Old Rochester Regional High School Principal Mike Devoll is adding more advanced placement options, a broader range of technology courses, and a lineup of new 12^th grade English offerings designed to add more interest to seniors.

On January 17 during the Old Rochester Regional School Committee meeting, Devoll said the foreign language AP courses, which currently only include Spanish and French, will next year also offer an AP Latin class.

In addition, English classes for seniors will include course titles such as “Monsters, Murder, and Madness” and some other English courses will see a few course descriptions altered for interest as well.

“We’re trying to make our twelfth-grade classes more thematic and engaging for our students,” said Devoll.

Although these types of English courses won’t be offered at the AP level, Devoll did say, “We will, in fact, be looking to open more doors for kids for AP English in the senior year…”

Technology classes will see some development next year as well, as a new technology teacher oversees a variety of new and updated STEM courses aimed at educating all types of students in computer sciences.

For example, a robotics course was renamed to entice a more diverse group of students into the technology classroom, and the general computer science course was also given a more contemporary name.

“’Computer Science,’” said Devoll, “Meh…” But a course titled “Computer Science For All,” Devoll said, regardless of gender or social status or ethnicity, “We’re hoping to kind of hop on the heels of what’s happening at the junior high school.”

Computer Science will also be offered at the advanced placement level.

“I feel like each year in my career as principal we’ve come forward with new AP courses that have attracted more kinds of kids,” said Devoll.

Other courses that are changing include the child development and parenting class, which will be broken down into two one-semester courses, beginning with Child Development semester one, followed by Early Childhood Education, “All leading to the Early Childhood Education II, which isn’t a change but it incorporates grades ten to twelve, and that’s the lab exposure in the high school,” said Devoll.

Next month as Devoll furthers his course name and description progress, he will be looking at more thematic English courses for the course catalog.

The current draft of the fiscal 2019 school budget includes another technology instructor as ORR explores offering technology courses that lean more towards engineering, which students have shown interest in taking.

“The challenge for this spring is really going to be promoting these courses in [technology],” said Devoll. “If we’re going to commit to an engineering teacher, we need to marshal the population.”

Which goes especially for the female population at ORR, Devoll said.

“As a school, we’ve had difficulty getting female students into our tech classes, so this year our librarian has started ‘Coding for Girls’ during our Bulldog Block,” said Devoll, which has been a success.

The committee approved Devoll’s course change requests, and he will return at the next meeting with further course changes and offerings for the committee to consider.

In other matters, the School Committee started its FY19 budget review, which Chairman Tina Rood referred ironically to as “the fun part of the season.”

Business Administrator Patrick Spencer said the current budget draft totals $18,630,000, which is up $537,000 or 2.9% from FY18.

Included is the funding for an additional full-time social worker at the high school to handle some of the caseload pertaining to the school’s social-emotional health initiative.

A line item to cover the costs of the school NEASC reaccreditation next year totals $20,745 – an expense that the school district would not see again for another ten years once the review process is completed.

Also included in the budget are an additional $47,000 for new technology devices at both the junior and high schools and another $5,000 to pay for further responsive classroom training for staff.

Spencer said he also anticipates a 9% increase in health insurance costs, which he already factored into the budget.

“This is just the beginning of our conversations,” said Superintendent Doug White. “There’s going to be plenty of opportunities for us to address our needs … so our students can be twenty-first century learners and be productive in this society.”

The committee also took a vote on its 20-Year Capital Plan that the three towns had asked the committee to formulate, voting to adopt the first four named projects as the top priorities: 1) the running track; 2) auditorium repairs/upgrades; 3) technology infrastructure project (including reconfiguring the phone system); and 4) the T.U.R.F. project.

The next meeting of the Old Rochester Regional School Committee is scheduled for March 7 at 6:30 pm in the junior high school media room.

Old Rochester Regional School Committee

By Jean Perry

The solar project slated for 268 Mattapoisett Road has been stalled after the Rochester Planning Board on January 23 determined that proposed changes to the plan, although seemingly minor when viewed singularly, all add up to one major change to the plan. Thus, a new public hearing must be scheduled and abutters duly notified.

At the last meeting on January 9, representatives from developer Clean Energy Collective realized the board was not quick to agree that a request to change the elevation of a berm and fence was as simple as they had hoped.

Due to some site elevation discrepancies between existing conditions and those noted in the plan and because the bedrock below the proposed panels was denser than expected, the developer’s options were to either raise up the berm and increase the height of the fence or ask the board if they could blast in excess of the board’s original approval.

But the board was not pleased with either of those two options, so they continued the discussion until January 23 and waited until the board’s peer review engineer, Ken Motta, could weigh in on the matter.

But before Motta spoke on January 23, Attorney Richard Serkey, flanked by President of Renewables for CEC Tom Hunt, who flew in from Colorado just for the meeting, and some other new faces, spoke on behalf of the developer.

“If your purpose was to make sure that you got Clean Energy Collective’s attention, you certainly did,” Serkey said.

Serkey said the developer was ready to comply 100 percent with all the comments Motta made in his report, and at that the discussion started.

Hunt addressed the board next, saying, “Our goal is to work with you … and to acknowledge that the (elevation) error was on our part.”

The prior meeting left off with CEC considering taking the board’s advice of attempting further hammering and drilling to make the actual elevations of certain areas of the site before requesting any changes in the amount of blasting, but none of that was subsequently explored.

One of the contractors said the developer was advised not to go ahead with the excessive hammering because it was not the “optimal option.”

Hunt said, after a couple weeks of work, he had what he felt was a good plan “…that’s a minor modification…”

“I apologize for the fact that we have to take up more of your time on this due to the discrepancies,” Hunt said.

Planning Board Chairman Arnie Johnson determined, however, that there was still some important data missing from CEC’s submission that evening, and later told Serkey et al. that nothing could move forward until all pertinent information was turned in, including a “topo” (topographic survey) of the entire site, added Motta.

“The board tonight really needs to make the determination if these are minor or significant [changes],” said Johnson, in order to start the notification process of abutters.

To summarize for the board CEC’s proposed changes versus what was approved, Engineer Evan Watson of Prime Engineering said the topo of area at the site was “58”, but is actually “60”, which makes some panels visible from Mattapoisett Road. Because of the elevation discrepancies, the stormwater management system would also need to be reassessed. To mitigate that elevation inconsistency, CEC proposed elevating the outside berm another 2 to 3 feet in height, with the screening fence of 8 feet placed 6 inches above the top of the berm.

Planning Board member Gary Florindo questioned the feasibility of that proposal, saying that he had compared that proposal, which would equal a screening element of 17 feet in height, with the height of his barn on his property.

“And I thought, ‘This is gonna look crazy,’” said Florindo.

Johnson turned to Motta and asked the million-dollar question of the night: “In your opinion, are these changes major or minor?”

“There are major changes,” said Motta. “Mirror [the new proposals] against the original plan, what do you have left from the original plan?”

Then the board members offered their own opinions, which differed at first.

“I personally think they’re minor changes,” said board member John DiMaggio. “He’s not changing a lot of the plan itself … Some of the grades, elevations, it’s not like he’s redrawing a new plan.…”

Board member Chris Silveira said he felt like nearly everything was changed in the plan.

“It’s tough for me to call it a minor change when we had to have all new plan sets done.… It’s a tough call. I see all the sides of it…. My thought is, just because the rules are the rules, I think it’s a major change.”

“A lot of minor changes combined add up to one major change,” commented board member Lee Carr.

Florindo suggested a site visit before making any decision, which was what board member Mike Murphy said he would fancy as well.

“You don’t get the right answer until you get your shoes dirty,” said Florindo.

Board member Ben Bailey disagreed, saying that Motta was hired to go out and get his feet dirty on behalf of the board, and the board puts its trust in Motta.

Town Counsel Blair Bailey (no relation to the former Bailey) cautioned the board, saying, “You may think it’s major, you may think it’s minor – the question comes, what would an abutter think?”

If the board determined the changes were minor, abutters would be denied the right to appeal the changes from the original plan.

“What you’re doing is taking away somebody’s right to appeal your change … because you’re making a decision they can’t appeal.”

The board decided to allow CEC to continue some work on the stormwater basins only to mitigate flooding that property owner Michael Forand says is now taking place at the site, but that was it.

Then Johnson rendered his opinion – these changes are major.

“I think that when you boil that down, there’s not a whole lot left of our decision that hasn’t been tweaked at some point…” said Johnson.

A site visit would be scheduled once all data was submitted, he said before asking for a motion, which included the decision to schedule a public hearing and notify abutters – but again, not until the data was complete.

The vote was unanimous.

Also during the meeting, the Special Permit for a large-scale solar farm at 453 Rounseville Road filed by Borrego Solar Systems, although inching closer toward approval, was continued again until February 13 after a brief discussion and some comments from abutters.

The public hearing for the Special Permit application for a Back Lot filed by Madeleine Monteiro for 0 Walnut Plain Road was continued until February 13 at the request of the applicant. Johnson said the applicant is still working with the Building Department on certain aspects of the proposal.

The next meeting of the Rochester Planning Board is scheduled for February 13 at 7:00 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.

Rochester Planning Board

By Jean Perry

The Board of Selectmen learned on January 22 that two Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance grants that Facilities Manager Andrew Daniel applied for have been awarded to the Town of Rochester.

The Commonwealth released $1 million in grant funding for municipalities to receive up to $250,000 for ADA compliance projects. Daniel spent months assessing the town-owned facilities and had to develop a transition plan in order to make Rochester eligible for grant funding. He submitted three grants: one on behalf of the COA building, one for the library, and one for the Town Hall. Rochester was granted two of them, totaling $75,000.

Town Administrator Suzanne Szyndlar said one grant was awarded for a maximum of $25,000 for the installation of automatic door openers for the two entrances to the Council on Aging building on Dexter Lane, along with a paved accessible pathway that would link the side parking lot walkway to the concrete patio accessed via the main function room.

In a follow-up phone interview with Daniel, who spearheaded the mission to make Rochester ADA compliant and is leading the project, he said he had received some complaints of how heavy the COA doors are, so automatic door openers made sense. And although the COA building was built after the ADA came into effect so most features are compliant, there was still the patio that, for safety reasons, Daniel thought should connect with the sidewalk for an added viable emergency exit.

Then, with a little bit of money left over, Daniel chose to purchase an ADA beach wheelchair for Rochester residents to borrow to take to the beach. The chair would be kept at the COA and residents will be allowed to check the chair out for the day.

The second grant is for a maximum of $50,000 to make the Town Hall handicap access entry door/ramp ADA compliant, equipped with an automatic door opener, and for renovations to add one unisex ADA compliant restroom. Furthermore, additional handicap parking spaces will be added to the parking lot outside Town Hall.

“The plans that we have are all to make some pretty significant changes to accommodate people with disabilities and people who have mobility issues,” Daniel said. “I’m really pleased about it.”

The restroom still needs to be discussed, Daniel added, since the existing restrooms are not feasible for expansion. Old Colony students took a conceptual idea that Daniel gave them, and drafted up a set of plans that Daniel could use when building the restroom.

Daniel will be performing most of the construction in order to keep costs down.

“It’s plausible, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” said Daniel. “It’s just another step the Town of Rochester is going to make to become ADA complaint and that’s the goal – compliance.

“A bit at a time and well get there,” he said.

Szyndlar praised Daniel for his efforts.

“A special thanks to Andrew Daniel for his hard work in getting us these grants,” said Szyndlar.

In other matters, Water Commissioners told the Rochester Board of Selectmen on January 22 that holding off another two weeks until the board approves language for a water agreement with the Town of Middleboro would be no big deal, since the project has been in the works for several years now.

Selectman Greenwood Hartley asked Water Commission Chairman Fred Underhill if he would mind if the selectmen took the two weeks in between then and its next meeting to allow residents who may be unfamiliar with the proposed project time to inquire about it before selectmen give the OK.

The project, which has been in the works for a number of years and has been approved by Middleboro Town Meeting voters, would extend the Middleboro waterline down North Street to provide domestic water service to the Annie Maxim House, an elderly residential facility, and fire emergency water to the Town of Rochester.

The inter-municipal project would be at no cost to the Town, although Underhill did say that he would prefer Rochester foot the bill for at least one or two of the three proposed fire hydrants, which Underhill proposed would come from the commission’s budget. The Annie Maxim House is funding the engineering and the construction.

Underhill and two other Water Commission members that night requested that the selectmen simply review the agreement, and Underhill gave some updated information such as a requested change in the size of the pipe from a 6- to 8-inch pipe to a 12-inch pipe.

“We think it’s a good thing for the town,” said Underhill. “It is bringing some more water in the town. It will help with fire protection in that end of the town.”

There are no serious requirements the Town needs to fulfill, Underhill emphasized, and with the larger pipe size, the Town of Rochester could possibly extend the line in the future to accommodate more municipal water needs.

“It’s been a long process,” said Underhill. ”We’ve been on this five or six years I think.”

Hartley said he thinks the project would be good for the Town, but he had reservations on moving forward with the agreement as presented that night because the matter hadn’t been discussed in at least nine months. He felt some residents might read about the agreement and have questions. Hartley preferred to allow residents to contact Town Hall to review the agreement before taking any further action, to which Underhill said, “At this point, it’s not a problem.”

The next meeting of the Rochester Board of Selectmen is scheduled for February 5 at 7:00 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.

Rochester Board of Selectmen

By Jean Perry