The Silver Lake Regional School Committee met on Thursday, May 16 for their final meeting before their closeout in July.
A Halifax resident spoke during the public participation portion of the meeting. “There are three specific areas I would like to talk to you about – ongoing failure to provide a safe learning environment for my son… the effect it has had on our child and our family… and recent retaliatory responses by your administration on my child,” he said. The resident said that his family felt they were dealing with bullying, but said that Silver Lake Regional Middle School Principal Becky Couet said, “there’s only been one formal case of bullying during her tenure.” He said that information was misrepresented including where a teacher was in relation to their son during an assault. He said that his son was “incredibly reluctant” to engage with the school regarding the bullying. The resident said, “he knew it wouldn’t help, he would be labeled a snitch – an outcast, and the teachers and administrations would turn against him. Sadly he was right.” The resident and father said that the chain of events eventually led to his child engaging in self-harm. He said that his son was harassed “physically, emotionally, and mentally.”
“The school entertained our correspondence, however no plan to help (his son) rejoin the student community or take steps to look at his well-being going forward were taken,” he explained. He continued, “In short, we had a document called a safety plan written for very specific antagonists and specific actions, but that was the extent. It was also unclear and often proven that classroom teachers weren’t aware of what was happening.” He said that his son has since been implicated in two different incidents which the school claimed had him in the wrong. The first incident involved what was deemed “inappropriate touching” and involved a brief touch on the back of another student. He said that the investigations into these incidents were in stark contrast to the ones held in regard to the bullying against his son. He said that to his family’s knowledge their son had had no prior disciplinary incidents with the school. “He’s gone through a terrible year and we have advocated fiercely on his behalf. It’s odd that now for the first time ever he’s been implicated in uncharacteristic disciplinary investigations. One can see a high degree of correlation here and even draw causation,” he explained. He said he has spoken with many other families whose students have suffered similar situations. He pointed out that the average teacher salary at Silver Lake is far greater than the average salary of a Kingston, Halifax, or Plympton resident and said those teachers should be held more accountable.
Committee Chair Paula Hatch thanked him for coming in and having such thoughtful remarks. “Bullying and such is nothing this Committee condones,” she said. She asked if the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) had been contacted and was told that they had. Superintendent Jill Proulx said that she couldn’t share the details of that investigation with the Committee during open session. Hatch promised the parent that she would respond back to him after digesting the information.
Sarah Hickey gave an update on the bids received for the CTE overhead door project. It was explained that it isn’t simply a garage door but rather “a pretty extensive project” involving the rebuilding of the steel frame around the door as well. Hickey said she asked the Emergency Response Team for the High School regarding the current doors, “If the doors were open and the building were to go into a lockdown, is this going to need ten minutes to shut the door – is that a concern and the answer back was yes.” The two doors needing replacement are in metal fab and automotive. The Committee voted to change the budgeted amount for the two doors from roughly $181,000 to $201,000. Committee member Gordon Laws asked if it was over the capabilities of the CTE students to build the doors and was told that it definitely was outside of their scope.
CTE Director Elliot Glass spoke to the Committee regarding a carpentry project. “We have a great project that we’re recommending that we’ve been working with the customer on; I previewed this quickly with our CTE Sub-Committee last time we sat together in April; I did share the plans and the application with Paula [Hatch]… this project is within walking distance of the High School,” Glass explained. He said that it is a two-car garage with a mudroom built off the side of a single family home. “All of the pieces that we looked at to evaluate from course curriculum to the scope of work, safety considerations, travel and location, customer readiness were all very high… so it’s a great project,” Glass said.
The principals both gave updates. Couet presented the school improvement plan which the Committee voted to approve. She also presented a learning update thanking the curriculum coordinator in particular. She said that they utilize STAR testing for an assessment specifically in English/Language Arts. It is computer adaptive which means that students get moved to higher levels as they answer questions correctly. She said that the meeting grade level expectations went up from fall to spring. She did note that the exceeding expectations category was going up for math, but not ELA. She said that the school was working on cross- curriculum assessments and assignments between ELA and social studies.
High School Principal Michaela Gill said that they spent the first half of the school year as a faculty analyzing student MCAS scores and “really breaking down where do they perform well and what are areas that we need to help our students improve.” Gill said that common assessments were administered in ELA across all four grades targeting multiple standards. She said that while they were falling short in meeting or exceeding expectations in several standards in the fall, they have since made improvements in achieving those goals. She said that they would continue to work toward improving things further through professional development, student interventions, and other means. She also shared math updates including growth in students meeting or exceeding expectations in algebra.
Student representative Connor Doyle, who will be attending Assumption College in the fall, recapped student activity for one final time. He said that students enjoyed spring spirit week following April vacation which included soccer mom and barbeque dad day. He said that the AP government mock election took place between the breakfast sandwich and the French toast stick with the latter coming out on top. He also acknowledged many upcoming events including graduation and prom. He said that the class of 2028 would be coming to the High School for step up day. He thanked the Committee for allowing him to serve as their student representative.
Hatch told everyone in attendance, “We have a budget for next year, all three towns – hard fought, was not an easy process. I want to thank the taxpayers for supporting the budget… I want to thank this Committee for everything you did this year to get us to this point, it was a brutal year… I want to thank the SLEA for putting your heads together… having said all that, I want to thank everyone at this table… and everyone who had a hand in this administratively.”
There was a lengthy conversation about hiring additional staff to ensure that Silver Lake doesn’t miss deadlines, etc. per the required corrective action plan that came about due to an audit from DESE. Someone asked what would happen if they were to miss a deadline in the future and Hickey said they could withdraw federal grants from Silver Lake. Committee member Jason Fraser said, “I would like to see them try.” He said they would support Hickey were they to miss a deadline, etc.
Superintendent Jill Proulx provided an update saying that negotiations for several key positions within the District were underway. She said the only one that could be announced that evening was the new Assistant Director of Student Services Elizabeth MacKay. “Elizabeth is an experienced school psychologist and special education administrator,” Proulx said. She also said that they are in the process of hiring a new Athletic Director.
Fraser provided the Legislative Agent’s report. According to Fraser the House budget came through for Silver Lake “quite a bit.” He credited Representative Kathy LaNatra for the record high $104 per pupil minimum increment in the House budget which had previously been set at $30 by the Governor. Fraser said that this would help the town of Halifax, in particular.
Fraser also thanked Senator Bruce Tarr saying he was named the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) Legislator of the Year. Fraser said that Tarr put in quite a few amendments to be debated including one to fully fund regional transportation. Another is to increase the per pupil increment to $125 per student. Yet another amendment is to get the inflation index from 1.35 up to 4.5 percent with provisions for catch-up years coming in the future. Fraser said that Circuit Breaker is fully funded at 75 percent for tuition and transportation. “MASC was the organization calling for that and the Senate listened and it’s in the budget already,” he told the Committee. One of the Committee members commented on how lucky Silver Lake Regional School Committee is to have Fraser who works to get money not just for Silver Lake but for the entire State. This comment was met with applause.