By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
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When Hanson Moderator Sean Kealy paused before the Town Meeting cast their votes on the Proposition 2.5 override to conduct an informal poll as to how many people had not decided how they would vote on the issue before walking in, the answer seemed to surprise him. Only three people had raised their hands,
A lop-sided vote of 230-118 placed a $3 million override to fund all town departments, as well as the school budget, on the town’s annual Town Election ballot on Saturday, May 17. But the May 17 vote was just as emphatic – in the opposite direction – as by a 1,172 to 741 margin the voters’ “no” to an override was unmistakable.
Perhaps an even more interesting – if puzzling – statistic is the 1,935 blanks received in the override vote on Hanson ballots while there were only six ballots with no answer to that question in Whitman.
Voters in Whitman approved placing the question on the ballot by a 148-66 margin, but defeated the one-year, $2 million override to fund town departments as well as the schools, in a consolidated budget by a vote of 1,678 to 677.
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak, hosting a groundbreaking for the town’s new middle school on Monday [See related story, page 1], was philosophical about the election result.
“I appreciate the hard work that was exhibited in the dual Finance Committee/Select Board meetings and I appreciated the invite to be part of the process,” he said. “It’s disappointing, but the taxpayers chose what they chose.”
He said he was not certain if the issue would be discussed at the School Committee’s reorganization meeting Wednesday, May 21.
“We have to find out where the towns are at,” he said, but he said he didn’t know whether the School Committee will move off its assessment figure at this point.
Still, Szymaniak said he expects there will be fruitful discussions about what the towns can afford and how they can move forward.
On the better news of the new school, Szymaniak said the project is “substantially under budget,” and they intend to stay that way. School officials hope to take possession of the building in December 2026 with an opening for current grade six to eight students in February 2027 and a full opening for the 2027-28 school year.
Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski, also attending the WMS groundbreaking, said the Select Board will also be discussing what they’ll do next at upcoming meetings. The Select Board voted on Tuesday, May 20 to schedule a special Town Meeting for 6 p.m., Wednesday, June 11 to take up Article 2 – the fiscal 2026 budget – once more.
“I was hopeful [on passage] for a while,” Kowalski said, “But, then, when I voted at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, they had a lot of people go through and so I figured it was probably going to be voted down. I’m disappointed. It’s hard to say that you love the schools, and you love your police and you love your fire … but you don’t want to pay for it.”
“It’s our job, as a Select Board to have a budget for the town,” Hanson Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said Monday. “When it became clear that, given the school assessment and other rising costs, we were going to have to severely cut services – essential services, including the library, transfer station, police and fire, we felt that it was our responsibility to give voters a choice about whether the cuts should be made or the taxes should be increased. The voters have spoken, so we will do the best we can with the budget that we can, like we always do, and we will continue to look for additional sources of revenue.”
The results, in Hanson anyway, seemed to signal a preference for separating out the town departments from the school district budget. It was a potential solution several Town Meeting voters preferred, voicing that preference during discussion of the article.
At the Hanson Middle School polling place, outside the “no electioneering” perimeter that debate was silently going on, TJ Roffey – who ultimately out-polled incumbent Stephen Cloutman by 55 (905-850) votes to replace him on that panel – stood with his campaign sign next to “Yes” on the override sign-holders. Cloutman stood on the opposite side of the school’s driveway, chatting with a lone anti-override sign-holder. Incumbent Glen J. DiGravio won re-election and bragging rights as Hanson’s top vote-getter in the race with 907 votes.
“I think a lot of people have override first and foremost in their mind,” said Cloutman, who felt that the override might pass. “It’ll be interesting to see. … You know, I wish there was a way it was divided – police and fire separated from the school system that they could handle those separately, instead of just in one pot.”
“I think there is some sentiment in town to see changes in the School Committee and the school budget process, so I think people are open to voting for someone who’s not an incumbent,” Roffey said. “There’s definitely an anti-override sentiment. …Unfortunately, the town’s in a situation where the revenue and expenses don’t match and the choices are either find more money or offer less.”
Neither Roffey nor Cloutman wanted to see services cut, but expressed sympathy toward people on fixed budgets as the cost of living goes up.
Whitman’s stretch of South Avenue sidewalk in front of the Dunkin’ Donuts opposite Town Hall was likewise crowded with “Yes” sign-holders putting in a final plug for the $2 million over one year contingency override.