Education

Early Wins Whittier Tech Seat; Haverhill Committee Chooses Not to Favor Own in Appointment Policy

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Richard P. Early Jr. remains in his seat on the Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School board, adding another three-year term to his nearly 24 years of service. With supporters testifying to his good character at last night’s meeting, the Haverhill School Committee chose Early over its own Gail M. Sullivan. Richard J. Rosa, Thomas Grannemann, and Sullivan were the only members to cast votes for her. Paul A. Magliocchetti abstained. Before the vote, the committee removed a section from a proposed appointment policy that would have given preference for a Haverhill committee member to hold one of the city’s two Whittier seats.

Haverhill

Rebuilding Together Greater Haverhill Seeks Volunteers to Help Revitalize Homes Saturday

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National Rebuilding Together Day is tomorrow, where volunteers come together to help homeowners in need. Rebuilding Together Greater Haverhill Program Director Maureen McGonagle told city councilors this week that volunteers may sign up at 7:30 a.m., Saturday morning, at the Elks Lodge, 24 Summer St., in Haverhill. They will receive a free breakfast and t-shirt, she continued, with projects taking four to five hours. “So, it’s a quick day. We get a lot done,” she said.

Cannabis

Haverhill Workshops Policy Helping Those Most Impacted By ‘War on Drugs’ Get Cannabis Shop Permits

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As the state enacts legislation aimed at giving cannabis shop permits to those most negatively impacted by the, so-called, “War on Drugs,” Haverhill officials are facing a state deadline to decide how the city will support such applicants. According to a draft of Haverhill’s social equity policy, conditions to qualify include that a majority of a business’s owners have previous cannabis-related convictions, live in an “area of disproportionate impact,” meet certain income requirements, or have descendants from particular minority groups. These were specified as “Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino or Native American or indigenous.”

In an email to the City Council’s Administration and Finance Committee workshopping the policy, Councilor Melissa J. Lewandowski said the document should make clear belonging to the group prioritized by the state does not “guarantee” an applicant a license. With the state’s Cannabis Control Commission—or CCC—having set a May 1 deadline, councilors and City Solicitor Lisa L. Mead discussed at a Monday meeting whether to include sections on cannabis delivery businesses and community impact fees. Lewandowski raised concerns about whether to give applicants “exclusive access” to delivery licenses for three years because the city has yet to make specific legislation about the service.

Haverhill

Haverhill Councilors Call For Revival of Forest Stewardship Program; Mayor Agrees

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As Haverhill completes its Open Space and Recreation Plan, City Councilors Devan M. Ferreira and Melissa J. Lewandowski advocated at last night’s meeting for a revival of the forest stewardship program, which was created in 2009 but has since become inactive. Ferreira said of Haverhill’s residents, “As much as they like the heart of the city, they like the country, they like the woods, they like everything that offers us. It’s an important step for addressing some urgent climate issues that we have, as well as biodiversity in our community.”

Mayor Melinda E. Barrett said she supports bringing back the forestry program, “which we had for many, many years with some real high-quality people on it who knew and cared about keeping our forests healthy, keeping invasives out of our forests and keeping our natural trees.”

Barrett continued that an already-established committee focused on urban trees could add forest stewardship to its responsibilities. Though forest fires may seem a remote possibility in Massachusetts, city American Rescue Plan Act Project Manager Kathleen Lambert, who heads the group, said proper forest management is necessary in the face of climate change. Funded by grant and state money, Lambert told councilors she is seeking five to seven commissioners to guide the city’s approach.

Education

Haverhill Candidates Vie For Whittier Tech Seat; Appointment Policy May Change Following Monday Vote

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Amid a rocky selection process, the Haverhill School Committee will again hear candidates for one of the city’s two seats on the Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School Board, as well as vote Thursday on a proposed change to the policy governing how it fills those positions. It appears the body will choose between member Gail M. Sullivan and incumbent Richard P. Early Jr., though the agenda did not specify which candidates will be heard at the meeting. If the committee adopts a change to the Whittier Tech appointment policy, it may be required to provide notice and a hearing before removing one of its members from the vocational school’s board for policy violations or an unspecified “other cause.”

“Basically, the city solicitor said that she believed that there needed to be cause and notice and hearings,” member Richard J. Rosa told WHAV. He said this was the only proposed change to the policy at a subcommittee meeting Monday

The amendment follows the body’s abortive attempt to remove former School Committee member Scott W. Wood Jr. from the Whittier Tech board. After initially announcing candidates could run for two seats, the Haverhill committee later declared only Early’s open, causing four people to drop out of the race.

Haverhill

Podcast: Riding with MeVa Regional Bus Regulars and Driver Larry Corcoran

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(Additional photograph below.) The sky is still dark when Larry Corcoran, a bus driver for Merrimack Valley Transit, starts his route outbound from Haverhill at six a.m. For the few who ride this early in the morning, the transportation is essential. When MeVa leaders went before state lawmakers to request more money early this month, Chief Communications Officer Niorka Mendez said, for some of the people they serve, “This is the only way to get to food access, to get to medical care—even in the social aspect of visiting friends. On the bus, as a bus driver, I used to talk to them, and maybe we are the only people they talk to during the whole day. They don’t have a family member to talk to or vent [to].”

Corcoran, the most senior MeVa driver, said his job requires multitasking. He has to be “an expert motor vehicle operator, and also a personality.

Haverhill

Haverhill Train Station to Close to Downtown Commuters; Officials to Receive Secret MBTA Briefing

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Beginning this summer, a bridge replacement project will surprisingly and inexplicably close the downtown Haverhill station to commuter rail passengers, yet leaving it open for Amtrak Downeaster passengers. Starting “tentatively” in mid-July and continuing for 10 to 12 months, those who usually board the commuter rail in Haverhill must get on at the Bradford station instead, according to a letter from the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority—or MBTA—to the city. The letter explains, as WHAV reported first in 2022, the diversion is due to the replacement of the South Elm Street bridge originally built in 1906. The downtown parking lot will remain open. “The project understands that a request has been made for the MBTA to provide alternative service between Haverhill and Bradford stations during the construction of the South Elm Street bridge replacement project,” the letter continued.

Education

Haverhill Schools Highly Rank Early Literacy Program Despite Cost During Expected Tight Year

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While the Haverhill district grapples with potential cuts, public school officials made the case last week to include a new early literacy program in the budget. With the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requiring lower-income districts to demonstrate how they will improve outcomes with state aid, Superintendent Margaret Marotta said of “Wit & Wisdom,” “that’s our most pressing lever for change.”

With a projected $10.7 million deficit next year, Chief of Teaching, Learning and Leading Bonnie Antkowiak told School Committee members it would cost an additional $421,000 to adopt the program districtwide, $260,000 plus professional development for kindergarten to second grade and $138,000 plus professional development for third to fifth grade. Marotta added they could roll it out over three years, spreading out costs. Marotta called “Wit & Wisdom” the district’s “priority among priorities.” The committee motioned, in the words of member Richard J. Rosa to “approve this presentation we received tonight about our student opportunity act money as our priority for the Haverhill public schools.”

While Marotta said the district has already invested heavily in four of the five areas detailed in the 2019 Student Opportunity Act, they still need to work on a “comprehensive approach to early literacy.”

“We are really looking to improve our early literacy programs and our early literacy scores,” she said. As WHAV reported, teachers who have piloted “Wit & Wisdom” spoke favorably of the program at a school committee meeting in late January.