After a Classification Hearing held on October 12, the Rochester Select Board voted to maintain a residential factor of one, resulting in a continuation of the town’s practice of Residential and Commercial/Industrial properties being taxed at the same rate for FY24. Rochester’s estimated tax rate for FY24 is $11.06, down 6.82% from FY23.

            “I’m trying to bring new business into the town,” said Select Board member Adam Murphy, who was happy to help avoid discouraging that very thing.

            The average Single-Family-Home assessment for FY24 is $583,261, an 11.76% increase over FY23. The average single-family tax bill is $6,450.87, up 4.13% from FY23.

            The average Condominium assessment for FY24 is $494,697, up 3.97% from FY23, and the average tax bill is $5,471.35, down 3.12% from FY23.

            The average Commercial/Industrial assessment for FY24 is $698,903, up 11.27% from FY23, and the average tax bill is $7,729.87, up 3.7% from FY23.

            The one-agenda-item public meeting was centered around a report from Rochester Director of Assessing Karen Trudeau, who read pertinent information into the record and explained that towns with high percentages of commercial property tend to use a split tax rate. Doing so in Rochester, she indicated, would not result in significant savings.

            A shift in the tax rate would have lowered the average residential tax bill between $93.33 and $489.94 while, at the same time, increasing Commercial, Industrial and Personal tax bills between $706.09 and $3,871.92.

            Of the five property classes in Rochester, 86.77% is dominated by residential land with a Full and Fair Cash Valuation of $1,286,285,865. Of the Commercial, Industrial and Personal property totaling 13.23%, Trudeau said in her report that much of that land is small business and Chapter land.

            Appearing on Zoom, Board of Assessors member Jana Cavanaugh publicly thanked Trudeau and administrative assistants Margaret Gonneville and Jennifer Allain for their hard work preparing the Select Board members for their decision.

            Rochester’s top five taxpayers are: NStar Electric ($36,563,890 value, $405,392.02 tax bill); Algonquin Gas ($22,569,200 value, $249,615.35 tax bill); SEMASS Partnership ($22,504,700 value, $248,901.98 tax bill); Buzzards Bay Solar ($17,244,900 value, $190,728.59 tax bill) and EL Harvey & Sons ($13,860,500 value, $153,297.13 tax bill.)

            Industrial property takes up 5.52% of Rochester land valued at $81,820,355. Personal Property takes up 4.77% valued at $70,775,390 and Commercial takes up 2.94% valued at $43,605,710. There is no Open Space in Rochester.

            The total value of Rochester’s real estate and personal property is $1,482,487,320, up 11.64% from FY23 with an estimated tax levy of $16,403,090.

            The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, October 24, at 6:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Select Board

By Mick Colageo

At its opening public meeting of the 2023-24 academic year, the Old Rochester Regional Joint School Committee/Superintendent’s Union #55 heard from Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner, whom Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson suggested the district employ as a facilitator for Vision 2028, ORR’s strategic plan for the next five years.

            “Finally, we’re here,” said Nelson, addressing the committees on September 28. He alluded to the many hours of work put into the model last year, including strategic initiatives and the beginning of action planning.

            Gilbert-Whitner, a former superintendent in the Whitman-Hanson regional district, coached Nelson in 2020 through the new superintendent’s induction program. Now she has worked with ORR and appeared on September 28 to review the process.

            As prescribed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), a process was developed beginning in March 2023 with a focus on the planning and alignment of many programs over three steps: 1. Create the plan; 2. Align the plan; 3. Implement the plan.

            Gilbert-Whitner used a PowerPoint presentation to summarize the steps that have brought the district to its current position. She said the efforts to analyze district performance, educator evaluation, community feedback for trends and patterns, then work backward to design an improvement strategy, “we’re pretty much done doing that.”

            The next two phases will include connecting the school plan to the ORR District plan. “A big part of this is community engagement … and the most important part of all and what you’re going to be moving to today is implementing the plan,” said Gilbert-Whitner.

            The third part will establish progress and use impact-related benchmarks, monitor and publicly report progress, and if necessary, redesign the District Plan.

            “And as you will see, the plan in and of itself is just a few pages. But the most important part of that plan are the annual action plans,” said Gilbert-Whitner. “This is what your leadership team and the planning committee are working on now, developing annual action plans that are really the driver … if the plan needs to be redesigned, it’s part of a flexible, living model so that can be done as well.”

            The accessibility to the plan to everyday life at school is where Gilbert-Whitner indicated that planning has come a long way.

            “The best part of planning for success is you don’t have a … large binder that often sat on the shelf and collected dust. Planning for success will not do that. It will be present every single day in the lives of your youngest student to your oldest student and really working to improve teaching and learning for all of them,” she said.

            In comparing the state’s model to ORR’s, Gilbert-Whitner alluded to ORR’s work on literacy and how a strategic plan connects that effort to the larger vision.

            “Most importantly – and we worked hard on this – what are the outcomes? If we meet our objectives, we implement our initiatives, what at the end of this plan in 2028 will we be able to say we’ve achieved? How do they impact the instructional core, and how do they make a difference for students? And these are measurable objectives,” Gilbert-Whitner stated.

            From March 13 to the dog days of the summer, Gilbert-Whitner worked with ORR’s Planning and Administrative Leadership teams over the course of six team retreats followed by action-planning sessions in June and August. The Planning Team was comprised of a variety of stakeholders, including teachers and community representatives.

            Gilbert-Whitner recommended that ORR’s planning for success and implementation of the district plan, including putting the monitoring plan in place so that it impacts the community as well as the administration and school.

            “Everyone should be aware that this is our plan, that we’re paying very close attention to it, and when things don’t go as we wish that they would, we’re flexible, we’re able to modify, and we get back and we report out on that. Monitoring the plan is incredibly important to achieving your outcomes that you’ve designed,” said Gilbert-Whitner, who stressed the importance of aligning the monitoring plan with actions plans. “Action plans need to be monitored throughout the school year.”

            She added that despite her career as a superintendent, this was something she needed to learn. As a result, monitoring of action plans was put on school-committee meeting agendas and taken into account during budgeting season.

            At the conclusion of Gilbert-Whitner’s introduction, ORR Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Dr. Shari Fedorowicz dug deeper into Core Values “Think, Learn, Care,” and ORRHS Principal Mike Devoll discussed the “portrait of an ORR graduate” within the district’s five objectives that include curriculum, leadership to implement that curriculum, establish assessment practices and management.

            Devoll said ORR will carry the curriculum through the next five years and said it will be a community effort. He talked about grade-level graduates, specific ways those students would be prepared to advance and what that looks like. He said there would be shared leadership and outlined a series of outcomes planned for June 30, 2024.

            Sippican Elementary School Principal Marla Brown then outlined the implementation process, especially as supported by professional development and resources that align with the portrait of a graduate.

            New Interim Director of Student Services Kristine Lincoln talked about support throughout the ORR District for the academic, behavioral and social components of the program. Other aspects include the climate and culture necessary to achieve the objectives of the program.

            Nelson emphasized the teamwork involved in creating and planning Vision 2028 and promised updates to the community.

            With that, both sides of the JSC voted unanimously to approve the plan as presented.

            Nelson provided the JSC a progress report on his Mid-Cycle Review, based on two-year superintendent’s goals that were presented to the committee a year ago.

            Thanking the Superintendent’s Goals 2022-24 Subcommittee of Nichole Daniel, Anne Fernandes, Sharon Hartley, Carly Lavin, Matthew Monteiro and Michelle Smith for their work assisting in goal development, Nelson said the bulk of the subcommittee’s work lies ahead in terms of feedback.

            He discussed how his personal goals align with Vision 2023 (and 2028) and School Improvement plans in the district.

            The four goals are: supporting teaching, learning and sense of belonging; developing the new five-year strategic plan (Vision 2028); completion of the state’s New Superintendent Induction program; and a communication enhancement strategy. For each goal, Nelson outlined key actions, benchmarks to measure progress, and the resources that would be used.

            The JSC heard from Fedorowicz on the Professional Developmental Plan for the 2023-24 school year and voted to approve. Fedorowicz highlighted the 2022-23 plan, noting that over 200 educators responded to a survey conducted for feedback purposes to inform the new plan.

            The committees reviewed a presentation of the current Curriculum Review Cycle. Fedorowicz described an in-depth document reviewing math, science and world languages as well as the literacy program that has been the district focus. A council will work with the document at the beginning and end of the school year, assess needs and resources and alignment with state mandates. “It’s great ideas, but we have to fund them,” said Nelson, who encouraged committee members to watch a video on the subject.

            The committees voted to approve the changes to Substitute Daily Rates for the 2023-24 school year. One of those changes will pay long-time but recently retired full-time teachers at the same wage should they take on a substitute teacher’s role in retirement.

            The JSC reviewed and approved many alterations to policies, most notably allowing 30 rather than 15 minutes of Public Comment at School Committee Meetings (plus other changes to address those speaking without permission of the chair), as was reviewed and recommended by the JSC, recommended in turn by the Policy Subcommittee and reviewed by legal counsel.

            Nearing the end of a long list of policies, Nelson noted a hold requested by member Margaret McSweeny related to a fundraising policy. McSweeny said her point was not to flag a particular, ongoing fundraiser but solely to bring to the attention of the committee a conflict between the activity and the language of the policy as proposed.

            At the enthusiastic motion of committee member Jim Muse, acknowledging Lincoln for all her years of “fantastic service to our school district,” the JSC voted to appoint Lincoln to interim director of Student Services.

            The JSC approved the following meeting dates for 2024: January 18, March 28 and June 20.

            During committee reorganization, Sharon Hartley accepted a nomination for her to continue as chairperson of the Superintendent Union #55 side of the Joint School Committee. Opening remarks by Hartley and respective ORR Chairperson Michelle Smith reflected on the need for unity.

            The JSC entered executive session to discuss collective-bargaining strategy and to comply with the laws and federal grant-in-aid requirements and only returned to adjourn.

            The next meeting of the ORR Joint School Committee/Superintendent’s Union #55 is scheduled for Thursday, January 18, 2024, at 6:30 pm in the ORR Junior High media room.

ORR Joint School Committee/Superintendent’s Union #55

By Mick Colageo

            Marion Health Director Lori Desmarais brought to the Marion Board of Health’s October 5 public meeting attention a conversation she had with Marion Building Commissioner Bob Grillo, who has received recent requests to install bathrooms in garages to be used for office space (not a residence.)

            “Right now, we don’t currently have anything that defines whether or not they need to do anything for the septic, or add anything or coming before the board,” Desmarais explained. “Just wondering for future discussion, defining what a bedroom is or what we want the process to be (should a contractor approach the board) in those situations.”

            Noting the considerable time such a subject could take, Board of Health Chairman Dr. Ed Hoffer said the subject will be on the board’s next meeting agenda.

            On September 28, the town held a drive-through flu-vaccine clinic for 140 preregistered patients at the Cushing Community Center. Prior to that event, Marion had distributed 312 vaccines with a visit that day to Little Neck Village and plans to continue with home visits and clinics at Tabor Academy and Sippican Elementary School.

            Desmarais said that 100 residents have responded to a survey indicating interest in the Moderna COVID-19 booster shot. She said the booster is now privately purchased and no longer free from the federal government. The cost to the town would be $115 per dose with a 10-dose minimum purchase, money that Desmarais said the Health Department has in its revolving fund. Reimbursement from Medicare would exceed that amount, and Hoffer suggested enough might be left over to vaccinate someone who is uninsured.

            Like the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna also arrives frozen and can be refrigerated for up to 30 days.

            Desmarais is working on an agreement that will allow Marion to distribute a shingles vaccine. $183.22 per dose (the vaccine requires two doses separated by several weeks.) Medicare coverage ranges between $129 and $183.

            Pneumonia and tetanus are also being considered.

            In other disease updates, Marion has had one mosquito among the 162 found in Massachusetts with West Nile virus, putting the town at moderate risk. There have been no human or animal cases among the 26 positive discoveries of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), leaving Marion at low risk. Most cases were found in Worcester County but some in Bristol County. “Until we have that first frost, there’s always obviously the risk,” said Desmarais.

            The owners at 618D Delano Road have proposed a 1,500-gallon septic tank with six, 500-gallon leaching chambers. However, noted Health Agent Shallyn Rodriguez in her report, because the dwelling has expanded from three to five bedrooms, the Marion Sanitary Code requires a tank capacity of at least 2,000 gallons.

            “With the increase in flow, I’m not sure he’s aware that now it has to be an alternative system,” she said, who was waiting on a response from the owner as she reported to the board.

            “So close and yet so far away from the sewer line,” noted board member Albin Johnson.

            Rick Charon of Charon Associates appeared on behalf of the owner at 406 Point Road where a new construction is planned, and he told the board a second page of his proposal was missed by the board’s consultant. That page, said Charon, demonstrated the proposal’s ability to comply with size regulations.

            Charon said the 8-acre property is dominated by wetlands and buffer zones. “We don’t really have a lot of room to work with,” he said, noting that the proposal includes the pressure-dose system that allows for a 50% area reduction.

            With that, the board voted to approve the system as proposed by Charon.

            In her report on monthly Innovative/Alternative treatment data (I/A), Rodriguez indicated successful treatment.

            Reporting on Chapter 2 housing-inspection and complaint updates, Rodriguez told the board that the main structure at 28 Pitcher Street has been redone all around, including the porch. Grillo visited the site to ensure the backside obstructions were properly boarded up.

            Regarding the trailer at 357 Point Road, Rodriguez said inspections were ongoing, and Desmarais relayed information from Grillo indicating that the process is nearing completion. The board voted to grant the trailer permit another two weeks.

            The next meeting of the Marion Board of Health is scheduled for Thursday, October 19, at 4:30 pm at the Police Station.

Marion Board of Health

By Mick Colageo