The Halifax Elementary School Committee met on Monday, March 4. Superintendent Jill Proulx presented the Version III FY’ 25 budget to the Committee. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) mandated that Silver Lake address what they saw as long -standing structural issues in the way the regional agreement was implemented and as a result the budgets for the three elementary schools and Silver Lake look different than years’ past. Some of the changes over the previous year were that Pre-K will now be a Silver Lake expense, Silver Lake positions in the elementary schools will now become school/town employees, and out-of-district special education tuitions for Pre-K and secondary will also be Silver Lake expenses. Shared-cost positions will now be paid according to percentages in the updated regional agreement. Proulx noted that multiple legal opinions were consulted and agreed on the new agreement.
Changes from the Version II to Version III budgets include removing Pre-K out-of- district tuitions at a savings of $215,990, special education transportation adjustment at a savings of $120,934, special education tuition adjustment of minus $609, and a 240 grant allocation at a savings of $37,205.
Version III of the budget represents a regular day increase of 15 percent or $937,694. Special education tuition and transportation for Grades K through 6 represent a decrease of $2,781,192. Laws said she was concerned about the 15 percent regular day increase even if the overall budget represented a decrease. Proulx also told the Committee that there was one known retirement for FY’ 25. For out of district vocational, Proulx said there would be five placements. She said that they won’t know the exact numbers until April 1.
Regarding what was not included in the updated budget, Proulx said that potential enrollment increases, especially for kindergarten were not updated. A reduction in technology expenditures of $40,571 was not yet reflected. The reduction will be courtesy of a REAP grant.
Proulx also shared with the Committee a draft of the assessments for each of the three towns. Halifax’s share of the assessment in FY’ 24 was $5,582,257 and the FY’ 25 share is $8,918,067. The decrease, however, for Halifax Elementary School in the town’s operating budget is nearly 20 percent. The overall cost to Halifax for education, including Silver Lake regional, is a 10 percent increase. The cost of education to Halifax in FY’24 was $14,858,409 and the cost for FY’ 25 will be $16,350,721.
Proposed costs added to the current version of the budget include a special education teacher at a cost of $65,000, a part-time ESL teacher at a cost of $32,000, and a building substitute at no additional cost. Capital needs for FY’ 25 include water testing and plumbing, student and staff bathroom updates, and bleacher replacements for the gym. The plan for the gym bleachers is to put them on a warrant article at Town Meeting at a cost of $45,000. Regarding a Hero Academy Program proposed by Principal Kayne Beaudry during the last School Committee meeting, Laws said, “I just feel like, at this point, we can’t do anything beyond a level-budget except for the building substitute that doesn’t cost anything. I don’t see how we can entertain anything beyond a level budget especially since we are looking at cuts right now. It’s sad, but it’s where we are.” Proulx pointed out that Kingston does need the ESL teacher and that Halifax may need to look at cutting $32,000 to make space for it. “That would be a civil rights violation if you didn’t fund it,” Proulx said. Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch said that contracting the services rather than filling the position could end up costing considerably more than $32,000.
The School Committee voted to ask the Board of Selectmen to push back the timeframe for Town Meeting due to unknowns as well as lingering questions surrounding the school’s budget. Laws pointed out that overall enrollment at both the elementary level as well as Silver Lake Regional are down. She asked what cuts to classrooms might look like. Proulx said, “I think that you would be better served by giving us a dollar amount that you want us to cut, by then asking us to deliberate here in open session.” The dollar amount that was suggested by Town Administrator Cody Haddad for both Halifax Elementary and Silver Lake Regional is $1 million. The Committee came to the consensus that they should attempt to cut their portion of Halifax’s enrollment in Silver Lake which is roughly 32 percent. Proulx said that they would set about cutting $320,000 with the cuts labeled by tiers.
Proulx said that a Plympton School Committee member asked that a new agreement with PAC (Pilgrim Area Collaborative) be presented to the Halifax School Committee. “I’m asking the School Committee to review it and ultimately each school committee would review it and then the Chair would sign it,” she explained. Chair Lauren Laws asked if there was a timeframe and was told it had to be signed by April 30. The Committee agreed to table it until their April 1 meeting.
The issue of whether to distribute natural gas safety materials flyers to students came before the Committee. While not directly an advertisement, the name Eversource does appear throughout the flyer. Included in the distribution would be packets that actually smell like natural gas so students can learn to identify the scent. A Committee member asked if, instead, the information could be disseminated during the Fire Department visit rather than as a flyer promoting a company. Laws voted against distributing the flyer, but the rest of the Committee voted in favor and it passed.
The Committee also discussed advertising on school grounds as a result of a 100 days sign that was put up which shared a QR code. I thought the sign was really nice; it was just the QR code that was questionable, Laws said. Laws asked Beaudry if he attempted to take it down and he said they tried to find out where it came from and called it a “mistake.” Laws said that it was the QR code specifically that violated policy.
An update was given for the DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) Subcommittee. Lori Costa-Cline said they were looking to bring on a DEIB coordinator and asked Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch if he could help them with that. Costa-Cline asked Lynch, “What is the process, so we have school policies and district policies so if a school/district policy is violated, how does that interact with the student handbook in terms of like policy violations… the understanding, I think, we both have is we have school policies which gives our school community rights, protections, while they’re in the space of the school… if a violation happens, is there corrective action?” Proulx said that it depends on what is found during the investigation. If bullying is found, then the procedure for that is followed, if harassment is found, then that procedure is followed, etc. Putting it succinctly she said that necessary protocols are followed depending on what could be substantiated.
Beaudry provided a Principal’s Report. He said that School Council met on February 28 with the main focus being handbook revisions. He said a draft proposal would be shared with the Committee during the April 1 meeting. “The water issue, we just sent a notice out today, we’ve been doing monthly updates… so this was the third round of testing that we’ve done and we did find that there were still elevated areas in the building.” He said that they have been flushing the system every day beginning at 5:30 a.m. due to the high lead levels. “That has shown that it does reduce the levels,” Beaudry said. He also said that they have been working on replacing fixtures where the levels continue to be high.
Curriculum Coordinator Melissa Farrell appeared before the Committee to address some concerns over handwriting. She handed out the Committee a printout that included some of the Massachusetts’ frameworks connected to handwriting. She said that the art of handwriting starts in kindergarten with hand strength and noted that they use occupational cards to work on that aspect. She said they spend a minimum of 20 minutes a day working on that type of development. She said they continue to work on letter formation, etc. in first grade, but by second grade there is no official handwriting instruction. “Part of that comes from the idea that just consistent letter formation, letters start from the top, letters start from the top,” Farrell said. Committee member Jessica Page acknowledged that she was the person who brought forth the concern saying that her two young school-aged children (Grades K and 2) are struggling with it and are not appearing to get the instruction outlined by Farrell. “I’m scared that we are cheating our children by moving them past these basic skills too fast,” she said. Beaudry acknowledged that they even see fourth, fifth, and sixth graders that aren’t able to use proper capitalization, etc. He said that himself and the Assistant Principal are aware and talking about what needs to be done in the lower grades to address these issues.