It will take at least one more meeting of the Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester Select Boards together with representatives from both Old Rochester Regional School District and ORCTV before they will vote to support contractual agreements and take them to their respective town meetings.

            Based on an agreed-upon arrangement initiated by Marion Town Administrator Jay McGrail during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Tri-Town Select Boards in the Old Rochester Regional Junior High School media room, their next meeting will take place in Marion’s Music Hall on Tuesday, August 31.

            The Town of Marion will hold a Special Town Meeting on October 11, and Rochester will hold its Special Town Meeting on October 18, so it is with that timeline in mind that the Tri-Towns wish to arrive at agreements with both ORR and ORCTV.

            While the agreement with the local cable television company would seem to be dwarfed by the ramifications of the towns’ contract with their public school district, the ORCTV discussion was far more contentious. The common complaint was the detours on the information highway and a resultant sense of a lack of control for the towns that finance the community cable station.

            “If we as selectmen are responsible for this organization to make sure it’s run responsibly, how do we do it, with what authority? We need to understand what our authority is,” said Marion Select Board member John Waterman. “If this section (9) isn’t changed, I won’t vote for this agreement. It’s just good corporate practice to do that…. This has to be revised.”

            While adding his own complaint of the absence of budgetary information, Rochester Selectman Woody Hartley questioned the legality of veto power, and Rochester Town Administrator Suzanne Szyndlar added, “We can’t lean on a non-profit.”

            Acting as host for the meeting, Mattapoisett Select Board Chair Jordan Collyer suggested reaching out to town counsel in order to solve Waterman’s question as to the nature of the participating towns’ authority.

            “They don’t have a budget unless we give them the money,” said Collyer, reminding the selectmen that ORCTV is a 501(3)(c) non-profit organization. “While we give them the money, we have the financial interest. But they are independent, so the rules that govern them are different. As long as we keep that in mind … setting up this way was determined to be in our best interest.”

            Parsing out that history and how communications trailed off is complicated, considering the amount of personnel change in ORCTV and on all three towns’ select boards.

            Citing his experience in dealing in the strictly accountable world of government contracts, Marion Select Board Chair Norm Hills articulated frustration with several points in the ORCTV agreement, focusing on the station’s contractual obligation to initiate meetings, share information, and report spending.

            Hartley, along with Hills and Waterman, complained about a lack of budget information, saying it should not have to be obtained by request.

            Hills stated that, in the absence of serial numbers for expensive television equipment, it is necessary to declare values in order to be able to collect on an insurance policy. ORCTV Director Robert Chiarito pointed to warranties. Collyer agreed with Hills that, to be properly insured, there should be a statement of values.

            Chiarito listened calmly to the complaints and said his own efforts at obtaining information from the towns have been met with frustration. He told the boards that when he joined ORCTV, the selectmen at the time fought him on any spending.

            “In a way, it turned out to be a blessing,” he said. “Five or 10 years ago we needed to make the upgrades; now we’re ahead of the game.”

            “This stuff’s contentious, Robert, and we’ll figure it out,” said McGrail, sensitive to the trend of the meeting toward an interrogation. “Since the day I’ve met you, you’ve done an amazing job for the Town of Marion. I wouldn’t have been able to run the last two town meetings without your help.

            “These are important things for these guys, and we’ll get to the bottom of it,” continued McGrail. “Don’t take it to heart. You’ve done great work and we wouldn’t be where we are without you.”

            “We’ve been operating, basically, on a handshake for the last seven years,” said Chiarito, noting that the agreement was reupped every two years until several years ago when the matter went ignored. He told the selectmen that he has had to teach his own board of directors about the TV business.

            The selectmen requested that, while ORCTV is not obligated to post its meetings as would the towns, as a courtesy, ORCTV copy the town clerks so as to keep the selectmen in the loop with the station’s activities.

            McGrail said he would review the proposed contract, extract from it a list of deliverables to satisfy informational needs of the towns, and establish a reasonable timeline that the information can be brought back to the selectmen.

            Rochester Board of Selectmen Chairman Brad Morse initiated a discussion with ORCTV on how the station can assist in creating hybrid meetings by adding Zoom capability, and the other towns’ select board members were in favor.

            In reckoning with the select board members over the ORR School District agreement, Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson assured transparency on the part of the Central Office, including Waterman’s push for a Tri-Town study of student-enrollment trends over a 10-year period.

            Also participating in the ORR District discussion was Heather Burke, the acting chair of the ORR School Committee, Marion Finance Director Judy Mooney, Attorney Nancy Campany via Zoom, and ORR Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber.

            Hartley questioned ORR’s Section 1 proposal that school committee elections not become immediately effective but wait until the change in the fiscal year (July 1). Burke said immediate changes in office after elections have been disruptive because the school year ends in June. “New members aren’t necessarily sworn-in by then and we wouldn’t have a quorum, so in the new agreement they would swear-in on July 1.”

            Hartley asked if the change would necessitate an amendment in Rochester’s election bylaws.

            “We need to understand the ramifications if, in fact, we approve that,” said Collyer. “All other elected positions within a defined term is upon the election. Good point, Woody.”

            McGrail said that Marion’s town counsel, Jon Witten, was listening in and will help guide a response. He also noted that Marion’s Finance Committee had some questions and will meet with the town’s Select Board later this summer.

            The discussion on the ORR agreement generated a consensus on the need for clarity on the ramifications of ORR’s election request, legal advice on how to deal with capital spending on a district-wide basis, an audit, and the deliverables in the agreement in one document that all three towns can reference as needed. The document would be considered dynamic and subject to update.

            Burke reminded the select board members that state law can change at any point and would necessitate another round of changes on the ORR School District’s part.

            McGrail told the stakeholders that he would need a month to prepare information in concert with Marion and Rochester representatives for the August 31 Tri-Town Select Board meeting.

            The Mattapoisett Select Board met briefly before the joint meeting to vote to sign and approve the Special Town Election Warrant for Tuesday, July 27. The Special Election will be held to fill the vacancy on the Select Board that came about with the passing of member John DeCosta.

Tri-Town Select Boards

By Mick Colageo

            The Mattapoisett School Committee met on July 1 by Zoom, went into executive session, and emerged to vote to accept a memorandum of agreement with the Mattapoisett Educators Association. The one-year agreement includes a 2.25-percent pay increase.

            Mattapoisett Town Administrator Mike Lorenco also attended the meeting and voted in the affirmative, along with committee members Carly Lavin, Tiffini Reedy, Karin Barrows, and Chair James Muse. Committee member Shannon Finning voted against the agreement for a 5-1 tally that resulted in passing the MOA.

            In Old Rochester Regional School District news, Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson recently announced that Peter Crisafulli has been hired as the new assistant principal of Sippican School in Marion. Crisafulli has over 19 years of experience as a public school administrator and 10 years working in community mental health and social services.

            “Pete has over two decades of experience in public education leadership and administration, as well as human services, and I am confident his expertise will be a valuable addition to the Sippican School team,” stated Nelson in a press release. “We look forward to welcoming Pete to our district.”

            Crisafulli’s 19 years in public school administration saw him serve from 2009 to 2018 as principal at Whately Elementary School, a public school that enrolled 116 students in 2020-21 in the western Massachusetts town. Crisafulli had been assistant principal of Deerfield Elementary School and director of the transitional education program at Frontier Regional High School in South Deerfield.

            Crisafulli has 10 years of experience in community mental health and social services, including several positions with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Holyoke. He sits on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Treehouse Foundation (foster care), and volunteers with the Friends of Children organization as a mentor for young people aging out of the foster-care system.

            In a separate press release thanking various stakeholders across the Tri-Town, Nelson lauded faculty, staff, and administration for their adjustments and contributions to the 2020-21 academic year that began with a vast majority of students attending school on a part-time basis, splitting that time with learning via remote access.

            Late in the winter, when the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education began green-lighting a return to full-time, in-person learning, ORR District schools first brought back K-2 students, followed by Grades 3-6 and eventually Grades 6-12. A small number of students opted to join the full-remote minority rather than pivot to full in-person, and the hybrid model was discontinued.

            The pivot to full-time, in-person learning required careful planning in each of the school buildings, and wherever possible, district schools maintained a 6-foot social distance, even after the state adjusted the guideline to 3 feet. Nelson thanked building, food service, technology, custodial, maintenance, and transportation staff and town health officials for providing a safe return for students and faculty.

            “Our nurses and physicians across the district continually monitored health guidance and created and adjusted our health protocols and precautionary measures as needed,” said Nelson. “Our partners across the tri-towns are always valuable advocates for the district, and we were especially grateful for their advice and assistance this year. They helped us to make decisions and overcome challenges as we planned for the known and unknown; and, as always, they were wonderful supporters of our schools.

            “Our students demonstrated incredible perseverance and resilience and made the best of various learning models and events that needed to be held in non-traditional ways. Of course, our students would not be as successful as they are each year without the support of their parents and families. We wish our entire school community a safe, healthy, and enjoyable summer.”

            The ORR Joint School Committee/Superintendents Union #55 was scheduled to meet on July 6, when it is expected the JSC will address Nelson’s mid-cycle review. The Wanderer will report on that meeting in the July edition.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett School Committee was not scheduled at adjournment. The next scheduled school committee meetings are as follows: Rochester on Thursday, September 2; Marion on Wednesday, September 8; and ORR on Wednesday, September 15. All school committee meetings are scheduled to be held at 6:30 pm.

School Committees

By Mick Colageo