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.