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 second round of the SLT Construction Corporation’s continued hearing before the Plympton Zoning Board of Appeals will take place Thursday, Jan 25, at 6:30 p.m. in the Deborah Samson meeting room in the Plympton Town House, 5 Palmer Rd. Plympton residents are encouraged to attend.
The first round of the hearing was Thursday, Jan. 4, and the standing room only crowd heard from attorneys representing SLT as to how their client’s project fell within the bylaws of the Town of Plympton, and why it should be allowed.
Zoning Enforcement Officers Thomas Millias and Kathleen Cannizzo issued their determination not to allow the permit for the proposed asphalt, brick, and concrete processing facility (ABC) based on the following: the project is located in a Groundwater Protection District and the SLT plant stated it would use water to mitigate the dust created in the processing. Because the water would mix with the rubble dust particles, it would become a “process liquid” unless it were treated and returned to state drinking water standards.
Second, the definition of “Light Manufacturing” states that the fabrication, assembly, processing, finishing work and packaging must be done in a manner such that noise, dust, odor, vibration, or similar objectionable features are confined to the premises and are in no way objectionable to abutting property.
SLT’s several attorneys spoke on their client’s behalf, stating that there would be no “process liquids” used at the Spring St. property, that there would be no manufacturing of asphalt, brick, or concrete at the property; it would use previously manufactured asphalt (cured), brick with attached mortar, and concrete rubble that may have rebar metal in it, break it down by crushing it, using strong magnets to remove the scrap metal, then force the remaining material through screens to size the final product. They would not be fabricating anything; they would be recycling existing materials, all of which is allowed under Plympton’s By-laws, they claim.
SLT handed out information in the form of 32-page booklets to explain their proposed operation.
SLT maintains that any vibration, dust, noise, or odor will not be felt outside of the Spring St., Plympton’s property lines. As the Spring St. property abuts Carver, the entrance and exit for the facility will be through the Town of Carver.

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.

The Kingston Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, Dec. 5. Selectman Don Alcombright was remote for the meeting while Selectman Tyler Bouchard was absent.
The Selectmen dealt with the results of the traffic study that was done on Landing Road regarding road safety. Some residents requested a three-way intersection be installed at the corner of Landing Road and Maple Street. “Ultimately, based on the research that was done by Old Colony Planning, based on accidents – things of that nature, Old Colony Planning indicated that it did not meet the merits of a three-way stop sign,” Town Administrator Keith Hickey said. Regarding issues with the bridge, Hickey said that they met with the appropriate parties from Duxbury to get some type of truck restriction. “Duxbury seems very willing to potentially limit the size of the vehicles that travel down Landing Road,” he explained. He said that Old Colony has agreed to do some traffic counts and traffic studies regarding potential changes to traffic flow. “We are trying to address this as best we can,” Hickey said. “The Police Department has tried to make people more aware of the speeds that they are traveling… the 40-mph speed limit starts closer to the Maple Street intersection than what was indicated in the report,” he furthered.
A representative from the Old Colony Planning Council joined the meeting remotely to answer questions as needed. “One question I had was the traffic study that was done in March, which is not the busiest time for the roadway that leads to the harbor, so I was just wondering if we have taken that into account in some of this analysis?” Chair Kimberley Emberg asked. She noted that traffic picks up considerably starting in May and said that March may even be the slowest time of the year. The representative said that one of the things they can do this coming spring is to recount the Landing Rd. area during May to have a baseline of March to May. Emberg also asked if he could elaborate on why the intersection didn’t meet the necessary requirements for a three-way stop and was told that in addition to entering their numbers into a database, the Police Department didn’t identify five or more correctable crashes in the span of a 12-month time period.
Alcombright said that he wanted to make sure that any truck restrictions wouldn’t impact boat traffic. Superintendent and Tree Warden Paul Basler said that for most people, it shouldn’t affect that. He said that the bigger concerns of the residents were the box trucks hitting the bridge and the speeds of landscaping trucks, etc. “Even with a truck exclusion, oil trucks, gas trucks are still going to be able to service the residents… it shouldn’t have any impact on the boating people,” Basler said. He also spoke against the installation of speed bumps saying, “that’s going to impact the boating.” He said that he did a sign audit on that road noting that there were 11 signs between Main Street and River Street. “After a while, a lot of signs become invisible… in my opinion, there are an awful lot of signs on that road that nobody is paying attention to… so by increasing the number of signs, changing the signs around, I don’t think that’s going to give us the impact we are looking for,” Basler said. Emberg said that they were merely accepting the report that evening and that any decisions regarding what actions to take, would take place at a later meeting.
There was some discussion regarding a resident that was surrendering a razor clam license for the current year. There was one person on the waitlist. The Shellfish Constable intended to call all recipients of the licenses to see if anyone was not using theirs, but the very first person he called surrendered it. Hickey said that he would like to see, as a show of good faith, the town refund the original holder of the license. He also said that he would like to set a policy in place that stipulates that license holders must use it so many times or surrender the license at the end of the year. The Board agreed to issue the license to the new recipient at a pro-rated amount and refund the unused six months back to the original holder.
Jason Silva, the Community Development Director, spoke to the Board regarding the review of fees charged for inspectional services. “It’s been about four years since we’ve changed; a lot’s changed in the last four years in terms of our economy,” Silva said. He noted that after reviewing the fees charged by surrounding communities, it has become apparent that the fees need to be raised. He also asked to increase the compensation for the inspectional services’ workers. The Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the proposed increases.
Emberg said that during an earlier meeting they discussed going out to bid for legal services. She said that Hickey had prepared a draft RFP for them to approve that evening. Selectman Sheila Vaughn was the sole Selectman voting against the RFP.
Regarding the Police Chief search, Emberg asked for results from the community outreach survey that was completed by residents. Crone said that the main takeaway was a call for increased communication with the community. He said that they narrowed the field of applicants to eight before having two drop out. He said that they would like to add two back in before notifying the candidates.
Hickey said that the hiring committee for the Finance Director met that day and narrowed the list of applicants. He noted that the current Finance Director Carol McCoy would be leaving in-person employment the following week and then working remotely until a replacement could be found. “She’s been a tremendous asset to this community. She’s done a great job and she’ll be a tough person to replace, but wish her all the best,” Hickey said.
Hickey said that they’ve asked Departments to go back and review their budgets before reviewing at a higher level to present before the Board. “We should have all that done and to the Capital Planning Committee and the Finance Committee before the end of the month, certainly,” Hickey said.
Emberg reminded those in attendance that the new water rates went into effect in early November and noted that it would be reflected in the March 2024 quarterly bill. She also said that Kington’s annual luminary display will take place on Saturday, Dec. 16 and road closings will begin at 5 p.m.. The tree lighting and caroling will begin at 6 pm on the Town Green. Other activities including crafts and visits with Santa will be between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.. She also reminded residents that if they see snowflakes they need to get their vehicles off the streets to ensure safe and timely plowing.
Emberg opened things up to open forum and a resident asked, “the chlorine in the water, could we get an update on if this is a permanent condition, why, what we can do about it, and if the town is going to do anything about it because quite frankly it’s upsetting. Hickey said he would reach out to the Water Department and provide an update on the Town’s website.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, Nov. 21. Chair John Bruno began the meeting by turning it over to Plymouth County Commissioner Jared Valanzola. Valanzola announced that Halifax would be receiving $600,000 in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding for the two water treatment plants. “In 2020… the Federal Government awarded the County of Plymouth with some CARES Act money, about $90 million, and there was a handful of communities that believed we shouldn’t have administered that program. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts absolutely did not think we should have administered that program,” he said. Valanzola continued, “In the final analysis of the CARES Act, the town of Halifax, and every other town in Plymouth County received 50 percent more dollars than towns outside of Plymouth County. We distributed, of the $90 million, $87 million to our member communities. The remaining $3 million went to non-profit hospitals that are in the County… that is $44 million more than like-sized communities outside of Plymouth County received.”
Valanzola noted that they have since pivoted toward ARPA which he called more “forward facing.” He said that working with the leadership in Halifax was “fantastic.” “The last point I’ll make on ARPA: we currently are administering this program at approximately 1 percent. We administered the CARES Act for 1 percent and that received national recognition – it was actually 0.87 percent and that meant more money for Halifax… we received recognition from the U.S. Department of the Treasury as well as the United States Congress as one of the most effective and efficient administrations of the CARES Act in the entire country.” He further noted that while they are currently on track to administer ARPA at 1 percent, the national average is 7 to 8 percent.
The Finance Committee was also in attendance for a joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen to discuss wage and personnel. Town Administrator Cody Haddad explained some of the changes to the Wage and Personnel bylaws. He began by saying that he had previously sent the results of the compensation and classification study to the Selectmen as well as the Finance Committee members. Regarding the nearly yearlong process Haddad said, “we need to evaluate the positions and create internal as well as external equity.” He said that they contracted with GovHR to evaluate each position through a job evaluation questionnaire that all non-Union employees filled out. The questionnaires were provided to managers for evaluation and then, finally, reviewed by Haddad. GovHR then moved forward with interviews with at least one person in each position. This information was used to create the internal equity. He said that they used analysis from similar neighboring communities to assess external equity. He said that salary ranges were created using the 70th percentile. He said that the difference between going with the 60th percentile versus the 70th percentile was only about $1,000. He noted that going with the higher percentile would make them more competitive.
“Grades 1-3 are your administrative and technical staff, Grades 4-8 are supervisors and advanced technical staff, 9-12 are directors and senior managers and that’s really where the wage and personnel bylaw cuts off, but we did go forward and look at Grades 13-15 which would be the Town Administrator and Public Safety,” Haddad said. He said that all grades have a 35 percent variation between steps to create consistency. He said that the goal is to make it equitable for the employees but affordable for the town. Haddad said that in terms of implementation, they would start by making sure that everyone is now on one of the new steps, i.e. at least the minimum. He also said that everyone would receive at least a 2 percent raise while those being paid the least would be likely to see the biggest increase.
Regarding the financial impact for the town, Haddad said that for fiscal year 2024 it would be approximately $125,000. Haddad explained, “$260,000 was allocated at the spring town meeting for the purposes of this and also for settling collective bargaining agreements; there’s approximately $136,000 currently unallocated for this exact purpose.”
Finance Committee member Jim Walters expressed that he didn’t feel that the numbers were entirely accurate to the 35 percent and asked that it be amended as such. Haddad explained that the discrepancy lay in his using round numbers though he said he would revisit the document to ensure accuracy.
Selectman Jonathan Selig gave some background behind the impetus to review the wage and personnel bylaw. “So when I started… we had a tough problem here at Town Hall with retention and essentially filling roles. We were so grossly underpaying folks that we weren’t even just getting bad applicants, we were getting nobody… and the refrain you kept hearing was, you’re going to try and pay people that? Good luck,” Selig explained. He continued, “If we were lucky to get somebody, what would happen was that after a while, they were going to another community close by that was paying a lot more money than we were.”
Haddad said that the goal of the joint meeting would be to have them vote to adopt the compensation and classification plan as proposed. Haddad said, “To Jim’s point, when we get to the warrant, two options: we can either move forward as it’s written and we would just make note that it’s the 35.49 percent or what we can do is just make the last step a little bit of a smaller increase. My effort was to try and make the increase for each of the 12 steps the same percentage but in doing that, it bumped it off a little,” Haddad explained. “As long as the numbers add up and we can get it funded,” Walters said. The Selectmen and the Finance Committee voted to accept the plan. The Finance Committee then adjourned their portion of the meeting.
The Selectmen had an appointment with Wendy Grieco for an appointment to the Beautification Committee. “I just want to participate in the town, volunteer,” she explained. The Selectmen voted to approve her appointment through June 30, 2024.
The Selectmen went through the articles on the warrant for town meeting. These included Article 4 which reallocated $1.74 million in funding that was originally intended to turn the museum into the Council on Aging and approved in May of 2022. He said that the new article would rescind the original one and reallocate that funding for the purpose of designing and building a new Council on Aging facility. The Selectmen voted to approve the article. Article 5 encompassed all the changes necessary to move forward with the Thorndike Development project. The Selectmen recommended it.
The Selectmen also discussed potentially creating a policy regarding flags that will be flown on public property. “What I was concerned with is we had no policy whatsoever… I asked Cody to come up with a draft… what I thought to do was to limit our authorized flags to the American flag, the Massachusetts State flag, the Town of Halifax flag, the elementary school flag, and military flags for the purpose of Veterans’ observance… and I think that to me that makes the most sense and keeps us from getting into any arguments over who’s flag should be up, when it should be up, and everything else,” Bruno said. Bruno specified that it refers to the official flag poles rather than just a flag setup on public property. “I get the idea of this and it makes sense to me as to, I don’t want to call it Pandora’s box… it keeps it cut and dry… these are the flags we have,” Selig said. Bruno referenced a Nazi flag saying that if you were to allow other flags, you may have to agree to fly that one too. The Selectmen voted to adopt the policy as written.
Haddad told the Selectmen that he had a good meeting with a consultant regarding the MBTA Action Plan. He said that the consultant was very receptive to their ideas. He said that once they have a more finalized plan, they would bring it before the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee. He also noted that they hoped to bring it before the Board of Selectmen in February. Bruno noted that he had been a critic of the MBTA Action plans but said that he thinks that they can come into compliance without changing too much. Bruno said that it may be possible to just rezone some existing multi-family housing.