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

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

Silver Lake Regional School Committee met Tuesday, April 9, at the regional high school in Kingston.
High on the list of items discussed was the budget, and making it work, despite current challenges. Paula Hatch, chairman, explained that Silver Lake isn’t the only school district in the state faced with these extraordinary challenges; it is happening throughout the state. Hatch referenced an article in the Boston Globe that detailed new accounting requirements.
Began with a School Choice hearing. Superintendent Dr. Jill Proulx explained that school choice would allow students from other school districts to pay tuition to attend Silver Lake schools. Silver Lake has opted not to participate in school choice at this time. Committee member Jason Fraser made a motion to opt out of school choice and gave current classroom sizes and budgetary concerns as reasons for doing so. The motion was seconded and the vote unanimous to decline participation in school choice.
Carl Pike, a longtime member of the Kingston Finance Committee, addressed the assembly saying despite his being a prime supporter of the schools, the current education increase that Kingston is looking at is $2.9 million, or a 10.3% increase over last year. That’s on top of a 7% increase and 1.9 million for last year. “Well, any of you that know anything about finances, budgets, Proposition 2 ½, you cannot live with 7% and 10% increases every year… Despite that, we’re continuing to work to find some way of justifying it.” Pike went on to say that he took an informal vote at the last finance committee meeting and said that he feared his committee will not be able to recommend this kind of increase in the budget.
Pike closed his comments with an invitation to all present to attend the next Finance Committee meeting on April 17 to comment on whatever they think is right. “Rest assured, that the town administration in Kingston, the Board of Selectmen in Kingston, the Finance Committee in Kingston, intends to continue to support the schools, the education, the administrators, the teachers, that everybody that we can within reasonable budget limitations to provide the best education that we can for the residents and their children of the Town of Kingston.”
Superintendent Jill Proulx introduced Silver Lake District Business Director Sarah Hickey who reported to the Silver Lake Regional School Committee on Budget Version VI, incorporating many of the proposed reductions discussed at prior meetings to bring the budget into line with funds available.
Budget Version VI, showed a total Silver Lake Budget of $40,624,059, with a reduction of $855,000 as voted by the Silver Lake school committee at their March 22 meeting. As a result of that vote to reduce the budget, Hickey updated the assessments to all towns, including the revenue that was counted toward the assessments with the following result: Halifax at its April 1 meeting voted for FY25 is $6,965,138. Kingston voted $14,568,739 at its April 2 meeting, and Plympton voted $3,975,000 at its March 25 meeting.
The total cost of education for Halifax in FY25 is $15,580,356, representing a 4.9% increase over FY24. For Kingston, it is $31,312,851, a 10.6% increase over FY24. For Plympton, the total cost of education for FY25 is $7,279,885, a 6.8% increase over FY24. The total cost of education in the three towns is $54,173,093, or an 8.4% overall increase.
Silver Lake District Tier I proposed reductions in transportation and technology:
Reduce Late Bus by one day, savings $11,732; reduce Pre-K technology by $1500, Middle School Technology by $29,920, and High School Technology by $36,190. Subtotal $79,342 savings.
Tier II reductions include $5,700 PreK Technology, $17,500 in Middle School Technology, $15,000 in cuts to High School Technology, approx $40,000 in retirement savings due to two retirements and a proposal to move the food service director to the revolving account for a $98,715 reduction, so the Tier I reductions total $176,915 and Tier II reductions equal $256,257.
Silver Lake integrated pre-school reductions of $2,500 in supplies and dues and a reduction of $229,950 for out-of-district tuition. Tier II would be a staffing decrease of one full-time equivalent position of $65,000 so the Tier I reduction of $232,450 and Tier II reduction of $65,000 gives a total of $297,450. The integrated pre-school proposal reduction of one teacher has no impact on teaching and learning, according to administration. The IEP teams will use a data-driven process supplied by student evaluations and progress monitoring systems to determine the just right service level of each student. The model uses a four-day-a- week half-day preschool program model. Hickey went on to say that this approach will increase available seats for students with disabilities in the integrated preschool program.
Plympton’s representative to the committee Jason Fraser asked, “Did we find a way to do this without laying off anyone?” Through attrition and various commodities cuts, with the whole package of cuts, Superintendent Proulx answered “Yes, that is the intent.”
High school principal Michaela Gill reviewed her school’s budget and was able to come up with $151,600 in cuts without staff reduction; the biggest cuts were in supplies, new equipment replacement, and athletics. She noted that the largest share of supplies came from consumables in the Art and Science programs. She also noted that she was looking to make two FTE cuts. “Although we are absorbing them through attrition, they are currently vacant positions due to resignations or retirements.” Not filling those positions moving forward will still have an impact on student learning and a small impact on teaching stipends filled by teachers for extra-curricular programs.
Becky Couet, Middle School Principal, detailed budget cuts to her school with Tier 1 cuts totaling $81,943 coming from supplies, curriculum, and technology. Tier II cuts – staffing – brought one FTE unit saving $65,000. Total Tier I and Tier II proposed reductions of $146,943. Couet explained that the majority of the cuts were in supplies and consumables, new library books, art and music replenishment of some supplies, and supplementary reading resources.
From the principal’s line, dues, signage, PCIS incentives, and guest speakers all were reduced. Technology saw reduction of repair line, delay on the eFax program, no additional Adobe licenses, supplies, document cameras, reduction of Chromebook replacements, and limited docking station.
From the equipment line, conference tables and furniture all took a reduction as well as a flip-form riser for the music department. PD saw a 50% decrease in PD conference opportunities for all staff. Under Other, additional guest speakers, piano tuning, and transportation or interscholastic sports were reduced.
The total savings for Tier 1 are $545,318. Tier II Savings are $461,315.
Chairman Hatch noted that as the principals were enumerating their budget cuts they also said they could do without these things “next year”, meaning we should expect to see them back in the budget requests the following year.
Committee member Fraser pointed out that there would be circuit breaker funds flowing into the district next year. “We’re going to have to be very careful as to how we replace the items we’re cutting this year, but I see the ability for us to restore most, if not all of what we’re cutting this year, once we have circuit breaker next year.” Stating that it doesn’t necessarily mean that the schools replace exactly what’s on the cut list because “we need to take into account some of the areas of dire need that we’ve all been witness to over the past several years. “ Fraser predicted that while Silver Lake High School will be in a much better place next year, the town school committees will face serious challenges as their circuit breaker money runs out. He described a bounceback budget situation between the Lake and the locals. He explained that committees will need to work together as a whole to assess the total cost of education.
Hatch said she encourages everyone to attend town meetings to support their schools and the budget. “We don’t want to make cuts. We’ll make the smartest decisions we possibly can with all the factors that we have.”