Residents Give Cool Reception To School Merger Talk

By Fred Thys (@fredthys)
Jul 6, 2010, 3:37 AM
16 Comments

This flagpole marks the town line between Cohasset, foreground, and Hull, rear. (Fred Thys/WBUR)

WBUR’s “Towns In Trouble” series is examining how the state budget crisis is reverberating in two communities: Hull and Gardner. In May, Hull residents rejected a Proposition 2 1/2 override, which means property taxes won’t be raised to help pay for school activities.

It began at the school committee meeting in May. One of the members confessed he’d sat down with two people from Cohasset, Hull’s much wealthier neighbor. Over coffee, they’d talked about the towns maybe sharing a Latin teacher.

Hull’s school committee members loved the idea. They were still reeling from the defeat of the override and desperate to find ways to save money. Before the meeting was over, they had gone from talking about sharing a Latin teacher to merging the two school districts. They decided Chairwoman Stephanie Peters should approach Cohasset.

“Let’s see how comfortable Cohasset is with us,” Peters said to laughter.

Beach houses overlook tall grass in Hull. (Fred Thys/WBUR)

Turns out, not so much.

Cohasset’s school committee agreed to meet with Hull, but Cohasset’s chairwoman said, “We’re not talking about a merger.”

Instead, Cohasset wanted to talk about buying toilet paper and paper towels together. But Hull’s school committee is not giving up. It sees a merger as a great way to reduce costs. And it has the state on its side, as Massachusetts is pressuring small school districts to merge. But I couldn’t find anyone in town who thinks that merging schools with Cohasset would work.

“It’s just two different cultures,” said Denise Kaplan as she took refuge from the sun under the awning at Weinberg’s Bakery.

Her husband, Bob, is a painter. “I do a lot of work in Cohasset,” he said. “Cohasset is a very upscale town. There is a big difference in incomes and homes.”

Some of the kids in Cohasset are pretty upfront about how they see the kids in Hull.

“We wouldn’t want them in our school,” said Will Lynner, who just graduated from Cohasset High School, “’cause it’s such a difference between incomes it would create problems. We’re a lot more richer town than they are, I guess.”

Lynner was waiting for a sandwich at the deli in downtown Cohasset with his friend, Jeff Charles, who doesn’t hold a high opinion of Hull students, either.

A busy summer day on a beach in Hull. (Fred Thys/WBUR)

“Because they’re not as prestigious as Cohasset High,” Charles said, “their MCAS scores would…”

“Bring us down,” interjected Lynner.

“And as far as applying to colleges,” Charles added, “schools would see that our rank has gotten less, and we wouldn’t be able to use the fact that we go to Cohasset public schools to our advantage anymore.”

Hull students actually outperform Cohasset students on the science MCAS. But in Hull, people are painfully aware of how their richer neighbors see them.

“Kinda seems like Cohasset’s got that attitude towards us that they’re better than us, you know?” said Tim Brady, as he surveyed Hull’s windy Nantasket Beach, where he is a lifeguard. Brady graduated from Hull High School a couple of years ago.

A few blocks north, the town beach is a lot quieter. It’s nestled against sand dunes planted with beach grass about knee-high this time of year. The people of Hull plant new beach grass every spring in order to prevent the advance of the ocean on their thin peninsula. A fence of wooden slats leans into the grass waving in the wind.

“We’re more like the Red Sox,” said Steven Woodward, of Hull, as he sat in the sand. “(Cohasset is) more like the Yankees. They always seem like they got all the better things and they want nothing to do with us.”

Woodward drives a Pepsi truck. “I deliver to Cohasset,” he said. “I don’t like going there to deliver. It’s just aggravating. It’s just the way people are. Some people, they don’t even look at you. Some people I see almost every week and they want nothing to do with you. It’s like a tunnel vision they have.”

Houses overlook a pebbled beach in Cohasset. (Fred Thys/WBUR)

Several miles south, the tightly packed, slightly faded beach houses of Hull give way to the mansions of Cohasset, sitting atop hills, the lines of freshly mowed grass contoured around rocky outcroppings.

The most spectacular road south of Boston, Jerusalem Road, meanders along the Atlantic Ocean. It looks like a piece of Maine — a very wealthy version of Maine — plopped down in the suburbs of Boston.

Hardly anyone has ventured out to the modest pebble beach, but Helen Arnold has and she, too, questions whether Hull’s children and Cohasset’s children would fit together.

“I think people would wonder, too, whether they prioritize education the same way as Cohasset,” Arnold said. “I think that would be the biggest concern is how they would keep standards high.”

Not even a block away, Atlantic Avenue connects Hull and Cohasset along the coast, and where one passes from one town into the other, an American flag flutters right at the town line, as if marking a border crossing. Despite the cool reaction, Hull’s school committee will keep talking to Cohasset’s, but it looks like the schoolchildren won’t be crossing the border any time soon.

“Towns In Trouble” Series:

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s woods

Snobbery about school mergers is unfortunately not new. Maynard has been trying to merge with one of its tony neighbors for years. Years ago, Groton and Harvard discussed a regional school system, but dropped the idea when they realized,horrors, they have to include working class Ayer, which sits between them. Will this economy change that? Given how real estate values have stayed high in the good school districts, I doubt it.
kgallagher

I think the fact that the two towns are in different counties could further complicate things (Cohasset, Norfolk County; Hull, Plymouth County). Is there an existing model in Massachusetts of mergers that span counties?
Rick Shea

I’m very surprised at WBUR’s shallow reporting on this topic. Economic snobbery is cited as the only reason for not merging the districts, but there was no mention of geography. Hull High School is a twenty to thirty minute drive from Cohasset High School. Typically districts merge when a new high school or school complex can be sited between the two towns, which is not the case here.
Cohasset has been working cooperatively with several neighboring towns, including Hull, Scituate, Hingham and Norwell, to save costs on police, fire, water, and public works, as well as sharing some high school sports teams (including a Hull-Cohasset track team).
Dick Lourie

I have no observation to make on how fairly the WBUR report represents the range of opinion in Cohasset, nor on the geographic factor, which is obviously real, though it doesn’t seem to the point, given the testimony of local residents on both sides of the border. What strikes me, sadly, is that if one simply substitutes “African-American students” for “Hull students,” we are looking at an unwelcome echo of our past.
s. mccall

S. Woods is correct. I was attending Maynard High School in the late eighties when DEC was collapsing and a proposition 2 1/2 override was voted down and the idea of a merger with the neighboring Acton/Boxborough High School was proposed. Residents of Acton/Boxborough came out in droves to the school committee meetings with claims as outlandish and self centered as to say that the admission of Maynard school children into their district would “lower their property values”. Hearing this story on NPR today forced me to relive the revulsion I felt then being made to feel like a social pariah simply because my family was working class. Out of all the problems our country faces now it is this sense of separateness, disconnection and isolation that is enforced by the wealthy on those of lesser means that could completely replace our sense of shared destiny and social cohesion. The residents of Cohasset should be ashamed of the quotes provided by their children and neighbors printed in this article.
jan

If the selection of interviews was representative of Cohasset- shame on them! Dick L’s race comparison is too true as the generation of ‘haves’ continues and wants no part of those with less, even if some of their MCAS are better!
Perhaps the town unionized employees should also ‘give’ from their contracts, before they have no longer have a job, like so many in the private sector?
http://mapc.org Marc Draisen

As the director of the Regional Planning Agency for Greater Boston, I recognize that merging entire school departments can be difficult for a whole host of social, economic, and geographic reasons. But we can get many of the benefits of regionalization, while still maintaining local school committees and educational priorites.

School districts can merge lots of “back office” activities, like hiring, advertising, professional development, information technology, and purchasing of supplies and equipment. They can share buildings, teachers, and special programs. These efforts can save money and improve quality at the same time.

For example, five communities north of Boston held a Regional Teacher Recruitment Fair on May 12, focused on “hard-to-hire” positions like math and science teachers. Over 300 applicants attended the fair.

Sometimes, after getting to know each other through such limited connections, school officials may decide to merge their departments more fully.

Marc Draisen, Executive Director
Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)
Lorraine Riggs

Regional high schools have been successful in rural areas for years. As for travel distance, even grade school age children gladly travel from Hull to Norwell each day to attend the South Shore Charter School.
The comments of a few Cohasset students may not reflect the thinking of the whole town but if they do, then the Cohasset students’ education and values are lacking. (They could check their grammar too.)
Greg Wallingford

Fred,

This report was a bit of a hack job. There’s no shortage of educated adults in town and you chose to interview some overprivilaged teenagers at a bagel shop for the opposing view. I grew up in Cohasset (on Jerulsalemn Rd). Both my parents worked full time as did many middle class families in my neighborhood. While there is less economic diversity today than there was 23 years ago when I graduated from CHS, there are a number of families in town who like my family have made sacrifices to get their kids into the Cohasset school system. It’s not just about the Haves vs. the Have Nots. We were and continue to be arch rivals. There is a seething hatred between these two schools that goes back generations and I’m pretty sure as a high school senior I would have been outspoken and said some stupid things about any type of merge. The ironic thing about that picture in the article above which peers over to Hull is that the corner house on the hill is owned by the CEO and founder of Napster a resident and graduate of Hull High School. Having said all that I would gladly support a measure to merge the districts together. Hull students through no fault of their own have consistantly got the short end of the stick from cutting after school programs to the closing of their public libraries (Since they are no longer part of the Old Colony Library network they have to drive to Quincy to take out books!) It’s time to step up, put differences aside and do the right thing.
http://wbur.com lewis B

I have to give Hull credit here; once again they have shown just how progressive they are! Hull schools dept had a windmill in the 80′s to help save money on the electric bill then upgraded in the last 10 years and added a 2nd windmill. I think Cohasset has much to learn about a working class town who is leading the way in a very important sector. We can’t forget they may have the first offshore wind farm in the country, yes the country!! It doesn’t get any more progressive than that! They did it before it became a main stream concept. Cohasset you have a real good opportunity here.
Dave Clinton

I don’t know if a merger can be completed, but I am bothered by the tone of this article. I have been involved with Cohasset folk for over 20 years as part of a church and and Youth Volunteer Group server the poor or Appalachia. I have found these students and parents and community members to be wonderful friends. The tone of the article shows a clear bias to socio-economic prejudices. How about interviewing students of the sports programs that are already shared. How about interviewing those that have been involved with the METCO program Cohasset has participated in? The article is very shallow and there most likely are shared services available if not a full merger. People are people and I have friends in many South Shore communities through volunteer groups and my childrens schools. There is good and bad in all communities, though I see more of the good in all.

Dave Clinton
Resident of Hull and the South Shore.
margot isabelle

This was a very shallow and biased article and certainly not representative of the Cohasset community as I have known it. I have lived both part-time and full time on the So. Shore for many years and have friends in Cohasset, Hingham, and Scituate, althpugh I live in Hull now. I agree with the writer of the first comment that there are people in all of the So. Shore communities who are full of community spirit and engaged with the community and there are those who consider themselves elite and do not engage.
The interviewer obviously chose to speak with persons who consider themselves special. How sad!
kgallagher

My husband and I are public school educators who lived in Hull for almost 10 years. We loved it, and had many hopes for Hull, and our lives there. We had 2 children while living in Hull, and planned to send our children to the public schools. Unfortunately it became sadly apparent that the schools are not supported by the Hull community as a whole, and so we made the painful decision to move elsewhere on the South Shore, ultimately landing in Cohasset (by the way, at the time we were looking, the house we purchased in Cohasset was more affordable than those we found in Scituate, Norwell, Hingham and Marshfield). There is obviously nothing wrong with the students and families of Hull-and to suggest that Cohasset residents feel that way is insulting. The problem lies beyond the Hull Schools community, with those residents not personally invested in the schools (snow birds, summer residents, professionals without children). It is a struggle fought by many towns who have a significant population of people without school-age children (some towns on the Cape must also fight this battle). With its modestly sized Sandy Beach, Cohasset Schools are not fighting this type of battle. Cohasset Schools would not benefit from a complete merging with Hull Schools, but not because of attitudinal issues. It comes down to numbers: Hull has fewer residents personally invested in its public schools.
Also, a correction about the Hull Library losing it’s OCLN status. Hull residents do not have to drive to Quincy to pick up library materials. They simply cannot pick them up in Hingham. They are able to pick them up at the Hull Public Library. This decision was made by Hingham in order to drive Hull Library’s user statistics up, so that Hull qualifies for more MBLC funding.
Lisa Parsons

This could have been a great story- as Hull is sort of a secret, under-discovered gem of the South Shore. Hull is a diverse town which would benefit Cohasset residents immensely. I am curious why this story was so slanted…Why did they only interview Pepsi truck drivers and painters from Hull and not the attorneys and doctors. Why did they name the Hull resident’s professions and not the Cohasset’s. Just wondering.
Linda Snowdale

As a Cohasset resident since 1969, CHS graduate and Hull Public Schools Educator for 35 years, I applaud the Hull School Committee for continuing the trend of offering further cooperation with Cohasset. As an example of how the towns can benefit from forming ties, just this Spring, Cohasset and Hull joined together to create a HS sailing team housed in Hull.

These two towns have much to offer each other. Instead of finding reasons for not working together, let’s continue building a relationship with Hull and find other creative ways to support both towns.
jennifer lavin

My comment is not really about the two towns merging – although it would be something to look at. My comment is more on the town of Hull itself. Hull has a whopping three schools – three. I think you need to look at what Hull is paying its superintendant of schools to administer three schools. I believe it is more than what superintendants in school systems ten times larger than Hull are getting. Before anyone talks about laying off teachers and having to buy toilet paper with wealthy neighbors, WBUR should take a look at what the schools are paying their administrators. While you are at it, take a look at the New Bedford Public Schools. If you happen to pick up a piece of their letterhead you will see there is barely any room for a letter to be written because of all the names of superintendants, assistant superintendants, business managers, etc. All of this administration comes at a very high price. You can continue to report on economic downturns all you want, but you need to begin at the beginning: how much is being paid in payroll(not just for the union and rank and file) and how much is coming in for funding. This is probably why towns traditionally reject the Prop 2.5 overrides – because they do not see anything from the schools other than “we need more.”