Alan Ingram
Express correspondent
The Plympton School Committee has unanimously approved a $4.43 million operating budget for fiscal year 2026, successfully balancing the educational needs of Dennett Elementary School with the financial constraints of the town.
The vote, which took place during the March 24 meeting, represents the culmination of months of careful financial planning and collaboration between school officials and town leadership.
“We believe we’re at a place tonight where we have a budget that can support the needs of the students here at the Dennett, can maintain all of our staffing as we promised, and also meet the financial needs of the town as well,” said School Committee Chair Jason Fraser.
The total budget package includes $4,703,363 in expenditures, with $273,363 coming from anticipated circuit breaker special education reimbursements and anticipated grant funding. This leaves the town’s portion at $4.43 million.
Director of Finance and Operations Sarah Hickey presented the final budget figures after incorporating adjustments requested by the committee at previous meetings.
“If from that $4,703,363 we subtract out the anticipated $60,000 [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Federal Special Education Entitlement] Grant, $117,272 in anticipated circuit breaker, $32,091 in the 2025 [Rural Education Achievement Program Federal] Grant, $64,000 in the anticipated rural aid for next year, that would make the town operating budget $4,430,000,” Hickey explained.
The budget process this year was complicated by a chart of accounts conversion, making direct year-to-year comparisons more challenging than usual.
“This is the single year where we won’t be able to have side-by-side comparison of 24 and 25,” Hickey noted. “Next year the budget will be back out of the financial software, all of those sheets that you’re used to and you’ll be able to see the FY26, FY27 side-by-side comparisons with the percent increases.”
Committee member Jon Wilhelmsen expressed appreciation for the work done to reach the target figure but voiced concerns about the process.
“I know there was a lot of work today to try and get us to where we’re at, and I truly appreciate all that,” Wilhelmsen said. “It’s very difficult to be able to do the job on this side of the table, but you can’t look at the underlying numbers as it’s going along.”
The $4.43 million figure represents what appears to be an 11 percent increase over last year’s initial budget of approximately $4 million. However, Fraser pointed out that the school actually operated on about $4.25 million this year after addressing a $250,000 deficit that emerged by October.
If you base it off the $4 million to $4.4 million, it is an 11 percent increase,” Fraser explained. “But this year, to operate this building, we used $4,250,000. So our increase, if you take it from there to this, is a 4.25 percent increase.”
Wilhelmsen acknowledged the challenge this presents for town officials.
“To the town, it’s 11. And that’s the part that, you know, with working together with the town, we were able to get them to absorb it again,” he said. “This is the third year in a row that we’ve had to absorb these increases in derelict deficits. So, it’s just a challenge because the well is getting drier.”
The budget relies on $64,000 in anticipated rural aid for next year, based on Governor Healey’s budget proposal. Fraser expressed hope that rural aid might increase, potentially allowing for additional staffing.
“I’d like this committee to commit to is if we get a sizable increase there, that we come back to the table and we add additional aids to our staff here at the Dennett for next year,” Fraser said. “To help maintain the quality of education, but also to help keep kids in their home school instead of ending up not having the right amounts of supports here and having more kids go out of district as well.”
Earlier in the meeting, the committee approved the allocation of $144,000 in rural aid currently on hand. This includes $50,000 to supplement an HVAC earmark, $54,000 to address the current year’s deficit, and $40,000 to replenish the special education stabilization fund.“We would hold back $54,000 to fill what’s right now about a $49,000-$50,000 deficit for FY25,” Fraser explained. “If there’s any creep on that, we’d have a little bit of wiggle room.”
The committee also discussed the possibility of bringing some outsourced behavioral services in-house in the future. Currently, the district budgets approximately $53,035 for PACES services, which provide both in-school consultations and home-based support for students with special needs.
A meeting attendee raised the question of whether some of these services could be provided by existing staff or a new hire.
“I wasn’t sure if there was an opportunity to in-source some of the work and potentially get more benefit to the student population because of it,” he said.
Christine Marcolini, Student Support Coordinator, echoed this interest, asking if there might be “a way to kind of look at the bucket of money that we’re already budgeting for behavior consults, shift some of that over to having someone maybe part-time on staff that’s available to all students.”
While acknowledging the idea has merit, Special Education Director Christine Panarese noted several challenges, including finding qualified personnel willing to work in homes and determining whether a part-time or full-time position with benefits would actually save money compared to contracted services.
The committee also approved its meeting schedule for the 2025-26 school year before adjourning to executive session to discuss collective bargaining strategy with the Plympton Teachers Association.

Kristy Zamagni-Twomey
Express correspondent
Town Administrator Cody Haddad provided a budget update at the Tuesday, March 11, Halifax Board of Selectmen’s meeting. He said that the previous night he had presented two separate budgets at the Finance Committee meeting. “One with level service requests which would require about a $1.6 million override; I know that since then the School Committee has met and potentially pared down their budget… and then the other one… is balanced which would require about $1.2 million in cuts from the elementary school, several general fund cuts, and then we would need to eliminate four additional full-time equivalents on the general government side… we’re working on identifying those.” He said that the budgets would be presented to the Selectmen at a later meeting for them to decide whether to move forward with the override.
Selectman Jonathan Selig asked to address some correspondence regarding the budget issues with the schools. Selig said he was able to speak with Jason Fraser, who is a member of the Plympton Elementary School Committee, the Silver Lake Regional School Committee, and who also serves as President of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. “Federal funding is critical for daily educational opportunities for our children. Currently 10 percent of Massachusetts’ public school funding comes from federal programs across the Commonwealth. School Committees and School Administrators are grappling with historic inflationary pressure and increased cost… school districts are struggling just to maintain level service budgets and any decrease in federal funding to public education would be devastating to public school students whose futures depend on it.”
The No Cuts to Public School Act was filed by Senator Markey and would require Congress to appropriate federal formula funding for education at fiscal year 2024 levels or higher through fiscal year 2027. Selig asked the Board if they would feel comfortable writing a letter of support for that federal act. Selectmen Chair John Bruno said that he would like to see the letter go directly to Senators Markey and Warren rather than directly to the federal government. The Selectmen voted in favor of sending a letter.
Haddad said they were still actively looking for a library director. He noted that they got a good number of applicants and said that the screening committee would be reviewing them soon. Haddad noted that East Bridgewater was looking at the same time and actually didn’t have any applicants.
Haddad said that March 11, the day of their meeting, was the deadline for petition articles, submitted by residents of the Town of Halifax for the Annual Town Meeting. He noted that they had seven petition articles submitted.
Regarding the MBTA Communities program, Bruno said, “we have received communication that the State Auditor has made a decision that the MBTA Zoning Act is an unfunded mandate which can trigger other legal processes.” He further said that the Board is likely to take some steps to try to “hold back any detrimental effects of the MBTA law as long as we can.” Haddad said that the town was notified that the Green Communities grant that usually provides more than $200,000 in funding may be in jeopardy this year due to noncompliance with the MBTA Communities program.
A resident said that they read through the Auditor’s determination. He asked for clarification on the unfunded mandate. Bruno called “unfunded mandate” a vague and undefined term. He said that they have talked about it regarding the Thorndike Development and a 40B, he said nothing required made any difference with respect to the unfunded mandate.
The Selectmen reviewed the zoning amendments. Bruno said, “the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee has been meeting for two years… and, aside from the big project being the MBTA issue, also went through the entire zoning bylaw to update it and to clean it up a little bit.” Bruno said it incorporates the senior housing bylaw that was recently approved at Town Meeting. Haddad said that it has also made it so any special permits will now go through the Zoning Board of Appeals. Haddad said that the goal of the Committee wasn’t so much to make vast changes, but rather to make it clearer and more straightforward for residents.
Selig asked about abandoned properties and Haddad said that there is now a blighted properties section for all types of properties. “The scope of it is within State law, but just codifies it as town of Halifax bylaw,” Haddad said.
Mead, Talerman, and Costa, LLC were named as the new labor counsel for Halifax. Haddad called it a “standard agreement” and asked the Selectmen to sign off on it. They voted to approve the agreement unanimously.
In other business, Pamela McSherry was reappointed to the Halifax Cultural Council through March 22, 2028. Selectmen also approved bottle drives for the Boy Scouts on April 5 and July 19 on the Town Green.

The Plympton Board of Selectmen met on Monday, Feb. 24. Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy provided an update on the FY26 budget. “We’re still working on some of the numbers. We’re running various scenarios to try and see if we can avoid the possibility of an override and, in terms of timeline and everything overall, I think it would make sense for this Board to consider at your next meeting… whether you want to move forward with putting a ballot question on for a debt exclusion for the Fire Station,” she said. Chair John Traynor said, “Unless something changes, we should go ahead even if we decide later to pass over it. The Town Properties Committee has been working on this for over a year and it may not pass at Town Meeting or if it passes, it might not get through the ballot. But at least we should give the people a chance to hear what we’ve been doing.”
Selectman Mark Russo clarified that Proposition 2 ½ would be unlikely though a decision on the debt exclusion would be on the docket. A debt exclusion would allow the town to raise enough funds outside of the levy limit for a specific capital project, in this case the Fire Station.
“If we’re going to avoid an override, I do think we’re going to have to tap into general stabilization a little bit; not nearly as much as that completely outrageous scenario that we were originally looking at,” Dennehy said. She continued, “I feel like the cost of everything, it’s catching up with us.” In order to tap into stabilization, a two-thirds vote at Town Meeting is required as is a yes vote from the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee.
The Selectmen also took up the issue of their social media policy. Traynor said that the current policy states that the Selectmen and the Town will not discuss business over social media. Residents have to write to them or appear before them to bring forth business. Traynor said that he recognizes, however, that those in their twenties, thirties, and forties are more likely to do business over social media. “I see how easily it could become quite complicated… I think it needs work before,” Russo said. Traynor said he agreed and recommended reaching out to Town Counsel. Dennehy said that it might be a good idea to start smaller such as sharing frequently asked questions of each Department on social media. She also suggested putting quarterly updates by each Department Head on social media. Selectman Dana Smith recommended “clear guidelines that are posted on a regular basis that protects what the actual integrity of that website is in that respect because then people know what’s expected of them but also their behaviors similar to our meeting here.”
Dennehy and the Selectmen discussed the Old Townhouse. Dennehy said that the chairlift was fixed again. She did note that if it wasn’t returned to the default position it would drain the battery which proves costly. They named three people to run the smart thermometer. Dennehy also told the Selectmen that the wifi was no longer a problem. She also touched base on the room that required approximately $10k in mold remediation. “Currently there’s no insulation or wall covering,” she said. Dennehy said that the recommendation from Town Properties Committee for covering a heating vent, was to cover it with plywood. She said that they did receive a few quotes ranging from nearly $6k to $10k to fully finish the room.
Traynor explained, “So the Town Properties’ position… is we don’t know what we would do with the room if we had it, so why not just cover the heating unit and then when we do know how we want to use it, that would be the time to finish it off.” Russo said that if the money was available, he would rather see the room completed. The Selectmen voted to have Dennehy explore whether the lower quote was still valid and if it was, move forward with completing the room. Traynor voted nay but was outvoted.
Dennehy said that they also needed to tackle the lighting issue outside. “We did have somebody attend the last meeting that expressed some concerns. As an update to that, there is a streetlight located down the street that we were alerted to at our last meeting that seemed like it was shining at an odd angle.” Dennehy said that a ticket has been put in with Eversource to fix it as it was found to be broken. She continued, “As far as the post at the Old Townhouse, the streetlight is on one side – there were no proposed changes to that at this time.” Dennehy said that a request has been put in with Eversource to remove a square floodlight that illuminates a lot more than just the front of the building. The Town Properties Committee will be working on getting pricing for more appropriate lighting for the building that won’t be obtrusive to the neighbors.
Dennehy reviewed the warrant articles with the Selectmen. She said that she inquired about the cost to change the Board of Selectmen name to Select Board and was told it would be roughly $1k. She also said that the Highway Department is looking for $250k this year instead of the customary $200k for roadway work. Traynor said, “I’m aware they got $111,000 Chapter 90 money supplemental and it seems to me that should be enough but we’ll discuss it as we get closer.”
Traynor gave a special shout out to the Two Grannies on the Road. “They came to Plympton – if you don’t know them, they are two ladies, grandmothers, who are going around to visit every town in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts… there’s 351 towns, they’ve done 94, well now it’s 95 with Plympton,” Traynor said. He said that they videotaped places like the Equine Center. Traynor said he would like to see those videos go up on the town website for residents to see.

The Mirriam-Webster definition of Redux – in case you were wondering – is something that has been brought back or revived. Here it is, one week later, and we have been revived.
They say that if you take a leap of faith, a net will appear. It did. A person who is genuinely interested in keeping this little paper coming to you every week has appeared. We are taking the month of February to see if we can put it all together and make it happen.
Thank you all for your patience.
Deb