — everybody else [has done] — and put a number on it,” Szymaniak said. “We have great teachers right now and I would be remiss and I would not be doing my job if were to say I’m starting to cut the budget in January before I present it to you folks.”

Szymaniak said his job is to present a budget that will “adequately move the district as slimly forward as we can. … So I’m telling you this, a deficit or a level-fund will impact us severely.”

The district is looking at a $2.9 million increase in costs — with $3.7 million in deficits that are unfunded across the board if the budget were level-funded, according to Szymaniak.

“The impact would be in service delivery,” he said. “It’s people — I’m not going to put a dollar number or put a number on folks — it’s programs. It’s everything that we’ve done the right way over the past five years.”

Szymaniak said he fully understands Whitman’s financial position and is willing to work with them, but sees the potential for “devastating” cuts if the schools are looking at a $3.7 million deficit.

“We have not yet fully recovered from [cuts made in 2008 through 2010]. If we went back to Square Zero, you look at a 10-year process to get back to where we were.”

He also outlined how unfunded and underfunded mandates from the state impact town budgets.

“Some of the things that we think we do out of the course of doing business out of the course of the day are actually mandates that have an impact on our school budget,” Szymaniak said. “This is what we’re held to, so when we’re talking increases in costs, this is what the state determines we need to do as a district.”

Teacher evaluation, for example, used to consist of an administrator talking with a teacher, according to Szymaniak. The state now wants districts to generate evidence-backed data for such evaluations, requiring a software program — as well as added time not calculated for the comparison, which has doubled if not tripled over the past 10 years.

“As our student population grows, we might have to provide more teachers for that,” Szymaniak also said of English Language Learners. “We doubled our teachers — we had one teacher and two tutors last year — and by our numbers, we should have two teachers and a tutor, if not three teachers for next year.”

Health insurance costs are also expected to increase by about 5 percent next year. Finance Committees and town administrators have also been asking about full-day kindergarten, Szymaniak said. While it will not likely be a budget issue this year, but will likely come up in the future.

“FinComs asked, because we are putting expenditure out for charter schools … and when are we going to look at keeping our kids here,” he said. “That’s a piece that this board has looked at over time.”

Full-day kindergarten could help the district see charter school kids staying in the district over time, according to Szymaniak.

“I think you’re not going to see it the first year, but you will see a definite impact in that expense going out,” he said of the charter school money. “Once you establish roots in a school system, you’re going to stay.”

Special education costs are impossible to project, Szymaniak said, noting that just last week two students were placed out-of-district based on behavior issues that are “not acceptable to our school” and disrupt classrooms, effecting the education of other students.

School choice requires that districts permit students to attend schools where they want. Students that go out of W-H, brings in no money for the district, but students coming into the district bring in some funds.

“I don’t see myself advocating for less services than the meager services that we already provide,” School Committee member Fred Small said.

Hayes agreed, noting it was incumbent upon Szymaniak to present a budget outlining what it’s going to take to run the district and it was up to the committee to come up with a budget figure.

Where regional transportation is concerned, Small said he understands that the state wants communities to have “skin in the game” by limiting reimbursements.

“But the mandate is they shall fully fund regional transportation subject to appropriation,” he said. “We’ve cut our start times, we’ve done everything we can, software-related to create the best bus routes to save as much money as possible on our busing.”

He said there are problems with the state bidding process for bus contracts, because of the limited number of bus companies competing.

In other business, Dan Sullivan of CLA provided an auditors’ report.

“All the information in the financial records were presented fairly, were presented in compliance with what you need to do to prepare the financial statements,” he said. The clean report indicated that the district does not need to make any changes in its practices.

The outside audit encompasses reviews of financial statements, internal controls and accounting principals as well as a government-required single audit of grant expenditures and bonds to determine a bond rating.

“Management and staff were responsive to all our inquiries,” Sullivan said. “We had no [problems] with the way things were reported.”

District Treasurer David Leary also provided a positive report on the district’s debt position, OPEB and transfers of scholarship accounts to better-yield investment vehicles.

Filed Under: Featured Story, News Tagged With: administrator, budget, finance, Hanson, meeting, News, program, school, teacher, town, Whitman

W-H raises $1,000 for family

October 4, 2018 By Nate Rollins, Express Sports Correspondent

Friday night’s football game raised $1,000 to help build a disabled Army vet’s house.


 Whitman-Hanson Regional High athletic director Bob Rodgers saw last Friday night as an opportunity to give back, and the communities answered the call.

In response to a pair of 16-year-old juveniles, neither of whom were from W-H, causing more than $50,000 worth of damage to a home in Hanson being built for disabled Army vet Paul Skarinka, a Whitman native, earlier in the week, Rodgers got the approval to set up donation buckets at the football team’s game vs. Duxbury to help with repairs.

The two buckets were located at both entrances to the stadium and manned by Dawne and Richard Green. The effort raised $1,000.

“It didn’t surprise me at all that we raised so much money in a short time,” Rodgers said. “We are fortunate to live in a generous and caring community.”

Rodgers said he plans to reach out to Skarinka to see if he’d be willing to attend a game in November around Veterans Day.

“We will be having a game which we dedicate to all veterans and inviting them to attend free of charge,” Rodgers said. “With our new scoreboard, we plan to run a video about the Wounded Warrior Project too.”

Filed Under: News Tagged With: 2018-19 Coverage, Bob Rodgers, Hanson Veteran's Home Vandalized, News, Paul Skarinka, Sports, Whitman-Hanson Regional High

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