‘Stand in the Sand’ a strong statement of Hull’s inclusive spirit, cooperative energy

SPELLING OUT THE NEWS. On Sunday, the Hull No Place for Hate Committee sponsored the third ‘Stand in the Sand,’ in which participants lined up on Nantasket Beach to spell out ‘Hull For All,’ a message of inclusion and community. This image was captured using a drone. [Photo courtesy of Al Coombs]

Submitted by the Hull No Place For Hate Committee

Friends and neighbors, we did it! 

More than 300 Hullonians, along with visitors from out of town, joined together on Sunday to “Take a Stand in the Sand!” The members of the Hull No Place For Hate Committee would like to extend an enormous amount of gratitude to everyone who helped us organize, donated goods and services, and showed up to stand with us on the beach to spell out “Hull For All.” 
Participants included California Underground, Clients First Financial, Hull Democratic Town Committee, Hull Artists, Hull Lifesaving Museum, Hull Pride, Hull TV2, Nantasket Flatts, Nantasket-Hull Rotary Club, Rickard Construction, Safe Harbor Sunset Bay Marina, School Committee Anti-Racism Sub-committee, and South Shore Cycles. Families and neighborhoods also formed groups including Beach Posse, C Street Gang, Sullivan family, Two Sisterfriends and the Whelan family. 
We want to extend a huge thank you to The Hull Times for helping us to promote this event, along with Peter Menice for the feature cartoon in last week’s issue. Thank you also to Hull Public Schools (especially Judith Kuehn and Ian Barkon) for helping us get the word out. We couldn’t have done this without your support. We also want to give thanks to Timo Lawrence of Hull TV 2 for promoting us on his livestream TV channel.
We wouldn’t be able to plan such a large event without the support of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Thank you Janice Purlon and Kevin Conway for accommodating the revised site plan at the last minute. Thanks to Park Ranger Madison for being on-site and responding immediately to an incident of vandalism the night before the event. We are also grateful that you were able to unlock the bathrooms.
Special thanks to so many local businesses, including the Paragon Carousel for helping us re-inflate a helium balloon that we desperately needed for the stand, Paragon Boardwalk for providing an incredibly generous number of delicious pizza pies for our volunteers and musicians, Weinberg’s Bakery for donating some delicious hot chocolate, and Baby Squid Ink for donating their design skills for our awesome T-shirts. The design will be available for purchase on multiple items, and there may be a future design incorporating the image from the event.

Thank you, Meg Wheeler, for lending us your PA system. Hull TV, we appreciate your help finding past event footage and for covering this most recent event. Al Coombs, your drone work is truly exceptional and the song you chose to add to the footage was just perfect. Ben Maitland-Lewis, your energy and spatial intelligence skills are exactly what we needed to plan and lay out the letters and keep the crowd excited and engaged throughout the entire process.

Gratitude to Obscure Notation, Seawitch and Dahlia Lithwick and her bandmates. Music always brings people together, and we want to thank all of you for sharing your music with us. 
We appreciate the ongoing support for the No Place for Hate Town Committee by the select board and town manager, and we will continue to work together for Hull For All.
Until next time! 

With love,

Deborah Bayer, Gabriel Ben-Yosef, Valerie Carlson, Laurie Girdharry, Steven Greenberg, Rhoda Kanet, Jim Lampke, Celia Nolan, Paula Nesoff, and Pam Wolfe

Head of the Weir set for Saturday AM launch

UPDATE FROM EARLIER VERSIONS OF THIS STORY:

Due to worsening erosion of the marsh at the traditional starting line at West Corner, the Hull Lifesaving Museum has moved the starting line a quarter mile downstream — all vessels must now launch at Steamboat Wharf at Nantasket Pier and row to the starting line, a distance of 1-3/4 miles.

Full details are at this link: Head of the Weir Logistics 2022 as some important details are changed due to moving the starting line.

————————

The tide will be high at 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 8, setting the stage beautifully for the launch of the Head of the Weir River Race at 11 a.m.

The Hull Lifesaving Museum’s 36th annual Head of the Weir River Race is a celebration of the estuary at the height of its fall beauty and the fabulous array of the region’s open water rowers. As many as 60 boats jockey for position racing out of the narrow estuary and onto open water, traveling from West Corner on the Hull/Hingham/Cohasset line, past Bumpkin Island, across Hull Bay, to the museum’s Windmill Point Boathouse at Hull Gut.

A highly contested 5-1/2 miler, the Weir draws coxed youth and adult rowers in gigs, single and double livery and workboats, currachs, and ocean shells, as well as experienced kayakers. In the “head of the river” format, boats kick off the starting line at closely-timed intervals, and times are collated at the finish to determine the race winners. The Weir is an exceptionally exciting race and a great spectator event, featuring more than 200 of the region’s finest rowers from all over New England and New York.

There is no day-of-event registration – online registration at www.hulllifesavingmuseum.org ends on Friday, Oct. 7 at noon. Entry fee is $45 per person

On race day, check in is between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. at the Hull Public Works building,

9 Nantasket Ave. at West Corner. The Coxswain’s Meeting will be at 10:45 a.m., with the race beginning at 11 a.m.

Being mindful of current safety protocols, all participants are required to wear masks while gathering for the coxswain’s meeting. The museum will be providing an abbreviated food and beverage service on the beach at the boathouse.

For details regarding registration, launching, parking, etc., visit hulllifesavingmuseum.org, email mike@hulllifesavingmuseum.org, or call 781-925-5433.

SchoolCom: More discussion ahead before consolidation of buildings becomes final

By Carol Britton Meyer

In response to what School Committee Chair Stephanie Peters called “some confusion out there,” at Monday night’s committee meeting she referred anyone with questions about the committee’s Sept. 12 vote to accept the recommendation by the Best Educational Use of School Facilities Ad Hoc Committee to consolidate Hull’s schools to review the minutes.

Known as Option 4, the recommendation calls for realigning the Hull Public Schools’ grade structure to place K-7 at the Jacobs Elementary School and grades 8-12 at the high school. The Memorial School would become available for other uses but would no longer be a middle school.

The minutes read: “[Superintendent of Schools] Ms. Kuehn rehashed the process we went through with the Best Educational Use of School Facilities and how the MARS Group and the Ad Hoc Committee came to the same recommendation of Option #4. Ms. Peters stated that the School Committee discussed it briefly at the summer retreat, and in the short- term they agree on option #4, preK-7 at Jacobs School and 8-12 at Hull High School. She said, it was determined that they would keep this item on the agenda and send emails to School Committee members [that SC members would send their questions to Kuehn], and Ms. Kuehn and [School Business Manager] Ms. [Diane] Saniuk can put them together and answer them. . . . Ms. Peters stated that they will take steps, not giant leaps, for a year. Committee members discussed the need to move forward and take a formal vote. There was also a short discussion regarding an MOA or contract with the town.”

At that meeting, a motion to accept the MARS Group and Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendation of choosing option #4 was made by David Twombly and seconded by Ernest Minelli. The vote was 5-0. A replay of the meeting is available at hulltv.net.

The purpose of the Best Educational Use of School Facilities report by the MARS Group was to evaluate the educational adequacy of the three school buildings and determine what is in the best interests of Hull students.

“It’s been a three-year process,” Superintendent Judith Kuehn said.

She noted that the BEUSF will be on the school committee agenda for every meeting and that there is a link to the MARS report on the Hull Public Schools website.

“We’re only in the first phase,” Kuehn said. “There is no MOU yet.”

She noted that the middle school will be open during the 2023-24 school year and that there will be no staffing changes. School committee members will continue to send their questions and any concerns about option 4 to Kuehn for discussion at upcoming meetings.

Peters emphasized that there is no intention to “diminish” the work of the ad hoc committee when school committee members ask questions, “but we want to be sure the public knows we have done our due diligence.”

Peters and Kuehn will work together to come up with a plan to discuss sections of the MARS report at upcoming meetings to give the public an opportunity to ask further questions beyond the many earlier ad hoc committee meetings with stakeholders, including parents, staff, and members of the community.

Peters said it’s important that the committee “is transparent. There’s a lot of good information in the MARS report, but people may not have read it.”

She also suggested a meeting involving school principals to talk about the “interaction between 12-year-olds and 19-year-olds [Hull High School seniors]” if option 4 moves forward and grades 8-12 are in the same building.

Committee Member Kyle Conley said she would “love to get input from students along the way. We’ve already heard from them – but when we’re making the final decision.”

Committee member David Twombly suggested holding a meeting at the middle school to discuss issues related to potential consolidation with the students.

Officials plan to visit the new Chapman Middle School in Weymouth to get ideas about furnishings and other considerations and to think about how to bring some of what that new school offers to Hull students.

At some point, Twombly said, “there will need to be an intersection of the school committee, [Town Manager] Phil Lemnios, and the select board to talk about financing and various decisions that need to be made to ensure that we are all on the same page.”

Consolidation of the three HPS into two buildings would leave the door open for the repurposing of the middle school for potential educational and municipal uses.

Even though there have been opportunities for public input throughout the process, Peters said the additional school committee discussions “will give us credibility. We can put an asterisk beside the agenda items as to which sections of the MARS report will be discussed. These meetings will be really public and [aired live on] TV.”

Conley acknowledged all the work ad hoc committee members put into its recent report recommending option 4.

“A lot of information is already available,” she said. “We don’t want to spin our wheels around the same questions with answers that are already clearly established.”

At the same time, she believes that additional discussions at SC meetings where citizens can continue to be “part of the process” is a good idea.

While Twombly said it may seem like a repeat of what’s already been discussed, he thinks people will watch school committee meetings who may not have attended the ad hoc meetings.

“We will take a final vote once everything is vetted. It’s a big decision,” Peters said. “My message is for the community to start paying attention.”

Twombly agreed.

“The train is leaving the station,” he said.