The Silver Lake Regional School Committee met in-person on Thursday, Dec. 8. Committee Chair Paula Hatch led things off by opening the well-attended meeting for public participation. The first resident who asked to speak said she was currently from Plympton but formerly from Kingston and now has two students at the High School. She said that a little over a year after her son’s autism diagnosis, he entered the preschool in Kingston. “I was terrified that he wouldn’t get what he needed… every single year for 12 years now leading up to his next IEP meeting… I worry about getting him what he needs to be successful during the school day. This is where the paraprofessionals come in… they make it possible for students needing extra support to be successful – this is everything, everything to a parent,” she told the Committee. She said that while paraprofessionals aren’t the ones who write the IEPs, they are the ones that execute them. Regarding the shortage of paraprofessionals she said, “when a person cannot earn a living wage at their job, then they are forced to leave that job… we have to be better than this, we will lose good people.” She told the Committee that the paraprofessionals at Silver Lake are paid less money than her 17-year-old can earn at many retail jobs. The full house gave her rousing applause following the completion of her remarks.
“I don’t want anyone to think that this Committee has not tried to come up with a fair proposal for the paras. We’ve worked over a year trying to come up with a fair proposal and thought that we had found one,” Hatch said before noting that it failed during ratification. “We do, do research to see where the salaries currently fall,” she continued.
The next resident that spoke said she was a Laker herself and currently has three children in the school district, two of which she said have significant special needs. She said that she fought to bring her daughter back to the Middle School after an out-of-district placement. Her daughter was brought back to Silver Lake during the height of the 2020 pandemic she noted. “It was the paraprofessionals that offered so much extra support particularly during those Wednesday half days; teachers went above and beyond the contract,” she explained. She continued, “Then at the end of that year in June of 2021, the very last moments of that school year that we survived was a fundamental change to the way that our school system is structured and that is that they eliminated the CP2 leveling… so when I fought to bring her back to Silver Lake that was the model that I had in mind because I see how wonderful it works. She struggled so much last year.” She said that her daughter ended up out-of- district again but noted that she once again fought to bring her back to Silver Lake. “It is because of these para support professionals that my child is making progress, significant gains. I couldn’t be more pleased. And I find it absolutely insulting that there is this discussion that we are not giving them a living wage and I also find it insulting to insinuate that the people in here do not understand how budgets work,” she told the Committee. Before closing she said, “I want to reiterate the point that if we do not find the pennies to give these paras what they need then there will be more students who need out-of- district placements… moreover we are losing to charter schools.”
President of the Silver Lake Education Association Jon Lay spoke next calling some of Hatch’s statements misleading. “We brought an analysis to the School Committee that showed conclusively that Silver Lake is underpaying our paraprofessionals compared to the local districts.” Lay said that if Hatch had information that contradicted that, he said he would like to see it. He further said he hoped it included health insurance as he said it was a very big part of it. “Even if we may be the average, and we don’t think that we are, it doesn’t change the fact that paras can go to other districts today and get paid more on day one,” he told the Committee. Hatch spoke up and said, “there’s one thing I don’t do, I don’t lie.” She continued, “we make decisions based on data and research.” Later in the meeting, Lay did clarify that he did not believe that the School Committee or any of its members were lying.
Other residents wanted to speak but Hatch said she was limiting the public participation portion to just 15 minutes as she stated at the outset. After objections from those in attendance, Hatch agreed to give two more people a chance to make comments asking them to be “concise.” Someone asked about the negotiations process and the SLEA’s hard position. Lay said that the Committee is looking to resort to fact finding where an impartial third party would be brought in to make a recommendation for resolution. Of their original request, Lay said, “we had been asking for four percent… at one point in the process we had been asking for vacation days – five paid vacation days because right now they don’t get any.” “The initial offer totaled a half a million dollars,” Hatch added.
Plympton resident, Janeen Orcutt, spoke last. She said she taught in Halifax for 31 years before retiring. “I know as a teacher the importance of a para in my classroom for an inclusion classroom for every student there … and I think that when you say that the pay isn’t there, that it is comparable … two of my best paras left the system and went to another system where they’re getting paid for vacation, they’re getting paid for sick time and they got a raise in their pay… you’re going to lose good people,” she said. She concluded saying, “I never speak at meetings. This is so out of my wheelhouse, but I’m so hurt by the School Committee from a system that my kids went to, a system that my kids work in, to see we don’t take care of our paras. It’s shameful.” She also noted that many of the paras hold bachelor’s degrees or higher. She was also met with rousing applause.
Silver Lake Regional Principal Michaela Gill was unable to attend the meeting so Middle School Principal Becky Couet provided the Principal’s Report. She said that over half of the students were on honor roll during the first term. She also said that the Middle School production of Aladdin was that weekend and described it as “amazing.”
Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch also provided an update saying, “On Nov. 8, staff met by department to have collaborative time to design curriculum units… there are four professional development days over the course of the school year.” Superintendent Jill Proulx began her update by saying that there was a change to Massachusetts State law that added more steps that must be taken prior to suspension of students. She said that the administration team participated in a legal training pertaining to the change. Proulx said that the exemptions from the change include assault, possession of weapons, or the distribution of controlled substances. Committee member Jason Fraser noted that the change was an attempt to “try and stem the school to prison pipeline… a lot of the zero tolerance policies that were enacted in the 1990’s were suspending kids for non-violent infractions, non-drug related infractions. The more often a child becomes suspended from school, the higher likelihood that they are going to become court-involved and a larger portion of them incarcerated at some point in their lives.”

Proulx was asked about the influx of students coming into the district following the placement of migrant families in Kingston hotels in late October. She said the High School has two new students and the Middle School has three new students. Proulx said they were contacted by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education who said they may become eligible for a grant for up to $1,000 per student. “Sadly, it shouldn’t be a grant, the money should just follow where the students were brought into… there shouldn’t be any application process, there shouldn’t be any heavy lifting or light lifting on our shoulders,” Hatch said.
A report was given for each of the standing committees. Fraser provided the update for Administrative Review saying he would be reaching out to Proulx to start informal discussions for the Superintendent’s Review. Lukasz Kowalski gave the update for CTE saying that they have 22 students enrolled in a program where they work outside. He also said that the carpentry students built bookcases for the children’s room at the Plympton Library, trail kiosks for Kingston’s Conservation Department, picnic tables and a storage building for the Kingston Recreation Department, sandwich boards for the Kingston Garden Club, and storage boxes and picnic tables for the Pembroke Library. Kowalski also asked for the support of the Committee in opening a new CTE program in the school for IT. The Committee voted unanimously to support the motion. Proulx clarified that the soonest the new program could be rolled out would be FY 2025.
Fraser provided the Legislative Agent’s Report. “So, we had the gubernatorial election this year which means that the first version of the State budget could be delayed until early February. It will be House One this year as we are also entering into a new two-year legislative cycle so all bills that weren’t passed during the last legislative cycle have been referred to Committee… so currently there’s a blank slate. A slew of bills will be filed on January 3 when the next legislature is sworn in and takes their seats… so I’m currently guiding our State Representatives and Senators as to what bills they should be re-filing or supporting if they come back onto the table that would support our mission here at Silver Lake,” Fraser told the Committee. He also said that they had unanimous support from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) for their Regional School Assessment Stabilization Fund which would be under Chapter 40 and controlled by the town. “It would give a vehicle for municipalities in years where their assessment is lower than normal to put some of those dollars away for years where they might be hit with a higher assessment,” Fraser explained.
Fraser also provided the update for SAFER. “We had a successful tri-town meeting… we went over the Capital Plan for next year… our Capital Plan for FY24 is at $1.5 million and typically our Capital Plan, over the past 8 years or so, has hovered somewhere between $500,000 and $800,000.” He said that HVAC units for the High School as well as roof improvements account for over a half million dollars. Fraser also said that there was also $250,000 included to conduct survey work for turf fields or an athletic complex.

The Plympton Board of Selectmen met virtually on Monday, Dec.5. Chair of the Bylaw Review Committee Alan Wheelock appeared before the Board to review what the Committee has been working on as of late. He told the Selectmen that the town bylaws are now fully digitized. He said that they are accessible and “very searchable.” “I think it was a major step forward,” Wheelock said. “Kudos for the codification; it really changes the whole dynamic where any citizen can get their hands on any piece of information rather than hearsay… maybe we need to do a little bit better job of reminding our citizens that the information is there on the website,” Selectman Mark Russo said.
Wheelock next addressed what he said has been the major ongoing project of the Committee. He said that the Committee has been reviewing the groundwater overlay water protection district for the town. “We do have one,” Wheelock said. He elaborated saying, “I’ve never heard about it, and I’ve lived here for almost 50 years… it makes me wonder who has been watching it.”
Wheelock said that in reviewing the water protection district, the Committee spoke to three comparable towns who are all also fully dependent on well water. Those towns were Northfield, Rehoboth, and Rochester. Regarding Plympton, Wheelock said, “We have 1,000 households and every single one of those households is totally dependent on wells.” Of any necessary updates, Wheelock said, “We will take the rest of the winter to develop a recommendation for spring town meeting.” He said that the recommendation would most likely be to retain the existing bylaw with the three zones. Wheelock added, “we’re going to try and strengthen it and modernize it.”
Regarding the importance of the bylaw, Wheelock said that it provides more detail into potential ground pollution that can occur. He said that if an entity were to embark on a project that could potentially pollute the aquifer, they would need to appear before the Planning Board who would enforce the bylaw. He noted that in the past, there was a pollution of the aquifer that happened due to waste from the Middleborough dump. “We believe this is an important service to the town and we’re going to do our absolute best to make sure we bring a high-quality product to town meeting,” Wheelock said in closing.
Selectman John Traynor said he believes cranberry growers and certain businesses in town should have a say in the bylaw. “I want to make sure their voices are heard,” he told Wheelock. Wheelock assured him that they are taking the whole winter to work on it in order to make sure that they confer with all the necessary parties.
Town Administrator Liz Dennehy provided a brief update. She said that Plympton has received the $25,800 in grant funding from Community Compact. She also said that the budget process is underway.
Per tradition, the Selectmen ended the meeting with their raves for the last few weeks. Traynor said he had several raves noting, “there just seems to be a lot going on now that it’s holiday season.” The Plympton Police and Fire Departments prepared and served Thanksgiving meals for senior citizens at the Upland Club in November. He noted that State Senator Susan Moran attended the event. Traynor said he attended the Thanksgiving Feast at Dennett Elementary School with fellow Selectman Mark Russo. Regarding the event, Traynor said, “It’s fabulous – best event of the year… great to see the kids.” He also gave a rave for a local Daisy Troop who performed some Christmas caroling recently.
Russo said he had a couple of raves related to special town meeting. “Really impressed with the turnout… on a really stormy night,” he said. “The second portion of that is the unanimous vote to authorize the Turkey Swamp… it really speaks to the fundamental value all of us in this town really share for open space,” Russo said. Joy piggy-backed on Russo’s rave for the acquisition of Turkey Swamp, calling it a “labor of love” for all the groups that worked so hard to make it come to fruition. Joy provided a second rave for the Selectmen Assistant Bri Martins for all the work she puts into making sure all of the various licenses are ready for approval by the Selectmen.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, Nov. 22.
The Board also met with members of the Finance Committee for the appointment of two vacancies on the Committee. Both open terms expire in 2025. Frank Johnston told Selectmen that he was recently retired and had been attending meetings of various towns and committees to figure out what would be a good fit for him. He said that he spent 44 years managing a large environmental firm which familiarized him with bidding, contracts, operating budgets, labor, etc.
Jim Walters went before the Board next and told them that he and his wife moved from New Jersey two years ago. He said that he wanted to help after what happened with the resignations of the two Selectmen. He said that he checked a lot of boxes on the Talent Bank Form. Walters said he is the Director of Programs for State and Local Government for a cloud computing company and has extensive experience writing grants. The Selectmen voted to appoint both Johnston and Walters to the vacancies on the Finance Committee.
Chair John Bruno said they had received correspondence from the treasurer of the Halifax Mobile Home Estates. Bruno summarized the letter saying that for many years, the Mobile Home Estates had been fully occupied at 430 homes, however, that as of December of 2021 one of the homes was demolished in a house fire. They asked for the necessary changes to be made to the fees paid to the town.
Bruno requested of the other Selectmen that on one of the off Tuesdays per month, they establish Selectmen’s office hours where residents can come and discuss any concerns that they may have. The first Tuesday of every month was decided upon from the hours of 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and the third Tuesday of the month from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.. The first hour will be on Dec.6.
The Selectmen dealt with several recycling abatement requests including one for a home where a resident had passed away and the son didn’t realize he had to request an abatement. In the aforementioned case, the Selectmen voted in favor of abatement.
The Selectmen had an appointment with Steve Littlefield, who is the acting Veteran’s Agent. “He is now looking to fill the vacancy on a permanent basis; he has done a wonderful job on the Veteran’s ceremony,” Acting Town Administrator and Town Treasurer Sandy Nolan said. Littlefield was previously the Assistant Veteran’s Agent. Littlefield noted that he will soon be stepping down from active military service. The Selectmen voted unanimously to appoint him through June 30, 2023.
The Selectmen also met with Susan Hill, the Vice Chair of the Halifax Fireworks Committee. “We have decided to forgo our craft fair in December because of a lack of vendors,” Hill said. Hill said that they had been approached by someone requesting to be a multi-year sponsor of the fireworks display. She said they are considering doing a craft fair in the spring.
Council on Aging Director Darlene Regan met with the Selectmen as well regarding a few issues. Nolan said that Regan was hoping to hire a van driver at Step 4 rather than Step 1 due to the qualifications of the particular driver. Regan explained that they had lost drivers in the past due to the salary range. Regan said that the driver in question is GATRA qualified. The Board voted to hire the driver at Grade 2, Step 4.
Regan also requested that the receptionist title be changed to administrative assistant calling the former title “antiquated.” She also said that administrative assistant better suited the tasks being fulfilled by the role. Selig said if it was just a name change, then he saw no harm in it. His concern was if there was a grade change associated with the title change. The Selectmen passed a motion to change the job title name from receptionist to administrative associate. Regan also said that the Outreach Coordinator position is not truly defined as clearly as it should be, based on the community’s needs. She told the Selectmen that she rewrote the job description as Human Resource Service and Case Worker. Bruno asked if they could hire for a position that doesn’t exist yet in the bylaw. Nolan said she would need to propose the position to the Wage and Personnel at the public hearing in January and then it would need to be voted upon at town meeting. Bruno asked if he could take it under advisement so that he could gather more information before deciding.
The Selectmen also had an appointment with Municipal Environmental Law Attorney Richard Hucksam regarding a proposed condominium complex of 200 units on 25 acres. Hucksam, who is representing the town, said that Mass Housing wants the town to submit comments on the project. “At this point, in my view, the very best thing we can do is get from the various town boards and officials all the comments that we can about the project,” Hucksam said. Bruno asked if those contained abutter comments and was told that this was really for town officials to submit. Hucksam said that they would have a problem not going through the 40B process. Chapter 40B Housing is a Massachusetts program that enables developers to overrule local zoning bylaws in order to increase the number of affordable homes in certain municipalities. “Does our ZBA not have as much bargaining power because it is a 40B?” Selig asked. “In one sense it has less bargaining power because if you’re just dealing with zoning bylaw, it has criteria that have to be satisfied and that’s it unless there’s a variance granted and the variance standard is very strict under Mass law,” Hucksam said. He continued saying that 40B pits the local concerns against the need for affordable housing. “They’re going to be balanced against each other and that’s where the more the town can establish that there are real issues… during the hearing process the better position its in to have some kind of control over what the project ends up being,” he explained.
There was a conversation on the Building Inspector certification. “I’ll say that we have received several letters relating to this issue, I’m not going to read them all because some of them go on for four pages, but they will be part of our public record,” Bruno said. Bruno summarized the issue saying that they don’t have complete certification for the Building Inspector. “We’ve had a couple of concerned residents reach out wanting to point out to the Board that our Building Inspector had not received all of his… certifications yet. I spoke to Mr. Perry, our Building Inspector and he told me that it is in the works,” Selig said. He further said that they have on record an extension request from the Building Inspector. He said that the State would rule on the extension of time request. Bruno asked James Perry how close he was to being certified and was told that he needs to complete a fire test. Perry confirmed that taking that test would be enough to certify him as a local Building Inspector. He would need three more sets of tests to become Building Commissioner. Perry said they do have a Commissioner out of Bridgewater who signs certificates of occupancy alongside Perry. Perry said, “just for the record, my predecessor also received an extension of time.”
Bruno said that they received an email of a donation of land at 0 Hill St. to the town. “Maybe we can find a use for it someday,” Bruno said. The Board said they were in favor of adopting the small land parcel pending it passing at town meeting.
Selig provided an update on the Holidays in Halifax planning saying that traditionally it is the second Saturday in December. The plan is to have the event from roughly 4 pm to 8 pm on December 10. He said that there would be an ice sculpture, hayrides, Silver Lake carolers, and food trucks. There will also be balloon animals, jumpy houses, and Santa.
The Selectmen also dealt with a complaint of an open meeting law violation at one of the Selectmen meetings that were run when just Selig was at the helm on October 25. The complaint stated that he accepted meeting minutes from the October 11 meeting without a quorum. Town Counsel recommended that the two new Selectmen watch the recording of the meeting and then approve the meeting minutes.