East Bridgewater School Committee Elects New Leadership for 2025-2026
Dan Picha named Chair, Ellen Pennington Vice Chair as committee reorganizes and addresses financial concerns
EAST BRIDGEWATER - May 20 - The East Bridgewater School Committee has elected Dan Picha as its new chairperson during the annual reorganization meeting held May 20. The committee also selected Ellen Pennington as vice chair and Peter Furia as secretary for the 2025-2026 school year.
Superintendent Dr. Gina Williams was appointed treasurer, continuing in a role traditionally held by the superintendent.
"It's always the superintendent," noted Pennington during the nomination process.
The committee also appointed Lynne McKenney as the school committee clerk for the upcoming school year.
The reorganization comes as East Bridgewater faces significant financial challenges, with school officials expressing concern about the impact of Plymouth County retirement assessments on the town's budget.
"I know I'm beating a dead horse with the Plymouth County retirement issue that the town has and all the other towns in Plymouth County have the same problem," said John Shea, the district's finance director. "I firmly believe something has to be done in order to spread out those payments or East Bridgewater is going to be in serious financial trouble next year and the year after."
Shea pointed out that many neighboring communities are pursuing tax overrides to address similar financial pressures.
"If you read the description of why they're going for overrides, one thing is in every description it's the retirement assessment," Shea said.
Committee members agreed to continue advocating on this issue with state legislators. Peter Furia volunteered to reach out to Representative Sullivan-Almeida and Senator Brady to "stress to them that Plymouth County retirement is hamstringing a lot of the towns and it's going to impact school funding."
The committee also received an update on the district's current fiscal situation. Shea reported that the district is facing an unexpected $300,000 shortfall in extraordinary relief circuit breaker funding from the state.
"Because the statewide request from the school districts exceeded the amount that the state had to fund the extraordinary relief circuit breaker, we will receive about half of what I projected," Shea explained.
To address this gap, Shea indicated he may ask the committee at its next meeting to approve using funds from the special education reserve fund, which contains approximately $260,000.
"In order to use a special ed reserve fund, the School Committee needs to vote for it and also the Select Board needs to vote for it," Shea said.
During the meeting, Select Board Chair Peter Spagone provided updates on town projects, including progress on the Route 18 sewer project. Spagone reported that after securing both a $4 million Mass Works grant and a $3 million federal grant, the town has put the project out to bid.
"We hope to have a shovel in the ground sometime maybe late June or early July," Spagone said. "The town's in some financial woes as everybody says. I keep telling whoever listens that we're broke, and in order to get out of broke, we have to find creative ways to continue to find money to come into the town."
Superintendent Williams updated the committee on two building projects. The Central School building project is moving forward with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). The committee has chosen a new build design rather than a renovation, which Williams described as "more cost-effective."
"We've gotten some feedback on our schematic design, lots of positive feedback from the MSBA, some suggestions of things that we can do," Williams said. "One real priority is seeing how we can maybe condense the building a little bit more."
Williams also reported on the Mitchell School accelerated repair program, which will address sections of the roof that are over 25 years old, as well as some doors and windows.
The committee also addressed several other items:
* Appointed members to various subcommittees, including combining three bargaining subcommittees into one
* Approved school handbooks for Central Elementary School, Gordon W. Mitchell School, and East Bridgewater Junior Senior High School
* Changed the date and time of the June meeting to June 18 at 6:30 p.m.
* Recognized the girls' softball team for a "classy gesture" toward a student from another town who is facing challenges
* Noted upcoming end-of-year events, including graduation on May 30, sixth grade step-up, eighth grade graduation, and the kindergarten patriotic concert
Committee members also reflected on the budget process for the current year, praising the collaborative approach between the town and school district.
"By far the most collaborative between the town and the school district," Picha said. "I think it was very effective. It was time-consuming to meet every week, but I think that was really helpful as well."
The committee agreed to continue the practice of regular budget meetings and to proactively attend Finance Committee meetings once a quarter to maintain open communication with town officials.
