The Halifax Elementary School Committee met on Monday, Oct. 7. Chairman of the Ballot Committee to support the Community Preservation Act (CPA), Candy Kniffen, presented to the Committee. She explained, “Halifax is the only town in the region that has not enrolled in the Community Preservation Act… what the Community Preservation Act does is it allows communities to put money aside for specific areas – one is historical preservation, one is open space and recreation, and one is affordable housing.” She said that while there is an assessment that the town pays, there are also “generous” abatements available.
Kniffen, who said that all of her children went to Silver Lake schools and she served on the school committee at one time, asked to speak to the benefit of the CPA for the schools. She said that there are historical projects that could be completed with the funding that would be able to be utilized by the students in town. She also said that replacement of playground equipment or expansion of the existing playground would also be eligible for CPA funding. “Quite frankly, we don’t see a downside to this and when it comes to the schools, we think they could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the CPA funding,” Kniffen explained. She said that there is a myriad of information on their website and Facebook page.
Committee Chair Lauren Laws asked what the 1.5 percent assessment would equal in terms of funds available. Kniffen said that it would be based on the average home price in Halifax of $511,000 and would total around $250,000 raised at the local level, not counting what the State would contribute. School Committee member Lori Costa-Cline said she has heard from critics of the CPA that it was a way to funnel money toward housing projects as ten percent of the funding is mandated to be set aside for housing. She asked who makes the determination of which projects are chosen and was told that Town Meeting would make those decisions. Kniffen said that regarding housing, the CPA gives the town total control of how to spend the funds and said that they also encourage the reuse of existing buildings over new construction.
Laws said that she has also heard that they could build a senior center with the funding. Kniffen said that she was sure that the town would have one by now if they had enrolled in 2000. Costa-Cline said, “I think that the timing is unfortunate because… this is a worthwhile project… but everyone is so tight and stretched and at their limit, so you’re dealing with that… the MBTA Affordable Housing project… there’s a lot of mish-mashed of misinformation and everything getting lumped together. I think that people should look into what the benefits are… I hope people will look at the long view and not look at the short.” Kniffen said that it is unfortunate that there is misinformation confusing the CPA with the MBTA Communities initiative. She also reiterated that the decisions as to how to spend the funding would be in the hands of the town.
Regionalization
Discussion
Laws told the Committee that Costa-Cline asked that a full regionalization discussion be added to that evening’s agenda. “We all consider ourselves part of Silver Lake even though Halifax School Committee is its own separate entity… but I think we all recognize that there needs to be some symmetry in the way that the elementary school committees do things,” she explained. She said that budget season really highlights the need for full regionalization.
Superintendent Jill Proulx said, “so there’s a community compact efficiency and regionalization grant. Last year this Committee voted to support the town of Halifax looking into that grant. Last year, Kingston applied for that grant. Kingston School Committee also voted to look into that grant. What that grant would allow us to do for the town is to look into the pros and cons, the benefits and perhaps, the downsides of full regionalization.” Proulx said that two out of the three communities support looking into full regionalization. “The majority of regionalized school districts are fully regionalized,” Proulx said. Laws pointed out that it felt a bit disjointed to have the schools regionalized for Pre-K, not regionalized for K-6, and then regionalized for 7-12.
Costa-Cline said she would like to ask the town to apply for the grant and also said that she would like to see regionalization be a standing agenda item moving forward. Laws said that she was in agreement. The Committee voted unanimously to ask the town to support the grant application.
Prize Distribution as Part of Fundraising
A member of the Committee proposed a change to policy to stop giving out individual prizes to students based on how much they personally have fundraised. A representative from Boosterthon spoke to the Committee saying that it was his job to tailor the fundraising efforts to each individual community. “Of course, Booster, over the last twenty years have seen that when you do individual prizes and students are motivated to go home and talk to their parents, that’s when the fundraising is at it’s highest level,” he said. Laws said she would rather leave it up to the PTO to figure out the prize piece.
Sub Committee and
Administrative Updates
Costa-Cline provided an update on the Pilgrim Area Collaborative. She said that right now there are 112 students in the day program and a little over 100 in the extended services program. The Executive Director offered a tour to anyone on the Board that is interested in seeing the program. They are applying to be a service provider to students 22-30 years old as right now they are only able to provide services through 21 years of age.
Principal Kayne Beaudry introduced new Assistant Principal Kristy Luperon. He told the Committee she has been doing a great job. He also provided an update on the bus routes since dropping from ten to eight buses. He said that they haven’t seen any changes with the numbers for parent pickup and drop off and said they are comparable with last year’s. He did say that they may have seen a slight uptick in children biking to school. He also compared bus misconduct slips and said that they haven’t seen any more problems as compared to last year. He said the adjustment to new bus stops for families has been the biggest issue. He also provided an update on enrollment saying they were at 532 and the kindergarten class is 82 students.
Proulx provided an update. She said that homeschool enrollment for Halifax for Grades K-6 went up from 11 last year to 17 this year. A decline was seen at the 7-12 grade level. She said the overall enrollment population hasn’t been changing much with a slight increase seen for Halifax at the elementary level.
Proulx asked the School Committee what they would like to see from administration in their preliminary budget. Laws said she would like to see a level services budget as well as potential places in the budget for cost savings. She referred to the cost savings of going from ten buses to eight as she said it had a significant impact on the budget while causing minimal disruption for students. Costa-Kline recommended having a prioritized list of budget wants/needs. Laws said that her priority would be to add back staff.