The Mattapoisett Fall Special Town Meeting will take place on Monday, November 6, at 6:30 pm at Old Rochester Regional High School Auditorium. At that time, voters will be asked to transfer and spend revenue included in 11 warrant articles.

            On Monday, the Mattapoisett Select Board unanimously moved each article for voters’ consideration. Before the meeting began, member Tyler Macallister quipped that the warrant didn’t spark any surprises. The only article the board believed would be problematic for voters is Article 11, Fairhaven Sewer Treatment Plant Upgrades, weighing in at $8,000,000, Mattapoisett’s 16% share of a total project estimated at $70,000,000.

            “Sewer rates will increase,” stated Town Administrator Mike Lorenco, who confirmed when asked that Mattapoisett sewer fees will pay for the town’s portion over time. Lorenco noted that Water and Sewer Superintendent Henri Renauld is seeking to find ways to level off increases in sewer rates rather than asking the users to pony up large sums. “But there will be increases,” he concluded.

            Article 7 will address the need for additional financing over and above the Coastal Zone Management grant of $585,000 to cover any easement or confirmatory taking fees associated with the rehabilitation of Old Slough Road.

            Long discussed as an important, albeit necessary evacuation route off Angelica Point in the event of a flood emergency, Old Slough Road, it is believed, was once used as a logging road and later a bootleggers’ route to open water.

            The road appears on local mapping dated 1810 but has basically been abandoned for decades, informally absorbed into private backyards. New mapping completed late 2022 performed by Ken Motta of Field Engineering, the town’s consulting engineer, displays a roadway capable of offering an escape route should flood waters cut off existing, paved roadways. Approximately 140 structures could be serviced with Old Slough Road’s reopening.

            Working in partnership with the Mattapoisett Land Trust, which has considerable open space holdings in the neighborhood and along Old Slough Road, the town received a CZM grant in the amount of $585,000. An additional $235,000 will be needed as the town’s portion for engineering fees. “The construction estimates came in higher than expected,” Lorenco told the Wanderer, at $646,000. “There were permitting costs, engineering and survey expenses not part of the estimate.”

            Lorenco also stated that the town is satisfied with the current mapping of Old Slough Road, and that wetlands were an issue when planning rehabilitation of the ancient way.

            At the beginning of Monday’s Select Board meeting, Lorenco confirmed that the state audit certified Free Cash at $3,005,426, “…a healthy number…” and that several stabilization and other funds will benefit from a transfer of free-cash funds. But Lorenco also pointed out that if Town Meeting moves all the articles, there will remain, “approximately $1,000,000 going into the Spring Town Meeting.”

            Article 1 will transfer $575,000 to the Debt Stabilization Fund, and Article 2 $335,000 to the Mattapoisett Capital Stabilization Fund, both from free cash.

            Article 3 will appropriate $330,000 for Public Works projects such as roadways and sidewalks.

            Article 4 would appropriate $37,000 for a sewer connection to land along Industrial Drive, formerly a town dump site. Select Board member Jodi Bauer questioned the wisdom of spending taxpayer money on property that cannot be developed due to the subterrain dump site. Macillister and Lorenco advised her that the property could be developed by bringing in fresh fill material and no breaching of the former dump location. The article was moved for inclusion. Free cash would be tapped for this article.

            Also coming from free cash, $350,000 via Article 5, to be used for the Highway Building renovations.

            Amendments to the FY24 Annual Budget are included in Article 6. Those are $24,394 (part-time personnel, treasurer/collector), $100,000 (local schools) and $10,000 for the Transfer Station.

            Article 8, Confirmatory Takings Tinkham Forest $1,000, will come from free cash, and Article 9 will allow the town to establish a Stabilization Fund and to appropriate funds from the opioid settlement. Article 10 will move the proceeds from the sale of the former Water Department Building on Church Street ($353,590) from free cash to the Water Department Reserve Fund.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Select Board was not announced before adjournment.

Mattapoisett Select Board

By Marilou Newell

            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