Kristy Zamagni-Twomey
Express correspondent
The Plympton School Committee met on Monday, June 3. Superintendent Jill Proulx opened the meeting as it began its reorganization by asking for nominations for a Chair. Jason Fraser was unanimously elected Chair while Jon Wilhelmsen had unanimous support for Vice-chair. “We have an important year ahead of us and a lot of work to do,” Fraser said. Kate Johnson was voted Secretary.
Fraser thanked those who came out to Town Meeting and voted to support the Dennett budget for FY25. “That budget will continue to include reimbursement in the form of Circuit Breaker for this upcoming fiscal year, however, we have now split the cost of educating students with extraordinary disabilities who need out-of-district services between Silver Lake and the Dennett’s budget. This is going to cause us to have to look at the budget, as a whole, much like we did this year for the total cost of education in Plympton. We saw around a 6.7 percent increase in the total cost of education from last year’s numbers to this year’s numbers. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention, I can thank the town for supplying us with $187,000 at Special Town Meeting for the override that we had in our special ed line and Peter [Veneto] and his staff for putting the budget freeze in place,” Fraser told the Committee. He continued saying, “Anticipating already, just based on some of the cuts we had to make to the budget this year and some of the natural growth due to contractual obligations, we could be potentially looking at a 6-8 percent increase of our budget from Go as a level-services budget.” He called the financial situation “precarious.”
Director of Business Services Sarah Hickey addressed some faulty equipment at the new playground. She said the hemisphere is currently shutdown due to missing nuts and bolts. She said that some routine maintenance would be done per the recommendations of the manufacturer.
During an update for Capital Improvement, Fraser said that Senator Susan Moran had earmarked funds for an HVAC system at the Dennett. Wilhelmsen said that they had an earmark of a little over $36,000 which they hoped would be enough to replace a rooftop unit. He noted that while they replaced one with CARES Act funds, many of the others are nearing end of life.
Fraser said that Represenative Kathy LaNatra was able to secure an earmark of $50,000 for Silver Lake Regional performing arts. The Middle School planned to use the funds for ADA compliant risers while the High School planned to use them for repairs to the stage. During his Legislative Agent’s report he also said that the Senate increased the per pupil miminum increment to a historic $110 per pupil. Rural aid has also been increased. He said that the best budget news of all is that Circuit Breaker reimbursement will be increased to 75 percent for FY25.
Principal Peter Veneto began his report with an update on enrollment saying that they currently have 255 students enrolled. Veneto said that they had Future Lakers Day, that day where the sixth grade students from the three towns come together to have a field day and meet future classmates. Step up day for the sixth graders was later that week. The Dennett had “Ride your Bike to School Day” as well. The last day of school is Monday, June 17.
Fraser told the Committee that one area that was cut during budget discussions was overtime for the custodial staff. “We no longer felt as a Committee that we could bear the burden of paying the overtime cost for custodians to come into the building for organizations that we believed should be able to foot the bill themselves,” he said. Veneto came up with a facility utilization fee schedule. Wilhelmsen asked if this would extend to Town Meeting using the building and was told that they should be exempt. The wording was changed to exempt Plympton Town Government or school-sponsored organizations. The Committee voted to accept the new fee schedule.
Veneto also went over how test scores compared from last year to this year. He said that the March 2024 scores were better than the scores from May of 2023 for almost every grade in the Reading STAR assessments. There was a slight drop for both fifth and sixth grade. For the Math STAR testing, the scores for March 2024 are equal to or better than May of 2023. Veneto said, “The scores are down a little bit from September 2023 to March 2023. He noted that they didn’t have a math interventionist during that time and they still won’t moving forward. Veneto said that in spite of that they are still trending toward their end-of-year goal.
Fraser said that he has been hearing that classroom management has become more time consuming compared to six or seven years ago and asked if that was affecting the time allotted to teaching. Veneto confirmed that this was the case and noted that class sizes are beginning to approach numbers more typical of an average elementary school. Fraser said that he would like the Committee to figure out what they can do in assisting with that.
Veneto shared a chart which showed median growth from September to March. Proulx said that 50 SGP (student growth percentile) is average. “You want to see something above 50,” Proulx said. The percentiles for Grades 2 through 6 in Reading were all over 50 percent with numbers ranging from 54 percent to the highest in Grade 4 at 68 percent. For math, however, Grades 3-5 were all below 50 percent with Grade 3 at 41 percent, Grade 4 at 34 percent, and Grade 5 at 38 percent. Among other takeaways, Veneto said that they will be working to restore the math interventionist. “This was the work of a lot of people and we spent quite a lot of time making sure that we had accurate data so that we’re making better informed decisions for our kids; trying to figure out early on, what do they need and how can we provide it,” Veneto said.
Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch provided an update saying that he appreciated Principal Veneto and all the principals across the district, presenting testing data in a uniform manner. He said that he hopes to see similar uniform approaches in ways to meet expectations using consistent, research-based interventions. Proulx followed with a Superintendent’s update saying that Silver Lake held their graduation the Friday before. “So I just wanted to extend my congratulations to our graduates from Halifax, Plympton, and Kingston. It was a beautiful evening – one of our favorite events,” Proulx said. Proulx also said that during a State-wide meeting of superintendents, it was announced that chronic absenteeism is down nearly 5 percent. She said that updated standards for Health and P.E. have been provided and will be followed next school year.
Wilhelmsen told the Committee that Plympton Library Director Mike Slawson was able to get a grant for $20,000 for accessibility improvements. Wilhelmsen said that Slawson was taking ideas from the general public regarding suggestions for accessibility improvements, including things as small as adding devices to the Library of Things offerered there. Wilhelmsen pointed out that there may be an opportunity there for helping older people as well as children in the community.
The Plympton School Committee will meet for their end-of-year closeout in July.

The Silver Lake Regional School Committee met on Thursday, May 16 for their final meeting before their closeout in July.
A Halifax resident spoke during the public participation portion of the meeting. “There are three specific areas I would like to talk to you about – ongoing failure to provide a safe learning environment for my son… the effect it has had on our child and our family… and recent retaliatory responses by your administration on my child,” he said. The resident said that his family felt they were dealing with bullying, but said that Silver Lake Regional Middle School Principal Becky Couet said, “there’s only been one formal case of bullying during her tenure.” He said that information was misrepresented including where a teacher was in relation to their son during an assault. He said that his son was “incredibly reluctant” to engage with the school regarding the bullying. The resident said, “he knew it wouldn’t help, he would be labeled a snitch – an outcast, and the teachers and administrations would turn against him. Sadly he was right.” The resident and father said that the chain of events eventually led to his child engaging in self-harm. He said that his son was harassed “physically, emotionally, and mentally.”
“The school entertained our correspondence, however no plan to help (his son) rejoin the student community or take steps to look at his well-being going forward were taken,” he explained. He continued, “In short, we had a document called a safety plan written for very specific antagonists and specific actions, but that was the extent. It was also unclear and often proven that classroom teachers weren’t aware of what was happening.” He said that his son has since been implicated in two different incidents which the school claimed had him in the wrong. The first incident involved what was deemed “inappropriate touching” and involved a brief touch on the back of another student. He said that the investigations into these incidents were in stark contrast to the ones held in regard to the bullying against his son. He said that to his family’s knowledge their son had had no prior disciplinary incidents with the school. “He’s gone through a terrible year and we have advocated fiercely on his behalf. It’s odd that now for the first time ever he’s been implicated in uncharacteristic disciplinary investigations. One can see a high degree of correlation here and even draw causation,” he explained. He said he has spoken with many other families whose students have suffered similar situations. He pointed out that the average teacher salary at Silver Lake is far greater than the average salary of a Kingston, Halifax, or Plympton resident and said those teachers should be held more accountable.
Committee Chair Paula Hatch thanked him for coming in and having such thoughtful remarks. “Bullying and such is nothing this Committee condones,” she said. She asked if the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) had been contacted and was told that they had. Superintendent Jill Proulx said that she couldn’t share the details of that investigation with the Committee during open session. Hatch promised the parent that she would respond back to him after digesting the information.
Sarah Hickey gave an update on the bids received for the CTE overhead door project. It was explained that it isn’t simply a garage door but rather “a pretty extensive project” involving the rebuilding of the steel frame around the door as well. Hickey said she asked the Emergency Response Team for the High School regarding the current doors, “If the doors were open and the building were to go into a lockdown, is this going to need ten minutes to shut the door – is that a concern and the answer back was yes.” The two doors needing replacement are in metal fab and automotive. The Committee voted to change the budgeted amount for the two doors from roughly $181,000 to $201,000. Committee member Gordon Laws asked if it was over the capabilities of the CTE students to build the doors and was told that it definitely was outside of their scope.
CTE Director Elliot Glass spoke to the Committee regarding a carpentry project. “We have a great project that we’re recommending that we’ve been working with the customer on; I previewed this quickly with our CTE Sub-Committee last time we sat together in April; I did share the plans and the application with Paula [Hatch]… this project is within walking distance of the High School,” Glass explained. He said that it is a two-car garage with a mudroom built off the side of a single family home. “All of the pieces that we looked at to evaluate from course curriculum to the scope of work, safety considerations, travel and location, customer readiness were all very high… so it’s a great project,” Glass said.
The principals both gave updates. Couet presented the school improvement plan which the Committee voted to approve. She also presented a learning update thanking the curriculum coordinator in particular. She said that they utilize STAR testing for an assessment specifically in English/Language Arts. It is computer adaptive which means that students get moved to higher levels as they answer questions correctly. She said that the meeting grade level expectations went up from fall to spring. She did note that the exceeding expectations category was going up for math, but not ELA. She said that the school was working on cross- curriculum assessments and assignments between ELA and social studies.
High School Principal Michaela Gill said that they spent the first half of the school year as a faculty analyzing student MCAS scores and “really breaking down where do they perform well and what are areas that we need to help our students improve.” Gill said that common assessments were administered in ELA across all four grades targeting multiple standards. She said that while they were falling short in meeting or exceeding expectations in several standards in the fall, they have since made improvements in achieving those goals. She said that they would continue to work toward improving things further through professional development, student interventions, and other means. She also shared math updates including growth in students meeting or exceeding expectations in algebra.
Student representative Connor Doyle, who will be attending Assumption College in the fall, recapped student activity for one final time. He said that students enjoyed spring spirit week following April vacation which included soccer mom and barbeque dad day. He said that the AP government mock election took place between the breakfast sandwich and the French toast stick with the latter coming out on top. He also acknowledged many upcoming events including graduation and prom. He said that the class of 2028 would be coming to the High School for step up day. He thanked the Committee for allowing him to serve as their student representative.
Hatch told everyone in attendance, “We have a budget for next year, all three towns – hard fought, was not an easy process. I want to thank the taxpayers for supporting the budget… I want to thank this Committee for everything you did this year to get us to this point, it was a brutal year… I want to thank the SLEA for putting your heads together… having said all that, I want to thank everyone at this table… and everyone who had a hand in this administratively.”
There was a lengthy conversation about hiring additional staff to ensure that Silver Lake doesn’t miss deadlines, etc. per the required corrective action plan that came about due to an audit from DESE. Someone asked what would happen if they were to miss a deadline in the future and Hickey said they could withdraw federal grants from Silver Lake. Committee member Jason Fraser said, “I would like to see them try.” He said they would support Hickey were they to miss a deadline, etc.
Superintendent Jill Proulx provided an update saying that negotiations for several key positions within the District were underway. She said the only one that could be announced that evening was the new Assistant Director of Student Services Elizabeth MacKay. “Elizabeth is an experienced school psychologist and special education administrator,” Proulx said. She also said that they are in the process of hiring a new Athletic Director.
Fraser provided the Legislative Agent’s report. According to Fraser the House budget came through for Silver Lake “quite a bit.” He credited Representative Kathy LaNatra for the record high $104 per pupil minimum increment in the House budget which had previously been set at $30 by the Governor. Fraser said that this would help the town of Halifax, in particular.
Fraser also thanked Senator Bruce Tarr saying he was named the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) Legislator of the Year. Fraser said that Tarr put in quite a few amendments to be debated including one to fully fund regional transportation. Another is to increase the per pupil increment to $125 per student. Yet another amendment is to get the inflation index from 1.35 up to 4.5 percent with provisions for catch-up years coming in the future. Fraser said that Circuit Breaker is fully funded at 75 percent for tuition and transportation. “MASC was the organization calling for that and the Senate listened and it’s in the budget already,” he told the Committee. One of the Committee members commented on how lucky Silver Lake Regional School Committee is to have Fraser who works to get money not just for Silver Lake but for the entire State. This comment was met with applause.

The Kingston Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, May 21.
“Thank you to everyone that voted in the town’s annual election; we very much appreciate everyone that took the time to cast their votes in the very damp weather,” Selectmen Chair Kimberley Emberg said. She also thanked Sheila Vaughn for her years of dedication to the town including nine years on the School Committee and four as a Selectman. Emberg welcomed new Selectman Melissa Bateman.
Selectman Tyler Bouchard thanked Harbormaster Tom Taylor for all of his dedication to getting the boat ramp and parking lot ready. “For the amount of time that Tom Taylor, the Harbormaster, put into volunteering because when I say volunteer, he doesn’t get paid for the time this was happening so from the fall until now, he was off the books and he was down there every day,” Bouchard said. He also sang the praises of the volunteers who helped bring the project to life as well and in the process, saved the town a lot of money. Bouchard’s comments were met with a round of applause.
Emberg told the Board that they would need to do a reorganization of the Board following the election. “It’s been an honor to serve as everyone’s Chair here for the last three years; I would like to nominate someone else to be the Chair for this year,” she said. She nominated Selectman Eric Crone to fill the role. The Board voted unanimously to appoint Crone as the new Chair. Bouchard was voted in as Vice Chair. Emberg was voted in as the Clerk.
The Selectmen approved the shellfish aquaculture license renewals for John Wheble and Thomas Taylor following a brief public hearing. The renewals are good for 10 years.
The Selectmen also voted to increase the FY24 recreation revolving fund limit from $500,000 to $575,000 per the Recreation Director request. “Any recreation programs that need to be canceled to not allow the revolving fund to exceed $500,000 will have to be canceled for the remainder of the year,” Town Administrator Keith Hickey explained. He further said that the funds are spent on things like programs and field maintenance. The Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the increase contingent on Finance Committee approval.
A developer wishing to construct a recycling plant appeared before the Selectmen for a presentation. “It is worth noting that this project, if approved, would provide Kingston with a significant commercial taxpayer and would provide a reduction in the town’s solid waste cost,” Crone said. He did note that approval of the project would fall under the Planning Board’s purview. Managing Partner Jack Walsh shared an informational video on Kingston Environmental Partners, LLC. The video said that the proposal envisioned the construction of a new facility that would tie into the existing railway system. It also said that they would become one of the largest taxpayers in Kingston. Unlike existing transfer stations, the proposed one would have minimal community impact as the roads used would be ones not typically traveled by residents. “The project will also be subject to a lengthy environmental review by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts which encourages community input,” the video stated. Emberg cautioned about saying that the roads used are rarely utilized by residents as there are many existing businesses along those roadways in addition to the few residences.
Hickey explained a bit about the intended project and then said, “we’re having some challenges disposing of our trash in a cost-effective manner.” He also touched on the Host Community Agreement which he said could be “designed to meet the needs of Kingston specifically.” Hickey called Walsh a “straight-shooter” and said he felt confident that the community’s questions would be addressed. Those in attendance were told that they could email any questions to kingstonepllc@gmail.com.
Crone asked how many trucks per day could be expected during peak operating hours. Walsh said, “At peak optimal, there would probably be around 6-8 trucks an hour based on a 12-hour operating day, we’re looking to start around 6 a.m. and end around 6 p.m. at night.” He said that they plan to be closed during holidays and Sundays as well.
Chair of the Recycling Committee Jean M. Landis-Naumann spoke saying, “I’m hoping that you will consider including us in the conversations… certainly at this point I will take it back to the Committee for them to come up with their own position on this project, but I certainly would appreciate us being included in the conversations as this is our meat and potatoes really… and I would urge you to keep in mind that we do have a private hauler regulation… so most of the private companies have gone to a dual truck so half the truck is recycling and half is trash.”
The Board approved six one-day liquor licenses for the upcoming music nights at Gray’s Beach. The nights include June 11, June 25, July 9, July 23, August 6, and August 20 from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
The Board also discussed the Town Administrator’s evaluation. Hickey asked for some goals for the upcoming year and Crone recommended finances and budgets to the extent that they can be controlled. “I think it was challenging this year for a lot of different reasons to try to present a budget, a complete budget to the Board, to the Finance Committee, and to the community in a timely manner with the school coming in less than a month before town meeting, so can we work collaboratively with the school committees – I think the Board and the school committees need to be lock step with how we can improve these issues next year,” Hickey said. The Board also discussed whether to give the Town Administrator up to a $3,000 bonus based on his performance evaluation. The Selectmen voted in favor of the bonus with three in favor, one against (Emberg), and one abstention from Bateman.
Emberg spoke during the portion of the meeting toward the end dedicated to Selectmen’s comments. She said that she heard a complaint from a resident regarding the Ragnar Relay Race. According to the complaint, the race organizers were blaring music and announcements from a loudspeaker at 4 am. She said that next year they should make contingencies regarding noise. Bouchard spoke up thanking outgoing Selectman Sheila Vaughn for her years of service.
Bouchard also gave an update on the MBTA Zoning Taskforce. “To stay in compliance with the State’s mandates, the plans have to be filed with the State… so there will be a joint meeting between the MBTA Zoning Taskforce and the Planning Board on June 10 so that will be the final kind of checking off the boxes to send that plan off to the State… in order to get to fall town meeting,” he explained. He urged anyone interested to attend that meeting.

The Kingston Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, May 7. There was significant debate and discourse regarding ongoing and requested work from Eversource.
Community Relations Manager Ronit Goldstein appeared before the Board on behalf of Eversource. “For the last few months there have been a lot of questions from the town about the double poles on Main St., about the future padmount transformer, i.e. green box that will be at the library, and then most recently I know there is a public hearing relative to a pole on Maple St…. there’s two major projects in the town, the liability project will support 5-10,000 customers; it’s an upgrade to the circuit on Main St.” She explained that the work would allow them to achieve higher voltage and reduce power outages. She said that while those poles have been an “eyesore” she appreciates everyone’s patience as they completed the work. Town Adminstrator Keith Hickey said, “the pad at the library currently still has an orange traffic cone… two… on the pad that ultimately your infrastructure will sit on as well as… some sort of plastic cover… if you guys can just clean that up if nothing else… I know you don’t want to plant vegetation before you actually put the transformer in.”
Susan Sherman of Main Street spoke regarding the poles by Eversource. “I want to encourage the Selectmen to think long and hard on giving permission to extend this, it’s been two years, two years on Main St. and wherever else they’ve been… they’re putting in poles where there have never been poles before; in our new sidewalk and our sidewalks we know are not wide enough to begin with,” Sherman said. She also said that several neighbors have been reporting low-hanging wires that are making it difficult for ambulances to get to elderly residents. She also called it an “eyesore” and complained about all of the cones everywhere. “I just think we should slow down and try to get a look at this… when does it start; when will it end?,” Sherman said.
A representative for Eversource was there for a public hearing regarding the addition of a new pole on Maple Street Selectmen Chair Kimberley Emberg noted that the neighborhood was against the installation of the new pole. Emberg asked about timeframe and was told “normally it would be a couple of weeks turnaround.” Emberg said that one of her hesitations is that they were asked by the people who would supposedly benefit from the installation to say no to the new pole. Emberg said that she was inclined to say ‘no’ so that Eversource could speak directly to the neighbors’ concerns. Sherman spoke again saying that she doesn’t understand how there were representatives from Eversource and Verizon but neither can say when they will complete work. “I do think we need to have this planned and I don’t want to say let’s not deal with Landing Road and getting power to them, but there’s got to be a better way of doing this,” she said.
Pine DuBois, with the Jones River Watershed said, “the question I had asked at the hearing… was what is that pole; what does it mean? and I still don’t have an answer to that. I also wanted to bring up that this is a town park – it’s called Jones River Park, so adding another pole… right there where people go into the park as well as have stormwater on the side is something that the planner/designer should look into. I think what’s really lacking here is a comprehensive understanding of how energy flows.” She added, “people walk in this town, they bicycle in this town, we really need safe streets… I feel like we need a more comprehensive plan from you in order to get on your team.”
Carl Pike spoke up saying he felt that he was one of the only people in town that really supports businesses. He noted that residents typically boast about fewer and shorter power outages than other neighboring communities. “I believe strongly that Eversource is doing some of the right things,” he told the crowd and the Selectmen. “I would also encourage you to put that support into all businesses,” he added. Bouchard said, “One of the ways that we can support all businesses in Kingston is getting our streets a lot prettier so people want to drive down them.” Selectman Don Alcombright added, “Tall Timbers was a fiasco. It was a disaster; Eversource, you guys completely blew that.” Emberg stopped him calling it outside the scope of what they were discussing.
Selectman Eric Crone said, “I’ve been here since 2000, we’ve had a lot more storms, bigger storms knocking out power, I would say in the last five or six years to the point where I would say that four of my closest five neighbors have generators… but my mother is in Pembroke and when she’s out, she’s out and it isn’t awful and Hanson is bad… NSTAR vs. Eversource… ours are not as bad. To the extent that they’re being proactive in terms of putting up power lines that can then help reduce the outages at least for some people, is something we need to promote but I also think we need to protect our neighbors and the people who have asked for certain things going forward.”
Emberg moved to accept the work proposed by Eversource Energy on Maple Street contingent upon the removal of the double poles on Main Street prior to May 25 and contingent upon final written approval by Kingston Streets, Trees, and Parks Superintendent on the final location of that pole. The Selectmen agreed to the motion with the contingencies in place.
DuBois spoke again, this time on a different matter, “I’ve been counting fish, routinely, since 2005… this year, up at Silver Lake are the most fish I have ever seen anywhere in the region all in one place. It’s because of your dam removal embracement, thank you. But it brings a problem and I wanted to make you aware of it. The problem is that when these fish are four or five years old… the fish getting into the lake will lay 100,000 eggs… they want to get out come the end of July, August, September, October… so I need and I pray for your assistance in reaching out to the city of Brockton and DMF… that you work with us,” DuBois said.
She also addressed an old boat that is sitting with standing water and old leaves in town. She said that “we are the reasons we have so many mosquitos.” She asked people to get rid of standing water including bird baths, etc. Finally, DuBois implored people to wear repellent to protect themselves from both ticks and mosquitoes.
Emberg said they received a request from the U.S. Coastguard Auxilliary that towns on the South Shore support National Safe Boating Week by recognizing it with a proclamation. Selectman Tyler Bouchard read the proclamation that urged all boaters to always wear life jackets as well as take a boating safety course. The Selectmen voted unanimously to adopt May 18 through May 24 as National Safe Boating Week.
They also voted to recognize National Public Works Week and National Police Week. They invited the employees from those departments to stand up and be recognized and then gave them a round of applause.
Town Administrator Keith Hickey said that the new boat ramp “is in place and looks fantastic.” They said that the pouring of the concrete in the parking lot was the last step needing to be completed.
Hickey also said that the Planning Department and Conservation Department have applied for a 1.8 million resiliency grant “to position the town to potentially offer right of first refusal on the Correira Bog property on Wapping Rd.” Hickey further explained, “it’s one of the last pieces of property that we don’t have access to and oversight on to make sure that there’s no contamination that flows along the Jones River.”

The Plympton Board of Selectmen met on Monday, May 6. Chair Christine Joy said that they had representatives from Plymouth County present to discuss the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) program and present the town with a check. Plymouth County Commissioner Jared Valanzola spoke to the Board regarding the funds in the amount of $89,403. Valanzola told the Selectmen that the ARPA and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) programs would not have been successful without the town’s support.
Plymouth County Treasurer Thomas O’Brien also spoke. O’Brien thanked the Federal Government, Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren as well as Representative Kathy LaNatra. “These monies were for two separate projects… the first… is for the HVAC project at Silver Lake… this is a perfect use of those resources – provide clean air for our students… your second one you had some well monitoring that needed to be done… where are those resources going to come from? You’ve got other obligations, you’ve got public safety, you’ve got schools, how are we going to take care of these projects? Submit to ARPA and you did, and we approved,” O’Brien said. He also said that there is still “some money” left and noted that they were working with Plympton on some other applications. He noted that not a single cent would be returned to the federal government.
Police Chief Matthew Ahl and Lieutenant Daniel Hoffman attended the meeting to provide an update on the traffic safety campaign as well as a general update on the department. Hoffman said that April was Distracted Driving Awareness Month. He said that of just over 300 traffic stops, 108 of them were for using cell phones while driving. Hoffman told the Selectmen, “I could sit on the intersection out here and almost every other car seems to be on the phone.” The department is encouraging education on hands-free driving. Hoffman also noted that not having a seatbelt on is not a primary offense and usually they only ticket for that is when pulling someone over for another reason. The vast majority of tickets issued by the department for traffic stops are for out-of -town residents. Hoffman also said that a radar sign would be going up on Center St. Hoffman told the Selectmen that they have a plan to outfit all students that need one with a new appropriately fitted bike helmet for the annual bike to school event on June 7.
Chief Ahl said “we’re still growing; we have a lot of interest within the department and new opportunities for my new troops over there so getting them acclimated into these different specialized units.” He noted that for a while they were combatting attrition. “When I first came here, there seemed to be a revolving door and us getting involved in a lot of different things that we do now is why we’ve had a lot of different people come in my door and why we’ve had a lot of people stay. I give the Board a lot of credit too as far as contract-wise. These officers are happy here,” Ahl said. The Selectmen praised Ahl’s efforts with Joy saying she was very happy to see the level of community engagement calling it a “win all-around.”
The Selectmen voted to appoint Matthew Hickey as a Special Police Officer from May 6, 2024 through June 30, 2025. The decision was unanimous. They also came back from executive session to announce the outcome of some votes taken including the promotions of Nathan Valente and Kevin Brower from Patrol Officers to Sergeants. Lauren Grady was also named as the Executive Information Coordinator.
There were a few requests for use of town property including the Garden Club using the town green on May 18. They also authorized Yvonne Green to use the Old Townhouse on June 9 for a meditation retreat from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Joy said that they had a letter from Governor Healey that they will be reappointing Jason Fraser as a member of the Advisory Commission of local government. “It’s nice to have representation at such a high level,” Joy said.
The Selectmen ended their meeting with their raves. “I have a rave for the people that turned out for the meeting on Saturday for the Fire Station feasibility project,” Selectman John Traynor said. He noted that Jon Wilhelmsen has been shepherding the project. Selectman Mark Russo said his rave was for the expression “Team Plympton” and the entire effort to try to professionalize town government and town services. “It’s one of our clearest successes,” he said. Joy said her rave was for “the great work being done by the Police Department. It’s just wonderful to see the teamwork.” She had an additional rave for ARPA noting that Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy does a great job with grants and working with town departments to get needs met through them.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, April 23.
Conservation Commission Appointment
They met with Alan Dias to consider his appointment to the Conservation Committee. They had a letter from the Commission saying that the Commission voted 2-1 with one abstention to recommend Dias. Dias, who has been a Halifax resident for 46 years said, “I have watched the Conservation Commission meetings for the last year or so and the Commission is a very important function of the town, and it is kind of missing what I think it really needs – some experience. You’ve got new members, you’ve got members leaving, you’ve got new members starting and I think that with my experience, I’ve been a contractor for 35 years, I’ve represented clients on this side of the table for Conservation Commission meetings.” He continued, “I’m familiar with the Wetlands Protection Act, I’m familiar with the stormwater management, the sanitation code and I think I can assist the Board with trying to get itself reorganized so that it functions as a good Board and it’s not just handling complaints.” He said his goal was to be on the Board for about a year.
Selectmen Chair John Bruno read from a letter urging that Dias not be appointed to the Commission due to alleged violations at his 0 Pine St. North property. The letter said, “He’s also currently personally engaged with the Water Department on a proposed construction development within priority habitat and which there’s no current approved site plan. Additionally, Mr. Dias owns many acres of wetlands in and around East Monponsett. Though I have no doubt that Mr. Dias is a very intelligent and hardworking man, it is my personal opinion that he has too many conflicts of interest to appropriately and fairly serve on the Halifax Conservation Commission.” Dias responded alluding to the letter being written by resident Jeremy Gillespie, who was in attendance. He said, “Mr. Gillespie’s violations; they’ve been well vetted; they’ve been vetted by DEP [Department of Environmental Protection]. Quite frankly, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Dias said that if he had a financial interest in a matter he would recuse himself. Commission member Edward Lane spoke out in favor of Dias’ appointment. Gillespie spoke up claiming that Lane had lied about an important site visit.
Selectman Jonathan Selig spoke on Dias saying, “This has been one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make since being a Selectman. Alan, I want to thank you for your service to the town. You’ve done decades worth of service. I know his integrity is being questioned; I don’t have questions with his integrity. I don’t have questions that he’s a hard-working good citizen of Halifax. But I do think, for better or worse, it’s gotten to be a little bit political… and I know we as a town are trying to move past that a little bit, so again, very, very hard decision for me, but I don’t think that I can go for your approval just based on recent political things and it pains me, because I think you’re a very, very knowledgeable guy.” Dias responded, “My political views won’t make a difference from looking at regulations… we have regulations, we read those, we interpret them, we make our decision.”
Selectman Naja Nessralla spoke out in favor of appointing Dias. Amy Troup spoke out against Dias accusing him of telling her boss that she was a racist while they were serving on the Planning Board together. She referred to serving with him as a “nightmare.” Bruno said that similar issues were brought up when appointing Dias to the Bylaw Review Committee but said that he did a great job despite those concerns. “Personally, I know Alan. I’ve known him for as long as I’ve been in town, and I knew his parents. His father was the first Grand Knight at our church… so I’ve known them pretty well. I know all of his work. I know he’s had issues all up and down and so haven’t we all, so I’m not really concerned about that,” Bruno said. Bruno made a motion to appoint Dias which was met with ire from both Troup and Gillespie. Dias was appointed to the Commission with a 2-1 vote with both Bruno and Nessralla voting in favor and Selig voting against.
Building Department Fee Changes
“The Finance Committee had asked that all departments annually review their fee schedules just to make sure that we’re in line with our comparable communities; we’re obviously not looking to charge more but we want to continuously review those to make sure that they are in line with where they need to be,” Town Administrator Cody Haddad said. New Building Commissioner Ed Bayly reviewed ten surrounding communities and made recommendations for fee changes to be brought before the Board of Selectmen for their review and approval. Bayly said that upon review Halifax was at the lower end of average. His proposed changes moved them closer to the upper end of average. The Selectmen approved the new fee schedule effective July 1.
Pole and Road Cut Approvals
The Selectmen had a scheduled pole hearing that evening for the purpose of hearing the joint petition submitted by Massachusetts Electric Company and Verizon New England Inc. to replace some existing poles on Holmes St. A representative from National Grid appeared before the Board explaining that the change would reduce the number of people who lose power should something happen causing a power outage. The Selectmen agreed to the work.
The Selectmen also had a request from Eversource to open a 4’x6’ road cut at 98 Holmes St. for an abandoned gas service line. “The stipulation is it has to be approved by the Conservation Commission,” Bruno said. The Building Inspector, Police, and Highway have already approved. The Selectmen voted to also approve it pending the Conservation Commission’s approval. They dealt with two more road cuts to install new gas service at 203 Oak St. The Selectmen voted to approve those as well contingent on the other necessary department approvals.
Other Business
Haddad told the Selectmen that they are undergoing upgrades to their water treatment facilities. He said that the engineering firm that is serving as the project manager has submitted a change of scope that will result in an increased cost of $31,600. Haddad noted that they do have the funding in place. The Selectmen voted to approve the changes. The total cost of the project will be just under $3 million.
The Selectmen also reviewed a contract with Ocean State Pyrotechnics for the fireworks display scheduled for June 29 with a rain date of June 30. “This is all with donated funds,” Haddad said. The Selectmen agreed to the contract.
The Selectmen also dealt with expanding the newly formed Alewife Restoration Committee from three to four members. Standing member Jeremy Gillespie was there to speak to the need to expand the Committee. The Selectmen agreed to change the makeup of the Committee to up to five members. They also voted to approve the appointment of Allen Palmer to the Alewife Restoration Committee.
Haddad provided an update saying that they officially launched their community forum HaliFACTS. “It’s been a good service; we’ve received one or two comments so far and we’ve been pretty quick to respond to them. We really want to emphasize people to utilize that rather than social media so they can get the accurate information,” he explained. Haddad also said that he and Selig filmed a Town Meeting warrant preview which is posted online at Area 58. In the video, they go through each article explaining a bit more about them.

The Plympton Board of Selectmen met on Monday, April 22. Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy reviewed all of the various articles on the town meeting warrant asking the Selectmen to put a hold on anything they wanted to discuss further. Articles include Article 6 that is the Community Preservation funding for the restoration of the historic front entrance of Plympton’s Townhouse. Article 9 seeks to appropriate $4,042 plus repurposing an additional $3,500 for the required 5 percent match for an anticipated award of an Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) grant for communications equipment for the Fire Department.
Article 33 “allows the Town Clerk to make a new section using e-code and it makes it a requirement for people to have a house number somewhere visible so the Fire Department can identify,” Dennehy explained. Selectman John Traynor asked what was driving it and Dennehy said that the By-Law Review Committee has been reaching out to different town departments to get their feedback and this suggestion came from the Fire Department. “I don’t know how enforceable it will be but I think it’s a good start at least for new construction,” Dennehy said.
Dennehy told the Selectmen that the Finance Committee no longer wants to mail the warrants out to residents. “They think it’s an additional cost and it’s not sustainable and we have hardcopies available at Town Meeting… we’re avoiding the bulk mail permit expense and it will be on the website and on social media,” Dennehy said. Selectman Mark Russo was surprised the decision was made for this year. “I think this is the thing to alert citizens that maybe wouldn’t look anywhere else,” he explained. Traynor said he was in favor of forgoing the mailing due to it being a “fairly large expense.” Russo elaborated on his point saying, “the trouble is you have to have your interest piqued to access it anywhere and unless it goes out in the mail there’ s a whole bunch of people that this will go right over their heads; honestly I kind of feel like it’s a connection with the past and a traditional thing… it’s also kind of a manifestation of our work and what we do.” Dennehey said that she would bring Russo’s concerns to the Finance Committee.
Dennehy also reviewed the articles for the Special Town Meeting. The second article is for a Community Preservation project at Holt Field including lighting. Dennehy said they may be able to pass over Articles 3 and 4. Article 5 is for the projected deficit at Dennett Elementary School. Dennehy said that School Committee Chair Jason Fraser and the rest of the Committee are working hard to reduce that deficit as much as possible. Traynor asked how much the School Committee was anticipating the deficit to be and was told that as of that date, it was likely around $130,000 though that number was anticipated to go down.
Dennehy provided a Town Administrator’s update saying, “our vendor is putting the finishing touches on a Green Communities application; the deadline for applying is May 10… I believe we’re going to try again for the library heating system.”
They ended their meeting with their raves for the week. Selectman Chair Christine Joy said, “My rave would be for Liz and the financial team and all the hard work that goes into creating the warrant and vetting all the articles and coming up with funding sources, and transferring money; it’s a huge process and you do a wonderful job and we’re lucky to have you.” Russo said, “I totally agree with that; it’s not just the finished product this year but the process that’s been put in place.”

Chair John Bruno said that he received a letter from the Chair of the Hanson Select Board regarding regionalization of pond management as well as whether the Plymouth County Commissioners could take a role in said management. He read from the letter saying, “Currently each town has its own pond management plan and allocates funds for this purpose; we believe there may be scales of economy and thus savings if we ban together in solving this problem. We recognize that the Conservation Commission in each town would have to be part of the conversation as will the Select Boards in each town. My reason for reaching out is to gauge whether your town would be interested in opening up a dialogue with Plymouth County Commissioners.” Bruno said they weren’t looking for a commitment just yet and said he believed it was a great idea. “Yea, I view it as a strength in numbers thing,” Selectman Jonathan Selig said. Town Administrator Cody Haddad said that it came about because the County is looking to provide more services to its member communities.
Special and Annual Town Meeting Warrant
Regarding the Warrant, Haddad said, “One of the changes to note is we have historically always included the line-item budgets for the school department – Silver Lake and the elementary school; they don’t have line- item budgets so hence we cannot include those in the warrant this year.” He noted that the goal would be to have them in the next few weeks and have them available on the website as well as having them printed to give out at Town Meeting. Haddad went over each article including Article 7 which is the potential approval of the solar pilot on River St. “This is one our Assessor and Counsel are still working to fully negotiate that solar pilot. If we do not have that in the next week or so… we will just skip over.” Article 9 is the Community Preservation Act which Haddad said the Selectmen would need to decide whether to do a 1 percent surcharge or something different. “I know we’re fiscally at a tight spot right now, but I do feel like if we came in at a 1.5 percent that might be more beneficial,” Selig said. The other Selectmen agreed.
Haddad said that Article 15 is an additional $25,000 to fund an HVAC unit at the high school. He explained that $100,000 had previously been approved at Town Meeting but the project was delayed and the cost is anticipated to have risen. Haddad explained that the other towns are funding their portion through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds while Halifax is paying for it out of stabilization.
Haddad said that there was a placeholder article for Special Town Meeting. The schools are anticipating a deficit in their special education line item and they don’t yet know to what exent. “They seem to think that they are going to be able to cover the deficit with their other line items in the budget; they’ve implemented a spending freeze but they do not have that information ready so we wanted to put a placeholder article in case we do have to fund that deficit to some extent… just in case,” he explained. The Selectmen voted to approve the warrant.
Delegation of Educational Funding
Haddad said that this topic was requested by Selig. “I noticed with our education budgeting process this year, it felt challenging. To me it felt like a lot of the challenges weren’t necessarily on the municipal side but more on a lack of support at the State level so I felt like it was worth us to send letters to the State House leadership just to convey how frustrating the process is where we’re seeing these giant spikes in special education costs, but the State isn’t really meeting those costs for us so what we’re seeing happening is… general education students are often feeling the crunch,” he explained. He shared a draft of the letter he wrote with his fellow Selectmen. The Board agreed to send the letter.
Request to Raise Boards at Furnace St. culvert
Haddad told the Selectmen that he was contacted by Brad Chase with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. He said that himself, Highway Surveyor Steve Hayward, and Board of Health Agent Bob Valery met with a few individuals from the State to discuss the town’s priority to get the herring back to Monponsett. Haddad said that Chase felt that raising the Boards at the Furnace St. Culvert would assist in allowing the herring to flow through. Chase is also requesting that Halifax supports moving forward with a study on the hydraulogy, hydraulics, and conditions and operations of the Furnace St. and Elm St. culverts. Jeremy Gillespie spoke up regarding the boards saying, “they’re just slowing down the waterflow, backing it up, they’re creating eutrophic conditions in the river; it is a river that flows out of Monponsett… this needs to be done pretty quick… once the water reaches 50 degrees we’re going to see the herring come up.”
Appointments
Heather Sylvia of the Tipsy Mermaid appeared before the Board to request a one day liquor license for The Farm at Raven Brook. The event will take place on May 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. where mocktails and wine will be served. Tami Herchel also appeared before the Board to request use of the town’s roadways for the Ragnar Road New England Race. The event starts in Connecticut and ends in Quincy. The race will come through Halifax on May 17-18. Selig pointed out that the runners will be stopping in Halifax during the late hours of the night to the early morning hours. “You won’t even know we’re here,” Herchel said. The Selectmen approved the race coming through the town unanimously.
Inter Municipal Agreement with Duxbury Regarding Dispatch Services
The Selectmen voted to agree to a one year contract with Duxbury at a cost of $200,000. Haddad said that they do anticipate another municipality joining thus lowering the fee after this year.
Morse Brothers Update
Haddad told the Selectmen that the Morse Brothers had finished all work under their existing earth removal permit. He said that they would need to appear before the Board again for any further work. Bruno said that for the most part the few complaints that they had were with respect to the trucks moving too slowly. “As far as I can tell, it went smoothly,” Bruno said. There was one incident with a special education bus that was easily resolved as well. Amy Troup spoke up insisting that the Board also received “plenty of complaints” regarding the earth removal being in the aquifer protection zone. “So put it on record that there were actual complaints… our water is not the same anymore,” she said.
Town Administrator Updates
Haddad told the Selectmen that they would be bringing forth an applicant for the Town Accountant position after several successful interviews. He also told them that Halifacts was now live saying that he hoped residents would go there for information rather than believing hearsay on social media. More information can be found at https://www.halifax-ma.org/home/news/halifacts-halifaxs-online-community-forum.

The Kingston School Committee met on Tuesday, April 2. It was a packed house with even more attendees joining the meeting virtually.
The Committee opened the meeting to anyone from the public wishing to speak. Carl Pike, who serves on the Finance Committee and is a retired town treasurer, spoke on behalf of the town. Pike said that he has been a huge supporter of the schools and their budgets for years. “We have always, since I’ve been involved, tried to be very conservative in our financial management. We’ve tried to service the various functions of the various departments – the schools – while at the same time thinking about the residents, the annual tax bills, etc… Proposition 2 ½ says that we are able to tax our residents an increase of 2 ½ percent every year. We always hope to get some new growth… so that gives us another percent, so we try to keep the budget increases each year to about 3 ½ percent,” Pike said. He went on to say that the initial goal was to keep each department around a 3 ½ percent increase and noted that most came in under 5 percent. He continued saying that the schools’ budget came in around 15 percent. “We didn’t feel that we could come anywhere near providing 15 percent increase and being fair to other departments, other functions, and to the taxpayers.”
Pike said that after working with the schools, the current increase stands around 11 percent which would result in somewhere around a $400 increase to home property taxes. “In order to balance everything out across the towns, I encourage the School Committee, the School Administration, to work to find some solutions where we continue to provide the education we all want to provide but we find ways to make the numbers balance better. And I assure the parents that are sitting here, there is no one in town government that wants to sacrifice education… we all recognize that education in almost every community in Massachusetts is going to be 50 percent of the town budget,” Pike said.
Former School Committee member of 15 years and current Selectman Eric Crone also addressed the crowd. “One of the issues, obviously, when you’re making cuts, you’re making cuts potentially to programs, making class sizes bigger, or making it less desirable for families to send their kids to our school district,” Crone said. He pointed out that it leaves families with few options including moving or sending their kids to private schools. He noted, however, that charter schools do take money away from the town’s schools. “When that kid leaves our district and goes to the charter school, the amount of money that we lose, the expenses don’t go down, so if we have 10 kids leave and go to the charter school, you can’t lay off a teacher,” he continued.
Another former School Committee member and current Selectman Sheila Vaughn also spoke. “Every year we have to go up and I understand that this year is exponentially harder than most years because there are a lot of changes that we somewhat knew going into it, that it was going to be tough because of the preschool going over to Silver Lake and, again, like Eric said, special education cannot be cut… so when the cuts come, they come from the regular day budget,” Vaughn said. She continued, “We have to fund special education… Kingston has actually done a very good job this year of trying to stay within the budget, but this was mandated because DESE [Department of Education and Secondary Education] needed it to come through.” She implored voters that they need to come out to Town Meeting to make sure that their voices are heard.
President of the Kingston Teacher’s Association, and a 17-year teacher at Kingston Elementary School, Heidi Fox spoke on behalf of the educators of Kingston. “We love our students; we think of them as part of our family. We take pride in providing them with rich, high-quality education and engaging learning experiences. We instill within our students a love of learning, foster the courage to follow their dreams, encourage them to think outside the box and ask questions, and teach them to collaborate and be team players,” she said. Fox continued, “We understand that we are facing financial challenges. We’re all struggling with increased costs, however, by cutting our classroom-based staff, it strips away one of the greatest resources available to these children – their teachers.” She asked them to consider “trimming at the administrative level” rather than from teachers. Her remarks were met with applause.
Superintendent Jill Proulx spoke saying, “As we build these budgets, we had a number of changes that we were required to make and in addition we have been faced with rising costs like many schools throughout the State: inflation, rising costs of out-of-district tuitions, rising costs of transportation, rising costs to everything from paper to the crayons that the kids use. It is all leading to increases in our budgets that we are finding difficult to sustain.” These increases were presented in mid-March at a joint school committee meeting. The revised budget is a result of that meeting.
Director of Finance for Silver Lake, Sarah Hickey, spoke on the revised budget. She said that an additional 240 grant application reduced the budget by $170,944 and additional Circuit Breaker funding reduced it by another $869,655. Additional changes included a reduction of $290,428 from the salary lines and a technology grant that represented a decrease of $70,000. Increases included $413,556 in additional out-of-district tuitions and transportations. There was also an insurance adjustment which represented an increase of over $100,000.
Hickey said that Kingston’s assessment represented over a $4 million increase over the previous fiscal year. The total cost of education in Kingston is $29,818,034 which represents a 5.3 percent increase over fiscal year ’24. “When you look at contractual obligations… that is not just, yes, teachers have contracts and contracts including teachers increased, contractual obligations from my point of view… is the cost for the contract to maintain the elevator in the building… contracts for copy machines and printers,” Hickey explained. “The price for contracts has gone up,” she added.
Proulx said that they would be presenting a tiered approach to budget cuts that evening. Kingston Intermediate Principal Andrew Materna and Kingston Elementary School Principal Kerri Whipple spoke regarding cuts. They said that the first place they looked to make cuts was from supplies and other items that don’t directly affect the student experience. Whipple recommended funding an ELL teacher position from an E.S. fund (emergency shelter funding). Staff cuts include 6 paraprofessionals and 2.9 full-time unit A staff, likely including classroom teachers. Whipple said that despite the cuts, classroom sizes would remain under 30.
Like Whipple, Materna went through the tiered cuts beginning with supplies and materials and moving into staff cuts in Tier 3. If classroom teachers were cut, most class sizes would increase an average of 4 students.
School Committee member Jeanne Coleman said, “I would be comfortable bringing a budget to Town Meeting without any staff cuts and allowing the public to be able to support the staff; I’ve heard from not one person in town that has asked us to cut staff.” She advocated that everyone there that evening show up to Town Meeting to support the budget. Chair Timothy Lewis said he felt that additional cuts could be made to lines such as legal and substitute. “I believe there is other money in this budget we can save,” he told everyone. Coleman made a motion that they approve the revised budget without tier 3 staff cuts. The approved cuts in tiers 1 and 2 represented around $388,000. Lewis said he felt that they should be cutting more than that amount in order to be a good partner with the town.
Coleman noted that many people moved to Kingston for the good school system and that they wanted to be careful not to make cuts that would drastically affect the schools. Coleman also said that they recently did an audit on the central office which found that they were four employees short. “Not only are these administrators doing the work for our district, for Kingston specifically, they are also doing the work for Plympton, Halifax, and Silver Lake… they’re basically working around the clock and we’re already understaffed as it is,” she said.
Someone asked what would trigger a potential teacher cut in the middle of the year. Proulx said, “If we didn’t think we could absorb the areas where we had overspent through other line items, we would need to make a decision. With the budget freeze, sometimes we can’t make up some of those differences… it may or may not be likely which can sometimes trigger the School Committee to consider something like that.” Asked if that had ever happened, Proulx said she has never been a part of such a decision but she is aware it has happened in other school districts.
The motion to pass the budget with only the tier one and tier two cuts was passed with only two no votes. Coleman also made a motion to pass the Kingston School Committee budget for fiscal year ’25 at $14,568,739.78. Like the motion before, it passed 3-2.
The School Committee also held a school choice meeting. “School choice is a program in the Commonwealth where if the School Committee were to vote to approve school choice, we would be required to accept students from other communities,” Chair Timothy Lewis explained. The Committee voted unanimously not to accept school choice.
The Committee also voted to approve a grant of just over $12,000 to be used toward their nutritional program. Proulx said that it would likely be spent to replace outdated equipment.
KIS sixth grade teacher Dave Palana provided a Teacher’s Corner update. He said that the sixth grade took their first ELA MCAS that day and would take the second one the following day. Palana noted that they had the book fair for both KES and KIS. He also told the Committee that they have been trying to increase awareness of recycling through some different initiatives. Finally, Palana said that they have been working on different lessons related to the solar eclipse.
A PTO update was also provided where it was said that some modest funds would be seen from a Whitman-Hanson versus Silver Lake parent hockey game.