The Halifax School Committee met on Monday, Feb. 5. Chair Lauren Laws called the public budget hearing to order, but no one wished to speak.
Superintendent Jill Proulx gave a presentation on Version 2 of the budget. “You may recall in the last meeting, the School Committee wanted to know what impact it would have if, in fact, we worked into this budget a number of positions that were recommended or requested but that hadn’t been included in the level-services budget,” she told the Committee. She went over some changes from the previous year including that Pre-K is now a Silver Lake expense. Silver Lake special education positions in the elementary schools will now need to become school and town positions. Special education revolving accounts will no longer be necessary. Shared-costs positions will now be paid according to regional agreement percentages.
Increases to the Halifax budget include five paraprofessionals and five full-time speech language pathologists. The shared cost contracts represent nearly a 4 percent increase at $12,789. Decreases to the budget include grant funding covering out-of-district tuitions. Major changes to the Version 2 budget include custodial overtime at an additional $10k, fuel surcharge around a $5k savings, principal requests from the January meeting at plus $112k, and the circuit breaker estimate at a savings of approximately $605k. The regular day budget represents a 16 percent increase of $402,600. The special education and transportation budget represents an 86 percent decrease of $2,381,453. Substitutes and utilities represent a 16 percent decrease of $1,473,784. Most of the increases represent staffing and payroll.
The proposed increases to the Version 2 budget included a part time ESL teacher at a cost of $32,000. “This position would allow for our students to receive the appropriate amount of services as recommended by DESE,”(Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) Proulx said. Also requested was the addition of a building substitute. Another proposal was for Hero Academy which would serve approximately 60 students over the summer and would cost $10k to $15k. It would target at-risk students who are partially meeting expectations as identified by STAR and MCAS testing. Regarding Hero Academy, Beaudry said they are proposing mixed classrooms of two grades each (Grades 1 and 2, Grades 3 and 4, and Grades 5 and 6). Staffing would include three classroom teachers at $4,500, three support staff at $3,600, one site coordinator at $1,800, one nurse at $1,500, and 1 office secretary at $1,200. The program would run for two weeks in August from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and would focus on mathematics and ELA. Committee members asked if staffing would be an issue, but Beaudry felt strongly that it would not. The teachers in attendance at the meeting confirmed that they would be willing to work it. The Committee questioned if the program would need both a site coordinator and a secretary. They also questioned whether support staff was necessary for the pilot year.
Capital needs and accomplishments were also presented. For FY24 these included water testing and plumbing, student and staff bathroom updates, kindergarten playground and mulch, and asphalt completion. For FY25, the bathroom updates would continue as would the water testing and plumbing. Additionally, the gym bleachers need to be replaced at a cost of approximately $45k.
The Committee reviewed their goals which included “continuous improvement in academic success of students that is measurable, data driven, and supports teachers’ abilities to educate.” Laws also said that they would be looking to improve the number of students receiving proficient MCAS scores as well as seeking opportunities to close achievement gaps. Also included was the desire to communicate and work with all stakeholders. There was some discussion about editing the goal pertaining to MCAS. The Committee agreed to change the language to “improve standardized testing performance.”
Youth and Recreation provided an update. Basketball, both recreational and travel, has been going on seven full days a week, all evening during the weekdays and all day long on Saturdays and Sundays. Adult co-ed volleyball is also taking place on Sundays and the public is welcome to attend. Three after school programs are going strong including art, sports, and STEM. The Director of the Halifax Youth and Recreation Department Richard Steele said he wanted to give a big shout out to all the teachers who are supporting the various activities. Steele was also seeking approval to put pickleball court lines in the gym as well as adding new bleachers into the capital plan. The bleachers are currently 30 years old and in rough shape. Steele wishes to start dances back up in March with the intention to split fifth and sixth grade due to chaperone needs and behaviors.
The PTO update included that teachers had donated four baskets for the Mingle and Jingle. Square One art is coming back as a fundraiser.
Kayne Beaudry provided the principal’s report. He said that Student Council met on Jan. 31. He said that the focus of those meetings is to scale back the handbook with the updated one being ready for review in April. He called it a “big overhaul.” Regarding the water issue, Beaudry said they received the results and were meeting that week with the company that handled the testing, the Town Administrator, Proulx, Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch, and the Facilities Director. “Hopefully then we’ll have a better plan… what next steps are,” he told the Committee.
Lynch told the Committee he had two updates. The first of which was regarding the vote the Committee took on whether to allow the administration of the VOCAL survey after the MCAS testing. Lynch said that when presented to the other school committees in Silver Lake there was a request that the survey comply with the district’s policy regarding opting out of surveys. Lynch said that they would ensure that the survey was not administered to those students. He said even if the parents had not opted out of the survey, the students would still have the autonomy to choose not to answer questions.
Lynch said that he, Proulx, Beaudry, and Assistant Principal Brian DeSantes met with the Halifax Elementary School Data team on Jan. 5. “We saw the Grade 3 teachers, worked with interventionists and special educators to analyze the STAR and DIBELS data that was taken just before in late December.” He said they are impressed with the teachers’ efforts to analyze the data and work to improve performance.