The Rochester Select Board held a special meeting on Tuesday afternoon at Town Hall to vote in Ashling McLaughlin as the town’s new full-time treasurer effective Monday, January 8.

            “We had number of candidates, and Ashling certainly showed herself to be the best. … She interviewed well, he references were outstanding,” said Town Administrator Glenn Cannon, who was happy to report an enthusiastic recommendation from Mattapoisett Town Administrator Mike Lorenco. “You don’t always get that vibe from the other TA’s.”

            McLaughlin had already given the Town of Mattapoisett notice. “I’ve been very transparent with them,” she said.

            The contract language makes McLaughlin treasurer for the Town of Rochester until the agreement is revoked by the Select Board.

            After serving as Rochester’s treasurer for the last two years and four months, Kory Lydon returned this month to the Town of Duxbury as town treasurer. Lydon had served Duxbury as assistant treasurer for five years prior to coming to Rochester.

            In a related vote, Diana Knapp, the town’s payroll administrator, will serve as Rochester’s interim treasurer on a part-time basis through the January 1-7 work week.

            The original agreement designated Knapp the assistant treasurer, but Cannon told the board that the bank was not comfortable with that term. “It’s belt and suspenders for me,” said Cannon, who openly considered it less of a hassle to ask the Select Board to revise its terminology than to argue with the bank.

            Knapp’s term as interim treasurer will expire when McLaughlin starts.

            In his Town Administrator’s Report, Cannon publicly thanked the town’s Department of Public Works, Facilities Manager and Highway Department for its part in responding to storm damage sustained on December 18.

            “I know we didn’t get the response we wanted from Eversource, but our crews (did a great job),” said Cannon.

            Select Board Chairman Paul Ciaburri was less diplomatic in referring to the “horrible response” from Eversource.

            “This storm, they dropped the ball big time,” he said. “The portal they’re using now had the damage on Route 105 as being fixed. It wasn’t even touched. They didn’t even have the tree out of the road.”

            Ciaburri twice noted that Eversource had responded well in prior storms and said he spoke to the company’s representatives on December 19.

            “The last few years they’ve done a pretty good job with tree trimming,” he said but restated that, “when (the residents) really needed them, they were gone.”

In other news emanating from Cannon’s report to the board, the Rochester Highway Department is the recipient of a Chapter 90 (state) grant in the amount of $190,000 to be used in survey work.

            The Council on Aging Senior Center on Dexter Lane has a new custodian, Paul Santos, who will work 15 hours per week. Cleaning needs beyond what Santos can provide in those part-time hours will be hired out.

            The Town of Marion will host a Tri-Town Select Board meeting on Tuesday, January 9, at 7:00 pm at the Music Hall on Front Street across from Island Wharf.

            Cannon told the board he met with tri-town town administrators to discuss a broadband, infrastructural grant that will not require matching funds but will presumably enable the towns to identify where their signal deficiencies are. The Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development District (SRPEDD) will also participate.

            Cannon outlined a tentative schedule of Select Board meetings for the 2024 winter, starting with Tuesday, January 2. He suggested the possibility of a short meeting in the days before the Special Town Meeting scheduled for January 22 at Rochester Memorial School.

            The board intends to meet on Monday February 5 and possibly on February 20, on March 4 and March 18, on April 1, and on May 15.

            The board entered executive session pursuant to Open Meeting Law (Chapter 30, Section 21(a)(2)) to conduct strategy in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel and did not return to open session.

            The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, January 2, at 6:00 pm at the Senior Center on Dexter Lane.

Rochester Select Board

By Mick Colageo

            In a continued public hearing held November 30 in which applicants Benjamin and Elizabeth Frade had sought a Special Permit for an in-home, dog-training business at 16 Bishop Road, Rochester, Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Dave Arancio read into the record a November 21 letter from Representative Richard Manning that the Frades have withdrawn their application without prejudice. The five members of the ZBA in attendance voted to accept that withdrawal.

            An interested citizen in a room full of attendees at the Senior Center asked for clarification on the status of ongoing dog-related activities at the address. The question posed was whether apparent, ongoing activities would require a hobby license (because it was asserted there were more than two dogs at the address), along with proof that the dogs are owned by the resident.

            After some discussion and interaction, the ZBA’s involvement in the matter was concluded, but citizens were advised to follow the application at town offices. Then the entire room full of attendees got up and exited the building.

            When it met in November, the Planning Board did not appoint any of its members to the Bylaw Review Committee, according to Arancio, who told ZBA members that he had offered to attend the Planning Board’s December meeting and suggested that such a committee “hit the ground running.”

            “I will tell you that the last time there was a Bylaw Review Committee, nobody from the Planning Board even showed up,” said ZBA member Richard Cutler.

            Arancio indicated that the Planning Board envisions a Bylaw Review Committee setting its schedule similarly to the Public Safety Feasibility Study Committee that met situationally. He also noted that while the Planning Board would hold a public hearing on any proposed bylaw change, voters would ultimately decide on any proposed bylaw change at Town Meeting.

            [Citing a full slate of commitments already in place, Arancio would request at the December 11 Select Board meeting that his appointment as chair of the new Zoning By-Law Review Committee be temporary with a plan to elect officers at the new committee’s first meeting.]

            With no petitions for meetings that would have been scheduled for December 14 and December 28, the membership determined to forgo a December meeting and schedule the next meeting of the Rochester ZBA in 2024.

Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals

By Mick Colageo

            Alignment across the Old Rochester Regional School District, it was agreed by the Mattapoisett School Committee, is essential to strengthening learning at the most local level.

            The committee met on December 7 to review and vote to approve the 2023-24 School Improvement Plan, which was presented by local elementary school principals Dr. Linda Ashley and Kevin Tavares within the context of the Old Rochester Regional School District’s Vision 2028 strategic plan.

            Local schools will have a one-year improvement plan, then go back to two-year models, to be in synch with ORR’s five-year plan.

            Mission, Vision and Core Values are the same across the district, especially in terms of literacy and curriculum.

            Ashley, the principal at Center School, discussed the draft plan, meeting with other district principals, and arriving at action steps that include implementation of the district-wide, core literacy program, Into Reading and the Science of Reading, in collaboration with The Hill for Literacy and the effort to provide teachers with Into Reading resources and professional development.

            “The big, overarching district goal,” Ashley stated, is to establish common assessment practices across grade levels with horizontal and vertical alignment. A common assessment plan and schedule will be established across the district.

            “We are literally tying all the building-level work to our strategic plan,” said ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson, who reminded the committee that while the district-wide Vision 2028 included five initiatives under each facet of the strategic plan, not every initiative would be tackled in Year 1. “So what you’re seeing is that the initiatives in each objective that are scheduled to start in Year 1 of the Strategic Plan, now are having goals presented at the building level in terms of what Year 1 work needs to be done in each of the schools either individually or collectively.”

            Ashley said that the District Instructional Council members and select staff from Center and Old Hammondtown schools will review and update the curriculum content.

            The overarching goal in the second part of the School Improvement Plan is related to Teaching and Learning and begins by defining and revising the process of professional development so as to support equitable teaching and learning with consistent and dedicated time.

            Tavares, principal at Old Hammondtown School, introduced Strategic Initiative Number 3 related to the strengthening of support systems.

            Action steps include weekly meetings of “response to intervention” (RTI) teams, ensuring that students needing those steps are addressed. FLEX intervention blocks in the weekly schedule will be used for this work.

            “I think it’s been a goal of the superintendent, where we feed into the junior high, to have all three towns, so you’ll see the words ‘district-wide systems’ throughout this (presentation),” said Tavares.

            Climate and culture are at the core of Strategic Initiative Number 4. Principals, teachers and adjustment counselors will collaborate to promote strong social as well as academic skills.

            The “responsive classroom” is based on meetings to establish classroom rules, behavioral supports and restorative practices to apply social-emotional learning. The outcome hoped for is discipline.

            Communication with families and engaging students in leadership roles, including Project 351.

Safe schooling is a goal, including cybersecurity training, ALICE (alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate) training and fire drills.

            Inventory and meetings with Facilities Director Gene Jones and Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber will be part of the teachers’ follow-up on classroom needs.

            The committee voted 4-0 to approve the School Improvement Plan.

            In her Chairperson’s Report, Carly Lavin reported having received information for a potential policy from a member of the community and has referred that information to the district police-review process. Member Cristin Cowles will report back to the committee.

            “For me there is no doubt the focus this year has been on our new literacy curriculum,” said Lavin, calling it “something the committee is really proud of.” She said she is thankful for the hard work by everyone involved. Lavin also noted that the impact has extended beyond the classrooms into family life, as many students are learning literacy in a new way.

            “Change, while challenging, is the catalyst that propels us toward new heights, and we’ve really just started to imagine what that could be for our students and our children,” said Lavin.

            With that, Lavin recognized the many people who are working toward helping the schools go through the change.

            Given the floor, Nelson spoke on behalf of administration and talked about some recent extracurricular activities, including the Unified Basketball Team’s fundraising game against tri-town Police and Fire personnel.

            He noted the impending retirement of Tavares and indicated that the search process will soon commence.

            In the absence of Barber, Nelson reported that the Mattapoisett School District operating budget has an unencumbered $747,911 at its disposal. Obligations to Bristol County Agricultural School will not affect those funds, according to Barber, said Nelson.

            The Facilities Report included quotes to paint the Center School clock tower. Breakfast and lunch counts continue to be strong at both Center and Old Hammondtown schools, and the Thanksgiving banquet that had not been held since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic was a major success.

            At the recommendation of the administration, the committee voted to approve the admittance of the Brockton Public Schools and Whitman-Hanson Regional School districts as new READS Collaborative member districts effective July 1, 2024.

            Sarah Leahy has been brought aboard as the music/chorus teacher and Luis Rivera as a cook.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, January 11, 2024, at 6:30 pm, and the next meeting of the Joint School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, January 18, 2024, at 6:30 pm.

Mattapoisett School Committee

By Mick Colageo