MCAS scores at Silver Lake Regional High School declined again in English language arts, math, and science, administrators told the Silver Lake Regional School Committee on Oct. 22. High School Principal Michaela Gill said the school is closer to state intervention than is comfortable. The response includes Laker Block tutoring, earlier attendance outreach and testing students with proctors they know.
The high school is not in needs-assistance status, administrators said, but its accountability percentile has slipped as scores fell across all three subjects. The 2026 high school math result matched the state average of 44%. Statewide, ELA and science results also declined and high school math stayed mostly flat, administrators said. Chair Gordon Laws estimated the high school ELA decline at roughly 30% over four years. Mark Helisek said the number of students not meeting expectations in ELA and math had grown more than 400%.
Principal Gill said the plan was presented to staff about a month ago. It includes small-group tutoring during Laker Block for grade 9 and 10 students tracking below expectations, MCAS item analysis in every core department, moving freshmen from physics to biology, with students sitting the biology MCAS by 2028, a weekly attendance committee that contacts families once a student reaches five absences, and testing students in familiar classrooms with at least one proctor who has taught them.
The school also earned zero of four accountability points for advanced coursework. Gill traced that to miscoded courses and said the coding has been corrected. The principal said teachers are now expected to state lesson objectives and criteria for success, and that teachers who do not will be addressed through evaluations.
Members disagreed about what is driving the decline. Laws cited experience leading curriculum development at Western Governors University and Coursera and argued that a learner’s context drives far more of the outcome than curriculum or teachers. Superintendent Proulx responded that teacher effectiveness and curriculum alignment are the main levers in public education. She also cautioned against letting predictive indicators limit what is expected of students. Earlier, the superintendent had said the district cannot blame COVID or technology, since other high schools continue to improve.
Other members urged studying comparable districts that outperform Silver Lake and turning the school’s athletic pride toward the test. A district administrator said there is no MCAS opt-out. She warned that a lower accountability status could require the district to reserve $15,000 to $20,000 of special education grant money for state-directed uses.
Harrison spoke for the student council. He said the National Honor Society chapter’s 142 members have made improving scores a main goal this year, and that students believe the scores reflect the loss of incentives such as the graduation requirement. Principal Gill said the chapter is also considering a bylaw change to require passing MCAS scores.
The middle school held at an accountability percentile of 46 and does not require assistance or intervention. Dan Correia, a math coordinator, said the share of grade 7 students meeting or exceeding expectations rose from 47% to 48%, and the share exceeding doubled to 12%. Nicole Afanasiw, an ELA coordinator, said the middle school is in the first year of a new curriculum.
The meeting also brought a budget warning. The district’s server cluster, which runs PowerSchool, phones, the intercom and PA system, and HVAC controls, loses manufacturer support in March 2027. Steve Pellowe, Director of Technology, said a replacement quoted at $57,000 last December now costs $212,000 for identical hardware. A second quote rose from $52,000 to $132,000. He said contingency plans can keep critical services running if replacement slips past March, but the system must be replaced no later than FY28.
Committee member Mark Guidoboni said this year’s one funded capital item, an HVAC unit, will take nearly all of the available capital money, and that no town meeting is scheduled before spring.
The committee did not vote on the SLEA and SLAA contracts listed on the agenda. Both are agreements in principle while attorneys finish the language, and both still require further votes.

Voters in Plympton, Halifax, and Kingston have more contested races on Tuesday’s ballot than many South Shore neighbors. Every voter in the three towns has a contested state House race. Kingston and Plympton voters also have a contested state Senate race. Halifax voters have a contested Governor’s Council race. Everyone has a Plymouth County commissioner race and nine statewide ballot questions.
Halifax voters should check their precinct first. The town is split between two House districts, so neighbors may see different names for state representative.
Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. Early in-person voting continues through Friday, Oct. 30; check with your town clerk for hours. Voters who still have a mail ballot at home should return it to the town’s drop box or the town clerk’s office rather than mail it this late, the Secretary of the Commonwealth recommends. To see your own ballot, use the Secretary’s lookup at sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA.
On the ballot: all of Kingston and Plympton, and Halifax precincts 1 and 2A, plus parts of Pembroke, Plymouth, and Middleborough. Rep. Kathleen LaNatra of Kingston, the Democratic incumbent, faces Republican Eric Meschino of Plymouth.
LaNatra says she has represented the district for eight years. Meschino is a commercial lobster fisherman who previously worked in financial services.
Taxes dominated their Oct. 19 forum on WATD. Asked whether the state could cut taxes and keep services, LaNatra said, “The quick answer on that is no,” and pointed to a tax relief package she said delivers “roughly $1 billion a year.” Meschino said, “Of course, we can cut taxes.” He called for ending property taxes for seniors whose homes are paid off, eliminating the millionaire’s tax and charges on energy bills, and pursuing an audit of the Legislature.
On housing, LaNatra said the MBTA Communities law “wasn’t rolled out correctly.” She said Halifax, which hasn’t adopted a compliant zone, drew its zoning overlay over the already-built Twin Lakes neighborhood and is now ineligible for some grants. Meschino said the state overrode town-approved bylaws “with a very heavy hand.” LaNatra pointed to Kingston’s affordable housing trust as a model.
On the ballot: Halifax precinct 2, plus Duxbury and most of Pembroke. Rep. Kenneth Sweezey of Duxbury, the Republican incumbent, faces Democrat Jessica Bradley Rushing of Pembroke.
Halifax came up at their WATD forum. Rushing, who is an Army veteran and former Pembroke Select Board member, said Halifax is the only town in the district she believes is out of compliance with the MBTA Communities law, leaving it ineligible for state grants. Sweezey, who opposes the law, said Halifax already has a right to its money and that his job is to tell Beacon Hill it is wrong. The attorney general sued Halifax over the law in January.
The sharpest exchange was over the state budget. Rushing said the district lost earmarks because Sweezey voted against the budget both years. Sweezey called that untrue and said he would not “vote to approve the very system that is underfunding Chapter 70.”
On the ballot: Kingston and Plympton, plus Pembroke, Plymouth, Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich. Sen. Dylan Fernandes of Falmouth, the Democratic incumbent, faces Republican Kari MacRae of Bourne.
Fernandes is in his first Senate term after eight years in the House. At their September forum, both said Pilgrim’s wastewater should stay out of Cape Cod Bay and that the state’s local aid formula shortchanges the district. They split on taxes, spending and immigration. MacRae framed the race around “affordability, accountability, and safety.” Fernandes pointed to the tax relief package he supported, including a higher estate tax threshold.
Halifax is in a different Senate district, where Sen. Michael Brady of Brockton is unopposed.
Governor’s Council, 2nd District (Halifax only) Councillor Tamisha Civil of Stoughton, the Democratic incumbent, faces Republican Francis Crimmins, also of Stoughton.
Kingston and Plympton are in the 1st District, where Councillor Joseph Ferreira is unopposed. The council confirms judges and votes on pardons.
The Plymouth County Commissioner seat is open. Democrat Rhonda Nyman of Hanover faces Republican Anthony O’Brien of Pembroke.
O’Brien, who says he served as a commissioner from 2009 to 2013, beat Commissioner Sandra Wright in the September Republican primary. Nyman is a former state representative for Hanover, Norwell, and Rockland and Select Board member in Hanover. At their October forum, both called the commissioners’ recent hiring of a county administrator flawed.
Plymouth County’s other offices are uncontested: District Attorney Timothy Cruz, Treasurer Thomas O’Brien (not the commissioner candidate), and Register of Probate Matthew McDonough.
All three towns are in the 9th Congressional District, where Rep. Bill Keating of Bourne, a Democrat, faces Republican R. Tyler MacAllister of Mattapoisett.
For governor, Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Democrats, face Republicans Mike Minogue and Shawn Oliver and independents Andrea James and Kayla Kittredge. Oliver suspended his campaign after his Oct. 17 arrest in New Bedford on charges including operating under the influence; he has pleaded not guilty. His name remains on the ballot, and Minogue says he’ll ask him to resign if elected.
Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat, faces Republican John Deaton, independent Shiva Ayyadurai and Joe Tache of the Socialism and Liberation Party. Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Secretary William Galvin, Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, and Auditor Diana DiZoglio, all Democrats, also face challengers.
The nine ballot questions:
1. Public records. Yes puts the Legislature and governor’s office under the public records law that every town already follows. Top donor: Auditor DiZoglio’s campaign committee, $150,000. No organized opposition.
2. Public defender union. Yes lets staff of the state’s public defender agency unionize; it does not affect the private lawyers who take most court appointments. Funded almost entirely by two unions, NAGE and SEIU Local 888, about $540,000 each. No organized opposition.
3. All-party primaries. Yes replaces party primaries with one primary open to all candidates, starting in 2028, with the top two advancing. Both state parties oppose it, but former governors Charlie Baker (R) and Deval Patrick (D) support it. The Yes side has raised about $6.9 million, led by $500,000 each from Andrew Balson, David Peeler, and Joshua Bekenstein.
4. Election Day registration. Yes lets residents register and vote at the polls on Election Day, starting in 2028. Secretary Galvin filed it, and his campaign committee is its top donor at $79,000. No organized opposition.
5. State tax cap and rebates. Yes resets the state’s revenue cap each year, likely triggering rebates more often; the state budget office says it would reduce money available for local aid. Top Yes support: $1.9 million in signature-gathering from a business group that does not disclose donors. Top No donor: the SEIU State Council, $250,000.
6. Conservation fund. Yes directs existing sales tax collected by sporting goods stores, RV dealers and golf courses toward land and water conservation, assuming the Legislature appropriates it. Its first stated purpose is protecting drinking water; the Plymouth-Carver Sole Source Aquifer lies beneath Kingston and Plympton. Top donor: Kirsten Waerstad of Belmont, $800,000.
7. Starter homes. Yes bars towns from requiring more than 5,000 square feet for a single-family home, but only on lots with public water and sewer. State maps show almost no public sewer in Halifax or Plympton and about a third of Kingston, so its local effect would be limited. Top donor: the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and its PAC, $500,000.
8. Marijuana repeal. Yes ends licensed recreational sales on Jan. 1, 2028, and ends home growing. Kingston has one dispensary and Halifax two; both collect the 3% local marijuana tax that repeal would end. SAM Action, a Virginia group, has supplied nearly all of the $3.78 million behind repeal.
9. The 2024 gun law. Yes keeps the law; No repeals it. The law set an Oct. 28 deadline to register firearms, regulates “ghost guns” and expands the red flag law. A repeal would take effect about 30 days after the election. The Massachusetts Teachers Association has given $500,000 to keep it; repeal’s largest donors include Smith & Wesson and Jeffrey Freudberg of Newton, $50,000 each, and the Old Colony Sportsmen’s Association of Pembroke, $21,933.
Disclosure
The author serves on the Whitman Select Board and, in that capacity, has endorsed Yes on Question 7, Maura Healey and Kim Driscoll, Tamisha Civil, and Rhonda Nyman.

HALIFAX — The Select Board on Oct. 13 approved a $10 increase to the town’s curbside trash and recycling fee. The annual charge rises to $450, and the optional second bin goes to $280.
The board also scheduled a special town meeting for Jan. 12. After a lengthy debate, it voted 3-0 to let Democratic Town Committee leaders host a one-hour, nonpartisan get-out-the-vote booth on town property, with conditions.
Chair Thomas Pratt presented the new rates. The $450 fee covers weekly trash pickup, recycling every other week and access to the recycling center. It is billed in two $225 installments, in October and April. The second bin rises from $270 to $280 and is billed $140 per installment.
Pratt said the 14% interest on late bills and the $15 demand fee will not change. The demand fee was raised from $10 last year.
Pratt said the town’s rates remain much lower than private haulers. Jonathan Selig urged residents to compare prices themselves. He said the cart-based program turned around a bag program that had been losing money, and he called the $10 increase modest.
The longest discussion of the night involved two co-chairs of the Democratic Town Committee, Sam Cox and Ellen Snoeyenbos. They asked to set up a pop-up tent from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17. That was the first day of early voting and part of a national get-out-the-vote day.
They planned to bring: a sign encouraging people to vote early, a list of early-voting hours in area towns, and a laptop with a hotspot so residents could check their registration.
They said four or five people would attend. There would be no campaign signs, shirts or buttons. They also said they would stay more than 150 feet from Town Hall, the early-voting site.
Pratt said he would be more comfortable if both parties were represented.
“The tricky part here is that it’s a town-owned property that’s being asked to be incorporated into the display,” Pratt said.
Selig praised the organizers’ work in the community. He also said they are publicly identified with one party, and he proposed requiring formal notice to the Republican Town Committee. The organizers said they had not contacted Republicans because they were waiting for the board’s permission. They said anyone was welcome to join. Snoeyenbos said that, as residents, they should not be denied the chance to speak.
Pratt said four days’ notice did not change his view. He asked whether the event could move to Oct. 24. The organizers said it was tied to the national date.
The board approved the event on town property near the library. The approval required the Select Board’s office to send the Republican Town Committee notice and contact information.
The special town meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12. Pratt said moving it from the fall into the new year avoids conflicts with the holiday season and allows time to certify free cash.
The warrant opened Oct. 13 and closes Thursday, Nov. 5. The agenda had listed Nov. 3, which is Election Day.
Pratt read aloud a complaint filed by Patrick Higgins about the board’s Sept. 22 meeting. The complaint raised two issues: The agenda did not identify the pending lawsuit the board would discuss in executive session and the revised agenda did not note when the original had been posted.
Pratt said the first omission was his error as chair. He said he has since taken a 90-minute refresher course on the open meeting law.
“This was obviously not with malice in the heart or intentional form, but it did happen. So we have to be better on that,” Pratt said.
Interim Town Administrator Darleen Sullivan said the second issue caused no harm because both agendas remained posted online. The board voted unanimously to have legal counsel send the complainant a letter.
The Oct. 13 agenda named the lawsuit for that night’s executive session: Attorney General v. Town of Dracut et al., in Suffolk Superior Court. Pratt read the case name aloud before the board went into closed session.
The board appointed Nicholas Clark, a Silver Lake graduate, as a patrol officer. Deputy Chief Ted Benner said Clark was the top candidate among eight people interviewed from about 20 applicants. The department plans to send him to the full-time police academy in January.

Plympton’s free cash was certified by the state the day before the Sept. 29 Board of Selectmen meeting, but Town Accountant Lisa Hart told the board the number is lower than it used to be and that several items will pull on it further. Two old accounts are in deficits that will have to be written off. A new $9,200 bill for the town’s financial software was never budgeted. Fees that once flowed to free cash are now going into a police revolving account instead.
Hart opened the 28-minute afternoon meeting with an update on the year-end close and the town’s switch to new accounting software. She handed the board the state’s free cash certification, which Chairman Nathaniel Sides said had arrived “hot off the presses yesterday.”
Hart said the town is getting free cash certified faster than it used to. “It would be nice if the amount was high like it used to be,” she said, adding that the town tends to spend more, which leaves less behind. Records from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue list the certified free cash at $215,376.
Sides asked about roughly $250,000 in real estate taxes still listed as receivable. The accountant said that figure is “fairly average” for the town.
Hart pointed the board to two balances she said the town will not recover. The first is a water infrastructure grant account that was overspent and has carried a deficit for a couple of years. “That’s going to need to be written off somewhere,” she said. “So, we will need to find a place to get funds for that.”
The second is the town’s old police detail account. She said its unpaid invoices are now more than two years old and are unlikely to be collected. A few years ago, she said, the town opened a new detail account to start fresh. That account also tends to run a deficit, but revenue that comes in through September can be applied against it, so it usually clears within about three months. She said the detail accounts should be tracked more carefully. As long as the old deficits stay on the books, she said, they affect the town’s cash.
Two school grant accounts, Title IV and IDEA, show about $11,000 in deficit, but she said those are not true deficits. They are reimbursement grants: the schools spend the money first and then draw down the funds. Hart said communication with the schools about those drawdowns “has been very poor.” She has met with school officials and asked them to send copies of their grants and to draw down funds by the end of July so the balances do not affect free cash.
A police grant through SEMLEC, the regional law enforcement council, has also been in deficit for some time. She said she has asked the police department to find out whether more grant money is coming or whether the gap must be covered from another source.
Sides asked whether a surplus anywhere in the police accounts could offset the deficits. Hart said the department’s revolving account for vehicle fees does hold extra money. She said administrative fees are now also being deposited there, and she does not know whether town meeting ever voted to allow that. The revolving fund was set up for vehicle fees, she said, and she has not seen anything spent from it.
Hart told the board those administrative fees used to go into the town’s general revenue and end up in free cash. With the change, she said, the town will get less free cash.
Sides, drawing on his time on the Finance Committee, said he believes the administrative fees pay for about three extra hours a week for a police department staff member, rather than adding those hours to the salary line. He said it would be “cleaner” to put the cost in the salary line and return the fees to general revenue, and that the board should take that up with the Finance Committee. Hart agreed. “I would feel better with it that way,” she said.
The town moved this year to the VADAR financial software system after its longtime vendor, CDS, stopped offering municipal financial services. The accountant said the first VADAR invoice, for $9,200, should arrive soon. “We need to figure out where that money is coming from,” she said. “That was not budgeted.”
Sides recalled that the cost came up during budget season and suggested it may have been planned for the technology line. Administrative Assistant Briggette Martins asked who would process the payment. Sides said the accountant’s office should handle the warrant, but that the funding source should be confirmed with Town Administrator Bob Fennessy.
Hart said she is fully comfortable processing and posting warrants in the new system but has not yet started the monthly budget reports she used to send each department. Under the old system, she said, she could email all of them at once. Now she will have to print and deliver each one. She plans to start with the largest departments and any department spending ahead of pace, and hopes to have those reports out by Oct. 15 and no later than the end of October.
She is also working on three year-end reports due to the Department of Revenue: the balance sheet, the Schedule A, and the tax rate. She said the town hopes to set the tax rate by mid-November to avoid the December rush at the state.
Asked by Sides whether VADAR will eventually make the job easier, Hart was candid. “Right now it does not feel like it’s saving me any time,” she said. She expects it will take about a year to be fully up to speed. She added that the Treasurer-Collector’s contract with the new payroll vendor, Harpers, covers preparing the town’s 1099 tax forms, which VADAR does not do, and that the two offices are gathering quotes for that work.
“Everyone’s aware of the fiscal difficulties we’re going to face this year,” Sides said. “So any information you can provide us to help us make some decisions would certainly be helpful.”
The board also approved the warrant for the Nov. 3 state election. Voting will take place in the Deborah Sampson Meeting Room at the Town House, 5 Palmer Rd., from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Along with nine statewide ballot questions, the ballot includes U.S. senator; governor and lieutenant governor; attorney general; secretary of state; treasurer; auditor; U.S. representative for the 9th Congressional District; governor’s councilor for the First District; state senator for the Plymouth and Barnstable District; state representative for the 12th Plymouth District; Plymouth District attorney; Plymouth County register of probate; Plymouth County commissioner; and Plymouth County treasurer.
The item was listed as a ratification, but a town official told the board it was an original vote. The board had approved early voting hours months earlier, she said, but had not yet voted on the election warrant itself.

On Sept. 1, an unenrolled voter walked into the polls and had to make a choice before marking a single oval. Take a Democratic ballot, and you could weigh in on Ed Markey versus Seth Moulton for U.S. Senate. Take a Republican ballot, and you could help pick a Plymouth County commissioner and a nominee for governor. You could not do both. Question 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot would end that choice by ending separate party primaries altogether.
Question 3 would replace the Democratic and Republican primaries with a single primary ballot. Every candidate for an office would appear on one ballot, labeled with their party or political designation, and every registered voter would get the same ballot. The top two winners would advance regardless of party -even if both are Democrats or both are Republicans.
It would cover governor and the other statewide offices, U.S. Senate and House, the state Legislature, Governor’s Council, and county offices such as district attorney, sheriff, register of probate, county treasurer and county commissioner. Governor and Lieutenant Governor would run together as a ticket. It would not change town elections, presidential primaries or the election of party town committees.
Halifax, Kingston, and Plympton look different from Massachusetts as a whole in one important way.
According to the most recent enrollment figures from the Secretary of the Commonwealth, about 20,700 registered voters live in the three towns combined. Roughly 70 percent are unenrolled — close to the statewide figure. But the rest split almost evenly between the parties: about 15.6 percent Democrats and 12.9 percent Republicans. In Plympton, registered Republicans slightly outnumber Democrats. Statewide, Democrats outnumber Republicans better than two to one.
That balance shows up at the polls. Of the roughly 4,700 ballots cast in the three towns on Sept. 1, about 59 percent were Democratic and 41 percent were Republican. In Halifax the split was nearly even: 812 Democratic ballots and 733 Republican.
It also shows up in November. The 12th Plymouth House district, which covers Kingston, Plympton and part of Halifax, has been decided by fewer than 2,000 votes in each of the last two elections. Rep. Kathleen LaNatra (D-Kingston) defeated Republican Eric Meschino by 1,836 votes in 2022 and by 1,708 votes in 2024. The two meet again this year.
That matters for Question 3, because much of the case for it is built on a statewide problem — one-party districts where November is a formality — that looks different here.
In most of this year’s local races, Question 3 would have produced the same November ballot.
12th Plymouth (Kingston, Plympton, part of Halifax): LaNatra and Meschino were each unopposed in their primaries. Under a top-two system, both would have advanced. Same November matchup.
6th Plymouth (the rest of Halifax): Rep. Kenneth Sweezey (R-Duxbury) and Democrat Jessica Bradley Rushing were each unopposed. Same result.
Plymouth & Barnstable Senate (Kingston, Plympton): Sen. Dylan Fernandes (D-Falmouth) and Republican Kari MacRae were each unopposed. Same result.
2nd Plymouth & Norfolk Senate (Halifax): Sen. Michael Brady (D-Brockton) was the only candidate who filed. On Halifax’s Republican ballots, 703 of 733 voters left the state Senate line blank because there was no one to vote for. Question 3 would not have added a name. It changes how candidates are sorted, not whether anyone runs.
The clearest local example is the one race on the September ballot that Silver Lake region voters actually contested.
Three Republicans — incumbent Commissioner Sandra Wright of Bridgewater, former commissioner Anthony O’Brien of Pembroke, and former Rockland Selectman Korey Welch — ran for a Plymouth County Commission seat. Democrat Rhonda Nyman of Hanover was unopposed for her party’s nomination.
O’Brien won the Republican primary with 13,295 votes. Only 33,060 Republican ballots were cast across all of Plymouth County, a county of roughly 420,000 registered voters. In Halifax, Kingston, and Plympton, O’Brien drew 882 votes to Wright’s 509 and Welch’s 266.
The 2,766 Silver Lake voters who took a Democratic ballot had no say in that race. Neither did any unenrolled voter who wanted a voice in the Markey–Moulton contest, which appeared only on the Democratic ballot.
Under Question 3, all four commissioner candidates would have appeared on one ballot in front of every voter. Nyman, as the only Democrat, would very likely have finished in the top two. The question of which Republican joined her would have been decided by the full primary electorate rather than a Republican-only one.
The same logic applies to governor. In Halifax, Mike Minogue beat Brian Shortsleeve 590 to 139 on the Republican ballot. Under Question 3, both of their tickets would have been on the same ballot as Gov. Maura Healey’s, before every voter.
Supporters, led by the Coalition for Healthy Democracy, argue that the current system asks too much of the 70 percent of local voters who belong to neither party.
Selecting a party ballot does not enroll an unenrolled voter in that party. But it does force them to give up every contested race on the other party’s ballot. On Sept. 1, voters faced exactly that tradeoff: a Senate primary on one side, a county commission and governor’s primary on the other. Danielle Allen, the Harvard professor who chairs the Yes campaign, argues that under Question 3 every voter would weigh in on every contested race.
Supporters also point to how few people are deciding. Turnout across the three towns on Sept. 1 was about 23 percent. LaNatra’s uncontested Democratic primary drew 5,816 ballots districtwide, about one-fifth of the 28,775 cast in the district’s 2024 general election. When a race is truly decided in September, they argue, it is decided by a small and unrepresentative slice of voters.
They also argue that a guaranteed two-candidate November would encourage challengers to run against long-serving incumbents. Jesse Littlewood, the campaign’s manager, told Boston.com: “When they don’t have to compete for our votes, they don’t have a need to listen to us.” State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, former Gov. Deval Patrick and former Gov. Charlie Baker, who endorsed the measure this week, have backed it, along with former Massachusetts Republican Party chair Jennifer Nassour.
Research from California, which adopted a similar system in 2010, offers the supporters’ strongest evidence. A 2026 study found that in safe districts, the winners who emerged from same-party November races had been chosen by about 34 percent of registered voters, compared with about 11 percent under the old party primaries.
Opponents — an unusual coalition that includes both the Massachusetts Democratic and Republican parties, the AFL-CIO, teachers’ unions, and progressive groups organized as Voter Rights MA — argue that the measure would narrow November choices rather than widen them.
The local example they would point to is 2022. That year, the 12th Plymouth race had three names in November: LaNatra, Meschino and unenrolled candidate Charles McCoy Jr., who drew 856 votes. Under Question 3, only two candidates can appear on the November ballot. An independent or third-party candidate would have to finish in the top two in September to be seen by the much larger November electorate. Research by Richard Winger of Ballot Access News found that in California and Washington, no minor-party candidate had reached a November ballot in a race where both major parties fielded a candidate.
Opponents also say the current system is not as closed as the Yes campaign suggests, because unenrolled voters can already choose either ballot. “It’s a solution in search of a problem,” Massachusetts Democratic Party chair Steve Kerrigan told Boston.com. MassGOP chair Amy Carnevale has said the measure would erode the ability of parties to choose their own nominees and “amplify the role of big money.”
Opponents argue that candidates would have to run two broad, expensive campaigns instead of one, putting candidates without wealthy backers at a disadvantage. And they cite research finding that when voters see two candidates of the other party in November, many skip the race entirely.
Locally, Sen. Fernandes, whose district includes Kingston and Plympton, is among the elected officials who have endorsed a no vote.
Political scientists have also found little evidence for one of the most common claims made for systems like this one — that they produce more moderate lawmakers. Studies of California and Washington have found effects that are small, inconsistent, or absent.
Question 3 is the most lopsided money fight on the November ballot.
The Coalition for Healthy Democracy had raised about $5.1 million and spent about $4.8 million as of its Sept. 4 report to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance. Most of that money came from executives in private equity and investment firms. Donors giving $100,000 or more in 2026 included:
Counting contributions since 2025, the Boston Globe reports that David Peeler, formerly with Berkshire Partners, has given more than $1 million and Andrew Balson, Managing Partner at Cove Hill, nearly $800,000.
The opposition committee, Voter Rights MA, had raised about $35,000 and spent $8,000. Its money came from two sources: $25,000 from the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee and $10,000 from SEIU Local 509’s political committee.
A yes vote would replace party primaries with a single all-party primary beginning in 2028, with the top two finishers advancing to November regardless of party.
A no vote would keep the current system, in which Democrats and Republicans vote in their own party’s primary and unenrolled voters may choose one party’s ballot.
Because Question 3 is a statute rather than a constitutional amendment, the Legislature could amend or repeal it before it takes effect in 2028.

Plympton department heads will be asked to produce two budgets this fall, one at level services and a second at 5% to 10% below that, Town Administrator Bob Fennessy told the Board of Selectmen on Sept. 15. He warned that the coming year will be “a big challenge.” A Proposition 2½ override was raised at the Finance Committee the night before but is “not on the table yet,” he said. The squeeze comes as the town plans to spend most of its ambulance fund, which usually helps offset salaries, on a roughly $414,000 replacement ambulance. The board also approved an audit contract that costs about 15% more than last year’s.
Fennessy laid out the budget process during his administrator’s report near the end of the 48-minute afternoon meeting. He said a department head meeting will be held around Sept. 24 or the following week. Each department will be asked first for a level-services budget, then for a second draft cut by 5% to 10%, “looking at keeping staff as much as we can, even with those cuts.”
He expects that some departments will not be able to get there. Many will say their budgets are almost all staff, he said, so staff is the only place left to cut. The goal is to bring the Finance Committee and the board a budget that “reflects the needs of the town as well as the monetary availability of the revenues coming in.”
Fennessy said the town is starting in a hole. Last year’s budget was balanced with money drawn from stabilization and free cash, and “that money’s not there anymore,” so the town begins this cycle “in the negative.” The Finance Committee discussed the possibility of an override at its meeting the night before, he said, but “the first thing we’ve got to do is actually look at the budgets and see what they come in at.”
Chairman Nathaniel Sides added another pressure point. The planned ambulance purchase “is going to take the majority of the ambulance fund, which we typically dip into to offset salaries,” he said. That money “may or may not be filled” again.
Fennessy will also ask every department to begin a five-year capital plan. It will list major purchases, which he described as roughly $20,000 or more with a useful life of at least five years, so the board can “know where we’re at and what’s coming down the road.” He said he has been through lean budget years before, including as a Selectman in Plainville before the town gained casino revenue, but expects this year to be tougher.
The fire department has arranged to buy a new ambulance from manufacturer Greenwood, Fennessy said. The unit was originally ordered for the city of Worcester, which backed out. The truck is not yet built. It will be sized for Plympton’s small fire station and could be delivered sometime after April 1. The base vehicle costs $384,698, and the total comes to about $414,000 once it is fitted out with stretchers and other equipment.
A new custom build would take about two and a half years, Fennessy said, and the company expects prices to rise 10% to 15% next year. The purchase will be paid for from ambulance receipts, but town meeting must first appropriate the money. Chief Cheryl Duddy arranged for the company to hold off on payment until town meeting acts, which saves the cost of a special town meeting.
Sides said the older of the town’s two ambulances, which is 12 or 13 years old, has “always been” underpowered, according to the Chief. It needs about $12,000 in repairs that the town will now avoid. “We’ll have a vehicle two years earlier than would otherwise be likely if we went through the normal procurement process,” Sides said.
Selectman Daniel Cadogan asked how much the town is saving compared with Worcester’s price. Fennessy said he did not know the exact figure but understood Duddy had negotiated a break on the base price. Cadogan said the town clearly needs the vehicle and that waiting two and a half years for a custom build “could negate the value of getting a new one to begin with.”
Sides said the purchase exposed two gaps. The Bylaw Committee will draft a bylaw, in time for town meeting, governing how the ambulance fund is accessed and spent. State law authorizes the fund, but the town has no local bylaw setting those rules. The purchase also “reinforces the need for a capital plan that we’ve sort of gotten away from having” since COVID, Sides said.
The board unanimously approved a one-year, $43,500 contract with Lynch, Marini & Associates to audit the town’s records, and authorized Fennessy to sign it. Fennessy said the final year of the firm’s previous three-year contract cost $38,500. Other town administrators told him the increase is “kind of the going price.” The firm also quoted a second year with another increase of $3,000 to $4,000. Fennessy recommended signing for one year only and putting the audit out to bid in early spring.
In an update that came up after the agenda was posted, Sides described last week’s Plymouth County Advisory Board meeting as “one of the more remarkable meetings I’ve ever participated in … and I don’t mean that in a good way.” Sides is Plympton’s delegate on the board, and Cadogan is the alternate. Each of the county’s 27 communities has a weighted vote, and Plympton’s share is 0.59%.
Sides said County Treasurer Tom O’Brien has sued the County Commissioners over a County Administrator’s contract. By Sides’ account, the commissioners advertised and interviewed for the job at a range just under $125,000, then agreed to pay the person they hired $185,000 without changing the budget. Sides said a county employee who, by all accounts presented at the meeting, had done nothing wrong was let go to cover the difference. “This smacks of classic, old-school, backdoor politics, cronyism, however you want to word it,” Sides said.
Sides disclosed that he has known the county treasurer for 50 years and that the two “frequently disagree.” He said he was comfortable the treasurer had exhausted all other options before filing suit. The case is now in court, and Sides said county taxpayers could face a contract buyout of up to half a million dollars. He urged residents to pay closer attention to county offices on the ballot.

The Plympton School Committee heard Sept. 14 that the Dennett Elementary School’s flat rubber roof is failing above classrooms and that the chiller in its 23- to 25-year-old air conditioning system is at or near the end of its life. Replacing the roof alone was estimated in the low millions of dollars, and a committee member said the school cannot cover costs of that kind from its operating budget.
The building report came in the school update listed on the agenda under Principal Peter Veneto. According to the update, the roof above several learning spaces has been patched over the years with moderate success. The school’s insurer paid for damage to rugs, books, ceiling tiles and walls during the last school year, but the insurer is not responsible for the roof itself. Custodial staff have traced and sealed as many leaks as they could on the older flat section, which the update described as still a bandage. After more than three inches of rain over the weekend, staff found two very small new drips.
When member Jason Fraser asked what a repair would cost, the answer was that repair is no longer the question. “At this point, it’s less about repairing and more about replacing,” Ross MacPherson said, estimating that a flat roof of that size would cost in the low millions of dollars. The district expects to seek state reimbursement. It is completing a building study first so the project can qualify for a higher reimbursement percentage.
The air conditioning is in similar condition. The chiller component of the HVAC system broke down repeatedly over the summer despite repairs. The building was designed to be air-conditioned, and the update warned that without it the school risks mold and moisture. Two HVAC contractors are searching for components that will work with the 23- to 25-year-old system and have had major difficulty finding them. In the meantime, staff open the windows each morning and run fans through the day.
The update also described a water problem from the spring. A rotted butterfly valve in the sprinkler system had been losing thousands of gallons of water a day. Since the repair, use is back to the normal 800 to 1,000 gallons per day. Water pressure had also fallen to 5 gallons per minute, below the roughly 15 needed for treatment chemicals to mix properly. Crews recharged the bladder system in the holding tanks and cleared a sediment-packed inlet from the wellhead, which restored the flow.
Fraser then laid out the money available. The member thanked the principal and the finance director for assembling documents the state required, which allowed the town to submit for an earmark reimbursing HVAC work done over roughly the past 18 months. He said that reimbursement has been received.
The district also expects $15,000 from a state earmark for emergency roof repairs, an amount Fraser acknowledged “doesn’t go very far.” Town Meeting appropriated $35,000 for a building envelope study, and a separate $35,000 state earmark covers the same work. The plan is to spend the state money first, draw on the Town Meeting appropriation only as needed, and return what is left to the town. The district also secured money for repairs to the school’s phone system.
“We do need to be cognizant of the fact that capital repairs here at the Dennett are something that we really can’t handle within our operating budget,” Fraser summarized.
He said that if a large problem arises midyear, the committee would need to bring it to the town, either at a fall or winter special town meeting or through warrant articles for the spring town meeting.
Some of the building news was better. Over the summer, custodial staff scraped eight coats of polyurethane off the gym floor by hand, down to the wood, before a contractor applied a fresh coat. A second coat is recommended this winter, after which the floor should last three to five years without annual refinishing. The school is also installing a washer and dryer, with financial help from the Food Service Department, so rags, aprons and mop heads can be laundered on site instead of sent out. The update said the equipment should pay for itself within one school year.
Superintendent Jill Proulx also asked the committee to approve the School Resource Officer agreement, described as a standard template with Plympton information filled in, and to let the chair sign on the committee’s behalf. The committee approved it on a roll call.
Assistant Superintendent Tricia Clifford’s curriculum update reported that the district has received its ESSA title grant funds and a second year of PRISM funding for the ELA curriculum. The PRISM money pays for the consultant TNTP and for educator time beyond contractual hours. This school year is year one of a new science, technology and engineering curriculum cycle and year two of ELA. Staff interested in serving on the curriculum committees were asked to respond by the 22nd.
Proulx’s Strategy for District Improvement includes expanding No Place for Hate to the elementary and intermediate schools, a new wellness curriculum with anti-bullying support for grades 7 and 8, and new literacy programs. It also includes continued work on the costs and benefits of full regionalization and responsive classroom practices in all elementary schools. When Chair Rob Montgomery asked how the district measures success, the answer was benchmark data, school climate surveys, and principal goals aligned with the plan.
Additionally, the regionalization subcommittee’s meeting with the Collins Center was canceled. A draft report is hoped for next month. The committee is also seeking a resident to fill its vacant fifth seat and appealed to anyone watching to consider joining.

The dominant story of last week on the South Shore isn’t contained to any one topic. Beacon Hill quietly rewrote the rules of local zoning — and a November ballot question aims to force the Legislature to live under the same disclosure rules it imposes on every town hall. That irony sits alongside a second, homegrown pattern: towns are slowly discovering their own administrative plumbing is broken. Marshfield doesn’t control its own public records portal. Plymouth can’t document a third of the properties its Community Preservation money bought. Duxbury found a cable franchise renewal moving forward with no contract in hand for the board or the public to read. All of these are trust-in-government stories, and they are accumulating.
The year’s most consequential change to municipal land use arrived without a hearing. A rewrite of Chapter 40A, tucked into a state budget bill, replaces the old four-part hardship test for variances with a far more lenient “practical difficulty” standard, and locks in 24 months of zoning protection the moment a builder files for a permit. In Norwell, Town Counsel Robert Galvin told officials that appeals will now be “really difficult.” Every zoning board in the region inherits the new standard whether or not its town has read it yet.
Communities are reaching for what local authority remains. East Bridgewater’s Planning Board voted unanimously to sponsor an outright, town-wide prohibition on commercial data centers, setting a Sept. 21 public hearing — the latest move in a regional defensive crouch against AI-driven infrastructure.
Three towns spent the week discovering they could not produce their own records. In Marshfield, a stipend cut triggered a standoff with the town clerk over who controls the FOIA Direct public records portal, leaving requests — including some tied to the town’s override vote — unrouted for weeks until the Select Board seized control by ultimatum.
In Plymouth, a two-decade paperwork lapse left 44 Community Preservation Act properties without recorded deed restrictions; only 10 of 33 historic preservation restrictions have ever been filed. The gap jeopardizes future CPA borrowing and has pitted the Select Board against nonprofits including Pilgrim Hall over frozen grant payments.
In Duxbury, the Selectboard refused to act on a five-year Verizon cable franchise renewal after discovering that neither members nor the public had ever seen the contract text. The board is now demanding a company representative appear in person.
School districts opened the year in strikingly different postures. Pembroke added 22 new hires at the high school alone and rolled out numbered wall caddies to enforce stricter phone rules — a rare district bucking the regional contraction trend. Halifax restored three general education teaching positions with a $200,000 town allocation, arriving just in time for an 82-student second grade and a 92-student third grade.
In Abington, the state’s fall 2027 deadline requiring districts to adopt state-vetted English language arts materials drew a blunt assessment from School Committee member Heidi Hernandez: “yet another unfunded mandate.” Hingham, meanwhile, is scrapping single-year budgeting for a three-year forecasting model timed to a Jan. 20 Select Board deadline, while MSBA filings advance for two elementary roof overhauls.
Rockland’s growth remains stalled under a Level 4 water emergency, and officials are weighing entry into the MWRA against a stalled Union Point project that could otherwise generate $4 million to $6 million a year in tax revenue.
Hanson sent a revised Whitman-Hanson regional school agreement to joint legal review; the draft adds an Oct. 1 capital-notice deadline and two-thirds voting thresholds. The town’s free cash has slid to roughly $2 million ahead of an October special town meeting.
Scituate will bring a $2.73 million police firing range back to a special town meeting after it fell just short of a two-thirds vote in April — now $200,000 more expensive. The board also ratified a police union contract trading a 1% raise for dashboard cameras.
Hull’s Select Board voted 5-0 to submit a letter of interest to the federal General Services Administration for Boston Light, after the Coast Guard’s decommissioning push and the National Park Service’s decline left America’s oldest lighthouse open to local stewardship.

Emerging from a closed-door session on Aug. 26, the Plympton Board of Selectmen announced settlements in two of the town’s outstanding land disputes — one that finally completes a Turkey Swamp conservation purchase first authorized more than three years ago, and one that binds the developer of the Ricketts Pond 40B to restore the site to its 2021 condition if the housing project never gets built. Together, Chairman Nathaniel Sides said, the agreements recover $18,000 in fees from the 40B developer plus an undisclosed amount of the town’s accumulated legal costs. Minutes later, the board voted to keep a tax-foreclosed Main Street parcel abutting Turkey Swamp in town hands as a conservation access point.
The board met at 1 p.m. and went immediately into executive session under G.L. c. 30A, §21(a)(3) to discuss litigation strategy in two cases: Town of Plympton v. SLT Construction and Town of Plympton v. Amanda Monti, as trustee of the Merrimont Realty Trust. Open session resumed at 1:51 p.m., and Sides used the first substantive report of the afternoon to summarize what had been agreed to.
On the Merrimont matter, Sides said the town had reached an agreement with the trustees of the Merrimont Realty Trust “to complete the transaction that was initially started some three, three and a half years ago.” The deal is not closed yet. Under its terms, the trustees get another year to complete a companion conservation transaction they are pursuing in the town of Halifax; in exchange, the town is made whole on the legal fees it has run up during the delay.
“It’s not done yet, but we felt that it was a good move for the town to make the town whole,” Sides said, adding that it “completes the land acquisition of the Turkey Swamp land.”
Sides walked residents back through the history. The town authorized the purchase roughly three and a half years ago. About a year later, the agreement was modified so that a particular parcel was carved out and held aside for negotiation by the trust — a change Sides said was made because it “was going to save the town a significant amount of money” while still ending with the town acquiring all of the land it had agreed to buy. “Twelve months from now, one way or the other, the town will take control of that portion of the land and get our legal fees paid, which is not insignificant,” he said.
The second settlement involves SLT Corporation, SLT Construction and principal Peter Opachinski, and covers the land at the center of the Ricketts Pond Estates project — a Chapter 40B comprehensive permit application that has drawn sustained opposition in both Plympton and neighboring Carver. The Plympton Zoning Board of Appeals issued its comprehensive permit decision in case ZBA 25-0428 to Ricketts Pond Estates, LLC, which was filed with the town clerk’s office on July 16, 2026.
With the permit issued, Sides said, residents and officials had raised a practical worry: what happens to a site that has already been substantially disturbed if the housing never materializes? The settlement answers that question. Working with town counsel, the board negotiated an agreement with Opachinski and the related corporate entities requiring that, if the parcel is not developed as a 40B, the property be returned to its previous state as defined in 2021. The town also recovered $18,000 “in recognition of past earth moving that has occurred at the property,” Sides said.
Asked directly by a member of the public whether SLT was now considering not building, Sides was emphatic that the opposite was true. “In fact, exactly the opposite,” he said. “As part of this agreement, they are planning to move ahead based on the terms.”
Sides also clarified the status of the town’s cease-and-desist order, which he said had already been lifted by operation of the comprehensive permit itself. The settlement “allows them to begin work under the terms of the comprehensive permit to pursue the 40B as they’ve agreed to,” he said. “This is just in the unlikely event that that never happens. We have an agreement in place that they will return the property to a previous condition.”
Pressed on the timeline, Sides said the developer has three years — running from the signing of the comprehensive permit, not from the date of the settlement — to make substantial progress. Completion is not required. “We have to at least make substantial progress on the 40B within three years,” he said. “And if at the end of three years that hasn’t occurred, we can then, under the terms of this agreement, we can require them to either apply for an extension with us or return it to its previous condition.”
Sides characterized the pair of agreements as “two wins, we think, for the town.” A member of the public offered a more measured assessment — “one is a definite win” — to which Sides replied: “Best we can do. Best we can do.”
The board, sitting as the local licensing authority, approved 14 one-day special licenses for Stellwagen Beer Company to serve wine and malt beverages at Sauchuk Farm during the farm’s fall festival and corn maze weekends. All 14 dates run from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The highway department was awarded a $189,750 grant to purchase a new John Deere compact wheel loader for use on dirt roads, snow removal, the recycling center and other work. Highway Superintendent Rob Firlotte and his crew also hosted the annual southeastern regional highway equipment show at the Upland Sportsman’s Club.
Fennessey closed by thanking Director of Elder Affairs Colleen Thompson and her staff for inviting him to the Council on Aging’s annual barbecue. “It is these events that help me to get a true feeling of what the Plympton community is like, which helps me feel like being a part of the community,” he said.

The Halifax Select Board executed three contracts in a single open session Aug. 25, closing out a summer of turnover at the top of town government. The board voted unanimously to approve a negotiated contract with Darleen Sullivan as Interim Town Administrator, running from Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, through June 30, 2027, and separately ratified three-year collective bargaining agreements with both of the town’s police unions. Sullivan, the former Norwell Town Administrator, becomes Halifax’s third administrator since Cody Haddad departed just over a year ago
The Select Board opened at 6:00 p.m. and immediately moved into executive session to discuss two MassCOP contract negotiations, the Interim Town Administrator position, and executive session minutes. The motion carried 3-0 on a roll call vote. When the board reconvened in open session, it took its agenda out of order and spent the first 20 minutes on a proposal to merge two volunteer committees before returning to the contracts.
Chair Thomas Pratt framed the administrator vote as the end of a process that had consumed the board for weeks. “Obviously we’re in search of a Town Administrator that’s been going on for the better part of several weeks,” Pratt said. “There’s been some behind-the-scenes work on our end, individually looking for possibilities.”
The board interviewed Sullivan in open session on Aug. 20 and voted that night to appoint her pending successful contract negotiations. Tuesday’s vote executed the agreement. “Darleen presented very well,” Pratt said. “At that time we agreed to enter contract negotiations with the hope of appointing her as Interim Town Administrator, and we’re lucky and fortunate to be in a position to do that.”
Jonathan Selig said the town had landed well given the circumstances. “Darleen has extensive experience, and I’m excited that she’s coming in here as an interim,” Selig said. “We’ll see how it goes, and hopefully we like her and she likes us, and who knows what happens down the road.” Vice Chair William Smith was briefer: “I think we can hit the ground running with her.”
Sullivan spent more than 13 years in Norwell, rising through the Treasurer-Collector and Finance Director roles to Assistant Town Administrator and finally Town Administrator, a post she left at the end of June. Halifax’s vacancy opened when Town Administrator Steven Solbo, who started in Jan. 2026, resigned in August; the board approved a mutual separation and transition agreement on July 30. Sullivan’s contract expires at the close of the fiscal year, leaving the board to run a permanent search during her tenure. No salary figure was stated in open session.
The board also approved memoranda of agreement with Local 239 of the Massachusetts Coalition of Police, representing patrol officers, and Local 459, representing police sergeants. Both contracts run July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029. Each passed unanimously with no discussion of financial terms in open session; the bargaining strategy had been handled in executive session earlier in the evening.
“Good job on both of those,” Smith told Selig, who had led the negotiations. “I think it’s a very fair contract, and they deserve it.”
The evening’s longest discussion was also its least formal. Selig floated merging the Halifax Fireworks Committee and the Holidays in Halifax Committee into a single body — a working name of “Halifax Celebrates” was raised — that would handle all town celebrations rather than one summer event and one December event.
“The move now in government is to streamline, is to try to get rid of redundancies,” Selig said. “We have great members on both. I figured it might make more sense to have one committee to handle our celebrations. That way we’re not limited to holidays in Halifax, we’re not limited to fireworks.”
Representatives of both committees told the board they already work together and had no objection. The practical obstacle is procedural: the Holidays in Halifax Committee was established on Town Meeting floor, which means changing its charge, name, or composition requires a Town Meeting vote. The board settled on drafting a warrant article for the fall Special Town Meeting that would amend the existing charge, cover a name change, and set the merged committee’s composition. Members will research the original charge and bring it back.
Budget mechanics were the other complication. Each committee carries its own line item, and only one was funded this fiscal year. Pratt suggested letting the current fiscal year run its course, then folding any future funding into a single joint account rather than appropriating separately for fireworks.
The board also weighed in on a proposed “Friends of” fundraising group modeled on library friends organizations. Selig said such a group would have to operate at arm’s length. “It really can’t have any town involvement,” he said. “If a group of parents or volunteers want to have a Friends thing and do it on their own, for their own reasons, knock yourself out.” Committee members could volunteer at events but should not sit on the friends group’s board, the board agreed, to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Taking donations from such a group would be permissible.
The board also declined to reopen the Fourth Avenue boat ramp early, letting the lock stand until its scheduled removal on Sept. 7. No motion was made and no vote taken because none was needed to leave the existing policy in place.
All three members agreed the underlying problem is timing. “This is all reactive,” Pratt said. “Everything we’ve done so far, including this discussion, is reactive. I’d much rather be proactive about a solution.” Selig said he would ask the Parks Commission — Chairman Michael Schleiff and members Bruce Nobles and Jeremy Gillespie — to come before the board in March 2027 to design a policy for the May-through-September season, and said he would not oppose a hybrid arrangement giving residents some form of access. Smith raised eliminating out-of-town beach stickers; Executive Assistant Pamela McSherry said sales had dropped off sharply in recent weeks. The board tabled that question for March as well.
Selig closed with a note about the start of school the following week, asking drivers to slow down. “You’re going to have kids all over the place next week,” he said. “A lot of bike riders. A lot of those e-bikes now. Give yourself some extra time. Give some space to our buses.”
Pratt thanked McSherry for absorbing added workload during the vacancy. “More and more falls on Pam,” he said.