The Holmes Public Library had just the thing for a recent mid-winter warmup: hot chocolate, DIY crafts, and a puppy to warm your heart. Special guests were police officer Paul Campbell with Halifax’s own comfort dog Roxy, right. Above, Thomas Gallant gets down on the floor to visit with Roxie. . Below right:, Assistant Library Director Maria Bumpus welcomes Roxy.
Archives for February 2024
Plymouth and Barnstable legislators endorse Fernandes for State Senate
Representative Dylan Fernandes, candidate for Massachusetts State Senate (Plymouth & Barnstable), was endorsed today by six Senators and Representatives in the Plymouth & Barnstable District including Sue Moran, current State Senator for the Plymouth & Barnstable district, Senator Julian Cyr (Cape & Islands) and Representatives Kathy LaNatra (12th Plymouth), Sarah Peake (4th Barnstable), Kip Diggs (2nd Barnstable), and Chris Flanagan (1st Barnstable)..
“I’m honored to receive the support of legislative leaders across the Plymouth & Barnstable region,” Fernandes said. “I want to thank Senator Moran for her leadership and mentorship, and for trusting me to continue her legacy of service.”
The South Shore and Cape Cod legislators praised Fernandes for his record of delivering results for the region, his advocacy for clean air and water, and his vision for a more vibrant and affordable Plymouth and Barnstable.
Senator Julian Cyr: “Dylan has a track record of delivering results for his constituents, and we’ve teamed up on a myriad of challenging issues. Few elected officials are more effective or as grounded in the lived challenges that Cape Codders and South Shore residents face. The people of the Barnstable & Plymouth District would be very well served to be represented by Dylan in the Senate. He has my enthusiastic endorsement.”
Representative Kathy Lanatra: “Dylan’s dynamic approach and legislative experience ensure effective results for our community. Witnessing his tireless efforts on the campaign trail convinces me that he’ll be an unmatched State Senator.”
Representative Sarah Peake: “Dylan is a collaborator. Over the past eight years I have worked with him and seen firsthand how he collaborates with colleagues in Boston, partners with people of all backgrounds on the Cape and Islands, and delivers real results for our region. From water quality to housing to sea level rise, Dylan is a leading voice on the issues impacting our coastal communities.”
Senator Sue Moran: “People tell me they see me “everywhere” working on the issues our communities care about.” I’m endorsing Dylan because I am confident he will continue the level of commitment to service that the Plymouth-Barnstable District deserves.”
Fernandes has also been endorsed by Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. Fernandes, who has served as the State Representative for the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district since 2017, is running to succeed Moran, who announced she would not seek re-election last November.
Howard Cushman named to fall ‘23 Citadel dean’s list
CHARLESTON, SC– Howard Cushman of Halifax, is among the more than 1,300 cadets and students recognized for their academic achievements during the fall 2023 semester.
The dean’s list is a recognition given to cadets and students who are registered for 12 or more semester hours and whose grade point average is 3.20 or higher, with no grade of I (Incomplete) and no grade below C for work in a semester.
Cadets who are named to the dean’s list receive a medal, which is worn on their uniform during the semester following their academic achievement. Non-cadet students on the dean’s list are presented a certificate.
The Citadel, with its iconic campus located in Charleston, South Carolina, offers a classic military college education for young men and women focused on leadership excellence and academic distinction.
The approximately 2,300 members of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets are not required to serve in the military, but about one-third of each class earn commissions to become officers in every branch of U.S. military service. Citadel alumni have served the nation, their states and their communities as principled leaders since 1842. The Citadel Graduate College offers dozens of graduate degree, graduate certificate and evening undergraduate programs in the evening or online. The Citadel has been consecutively named Best Public College in the South by U.S. News & World Report for 13 years and No. 1 Best Public College for Veterans in the South for six years.
PFD honors Young Heroes honored
Dennett Elementary School was honored Wednesday morning to present a plaque identifying three Young Heroes who have put into action the lessons they learned from talks with Plympton Firefighters. Each year firefighters speak with students at the Dennett giving them age-appropriate lessons in what to do when the alarm goes off. Each of these three youngsters showed that they could keep cool when the situation heated up. They are Jackson Randall, Cayden Galambos, and Bradley Bonome, shown here with top firefighter in the state, Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine, Plympton’s Fire Chief Cheryl Duddy, and Capt. John Sjostedt. The plaque will hang in the Dennett corridor. Overseeing the presentation was Wilden, the Plympton Fire Department’s comfort dog owned by Chief Duddy.
Photos by Deb Anderson
Preliminary budget for Dennett
The Plympton School Committee met on Monday, Jan. 22. Superintendent Jill Proulx gave a budget presentation telling the Committee, “We have prepared for you a level-services budget.” Proulx said that she wanted to point out some differences in the way the budget was presented in the past, versus the current presentation, some of which is linked to the regional agreement change. “In the past, out-of-district student tuitions were charged to the elementary budgets… regardless of if they were in the elementary or secondary schools, those tuitions were charged to Dennett Elementary School if those students resided in Plympton,” she explained. She continued, “In the past Silver Lake elementary programs existed and Dennett Elementary School had Silver Lake staff.
“I will now parse out some of the changes,” Proulx began. She said, “Pre-K will now be a Silver Lake expense, Silver Lake positions in the elementary schools will need to become school or town employees and the Curriculum Coordinator, how that will work, it’s our belief that the Curriculum Coordinator will have to become a town employee in one of our towns and then portions of the coordinator’s salary will be charged out to the other elementary districts.” She also said that shared costs positions would be decided based on regional agreement percentages. Facilities Director and Food Services Director were two examples of these shared costs positions. “Pre-K, although it will be housed in Kingston, will be considered a Silver Lake program… you will no longer see tuitions for students Grades 7-12 in the Plympton budget,” Proulx said.
Regarding increases to the Plympton budget, Proulx pointed out some items that will no longer be a part of the Silver Lake budget. “Currently we have two paraprofessionals working in Dennett Elementary School; in order to maintain level-services they would become, in theory, Dennett Elementary School employees for $60,000.” She said that while the cafeteria is still being discussed it currently operates under a Silver Lake revolving account. She also said that the estimated cost to Plympton for a shared Curriculum Coordinator is about $40,000.
For decreases to the Plympton budget, she said they would see a total of $255,000 for tuition and transportation for Pre-K and Grades 7-12. She said that Circuit Breaker has been estimated at 70 percent but noted that it was not yet reflected in the budget. Proulx said that substitute costs were level funded while utilities were increased by 5 percent.
Dennett Principal Peter Veneto spoke regarding potential enrollment increases. He said that they could be looking at as many as 264 students next school year. He said that classroom related increases were around 42 percent or approximately $20,000. He said that they are still discussing whether there are any facility related needs for the next year. The items that he said he feels need to be addressed are increasing from a part-time speech teacher to two full-time positions, a special education teacher, and a part-time ELL teacher.
After viewing trends for ELL learners, Committee Chair Jason Fraser said that he wasn’t sure he agreed that the school needed someone in-house given the fluctuations. “DESE gives us recommended minutes for ELL students; currently we are not meeting the minimum recommended minutes for multilingual learners,” Veneto said. Fraser asked him to build out the costs if Dennett were to pay someone through the contracted services to meet the minimum requirements.
Veneto also shared a graph of students with disabilities. He said that in the 2021-2022 school year, 15.5 percent of students had disabilities that increased to 17 percent and now 18 percent in the two years following. Veneto said that they currently have three full-time special ed teachers, but he is requesting a fourth. He said they are also seeing an increase in high-needs students which is differentiated from special education. He noted that 38 percent of students are now considered high needs.
Fraser said, “As many of you know, I also sit on the Silver Lake Regional School Committee and we got preliminary numbers there last week and seeing this budget this week and trying to digest all of the information, all of the changes that we’ve had to go through; just looking at it from a Plympton perspective, last year… we realized… that we had some extraordinary special ed costs… and we worked with the town and we managed to backfill and take care of those students and their needs… and when we went to town meeting last year, we came to the town voters of Plympton with a $346,000 increase and an 8.75 percent increase or so and they voted it unanimously, so we already had a substantial increase last year… but I was hoping that this number, the bottom line, would not be a 5 percent this year; I was hoping it would be a zero or a negative.”
Fraser also drew special attention to the teacher salary line. He said that a typical increase there would be $80,000 while this year the increase was $220,000. “Can anyone explain to me where the $220,000 increase is coming from?” Fraser asked. He said that another big area that jumped out at him was the special education transportation line which increased by $60,000 though he said that he understood where the increases were coming from. Fraser also said that he was eager to see what Plympton’s assessment would be for Silver Lake. “Obviously this is very preliminary and until we get a more solid understanding of what the Silver Lake overall budget is going to look like, I don’t really think we can make too much movement on this budget right now, but I want you to really think long and hard about Peter’s comments on the needs of the students and how we can best service them here and Admin., I would really like to know where that $220,000 increase in salaries came from,” Fraser said.
Principal’s Report
Veneto began his update by saying that currently enrollment stands at 253. He said that students recently participated in their third “all school rocks” meeting which focused on community. He said that individual classrooms won different awards. He called it a “rousing success” with all grades. “We’re still trying to fill vacant positions, Title I Reading and Math Interventionist,” Veneto said. He noted that they simply weren’t getting any applicants.
Capital Improvements
Regarding Capital Improvements, Fraser said that himself and Director of Facilities Mike Lawless met with the Town Properties Committee. He said that Town Properties told them to line up the air handlers on the roof in order of need. Fraser said they would try to get as many of those taken care of as possible through remaining ARPA funds. “We were also very cautious of how the end of year might look with some of the rearrangements of the Dennett budget; you know at the end of the year sometimes we’ve had surplus that the town has allowed us to use to do some improvements here at the school; with next year’s budget we don’t know if we’re going to have those kinds of surpluses anymore in June so, again, making sure if you have any of the classrooms that need a rug or tiles done, to really lean in to those dollars at the end of this year so we can communicate it to the town… so we can maintain the building to the best of our ability,” Fraser said.
Dog Walking at Dennett
Fraser said, “I’ve been approached by a few members of the community of varying backgrounds who are dog owners who are really missing the opportunity to have their dogs up here at the Dennett; you know feeling that walking around the track that had been installed around the fields with dogs leashed doesn’t cause any problems with dog waste on the fields and a lot of the dog owners that keep their dogs leashed also pick up after their dogs.” Fraser asked the Committee if they would agree to him approaching the Board of Selectmen regarding some leash laws, etc. for dogs to allow for them at Dennett. A member of the Committee expressed concern that a leash law might affect those like herself that have their dogs trained off-leash.
Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent’s Updates
Proulx said that the Commissioner approved the revised updated regional agreement. She explained it saying, “to incorporate Pre-K and make the adjustments to the regulatory language.” Fraser explained that the new agreement would affect some of the budgetary numbers. Proulx said that Negotiations were meeting the following day to discuss how the changes may affect faculty.
The Old Colony Planning Council reached out to Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch to ask if a survey could be distributed through Parent Square to the residents of Plympton. Fraser said that they had previously sent out a similar survey regarding similar needs. The Committee voted unanimously to allow it to go home.
Lynch also asked the Committee to consider the DESE (Department of Secondary and Elementary Education) VOCAL (Views of Climate and Learning) Survey for administration to students in conjunction with MCAS testing. “So at the elementary level, this survey asks students questions about climate, like engagement and safety,” Lynch said. Fraser said, “I’m opposed to it; I just wanted to make sure I explain why. We currently have a policy on the books that says that parents have the right to opt-out. They would have the right to opt-out of this, but the way the test is setup is that it automatically is on every single students’ MCAS so then it would be incumbent upon the teacher to know what kid wasn’t supposed to take the test and somehow monitor that… we haven’t traditionally used this as a data collection device here at the Dennett… if it doesn’t violate the word, it violates the spirit of that policy.” The Committee voted not to allow it.
Proulx asked the Committee if they would consider allowing Kingston Youth Lacrosse and South Shore Children’s Chorus flyers to be sent home in students’ backpacks. The Committee voted unanimously to allow it.
Energy Advocates, LLC awarded Halifax contract
Halifax selectmen met Tuesday, Jan. 23, at the Halifax Town Hall. They first awarded an energy management proposal for the coming year. Out of the three bidders, Energy Advocates, LLC., of North Easton was $2,000 per month; Amado Energy Solutions from Attleboro at $4,000 per month, and Wesson and Sampson, with a number of offices throughout the East Coast was highest at $7500 per month.
Kathy Stanley’s company, Energy Advocates, LLC, was lowest by far, Town Administrator Cody Haddad said, and she has worked with several other area towns. Haddad has worked with her in the past, saying her credentials are outstanding. The funding for the first year will be paid for with $24,000 ARPA funds and year two costs will become part of the operating budget for Halifax. The town may also apply to Green Communities to fund part of that cost. Selectmen awarded the contract to Energy Advocates, LLC.
Jonathan Saphire, representing Monponsett Events LLC d/b/a The Lake House, met with selectmen in a scheduled hearing to see if the board will approve a change to their all alcohol and common victualer’s license to include a secured lawn space and courtyard area at their 550 Monponsett St. location. Saphire told the board that they would have security through the Halifax Police for each event. Selectman Jonathan Selig asked how close the area is to Monponsett Pond; saying he didn’t want patrons to end up in the water. Saphire responded that they don’t want that either and they have plantings that help delineate the water’s edge.
One of the Monponsett Street neighbors voiced her concern that event guests outside with their drinks and cigarettes would put their litter into the pond: flip a spent cigarette or toss an unwanted drink. Saphire responded that they generally have a designated smoking area, and the area would be supervised. Selectman John Bruno pointed out that the pond is a treasured resource in town and echoed the concern that the integrity of the pond be foremost. Saphire agreed.
Jeremy Gillespie of Richview Avenue told selectmen that he is concerned that outside music would disrupt nearby family life. Saphire assured him that any complaints would be handled appropriately. Selectmen voted to extend the area covered by the All Alcoholic and Common Victualer’s license as requested.
Selectmen approved the requests from Steven King to use the Town Green for live entertainment and a Farmers’ Market for multiple dates during the upcoming warmer months.
Bruno asked his board to approve the new contract negotiated with Chief of Police Joao Chaves. “Glad to have you on board for three more years, Chief,” Bruno said.
Bruno asked his board to acknowledge a $20,000 check from MacDonald Industries for landfill repairs. The board accepted the check with their thanks.
Chief Joao Chaves asked selectmen to approve the appointment of Stephen Raddatz as a Police Patrolman. Chaves praised Raddatz as a good applicant who will become a valued member of the department. Raddatz came to Halifax from Whitman, where he has worked as a special police officer and also from the Weymouth School Dept. where he has worked as a security paraprofessional. Raddatz told selectmen his approach to conflict resolution is “Cool, calm, and collected.” He grew up in Whitman and is a graduate of Whitman-Hanson Regional High School and lives in Hanson with his wife.
Jeremy Gillespie told selectmen that he would like to reactivate the waterways for the river herring to make it back to spawning areas that have been previously blocked. Gillespie said that everything is looking pretty good and now is the time to get the Alewife Restoration Committee active again. Bruno asked Gillespie what his goals are for the committee. Gillespie said that there is grant money available to help defray any restoration costs. “I think it’s important we do this now.” Selig told Gillespie, “If we can get the herring running back, it would be fantastic,” but expressed concerns as to how the committee would work and who would have ultimate authority to co-ordinate the work needed. Gillespie said that the ultimate authority for the work done would lie with the Conservation Commission. Town Administrator Cody Haddad will research the committee and bring his findings back to the board at the next meeting.
Bob Valery, Halifax Health Agent, spoke to the board regarding landfill repair and engineering at the capped MacDonald Landfill. The TRC Environmental Corp. will provide engineering work to solve the perennial problem. Haddad said he is looking for a long-term fix and wants to be able to show the plans to a contractor and say this is what Halifax wants done. The expected cost for the engineering is $17,400, less than the gifted $20,000 from MacDonald Landfill.
Haddad complimented the consultant who is helping Halifax develop an MBTA Action Plan, saying the consultant from the public planning partnership did a really nice job with his presentation last week, listening to the concerns of what Halifax wants in that while Halifax wants to be compliant, it also doesn’t want the by-law change to have a major impact on the community… the culture of the town.