Deb Anderson
Express staff
Plympton Board of Selectmen met Monday, May 22, and gave the results of Town Counsel Greg Corbo’s opinion as to who has the authority to site the well in the new, proposed town complex. The well will serve the police station, the new fire station, and the library. It will not serve the Town House, which has its own well in the basement of the building.
Plympton selectmen, the Board of Health, and Jon Wilhelmsen of the Town Properties Committee met earlier in May to discuss siting the well for DEP approval and there was some question as to where the final authority lay. At the request of Selectman Chairman Christine Joy and Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy, Plympton sought the advice of Town Counsel to properly delineate the roles and responsibilities associated with siting the well at the new Town Complex.
Dennehy pointed out that it does not include the well at the Town House, whose issues the Board of Health is working on with the Department of Environmental Protection; it only includes the new well that will serve the Town Complex.
Corbo’s letter to the board in part states that the authority to site the well belongs to the Town Properties Committee as representatives of the Board of Selectmen. The new well, a small public water system, serving the fire station and library, will need to be approved by the DEP, but the siting for the well rests with the Board of Selectmen and/or its designees, and also noted that the Board of Health does not have the authority to override the decisions of the Board of Selectmen.
Responding to Joy’s question as to whether the ruling is clear, Selectman Traynor said, “Absolutely. I think it is about as clear as you can get.”
In other business, selectmen appointed Sean Fitzgerald as a part-time police officer as recommended by Chief Matt Ahl. They also approved the use of the Deborah Sampson Meeting Room for a cooking demonstration with samples, for June 8, at 6 p.m., approximately 20 people will be attending. The Board of Health has already granted their approval. It will be put on by the Plympoton Public Library, featuring Chef Thomas Mottl of RTC Network, Pawtucket, RI.
Under correspondence, Russo read a letter to the board from Nancy Denman on Ring Road, concerning the MBTA Housing Mandate forced on Massachusetts cities and towns. She went on to say that she was at the meeting at the library where State Senator Susan Moran was asked by Russo what Moran could do to support small towns in their quest to retain control over their character and community. Denman said that she felt Moran’s answer was “disappointing.” Denman asked Russo to communicate with other towns in similar situations and form a united front to fight the mandate.
Russo responded to Denman’s letter by saying that “I think it’s deeply challenging that the attorney general has opined that we put ourselves in legal peril if we don’t move forward.” One of the good things, he continued, is that the next step will have to be approved by town meeting. Any action taken between now and June 1 could potentially leave Plympton in peril without accomplishing anything. “The tenor of that letter, I totally agree with.” Russo furthered that the purpose of this legislation is excellent, encouraging more use of the MBTA, but it is not in tune with the times. It is absolutely blind to the unusual situation – that of small towns.
Traynor responded that he agreed with Russo’s remarks, but he wanted to be careful in Plympton’s response. Traynor noted that there is a meeting being put together with representatives from the towns. “I think we should go forward and make our concerns known, and I think that based on what I saw, it felt like everybody’s coming from the same place – that it’s unfair and doesn’t really help because small towns, really don’t have – especially like Plympton – we really don’t have the acreage.” Traynor said that he just wants to be cautious as we go forward.
Joy said that all the selectmen have expressed their support for affordable housing but it needs to be in a manner consistent with the town that we can support with the services that we offer.
Raves – Traynor shared with his board that Jackie Freitas asked to give a shout-out to the Silver Lake Regional High School graduate signs that are popping up on Plympton lawns. Also a rave to the townspeople’s response to the Pay as you Throw program. “Really, we have not had any major pushback – not even minor pushback – so a rave to the townspeople, the highway department, the transfer station …” Final comment – poor showing at the polls. He said he was disappointed that with over 2,000 registered voters we couldn’t get at least 10 percent.

The Halifax Elementary School Committee met on Monday, May 8. Chair Summer Schmaling pointed out that the Committee would be different when meeting next after the election. The Committee is not scheduled to meet again until their closeout meeting in July.
Superintendent Jill Proulx began her update by saying, “First, I’d like to thank our Chairperson Summer Schmaling for her years of dedication to Halifax Elementary Schools and Silver Lake Regional School District will certainly recognize you at our upcoming Silver Lake meeting as well. Summer has served our District and our School and has volunteered her time for the betterment of students throughout our community and we have enjoyed working with her and we are certainly going to miss her leadership and her dedication.” Schmaling said, “Well thank you for all of you, you’ve been a wonderful team to work for and with; it makes this role a lot easier and more enjoyable when you enjoy the people that you are working with.”
Schmaling opened the meeting to public participation. Silver Lake Regional School District’s Director of Human Resources Dave Turcotte spoke regarding increasing the step rate and corresponding wages for substitute custodians and substitute food services employees. The Committee voted unanimously to make the change.
Principal Kayne Beaudry told the Committee that they are looking to add a second DLC classroom (Developmental Learning Center). The current classroom serves the fourth grade who will be next year’s fifth grade. The proposed classroom will serve grades K-2 which has a current cohort of five. Schmaling said that she assumed that they would need teachers for the classroom. Administrator of Special Education Marie Grable explained, “To explain, in terms of the financing, Halifax is currently paying a tuition rate for those students to attend KES… and transportation.” Schmaling asked if the extra classroom was contingent upon them being able to fill the positions to staff the classroom. “The reality is, we’re in the same situation no matter which town the program resides in, so in other words, if our Halifax students remain in KES, we will need to hire another teacher at KES because the numbers are at a point right now, we’re it’s not sustainable. So, we’re either opening a third classroom at KES or opening an elementary classroom here, so either way we need to be hiring a teacher.” Grable clarified that it was one teacher and two paraprofessionals. She added that they would also like to add a 0.5 speech language therapist.
Committee member Lauren Laws asked, “Is there ever a crossover like can the specialists there help with the other students in the building if needed or if there is space?” Grable said, “Here, yes, absolutely, because it will be a Halifax program working with all Halifax students so absolutely this therapist and staff could work anywhere they were assigned which is not the case in Kingston because it is a Silver Lake program.” Schmaling asked if for this year it would be a cost savings to Halifax or if it would be a “wash-out.” Grable responded that for this year it would be a wash-out. Schmaling asked about the possibility of one of the classrooms absorbing the other in the future should the numbers change. Grable said they are required to follow a rule that does not allow for students with greater than a 48-month age difference to be together. The Committee did vote to approve the additional classroom.
Curriculum Coordinator Melissa Farrell attended the meeting to provide an update on the science curriculum. “The State is in a bit of flux with science in terms of how they are viewing it and they’re looking to update the MCAS and so it is time to move on from what we adopted… in the 2015/2016 time… because that curriculum is out of date, but we also don’t want to make any rash decisions.” She said that the interactive science lessons are being updated to a new version called Elevate Science. She also said that they planned to adopt Mystery Science of which she said it would “try and create more of a consistent guaranteed science experience for all of our students K-5.” Farrell also called it user friendly and said it would allow some flexibility for the teachers.
Farrell said that they are starting a transition in sixth grade that would move them more toward a phenomenon-based science curriculum that she said would better align with what is done at the Middle School. “We need any and every opportunity we can give our kids for accessing nonfiction texts and so using a digital resource is an easy way to do that. So, Newsela is a great resource. It’s dynamic, it updates, it adds more resource on a daily basis.” She said that it is easily searchable and that it identifies students’ reading levels and updates accordingly. She further said that it was a nice addition to Mystery Science which is more hands-on.