The Halifax Elementary School Committee met on Monday, March 4. Superintendent Jill Proulx presented the Version III FY’ 25 budget to the Committee. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) mandated that Silver Lake address what they saw as long -standing structural issues in the way the regional agreement was implemented and as a result the budgets for the three elementary schools and Silver Lake look different than years’ past. Some of the changes over the previous year were that Pre-K will now be a Silver Lake expense, Silver Lake positions in the elementary schools will now become school/town employees, and out-of-district special education tuitions for Pre-K and secondary will also be Silver Lake expenses. Shared-cost positions will now be paid according to percentages in the updated regional agreement. Proulx noted that multiple legal opinions were consulted and agreed on the new agreement.
Changes from the Version II to Version III budgets include removing Pre-K out-of- district tuitions at a savings of $215,990, special education transportation adjustment at a savings of $120,934, special education tuition adjustment of minus $609, and a 240 grant allocation at a savings of $37,205.
Version III of the budget represents a regular day increase of 15 percent or $937,694. Special education tuition and transportation for Grades K through 6 represent a decrease of $2,781,192. Laws said she was concerned about the 15 percent regular day increase even if the overall budget represented a decrease. Proulx also told the Committee that there was one known retirement for FY’ 25. For out of district vocational, Proulx said there would be five placements. She said that they won’t know the exact numbers until April 1.
Regarding what was not included in the updated budget, Proulx said that potential enrollment increases, especially for kindergarten were not updated. A reduction in technology expenditures of $40,571 was not yet reflected. The reduction will be courtesy of a REAP grant.
Proulx also shared with the Committee a draft of the assessments for each of the three towns. Halifax’s share of the assessment in FY’ 24 was $5,582,257 and the FY’ 25 share is $8,918,067. The decrease, however, for Halifax Elementary School in the town’s operating budget is nearly 20 percent. The overall cost to Halifax for education, including Silver Lake regional, is a 10 percent increase. The cost of education to Halifax in FY’24 was $14,858,409 and the cost for FY’ 25 will be $16,350,721.
Proposed costs added to the current version of the budget include a special education teacher at a cost of $65,000, a part-time ESL teacher at a cost of $32,000, and a building substitute at no additional cost. Capital needs for FY’ 25 include water testing and plumbing, student and staff bathroom updates, and bleacher replacements for the gym. The plan for the gym bleachers is to put them on a warrant article at Town Meeting at a cost of $45,000. Regarding a Hero Academy Program proposed by Principal Kayne Beaudry during the last School Committee meeting, Laws said, “I just feel like, at this point, we can’t do anything beyond a level-budget except for the building substitute that doesn’t cost anything. I don’t see how we can entertain anything beyond a level budget especially since we are looking at cuts right now. It’s sad, but it’s where we are.” Proulx pointed out that Kingston does need the ESL teacher and that Halifax may need to look at cutting $32,000 to make space for it. “That would be a civil rights violation if you didn’t fund it,” Proulx said. Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch said that contracting the services rather than filling the position could end up costing considerably more than $32,000.
The School Committee voted to ask the Board of Selectmen to push back the timeframe for Town Meeting due to unknowns as well as lingering questions surrounding the school’s budget. Laws pointed out that overall enrollment at both the elementary level as well as Silver Lake Regional are down. She asked what cuts to classrooms might look like. Proulx said, “I think that you would be better served by giving us a dollar amount that you want us to cut, by then asking us to deliberate here in open session.” The dollar amount that was suggested by Town Administrator Cody Haddad for both Halifax Elementary and Silver Lake Regional is $1 million. The Committee came to the consensus that they should attempt to cut their portion of Halifax’s enrollment in Silver Lake which is roughly 32 percent. Proulx said that they would set about cutting $320,000 with the cuts labeled by tiers.
Proulx said that a Plympton School Committee member asked that a new agreement with PAC (Pilgrim Area Collaborative) be presented to the Halifax School Committee. “I’m asking the School Committee to review it and ultimately each school committee would review it and then the Chair would sign it,” she explained. Chair Lauren Laws asked if there was a timeframe and was told it had to be signed by April 30. The Committee agreed to table it until their April 1 meeting.
The issue of whether to distribute natural gas safety materials flyers to students came before the Committee. While not directly an advertisement, the name Eversource does appear throughout the flyer. Included in the distribution would be packets that actually smell like natural gas so students can learn to identify the scent. A Committee member asked if, instead, the information could be disseminated during the Fire Department visit rather than as a flyer promoting a company. Laws voted against distributing the flyer, but the rest of the Committee voted in favor and it passed.
The Committee also discussed advertising on school grounds as a result of a 100 days sign that was put up which shared a QR code. I thought the sign was really nice; it was just the QR code that was questionable, Laws said. Laws asked Beaudry if he attempted to take it down and he said they tried to find out where it came from and called it a “mistake.” Laws said that it was the QR code specifically that violated policy.
An update was given for the DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) Subcommittee. Lori Costa-Cline said they were looking to bring on a DEIB coordinator and asked Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch if he could help them with that. Costa-Cline asked Lynch, “What is the process, so we have school policies and district policies so if a school/district policy is violated, how does that interact with the student handbook in terms of like policy violations… the understanding, I think, we both have is we have school policies which gives our school community rights, protections, while they’re in the space of the school… if a violation happens, is there corrective action?” Proulx said that it depends on what is found during the investigation. If bullying is found, then the procedure for that is followed, if harassment is found, then that procedure is followed, etc. Putting it succinctly she said that necessary protocols are followed depending on what could be substantiated.
Beaudry provided a Principal’s Report. He said that School Council met on February 28 with the main focus being handbook revisions. He said a draft proposal would be shared with the Committee during the April 1 meeting. “The water issue, we just sent a notice out today, we’ve been doing monthly updates… so this was the third round of testing that we’ve done and we did find that there were still elevated areas in the building.” He said that they have been flushing the system every day beginning at 5:30 a.m. due to the high lead levels. “That has shown that it does reduce the levels,” Beaudry said. He also said that they have been working on replacing fixtures where the levels continue to be high.
Curriculum Coordinator Melissa Farrell appeared before the Committee to address some concerns over handwriting. She handed out the Committee a printout that included some of the Massachusetts’ frameworks connected to handwriting. She said that the art of handwriting starts in kindergarten with hand strength and noted that they use occupational cards to work on that aspect. She said they spend a minimum of 20 minutes a day working on that type of development. She said they continue to work on letter formation, etc. in first grade, but by second grade there is no official handwriting instruction. “Part of that comes from the idea that just consistent letter formation, letters start from the top, letters start from the top,” Farrell said. Committee member Jessica Page acknowledged that she was the person who brought forth the concern saying that her two young school-aged children (Grades K and 2) are struggling with it and are not appearing to get the instruction outlined by Farrell. “I’m scared that we are cheating our children by moving them past these basic skills too fast,” she said. Beaudry acknowledged that they even see fourth, fifth, and sixth graders that aren’t able to use proper capitalization, etc. He said that himself and the Assistant Principal are aware and talking about what needs to be done in the lower grades to address these issues.

The Kingston Board of Selectmen met on Thursday, Feb. 15. Selectman Don Alcombright joined the meeting remotely.
The Board opened a public hearing for an incident involving a dog that had bitten multiple people. Town Counsel led the hearing asking the dog’s owner to approach the podium to testify. The owner began by telling the Selectmen that her memory has been deteriorating. The dog in question is named Tyson and is a 6-year-old Rottweiler. The owner said that a visiting nurse called her before a visit during which time, the nurse was told to call before coming to the house so that one of her dogs could be confined. The owner told the Selectmen that she has been rescuing Rottweilers for 30 years. The nurse called from the driveway and the owner said that she warned her not to come into the house. The owner said that the nurse proceeded to come into the house regardless during which time she was bit. The owner said she was a visiting nurse herself for 11 years saying, “I wouldn’t walk into someone’s house without them opening the door for me… I could not understand for the life of me what this girl was thinking.”
There was another incident outlined where Tyson bit another person after the owner’s grandson took the dog off its leash. The grandson testified to the incident before breaking down crying saying how sorry he was for what happened. The Selectmen opted to have a brief recess at that point.
The Animal Control Officers testified next. They began by addressing the first incident that took place in October at the owner’s home. They said that the dog was placed in a 10-day quarantine and said that the dog was released without incident following the first incident. She said she reviewed with the owner that the behavior of the dog was alarming and that actions would have to be taken to make sure the dog was put away prior to people coming over the house. The ACO noted that the second incident occurred in January in the Silver Lake Sanctuary. “Again, this was an unprovoked attack,” the ACO said. The dog was quarantined at the shelter this time, rather than at the owner’s home. “The entire time that the dog was there, the dog was agitated… staff could not go near the dog,” she explained. At the time of the release, the fines and fees had not been paid by the owner. At that time, the ACO requested a dangerous dog hearing before the Selectmen. The fines and fees were paid and the dog was released into the owner’s custody. “I just do not feel comfortable with this dog being in the town of Kingston.. this dog is going to bite again and next time it may be a child.,” the ACO said. The ACO outlined her personal experience saying she has been doing this for 16 years and despite trying to be lenient in these cases, the only recommendation for this dog would be to have it humanely euthanized.
Animal Inspector Debra Mueller spoke next. She told the Selectmen, “I just wanted to let you know, it’s 30 years for me. I, of course, have seen the dog a couple of times… we don’t always know what a dog is going to do and we can’t have a conversation with them, but this dog is going to bite again given the opportunity. The conditions in the house appear to me that they have no way to control this dog and the person that would be controlling this dog has to have the physical stature in order to do that.”
The victims were given the option to testify. The victim of the October incident, the visiting nurse, spoke saying that things were misrepresented in the owner’s testimony. The nurse said that she was never told that a dog was dangerous and also said that she was told to meet the owner in the house in a few minutes. She said she waited a few minutes and then went into the house. She said that she did knock but noted that the owner is hard of hearing. The nurse said that the owner came into the room following the biting and told her she had to get out of her house and that she was going to call the cops on her. “She was not nice,” the victim explained. She further said that she was on three weeks of antibiotics and had to have a CT scan due to the bite. “I still have pain from it,” she said.
The second victim from the January incident also testified. He said that he does typically see dogs off leash in the area but noted that typically they are friendly. He described the incident saying, “Now I’m in a position of do I kill this dog? I love dogs, I’ve had them my whole life I don’t want to do this.” He said that when the owner’s grandson called off the dog, however, the dog let go. He noted that the second dog was very calm. The victim said that he was upset that the owner’s grandson wouldn’t give him any personal information beyond his first name and a false phone number. “None of this talking that I was having with him gave me fuzzy feelings that he was telling the truth which is why I called the police,” he explained. The phone number that was given ended up being a phone number for the Duxbury Highway Department. The victim said that if the owner had been forthcoming with him, he wouldn’t have had to reach out to Animal Control. “I’m a pretty tough guy, if that had been a kid, and again, I don’t want to see a dog put down… it’s all about personal responsibility, people have to be responsible for their dogs,” he said. Crone asked about all the dogs the victim sees unleashed and Selectmen Chair Kimberley Emberg noted that according to the bylaws, no dog is allowed off leash in any of the public areas.
The Counsel reviewed the difference between a nuisance dog and a dangerous dog. A dog can be deemed a nuisance dog through excessive barking or posing a threat to livestock, etc. but reasonably justified in their behavior. A dangerous dog is one that attacks without justification causing physical injury or death or behaves in a manner that poses an unjustified imminent threat. The Selectmen agreed that the dog should be deemed a dangerous dog. As a result of finding the dog a dangerous dog, they then needed to select from several possible actions to take. The less severe of which involved keeping the dog confined within the owner’s premises or muzzled when off those premises as well as obtaining liability insurance. The final and most severe of the options presented was the dog be humanely euthanized. The Board voted unanimously in favor of the euthanasia by the end of the day on February 23. Proof of the euthanasia would be required. Selectman Sheila Vaughn said that she is a dog owner and has had Rottweilers as well. She said how sorry she was for all parties involved.
The Selectmen also dealt with the continuation of a separate dog issue from November. Emberg said that at their November 21 meeting they also held a dangerous dog hearing where they voted a dog a nuisance dog. The Board provided 6 conditions that the owner had to comply with within 60 days. The owner sent notification that they are incompliance with the first two conditions but were unable to come into compliance with numbers 3 through 6. The ACO has given the owner a 30-day extension to come into compliance. Emberg said it would be up to the Selectmen whether to grant an extension for getting the necessary insurance as the ACO doesn’t have jurisdiction over that one condition. The owner spoke during the meeting saying that he doesn’t feel he can afford all that is required of him and has concluded that he will need to rehome the dog outside of Kingston. He noted that it was a difficult decision for his family. An attorney for the town said that the order will follow the dog wherever it goes, but that it would be up to the new community to enforce it. The owner was there to find out what disclosures would be appropriate to make to a potential new owner. The Selectmen had the option to file a case in District Court against the owner were he not to obtain the liability insurance. Selectman Eric Crone said he was hesitant to file a case and, instead, would like to authorize extending the compliance deadline in the meanwhile. Hickey recommended putting it on a later Selectmen’s meeting agenda. The Selectmen voted to extend the insurance compliance deadline to March 2.
Emberg said that since Police Chief Maurice Splaine’s contract was coming to an end and they weren’t yet able to appoint a new Chief, they would need to vote on an interim Chief. The Board voted unanimously to appoint Thomas Kelley per Splaine’s recommendation. Emberg thanked Splaine for his years of service to the town which was met with a standing ovation. The new permanent Police Chief is set to start in April.
The Selectmen reviewed the budget which Emberg called “a level services budget.” Emberg said that her only request was that the Selectmen’s column in the budget reflect all the Town Administrator’s recommendations to show that they were aligned. Town Administrator Keith Hickey did have a few proposed reductions including to the employee benefit tuition reimbursement program. He suggested reducing the budgeted amount from $10,000 to $4,000. He also suggested eliminating the brush chipping on Saturdays from the Streets, Trees, and Parks line. The new general fund budget is $55,442,097. Hickey said that the non-school expenditures represent an increase of about 4.5 percent over last year. The Selectmen voted to recommend the general, water, and sewer budgets. Emberg noted that this is just their recommendation, and it is subject to change before appearing on the Town Meeting warrant.
Hickey provided Selectmen with some Town Administrator updates. He told the Selectmen they had three submissions to the request for proposal for legal firms. He said that the Board should hold a special meeting to interview one or more of those firms. He also said that the boat ramp project is set to begin March 1 and run through the end of May. He said the second part of the project will focus on parking. The IT manager for the town will be retiring in July necessitating a search for a new one. Hickey also said that the four new firefighters approved at Town Meeting have been hired. According to Hickey, a Mass Wildlife Habitat Management grant of over $23,000 has been awarded to Kingston to treat invasive aquatic species. The Fire Department was also awarded a $19,000 grant to replace some aging equipment.
“In our last public meeting we discussed creating regulations for a potential new industry within our harbor – sugar kelp farming. The Harbormaster and Shellfish Constable created some draft regulations for our consideration,” Emberg told the other Selectmen. She noted that it was available on their website for the public. The Selectmen voted to approve the regulations with a few amendments.
The Board also approved the beach sticker fees as presented that evening. The Recreation Commission recommended keeping them the same as the previous year though Emberg said that in the future she would like to see the fees increased. The sale of the beach stickers will begin April 1. Shellfish licenses are available starting Friday, March 1.
Emberg said that the Kingston School Committee voted to send a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Association (MSBA) to seek funding to replace the elementary school roof as well as doors and windows. The Selectmen voted unanimously to support the School Committee’s action. Selectman Sheila Vaughn noted that the roof was 27 years old and past its life expectancy. The doors and windows in question are 24 years old.
Emberg said that the continuation of the earth removal public hearing for PK Realty Trust was being moved to March 12 at 6:15. She also told those assembled that after 26 years PACTV had changed their name to the Local Scene beginning in March.
Nomination papers are available in the Town Clerk’s office and are due back by 11:30 am on March 29. The last day to register for the local town election is May 8 and the election is Saturday, May 18. Vacancies on various Boards and Committees include two openings on the Conservation Commission. There is also an opening on the 300th Committee due to a resignation.

Plympton Police Chief Matthew Ahl addressed Plympton selectmen at their in-person meeting Feb. 12 regarding a new regional clinician role.
“We’ve been working for about a year or so trying to get the clinician program off the ground, and I give a lot of credit to the Carver Police Department – they’re the holder of this grant and we’re the beneficiary,” Ahl said. He also told the Selectmen that the grant encompasses Plympton, Carver, Halifax, and Hanson. “So essentially the program is we have a clinician that’s allocated to all four of these departments that rotates through… she’s really there to help mitigate all the things that we see in the streets now… it’s a big push… so with that being said, her ability to go out there and diffuse the situation, speak with parties that are involved whether it be a domestic incident, temporary psychosis, if she has to issue a Section 12… so she’s kind of there on the threshold on the forefront to take that onus off of us as a Police Department and be the health proxy to kind of guide us in our decision and make sure that we’re doing the right thing,” Ahl explained. He told the Selectmen that while they are only about two months into the program, it has been “impactful.” The current contract is for three years, though Ahl said he envisions it being a long-term program. Selectman John Traynor asked if she was also involved with the Fire Department. Ahl said that while she was not, she has been willing to jump in and help in situations involving other departments.
Traynor said, “I think sometimes we think of us as such a small community that we don’t have some of the services that the larger towns offer but that’s not true. These regional associations like you have here, we have the opportunity to reach out and really bring top people in to help out.” Ahl agreed referring to the comfort dog program as another example of community collaboration.
“Sounds really good to me; I like the fact that it’s both proactive but it’s also there situational in the event that you needed somebody,” Joy said. She also asked if something came up in Plympton while the clinician was working in a neighboring town, would it be possible to get her to respond to the incident. Ahl said, “we have an agreement… if there’s something that’s pressing with our community and say that she’s over in Hanson for the day, then we’re going to collaborate and figure out a means to get her from Hanson.”
The Selectmen reviewed a proposed MassDOT Letter to property owners regarding the Winnetuxet Bridge Project. Town Administrator Liz Dennehy told the Selectmen that the letter was drafted by Attorney Jonathan Eichman. Dennehy said, “It’s a required part of the process because we are getting federal aid for the replacement of the bridge. It’s not going to make any notable changes to the property… basically there are two existing utility poles, and the state just needs to – it’s essentially a permanent easement, but because it’s permanent, they just need to take the land by law so that they can access the two poles. The property in question is 1 Pope’s Farm. The Selectmen voted to approve sending the letter.
For Town Administrator’s updates, Dennehy said that they have been busy with the budget process. She also noted that they had quite a few items in correspondence. She said that the Town Clerk was looking for a vote to acknowledge receipt of local election and presidential primary election information as well as the officer positions that will be open on the ballot on May 18. Also included in the vote was acknowledgement and approval of police details for the presidential primary on March 5, the local election on May 18, the state primary election on September 3, and the state presidential election on November 5. The Selectmen voted to approve.
The Selectmen also voted to approve the sale of the Class III and Scrap licenses from Alby’s Salvage to Angels Auto Inc. Alby’s is retaining their Class II license.
Selectman Mark Russo led off the raves talking about the implementation of a community clinician. “I have a feeling this is going to be a cool thing in terms of support at the time of a problem and thwarting more substantial problems later on to the degree that it’s sort of preventative medicine which of course is the best medicine,” Russo said. Joy said her rave was for an article in the Express recognizing three Dennett Elementary boys who put their fire dept. training to use in a fire emergency at home. Plympton’s Fire Dept. honored them as Young Heroes. “What a great story and a fantastic outcome,” Joy said. Selectman John Traynor said he supported Russo’s rave for the new clinician program.

The Halifax School Committee met on Monday, Feb. 5. Chair Lauren Laws called the public budget hearing to order, but no one wished to speak.
Superintendent Jill Proulx gave a presentation on Version 2 of the budget. “You may recall in the last meeting, the School Committee wanted to know what impact it would have if, in fact, we worked into this budget a number of positions that were recommended or requested but that hadn’t been included in the level-services budget,” she told the Committee. She went over some changes from the previous year including that Pre-K is now a Silver Lake expense. Silver Lake special education positions in the elementary schools will now need to become school and town positions. Special education revolving accounts will no longer be necessary. Shared-costs positions will now be paid according to regional agreement percentages.
Increases to the Halifax budget include five paraprofessionals and five full-time speech language pathologists. The shared cost contracts represent nearly a 4 percent increase at $12,789. Decreases to the budget include grant funding covering out-of-district tuitions. Major changes to the Version 2 budget include custodial overtime at an additional $10k, fuel surcharge around a $5k savings, principal requests from the January meeting at plus $112k, and the circuit breaker estimate at a savings of approximately $605k. The regular day budget represents a 16 percent increase of $402,600. The special education and transportation budget represents an 86 percent decrease of $2,381,453. Substitutes and utilities represent a 16 percent decrease of $1,473,784. Most of the increases represent staffing and payroll.
The proposed increases to the Version 2 budget included a part time ESL teacher at a cost of $32,000. “This position would allow for our students to receive the appropriate amount of services as recommended by DESE,”(Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) Proulx said. Also requested was the addition of a building substitute. Another proposal was for Hero Academy which would serve approximately 60 students over the summer and would cost $10k to $15k. It would target at-risk students who are partially meeting expectations as identified by STAR and MCAS testing. Regarding Hero Academy, Beaudry said they are proposing mixed classrooms of two grades each (Grades 1 and 2, Grades 3 and 4, and Grades 5 and 6). Staffing would include three classroom teachers at $4,500, three support staff at $3,600, one site coordinator at $1,800, one nurse at $1,500, and 1 office secretary at $1,200. The program would run for two weeks in August from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and would focus on mathematics and ELA. Committee members asked if staffing would be an issue, but Beaudry felt strongly that it would not. The teachers in attendance at the meeting confirmed that they would be willing to work it. The Committee questioned if the program would need both a site coordinator and a secretary. They also questioned whether support staff was necessary for the pilot year.
Capital needs and accomplishments were also presented. For FY24 these included water testing and plumbing, student and staff bathroom updates, kindergarten playground and mulch, and asphalt completion. For FY25, the bathroom updates would continue as would the water testing and plumbing. Additionally, the gym bleachers need to be replaced at a cost of approximately $45k.
The Committee reviewed their goals which included “continuous improvement in academic success of students that is measurable, data driven, and supports teachers’ abilities to educate.” Laws also said that they would be looking to improve the number of students receiving proficient MCAS scores as well as seeking opportunities to close achievement gaps. Also included was the desire to communicate and work with all stakeholders. There was some discussion about editing the goal pertaining to MCAS. The Committee agreed to change the language to “improve standardized testing performance.”
Youth and Recreation provided an update. Basketball, both recreational and travel, has been going on seven full days a week, all evening during the weekdays and all day long on Saturdays and Sundays. Adult co-ed volleyball is also taking place on Sundays and the public is welcome to attend. Three after school programs are going strong including art, sports, and STEM. The Director of the Halifax Youth and Recreation Department Richard Steele said he wanted to give a big shout out to all the teachers who are supporting the various activities. Steele was also seeking approval to put pickleball court lines in the gym as well as adding new bleachers into the capital plan. The bleachers are currently 30 years old and in rough shape. Steele wishes to start dances back up in March with the intention to split fifth and sixth grade due to chaperone needs and behaviors.
The PTO update included that teachers had donated four baskets for the Mingle and Jingle. Square One art is coming back as a fundraiser.
Kayne Beaudry provided the principal’s report. He said that Student Council met on Jan. 31. He said that the focus of those meetings is to scale back the handbook with the updated one being ready for review in April. He called it a “big overhaul.” Regarding the water issue, Beaudry said they received the results and were meeting that week with the company that handled the testing, the Town Administrator, Proulx, Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch, and the Facilities Director. “Hopefully then we’ll have a better plan… what next steps are,” he told the Committee.
Lynch told the Committee he had two updates. The first of which was regarding the vote the Committee took on whether to allow the administration of the VOCAL survey after the MCAS testing. Lynch said that when presented to the other school committees in Silver Lake there was a request that the survey comply with the district’s policy regarding opting out of surveys. Lynch said that they would ensure that the survey was not administered to those students. He said even if the parents had not opted out of the survey, the students would still have the autonomy to choose not to answer questions.
Lynch said that he, Proulx, Beaudry, and Assistant Principal Brian DeSantes met with the Halifax Elementary School Data team on Jan. 5. “We saw the Grade 3 teachers, worked with interventionists and special educators to analyze the STAR and DIBELS data that was taken just before in late December.” He said they are impressed with the teachers’ efforts to analyze the data and work to improve performance.

Starting off the Silver Lake Regional High School School Committee’s January meeting Superintendent Jill Proulx presented senior Alexander Risio with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents’ Certificate of Academic Excellence. Proulx said of Alex, “He is in the top 5 percent of the class of 2024. Alexander is currently our National Honor Society President, a member of our cross country and track teams, he participates in jazz band and robotics club.
He has worked with Habitat for Humanity since ninth grade, and he cites this as his greatest accomplishment in high school. In April of 2022 he helped renovate a home for a teenager with Stevens Johnson Syndrome… every Saturday Alexander would work on some aspect of the house for the entire day… through this work he was able to gain new experiences in construction.
Alexander believes the most fulfilling aspect of this experience was seeing how the community came together to help another person in need. This is not the first time Alexander has turned a challenge into an opportunity, during the isolation of Covid, Alexander was able to find new hobbies that he believes he would not have discovered otherwise. For example, his passion for 3D modeling and animation… this interest proved so large that he began entering his art into international competitions… Alex intends to major in electrical engineering and computer science when he attends college.”
Proulx introduced the new Preschool Principal Valerie Carlson who told the Committee of a need for a part-time speech language practitioner. “We have found ourselves at the preschool at a place where we have full caseloads; our two speech language pathologists have completely full caseloads and we want to make sure that the children who require services… are receiving those services and we would like to avoid interruption of those services,” Carlson said. She said that they currently have 12 students who they have had to send letters of interruption to due to the staff shortage. She said they were looking for someone to come in one day a week to work with those students which equals an $8,000 increase to the budget at maximum. The School Committee voted to allow them to hire the necessary speech pathologist.
Silver Lake Regional High School Principal Michaela Gill introduced student Connor Doyle who provided a report to the Committee. Doyle highlighted some acts of service by students including the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams visiting Kingston Elementary to read stories to students and help teachers. He also said that the Key Club sponsored a senior Santa gift drive for the homeless. Culinary students baked cookies for Kingston’s Luminary Holiday. Doyle also told the Committee that Silver Lake was nationally recognized as a banner high school for the Special Olympics. “This honor is not just for our Best Buddies unified sports programs; the criteria needed to meet those deserving of this national award requires full school dedication to an inclusive environment,” Doyle said. Committee member Jason Fraser said that he was “extremely proud” of the high school receiving the Special Olympics acknowledgement. Fraser also told Doyle that they are entering into the budget cycle and asked if he would garner feedback from his peers regarding where they would like to see the towns’ dollars and cents spent.
Gill told the Committee that they had three new course proposals including one for the Wellness Department called Unified Wellness. “It would provide an opportunity for students of varying abilities and levels to come together to experience fitness, leadership, sports, and wellness activities. Another new course would be French 3 Honors. The third course would be an AP Seminar course. ELA Coordinator Ashley Ferrara told the Committee that they have AP Language and AP Literature in the curriculum for Grades 11 and 12. “AP Seminar is… only 10 years old… it used to be a course where you could put it in any department, but they’ve since been billing it as an English class… and they’re trying to encourage people to use as the tenth grade curriculum,” Ferrara said. She also said that it wouldn’t require any additional staffing or funding. Gill said that ideally, they are looking at it to be a sophomore class.
Assistant Superintenent Ryan Lynch explained to the Committee a VOCAL survey that is offered at the end of the MCAS. He said it is a 20-minute survey that asks questions regarding environment, whether students feel supported, and if they have dealt with bullying. He said that the State then compiles the data. Lynch said that more than three-quarters of districts throughout the State participate. Fraser said, “I think it would be difficult for us to live up to the letter of our policy, the way that the MCAS puts that out there.” He said that the onus would be on the students, who are minors, to recognize whether or not their parents had opted out of survey taking. Fraser said that professionally he disagreed with not having students take the survey but felt that it violated policy. While not unanimous, the Committee did vote not to allow the survey.
Proulx provided an update beginning with a preliminary budget presentation. She said that the presentation would be based on a level-services budget and that anything beyond that would be presented at the end. Proulx began with some changes to the FY25 budget, including that in the past, out of district tuitions were charged to the elementary budgets and that there were previously Silver Lake special education elementary programs. The new budget includes Pre-K as a Silver Lake expense. Additionally, Silver Lake positions in elementary schools will become school/town employees. Out-of-district special education tuitions for Pre-K and secondary students must be Silver Lake expenses per the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Shared cost positions will be paid according to the regional agreement percentages.
Increases to the budget include $2,579,610 for Pre-K staffing and related costs, Pre-K transportation at $573,166 and out-of-district Pre-K and Grades 7-12 and beyond tuition and transportation at $6,738,777. There is an overall shared costs increase of $154,433 or 7.15 percent. The substitutes line at the middle school will increase by $42k while it will increase by $11k at the high school. Decreases include $377,814 for out-of -district tuitions that will be paid through grant funding. A 262 grant in the amount of $27,000 will be used to offset Pre-K costs. Proulx also noted that they are waiting on DESE to confirm that Circuit Breaker funds can be applied for special education out-of-district tuitions at approximately $900,000 or more.
The total budget represents an increase of 37.3 percent and $11,039,991 more than the previous year. Payroll and benefits account for more than 69.2 percent of the $40,639,990 budget. Individual Principals and department heads went over their specific increases including teaching supplies, transportation, and athletics.
Gill told the Committee that they are looking to hire a full-time ELL (English language learner) teacher as those needs are increasing but said that the $65k cost was not currently in the budget. Fraser said, “we are in the unfortunate situation where we have enough that it’s becoming difficult to handle it locally but not enough to get that support from the State or the feds.”
Costs above what was provided in the budget include one full-time ESL teacher at the high school at $65k and one part-time adjustment counselor at $33k at the middle school. Special education shared cost increases include $10k for the Assistant Director salary line and $105k for an IEP Meeting Supervisor.
A few Committee members, including Chair Paula Hatch, said that the changes to the budget made it difficult for them to ascertain what increases were reasonable versus those that were not. “I think to help me as a committee member is to help me to understand the number mapping more so I can get to the 40 or 41 million…. We need to see what piece of that is legacy Silver Lake… if we hadn’t made changes to the preschool being absorbed into Silver Lake, what would Silver Lake’s budget be in this preliminary document… and then layer onto that the changes to the preschool.” “This was a wonderful overview for the people sitting here and the people watching, it’s just getting us more clarity to the numbers – pre-amended agreement, post-amended agreement,” Hatch added. Proulx clarified that not all the changes are due to the Pre-K agreement saying that others were DESE requirements outside the Pre-K process.
A representative from the Silver Lake Education Association addressed the Committee saying that a silver lining of Covid has been that they were able to do a lot of project-based assessments. He said that he was sitting in on one capstone class where students are working on a better, safer child car seat. He said they were pitching their design implementations to a childcare teacher in the district. He also said that he is happy to see the special attention paid to English language learner students noting that he has 9 of those students in his Intro to Physics course this year.
Fraser provided the Legislative Agent’s update. “I started hearing chatter about 9C cuts right before the December revenue numbers came through; we have not hit revenues a single month this fiscal year at the State level, the projected shortfall is going to be about $1 billion in a $42 billion budget for FY23. Governor Healy did announce some 9C cuts, education was not directly affected,” Fraser explained. “It’s not going to be a year where we see a $750,000 increase in State aid, so we need to be very cautious and careful with any dollars we spend because they are definitely going to come out of the local resources.”
A representative for PAC spoke saying, “There was a cumulative surplus in the budget for PAC of $1.9 million; Silver Lake is not listed among member districts – it’s done town by town, but Halifax is getting $9,000 back roughly, Kingston almost $15,000, and Plympton almost $3,000.”

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.

Morse Brothers, Inc. and the town of Halifax will meet once again in the courtroom to settle their grievances.
Morse Brothers, Inc. and the town of Halifax have an increasingly complex history that goes back decades and is most recently highlighted by a public earth removal hearing and now a lawsuit against the town brought forth by the cranberry growers. The issues at play are myriad and echo an overall conflict that is playing out throughout Southeastern Massachusetts. On one side are the cranberry growers, particularly the small farms, that are claiming to attempt to maintain what is seen by some as a dying industry. There are residents concerned with how those farms’ practices affect their access to things like clean water and safe roadways. Still another side are the environmental groups that claim that the sand and gravel mining being done by the farmers is unnecessary and dangerous to the environment.
Back in November, the Halifax Board of Selectmen issued an earth removal permit to Morse Brothers following the public hearing. The current permit is to remove 20,000 yards of earth from a hill and does not include excavation below grade or into the water table. After hearing residents’ concerns, the Selectmen imposed a number of restrictions on the permit including limiting truck traffic to a maximum of 25 trucks per day as well as imposing strict limitations on hours of operation. There are additional restrictions regarding truck coverings. Morse Brothers states in their suit that the restrictions on Morse Brothers, their trucks, and their drivers go above and beyond what is prohibited by law on public roadways.
In the suit, Morse Brothers allege that for decades they engaged in “routine farm maintenance” including the removal of sand, without it being suggested that their activities were subject to the earth removal bylaw or could potentially be prohibited by the town. Morse Brothers allege that the Board of Selectmen’s insistence that they apply for earth removal permits was a direct result of complaints from a small number of residents concerned with truck traffic and damage to roadways.
In October of 2023, Morse Brothers requested exemption from the permit requirements of the town’s earth removal bylaw but were not granted it. Morse Brothers has cited concerns that the application of the bylaw to their ongoing cranberry bog maintenance has “unreasonably infringed on protections of land uses for the primary purpose of agriculture under State law.” They argue that the conditions imposed upon them unreasonably interfere with “activities integral to farming” and will cost their business significantly.
Jeremy Gillespie, who serves on the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee as well as the Beautification Committee, has been an outspoken opponent of the earth removal. According to Gillespie, the Board of Selectmen don’t have the authority to grant a permit for this particular operation as the hill is in the Aquifer Protection Overlay District which allows for stricter constraints on land uses in order to protect water resources. Halifax is a right-to-farm community which is intended to protect agricultural enterprises from unnecessary interference including from abutters. Gillespie believes that the town issued the permit despite protests from residents because zoning restrictions can’t unreasonably regulate farming. “It can reasonably regulate farming,” Gillespie said with emphasis on the reasonably. He continued, “It’s not unreasonable for us to want to protect our aquifer.”
While Morse Brothers insists that the removal of the earth is necessary from a farming perspective to support their cranberry activities, there are those who believe that these types of projects have a different goal – to turn a profit on mined sand and gravel. A public earth removal hearing was recently held in Kingston for PK Realty Trust where environmental attorney Meg Sheehan spoke out against earth removal. Sheehan, who was not speaking on the Morse Brothers project, but the PK Realty project said, “This project appears to be one more ruse to get the sand and gravel out of there… I have seen 100 of these ruses… enough is enough and we are drawing the line.”
Sheehan urged residents to visit https://www.sandwarssoutheasternma.org/. The cover page of an 84-page report on that website describes it as “An investigation into the money, politics and corruption behind sand mining and its silent environmental crisis in Southeastern Massachusetts.” Of the mining, Gillespie said, “Obviously the state is looking the other way; they need a cheap source of local concrete to build houses, you know?” Gillespie implied that cranberry growers are choosing the highest elevations to place bogs saying that they can make money from the excavated sand while breaking even on the cranberries.
While Gillespie believes that this particular earth removal project by Morse Brothers is likely not being done to turn a profit on mined soil and sand, he does question if past projects by them were. According to Gillespie, they removed a large hill in 2015 that Morse Brothers claimed was shading their bogs. Gillespie insists that the hill was always there and the removed earth was likely sold for profit. Regarding the current project he said, “If you needed the sand, why didn’t you keep some of it? They sold it for profit; they didn’t expand their bogs; they didn’t improve it for production.” He acknowledged that some of the removed earth is likely being used for agricultural purposes like reconstructing bogs to raise them to elevation in order to plant a new variety of vine. Certainly, the application of sand to cranberry bogs is part of a regular farming process. Gillespie questions, however, why the sand needed to do so can’t simply be purchased by either the cranberry grower or the town if it meant protecting the water source. “When they apply for all these grants that they’ve received over the years they always put sand as an expense – a huge one, but from what I’ve seen, it’s free to them… so that’s kind of the town’s argument too, we’re not making it for you not to be able to farm, if you just need sand, just go buy sand, you can always buy sand; nobody is preventing you from buying sand,” Gillespie said.
Gillespie said that there have been no environmental studies on what removal of these uplands is doing to the lakes. “You don’t have lakes without the uplands that surround them… I don’t know that there is much history of people doing this,” he explained. He noted that the sand is always leaving the property rather than being brought to it. “The less sand you have… the less filtered your water is; sand is an excellent water filter,” Gillespie said. Referring back to the reasonable versus unreasonable argument, Gillespie said of the 165,000 cubic yards removed from Halifax’s division II water protection zoning overlay district, “it’s not unreasonable not to want to continue removing sand that filters our water considering all of the problems that we are having right now.” Residents have taken to the Halifax MA Community Facebook page to post pictures of their excessively dirty water filters. Gillespie said that he would like to see the town or Morse Brothers bring in a hydrologist to properly investigate the effects of the earth removal on the surrounding water.
“Nobody knows… when you’re taking down these hills that have been sitting there for 20,000 years, you’re disturbing the balance that’s in the soil, you’re disturbing iron and other stuff that may have been deprived of oxygen and you’re introducing it to oxygen and then you get iron oxidizing bacteria… when you’re taking down giant glacial hills right next to the lake, there’s going to be effects and you might not see those effects immediately; you may see them in 20 years,” Gillespie said.
While the town imposed restrictions on Morse Brothers around truck traffic, etc. their position on the earth removal’s effect to the town’s drinking water remained clear. During the meeting where the Halifax Selectmen issued the now disputed earth removal permit, Selectman Jonathan Selig said, “this project has been reviewed by our Highway Surveyor, our Board of Health Agent, our Water Superintendent, our Police Chief, our Land Counsel, an Independent Engineer – all paid employees whose job description is to help be watchdogs for our Town. The site has also been inspected by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection – an agency whose sole purpose is to literally protect the environment… I believe the town has done its due diligence… this project does not pose a threat to our town’s drinking water or our natural resources.”
Morse Brothers has been growing and producing cranberries in Massachusetts for six decades and on Lingan St. in Halifax for 40 years. The history of cranberry growing in Massachusetts is rich, in Southeastern Massachusetts in particular. According to sources, Ephraim Stetson first began to cultivate cranberries in Halifax in 1867. Cranberry production really took off when the United Cape Cod Cranberry Co. was formed in 1904. In Halifax, the A.C. Burrage Cranberry Co. was founded a year later in 1905. Burrage, as it is known to many in the Halifax and Hanson area, was named after industrialist Albert C. Burrage and is home today to over 2,000 acres of ponds, marsh, swamps, and cranberry bogs. Perhaps the biggest name in cranberries, Ocean Spray was formed in 1930 in Hanson. Today, Massachusetts is responsible for nearly a quarter of the cranberries grown nationally behind only Wisconsin in production of the crop. According to the Farm Credit East Knowledge Exchange Report, the cranberry industry is responsible for 6,400 jobs throughout the Commonwealth. Additionally, the overall economic impact of cranberry production in Massachusetts in 2023 was estimated at $1.7 billion when combined across farming, processing, manufacturing, and marketing.
Despite Massachusetts’ hearty production of cranberries, the industry is plagued by problems including increasing production costs and decreasing crop values. An increasing world supply of cranberries, particularly in Canada, has contributed to the declining prices for the crop. The Massachusetts cranberry industry is also affected by federal trade policies that reduce the market abroad. Climate change has also presented problems for cranberry growers as winter temperatures grow increasingly erratic and they depend on frozen bogs for crop health. The last decade has seen the state lose more than a quarter of its cranberry farms. Cranberry growers have sought to make ends meet through alternative means such as leasing their land for solar.
Halifax is a microcosm of the current state of Massachusetts’ cranberry industry and the complex issues that surround it. Morse Brothers’ suit against the town is at the epicenter of that.

The Halifax Elementary School Committee met Tuesday, Jan. 2. The topics of conversation were heavy, ranging from hate speech to the preliminary budget presentation.
Chair Lauren Laws asked the other committee members to approve the minutes from their previous meeting. Member Lori Costa-Cline requested that they hold off on voting on the minutes. She explained, “There’s a significant discussion that’s not included… and it was an important discussion that involved diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion – creating a group focused on that. Why that was necessary – incidents of hate and racist speech at HES; creating a more tolerant culture; work that had been happening in terms of cultural inclusion. So, I think that I am disappointed that we don’t have a recording.” She said that she felt it was important that they have a public record. The Committee voted that they would come back with edits for what to add into the minutes.
Laws said that they added the DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) subcommittee during their last meeting. Beaudry said that as of the start of this year, the school has classified 92 incidents as behavioral issues at the K-6 level. He said that 39 percent of them were code of conduct, 30 percent of them were peer conflict, 13 percent were inappropriate language, 13 percent were noncompliance, and 4 percent were vandalism. He said that of the incidents, 75 to 80 percent of them occurred within the fifth and sixth grade. “We did have an incident, as was brought up last meeting, where there was hateful words towards another student. We obviously investigated that, parent meeting, we had a student meeting, there was discipline that was administered according to our handbook,” Beaudry said. He did note that there were several incidents of writing on the walls in the bathroom that were hateful. “It was typically in the boys’ bathroom,” he noted. He said that they have implemented a program called Hallway Pass where fifth and sixth grade students have to note why they are leaving the classroom, for what purpose, and what times they are out. According to Beaudry this has cut down on these types of incidents.
Costa-Cline asked how these incidents were being communicated to all stakeholders. “Kind of closing the loop with staff, making sure the kid that reported the incident understands what happened,” she explained. Beaudry said that, “we have been hearing derogatory, negative comments and that’s why… we have been working with Dr. Carlos Hoyt who is a speaker and a consultant… so Ryan [Lynch] and I and one of the fifth grade teachers met with this person just to kind of share like what the issues were we were seeing and then this individual shared what they can bring to us and right now we’re in the process of just finalizing the dates… it’s a really neat model.” He said that it would begin with a workshop for teachers and then a workshop for fifth and sixth grade students. Laws asked if there would potentially be room to start these conversations for younger grades so they don’t come to a head in the way that they have this year. Beaudry said that they are absolutely open to that. The Committee asked for further information about Dr. Hoyt.
Hybrid Meeting Request
Laws said that it was requested that they meet in a hybrid form. Laws said that they don’t have capabilities to do that in their meeting space. She said that she did find out that they would be able to broadcast them live on YouTube since she felt that the intention was not so much to participate but to be able to watch in real time. Superintendent Jill Proulx said that Kingston was the only one of the three towns that broadcast live. There was some discussion surrounding the public making comments. The Committee said that people needed to realize that those comments would not be viewed by them during the meeting. They voted to look into the technology to enable them to broadcast live.
Policy Review
Committee member Karyn Townsend said that she would like to see a policy put in place that there would be no food or candy given by a teacher to a classroom at any time. She said that she felt that food should never be given as a reward. Principal Kayne Beaudry said that the policy already exists. Costa-Cline said that while she appreciated the intent, there were specific “cultural events” such as the ice cream social that were centered around food. Laws pointed out that they give out hot chocolate and apples during the Turkey Trot as well. Proulx said that she recommended that they begin with a review of the existing policy.
Principal, Asst. Superintendent, Superintendent Updates
Kayne Beaudry provided the Committee with an update on Star Assessments that were administered in Grades 2 through 6. He said that ELA scores improved by 6 percent and Math by 13 percent. Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch provided a curriculum and assessment update. He said that they have continued their work with consultant Dr. Pia Durkin of Research for Better Teaching. “We did learning walks on November 29, Mr. Beaudry, myself, Dr. Proulx, Mr. DeSantes, Dr. Durkin visited several classrooms and looked at differentiation, learning centers, engagement; Mr. Beaudry followed up with an email to all teachers,” Lynch said. He said that more learning walks would take place in February.
Beaudry provided an update on the water testing that has been ongoing within the school. Lead levels were found to be elevated in all 10 sites that were tested. A company has been hired to do additional testing. “In the meantime, water is only being used for hand washing,” Laws said. Beaudry said that bottled water was being used for water fountains and in the kitchens for any type of cooking. Laws said, “To summarize… we’re not sure if it was the timing of the flushing that impacted the lead results, so the reason we are retesting with someone who – this is someone who this is what they do, they’re professionals – is to make sure either that those tests were valid or they weren’t valid and then we’ll go from there.” “Yes,” Proulx replied.
Proulx began her update by thanking Director of Business Services Christine Healy for her 28 years of service to Silver Lake. “Christine is not only a remarkable Business Director, but human being… we’re going to miss her and we love her very much,” Proulx said to a round of applause. “It’s been an amazing journey and I have learned a lot and I’ve met a lot of wonderful people,” Healy said.
Proulx told the Committee that the Commissioner has approved their amended regional agreement that includes the inclusion of Pre-k officially into the Silver Lake Regional Agreement. She said it also brings the agreement up to date with all current laws and regulations. She also spoke on some calendar updates saying that if there were no weather-related cancellations, the last day of school would be June 13. The Committee did vote to approve the calendar.
Budget Presentation
Proulx and Beaudry presented a budget narrative and capital plan to the Committee. Proulx said that they begin each year with discussions with the Technology Director, Special Education Director, and the Curriculum Coordinator. They also ask that principals begin discussions with their teachers. Proulx noted that the budget would be based on level services which she noted is different than level- funded. Level services keeps things functioning as they currently are whereas level- funded would require cuts. She said that Pre-k would now be a Silver Lake expense and Silver Lake positions in the elementary schools would now become town employees. “Silver Lake does not exist as an elementary entity,” she said. Laws asked how many people that impacted and was told it was three paraprofessionals in Halifax. Other changes included that grants would now be used to defray out of district vocational costs.
“There are increases to the Halifax budget. There are five paras and a part time speech language pathologist in the budget; in the past that was funded through a grant… you’re going to see an increase in the salary lines,” Proulx said. She said that shared costs’ increases represented about $12,000. She said that Circuit Breaker was estimated at 70 percent or $750,000. The Regular Day represents an increase of 12.32 percent or $783,751. The special education tuition and transportation represents a 63 percent decrease. The total budget is a 10.3 percent decrease of $955,207.
Additionally, Proulx said that shared costs, while included, do not reflect potential contractual changes. Additional staffing requests were also not included. The budget as presented that night did not include potential enrollment increases such as kindergarten or a reduction for technology hardware.
According to Beaudry the anticipated class average for next year is 19, down a bit from this year. He said that a notable increase is $7,000 for a reading intervention program. He said that the teaching supplies line is down. Beaudry also shared proposed costs beyond the level service budget. Those included a special education teacher estimated at $65,000, a part-time ESL teacher at $32,000, a building substitute, and a Hero Academy proposal. The Hero Academy would be a summer offering for approximately 60 students in Grades 1 through 6. He said it would be for students who are partially meeting expectations who typically don’t receive services during the school year and are likely to have regression over the summer. The total increase for these services would be roughly $140,000. Beaudry also went over capital needs including water testing and plumbing, student and staff bathroom upgrades, and a gym bleacher replacement.
The building substitute cost would not increase over previous years, it would just be a difference of day-to-day sub rates over a permanent building substitute. The Committee agreed that it should therefore be added into the budget. Costa-Cline noted that the town had asked them to do level service. “It’s in our best interest to listen to the direction of the town and be respectful of their ask; I think we are in a difficult situation with asking for more than level service even though I think it’s a compelling need that has been made for all of those additional items,” she said. She further said that while she is comfortable with the building sub and potentially the special education teacher add – she didn’t feel that the town could afford the other requests. The School Committees’ next meeting will include a public budget hearing.

The Kingston Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Chair Kimberley Emberg was absent; Vice-chair Don Alcombright, who was donned in a festive cat Christmas sweater, led the meeting. Selectman Sheila Vaughn was wearing a Santa wig and beard to start the meeting.
Earth Removal Hearing
There was a public hearing for earth removal for PK Realty Trust. “The applicant asks to be able to remove 1,100,500 cubic yards of sand and gravel off site from 20 acres… off Route 44 for preparing the site for cranberry bog water supply, tailwater pond construction; the requested hours of operation are Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 7 a.m. to noon,” Alcombright read. He further said that the plans are available in the Selectmen’s office at the Town House where they can be viewed during regular business hours.
Town Administrator Keith Hickey said that he had the opportunity to speak with the applicant before the hearing. Attorney Timothy Angley spoke on behalf of PK Realty Trust saying, “The bog is planned to be an organic bog that will ultimately be an education resource and facility that is going to be operated by the Cardinal Cushing school. This is planned to be a resource combining not only the bog but the wetlands to be able to provide a unique outdoor opportunity for students with special needs as well as other students from the surrounding towns and communities.”
President and CEO of the Cardinal Cushing Centers Michelle Markowitz spoke next. Of the work being done at Cardinal Cushing she said, “For almost 80 years now, we have been providing supports, education, vocational and recreational programming for students and adults with disabilities… farming is something that any one of us in this room could learn… we found that our students, the first few trips we made to the cranberry bogs were incredibly impactful; we saw their self-esteem soar.”
Bill Madden from JF Engineering said they were asked by PK Realty Trust to evaluate the property that they purchased. He said that they evaluated and reviewed the bylaw of the town regarding earth removal. “What we’re intending to do is create the level area for the cranberry bog to be constructed on, slope all the surrounding areas, and then come in and excavate for the bog and the water supply.” Madden said that a portion of the work will fall in the water resource overlay district. He said that monitoring wells were in place so that they can monitor the water table elevation any time during the construction process. He said that they filed a stormwater prevention plan through the US Environmental Protection Agency. “We want to return any water that we use for agricultural purposes right back to our tailwater pond… it serves both purposes – water supply reservoir and tailwater. That creates a closed system – nothing comes into the site and nothing comes out of the site,” Madden explained. He said that any excess water would be used for sedimentation and erosion control on the side slopes. He also said that they planned to start heavy vegetation growth early. The side slopes would be seeded as well. “All the areas around the bogs would be essentially our dike roads and sideways,” Madden said.
A Carver resident spoke saying that she was an abutter to a different earth removal project noting that it has amounted to a “sand mining” operation. “The permit was allowed back in 2011, here we are 2023. We have tolerated sand in our gutters, not being able to open our windows if there is the slightest breeze… everything in the house – the vehicles would get coated in sand silica. We have tolerated the tractor trailers and the dump trucks – 25 a day. The most I counted was 56 in one day. Now, if you can imagine the vibrations from these trucks going back and forth. We have dealt with a lot of things over the years. Are you prepared to protect any abutters that are close enough to this project from the downside of this project?,” she asked. “What my husband and I have gone through over the years, it sucks, it really sucks,” she said emphatically.
Madden then presented several reasons why this project was different than the one the previous speaker mentioned. “As I said, we’re not going to be impacting the roads, we’re not going to have travel, you’re not going to have some of the inconveniences or the long-term… we’re trying to have as minimal impact on the neighborhood as possible. There really aren’t any neighbors in this area – it’s industrial land and it’s open forest land,” Madden said.
Jimmy Powell, who is both a Kingston resident and the Ecology Program Director at the Jones River Watershed Association, said he reviewed the plans thoroughly. He asked, “is our earth removal bylaw not no touch ten feet from the water table?” He noted that the plan said otherwise and said, “that just seemed like an oversight to me.”
Meg Sheehan spoke next saying, “I’m an environmental attorney with decades of experience in environmental law working with public interest groups here in Southeastern Mass. I’ve worked on many, many earth removal projects including many with Mr. Madden.” She continued, “I just want to get right to the point here. This project is not allowed in the residential R8 zoning district.” She cited a court case where the town of Plymouth denied a project and the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the decision. “Many, many projects like this have tried to evade bylaws in Plymouth, Carver, sometimes quite successfully because no one is watching until now.” She said that the project in Plymouth was almost identical to this one except that it was for a Christmas tree farm. “This project is not allowed in this zoning district… if you approve this you are violating the laws of this State,” Sheehan said. She said that it didn’t matter the intention of the project or how many stormwater plans, etc. were in place. “This project appears to be one more ruse to get the sand and gravel out of there… I have seen 100 of these ruses… enough is enough and we are drawing the line,” she said. She urged residents to visit https://www.sandwarssoutheasternma.org/.
Selectman Eric Crone asked, “Can somebody tell me what the profit is on a cranberry bog versus annual profit on a cranberry bog of this size versus what is the profit 1.1 million cubic yards?” Sheehan said that they estimate it to be about $15 million. “The price of sand and gravel in Southeastern Mass has quintupled,” she said. She added, “The cranberry business as everyone knows is in an economic decline… it’s a breakeven business at best… who is kidding who, this is not about cranberries.” Angley replied that the quality of the gravel is worth maybe $3 million, not $15 million. He also said that the purpose of the project is to be an educational resource. Crone asked if that meant that it would be not for profit. Angley said that they would make a profit off of the materials mined but noted that it was minimal.
Crone asked, “There’s a ton of abandoned cranberry bogs, why not just take one that’s already built next to a pond, I mean they are all over the place so why not just take an existing one and make that an educational non-profit?” Angley said that it wasn’t possible to convert an existing one into an organic one. Crone retorted, “but that’s not what we found; we called and they said pretty much all the organic cranberry bogs in the State were converted.” Angley said, “That’s not my understanding and I may be misinformed.” He noted that the location near the wetlands and the access point made it ideal for the intended use.
Vaughn said, “I just don’t understand why we need to move 1.8 million tons of sand and gravel for a bog… I just don’t understand how we have to move all of that just to have an educational site for a bog for Cardinal Cushing.” She added, “I really think Cardinal Cushing is a great school; I think it is amazing… it’s just, to me, moving that much sand and gravel for a bog, it just doesn’t make sense to me.” Angley said that the long-term goal would be to make it more than just a bog with barns and livestock, etc.
Town Administrator Keith Hickey said, “I don’t think we’re interested in getting into a debate this evening between two counsels who have obviously opposing views on what this land will be used for.” He asked both Angley and Sheehan if they would provide some information that they can use in their peer review and their review with legal counsel. “I think, at this point, there’s a lot of questions from our point of view, from the Town’s point of view, with the amount of sand and things of that nature, we’ve asked… about needing some additional information before the Board of Selectmen can make a decision,” Hickey said.
Michelle Frost of Quincy spoke saying that her daughter is a student in the vocational program at Cardinal Cushing. “She has been afforded a number of vocational site opportunities; she loves the goat farm – that is a big one. She comes home with a lot of soap. She has done window washing; she has a really diverse set of opportunities… but it is the cranberry bog that is her passion.” She noted that this particular location was chosen for accessibility. “By building this to spec, you are opening this up to a tremendous amount of kids and adults who, their disabilities make it really hard for them to engage otherwise,” Frost said. “When you have a child with a disability, it is really hard to get to a place where you can look beyond that and just stop worrying, you have to find your new footing, so Cardinal Cushing and people like Michelle are critical to providing purpose and joy to other students,” Frost explained. She said that her daughter who works in the cranberry bog earns money that way and wants to eventually buy a home. “This has the potential to be a difference maker for so many students, like my daughter and the community, and the more people are around kids like mine, the more they learn the skill of looking past the disability,” she told the Selectmen.
Executive Director of the Jones River Watershed and Kingston resident Pine duBois spoke next. “When I first set foot in Kingston it was on an abandoned cranberry bog… and we turned that into an organic cranberry bog,” duBois explained. Children from Brockton and other locations were brought in to work and get an education on that bog. “So I really appreciate what was just said… but this site… taking down the site 75 ft to eliminate the drainage to Indian Pond… is going to damage the 3 ft deep to 4 ft deep Indian Pond 66 acre natural heritage site; it is an endangered species site. It is important to Kingston, it has been important to Kingston and it will continue to be important to Kingston as long as it can have water to fill it up and where that water comes from is the water that they are going to trap because it is no longer going to get to Indian Pond,” duBois said. duBois also shared concern that the geology and hydrology of the area will be changed potentially affecting the water table and noted that they will happily make other options in Kingston available to Cardinal Cushing for this purpose.
Vaughn said that they will continue the public hearing until January 16. Included in her motion was that PK Realty provide $10,000 for a peer review of the earth removal application. The peer review company must be selected from the Planning Board’s list of acceptable options. The Board voted unanimously to approve Vaughn’s motion.
Other Business
The Conservation Agent spoke to the request for the Blackwater Memorial conservation restriction. Little was said about the matter other than that a lot of work had been put in over the last year and it was now ready to be voted upon. The Board voted unanimously to approve. The Selectmen also approved some liquor licenses and live entertainment licenses.
Hickey asked that the Board rescind just over $24,000 of $50,000 of approved ARPA funds for several reasons outlined in a document shared with the Selectmen. He said that they have some additional ARPA fund requests. He said, “We’ll have about $10,000 in ARPA funds – we have to spend those funds by the end of 2024…. There is well over a million dollars that has been approved for a variety of projects primarily Water Department and School Department that have not been spent yet.” The new requests include a system that would notify the Fire Department members on duty if there was a call for service. The second request was for an air conditioning system for the Reed building used by the Recreation Department for a summer daycare program. The third item was for a new chiller unit for the elementary school. The final request was to replace the Opticom system at the intersection of Wapping Rd., Evergreen St., and Pembroke St. The Selectmen approved the uses.
Hickey provided a few more updates saying that the Wastewater Treatment Plant project had reached substantial completion. He also noted that the leaks in the fire suppression system at the Town House and Senior Center had been improved. He also said that the town has installed security cameras at the playground at Gray’s Beach due to ongoing vandalism.
Before adjourning, the Selectmen wished everyone Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas and complimented the town on the various holiday events around Kingston.