The Marion Select Board denied two requests for sewer abatements, one of those cases especially painful given its five-figure, bottom line.

            Frederick Mock will have to pay his $11,133.56 sewer bill, despite not being present when approximately 30,000 gallons of water went through his sprinkler system at 5 Moorings Road while he was away.

            Department of Public Works Director Becky Tilden, who recommended against issuing the abatement based on established billing practices, reported to the Select Board that the owner of the private sewer system had not received an occupancy permit until after the billing period. The meter, said Tilden, was installed on July 6 and despite an initial glitch that was rectified the next day, was operable through the billing period.

            Select Board member Norm Hills compared the 30,000 gallons of water to what would be held by 3½ tanker trucks.

            “I’m surprised it didn’t wash away,” he said, explaining to Chairman Toby Burr that even without an occupancy permit, “they still owned the property. Whether they were there or not, the meter was still running.”

            Burr was admittedly torn on the matter. “We know it didn’t go into the sewer,” he said.

            Tilden said an abatement would only have precedence if the inflated bill was due to a leak outside the dwelling, and that would be a partial sewer abatement only if the property owner showed proof that it was a leak. An example would be irrigation but not a faulty toilet.

            Select Board member Randy Parker conducted several electrical inspections on behalf of Marion’s Building Department. He said it is a brand-new house with nobody in the house.

            “I’d like to do something, but I don’t know how,” he said.

            Town Administrator Geoff Gorman relayed from Marion’s legal counsel that there is support on either side of the argument.

            “I would think that volume or property certainly didn’t go through the sewer,” said Parker, who admittedly gained familiarity with the project while on five or six electrical inspections. “I want to do the right thing. I just want to be fair with everyone. … It’s too bad we don’t have some sort of a mechanism.             There’s not that much we can do about it unfortunately.”

            Hills articulated concern against setting a precedent. He further suggested that the owner should be “really upset” with the people running the sprinkler. “We weren’t in drought,” he noted.

            The vote denying the abatement was unanimous.

            Parker recused himself from the discussion and vote on the $516.12 sewer-abatement request made at 460 Front Street by property owner George Linzee.

            Tilden once again explained her recommendation against approving an abatement. She explained a billing anomaly based on estimated bills from two prior quarters.

            “I believe that the bill was due to the two estimated bills (based on the previous three quarters, one of which under prior ownership), and this one is a catch-up,” said Tilden. “I did say I’d bring it forward. … I don’t recommend (approving an abatement) because we would need a reason. Tilden further explained that consumption was running high on both meters, the one in place and the one that replaced it to test.

            The board held a shorter meeting on November 21.

            Among the board’s actions was the approval of a Water/Sewer commitment for $3,332.27 (final readings November 13.)

            Gorman was excited to promote the Old Rochester Regional Unified Basketball Team’s fundraiser game against Tri-Town Police and Fire personnel, which was to follow the meeting at the high school gym.

            Other events coming up include the Senior Dinner scheduled for Saturday, December 2, at 12:00 pm at the Cushing Community Center. Prior registration was required, as was the case for the Marion Police Brotherhood’s “Pizza with Santa” event on Sunday, December 3, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, also at the community center.

            At both events, new, unwrapped toy donations will be accepted for the annual “Fill a Cruiser” drive.

            In other actions made on Tuesday, the Select Board approved the Beverly Yacht Club’s request for a change of officers and postponed the appointment of a police officer at Chief Richard Nighelli’s request. The matter will be taken up at the board’s December 19 meeting.

            The board closed the public session of Tuesday’s meeting and entered executive session to strategize for negotiations nonunion personnel in the Marion Fire Department and the harbormaster and also with respect to litigation with Marion Golf Club.

            The next meeting of the Marion Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, December 5, at 5:00 pm at the Cushing Community Center, where the Board of Assessors will also appear for the town’s annual tax-classification public hearing. Immediately following the meeting will be the town employees’ holiday party.

Marion Select Board

By Mick Colageo

            When it came time for members of the Old Rochester Regional School Committee to respond to the administration’s presentation of the district’s MCAS scores, member Margaret McSweeny made sure that despite hard work and achievement that was reported to the committee at its November 16 public meeting, the controversial subject should not be put to bed without a passionate reminder that MCAS testing’s detractors will continue to be heard.

            “I caution us against (regarding) MCAS (results), patting us on the back too much,” said McSweeny, acknowledging the district’s need to comply and thereby qualify for state funding. “But they are not representative, (confined to) narrow range of academic achievement … inherently biased by nature.”

            McSweeny said MCAS does not address the “whole child” and does not foster creativity. “We happen to be of a higher educational background. Doing better than the state isn’t something we should be too excited about,” she said, citing statistics indicating a cynicism among faculty as well. She tempered her comments by acknowledging ORR’s recovery statistics, but also noted that the state spent over $151,000,000 per year on MCAS.

            “It’s a profitable business, something we should think about,” said McSweeny. “We should be more excited about Open (Science Education) … about our leadership.”

            ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson thanked respective high school and junior high principals Mike Devoll and Silas Coellner and Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Dr. Shari Fedorowicz for her presentation, but he also acknowledged McSweeny’s point, noting that MCAS is but one data point.

            “For me, it’s recognizing all the hard work of the students,” said Nelson in his closing sentiment to the annual MCAS conversation.

            There was no vote to be taken on MCAS, merely a discussion/visual presentation with graphs illustrating how ORR students fared in three basic areas, English Language Arts (ELA), Mathematics and Science, at different grade levels as measured against themselves in recent years and against state-average scores.

            Fedorowicz’s presentation began by highlighting statewide trends that show students in a recovery phase following adverse effects of the pandemic.

            Overall, ORR Districts students consistently perform better than last year and better than the state average in ELA and Math. Grades 3-12 score 11% above the state average in ELA. ORR students’ post-pandemic recovery rates are also higher, but in Science ORR has regressed from last year, albeit maintaining better grades than the state average.

            Coellner told the committee that Grades 7 and 8 showed a dip from 2019 to 2021. “We were just reaching our stride, we were peaking in 2019,” he said. Coellner reported that Math scores in junior high have been similar to ELA, but Grade 8 fell below the state average in geometry.

            Devoll identified a dip at the high school from 2022 to 2023. “We are pleased with our scores,” he said, qualifying that with a need to remediate weak areas. “We want them to graduate with a level of proficiency.”

            Fedorowicz said that Math for Grades 3-12 across the ORR District rate above the state average by 10% and better than last year. Grades 7, 8 and 10 are showing improving rates of recovery but that student growth is below the state average.

            Science performance has dipped from last year. Fedorowicz pointed to the district’s focus on ELA and Math coming out of the pandemic.

            Committee Vice Chairperson Matt Monteiro, who ran the meeting in Chairperson Michelle Smith’s absence, asked if there is a district-wide plan to address a common dip in performance. Coellner said he had prepared himself to “not do so well” and considers ORR’s Grade 7-8 scores a “pleasant surprise.”

            Devoll said there is good news from the freshman class, which is apparently thriving on experience in what administration refers to as “Open Sci. Ed.” Devoll said results indicate that contrary to some past practices, introducing topics earlier in the academic year results in better MCAS testing in June. Fedorowicz noted that “these freshmen were fifth graders in 2020.” She had similarly pointed out that third graders were in Kindergarten in 2020.

            While ELA remains a district-wide area of strength, Coellner itemized an action plan that would take a closer look at figurative language, inference and the purpose of a paragraph in a passage, with greater emphasis on writing and the usage of small-group interventions.

            ORRHS students performed better than the state average on questions about poetry, informational texts and when asked to make inferences about characters in fictional texts.

            Action steps for ELA at the high school level will teach students how to identify the rhetorical situation of a writing assignment, incorporate more comparison/contrast, poetry assignments and emphasize textual evidence.

            Math is an area of strength at both the junior and senior high schools, and the high school plans to incorporate MCAS-related subjects including Biology (mitosis in particular) into MCAS test preparation.

            In her summation, Fedorowicz said ORR was above the state average and better than they were last year. That noted, she said, “We need to address the whole child,” focusing on lingering effects of the pandemic from remote education and return-to-school protocols, etc.

            In other business, the committee voted to approve the American Field Service Club’s field trip to New York City.

            The committee approved the following donations: an umbrella plant from Sarah Whinnem and two peace lilies from the Dawson-Gallavotti family to the CORE Committee to decorate the high school lobby; $75 from the Mattapoisett Woman’s Club on behalf of Frances-Feliz Kearns to Mr. Brian Almeida, Engineering Science teacher at ORRJH (Kearns abstained on this vote); eight $25 gift cards from Target and eight $25 gift cards from Walmart from Mattapoisett residents Nancy Gauvin and Louise Vandal, who donate their time to local charities and in collaboration donate the gift cards to assist local student families over the holidays; two books from Greta and Tim Fox, “Nimona” by Noelle Stevenson and “The City of Ember” by Jeanne Duprau; donations for the 30th Tri-Town Senior Citizens Thanksgiving Dinner hosted by the Junior High School; monetary donations for food and paper goods including apple cider (15 gallons) and 60 store-bought apple pies; gift cards; door prizes; and seasonal decorations from Kenny’s Farm Stand and Shaw’s supermarket (including leftover pumpkins, corn stalks, gourds, etc.)

The committee reviewed the draft school calendar for 2024-25; Nelson said he would like to see the Joint             School Committee act on the calendar at its January meeting.

            The committee approved a list of items for disposal.

            In his Financial Report to the committee, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber estimated that there remains $1,100,000 in the district’s operating budget (not including capital approved in previous budgets.) McSweeny publicly thanked Barber for his work.

            Nelson said that with debt soon to come off the rolls, it has become prudent for the administration to spend the next few months going through one school building per week to gain information that will facilitate decisions later this winter.

            Subbing for Smith, Monteiro used the Chairperson’s Report to express appreciation for all the effort, partnership and respect that the committee has returned to in this “quieter year so far” and the committee’s ability to “work together as we have,” wishing the school community a “Happy Thanksgiving.”

            Nelson pointed to the change in athletic seasons, the relaunch of an alumni committee and ORR’s production of “Romeo & Juliet” which was opening on the night of the meeting. “A lot of great stuff happening,” he said.

            Fedorowicz said that the prior week’s Project 351 kickoff for teachers and student leaders provided a great opportunity. ORR is in Year 2 now of Project 351, and the district is “moving fast and progressing very quickly.” Fedorowicz said there are indicators that ORR is already being viewed as a potential model for the implementation of the program, and she credited Lauren Mallette of the Guidance Department for leading the charge.

            Nelson publicly thanked former Boston Celtics guard Dana Barros for sharing his story with Project 351 students.

            The ORR Unified Basketball Team was scheduled to cap off its undefeated season by playing against local Fire and Police on Tuesday, November 21, at ORRHS. Devoll also pointed to the football team’s upcoming Thanksgiving Day game at Apponequet and Friday’s alumni soccer game.

            Sippican Healthcare Center has responded with a warm letter of appreciation from participants in ORR’s National Honor Society Memoir project organized by Al Caron, in which senior citizens shared their life stories and students created journals to be shared with their families.

            Coellner said that the Tri-Town Thanksgiving Banquet is coming back.

            Student representative Jaymison Gunschel introduced new student representative Ezra Thompson.

            Reporting on Mattapoisett, committee member Jim Muse announced that Old Hammondtown Principal Kevin Tavares, after 30 years of service, is retiring at the end of the school year. “I’ve known Kevin for 30 years … fantastic educator and fantastic person, and I wish him the best,” said Muse.

            The next meeting of the ORR School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, December 21, and the next meeting of the Joint School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, January 18, 2024. Both meetings will begin at 6:30 pm in the ORRJH media room, 133 Marion Road, Mattapoisett, MA 02739.

ORR School Committee

By Mick Colageo