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.