WHITMAN — Oct. 27, 2026 — The Whitman Select Board last Tuesday approved the wording of the debt exclusion question voters will see Jan. 30, 2027, asking whether Whitman’s share of bonds for a new South Shore Regional Vocational Technical School District high school may be paid outside Proposition 2½. Town Administrator Sabrina Chilcott put next year’s cost at $1,093,000 if it is not excluded.
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The question, read into the record from the agenda, asks whether the town may exempt from Proposition 2½ the amounts needed to pay Whitman’s apportioned share of the district’s bonds for designing, constructing, equipping and furnishing a new district high school and related athletic facilities. The motion was declared unanimous.
Asked whether the wording matched last year’s, Chilcott said it is the same as March, is prescribed by the state Department of Revenue, and was reviewed by town counsel. Dawn Byers said residents had complained they did not understand the question, and said it reads as though voters are deciding whether to build a school. Chilcott agreed that voters are deciding how to pay for the project, outside the levy, and said an added explanation is not allowed because the state writes the question.
Well, I think residents need to understand that they already voted for the new school. Now they need to vote to pay for our portion of it.
— Dan Salvucci, Select Board Vice Chair and South Shore Tech School Committee member 33:55
Dan Salvucci warned of severe damage to the town if the cost had to come out of the budget. Town Administrator Chilcott said the cost would be $1,093,000 in the next year alone and would peak at almost $2 million around 2031 or 2032. Chair Justin Evans said the board dropped the ball on getting the word out last year and will discuss the outreach process at an upcoming meeting. Chilcott plans a 20-minute presentation on the Jan. 30 vote at the board’s next regular meeting.
Whitman-Hanson Regional agreement. By a vote announced as 3-0-2, with Byers and Christine Gorman abstaining, the board sent the Whitman-Hanson regional agreement documents to town counsel for feedback. Shawn Kain, who serves on the Regional Agreement Committee, said it is recommending only the district counsel’s wording updates, such as language on transportation cost sharing, while keeping its two-thirds school committee vote requirements, which district counsel had suggested striking because state law requires only a majority. The committee intended to keep the higher threshold negotiated over the last few years.
Byers questioned the two-page suggested-revisions document, saying it had no letterhead or cover memo, and did not want a vote to forward it to read as support for the committee’s choices.
