Plympton Police Chief Matthew Ahl addressed Plympton selectmen at their in-person meeting Feb. 12 regarding a new regional clinician role.
“We’ve been working for about a year or so trying to get the clinician program off the ground, and I give a lot of credit to the Carver Police Department – they’re the holder of this grant and we’re the beneficiary,” Ahl said. He also told the Selectmen that the grant encompasses Plympton, Carver, Halifax, and Hanson. “So essentially the program is we have a clinician that’s allocated to all four of these departments that rotates through… she’s really there to help mitigate all the things that we see in the streets now… it’s a big push… so with that being said, her ability to go out there and diffuse the situation, speak with parties that are involved whether it be a domestic incident, temporary psychosis, if she has to issue a Section 12… so she’s kind of there on the threshold on the forefront to take that onus off of us as a Police Department and be the health proxy to kind of guide us in our decision and make sure that we’re doing the right thing,” Ahl explained. He told the Selectmen that while they are only about two months into the program, it has been “impactful.” The current contract is for three years, though Ahl said he envisions it being a long-term program. Selectman John Traynor asked if she was also involved with the Fire Department. Ahl said that while she was not, she has been willing to jump in and help in situations involving other departments.
Traynor said, “I think sometimes we think of us as such a small community that we don’t have some of the services that the larger towns offer but that’s not true. These regional associations like you have here, we have the opportunity to reach out and really bring top people in to help out.” Ahl agreed referring to the comfort dog program as another example of community collaboration.
“Sounds really good to me; I like the fact that it’s both proactive but it’s also there situational in the event that you needed somebody,” Joy said. She also asked if something came up in Plympton while the clinician was working in a neighboring town, would it be possible to get her to respond to the incident. Ahl said, “we have an agreement… if there’s something that’s pressing with our community and say that she’s over in Hanson for the day, then we’re going to collaborate and figure out a means to get her from Hanson.”
The Selectmen reviewed a proposed MassDOT Letter to property owners regarding the Winnetuxet Bridge Project. Town Administrator Liz Dennehy told the Selectmen that the letter was drafted by Attorney Jonathan Eichman. Dennehy said, “It’s a required part of the process because we are getting federal aid for the replacement of the bridge. It’s not going to make any notable changes to the property… basically there are two existing utility poles, and the state just needs to – it’s essentially a permanent easement, but because it’s permanent, they just need to take the land by law so that they can access the two poles. The property in question is 1 Pope’s Farm. The Selectmen voted to approve sending the letter.
For Town Administrator’s updates, Dennehy said that they have been busy with the budget process. She also noted that they had quite a few items in correspondence. She said that the Town Clerk was looking for a vote to acknowledge receipt of local election and presidential primary election information as well as the officer positions that will be open on the ballot on May 18. Also included in the vote was acknowledgement and approval of police details for the presidential primary on March 5, the local election on May 18, the state primary election on September 3, and the state presidential election on November 5. The Selectmen voted to approve.
The Selectmen also voted to approve the sale of the Class III and Scrap licenses from Alby’s Salvage to Angels Auto Inc. Alby’s is retaining their Class II license.
Selectman Mark Russo led off the raves talking about the implementation of a community clinician. “I have a feeling this is going to be a cool thing in terms of support at the time of a problem and thwarting more substantial problems later on to the degree that it’s sort of preventative medicine which of course is the best medicine,” Russo said. Joy said her rave was for an article in the Express recognizing three Dennett Elementary boys who put their fire dept. training to use in a fire emergency at home. Plympton’s Fire Dept. honored them as Young Heroes. “What a great story and a fantastic outcome,” Joy said. Selectman John Traynor said he supported Russo’s rave for the new clinician program.

The Halifax School Committee met on Monday, Feb. 5. Chair Lauren Laws called the public budget hearing to order, but no one wished to speak.
Superintendent Jill Proulx gave a presentation on Version 2 of the budget. “You may recall in the last meeting, the School Committee wanted to know what impact it would have if, in fact, we worked into this budget a number of positions that were recommended or requested but that hadn’t been included in the level-services budget,” she told the Committee. She went over some changes from the previous year including that Pre-K is now a Silver Lake expense. Silver Lake special education positions in the elementary schools will now need to become school and town positions. Special education revolving accounts will no longer be necessary. Shared-costs positions will now be paid according to regional agreement percentages.
Increases to the Halifax budget include five paraprofessionals and five full-time speech language pathologists. The shared cost contracts represent nearly a 4 percent increase at $12,789. Decreases to the budget include grant funding covering out-of-district tuitions. Major changes to the Version 2 budget include custodial overtime at an additional $10k, fuel surcharge around a $5k savings, principal requests from the January meeting at plus $112k, and the circuit breaker estimate at a savings of approximately $605k. The regular day budget represents a 16 percent increase of $402,600. The special education and transportation budget represents an 86 percent decrease of $2,381,453. Substitutes and utilities represent a 16 percent decrease of $1,473,784. Most of the increases represent staffing and payroll.
The proposed increases to the Version 2 budget included a part time ESL teacher at a cost of $32,000. “This position would allow for our students to receive the appropriate amount of services as recommended by DESE,”(Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) Proulx said. Also requested was the addition of a building substitute. Another proposal was for Hero Academy which would serve approximately 60 students over the summer and would cost $10k to $15k. It would target at-risk students who are partially meeting expectations as identified by STAR and MCAS testing. Regarding Hero Academy, Beaudry said they are proposing mixed classrooms of two grades each (Grades 1 and 2, Grades 3 and 4, and Grades 5 and 6). Staffing would include three classroom teachers at $4,500, three support staff at $3,600, one site coordinator at $1,800, one nurse at $1,500, and 1 office secretary at $1,200. The program would run for two weeks in August from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and would focus on mathematics and ELA. Committee members asked if staffing would be an issue, but Beaudry felt strongly that it would not. The teachers in attendance at the meeting confirmed that they would be willing to work it. The Committee questioned if the program would need both a site coordinator and a secretary. They also questioned whether support staff was necessary for the pilot year.
Capital needs and accomplishments were also presented. For FY24 these included water testing and plumbing, student and staff bathroom updates, kindergarten playground and mulch, and asphalt completion. For FY25, the bathroom updates would continue as would the water testing and plumbing. Additionally, the gym bleachers need to be replaced at a cost of approximately $45k.
The Committee reviewed their goals which included “continuous improvement in academic success of students that is measurable, data driven, and supports teachers’ abilities to educate.” Laws also said that they would be looking to improve the number of students receiving proficient MCAS scores as well as seeking opportunities to close achievement gaps. Also included was the desire to communicate and work with all stakeholders. There was some discussion about editing the goal pertaining to MCAS. The Committee agreed to change the language to “improve standardized testing performance.”
Youth and Recreation provided an update. Basketball, both recreational and travel, has been going on seven full days a week, all evening during the weekdays and all day long on Saturdays and Sundays. Adult co-ed volleyball is also taking place on Sundays and the public is welcome to attend. Three after school programs are going strong including art, sports, and STEM. The Director of the Halifax Youth and Recreation Department Richard Steele said he wanted to give a big shout out to all the teachers who are supporting the various activities. Steele was also seeking approval to put pickleball court lines in the gym as well as adding new bleachers into the capital plan. The bleachers are currently 30 years old and in rough shape. Steele wishes to start dances back up in March with the intention to split fifth and sixth grade due to chaperone needs and behaviors.
The PTO update included that teachers had donated four baskets for the Mingle and Jingle. Square One art is coming back as a fundraiser.
Kayne Beaudry provided the principal’s report. He said that Student Council met on Jan. 31. He said that the focus of those meetings is to scale back the handbook with the updated one being ready for review in April. He called it a “big overhaul.” Regarding the water issue, Beaudry said they received the results and were meeting that week with the company that handled the testing, the Town Administrator, Proulx, Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch, and the Facilities Director. “Hopefully then we’ll have a better plan… what next steps are,” he told the Committee.
Lynch told the Committee he had two updates. The first of which was regarding the vote the Committee took on whether to allow the administration of the VOCAL survey after the MCAS testing. Lynch said that when presented to the other school committees in Silver Lake there was a request that the survey comply with the district’s policy regarding opting out of surveys. Lynch said that they would ensure that the survey was not administered to those students. He said even if the parents had not opted out of the survey, the students would still have the autonomy to choose not to answer questions.
Lynch said that he, Proulx, Beaudry, and Assistant Principal Brian DeSantes met with the Halifax Elementary School Data team on Jan. 5. “We saw the Grade 3 teachers, worked with interventionists and special educators to analyze the STAR and DIBELS data that was taken just before in late December.” He said they are impressed with the teachers’ efforts to analyze the data and work to improve performance.

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.”