[Music] yeah okay so we're open the meeting it's 5:00 we everyone's here first thing on the agenda is a uh uh a discussion in
executive session so I will make the following motion that we will enter an executive session in the town administrator's office pursuant to general laws chapter 30A section 21 uh regarding uh Morse Brothers versus the town of halif Acts uh pursuant to
chapter 30A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the uh litigating position which it does um secondly uh local 239 Halifax Association of Patrol officers pursuant to general laws chapter 30A
section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect the collective bargaining uh if it uh if a open uh meeting would have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and it says and uh finally uh labor Council contract
pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 3A section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel uh do I have a second Y and then just the executive session minutes oh all right that's thank you yep in the executive session
minutes uh second um Tom yes John yes and I vote Yes also uh we will come back in as soon as we're done and take up the rest of the J okay we'll come back into uh public session um couple of things from uh
executive session that I would just like to uh mention um uh on our agenda uh we have a grievance from the Halifax Association of Patrol officers uh we're not going to be dealing with that tonight
um but I will say that the uh the board has U discussed the Morse Brothers uh lawsuit uh just to remind everyone that the uh Superior Court found in favor of Morse Brothers uh and so we have asked Our Town Council to file an appeal which
uh would be done uh I think in the next day or so and then we'll see what happens after that so that will be um that's not ended yet all right um Let's see we have a 6:00 appointment so let's
go oh I'm sorry yeah oh my mistake where where's the flag we have a question about the U mors brothers did we send in an appeal what did we send in an appeal that's what John just said he just said that couldn't hear you yeah so you sent in an appeal yes thank you all right
where's the flag is it uh right over here somebody point to the flag join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I apologize I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay uh going into our uh regular agenda again we have a six oock meeting with the finance committee uh and then a 6:45 meeting
with uh Mark uh chetwin I'm hope I'm not saying that wrong so before we get to that let's do the uh warrants and commitments I move to affirm approval of the following warrant and commitments payroll warrant number 67 for $464,950 vender warrant number 68 for
$122,500 31 withholding warrant number 69 for $148,600 37 vendor warrant number 70 for $233,500 school warrant number 71 for
$381,900 ambulance commitments January 13 2025 through January 19 2025 for $291 46.9 ambulance commitments 1225 through6 2025 for
$2,510 60 and ambulance commitments 12725 through 22225 for $537 7.70 second any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed that's unanimous I move to approve the following warrant and commitments payroll warrant number 72
for $457,000 for $807 12676 withholding warrant number 74 for $18,750 4 and mobile home park fee number2 for $516 second any discussion all those in
favor say I hi opposed it's unanimous um okay uh selectman minutes from uh January not ready yet not ready oh okay skip over that yeah all right uh open the annual and special town meeting warrant what do you say Cody yes so um per the schedule that the
board previously approved uh you will be vote to open the annual and special time meeting warrant tonight with it to close on March 11th so any p uh citizen petitioned articles would be due to the town clerk on March 11th for her to certify um we'll post all that information on our website tonight as
long as the board votes to open the warrant okay they both will close on March 11th correct all right so uh I will make a motion to open the annual and special town meeting warrant uh for this year at with it to close on March
11th 2025 second any discussion all those in favor say I I oppose unanimous uh Mary graines isn't here I don't no we figured the board is well aware of Mary she serves in several capacities um so she had submitted this application to
serve on the veteran services committee think she's already pretty actively involved and pro really oh yeah okay I see our veterans officer in the back there Steve to come on up good evening Steve Littlefield uh 15 Franklin Street and vso um like like
Cody said I'm sure you guys are aware of Mary's involvement she's been one of our biggest supporters and uh as we move forward to get this committee going and getting some meetings happening in the near future I could think of nobody better than Mary to be on that committee all right thank you um any discussion
from the board no he hit the nail on the head it's a perfect fit all right do we have a motion I'll make a motion gladly to appoint Mary gravan as the uh an appointment to the veteran service committee second any discussion all those in favor say I opposed it's
unanimous uh pedestrian crossing over at uh Thorndike yes so the Dave Eastridge from Thorn development is here for any specific questions but this is for the approval of the location of the crosswalk it connects the two sidewalks there from one side of the road to the
other the Traffic Safety Committee previously met uh and recommended this for approval so this is just a formable process of approving that I'll let Dave provide a brief explanation uh good evening David Eastridge Thorn deck development um so
here seeking approval of the crosswalk uh to connect 266 and 265 on ponon street so this is actually a requirement of the uh the MDA that we install this crosswalk so this was designed um by our by Chappelle engineering our traffic
engineer it was vetted by the uh Public Safety Committee uh as part of the planning board process so um we're actually just seeking you know formal approval uh of this crosswalk it um has
a um button activated signalization with the strobe lights you know as requested uh advanced warning signs in each Direction about 125 ft in advance of the crosswalk and um that's about it okay um
we have to make a decision to approve this that's correct it's the formality of it all right any questions from the board Dave just really quick um and it's probably in here forgive me is this solar powered or hardwired or what's what's the electricity they're both solar powered and they have a a trans
transmitter between them okay so that obviously when you press button on one side the FL sides okay okay um seeing no indication of any further discussion that we have a motion to approve The Pedestrian crosswalk I would make that motion I'll second it
any discussion from the board all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous thank you very much thanks very good job all right uh Halifax Pride use of town green uh yes so there's a recruit a request um as has been done in the past
few years for alifax Pride for use of the Town green it's the fifth annual Halifax Pride Celebration uh this is for June June 8th I believe it is June yeah June 8th from uh let's see 11: to 3 and they also have a live entertainment uh
request here it looks like it's been signed off on by police fire and Board of Health they are aware of all the detail that'll be required in uh board of health permits by the way they uh didn't ask for a rain date no they didn't they did not correct last year
got rained on pretty good no no the year before right oh was it the year before the year before last year was nice uh okay do we have a motion to approve the uh use of the Town green I will make a motion to approve the use of the Town green for the Halifax Pride event
scheduled for June 8th 2025 I'll make a second I'll second that subject to proper Insurance being secured okay any any further discussion uh all those in favor say I opposed it's unanimous um oh I'm
sorry Karen favor 66 clad Bosworth Road um I know that there was conversation that they used the bathrooms here last year for pride and that shouldn't be happening someone here from someone I think from pride is in the back this yeah we have a question in the back or
an answer hi Lana Eldridge 237 River Street I'm one of the coordinators for pride and we actually provide porta potties outside for changing like costumes up here in the green room we pay to we pay to use this room just like anybody else does who wants to use
this space um so we're entitled to it we're we're part of town as well so we pay for it we're allowed to use it any other questions okay um they do Laura since you're there you know that uh if you're going to have live music you're going to
have to ask for a per we've done the Y the permit's up there as well and I'll connect with Bob to um get all of our Board of Health stuff squared away and you have a a detail motions police we will yes this is our fourth year running this so we're pretty well versed in what
we need to get before the event okay uh back in the corner over there back in the corner over there come on up just tell us who you are please so we can get on the record uh John sper uh 59 Firefly Road is there around anyway we can possibly find a different
location not right across from the playground uh the town green is used as a public space and it's available to anybody we don't in fact we probably aren't allowed to discriminate against one group or another um because we have
it open to everybody it's either got to be open to everybody or closed to everybody and it's used for uh farmers markets Boy Scouts uh you name it uh you know as long as it's uh okay by all the the police department and everything else then then then it's
a public space it has to be used that way just one last question um do you know what the performance is and what it's rated so that others don't do you ask that do you know what the performance is what the performance you know what it's rated like is
it well I miss uh hi sorry this is a familyfriendly event so it's familyfriendly it's good for kids it's good for teenagers it's good for adults is good for elderly if you if you have a preference and choose not to
um enjoy the entertainment that we offer you don't have to come I I just want to know well wait a minute wait wait we can't have a debate between the two of you this is a hearing here and the uh board is the one has to make the decision so let's talk to us and then if
you have another question we'll have you talk to us okay what I'm asking is is you know are there going to be men Dred as women I don't know do we ask those questions so people know that can going on we're trying to get that answer thank
you go ahead as we have done in the past for the last four years yes there is drag performers involved um again we've had them every year for the last four years nothing has been inappropriate nothing has been
um whatever whatever words are going to be used it's it's familyfriendly and again if people don't enjoy that kind of entertainment you don't have to attend the event all right thank you sure okay so we voted to open the town green uh we also have a live
entertainment permit uh do we have a motion to approve that I'll make a motion to approve the live entertainment per permit for the Halifax Pride event for uh June 8th 2025 and I'll second that any further discussion all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous
okay NBTA zoning action plan next thing on the agenda yes so as you recall um everyone is familiar with the NBTA zoning law that came down from the state previously we obviously had the deadline of um December the end
of 2024 to implement zoning that hence why we had the special town meeting uh that was voted down uh at town meeting as we know there was also the Milton uh lawsuit against the Attorney General so what came out of
that lawsuit was not that the law itself was unconstitutional but the way that it was implemented with the regulations wasn't the proper process as a result the governor uh filed emergency regulations and those emergency regulations Chang the dates for
compliance so you back in January of 2023 we were required to submit an MBTA action plan which is basically saying you're going to try to achieve compliance and you give a a what what you're going to do to achieve that try to achieve that at compliance um because
those regulations were not found to be lawful the new regulations give us until February 13th to submit a new action plan to achieve that interterm compliance and then you have until July to potentially vote the actual zoning so it changes the dates so the decision
that the Board needs to make tonight is do you want to move forward with just an action plan saying that you'll try to achieve compliance I can lead off if you want um no I think that I think that uh the town
spoke in December uh a few extra months in compliance on paper seems good I think that sends the wrong message to our voting body uh even a couple more months in compliance on paper with no intention of moving forward and no illusions of a change in vote uh I would
I would recommend taking no action at this time okay John anything um I think everybody spoke loud and clear uh in December that said I think we have to do uh what puts Halifax in the best
position um so in my opinion to be in compliance Now does not hurt and only help the town so I would be in for preliminary compliance right now put it to the vote and I have a feeling it's going to be a similar vote uh that we
had in December so be it but at least the town will remain in compliance up until that period so I'd like to uh just read what it is that we have to certify um and this um really what's kind of make make my mind up on it and it it's to be
signed by Our Town Administrator which means we'd have to we'd have to instruct him to do that because he can't do it otherwise uh but it would he has to certify that it's the full intent of the Town Administrator to take necessary action to bring any zoning intended to comply with all requirements of General
Law chapter 40a section 3A and 760 CMR 72 to a vote of uh Halifax in the time frame described in this action plan and to submit a district compliance application to eohc no later than July 14th 2025 that's
that's what they're asking us to instruct Our Town Administrator to do I'm very uncomfortable with that because I I think that's putting him in a in a in a very bad circumstance and the reason I say that is um I I I've lived
in town about it be 40 years in a month and I've been to town meeting almost every single one of them years we've never seen that big of a crowd never not even close uh I've been involved in elections for 40 years and I don't I remember plenty of Elections where we
never had that many voters uh so it it it seems to me that we have uh a a very strong mandate from our constituents uh that they don't want us
they don't want the town I say us they don't want the town uh to um follow the law frankly I mean that's really what what it comes right down to um I I agree with you that um what we had and and been involved in this from the beginning
with uh trying to come up with a plan the whole the whole thing uh there are ways that we could be in compliance without I think causing a problem but the town's been clear they don't want it um and I and I just don't think it's appropriate even for this couple of
month period for us to say uh to Our Town Administrator put him in this position of saying well I'm I'm instructed to use my best efforts to bring this along when I know that nobody wants it and I know I've been told
clearly that nobody wants it so um I I I hate to do this because I know what's going to happen I I'm sure the Attorney General is going to call Cody tomorrow he's already called once and say what' you do and when we say well we're not in compliance that we are going to be in
the crosshairs I'm sure of it I'm sure of it uh everybody who voted that way who wants to keep the MBTA plan out has got to understand that uh that we will be facing l ation from the Attorney General's office I'm I'm very sure of that uh it's going to cost us money
we're probably going to lose um but uh you know the town has the right to make their decisions that's why we have votes uh and if they voted a certain way that's the way it should ought to be so uh yes
ma'am just uh identify yourself please so we can know have a record hi I'm Lauren LW 33 Highland Circle um I know I was at the meetings um but I do want the town to know in our extremely difficult budget situation
this year that the school is trying to find creative ways to forge a path forward and one of those things we're looking at is regionalization um Halifax applied for a grant so that we could study
regionalization and we were awarded that Grant but then we quickly had to give it to Kingston because we wouldn't have been eligible for it so I just want it to be known that in these difficult Economic Times that we are also turning
away money of of ways to find possible ways to have more solutions for our town so it's kind of a tough situation but I just wanted to put that out there because part of what we're here tonight is to discuss the school budget so but I
just wanted to know we're already feeling the repercussions of it and I just want people to keep that in mind as we discuss the budget tonight and as we look to the Future so you know there is money from the state we were getting to try and help improve our school
situation and luckily Kingston was able to take it over thank you can I speak to that Joe yeah please to to Echo that I think everybody here in this room probably knows how if we did bring this to vote again how it's going to go I don't think that's that's a surprise to
anybody here but if you stick around for our budget hearing tonight you'll see that this is going to be an extremely challenging year for Halifax one a historically tough year for this town so I feel like my job up here is to try to
to try to come up with ways so that we don't have to drastically slash our services to you the town's people and if that means being in compliance for an extra four months and then have that vote happen when it's going to happen I just feel like it's a responsibility
that town to to look at that and I I I Echo a lot of that except for the fact that if we're charging Cody with telling the state that we're on our way to to explore compliance is he actually doing that are we lying to the state and are saying our efforts are
coming is he wasting his time spinning his wheels putting something together while something else could be worked on uh I just I'm not sure putting it in motion and laying the groundwork for something that's not going to come to fruition is a is a constructive use of time for him or anybody else I get that
I get that but if it means we we get more grant funding and we don't have to eliminate a position or we don't have to um cut hours to our services I guess it's at what cost and and you know again I don't think I don't
think anyone here thinks that it's in danger of flip-flopping the decision of the town but if it means that we can improve the town here financially I think we should at least consider uh in the back there yeah hi U Van Donley 2011 cranberry Drive I
just wanted to talk about that issues we talk about schools and everything else but um which I I'm glad she's linking this together because has anyone here explored with the uh the state the local mandate determination of being unfunded
we're talking about what the costs are going to be we're talking about schools and everything right the people that come in here our schools are going to go up drastically with the people that come in from the uh the developments that are coming in here this is clearly an unfunded State mandate and nobody has
requested from the state auditor a determination on whether this is a unfunded mandate or not so why have we not done that number one and before we do that what we should do is we should have a financial analysis of what the impact of that is going to do to our
town services our schools and so on and uh and it's clearly if I go through this and look at this there's no way this is not an unfunded mandate now it needs to go to the courts in order to be determined there but the auditor first right she's got a chance to do that and you get a determination on what that is
we should as a as a town the first thing we got to do is ask the question right is it unfunded or Not by the auditor who's exactly not in the best standing probably with the governor right now so the good news is I would definitely bring the state auditor in to look at this but we have to do a financial
impact on what this is we have to find out what do what those is going to do to police what it's going to do to fire what it's going to do especially the schools in the situation we're already in whether we got to give money to students that are going to go in to travel to some other school okay or we got to put the money into our own school
system this is a huge unfunded mandate and with Kingston coming on board okay with what they're doing in their area we could likely be looking at building a new school down the road because they're going to have to take all their students in the in the building they already have down there this I don't know why no
one's looking at this this is just mindboggling to me that we have to take on all of this stuff from the governor telling us to do this and I think if we go ahead and just you know pass on this stuff we I mean this is the vote on this thing was so far out in reality here
don't bother right send a strong message to them sorry Governor we said no and at the same time I'm going to try to reach out to the uh the Federal Department of Justice to come in and take a look at this town cuz audit is ain't even passing in the state right now let alone what they're doing to the federal
government usaid it's not passing here it's does pass the sniff test so something's wrong so I'm going to try to do the best I can to see if I can get a hold of Pam Bondi the Attorney General to see if she'll get involved here because the state isn't being demanded to do this and legal aliens are being
deported at a pretty alarming rate right now which is a good for the country itself so ultimately at the end of the day we're we're we're of laws they've already shut down any funding to states and cities that are Sanctuary cities that's been uh put out by the Department
of Justice so that'll affect Boston okay that'll affect anybody that claims they're one of those cities so you can't even uh you know uh you can't even get any funds so she's getting hit with the same thing she's trying to do to us right now which is the basically uh the mandate to us that we got to do
something we're going to lose funding she's got the same thing on her desk right now so if you can I would get somebody a I'll look a lawyer to write a letter okay to the uh auditor to get this thing determined whether this is an unfunded mandate or not but in order to
do that you're going to have to show you what cost you're going to bear from this development that's going in so somebody needs a financial analysis of this to make sure you have it and that's just just that'll keep you going for a little while if you want but uh bottom line is
don't pursue anything that is uh not what the vote is wanted we understood what we got to take on um uh and uh and I think that's pretty much all I got to say here is we should be doing those two things right now and at the same time I'm going to definitely try to do what I can to reach out federally because again
I think this it's just an unfunded mandate that we're be I don't think anyone can tell me here that there's going to be no increase in schools after that development within 5 years hell I don't even know the pupil count today to what the the rates are going up I'm not against the schools I'm going me put that clear here if the schools needed
something and needed to be done I don't have any kids in this school but I'm sure it's how going to vote for the kids if it's the right thing to do I don't know if it is because I just see Ling items I can't read like oh what's the Last 5 Years on the trajectory of the schools what is it is it is it going up at a rate that's way higher I don't know
right so I can't make that kind of analysis but the one thing I want to point out I heard too and then maybe somebody can tell us later I heard this somebody said is Leed in the schools right if that's a case and it isn't Le in the schools that should be an emergency fund situation to take care of immediately because the kids are more
important than any yes sorry course it Happ it [Applause] happen for six you can't do it before six okay okay thank you well I think we
got it yeah um so I want to make sure that uh everyone knows we have U actually a public hearing scheduled at 6:00 if there are not too many more comments we can finish it otherwise we're going to have to suspend that and go into the public hearing so I think Mr
fav had his hand up are you all set all right and you you want you want to respond yeah I was just going to speak to the lead situation in the school it's completely resolved now it's not resolved it is resolved the the the the water fountains where anyone drinks out
of have filters it's been tested all of the the only thing is we don't have sinks in the classrooms but that is not required there are sinks in the bathroom please don't please don't interrupt Karen please I'm saying according to our
health inspector and there is no the lead levels in the school are fine we're not letting the sinks in the classrooms be on out of an abundance of caution okay I'm so it is resolved thank you all right well
so I'm not going to get off on a tangent on that that's outside of what we're really talking about what we we we're here to discuss the uh uh MBTA plan is it related to well again the school issue is is
you're getting too far you're getting too far all we need to decide tonight is whether or not we want to stay in compliance or not you're talking about health and no I get that you're not being told the truth but that's not the issue right now we'll talk about that when we get to school budgets but that's
really not where we are right now okay so um do you want to make a motion yeah I I would make a motion uh to take no action respond in no way um and to stay in non-compliance quote unquote with the Commonwealth on the MBTA 3A zoning law
I'll second that um any further discussion from the board um all those in favor of that motion say i i oppos n thank you uh so it passes by majority uh we'll take no action on that again who knows what's going to happen all right
so uh now I need to uh open a uh speal a he a um a joint um I'm sorry open the public hearing for the wag and Personnel is a joint meeting with the finance committee so we'll do a vote with us and then a vote with them M yeah so I would make that motion that we open second the
motion to open the meeting all right any discussion all those in favor say I opposed um Jim you have to do it your head it's on you're on green light means you're on um I would like to open the uh the
finance committee portion of the wage and Personnel committee um all members are present except for Cheryl Burke who is out of town at this point in time but we do have Quorum okay did did you get a vote on it you have a second all in
favor all right good now we can start Cody you want to take over yes so this is a requirement um of our wage and Personnel bylaw this public hearing is held annually um all of the prerequisites were met the notification was sent out to uh any positions in
their managers affected by this bylaw um you all have copies of the proposals there are three proposals the first one is a 2% cost of living adjustment for all positions covered by the bylaw for FY 26 the second one is to remove the veteran services officer from a
stipended position to and change it to a grade six position under the compensation plan and then the third is to replace the current Personnel bylaw with attachment a which is a simplified uh Personnel bylaw that several towns throughout the state utilize so we can
go into specifics but only three um three proposals this year so uh just on the last one I think it's important that we recognize um historically the town had a separate wage and Personnel Board composed of three members at some point
in the last years or so uh that was uh disbanded and the wage and Personnel Board uh was reconstituted as a combined board between the finance committee and the selectman um it is under this um
bylaw change uh the the um finance committee would be would be taken off of that responsibility and and the board of Selectmen would essentially take over as the Personnel Board for the town of Halifax I think that's the most significant part of of this change here it really puts puts a lot of it to
policies rather than being extremely specific in the bylaws it's which is what most communities are doing is you have a an employee handbook that governs the policies and that would be approved by the Personnel Board which would effectively be the board of selectman um
the reason for the change for the board itself is it's challenging to get both groups together on a regular basis for some of these mundane tasks uh where the board of slman you know is meeting regularly and so you've been elected to to serve as the chief policy makers of
the town and represent the town uh so this is kind of the trend you're seeing for most communities the other the other um part of this that that is significant uh is that because of a recent vote by
um I guess it's the clerical clerical clerical and Library clerical and Library um Personnel in town hall um whereas the wage and Personnel bylaw used to cover almost everybody it is now down
to um the veterans agent police matrons special police officers it's all these positions still it's all so most of our department head positions and then a few other um oh the department head stuff right yeah yeah right right that that that's true too but anybody doesn't have
a contract so in other words in other words the uh population is much smaller that uh the wag and Personnel deals with now so okay uh um so we can uh does anybody on the finance committee want to make any comments or suggestions or anything about any of the proposals we
don't have to vote on anything tonight we're just opening this up for comments and and um and so on so you would vote yeah you'll just need to make a vote prior to town meeting prior to the warrant being finalized for what your recommendations are and we'll put on an article um okay Jim I'll leave it up to
you folks I don't I don't believe that we haven't really had we haven't really had an opportunity to review this and digest it um I think on its face it certainly sounds like a good idea since the population group that would be covered by the wage and Personnel committee is actually dramatically
smaller than what it was um and I would also agree from a scheduling perspective it's you know it's pretty difficult to get all of us in the same room at the same time so I to me just it sounds it seems to be a good idea I just want to kind of read through it a little more okay anybody from I should have asked
the board any questions comments any body here that has a comment or question about the uh waging Personnel wants to make a comment on our our public hearing uh yes Amy troop T Hill Side AV I wanted to
know um I forget what year it might have been 2000 it might have been 2019 maybe 2021 but we had a vote at town meeting to disregard wage and Personnel do you recall that I don't know I don't know what the date was it was before yeah
2020 I think right there right so I I'm confused how we still have it does that we uh well if you look at the the bylaw change it uh up until whenever that date was and I'm not sure what it was uh the uh wage and
Personnel um committee uh consisted of three citizens at large that were appointed by the board of select on staggered term that uh I can tell you from experience that it was very difficult to keep that board staff people just didn't really like that job
it's a difficult job probably probably the hardest job in town as far as I'm concerned um so at some point um the town meeting voted to reconstitute the um wage and personnel and that's what you're looking at right now we are this
combined group is the wage and Personnel under the bylaw this proposal would change that and would would just make it the board of Selectmen okay and so there are three people on the wage and personnel and there are um
citizens at large no no the wage in personel this proposal is that the board of Selectmen would be the Personnel Department essentially I think they might be calling it different but it's doing away with wage and Personnel do you remember when I don't
remember reinstating the wage and Personnel at town meeting I'm not saying that it didn't happen but I don't remember that article on town meeting I don't know I we can look it up but I know it I know it's changed otherwise we wouldn't be doing this yeah yeah yeah so
you're trying to reinstate it no no no we're trying to confused because I don't remember when it changing the makeup of the of the of the Personnel Board to be no longer the combined finance committee and uh Board of Selectmen just be the board of Selectmen okay how many people
are on the finance committee right now seven how many and it's full 1 2 3 4 5 6 is there somebody missing tonight yeah okay 1 2 3 4 five six oh okay thank you
okay any other comments on the uh proposals um so we will U Can table it to a future meeting U when we have a joint meeting to discuss final budget with the finance committee we could do it at that point all right um but first thing would be to close the hearing yeah you want to close thear all right so I
will move that we uh close the uh public hearing for wag and Personnel we have second um on the board of selectman uh any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed that's unanimous Jim you have to close your meeting just the public
hearing public hearing part okay we'll be uh can I get a motion to close the public hearing for the finance committee second all in favor I any opposed okay so now you also want to talk about the school budget yeah so two
additional items um on the agenda one is just overall budget discussion for fiscal 26 and then particularly we have the um Lauren laws who's the chair of the school committee and we have Dr PR um and a few other members of the school administration here to discuss um the
school budget but I I think just before we dig into that too much the finance committee um and myself and our town accountant uh lindsy Martinelli have met with every department at this point other than the schools who have submitted their FY 26 budgets um what I
can tell you is there were several requests in the double digit percentage that were probably warranted um but we we asked departments to cut those requests down recognizing that our Revenue growth is around 2.8% for this
coming year so any increase beyond that would pull from another department um what we plan to present to the full finance committee is uh a pretty solid uh Budget on the town side there are several factors and areas that are are
um resulting in the budget increases primarily our fixed cost which we're projecting to go up almost 10% that's primarily driven by our health insurance which is going to be somewhere in the range of a 10 to 15% increase our um property liability insurance is an 8 to
10% increase our Plymouth County um retirement assessment is an 8% increase those are all fixed costs that we really we have no control over um but on the other end of that like I said there were several departments that were requesting increases due to their operations that
we are not going to be recommending uh and that includes you know some of the the recognition from our Public Safety who continue to kind of do with and be cognizant of the budget their their request this year across all public safy is a 0% increase from fiscal 25 to
fiscal 26 that's unprecedented you you don't see that um in most communities or in years so kudos to them but with that we were able to afford a 3.5% increase in our cost of Education um the Halifax ele school
committee did meet last night their level service budget um request was around a 23% increase and they did move forward and vote to request um that move forward with that we're still waiting on Silver lak's um final request and the
superintendent and uh Team can get into it but if we if we were to fund all of those requests um in addition to the reasonable requests that we anticipate from the town side that we've cut down already we are looking at a deficit of around $1.5
million and so that's kind of the the discussion here tonight with the finance committee we have the school here um in the board of selectman the board of Selectmen are the only ones that can put an override on the ballot an proposition two and a half override so I think from the finance committee's perspective from
our perspective we don't need the board of Select to to say tonight yes let's move forward with a xll amount override but what we do need is is there an interest from the board to to investigate an override to pursue an override so working with the finance committee we can prepare budgets we're
looking at if that is the case we'll prepare two budgets one that would be contingent upon an override approval and one that would would be without an override approval or do we move forward with just what we have um in the tax levy and all of our um you know local
receipts in state aid and not pursue a budget that would include an override so that's the group discussion here that we need to have tonight um unless somebody on the board has wants to start I would suggest that we take comments first and then uh then we can at least uh have other perspectives unless you want to
jump in right up maybe let the school give just a little bit of background I don't know if Jill or Sarah's here if you just give a or Lauren even Jill PR superintendent of schools Halifax Elementary School and Silver Lake Regional School District um in
January we presented a level service budget for the school committee to consider we also presented with them with a 10% decrease which was at the time what all departments were asked to present in the town of Halifax we presented what those cuts would look
like more recently we looked at what it would what the Halifax Elementary School um what the cuts would look like if we had a level funded budget plus a 1.75% increase taking the
3.5 and splitting in half between uh Silver Lake and Halifax those tiers of cuts were presented last evening to this uh the Halifax Elementary School school committee and um we also focused on cuts
from last year we also explained why uh there was a difference of 23% and how circuit breaker impacted that overall percentage rate so we talked about how last year the budget was offset with more circuit breaker
money than Halifax is eligible to receive this year and I'm happy to try to answer any questions you may have last night the Halifax Elementary School school committee voted to pursue um a level service budget and to present to
the board of selectman to consider a possible override Sarah hickey 17 Highland Circle Director of Finance and operations for the Silver Lake Regional School District and Union 31 um Silver Lake school committee directed us to present a Silver Lake budget that
was a 2% increase over FY 25 that's what we have presented to Silver Lake as the preliminary budget we are again meeting on Thursday night so nothing is final uh the preliminary assessment using that uh
2.2% increase for Silver Lake would have Halifax preliminary operating assessment at 8,610 322.00 the exempt capital is $444
42319 for a total assessment of 9, 54,7 4569 which would be a 5.1% increase over the previous year so um think back to what Cody just said about the fixed
costs with the Plymouth County assessment and the health insurance and the property insurance all of those things that he just spoke about for the town also apply to Silver Lake because we are responsible for the health insurance the Plymouth County Retirement
and the property insurance the town operating that was voted by the school committee last night was 8,2 47,1 which is an 8.4% increase over
fy2 which would make the total cost of Education for Halifax at 17,31 18566 that is an 11% increase over fy2 again all of this is predicated on a
number that hasn't been voted by the Silver Lake school committee and so these are preliminary preliminary calculations okay is anybody from the board have any questions U for the school um just a quick comment I know I
know last year we were in a tough situation as well uh and I know the way it shook down was at the elementary school level we we took a considerable hit uh more so than the regional level so I know the budget hasn't been set for uh the regional level yet so I would
hope maybe this year where the elementary schools kind of took it on the nose a little bit last year um that the Silver Lake uh school committee would consider that and maybe look at having the Regional School take a little bit less of the educational budget so to
be clear on that um the Silver Lake operating budget had a $650,000 decrease last year there was $750,000 taken from the excess in deficiency which is the equivalent the it's the Regional School equivalent to free cash and that
$750,000 reduction to ease the burden on the towns meant capital projects were deferred so so I understand that the Personnel piece that there was more um but Silver Lake did take a hit
sure so forg I have I have a couple things to say but while I have you guys up there and forgive me if this is intended to come off okay um I was there last night a lot of passion in the room um an unenviable task all the way around for the school committee and the
administrators but of all the cuts that we talked about or were discussed and I might have missed it any administrating positions being cut any any positions or salaries is that on the table is that possible so we legally um we did
consider administrative positions and we consulted with our attorney we're legally obligated to honor contractual obligations and so you we have uh contracts that we're currently haven't
expired and so there's no adjusting or going back on those promises or contracts that we have made to administrators and that's different than the contracts that the teachers have at the local level just for my own edification yes the collective
bargaining agreements have um terms that uh also include reduction and force um protocols or expectations okay uh Jim anybody from the finance committee want questions or comments or
anything do does the does the school know what it's projected increase will be for FY 27 I mean because you can just kind of forecast from the past couple of years what it'll be the next year the reason I'm asking is is that the towns people
are being asked to you know consider and vote for an override and the override is permanent it's not a one-year thing it stays as soon as it's voted in my my my trepidation here is that next year you'll be back for another override because you're going to say we just we
didn't plan properly or whatever um and cost went up and now it's instead of an 11% increase it's now a 21% increase so the burden then falls to the people of the Town um to to kind of carry that right because there's there's contracts in
place I certainly can appreciate that and again to Echo Mr Pratt I don't envy anybody on any school committee at this point it's a it's a tough road absolutely agree with that but that you know it's you know I guess from my perspective it's a business you it has
it should be run like a business but that's why if we don't know what 27 is going to be um you know what's the anticipated you know what's the anticipated run rate for the schools uh over the next couple of years because it's going to come up at some point
so I completely understand your question um you need to take a number of things into consideration the first one is that at the behest of the Department of Elementary and secondary education Silver Lake Regional School District in Union 31 did a major
structural um well a major restructuring last year so which is why I now talk about this total cost of Education because of the shifts between things so comparing FY 24 to fy2 really doesn't
work one of the things that happened with the budget this year is there are adjustments for things that I found I'm going through a complete chart of accounts overhaul with the budget to align the budget with the Department of
Elementary and secondary education chart of accounts also in alignment with the Massachusetts I forget what it's the the umis manual which is the United Massachusetts accounting system so to get us in compliance with that and as I'm making those shifts I was finding
things that were unbudgeted for that I'm budgeting for so in previously there were some revolving accounts that the um Department of Education told us to stop using so now everything is 100%
transparent so to go back to your original question of what do I forecast for FY 27 in 28 I'm looking at reasonable 3 you know cost of living increases sure right so that I mean I'm not I understand what you're saying I appreciate the level of
work and effort that has to go into that but a rough order of magnitude is you know we've grown 2% here a year so I anticipate another you know cumulative growth of 2% plus another 2% that's really good question and I had the other side of this is you know how is how is
the school looking at the declining uh enrollment and and adjusting that for the budget so over the last 15 years the elementary school is down 16% or I'm sorry 15% and the the high school is down
%. so how is that since the state funding is based on enrollment that's going down which mean the state funding is going down so how is that impacting the calculation to the did you say the Silver Lake decreased 50% according
to 15% 15 okay 15 two sure the best the I think the simplest way that I can answer this is that with every presentation we talk about the impact on class sizes and offerings so ultimately we present for
example in Halifax what it would look like if certain numbers of Staffing were cut at grade level so while your numbers may be going down in some areas in some areas your numbers are increasing so your K1 and two if I recall from last
evening those are larger class sizes than your um Upper Elementary grades for example so we take that into consideration in presenting that to our school committees at the secondary level it's a little bit more complicated as the scheduling becomes more complicated
so um with a high school schedule you have a variety of levels and you have a variety of offerings and again when we present to the school committee what we explain is that we would attempt to maintain certain class sizes and so you may see certain electives go away or you
might see elective class sizes grow and that's part of the debate and discussion that goes on as part of that it's it's not as um simple as the the grid that we put out for the Elementary class sizes because it's more complicated and we do
try to offer as much and and maintain as much as we can but again if a class doesn't have enough enrollment we won't run a particular elective or course or offering um or we'll try to find other ways for students to take that course whether it be through dual enrollment or
an online course for example right I I appreciate your response and so I I don't want to take it up to a more General level so just looking at it holistically if the school's population
is down 16% State funding goes down 16 % based on enrollment how is that reflected in this budget that's the that's I think it's a fairly simple question I can ask I think I think our special
education director would like to respond one one just thing to consider so for state aid at the regional level Silver Lake takes that into consideration for state aid Chapter 70 at the elementary school level we we're
the ones that take that that just goes into our general state aid so um our our projected State Chapter 70 increase for fiscal 26 per the governor's budget which is what we typically use is a a 1.1% 1.15 something around there and
they can definitely speak to the silver lake side of it but the town side of it for the um K through six we we're responsible for projecting and that side Dr paner Sam the director of student Services you are correct when
the enrollment goes down why would the costs go up and the costs go up because you have 23% students with disability which has been rising year after year in Halifax so what we're really looking at is approximately one out of every four child children sitting in that classroom
is a student with disability and it costs more money to educate a child with disability and that's our responsibility that's what we do as a town so that's one part of it your fa facing another situation where if you do not spend a certain amount of money because not all
of those costs are attributed to the town the state provides many buckets of money but if you do not meet your minimum spending for students with disability you give up grants and that's what we're facing for next year so not only do we have a decreased budget we
are going to leave money on the table okay I appreciate you being here um just one quick question so last year regarding IEPs uh at one of the meetings you stated that all the IEPs in place are going to be evaluated to see if they were getting delivered correctly how did
that go we again we have a new IEP system we are working our way through every IEP because legally every child and every parent and every family has an annual review or a re-evaluation and as we go through them but one thing that you cannot do you have to understand
this is even if we found errors and we corrected some errors for services and things like that parents and Guardians have the right to have reject that and have a stay put which means those Services remain until it's resolved through
mediation okay um anything else from the finance committee oh over here yep is it if it's green you're on if it's green EJ you're good to go you got me okay awesome thank you so I just I just have a couple very general comments um first
and I think most importantly I I watched last night's meeting I wasn't there in person but there there was a lot of passion as was mentioned earlier and there was a lot of care for um for the kids and for what's going on in that situation right now financially over at
the schools and the work that's being done to support them um I I as a resident appreciate that from all of you that are on the Committees and within the in the within the administration um so I want to make sure that I say that UPF front um Jim Jim made a comment
about you know if if if the selectman were to decide to move forward with an override it's something that needs to be considered carefully on there end to put on the table to begin with but then our as residents it's our responsibility to make sure that we understand the true
impct impacts of that long term um so I I I think there's a there's a couple of reasons why I say that the first is um it's what's at stake here it's it's the kids education um they they we're at a point in time
now where where the kids need support they're going to need support from from the town um and we've all seen things happen over the years within the community when money gets asked for and and we have certain things that are that are being looked at financially and that
gets met with a lot of adverse reaction and I I hope as a resident and I'm not talking as a as a finance Committee Member here I'm talking as a resident I I hope that we as a community do not forget what this is about and I hope
that everyone that that takes part in the discussions if we arrive at going for an override and does not lose sight of what this is about um this is not about this is not about personal feelings this is about what our kids need and I think that needs to take
priority over everything so regardless of what happens regardless of whether or not the selectman requests that the town look at an override or not um the reality is is we have a very tough several months and several years ahead
of us so there's no better way to do that to get through that than rallying together not pulling apart and that's all I wanted to say about it all right um any comments from anyone else yes go
ahead Joe favor clo Bosworth there 66 I wonder if the school uh people can tell me how many people how many students come off these IEP programs it seems they're adding a
lot how many students come off these programs rather than keep adding one out of four is kind of a lot yeah who oversees and who who determines who needs them okay well if you want to take a seat I'll get an
answer for you I think we have an answer here well let mean my brother was a principal of a school you know how many he had zero uh so can you maybe explain that IEP thing it's a a foreign concept to a
lot of lot of us so if you look at the average number percentage of students with disability across the United States Massachusetts has one of the highest so you would think that all the students with disabilities have arrived and are living in Massachusetts and that's not the case
Massachusetts is a very liberal very generous eligibility process and so what happens is the team decides if there is a disability to your point disabilities for children do not go away if they do go away what we're dealing with is a
learning Gap so what we build is compensatory skills do kids come off of the IEPs yes where do they come off of the IEPs likely at the high school and middle school years where the percentage is 15% so when we look at the elementary
levels we're anywhere between 17 all the way to 23 and then when you go to middle school and high school the numbers are lower because kids learn compensatory skills even if they have a disability they're still able to access and learn
just as well as anybody else so that's that piece of it it um I did also request team chairs because I think it you're exactly correct it takes a very good eye to analyze the data for eligibility and to be able to ask
questions and to be able to triangulate the different buckets of data that are brought to that team meeting we have people and I and I have to take my hat off to the Halifax staff they are just incredible I have people that are teachers that have 25 to 29 kids on
their cas load they are facilitating team meetings they are providing services to students and they're co- teing inside classrooms and they're doing it all and if you look at their scores their scores are pretty good and they're probably the highest of all elementary schools okay in the district
and that's something to be very proud of it's impressive to say the least they're constantly looking at data they're constantly pushing the children and it's remarkable to see and a lot of these people work over time without being paid and you don't grab them I will be very very honest and transparent and people
that know me will say that you also have one of the most litigious towns so out of all the towns most of most of the the cases that we need to resolve on a legal Arena come from come from this town as well and that's fine I believe that
parents and famili should advocate for their students and their children I never I never brush away from something like that but all of the students at Halifax that are on IEPs right now they're being serviced at a level that I wish every single school could give um
it's impressive to say the least and kids are moving along you can see the data look at the mcast data it's right online it's impressive okay thank you any other comments uh about the school budget yes sir again van Donley 2011 cranberry
drive just a couple of questions um the amount of money we give to kids that don't go to the school and go to another school is that Rising are we losing more kids from the elementary school that we're paying to take money and travel elsewhere well say that question again
the amount from what I understand we're giving money to um students that don't go to the school in town right out of school or whatever School whatever would could be so the question is is that Rising are people leaving here to go to another school I yeah yeah Miss LW if
you want to just move have a seat so she can answer your question Lauren laws 33 Highland Circle Halifax elementary school chair um we actually had a slide on this last night where um we have record low students leaving to go to Charter and private
schools in Halifax I I believe I had a lot of numbers last night but I think it was four and I don't know think four right five okay so we have but it is there will be
more if this doesn't go through um anyway so it is at a decline in Halifax of students leaving thank [Music] you okay yeah thank you for that um yeah next question I have we talked about the circuit break of budget and uh and and I
guess I just want to know when was that uh when did that happen when what was the funding for that when did that happen uh that beginning of the year or yeah please yeah if you could just if you just have a seat so she's not intimidated by standing on top of
her thank you circuit breaker is a state reimbursement that was brought out um of the education Reform Act of 1993 and the circuit breaker reimbursement is for the town
reimbursing up to 75% of special education costs that go over a certain threshold so um it has been around since the education Reform Act of 1993 okay thank you any other comments
uh that we have on the school budget yes ma'am good evening Jen Goodale 81 cranberry Drive Halifax um I don't have anything prepar but I just wanted to share my family story that my daughter was identified in second grade as having a phonics issue because of Co
her teacher was the one that flagged that um she then entered into an IEP and she's testing out this year in sixth grade so it does happen sir um but if you saw the tiered um cuts for last night's meeting there's the mass specialist that's going to go away and
the reading specialist going away she wouldn't get these Services if um you guys are going to cut those out so I encourage you to seek an override and also work with the the school to kind of come to an agreement and I also understand that we had to give back the
school had to give back about 100,000 because we didn't spend as much can we get some of that back this year so a few a few things on that CU I've heard a lot of misinformation so the Halifax Elementary School is a department of the town of Halifax just like the police department just like the fire department
and what we when we budget we we try to budget as close to possible but sometimes there's money that doesn't get spent that goes into our free cash that funds our Capital items for including the element school if we don't have turn Backs from our departments including the elementary school that means Capital
items do not get funded so if there's a capital request at the elementary school that there there would be no money in the pot to fund that so free cash is a one-time Revenue Source similar to what end is at the Silver Lake level you can't utilize one-time monies for
reoccurring expenses because this is a a permanent increase right we anticipate an increase at the elementary school um that will it's not going to go away we're not going to see a decrease next year hopefully that increases at a much smaller level but that we're looking at a permanent increase so you can't fund
it with one-time monies but the the turn back is something every Department of the Town turn back turns back money um to to the general fund then that's how we fund our capital and we have our free cash so that is certain I think it was a little more of a public process this year turning back that a little over
$100,000 but um that's that's not abnormal that is very normal that the that the schools turn back money to US Silver Lake does too but that goes into their e and for them to control for them to fund Capital um so it's definitely not a foreign concept and we we need that if we don't have money coming back
we have no no funds available for Capital which we have to have okay thank you any other comments on the budget okay uh yes ma'am hi my name is Tara tanell address 425mm
street thank you so much um I prepared something longer but I'll make it pretty brief um I was there yesterday at the school committee meeting thank you to the school committee members um for all your hard work um this is an impossible difficult terrible situation that we in are in and I do recognize
that and I understand that um I just want to reemphasize that underfunding the school will impact the town period end of story um strong schools attract families they contribute to the economy they enhance property values if we
continue down this path of reductions we really risk making Halifax a less desirable place to live for families and that is terrifying and override also terrifying um what if it doesn't go through I don't know those answers it
seems pretty clear tonight that we don't have all the answers yet um we're still waiting on information from Silver Lake I believe um this is just an impossible impossible um decision to make um but I
urg I urge you all to think about these kids as I'm sorry I didn't get your name EJ as EJ mentioned um we deserve it to this town and to these kids and to these families to protect education um it must
be a priority so I hope everyone can just take a beat and pause and to work together to figure this out thank you all right thank you just um on the override part uh just not not specifically to you but in general uh we're we're not voting to override
anything the board of selectman here the only thing that is on the table and I only think we have to make a decision tonight uh is whether or not the uh annual town meeting will have excuse me we'll have a uh an article for that and then there'll be a
ballot question afterwards because it has it's a two-step process has to pass the town meeting and then uh has to also be uh voted on on a ballot so we're we're not deciding anything other than maybe putting that on the warrant for people to discuss so that's that's
really all there is but the whole budget issue with the school is kind of what's driving our discussion tonight all right anybody else have anything else to say about the school budget or anything uh do we need any uh what's the fiscal budget preparation do we have anything that's just kind of that synopsis I gave
initially just the synopsis I gave the all right all right so John can I just say something really quick yeah please just my thoughts uh quickly um first off this is a tough position that Halifax is in uh I would argue a historically tough
position that we're in now um there's a lot of reasons for this and I think the the one thing that we can all agree this isn't just a Halifax issue if you guys have friends in other communities and have spoken with them there are countless towns across the state that
are facing similar situations with their education budget so to me that says that this isn't a town issue this isn't starting in our town it's it's starting from the state right it's it's a Statewide issue that we're trying to tackle um doesn't make it any easier
doesn't change the tough position that we're in this year but I do hope and you guys can reach out to your state representatives to take a hard look at the school funding formulas that they use um especially when it comes to special education um those are crushing
budgets crushing budgets for your schools um and I think it it needs a hard look as to how schools are reimbursed from those from those kids um the other thing that have we have working against us uh is we've been
hearing for a while we're approaching a fiscal cliff right the town can only raise our taxes 2 and a half% every year I think we can all agree the cost of things over these last 3 four years have skyrocketed so when your town can only raise 2 and a 12% and your cost start
going crazy you're going to get to the cliff we're at the cliff right now so I budget wise I I challenge the the the fincom to to sharpen the pencils
like they've never been sharpened before right U you guys are we're putting a lot on the on the shoulders of you folks to turn over every Rock to try to find ways to save a buck like it's never happened before so um that's all I really wanted
to say it's tough everybody here wants to see our education as good as it can because a strong school is a strong town right once you get that word out there that a school might not be what it used to be it has repercussions on the town that said to we have residents that live
on fixed income so you have people that that need money money to for food and heat and so so to ask them to take on a big part of the burden is tough too so that's that's the pickle that we're in here guys and uh I hope we can
work together and not and not apart and try to figure out a way to figure this out uh in the back hasn't spoken and then uh Karen so in the back [Music] Chris Chris wtz 129 circuit street so
from what I'm getting if you vote to put this on the Bell it doesn't really tie us to anything at the moment we'll still vote at a later time this will still give us more time to get all the missing numbers they said it's very preliminary numbers we don't have Sil Lake yet right
what um if it's if uh if that's the issue uh on whether or not to uh include on the annual Town warrant and the annual Town election uh question of whether or not to override um that's a decision for town meeting
and the voters at The Ballot Box so I'm just concerned this is just a band-- day just to get us through this year and from all the indicators on all different levels it's not going to get much better in the coming years I think like the chairman brought up I think that's what the finance committee was uh talking
about yeah so this would even if you vote to put it on the ballot it would still give us time to get more numbers to look at more things and at the town meeting will we have like two different budgets presented like if if this doesn't pass well that's a good question that's exactly what you would have yeah so y so okay so we will be presented
multiple different budgets whether this passes and you one with the with the override in place and then that gets voted down there's another bud that present that is this is how it will be this is what it looks like without that and we have time to vote with more information at that time well at the
town meeting is is when it all okay we're we're planning on public meetings when we get closer to the town meeting with the budget just so everybody can see those questions um so that we you know get get a lot I personally want a
lot of public input on the budget because it is public money that we spending okay um so you know I think everybody should be able to see that thanks I have two questions um I think it's probably uh for the school committee or for the superintendent but
um in the slides last night at the meeting they had uh listed an English sped teacher and a math uh special education teacher could you explain to us what will happen to the kids that are
in an inclusion classroom and to their IEPs if we do not have those teachers and the second part of the question is who decides on what teachers are going to be um you know let go um if we have
to go that route what teachers would be laid off yeah so there was a list in in who determines who that the super I think the superintendant can explain that yeah this is not a not something that hasn't happened in the past there's been years when we've had riffs and and they've had
to do that so it's so unfortunately cuts of this magnitude um often require that we consider uh reductions in Staffing or must include reductions in Staffing there's only so much of the things that we can cut and certain things can't be
cut like heat and electricity um and yet those costs continue to rise as well so um we when we are given a task by the school committee and we're giving input from the town we come together as a central
Office Team and we work with building Administration as well to think about what that would look like we examine we try to look at um trying to maintain programming for students so we try very hard not to cut programs we also look at
class sizes and then we also look at contractual obligations so one of the conversation items we had last night was um some of the specialist positions were being cut and the reality was is that because the
class sizes were reaching a particular level we had to start looking at programming in eliminating programming why we were able to look at cutting specialists at that point in the cuts was because contractually we have
schedules where uh in the simplest terms our specialist our art teacher our Music Teacher our physical education teacher will cover for classroom teachers take on their class while they have uh a prep and a lunch period which is required contractually
so not only do they serve pro programmatic needs of our children but they also helped us to serve um an opportunity for us to meet our contractual obligations so that people can have a break in the day so that might be more detail than than what you
wanted but it's it's part of what we look at whether or not we can function structurally as well so um we don't just look at wouldn't it be nice if the kids could have this or this we look at what do we need to actually function so that we can meet our uh our obligations to
both students and staff the reason why we went through um certain cuts at certain grades is because we were literally looking at the numbers of children in a classroom and ideally we try to keep our numbers in the early Elementary grades lower as low
as possible while children are learning to read there's a big transition that takes place when children learn to read versus reading to learn and it's really important that we have um lower class sizes to help facilitate that process otherwise
the learning Gap continues to grow as they get older if we don't if kids don't learn to read at a young age it's very difficult to close that Gap so that's another part of the decision that goes in we examine all positions as I mentioned earlier if we
even considered administrative positions but again we're not allowed to Discount contractual obligations that we have so nothing is off the table uh we work together it it's not uh something that is easy to do something we like to do because as you know we're all former
Educators ourselves and we're very much pro-education so to think about cutting it is very uh difficult for us nonetheless that's the task that we we go through and we present it and we answer questions as to what that would look like specifically your question
with regards to the special education teacher that impact will mean that that the case loads will rise and as we talked about um whenever it it becomes more difficult to meet the students when there are more students
to to work with or or um help support there's just fewer minutes in the day as your class sizes get larger so again while it may not be um a violation of someone's IEP it certainly isn't to the advantage of the students when their
liaison has a high case load yeah I think it's the the simplest way I could put it okay thank you what's the question would we be able to fulfill like if someone has an ID that says they get 15 minutes a day right of of special EDS are we going to
be able to fulfill that so there'll be some redistribution of the case load So currently we have some specialized programs where those teachers really um are working with those students and those students only so case loads will be filtered out um
will we fill the services yes we'll have to fill the services there's no way around that um don't forget there are cuts for the social emotional piece for the students as well there won't be a school adjustment counselor there um and that's a heavy loss um so when we look
at proactive measures of keeping students in the tiered approach for a multi you know tiered approach for intervention as opposed to a referral to special education you're going to see that Skyrocket you're going to see special education referral Skyrocket because that's what happens when you
take away the general education supports there's no place to go there's only one game in town and it's special ed so we're trying to battle that now we're trying to move away from that and we've done a pretty good job but unfortunately with the cuts and without having those
supports and I'm not I'm I'm not giving you bad news I'm just telling you what happens historically and and research-wise when there are no general education supports people turn to special education to get you know supports for students that may not have a disability but they may need extra
help because that is the only way they feel they can help this child so we have to be very conscious of that okay thank you um all right anybody else have any yeah I just had a couple of quick things I mean uh the disadvantage to going last is a lot of it what I wanted to touch on
has been has been said but you know I was there last night I heard from upwards of several dozen people today via email or text or calls and some concern you know I'm a dad too and that's why I got involved I have two young kids one in kindergarten and one will be joining uh in about a year and a
half so I have two young children um so I'm you know I'm a father here uh similar what EJ was saying he's a resident well I'm one too and I'm a dad so that's job number one but I also am aware that we have a an elected Duty as officials to kind of represent the town's best interest and the one thing
that concerned me last night um from the school committee um was not the decision to pursue an override from the town because I certainly understand that it was that they went for the whole thing
and in my opinion from my understanding is if an override is put on the ballot for 2.31 million and it fails the fallback on the tier Cuts was the most dramatic Cuts tier three so you kind of
went all in and the backup plan is what it has to pass a town meeting and a ballot it's easy to raise your card green when all your neighbors are
looking at you it's another thing to cast your vote quietly in a box when your wallet is on the line so my fear is not an override as somebody who views the school as a centerpiece of the town which has been said by multiple people
and I agree if you don't have an elementary school you don't have much because there's no future for you to protect or invest in which is a dad is something that's Paramount to me which is why I got involved but as an elected official I don't think that in good conscience I
can go all in and the backup plan is the disaster that was presented as tier three or tier four Cuts so while I can appreciate the override on its face I'm wondering and school committee paig uh member Paige kind of said it last night I thought we were going to
get there what about tier one and a half what does it look like if this happens and not this where are we in the middle or of what was presented on tier 1 two and three maybe there's tier 175 and that's the amount of the budget that a board of Selectmen could feel
confident in getting passed because what put on the ballot is only as good as its ability to pass if you you can put whatever we could $10 million there you go has no shot and $25,000 override makes no difference so the balance is getting something on the budget that makes an impact on the
future of the children but that you'll have buyin from the town that invests in those kids to pass not once but twice so that was my only comment about last night I wasn't disappointed or disheartened that an override was out there I just think it should be known that that was the number that was put
forth by the school committee any correct me if I'm wrong but any proposal that we put together or not is an arbitrary number that we see fit and that would be my only thing is what's the fallback plan because if 2.3 is not feasible and I have my concerns what
will pass cu the goal should be the middle ground that gets the most bang for the children and just toward that end and I'll wrap up I think that you know on the heels of the Silver Lake Elementary School Regional School meeting tonight um if appropriate and I'm not sure how this works you know with open meeting
laws or whatever but might it be productive if the fincom our group The HS and the Halifax members of the regional school committee met and found that middle ground for the presentation for consideration by the board to be placed on the
warrant we've done that in the past um I think last year we actually had a uh a joint meeting like that um well I think yeah I think that would be productive and then we can know all sides of it and then try to find the Middle Ground again that we can feel if that's the route we go I'm not we haven't talked um this is
it I just think that that would be the most prudent way to proceed is cautiously with a plan B which is a backup plan not going all in with no with no Escape Route that would be uh first in the back and then Mrs cin Jessica paage 47 Cranbury Drive um I'm speaking as a mom not as a Committee
Member I just want to make it known that the school cut everything that the town asked last year which is why we basically said you can't just keep asking the town like to you can't just keep asking us to cut everything and would expect us to cut everything it's it's it's unfeasible a school can't run
with the $1.3 million cut that was asked for I did say I think we need like a 1.5 tier we just don't have enough time to get it so we had to we had to we'll work on it it's just I mean I guess I am now talking as a school Committee Member but it's it we
did every the school did everything that we needed to do last year we went to town meeting and you guys said okay now the school the school gave us everything this year we we don't have it we don't have it to give yeah and just to be clear I think you did everything right last night too and in asking for the
override because that's the that's the best way out for the schools the amount was what I was clarifying I but I like I said you're tier 1.5 I thought we were going to get right there I was hoping I I mean I I hope for the the cut from tier one to tier two was hey let's let's this is what we already cut to hey let's
not have anything for our kids anymore and at that a tier two there was going to be more people pulling their kids out of our school which is going to greatly affect our schools even more than this override would and I I can promise you that I know I've had multiple multiple emails text calls Facebook messages
everything today saying if this didn't go through last night they were going to look into different schools Charter Schools private schools home school and that's and that's everybody's certainly right I just would I would and I can understand that as a parent but I would just caution you not to operate out of fear because people will do that no matter what happens they'll take their
ball and go home so I don't want to operate that way I just think the most basic way to say what I was trying to say was there's middle ground and it's incumbent upon the people in charge who were elected and appointed to find it for everybody that's so we're still um we're still early in the budget process well it's moving along but we are early
in the budget process it doesn't mean that uh even tonight we weren't about to uh uh uh assign a warrant article or a ballot question with a specific number because we aren't there yet the finance committee hasn't finished their work they haven't uh the school committee can
still do their work so the numbers can still be adjusted uh as much as possible I think I think tonight's discussion uh is really uh more along the lines of of kind of like what you
were saying that there's a there's a a potential um shortfall in this budget which is over half of our half of our cost yearly uh so it's always a big deal um and um you know what are the options
available one option is not to do anything one option is to is to present a possible override if you don't do that then what are the options on the override so that we we're still and we have had that last year we had that meeting with school and this finance and everything we had we had a uh Jonathan
Jonathan did Yan's work he actually worked it out pretty well to get everybody mostly satisfied so I think uh I think there's still some time to do that um uh Lori Lori Costa Clin 20 uh 285 South Street Halifax I am also a member of the
Halifax school committee um and I wanted to clarify um some thoughts in response to Mr PR's comments and to Echo some of Jessica's um and in support of um our
chairperson um who has really taken it on the chin um trying to find a solution that's reasonable for our town um to address the comments made by um
our fincom chair about are we looking at downturned enrollment um one of the questions that I presented last night was there is room to reduce in some grades the classroom teachers from four to
three and it would still be Equitable with what classroom sizes are in the other three towns in our district um it would be based on the enrollment for those grades which if I'm not mistaken
was like 6767 and 69 we're not talking about 30 kids in a class we're talking about 22 23 if we Mo go to three the reason that I didn't
suggest that we lower that amount um and vote that amount less three teachers is because of line item autonomy line item autonomy allows our school uh superintendent and
administration to decide as Dr PR um explained where they deduct that money from the budget so by by asking that amount to be removed from the budget which would be a 1.5 um
tier there's no guarantee that that's how the money will be distributed um that those teachers wouldn't be um or those casses wouldn't be resized due to other obligations contractually I don't think anyone on our committee is willing to just stop
working on the budget I think we all and I know for myself personally um looked at a lot of things and did a lot of research before we went into that meeting but ultimately Our Town values the right to vote on things they are very vocal and I
also represent not just the well-being of the students but the taxpayers that elected us and the voters that elected us when it comes to something as critical as this we all as elected officials need to do the work yes but we also need to
um acknowledge the will of the people and I think putting a um proposal on the ballot and at town meeting a warrant would allow Town PE Town's people to weigh in on a critical issue like this it doesn't mean we're going to stop working on Solutions it doesn't mean
we're going to start stop trying to figure out a reasonable number but we needed to give the town notice of what was happening we needed to have a number and I think that the two folks it was a unanimous vote three of us voted for a
level service budget two of us did not I think the two that did not were looking to present Some Cuts I'm here absolutely willing to talk to anybody about what can we do to find a reasonable budget
that doesn't diminish Equity amongst the three towns in our school system to Jessica's point we cut a tremendous amount from the budget last year that was not reciproc deated in Kingston nor uh Plimpton so what we've created this
year is a unequal curriculum K through six this school year in my opinion we did not deliver the same services for Halifax that students in Kingston and Clinton are getting because they voted to level service they did not cut we cut
a lot we can continue to review what's reasonable and we all will but I think this is a larger conversation for an entire Community it's not just up to five people on a school committee to decide where Cuts need to be made so
that's all I have to say thank you anyone else have any comments yeah Mrs loss I just want to reiterate that um do I I'll say this is Lauren laws 33 Highland Circle um Halifax Elementary school chair um just that we would like
to ask for the possibility of an override I did vote no last night not because I don't care deeply about education but I do believe that we can meet somewhere that hopefully can work for our our students and our entire town
but my question tonight would be can you please vote to at least put an override on the um Town warrant so we can start working towards something for our town the sooner we do it the more effective we will be in what we're doing so that's
my request all right thank you um yeah and then Chris in the back hi van Donley 2011 cranberry Drive um you I just appreciate that that was pretty good U list of of topics and the issues and a thoughtful way of doing
that um I fought recently on one of the issues in town that uh went on and I I just think I got a pretty good grip of what's Happening Tom I'm pretty much behind exactly what he said too um I want you know I don't have kids in the school system but I still want to support them right and if it was up to
me I'd pay the bit tax okay but you're not my opinion is if you come in the way you are now and you got passion for this and you're holding out and I get that right because you should have the passion for the kids but I think right now at least this year you're going to have a tough time trying to get an
override of that size through the town so my feeling is if you work with them and you come back to something realistic then you have more people in the town to help sell it okay cuz you know me been in sales you know you sell them don't tell them right and the issue I think on this year maybe their social security
tax gets reduced next year maybe there's a bigger win there right but the issue is is that uh I think as a town we can come together somewhere in the in the middle here to get you know make sure there nobody wants to see kids suffer for any of this either but I think we also don't want to see the elderly
suffer either if we can help that so there is something in the middle I know that if you get there I'd be personally willing to help here know sell it if it makes sense for the town and um you know I just I again I really do appreciate the passion for all the teachers and everybody in town and uh you know I
generally stick up on issues where I think that are trouble like mvta um but this one um you know to me I think that uh Tom's dead on and I think what you've said about some of the other issues about coming to the middle and I think makes sense for them this year uh and
and uh that's all I appreciate it thank you uh in the back Chris just want to say at this time I'd have trouble voting yes there just seems too many unknowns with still numbers to come in for this year's budget and then the future Year's budgets but something
Mr Pratt said could you just clarify how the town meeting would run and then the ballot question cuz usually we' place a ballot question and that would come like a following weekend well the ballot would be at the well our current schedule is the second Monday in May is
town meeting and then uh the ballot would be on that following Saturday so if we went to town meeting we wouldn't really know what the budget would be we're voting on all line items not knowing what a later ballot question would be you would have two budgets
you'd have a a level service budget a level uh budget of what we can afford within our current Levy limit and anticipated revenues then you would have what's called a contingency budget which would take into account the override town meeting would then have to approve the contingency budget with that exactly
contingent upon approval at the ballot um it would be approved if the ballot question passes if the ballot question failed it would revert back to the first budget that town meeting approved okay so we'd vote on the line items knowing what both budgets would be you'd effectively approve two budget town
meeting would have to town meeting would have to agree to that if town meeting says no to the contingency budget then it doesn't matter right okay all right um so uh what are uh we don't need to actually vote on this first of all we
don't have any numbers right no you don't need to vote what what I what I need really in the reason for this is does the board have an appetite and override is a lot of work um the finance committee and myself and our financial team we effectively have to create two budgets um so we need to know and also
get the legal language get the ballot question ready get the warrants ready so we need to know is there an appetite for it and that would allow us to begin that process of preparing two budgets to bring to you once the finance committee has made a recommendation for your final approval at that point you would vote to recommend the budget and then you would
also vote uh an override figure if you felt that was warranted but what we don't want is to do all of that work if the board of selectman say no there's no appetite for us to pursue an operational override and at that point we're not going to put all of the effort into
creating two separate budgets so we just need to know do you have an appetite and if you say yes then we're going to begin that work and we will bring back to you some uh solid figures once we have gone through the full budget sometime at the end of March okay I just have a quick point of order and maybe the school can
help me out let's say Halifax does do an override let's say we approve the budget it passes at the ballot but the other two communities at Silver Lake don't approve that budget what happens to our school budget then in that instance oh you're mixing two things
Elementary School and the assessment right so so tonight we're but again Cody you're telling me the cost of Education includes both schools right yes but so we would eventually be looking at an override essentially that would be be the regional school and the
elementary school but predominantly driven by the elementary school so you don't foresee us being in a situation where we would approve a an override for a regional um the budget would the override on the budget would essentially just be focusing on the elementary I
mean the numbers are so preliminary out of Silver Lake I I just don't know if I can give you just to be clear so if we we we get us we vote separately on Silver Lake and the only thing we vote on Silver Lake essentially is do we accept the assessment right uh and that
requires two out of the three towns to say yes if two out of the three towns say say no uh then Silver Lake it goes back to Silver Lake and they have to redo it if two out of the three towns say yes and we don't we still end up paying so it doesn't matter if we have an override or not no I get that I just
was wondering if we were one of the one of the only towns of the three to approve a budget where uh the other two did not and how that would affect our override uh I don't know if so I mean so I I we don't have to spend it all come back down in communicating with the
other towns um you know they're they're still discuss ing if there's appetite for an override but but I also don't know if the Silver Lake budget is going to result in an override being warranted in any of our communities right because if if I believe Kingston can afford
somewhere around 4% um climton is still working through some figures if Silver Lake presents a budget that all the towns can afford without an override then then the portion that we'd be seeking override for would be just the Halifax elementary school but those figures are are still coming out of
Silver Lake so that's information we we would have that information before we would set any sort of override figure yeah you would you need a full budget before you can set an override figure we need a number we can we set I is it appropriate to ask the fincom US the Halifax Elementary School and the
Halifax members of this Regional School District to meet no absolutely absolutely I think we should I think that should be a top priority to be honest with you I think among other things that the sooner the better when as soon as each each you know each group can get a quorum um to answer your question Cody I I mean I guess my quick opinion I don't know if I'm jumping out
of order I was just ask I think I think it's worth investigating two budgets and it's worthy of the town and the children to investigate and override all right jonath I concur no absolutely yeah I agree also I think um I I appreciate the effort that that has to go into this uh
we have a crackerjack squad uh you guys do great work um we're going to we're going to make you put you through the paces and that's uh that's exactly why you're here that's good uh but I do think u i I see no reason why we shouldn't have our options open absolutely at this point it's so early
right if this was the day before town meeting it' be a whole different matter but it's so early it's I don't see any reason why we shouldn't have all options open not saying I would agree that a override is warranted I I don't know that yet because I haven't seen the numbers but I do think we should uh I
think we should keep the option open I agree let the people decide you know I I was one of the people that brought CPA forward let the town decide NBTA the town decided um with an issue this big let the town decide I I want to ahead of time thank the fincom and Cody because
they are now ready for an avalanche of work to put one budget together is hard to put two separate budgets together is an avalanche so they they have their work cut out for them and they should be congratulated for all the absolutely they shouldn't buy a drink in this town
ever again okay um so that takes care of uh the budget thing I think uh finance committee I think we're through with issues with you right um I'd like to make one comment sure I think I think it's a valid point to
investigate and keep our options open in light of that I would ask that the town free all spending and hiring on articles that were awarded and unextended funds that are currently in the budget so that we can evaluate those also so one of my requests tonight was going to be that
the board uh Implement a hiring freeze um and only uh all requests would need to come to myself and the board for final approval to hire you know as far as spending frees that's a little more difficult because it's operational budget you my logic behind hiring free
was if we get into a situation where we have to reduce Staffing I would much rather not fill positions than have to actually reduce the Staffing it on a you know a practical level but also on an economical level it's actually cheaper for us because we're not paying unemployment if we're not filling
positions so um as far as the hiring Frees I think that's definitely a recommendation that that I was going to plan to make tonight you want us to take that up now I think you I'd recommend that you do um effective March first so we have a few position and G and give everyone um advanced warning department
heads were notified that this was going to be my recommendation they're aware of it um you know as far as the spending freeze it's it's it's a little bit more challenging because most of our spending is essential um we could Implement a non-essential uh spending freeze but
pretty much everything we're doing is essential okay um so uh I would uh make the motion that uh we Institute a hiring freeze as a as a March 1 I'll second that can I just just before you guys vote on that why why March
1st just because we have some positions open right now and we want to give people advanced notice our departments that have gone through the work of that recruitment um and there might be some hiring in the process where we've extended offers where that we're in the middle of interviews so can't you do it
so so can't we do it just based on if there are offers on the table those are allowed to flush through but anything that doesn't have an offer on the table if we're going to freeze we're going to freeze why give it 3 weeks to freeze be
because I think it's just what what we owe to our department heads who have gone through all of the work um please don't just holler out from the yeah I just I just think that if if if our goal is to save by halting the spend
then we should halt the spend and not give it time to continue to last so again the the goal you're by implementing a hiring freeze you're not looking to save the money this year because that becomes free cash you can't utilize that money next year that doesn't help us next year what that what
it does is if we're looking at reductions in force it freeze that up where we're not laying people off and we are saving the unemployment um but you're the money you save that doesn't help us next year it it goes to onetime re onetime funds that
we would then be able to utilize for Capital so it would help us in the capital side certainly the operational but not the operational side of things except for the that comes off if you have a budget that's been created for next year that has that position
that right but the funding we would save this year doesn't help us that that money isn't freed up and then applied to next year per se in the budget it would certainly be freed up but that if we saved anything this year that would go into free cash and ultimately help us with capital what a good thing um but
again I I see both sides of it the point of March 1 was just to department heads were just presented with this today um in our department head meeting and it was just to to let them know what's coming and so they're aware was anybody going to be hired in the next two weeks
I mean likely not I know we were advertising a yeah a question truck driver please identify yourself Jing Gant I'm Jing Gant Library director um 117 cranberry Drive um just a
clarification um so we we Implement uh hiring phrase um meaning but do I lose that position in the library so I have a circulation librarian and she leaves and I have a hiring phrase that I can't hire
that associate it but do I lose that position when that Hing freeze is over so we would reevaluate in the budget for the next coming year you and again it would be a case-by casee basis departments could make a request to hire that position that would
be reviewed by myself and ultimately approve have to be approved by the you're saying I actually lose that position not just hire don't hire somebody for that it's just not guaranteed right Cody for next year yeah there's no guarantee we're going to take a hard look at all the positions okay for next year okay if the the the
position would still exist it's just is a matter of are we going to budget for it next year that's that's the question oh that's okay no but my position would still exist so if things get better no yeah we're not we're not removing positions from existence permanently no thank
you okay um so motion to uh um hiring freeze as of March 1st I'll second that any discussion from the board all those in favor say I I opposed unanimous um okay um before we go John
in uh can I ask Mr chair sorry sorry um I was approached too by some residents and I don't know this might not be popular with some folks about a since we have fincom here the the possibility of an overtime freeze I mean again I that it's the same
thing as what I just said you free up money for capital for for next year that doesn't help us apply it to um to the next year's budget you can't let's say we save $200,000 you can't apply that to
next's operation you I also am concerned with we're not this year's budget we're stable you know we're we're continuously reviewing revenues um and expenses year-to day actuals and we we are fine this year if we were under paced for our
revenues or our expenses were um growing then would say yeah we need to implement something like that to save this year the concern is most of our overtime is Public Safety related I don't know how feasible it is to tell our police chief and fire chief that they need some sort
of approval to get that overtime when it's it's likely that they need that that correct no I just wanted to bring it up in front of the board my thought is the same that um I I if we were to consider that I wouldn't do it tonight I I I would want to have at least two
weeks of uh information on that because I think I think if I'm not mistaken if we get a bunch of snowstorms they're going to be overtime in the highway department everybody get your shovels right and so if we have it's going to stop snowing but but here
but I would just but I would just take issue with a a couple things I mean there is there are some things that you could cut that are overtime there are some things we you know I hate to say it but the wood chipper on Saturdays does not if if things are tight in the schools we don't have to have the wood chipper on Saturdays you know and let's
call it Spade to space and the other thing is if Public Safety aside if over things are okay this year but maybe if we didn't budget for so much overtime the elementary school didn't wouldn't have to have cut as much last year as they had as they did if we
weren't anticipating overtime to have been paid out maybe there's more on the plate for the HS last year that's kind of a that's kind of a finance committee um weie those things that's really what they do we the budget's a lot of work and in the finance committee in our
financial team spend countless hours on the budget reviewing these things take all these things into consideration and and we are a barebones budget in this it's not a criticism of the budget of the absolutely not but I just want it to be clear that we we dig into these things and if again if that's something
that the finance committee recommends to reduce next year there would certainly be a savings realized next year if you wanted to say no the the wood chipper for example no more that on the weekends that would certainly be a savings next year that if you cut it right now this
year that doesn't save I'm I'm I'm speaking retrospectively talk about last year this time I mean what if overtime had to be approved by the fincom public safety aside again I get what you're saying the fincom they're um very involved but a lot of times they don't know the
operation of the department that's why we hire qualified department heads I'll let it go depart I'll let it go but you we have spoken on other issues about things when over over time is just unilaterally approved when there are other Alternatives that would have saved the town money that are only reviewed
after the fact mhm and so those are the types of issues without naming them that should be addressed before they happen not subsequent when they're paid out and come at the expense of other things so okay so um I'm just going to say sorry to pull the pin on that like at the end
of the meeting I apologize but just something for the fincom to consider as we look at budgets for next year all right so we're behind on our schedule we have an appointment at 6:45 with Mr Mark chetwin if I'm saying that wrong it looks like there's a v in there and I
don't know how to pronounce it so you might have to help us and this is for the uh veteran services committee so if you would just uh introduce yourself tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in this uh position uh certainly uh Mark chn 126
Palmer Mill Road um hold on a second folks folks we're trying to complete the meeting so if you want to please do so and hold the conversations in the hallway thank you all right I'm sorry go right ahead Mark ch26 palman Mill Road
um I'm a recently retired veteran of 32 years um I think it's time to just get back to the community I've lived in Halifax since 2004 um so I don't plan on going anywhere so like to throw my name in the ring okay anybody from the board have
any questions no I want to thank him for for serving the community and I know we have Steve here yeah Steve uh Mr Littlefield you want to come on up and just tell us your recommendation my guess is he wouldn't be here if you weren recommending him uh good evening Steve Littlefield 15
Franklin Street veteran service officer I served with Mark for a long time in the Army National Guard um he's been in Halifax a long time he helps out when every time we've asked of him uh he he's had a strong desire to do a little more
so when these openings came up on the committee um I I I called them up I said hey you want to be part of this and he jumped right at it so uh again I think he'd be another great addition to the board thank you okay um any comments I just thank you for your service and
thank you for volunteering here I think it's always Noble when people would like to give back um so thank you for both of those I would uh like to make a motion to uh let me see uh nominate Mark CH cwind uh to the veteran services committee second any further discussion all those
in favor say I I opposed thank you unanimous congratulations uh all right let's uh finish up with the rest of the agenda we have uh ambulance abatements uh ambulance abatements November 2024 for $17,995 second any discussion all those
in favor say I opposed unanimous uh ALS ambulance affiliation agreement this is an annual yeah it's an annual requirement this um is our affiliation agreement with B uh Plymouth for their medical director oversee kind of the The Physician aspect of our Ambulance
Service the agreement is unchanged other than the dates okay so we just want us to approve it yes so I would move that we approve the advanced life support ambulance affiliation agreement second any discussion all those in favor say I I
opposed uh it's unanimous um I want to talk about something that we just uh representative for Regional Schools study yes so um Lauren law the chairman of the elementary school committee just mentioned previously in the meeting we um at the request of the
school committee we applied for an efficiency and regionalization Grant we were awarded that Grant $125,000 um Upon Our non-compliance with the MBTA zoning law we quickly uh I quickly reached out to the Town
Administrator in Kingston to see if they would take that Grant from us so it wouldn't be lost funding um they graciously took that Grant so they Kingston is now the recipient of that but um it's to pursue a study just to look at regionalization again all it is
is a study it's not costing us anything but with that we'd like to put together a little uh communication committee so we are asking that a member of the finance committee a member of the board of Selectmen from each Community take part in that so we're looking for one of you guys to serve as a
representative um I am the school le aison I will gladly step forward if the board sees fit you've also got kids in the high school yeah do you want us to make a motion for that effect all right uh I will make a motion that uh Mr seelig be the
representative for Regional School study second any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous Pino monitoring I don't think I've ever handled one of these before no so this is just a notification from the uh State Lottery Commission there that there are
two Keno monitors planning to go in at Twin Lakes Liquors in Halifax cigar and smoke so you don't need to approve it it's just a notification and if you were against it you could send a letter letting them know that you did not approve that you did you would not like
them to move forward with it so as long as you're okay with it you don't need to do anything um um just you they the the little the TV screens that have the K games on them is there a downside people loing in the stores I
don't think we get any any percentages off of that I don't so we don't get a exact percentage the state the Lottery Commission is what funds A unrestricted government Aid historically so that money technically comes back to the town
through but it's not a direct yeah it's not certainly not direct discretion of the State Legislature speaking of uh letters this reminds me I and I apologize I meant to say this on the MBTA thing but the public comment period is now open on the new
regulations uh if anyone's watching our meeting and you have a strong opinion about uh the uh MBTA housing I urge you to catch on that website and just send the public comments one of the things that we heard in our last round of all
of this was that there was supposedly a public comment period we weren't involved so I don't I don't I never heard of it uh and no one ever objected to it if you have an objection to it this is the time to do it so that they know it and I would also suggest to the board that we asked Our Town
Administrator to uh fill out that form indicating to the MBTA that uh this town doesn't agree with that and that's and that would be sufficient comment on our public or that that would be our board position are and
we would be separately be able to comment oh Absol publicly there's a website my my wife was doing I seen it I'm just we can we can double down separate from Cody comments okay so are you good with that yeah I'll draft a letter and send it to you and then I'll submit it okay I think you can attach it
to the uh web to the we we actually posted the link on our town page so residents can see it it's right under news and announcement it says NBTA communi ACT public comments now being accepted um and that's that's not public comments coming to the town that's public comments to the State about those
regulations and again the the the board of selectman doesn't make these laws we don't have anything to do with them it's the state legislature that does it or the or the or the uh in this case the um uh one of those Finance one of those um
subcommittees that handle it so I think it has to be clearly expressed to the people that might make a difference including our state representatives and state senators which we've been trying to get them to listen to us for 3 years now so all right uh okay so
um Town administrator's update uh yes so few things um Jean Galan our longtime Library director has announced she'll be retiring in May so Jean is left but it out of here too she was here minutes announc so uh we'll we'll certainly have Gan in at a future meeting to recognize
her for her service um I met with the library Board of Trustees recently we've developed a um process and timeline for the recruitment of that position so that'll be a position that we will be seeking approval from the board of Selectmen given the new uh hiring freeze we certainly won't have that in place by
March 1st but that's that'll be an essential position to to lead the library will um so we will like I said have Gan in in the future uh our FY 24 audit is currently ongoing um kudos to our finance team Linda McCarthy our treasure collector and Lindsay
Martinelli Our Town accountant providing all of the information they needed it's a laborious task um so thank you for doing that uh we're continuing to push through the audit uh there's a lot of good things going on at the library so I recommend checking out their website one of the interesting things was uh they're
going to be hosting a session on the geology of Halifax where uh a a professor comes in and gives some history and some information on the current geology and uh to entice people to get out there they'll give everyone a free rock from Halifax at this session now you're
talking so I was going to say don't do that right before selectman meeting please um and there's also a couple authors upcoming at the library that are going to be discussing their books so um take a look at their website as well our government study committee is continuing
to meet uh is planning some upcoming meetings with various departments boards committees to understand the current structure and operation of the Town Zing by our Review Committee is going to look to meet within the next week or two finalize their recommendations to send to the planning board of the zoning changes we'll also look to have some
public uh hearings and uh workshops in in March and April on those and I'm just preparing for town meeting as best we can have to do with this just just your signature doesn't need to we'll have to De anything with the board no okay all right uh anything else to come before
the board I think uh yes Amy troop 10 Hillside a so there is a large um employment advertisement that went out today for an assistant Library director have we ever had an assistant
Library director before an assistant Library director posting that was foran libr no we're recruiting a library director so it's for her replacement in May job okay because we're talking about that that the freeze would you know wouldn't include a
$90,000 position that was put V on advertisement today so every position is included in the freeze as just voted by The Board and they'll be reviewed on a case-by casee basis for approval by the board to to hire so that position will have to go before the board starting
March 1st though is what my understanding was so that any position that hasn't been filled at that point will so that position will ultimately need the board's approval to recruit absolutely okay but there's some the reason that you need the board approval is because there are some positions that
the town cannot operate without no I understand that 100% I'm just wondering like if it was an important thing to maybe start it today so that we weren't adding more and just waiting till March 1st but it's to replace Jean is that that's what you're telling me yeah the
library director right okay um motion to adjourns in order so moved already any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous thank you all for coming and all your comments
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