Silver Lake School Committee Approves Calendar, HVAC Spending, and New Courses

PLYMPTON -- December 12, 2024, Silver Lake School Committee approves 2025-26 calendar and redirects $72,000 toward HVAC repairs at December meeting. The committee voted unanimously to adopt a draft school calendar opening August 27, 2025, with January 2 proposed as an additional holiday to extend winter break, pending approval by all four member-town committees. A $72,000 balance left unspent after Ford chassis limits prevented purchase of a second special education wheelchair van was authorized for HVAC repairs district-wide, beginning with a roughly $9,000 stopgap fix to the 19-year-old middle school auditorium heating unit. The committee also approved a $14,990 additional cost to defer the long-troubled CTE garage door project to June, over one member's objection that the district bore no fault for the delay. Legislative agent Jason Fraser warned the committee that Silver Lake may lose roughly $157,000 in annual rural aid, faces its first possible failure in over a decade to hit the 75 percent circuit breaker reimbursement threshold, and could see cuts to Title I, II, and IV federal funding, adding that at least one member town may need a Proposition 2½ override this spring.