Education

Public May Weigh in on Shared Whittier Tech and NECC Campus; Official Questions Openness

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An interim report discussing the possibility of a shared campus for Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School and Northern Essex Community College is the subject of two focus groups starting Tuesday. According to a statement on a public sign-up page, information and ideas collected will not be shared outside of a planning group, described as “creative, big-picture thinkers,” and participants who check a required confidentiality box. “To ensure everyone feels comfortable speaking freely, please do not repeat the conversations within your listening session outside of the session itself and do not share the names of those in attendance,” the statement reads. Haverhill School Committee member Richard J. Rosa, however, said he chose not to participate because of the required confidentiality agreement. “As an elected official, I have a responsibility to be transparent and accountable to my constituents.

Beacon Hill News

DiZoglio Addresses Boxford Republicans, Comes Away with Question 1 Backing

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Boxford Republicans last Wednesday voted to endorse a ballot initiative which would allow the state auditor to audit the legislature. The Boxford Republican Town Committee voted unanimously to endorse the question after state Auditor Diana DiZoglio visited several area Republican committees to speak on the initiative. Voters will decide Tuesday whether to approve Question 1, which would give the state auditor the explicit authority to audit the legislature. DiZoglio, a Methuen native, was fondly called one of their “favorite Democrats” by multiple attendees. “We are putting on the ballot, to all of you, language that simply includes the words ‘including the General Court,’” she said.

Haverhill

Haverhill Could Raise Parking Fines Amid Issues with Amazon Contractors in Ward Hill

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The Haverhill City Council this week said it may raise parking fines throughout the city after hearing concerns about illegal parking by third-party Amazon drivers. Councilor Catherine P. Rogers said she received evidence from residents of Amazon trucks unloading and parked on the side of Boston Road and near Oxford Street in Ward Hill. “It could be overnight or a couple of days. Basically, Ward Hill has become a truck stop,” she said. “They’ve been in Duffy’s, I know they’ve thrown them out.

Education

In WHAV Interview Education Chief Says Students Won’t Take Test Seriously if Not Grad Requirement

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Tutwiler Also Responds to Petition Before Haverhill School Committee

State Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler, in a one-on-one interview with WHAV Wednesday, defended the state’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System—or MCAS—graduation requirement, saying students won’t otherwise take the test seriously. A ballot question voters will consider by Tuesday would, if passed, remove the graduation requirement. Massachusetts is just one of fewer than 10 states that impose exit exam requirements for students to graduate. Tutwiler, however, told WHAV MCAS will become “useless” if the graduation requirement is removed. “Students will not take it with the same level of seriousness as they would if it’s a graduation requirement,” he said.

Haverhill

Discussions Continue on Haverhill’s Controversial Hannah Duston Statue After Resident Complaint

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Discussions on a controversial statue in GAR Park resurfaced last night amid a resident’s displeasure before the City Council. The monument honors then-resident Hannah Duston, who in 1697 escaped her Native American captors after killing and scalping them. Resident Jonathan Plumb said he “felt compelled to speak out against generations of willed ignorance.”

“You have a statue across the street that commemorates the Massachusetts colonial government, which paid money for indigenous people’s scalps,” he said. “It was built in the year 1879 when our current national government was conducting or just finished conducting campaigns of indigenous dispossession and extermination.”

As WHAV reported in July, the Council in 2021 came to a compromise on the removal of the 1874 statue, where the statue’s original hatchet was to be removed and the word “savages” was to be removed from its inscription. Now-Council President Thomas J. Sullivan said at the time that the statue should remain within the park, while allowing the Abenaki to erect their own memorial.

Education

Getting Ready for Next Year, Grannemann Presents Budget Review to Haverhill School Board

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Haverhill School Committee members last Thursday began preliminary discussions on the next school budget, spurred by an analysis of last year’s budget by member Thomas Grannemann. The analysis found that the city spends proportionately less on administration and instructional materials than average statewide expenditures, but spends more on teaching and pupil services compared to the state average. “Sometimes it’s good to check base and see where you are relative to other districts,” Grannemann told the Committee. Vice Chairman Paul A. Magliocchetti praised the analysis, noting that this year’s budget season may be “very, very difficult.”

“It’s never too early to start,” he said. “Everything we’re doing, everything we want to do, everything we run for really hinges on how we allocate these funds.”

Grannemann called the analysis a “starting point” and a benchmark for future budget discussions.

Education

Haverhill School Committee Declines to Take Position on MCAS Ballot Question

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Haverhill School Committee members last Thursday chose to take no position on whether to support a ballot initiative that would remove the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System—or MCAS, as a graduation requirement. As WHAV reported previously, Committee members debated Oct. 14 the proposed elimination of the graduation requirement. Committee members last week also debated whether to support a fresh resolution brought forward by member Yonnie Collins. “I think this is pivotal for our students who are left behind often, those who are English as a Second Language, those who have special learning needs—they’re the students who are impacted most by this,” she said.

Haverhill

Haverhill Fire Reports Improved Response Times Amid Increased Staffing

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The Haverhill Fire Department has seen its response times decrease amid a sharp increase in headcount growth over the last six months. The City Council on Tuesday heard from Fire Chief Robert M. O’Brien, who said the work has been more than a year in the making. O’Brien, addressing the body at the request of Councilors Ralph T. Basiliere and Melissa J. Lewandowski, said the department began an interview process in July of 2023 for filling out a reserve list, which is used to pull individuals into the ranks “as-needed.”

“Prior to 2023, we had depleted that list. So, in July 2023 we created a 15-person reserve list at that time. On Sept.