Subscribe now

The Full Story

Superintendent Katie Roberts thanked the district’s facilities director and team for their work through the weekend storm.

I just wanted to report to the school committee that both South School and Hingham High experienced some pretty significant roof leaks that required intervention by the facilities team and the associated cleanup with that. There were some additional minor cleanup items at the other buildings, but South and the High School experienced the most significant water intrusion.
— Katie Roberts, Superintendent 2:07

The superintendent said the Select Board voted Tuesday, Sept. 22, to place three warrant articles related to the Plymouth River, South and High School building projects on the warrant for an Oct. 29 special town meeting. The work includes roof projects at Plymouth River and South School and roof and HVAC projects at the High School.

The district has scheduled three information sessions ahead of town meeting: in person on Wednesday, Oct. 7, in Room 103 at the high school, and by Zoom on Oct. 15 and Oct. 21. District leadership, the 2025 School Building Committee and the project design teams will attend to outline the need for and scope of each project, the superintendent said.

Committee Member Kerry Ni broke into the report to flag a point of confusion from conversations around town: the projects must pass at special town meeting and again at the ballot box. Ni urged residents to turn out for both, pointing to the weekend leaks. Roberts said district graphics had been updated to include the ballot vote, which will be held on a separate ballot from the regular ballot.

Chair Jen Benham, reporting for the School Building Committee, said the panel is meeting weekly and held an emergency meeting after the design team received new information from the MSBA on total cost and on which costs related to solar panels and the reinforced structure of the rooftop are reimbursable. The final numbers went to the advisory committee, and the price went up slightly, Benham said.

Updated figures for Plymouth River and South followed the next week. At South, Benham said, the project’s cost did not increase; the change came from the MSBA reimbursement and was small, not enough to influence the estimated taxpayer cost. At Plymouth River, the reimbursement went down, so the cost to the town went up. The advisory committee approved those numbers as well, Benham said, and has approved two of the warrant articles, with a review of the third set for a Thursday meeting.

Ni asked whether the figures would keep moving and was told they will fluctuate weekly or biweekly until the projects go out to bid, though nothing drastic is anticipated; a supplement with the final number may be provided, and there will be a solid firm number by town meeting.

The superintendent stressed that schematic designs represent about 30% of the full design process, calling the current figures a very solid estimate for that stage. Aisha Oppong, Executive Director of Business & Support Services, said the MSBA plans to come back within the next week or two to settle what will go before its board, which will produce a solid reimbursement number based on current costs, with the final figure coming after bid.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

The Plymouth River Elementary School roof carries a $16.37 million total project budget; the South Elementary School roof, $8.576 million 6:28; and the high school roof and HVAC project, $1.115 million in additional design funds and an expanded scope of expenditures.

The committee had kept a full roof deck replacement in the schematic design package while evaluating whether any of that deck could be saved. Updated structural information closed that option, and the committee voted to keep the full replacement in scope and to designate portions of the deck as solar-ready, which reaches MSBA funds for structural reinforcement that are uncapped when tied to solar readiness. The MSBA also returned questions on the schematic submittal, and missed MAAB items are now inside both schools’ numbers.

Reimbursement is estimated at 36.89% of eligible costs, which produces an estimated grant of $3.02 million for South Elementary and $5.76 million for Plymouth River. The estimated town share is $5.56 million for South, $10.61 million for Plymouth River and $16.17 million for the two combined. Every one of those numbers turns on which costs the MSBA rules eligible, and roof work carries a $100-per-square-foot cap that structural work tied to solar readiness sits outside of. Financing is figured at 30 years and 4.5%. A tax estimator that lets a resident compare their own assessed value against a table of tax impacts is being finalized for release late this week or early next. Article C, the high school item, carries no tax impact.

All three roofs are hovering around 30 years old, some Plymouth River portions are original to the building, and one section at South still has original timber in its structural supports. Water infiltration runs through all three buildings, including over critical infrastructure such as control panel rooms, snow loads disrupted programming at Plymouth River last winter, the school was evacuated twice last year, and basketball games at the high school were canceled because of water in the gym. Fronting the $1.115 million saves roughly five months of escalation costs on the high school project and allows construction, including digging geothermal wells, to start next summer rather than during the school year.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

Work on the roundabout began around 2022, after a fatality at the intersection of Main, Middle and Short streets led the town and the police department into a MassDOT road safety audit. That audit’s consultant laid out several fixes. Signalization would have put mast arms on Article 97 land and could have forced a taking of private property. The roundabout required no taking, changed no Article 97 land, needed no special legislation, and rated as both the safest option and the most efficient.

The amendment approved Tuesday pays the town’s traffic engineering consultant to finish design, prepare the project for bidding and provide construction quality assurance. It also widens the design scope to roadways picked up by water main work, including an extension of Main Street and part of Levitt Street, with lighter work on Short Street and School Street. The money comes from Chapter 90, roughly half in fiscal 2027 and the balance rolling into fiscal 2028.

Construction is funded separately. The town submitted a design that was about 95% complete to MassDOT’s Complete Streets program and won a $1 million construction award, and that award expires December 31, 2027. The money has to be spent before that date for the town to be reimbursed, which sets the rest of the calendar: design finished by mid- to late November, bidding in late December or early January, a contract in place in February, and ground broken in April.

Four to six months of construction starting in April covers the July 4 parade and reaches the start of the school year at Hingham High. Chair Liz Klein asked whether the work could be scheduled around the school year, was told it could not.

Member Bill Ramsey asked that the contract obligate the contractor to keep the parade route passable and safe for bystanders, and Town Engineer JR Frey said the requirement would go into the bid solicitation. Frey said the water portion could conceivably begin earlier, though he would not commit to it.

Select Board member Julie Strehle pressed on the funding year and on the water main work, which has to be finished before the roundabout surface goes in. Both will be bid as a single contract, with the water crews breaking ground in April and the road construction following behind.

I just love to hear that when there’s going to be a road construction project that you’re teeing it up, lining it up with Weir River water system, that’s living into the promise of owning our own water system and having control over that. — Select Board Member Julie Strehle

Frey said the fire department’s quint (pumper) and ambulances can get through the roundabout, with signage set so the overhanging bucket clears, and that no part of the Town Common will fall within the roadway or the curb line.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

Matthew Meehan, Director of Facilities, separated the two problems: the boilers are heating, and heating is the smaller one.

“If we replace the boilers, great. All we’re doing is replacing the heat that is provided to the ventilation systems,” he said. Several rooftop units failed over the winter and had to be recouped immediately.

The boilers are being dealt with anyway, because the alternative was worse. The district is procuring three or four new boilers at 3 million BTUs each to take a single 10-million-BTU unit offline, with work beginning around mid-December. The new units are roughly the size of a small refrigerator and would be craned in on the Pleasant Street side of the building. Boiler number one brought a service technician back four times last year; it has been stable since the end of February, after pump circulators and three expansion tanks were added.

The district had considered renting a backup boiler instead. That came in at about $120,000 for a single heating season, before piping into the existing building and before engineering. Multiplied across the years the high school project will take, Meehan said, the cost was extraordinary. The new boilers will instead stay in place as full backup to whatever HVAC system the project installs — though the MSBA will not fund them.

Executive Director of Business & Support Services, Aisha Oppong, added that none of this replaces the project now underway — it complements it.

Meehan also reported that every HVAC system, boiler, domestic hot water system and distribution system in the district received preventive maintenance this summer, which was not true a year ago, along with every filter, kitchen overhead and exhaust fan. HVAC runs 40 to 50 percent of the maintenance budget in any given year. The high school consumed most of this year’s maintenance spending, roughly half of it on boilers alone — a figure that excludes the town meeting articles for the life safety system.

The committee adopted the PROTECT Act policy on a single read, waiving its usual second, and Hingham joins neighboring South Shore districts this week to put the state-required policy in place. The state issued the requirement about three days before its own Sept. 1 deadline. The district’s procedure was already written; the policy is the paperwork catching up. It governs what happens if law enforcement officers come to a school and how students and staff are kept safe. Member Kerry Ni flagged that the model policy’s non-discrimination language did not match Hingham’s existing policy AC, and the motion carried with the district’s broader protective-class list substituted in.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

Hingham’s school buildings now run on a two-track process, and the board spent most of the meeting making sure it lines up.

The revised warrant article amends an appropriation town meeting approved last year under Article 34, increasing it by $1,115,000 and broadening what the money can pay for — feasibility study, schematic design, detailed design, architectural and engineering work, owner’s project management, construction documents and early bid packages — for a roof replacement, heat pump conversion or other HVAC work at Hingham High School, 17 Union Street. The board opened the warrant, replaced the article and closed the warrant in a single vote.

School Building Committee Chair Angela Thedinga told the board the additional money is not new project cost but schedule protection. “It does help us keep on schedule and minimize the impact to students,” Chair Liz Klein summarized, with completion already pushed toward 2030.

The two elementary roofs follow a different route. Both need a two-thirds vote at the October special town meeting to authorize borrowing, and then a simple majority at the ballot box to exempt that borrowing from Proposition 2½. Julie Strehle walked through the mechanics on the record, and staff confirmed it.

“In addition to a two-thirds majority vote at annual town meeting, then there’s also going to be a ballot question, which requires a majority in favor to approve this, because it is a debt exclusion. It’s outside of Prop 2½.” — Julie Strehle

The ballot questions carry no dollar figure — a point the board flagged as a communications problem, since voters will see only a description of a roof system replacement at 200 High Street and at 831 Main Street. Staff said the amounts voted at town meeting will be the gross Massachusetts School Building Authority figures, inclusive of significant contingencies, before a 36.89 percent MSBA reimbursement on approved expenditures. The final cost could fall if construction bids come in favorably.

The town has scheduled information sessions in each of the first three weeks of October, timed to when mail-in ballots reach homes, and staff said the ballot language was cleared three ways — by the MSBA, bond counsel and town counsel.

Away from the schools, the board authorized the largest single contract of the night: $358,678.20 to Axon Enterprise Inc. for 73 Taser 10 units with certification and a two-day instructor course, funded from police capital and invoiced annually. A sergeant told the board the department’s current model is out of warranty and no longer produced, and that the replacement brings virtual reality training allowing year-round practice rather than an annual recertification. The units have a five-year lifespan. Staff confirmed the price ties to the capital budget.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

Meeting in a hybrid session the night before doors reopened across the district, the Hingham School Committee took several concrete operational steps to prepare the district for both immediate opening-day needs and long-term fiscal stability.

The district’s financial outlook took center stage as Executive Director of Business and Support Services Aisha Oppong unveiled the proposed calendar for the Fiscal Year 2028 budget cycle. Departing from single-year forecasting, district leadership is moving to a multi-year model under the direction of Superintendent Katie Roberts.

“One of the things that were Katie’s directions has been to budget for three years rather than just for one,” Oppong explained. “So we will be looking at kind of introducing people to that new process and trying to take them up to speed in terms of that.”

The budget calendar pulls forward principal and director budget consultations to early September and moves capital requests ahead to early October. This earlier cadence is designed to prevent last-minute warrant additions and ensure coordination with the Select Board ahead of the town’s January 20 deadline. Superintendent Roberts noted that the shift directly supports ongoing coordination with the town’s Sustainable Budget Task Force as municipal leaders plan for multi-year fiscal pressures. Member Kerry Ni suggested ensuring building-level school councils are engaged earlier in the fall during budget development, a recommendation administration agreed to incorporate.

In a report delivered on behalf of School Building Committee liaison Jen Benham, Superintendent Roberts shared that schematic designs for Plymouth River School and South Elementary School have been submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). Additionally, the district is collaborating with architectural consultant Habeeb & Associates on an independent review of snow loads and structural assumptions on the Plymouth River roof to evaluate opportunities for value engineering. Roberts also alerted the committee to an upcoming Building Committee discussion regarding potential additional funding requests aimed at completing high school design phases in advance of Town Meeting to accelerate construction next summer.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

In a dense and consequential session, the Select Board tackled substantial infrastructure decisions, municipal union contracts, traffic safety pilots, and capital projects.

The centerpiece of the evening was a detailed presentation by the 2025 School Building Committee outlining schematic designs for extensive roof system replacements and structural augmentations at Plymouth River Elementary School ($16 million total budget) and South Elementary School ($8.2 million total budget). Together, the two capital projects carry an estimated cost of $24.2 million, with the town anticipating a 36.89% reimbursement rate from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) on eligible expenses.

Presenters noted that both schools suffer from significant water infiltration, aged materials, and flashing failures. Plymouth River requires a full roof deck replacement and structural steel reinforcement to meet modern snow load codes—structural improvements that also make the facilities solar-ready. Because project scopes exceed 30% of each building’s assessed value, mandatory accessibility improvements (such as entryway gradings, sidewalk sloping, and restroom upgrades) are incorporated into the overall plans. The board voted unanimously to sign and execute all required MSBA schematic design submittal documents.

The board also took action on the upcoming Special Town Meeting warrant. Representatives from the Hingham Municipal Light Plant (HMLP) announced that they are withdrawing their immediate request for a town bonding vote this fall while rate studies and Eversource tap station negotiations are finalized. Instead, the board voted to insert a warrant article petitioning the state legislature for special enabling legislation allowing HMLP to finance major projects over 30 years rather than the statutory 20-year term to lower annual impacts on local ratepayers.

“We have been working every week, working with our consultants to find ways to bring down the cost of this project to the rate payers... One of the proposals that we are pursuing is asking the legislature for a petition to allow us to bond the entire project for 30 years instead of 20 years, which will bring down the yearly cost of the project considerably.” [00:15:10]— Laura Burns, Hingham Municipal Light Board

Earlier in the evening, following an executive session, the board voted to approve a three-year collective bargaining Memorandum of Agreement with Teamsters Local Union 25 representing DPW supervisors (effective July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2029). The settlement established 3% annual cost-of-living increases across the three years with minor stipend adjustments, settled in just two bargaining sessions.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

At Monday’s meeting, Angela Thedinga, representing the 2025 School Building Committee, presented preliminary schematic design packages for the Accelerated Repair Program covering South Elementary and Plymouth River Elementary. The committee also reviewed life cycle cost analyses for replacing the Hingham High School HVAC system.

The preliminary South Elementary School project budget is estimated at $8.2 million ($6.98 million in estimated construction), up from an initial $5.4 million estimate presented at the 2025 Town Meeting. Evaluations revealed substantial water infiltration, rotted flashing, and the need to structurally sister the 1948 timber roof framing to meet current snow load codes. The design team recommends a standing-seam metal roof over the historic sections and an 80-mil PVC system over newer additions. With an estimated $2.9 million MSBA grant, the town’s net share is currently modeled at $5.35 million.

At Plymouth River Elementary, the total estimated project budget reached $16 million ($13.8 million in construction), compared to earlier baseline estimates of $6.1 million. Engineering assessments found extensive gravel roof deterioration, vegetative growth, and compromised roof decking. The proposed scope includes full roof deck replacement, structural metal reinforcements in low-slope trough sections prone to heavy snow accumulation, and necessary accessibility upgrades triggered by exceeding 30% of the building’s assessed value. Net town share for Plymouth River is projected at $10.4 million after an estimated $5.6 million MSBA reimbursement.

Committee member Matt Cosman highlighted the importance of clearly communicating the drivers of cost increases—such as unforeseen structural mandates versus square-footage estimates—ahead of Town Meeting.

“[The Habib report numbers] were provided to assist HPS with order of magnitude costs for the proposed project and should not be used for sensitive budgeting. The costs will depend on the confirmed project scope phasing, escalation costs, material availability, abatement work, etc. So it was put forth as, you know, truly an order of magnitude cost.” — [Superintendent Katie Roberts at 00:31:32]

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

The Select Board convened on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, taking up major financial acceptances, municipal capital contracts, local licensing, and community recognitions. The centerpiece of the evening was the formal receipt of initial distributions from the Barbara L. Hood Revocable Trust of 2020 under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, Section 53A.

Hood, a longtime resident who lived directly across from Town Hall, passed away in November 2025 at age 90 following a distinguished career at NBC in Rockefeller Center and Mount Sinai Hospital. Under the terms of the trust, $500,000 is dedicated to the Hingham Historical Commission and $500,000 to the Conservation Commission. Town Administrator Tom Mayo will collaborate with both to design an expenditure and appropriation framework, which will require formal approval from both the respective commissions and the Select Board before any funds are disbursed.

“She will be missed, but her legacy certainly will live on through Conservation and the Historic Commission. So it’s an honor to have that legacy. We are incredibly grateful for this.” — Chair Liz Klein

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

In a remote session conducted via Zoom, the Select Board finalized a critical fall legislative and election schedule designed to address urgent school infrastructure needs while coordinating with state approval timelines.

Assistant Town Administrator for Finance Katie Dugan presented the recommended Special Town Meeting calendar, emphasizing that an October 29 meeting allows the School Building Committee to complete schematic design reviews and receive formal approval from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for school roof replacement grants. The MSBA grant program provides a 36.89% reimbursement rate on eligible project costs.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Katie Roberts highlighted the pressing physical needs of the town’s school facilities, noting that the roofs at South Elementary and Hingham High School are approaching 30 years of age—the standard limit of useful life. She noted that portions of the roof at Plymouth River Elementary School are original to the 1968 structure and well past their operational life.

“Roof replacements basically come in 20 or 30 year chunks, but we have not heard a roof offering that is really beyond those 30 years... I just want to stress again, the Plymouth River roof is even older. Portions of that roof are actually 60 years old.” — Superintendent Dr. Katie Roberts

To accommodate detailed cost estimates expected from design teams on August 11, the board opted to advance the South Elementary roof replacement article and a scope modification for the High School roof and HVAC design, while holding the Plymouth River School article for insertion during an August 25 warrant reopening. The High School scope change expands the use of previously authorized design funds ($3.3 million approved at Annual Town Meeting 2025) through preconstruction services and early bid preparation, ensuring construction can begin during the summer 2027 window without requesting additional taxpayer funds.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

Assistant Town Administrator Katie Dugan presented the roadmap for the upcoming Special Town Meeting, detailing how the town plans to address urgent infrastructure needs while taking advantage of state grants.

The first two warrant articles center on full borrowing authorizations for roof replacement projects at Plymouth River Elementary School (PRS) and South Elementary School. Both projects were accepted into the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Accelerated Repair Program in December 2025, which offers a 36.89% matching grant for eligible costs. Following schematic design submissions at the end of August, the MSBA is scheduled to vote on project approval on October 28. Under MSBA rules, municipalities must secure full borrowing authorization within 90 days of state approval.

A third article from the 2025 School Building Committee requests a scope adjustment—without asking for new money—for the $3.3 million High School feasibility and schematic design authorization approved at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting. The revision would allow the committee to spend approximately $1 million in remaining funds from January through April 2027 on pre-construction services, construction documents, and early bid packages. Because the original authorization was funded through borrowing, the scope revision requires a two-thirds majority vote.

The fourth article reintroduces a $70 million borrowing authorization for the Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant (HMLP) to fund transmission and substation distribution facility improvements. Originally withdrawn at the 2026 Annual Town Meeting, the measure returns as state siting approvals wrap up in August. Dugan clarified that because HMLP operates as an enterprise utility, debt service will be paid through ratepayer revenues rather than property taxes.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

School Committee Chair Jen Benham read a comprehensive composite of the committee’s appraisal, grading Dr. Roberts as “exemplary” in instructional leadership, management and operations, and family engagement, while issuing a “proficient” mark in professional culture. The evaluation praised Dr. Roberts for stabilizing district leadership, navigating severe budget constraints, modernizing human resource infrastructures, and steering multi-faceted infrastructure projects like the ongoing Foster School building program. Committee members noted her collaborative approach and ability to build trust across municipal lines during a year marked by escalating community needs.

The glowing evaluation closely aligned with a year-end academic data report delivered by Assistant Superintendent Erica Pollard. The MTSS presentation highlighted four years of protocol implementation, with 2025-2026 emphasizing a transitional shift toward comprehensive mathematics alignment. According to the report, Hingham’s youngest learners achieved remarkable milestones in early literacy assessments. End-of-year assessments showed 87% of kindergarten students, 78% of first graders, and 77% of second graders performing at or above academic benchmarks.

In grades 3 through 5, general and special education cohorts dramatically surpassed their baseline annual expectations for academic growth via the i-Ready evaluation system, with progress metrics spanning between 158% and 194% against a state-standard target of 100%. Notably, third and fourth-grade special education cohorts outpaced general education student growth rates, indicating a steady closing of historical learning gaps.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

The meeting, chaired by Select Board Vice Chair Julie Strehle alongside Member William Ramsey, focused heavily on the intricate procedural work required to legally close out the fiscal year with a balanced budget. Assistant Town Administrator for Finance Katie Dugan led the board through a detailed breakdown of 12 distinct reserve fund transfers and two interdepartmental adjustments.

Dugan reminded the board that Town Meeting had originally boosted the reserve fund capacity to $2.7 million in anticipation of steep special education (SPED) costs and lingering bills from a bruising winter. However, the schools managed to save nearly $600,000 on out-of-district placements, and the town captured an additional $400,000 in operational savings.

A major point of discussion involved the town’s snow and ice deficit, which initially sat at $1.1 million. Thanks to advocacy from State Senator Patrick O’Connor, Hingham was allocated $296,234 from the state’s fair share supplemental budget. Because the state funds will not arrive until July, the town utilized special Division of Local Services (DLS) guidance to set up a temporary revenue account, matching the upcoming receipts against current expenses and lowering the required reserve transfer to $805,428.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

Assistant Town Administrator for Finance Katie Dugan presented a detailed, fast-tracked roadmap leading up to the fall legislative gathering. The timeline hinges on the Town’s participation in the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Accelerated Repair Program. The School Building Committee faces an August 27, 2026 deadline to submit definitive schematic designs to the state agency, which will then vote on final grant awards on October 28—the very same day Hingham aims to hold its Special Town Meeting.

By aligning the local legislative vote with the November 3rd state election, the town avoids the significant expenses associated with hosting a standalone special election. However, this strategy requires the Select Board to formally lock in the warrant articles, open and close the warrant, and vote on the debt exclusion ballot questions by August 4, 2026, to meet state deadlines for submitting the questions to the Attorney General’s office.

“It’s a very tight timeline to go from the 28th to the 3rd. And I know why we all want to do that because the election’s going to happen on the 3rd anyway. So it saves the town a good amount of money. It’s just tight.” — Select Board Member Bill Ramsey

The Special Town Meeting warrant is anticipated to carry significant articles, including the MSBA Plymouth River School (PRS) and South Elementary School roof replacements, as well as a deferred Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant (HMLP) item.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

The emergency water crisis overshadowed all routine municipal business during Tuesday’s Select Board meeting. Town Administrator Tom Mayo announced that Fire Chief Steve Murphy had mobilized the Emergency Operations Center earlier that day, bringing together representatives from Hingham, Hull, and Cohasset, water operations contractor Veolia, and consulting firm Apex to confront severe supply depletions at the Turkey Hill and Accord Pond storage tanks.

The resulting comprehensive outdoor water ban prohibits all non-essential uses, including lawn irrigation, car washing, pool filling, and recreational hose use. Officials emphasized that the restrictions are projected to stay in place for the remainder of the summer season. Residents are also urged to adopt aggressive indoor conservation practices, such as running shorter shower cycles and limiting laundry and dishwasher loads.

“I haven’t seen the urgency and the concern in our public safety facilities, public safety employees, the way I have in the last few days. They’re responsible for your safety and they cannot do so without adequate water. So please stop watering your lawns. The grass will come back next year.” — Tom Mayo, Town Administrator

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

The primary action of the evening centered on an administrative overhaul of five separate student health and wellness policies. Alyson Anderson, presenting on behalf of the policy review process, noted that the revisions were driven by extensive regulatory shifts and recommendations from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC).

Working alongside District Nurse Manager Rebecca Deaton, the committee processed second readings for a total rewrite of Policy ADF (Wellness) and Policy JLCB (Immunizing Students), the latter updated to insert explicit language regarding “sincere religious beliefs” to lock step with Massachusetts General Law. The committee also introduced Policy JLCDC, a completely new addition to the district’s handbook that legally establishes guidelines for student self-administration and self-carry of medications. All five policies passed via unanimous roll call votes.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

The Hingham Select Board convened a brief but impactful session focused entirely on reinforcing local law enforcement capabilities. Police Chief David Jones presented the two lateral candidates, highlighting that both individuals had already successfully completed rigorous internal background investigations and panel interviews. Chief Jones noted that Hingham’s strong professional reputation, recently negotiated collective bargaining agreements, and the community’s investment in the new public safety building continue to make the town a premier destination for experienced law enforcement professionals.

Officer Evan J. Barbara, a Weymouth native who holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of New Haven, joins the department after serving for three years with the West Hartford, Connecticut Police Department. During his interview, Barbara recounted a high-stress incident from March of this year involving an emotionally disturbed individual with a knife. He detailed how he relied on his training to de-escalate the situation and safely take the individual into protective custody without injuries or charges. Barbara emphasized that his desire to return home to the South Shore and his passion for proactive, community-focused policing drove his application to Hingham.

Officer Brendan G. Dabrolet comes to Hingham with five years of law enforcement experience from the Provincetown Police Department and eight years of military service as a Sergeant in the Army National Guard, which included a 13-month active duty deployment to the southern border in Brownsville, Texas. Dabrolet highlighted his experience conducting walking patrols and his current role as a veteran resource officer in Provincetown. He expressed a strong desire to bring that specialized outreach to Hingham’s veteran community while pursuing a long-term career path toward criminal investigations.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

The confrontation was sparked by a scheduled nine-month “look-back” review of changes implemented in August 2025, which rerouted the 220 bus off Route 3A (Lincoln Street) to directly serve the MBTA commuter ferry terminal. Assistant Town Administrator Art Robert presented data showing that while overall route ridership had dipped slightly, local shipyard demand remained stable, with two-thirds of former Lincoln Street passengers successfully migrating to the ferry stop. GPS metrics also indicated that speed violations had moderated since a spike in October 2025 following remedial driver counseling by the MBTA.

Public safety officials, including representatives from the police and fire departments, reported virtually no logistical conflicts, noting only two recorded bus-related calls over the past year—one involving a verbal dispute with a construction worker and another involving a false alarm regarding an emergency sign. Town Engineer JR Frey added that no structural damage to local roads had been documented, but suggested installing a flashing digital speed feedback sign on Shipyard Drive to mitigate the natural momentum of vehicles descending from Route 3A.

However, residents painted a starkly different picture of daily life along the route, which sees 60 bus trips per day Monday through Saturday, and 30 on Sundays, stretching from 5:42 a.m. to 1:39 a.m..

“None of you live there, and I don’t know that you’ve talked to any of us... This has really impacted us... 60 times a day a bus comes through the shipyard. It seems like a lot. The pollution that we get from the buses that come out from whatever the emissions is big black brown clouds that come out. I have personally sat at the Beth restaurant outside and a plume of smoke has come in my face.” — Lynn Green, President of the Moorings Condominium Board

Beyond environmental concerns, Green noted that the intensive schedule fails to align with the actual ferry timetable, meaning empty buses frequently roar through residential streets well past midnight and during winter weekends when no weekend ferry service operates. Financial equity was also raised as a primary grievance. Because Shipyard Drive is a private road governed by easements, residents bear 100% of the maintenance costs for paving, crosswalk repainting, and snow removal out of their own pockets.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

The meeting opened with a highly anticipated briefing from the 2025 School Building Committee. Representatives detailed the active design and construction milestone planning for the replacement of the William L. Foster Elementary School. The updates highlighted the collaboration with state authorities, budget alignment efforts, and the project timeline aimed at minimizing disruption to current students.

Shifting from infrastructure to personnel, the committee officially addressed the Unit E collective bargaining agreement, which covers critical support personnel within the district. Following an executive session held late in the meeting to cement strategy, the committee returned to open session to formally ratify the contract, ensuring stable operational support and competitive adjustments for the district’s support staff.

Read more

Subscribe now

The Full Story

The Hingham Select Board convened for a significant debrief following the annual town meeting, where voters rejected “Plan A” for a new Hingham Center for Active Living (CAL). The proposed facility at Bare Cove Park Drive failed to achieve the necessary support, marking a rare instance where a heavily vetted, major capital request was turned down by Hingham residents.

Select Board member Bill Ramsey opened the discussion, acknowledging that the project’s defeat was rooted primarily in deep-seated objections over its location and overall costs. Ramsey pointed out that the economic climate had shifted dramatically, stating that rising everyday expenses have left residents feeling financially overburdened. Moving forward, Ramsey noted that any future planning must account for upcoming competing liabilities, specifically a looming municipal budget override and substantial capital improvement demands from the school department. He also clarified that any potential pivot toward acquiring an alternative private building would strictly require a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) procurement process to maintain municipal equity and transparency.

“[Plan A] didn’t pass, and the objections that I heard about were really two objections: one was the location, and the other one was costs. And I get it... the timing for this project, for reasons beyond a lot of our control, just hit it all together.” — Bill Ramsey at 00:12:07

Read more