The Halifax Elementary School Committee met on the evening of Tuesday, January 3. Chair Summer Schmaling began by opening things up for public participation. Kathleen Berry of Highland Circle began her remarks by thanking the School Committee for their time and dedication. She said she was there to speak on behalf of substitute and long-term substitute wages as she has been employed as both at Halifax Elementary. “Substitution teachers, they’re not babysitters,” she said stressing their myriad of responsibilities. Berry also said that special education suffers when a sub cannot be secured since a paraprofessional would normally need to step-in to fill the role. She said that after everything was taken into consideration, the positions end up receiving less than minimum wage.
Superintendent Jill Proulx said, “You may recall that last spring, I recommended that we consider changing the long-term sub rate to paying the long-term subs Bachelor Step 1 starting day 1 and to not wait the 21 days.” She continued, “Given the fact that we have had some difficulty attracting candidates for long-term sub positions, I’m asking the Committee to consider this change.” Committee member Lauren Laws suggested that people could be enticed to fill the positions if they were told that there was potential to be hired to a full-time open position. The administrators in the room pushed back on this idea explaining that there were issues from a budgetary and qualifications perspective. The Committee did vote to move the long-term sub rate to Bachelor Step 1 on day one of the position.
Proulx also addressed the rate for regular substitutes. “I believe we have, as Katie [Kathleen Berry] mentioned, an issue here with making sure that we are meeting minimum wage and we have proposed moving from $95 to $107… this would bring us to $16.07 per hour.” she told the Committee. Proulx also said that this same rate change was recently approved by the Plympton School Committee. It was explained that they wanted to make sure the rate was high enough to be competitive but not so high that it was more than what was being paid to permanent positions such as paraprofessionals. The Committee voted to increase the rate as proposed by Proulx.
A report of standing committees was given. For PTO, it was said that the last meeting mainly revolved around preparations for the mingle and jingle event. “It was great, we tried to incorporate several different religious holidays into the celebrations with crafts and decorations,” Karyn Townsend explained. She also said that the position of president was still open. Schmaling noted that Union 31 met in a joint meeting that included all the department heads. She noted that school start times were discussed briefly as was the school calendar.
Principal Kayne Beaudry provided a brief Principal’s report. He said he wanted to recognize that three babies had been born to school staff between December through January. He said that all are doing well. He also acknowledged the retirement of long-time teacher Linda Mullin.
Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch provided an update on the way the student survey would be utilized this year. “The purpose of surveying our students is to ensure we are meeting every student’s needs and also evaluate the progress of our social and emotional learning curriculum,” he explained. He said that parents would have the opportunity to opt out of having their student participate in the survey. Laws said that given “recent tragedies” she felt that these surveys were vital as they ask questions about feelings and whether students feel that they have someone to confide in about those feelings. “You just never know what goes on in someone’s head and I hope that students feel comfortable answering honestly,” she said.
Superintendent Jill Proulx provided an update saying that they had a training session with building administrators with an attorney regarding changes to student discipline under MA general laws. The changes include additional steps to be taken before a suspension is considered lawful. Exceptions include infractions that involve assault or weapons charges. Of the changes, Proulx said, “It’s part of a larger mental health concern and also recognizing when students drop out of school, they are more likely to become a problem in society and more likely to become in trouble with the law, so this is a way to force schools to think about alternatives to suspension.”
Proulx also shared with the Committee a preliminary budget presentation. “We always look at what our academic and developmental needs are for our students. We look at trying to maintain class sizes and the structures necessary for effective instruction… we also like to be mindful and considerate and respond to the fiscal conditions of the town,” Proulx said. She also told the Committee that they looked at what would be necessary to level fund services.
Proulx explained some assumptions that were built into the budget including estimating Circuit Breaker at 70 percent. The regular day preliminary budget represents an increase of 5.25 percent or an increase of $315,177. Special education, tuition, and transportation reflect a decrease of 4.27 percent. The total budget is an increase of 2.21 percent or $192,071 over last year’s budget. “That is to maintain our current programming and staffing,” Proulx told the Committee. She did note, however, that there were some additional staffing requests that Principal Beaudry would address.
Regarding enrollment, Beaudry said that he anticipates that number to decrease with the outgoing sixth grade class and the incoming kindergarten class. Beaudry noted that there was a 16 percent increase in custodial supplies and an 11 percent increase in building supplies. He also addressed proposed costs above the level service budget. Included in those costs is an instrumental music position which was also proposed last year. He said that Halifax Elementary is the only elementary school without an instrumental music program. “That puts Halifax students at a significant disadvantage when they get to the Middle School and High School,” Beaudry said. He said that through a grant last year, they were able to move the math interventionist position from a part-time to a full-time one. He noted that the grant funding would run out in 2024. Another requested position was a shared cost position of a second elementary level curriculum coordinator for the district. There were some building maintenance requests including updated flooring and air conditioning for the fifth and sixth grade classrooms upstairs.
“Currently we have five Halifax students who are receiving English language learner services and currently the way that we provide services because we have so few students who need these services, these services are provided by a Kingston English as a second language learner teacher… Halifax reimburses Kingston’s schools’ operating budget,” Proulx told the Committee. She said that the money comes out of the teaching line. She also said that while they anticipate the number will be similar in the coming year, it can be difficult to anticipate.
Regarding next steps for the second round of the budget, the Committee requested that administrators look into funding the full-time math interventionist position in the long-term. They also requested that the administrators list out the building improvements in order of priority. Schmaling thanked the administrative team for coming to them with a reasonable budget increase.
Proulx also presented the Committee with a calendar for the 2023 to 2024 school year. She said that barring any major number of snow days, the last day of school would be June 12. Townsend brought up a concern that the Chair of the Silver Lake Regional School Committee had regarding changing the names of certain days off or vacations to no longer reflect specific religious holidays, etc. Schmaling said that she was not interested in having that conversation. Townsend made a motion to update the calendar to change Good Friday to No School Day as well as to add the open houses to the calendar. The motion failed in a tie.