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Sewer petition. Article 15 passed 171-28 on a counted vote, as printed in a separate one-page handout distributed at the meeting, not the warrant text.

The proponent, Daniel Zotos, described two parts: a request that the Legislature pass a special act so that no commitment of Kingston sewer capacity outside town takes effect without a Town Meeting vote, and a local requirement that the Board of Selectmen return to Town Meeting before signing, changing or extending an out-of-town sewer agreement. The petition grew out of a June agreement allocating sewer capacity to the Miramar development in Duxbury, which Zotos criticized.

Town counsel said the sewer commissioners and selectmen had authority to sign the agreement. Counsel cautioned that a new Section 3, which would send an existing binding contract back to Town Meeting, could expose the town to a potential breach claim. The proponent acknowledged the revised text includes existing agreements but said it would not by itself end the Miramar contract.

The moderator ruled the revised motion within the scope of the warrant and said the meeting could not resolve whether the boards had authority to sign the agreement. A sewer commissioner urged a no vote, saying the article would restrict the commission’s ability to add customers and that sewer rates would rise without new revenue. One resident called the revised motion a bait and switch; the proponent rejected that.

Article 16. Voters also asked the Board of Sewer Commissioners to file a written report with the town clerk within 30 days on any agreement to serve property outside Kingston, covering terms, capacity, fees and refundability, effects on sewer rates, debt and expansion plans, and the legal authority relied on, and for Town Meeting to hear the report at the next Annual Town Meeting. The motion carried with minimal opposition.

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Chair Kim Emberg said the meeting was scheduled at the request of residents who wanted the board to discuss its scope of authority before the Oct. 27 Special Town Meeting, and that the board had relied on counsel’s advice.

Town Counsel Elizabeth Lydon’s Oct. 20 memorandum, included in the meeting packet, says the Sewer Commission was created by Chapter 439 of the Acts of 1998 and, under state law, holds exclusive authority over the sewer system. It says the Miramar agreement is not an intermunicipal agreement, that the developer must obtain Duxbury approvals separately, and that the Board of Selectmen is a party because roadwork is anticipated in Kingston. Because no town money is being spent on that roadwork, the memo says, no appropriation requiring a Town Meeting vote is needed. The project, at 121 Parks Street in Duxbury, consists of up to 400 bedrooms.

An attorney for the town, Alexander Costa with Mead, Talerman & Costa, LLC, appearing remotely, said the firm had reviewed the questions exhaustively and stands by its opinion.

And just because it doesn’t mention a specific action doesn’t mean that that action is prohibited. That’s a non sequitur.
— Alexander Costa, Town Counsel 1:22:00

Members split on where they stand. Carl Pike said he remains comfortable with the decision to sign but would strongly consider reversing their vote if counsel found the town lacked authority. Missy Bateman said she was still in favor and were taking counsel’s recommendation. Joe Cunningham questioned why the agreement was fast-tracked before the new board took office.

If I had to go back and sign this again, I certainly would not. 100%, I wouldn’t.
— Joe Cunningam, Board of Selectmen 10:11

Sheila Vaughn said that even if the town has legal authority, she did not want to sell capacity to another town and would not say yes.

Residents pressed the board for its due diligence. Marsha Meekins of Lake Street asked whether the board would make public the supplemental advice members received privately from counsel. Costa said such communications are privileged. Dan Zotos of Summer Street, who said he started the citizens’ petitions, said counsel’s one-page memo was inadequate and asked what happens next. He said his Article 15 on the Town Meeting warrant would require a special act of the Legislature for future sewer connections outside Kingston.

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The high school’s slides showed 35% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in English language arts in 2026, down from 65% in 2023. Grade 10 math fell from 55% to 44% over the same period, and science fell from 52% to 33%. The share of students not meeting expectations in English rose from 5% to 22%.

The school is still classified as not requiring assistance or intervention, but its progress toward improvement targets fell to 23% in 2026, in the limited or no progress category, from 57% in 2023. Its accountability percentile, which the presentation describes as a measure of performance relative to schools serving similar grades, fell from the 44th in 2025 to the 33rd.

The high school’s principal, Michaela Gill, told the committee the faculty heard a similar presentation at the start of the year and was told the school is closer than is comfortable to the point where the state intervenes

We all need to own this and that is definitely a culture shift that we need to make. Our students deserve better.
— Principal Michaela Gill 1:27:56

The action plan in the presentation calls for identifying ninth and 10th graders who are partially meeting or not meeting expectations and pulling them for small-group tutoring during Laker Block, holding item-analysis sessions with past released MCAS questions, and moving freshman science from physics to biology. It also calls for a weekly attendance committee that reviews students’ records once they reach five absences, and for testing students in familiar locations with proctors they know.

The school received no points for advanced coursework this year. Gill said some advanced courses had not been coded correctly for state reporting and that the courses have since been reviewed. The presentation put advanced coursework completion at 65.1% for all students and 10.8% for students with disabilities.

The four courses put to a vote Thursday — AP Cyber Security, AP French, AP Pre-Calculus and AP Economics — are among the advanced courses the action plan lists. Gill said the AP Economics proposal may not have made it into members’ folders. The action plan also lists AP Art, which was not part of the vote.

The improvement plan in the committee’s packet is marked draft, with this year’s additions in red. They include a student learning goal that all students will meet or exceed expectations on 2026–2027 ELA and math Star scores and 2027 science MCAS scores. Gill also asked for help finding a community member from Halifax, Kingston or Plympton without a student at the high school to fill a committee seat.

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The board’s votes on the Special Town Meeting warrant are recommendations; Town Meeting makes the final decisions.

Article 14 asks Town Meeting to amend the zoning bylaw to define data centers and list them as a prohibited use. The board recommended approval on a divided vote 4-1 with Carl Pike opposed. Article 13 proposes zoning rules for battery energy storage systems, including where they may be allowed, which was recommended unanimously.

Article 9 seeks $2.5 million, through borrowing, to buy and install cellular-based water meters. Members were told the meters are part of an administrative consent order from DEP and would help with leak detection. Ratepayers would cover the cost, though a board member noted the town is the backstop if they cannot. That recommendation also came on a divided 4-1 vote with Joe Cunningham opposed.

The board also recommended Soules Pond electrical repairs, a new well and pump station, $24,825 for ambulance ultrasound equipment, and first-year funding of the firefighters’ and superior officers’ contracts. Articles 4, 6 and 7 were skipped for now because agreements or numbers are not final, and Article 8, wage and personnel bylaw changes, was held.

The board took no position on Articles 15 and 16. Chair Kim Emberg said the board has historically not voted on citizen petitions so it does not steer the debate, and members who spoke favored keeping that precedent. During open forum, the lead petitioner, Daniel Zotos, said the petitions drew 400 signatures and urged favorable recommendations, calling the agreement a sweetheart deal for the developers.

Marsha Meekins, who filed the open meeting law complaint Oct. 5, told the board it alleges the selectmen failed to list the Miramar agreement on their May 5 agenda, approved it at a May 7 meeting she said violated posting requirements, and never made the agreement public. She argued the board must meet to review a complaint before delegating its response, and asked for counsel unaffiliated with town counsel, which she said took part in the events at issue.

No meeting was held between October 5th and tonight at which this public body reviewed the complaint.
— Marsha Meekins 25:57

The agenda proposed delegating the response to town counsel. Chair Emberg said members had received the complaint within the required period and asked whether to bring in independent counsel. Sheila Vaughn asked the cost, saying she did not want to spend $30,000. Town Administrator Scott Lambiase said the review would not be a heavy lift, offered to get prices and noted the board could seek an extension. Emberg said town counsel could handle it objectively but would support outside counsel; Cunningham said an independent source would probably be good but did not want added cost. Emberg said the legal budget includes money for outside counsel. A motion to delegate the response to outside counsel was made and seconded, and members voted unanimously.

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Town Administrator Scott Lambiase told the joint meeting that the 2.5% levy increase, local receipts, state aid and a new billboard lease will not keep pace with operating costs that typically climb a little over 4% a year. The level-service gap will probably land between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, he said, and the administration is working from $1.2 million for now.

Two costs the town does not control account for much of it. Health insurance, a $3 million line item, rose a little over 9% last year and will probably rise again. The county retirement system’s full-funding target has slipped from 2030 to 2032, and Kingston’s assessment increases over the next couple of years are approximately $750,000 per year. Together, the administrator said, those two items put the town close to $1 million in new costs.

The forecast assumes $400,000 in new growth. The administrator called last year’s five-year plan, which counted on $1 million or more, very optimistic for a largely built-out town. State aid has run around 2%, Chapter 70 is not growing by much, and relief does not arrive until the retirement assessment drops off in fiscal 2032, when more than $5 million or $6 million would come back to the town.

Carol, the finance director put it more bluntly: without an override, the town will have to cut services and personnel, and the new growth that might avoid one is not coming.

I know that we don’t like to say that, but this is where we are. We talked about it for three years. I’m finally going to say it out loud. I think we are going to be asking for an override …
— Chair Kim Emberg 1:28:15

Carl Pike argued against a giant request in favor of one sized for the coming year with a look a couple of years out. Emberg also urged that any request be broken out by department — police, fire, schools — noting that neighboring communities passed overrides at town meeting only to see them fail at the ballot.

Departments will be asked for two submissions: a level-service budget and a separate one showing 5% to 10% reductions.

Pike pushed back on the starting point, proposing a preliminary budget capped at a 2% increase across every department, schools included. Starting at about 4.4%, he said, sets the town up for an almost automatic override, and the town has gone to its unions seeking contracts with approximately 1% raises in the first year. Lambiase countered that even a 2% cost-of-living raise would leave the budget growing well beyond 2%, because utilities, software subscriptions, steps and lanes and pension costs keep rising.

Finance Committee member Marsha Meekins said the handout showed a shortfall close to $1.6 million and asked whether officials were weighing a one-year override or a larger one to carry the town to fiscal 2031 or 2032. Pike called it way too early to put a figure on an override, warning that any number would be in the newspaper the next day.

We have been slowly bleeding for several years. And we’ve kind of kicked the can down the road. And the question eventually is, do you keep kicking?
— David Fuller, Finance Committee 44:39

Fuller pledged not to leave the issue on the town meeting floor without a recommendation.

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The figure came out of a joint highway and planning presentation on the assessment program Kingston has used for nine years. The vendor, CityLogix, has scanned the town’s 75 miles of roads three times, most recently from late 2025 into early 2026, using a car carrying LiDAR equipment and 360-degree cameras. This year it added the 28 miles of sidewalks, covered on an e-scooter fitted with cameras.

Every road and sidewalk segment gets a condition index score from zero to 100, and the results load into a web mapping platform the highway department uses to choose between milling and overlay, overlay alone and crack sealing. The platform also prices the whole backlog.

“And to bring the PCI up to about a 75, it’s about $17 million for the town of Kingston,” said Shawn Turner, Highway Superintendent. Town Planner Valerie Massard said Kingston does not have it.

The scores also set the order of work, and Turner said they answer the recurring suspicion that paving follows addresses rather than pavement. Parting Ways Road scored a 45 and is being milled and paved now, which will lift it to 90; South Street scored 33; and Pine Street was milled the day of the meeting. It scored 33 as well. About seven and a half miles of roadway was crack sealed this year, and the department plans to put the map on the town website so residents can see conditions and updates for themselves.

Grants carry the rest. A shared streets grant will pay for squaring up the Grove Street intersection with safer crosswalks and for reworking the library entrance, removing the island that makes the turn difficult, with construction starting within a couple of weeks. Sidewalks on the failing side of Green Street opposite the library follow next year. The planning office has filed three or four applications for Exit 20 design funding and is coordinating with MassDOT, which will begin paving Main Street out to the town line in the spring, so the town’s own Main Street improvements can go in ahead of the pavement. MassDOT also took on milling and repairing the Independence Mall entrance after a two- or three-year push and a dispute over whether the road was state or local. A three-year and five-year roadway and sidewalk plan is due back to the board in the spring or summer.

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Almost none of the money Kingston’s schools left unspent is going back to town coffers. The district’s finance director told the committee the year-end closeout report totaled $313,934.55 and asked that all but a fraction of it move into a stabilization fund rather than revert to the Town of Kingston.

“Per DESE’s regulation, we can put up to 2% of the budget into the stabilization fund.” said Stefani Hatton, Director of Finance and Operations.

The request was $311,936.08 into the fund and $1,998.47 returned to the town. Sheila Vaughn moved those figures without change, and the committee approved them on a voice vote.

The Kingston Foundation for Education opened the night with money moving the other way, presenting a check for $70,000, the proceeds of a year that included two new fundraisers, a giving market and a trivia night.

A second gift of $4,500 came from 56 donors, former students and parents, in memory of Nancy Babington, a Kingston Elementary School kindergarten teacher who taught in town for 23 years and died Nov. 27, 2025, at 83. One donor gave $1,000, and the drive finished $500 short of a $5,000 goal with its online fundraiser still open.

Minutes later the committee recessed into executive session to discuss collective bargaining strategy, including a KTA grievance, KTA and KESPA, and a KTA memorandum of agreement on snow emergencies, and to approve executive session minutes of July 6, 2026 28:00. The roll call was 4-0, with one of the five members recorded as present rather than voting. Back in open session, the committee approved the KTA memorandum of agreement on a voice vote.

Student handbooks were approved with policy and procedural updates cleared by legal counsel, along with language changes Principal Jake Galewski described as more neuroaffirming and inclusive. Member Jesse Keith asked about the dress code, which now leaves hats and bandanas to parental discretion rather than barring them during school hours. Galewski answered that the items are still monitored in school and that a hat is sometimes an accommodation for a student with a visual impairment.

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Following an executive session on collective bargaining strategy with the Silver Lake Education Association (SLEA), the committee reconvened in open session to formalize several contract alterations that had not appeared in the previous approval vote.

Director of Human Resources Liz Grindle explained to the committee that while salary schedules were accurate, certain differential adjustments had been missing from the previously adopted document, despite already being active in payroll systems. The adjustments also include a 3% stipend increase in the contract’s initial year, along with a middle school schedule swap designed as a net-zero impact across two positions. The updated contract passed by a unanimous voice vote.

The committee also weighed research protocols at the high school level. Faculty presenter Carrie Mathias addressed the committee alongside High School Principal Michaela Gill, requesting an immediate exemption from district policy File ILD, which governs student submissions to surveys and educational research. Mathias explained that the strict deadlines mandated by the College Board make the district’s mandatory advance notification window impossible to navigate around winter weather and vacation closures.

“Because these academic surveys are tightly controlled to ensure minimal risk to human subjects and are an explicitly mandated component of a standardized College Board curriculum, subjecting them to follow-up policy as listed in Section I, File ILDL of the district policy can overtly obstruct students from completing their time-sensitive research requirements in completing the course.” — 0:38:52 Carrie Mathias

Superintendent Jill Proulx recommended granting the one-year waiver while directing the policy subcommittee to craft permanent policy revisions. The committee voted unanimously to suspend the policy for AP Research students for the 2026–2027 school year.

Committee member Jason Fraser highlighted state-level legislative monitoring, reporting that the Foundation Budget Review Commission has reassembled to address flaws identified in the Chapter 70 education funding formula. Fraser also raised alarms over a potential federal rollback of the E-rate program currently under review by the Federal Communications Commission, noting the rebate program has historically preserved tens of thousands of dollars in technology and internet connectivity funding for member schools.

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Lambiase gave the board no figures, and was explicit that it is early. Departments are submitting through the town’s accounting system, MUNIS, and the direction to department heads will be level service — what it costs to keep things where they are — and several departments are expected to ask for more than that, which will come to the board and the Finance Committee for decisions.

“It’s still too early to say, obviously, if we are looking for things beyond, you know, level service,” he said, “and even level service may necessitate a discussion on a two-and-a-half override.”

He had met earlier that day with the Finance Committee and Capital Committee chairs. The Joint Budget Advisory Group meets September 30 at 6 p.m. Articles for the October 27 special town meeting are due from departments by September 18 so the board can vote the warrant on September 22, and the warrant was opened that night with a September 22 closing date. Chair Kimberley Emberg told viewers the meeting needs at least 100 residents for a quorum.

Two other spending pressures surfaced in the same report. Urgent electrical repairs are needed at two pump stations after intermittent failures turned up in routine testing; the town has a waiver from DCAM and may bring a Water Department article to the special town meeting to fund the work. And the elementary school roofing project has fallen behind, with the town notifying the contractor it will levy liquidated damages if the schedule is not recovered.

The night’s longest argument was over two parking signs. The Police Department, working with Highway Superintendent Shawn Turner, asked the board to post no-parking signs on Tremont Street and Center Street. The board approved Tremont Street and took no action on Center Street.

Tremont Street drew little resistance — a stretch from the Dillingham corner that narrows to barely one lane, with a nearby apartment building and recurring winter complaints. Center Street was different. The request grew out of parking generated by a weekly Monday evening gathering at a church on the street, and the residents who came to speak did not want the signs.

“This parking issue is like taking a sledgehammer to a pistachio.” — Susan Sherman, Main Street

Sherman said the problem had largely resolved itself through neighbors talking to the group’s organizers, that the street has been fine since, and that she had not been consulted before the item reached the agenda. She apologized on the record to Vice Chair Melissa Bateman for the tone of an earlier email, while criticizing how Police Lieutenant John Bateman had proceeded.

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Convening via Zoom for under twenty minutes, the Kingston Board of Selectmen addressed critical departmental vacancies, approved key community licenses, and reviewed municipal service challenges spanning water infrastructure to cable franchise negotiations.

Police Chief Brian Holmes came before the board seeking immediate measures to maintain behavioral health support within law enforcement operations. Following the recent resignation of a staff clinician, Holmes sought approval to advertise and fill the full-time role—fully funded through the Department of Mental Health (DMH) Jail Diversion Program (JDP) grant—and requested flexibility to hire temporary per-diem clinicians so co-response capabilities do not lapse while recruitment proceeds.

Selectman Carl Pike initially voiced reservations about open-ended hiring discretion, prompting the board to refine the authorization so per-diem clinicians may only be appointed whenever staffing falls below two full-time clinicians.

“It’s our intention to stop using the per diems when we fill the full-time vacancy because the money is simply not there. So if we were to add anybody, we’d have to come back to the board anyway.” — Chief Brian Holmes (00:06:31)]

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The town clerk’s office requested the authorization to establish an early voting precinct in Room 101 of the Townhouse. The scheduled window will span from Saturday, August 22, 2026, through Friday, August 28, 2026. While the measure passed, it exposed a clear philosophical divide on the board regarding automated expansion of voting access vs. operational efficiency. Selectman Carl Pike explicitly voiced his skepticism, noting that continuous access to mail-in and standard absentee voting methods largely duplicates the utility of a dedicated early voting venue. He ultimately supported the Clerk’s request for early voting, and Board Chair Kimberley Emberg cast the dissenting “no” vote.

Beyond election mechanics, the evening featured extensive focus on local environmental policy and tricentennial celebrations. Conservation Agent Matt Penella presented a departmental overview, highlighting a major victory: the acquisition of a $1.6 million match-free grant from MassDOT to fund the impending Lake Street Culvert construction project. The work is slated for the summer of 2027 and will necessitate a full closure of Lake Street to standard traffic between July and August of that year. Penella also issued an earnest appeal to residents to consult his office prior to modifying properties near wetlands, revealing that post-facto remediation and enforcement actions frequently saddle unsuspecting homeowners with tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary restoration expenses.

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The debate over Nobadeer Circle, a dead-end residential circle constructed around 2008 under a 40B comprehensive permit, reached an abrupt conclusion during Tuesday’s meeting. The road layout had been under review since a public hearing in December, which initially authorized town staff to perform field inspections. Following delays caused by winter snow cover, a municipal team finally accessed the site to survey the infrastructure.

The findings, compiled by Town Planner Valerie Massard and standard field staff, presented a grim financial picture. The development features 14 catch basins and 11 drain manholes, an astonishing 85 percent of which currently require complete reconstruction. Additionally, the neighborhood relies on a complex stormwater infrastructure that includes four wetland areas and a pre-existing 190-foot culvert connecting two ponds beneath the roadway.

Using current prevailing wage construction figures, officials estimated immediate repair costs to include $6,000 for drainage structure reconstruction, $12,000 for crack sealing, and up to $200,000 for milling and repaving the asphalt surface, which is projected to fail within a five-year horizon. This $218,000 ballpark figure excluded unknown liabilities regarding potential repairs to the culvert, pond cleanouts, and a deteriorating split-rail fence within the public layout.

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The meeting opened with an immediate shift in leadership as the committee conducted its annual reorganization. The slate was approved unanimously, installing Gordon Laws as Chair, Amy Cortright as Vice Chair, Lukasz Kowalski as Secretary, and Mark Guidoboni as Assistant Treasurer. With Chair Laws absent, Vice Chair Cortright took the gavel to lead the committee through a series of major fiscal and operational decisions.

The single most critical development of the evening centered on the long-term maintenance of the district’s 21-year-old facilities. Committee Member Mark Guidoboni provided a comprehensive update from the Safety, Fees and Revenues Subcommittee (SFFR) subcommittee, highlighting a major financial milestone for the region. Through a collaborative effort with the finance committees and select boards of Halifax, Kingston, and Plympton, the district successfully recaptured expiring debt capacity to establish a dedicated Silver Lake Stabilization Fund.

This stabilization fund balance sits at approximately $700,000 and can begin to address a daunting backlog of deferred maintenance. Guidoboni warned that while the district’s facilities staff, led by Director Mike Lawless, saved taxpayers an estimated $136,000 by handling items internally, the total remaining “house doctor’s” capital list still sits at a staggering $53 million.

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The Annual Town Meeting, overseen by newly elected Moderator Michael Cowett, moved efficiently through its early agenda by passing a 16-item consent agenda in a single sweep. However, routine proceedings ground to a halt when citizen petitions for private street acceptances hit the floor.

While Article 40 saw the public acceptance of Timber Ridge Lane and Sequoia Drive pass with minimal opposition, the Captain Jones subdivision (Article 41) faced a deeply critical reception from town officials. The Planning Board delivered a unanimous 0-5 unfavorable recommendation, and the Finance Committee voted 1-2-2 against acceptance. Town Planner Valerie Massard clarified that the Planning Board’s opposition is part of a broader strategy to manage the town’s long-term financial liabilities by limiting the intake of new public roads.

The debate intensified when Highway Superintendent Shawn Turner raised operational concerns regarding an existing neighborhood speed hump. Turner noted that the highway department lacked the municipal funding to safely re-engineer the infrastructure. Massard revealed that while the homeowners association had verbally agreed to cover the estimated $27,000 cost to replace the speed hump with two standard speed tables, Town Counsel determined that any such agreement could not be made legally binding or enforceable within the warrant article language itself.

Seeking a compromise, Select Board Chair Kimberley A. Emberg introduced an amendment making the road acceptance explicitly contingent upon the speed hump issue being resolved to town specifications at no cost to the town. Although the amendment passed, subsequent warnings from Town Counsel that the contingency remained legally unenforceable prompted a motion to postpone.

Residents defended the neighborhood’s inclusion, presenting data that showed the subdivision acts as a vital public safety cut-through. A neighborhood traffic sample recorded 241 vehicles utilizing the road during a two-hour morning window on June 3, and 246 vehicles on June 6. Proponents argued the road functions effectively as a public connector between Route 27 and Route 106, which directly relieves congestion at the Cumberland Farms intersection and assists navigating fire apparatus. Ultimately, town meeting members favored financial caution, voting to push the article to the Special Town Meeting on October 21, 2026.

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The Cushman Farms project—proposed near Marion Drive and adjacent to the local elementary school—has frustrated town officials and neighbors for several years. On June 1, 2026, the ZBA finally rendered a decision. Chairman Paul Dahlen reported that the board successfully leveraged conditions to scale back the development’s impact.

The approved conditions mandate wider access roads at the Marion Drive entrance, restrict building heights to three floors, completely block emergency road access to Copper Beach Drive, and enforce strict parameters around groundwater and local floodplains. Most notably, the ZBA forced a 35% reduction in density, chopping the developer’s original proposal of 162 units down to 105 units.

“[The developer] made very clear that they would not yield on density, and we diminished their approved density of 162 units by 35% down to 105 units. We’ll see if it sticks.” [01:28:04] — Marsha Meekins, ZBA Member

However, the regulatory victory was instantly overshadowed when ZBA member Marsha Meekins took to the microphone to explain why she abstained from the vote. Marsha leveled a stunning accusation against her own board’s leadership and Town Counsel, revealing that a private meeting had been held with the developer from which the public was completely barred.

Meekins argued that because the public hearing officially closed on March 18, 2026, state law mandated a final decision within 40 days (by April 27). She alleged that a critical extension agreement from the developer was not filed with the Town Clerk until April 30, meaning the project may technically be “deemed approved” via a procedural lapse, rendering the ZBA’s newly imposed conditions legally vulnerable.

Chairman Dahlen vigorously defended the process, explaining that the applicant requested the continuation to negotiate concessions after realizing the board was prepared to deny the project over a 100-year floodplain issue. Dahlen asserted that because the developer provided written consent to waive the deadlines via email, the cancellation of the public meeting was entirely legal, adding that a meeting could not have been held anyway due to the difficulty of securing a voting quorum.

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The meeting opened with the completion of the School Committee’s annual reorganization led by Chair Megan Cannon. By unanimous votes, the committee elected Jesse A. Keith as Vice Chairperson and Sheila Vaughn as Secretary. Committee members were also meticulously distributed across regional boards and local subcommittees, filling critical vacancies on policy, technology, and health and safety teams to align with incoming member Jennifer Krowchun’s arrival. Following a brief executive session to handle personnel and collective bargaining strategy, the board shifted entirely into operational performance, launching its comprehensive year-end reporting cycle.

The cornerstone of the evening was a data-driven presentation tracing a three-year upward trajectory across early literacy and mathematics. Reporting fresh data from spring benchmarks concluded just days prior, administrators revealed that Kingston’s foundational reading metrics—tracking phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and decoding for grades K through 3 via DIBELS—climbed steadily from a 66% baseline in the fall to finish at 79%. While kindergarten through second-grade cohorts surged to an 83% proficiency rate, outpacing the district’s 80% goal, third-grade scores lagged slightly at 72%. To address this specific gap, officials outlined an immediate summer action plan to train third-grade educators in “Classroom OG” (Orton-Gillingham) phonics interventions.

“We started co-teaching like five years ago at KES, and for the first time since starting co-teaching, we had our first co-taught first grade classroom end the year with no students needing intensive support. Nobody in red on DIBELS.” — 00:25:35 Kingston Elementary Principal Jake Galewski

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The meeting commenced with the standard annual post-election reorganization of the board. Selectman Carl Pike nominated Kim Emberg to serve as the new chairperson of the Board of Selectmen, a motion that carried unanimously. Missy Bateman was subsequently appointed as the vice chairperson, and newly returned board member Sheila Vaughn accepted the role of clerk. Joe Cunningham Jr., also elected to the board in the recent Saturday municipal race, was welcomed to his first official session.

The board immediately stepped into an adjudicatory public hearing regarding three separate annual restaurant all-alcoholic beverage licenses issued to the Indian Pond Country Club for its Function Room, The Grill Room, and the Members Pub. Town Counsel Kayla Venckauskas explained that the town became aware on April 27, 2026, that the underlying real estate of the country club had been transferred from Indian Pond Country Club Inc. to Palmer IPCC Inc. on May 1, 2026, without prior municipal or Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC) approval of the accompanying liquor licenses.

Albert DiNapoli, attorney for the new property owner Bobby Palmer, presented an interim management agreement executed between Palmer’s corporation and the historical club owner. DiNapoli argued that while the physical property was conveyed, the liquor business itself had not technically changed hands. He noted that the prior license holder, Fred Tonsberg, remains on-site, rents an office, maintains primary liquor liability insurance, and holds total fiscal and operational control over ordering alcohol until a formal license transfer can be fully executed. Palmer, also present, noted he is actively shadowing operations to revamp the club’s vision.

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Statement from the town:

We are aware that a story was published in the South Shore News that repeated the assertions of a zoning board member that the Cushman Farms affordable housing project has been constructively approved due to the missing of a deadline to file a decision. Those assertions are factually and legally incorrect. Town Counsel is working closely with the ZBA to ensure that they have the maximum amount of leverage possible in rendering a decision on this project. To that end, a contractually binding extension, to Mid-June, was previously secured from the Developer. Town Counsel affirmed that extension this morning. With the extension, the Board has the time it needs to arrive at a decision that best protects the Town and the affected Copper Beech neighborhood. While c. 40B projects can be difficult for Towns to manage, we believe that the ZBA has the time and the tools to manage this process effectively.

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During the public comment period of Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, resident and Associate Zoning Board member Marsha Meekins informed the Selectmen of a significant procedural failure regarding the Cushman Farms development.

According to Meekins, the Zoning Board allowed a critical 40-day deliberation deadline to expire on April 27 without calling a meeting, taking action, or requesting an extension from the developer. Under Massachusetts Chapter 40B law, failing to act within this window means the project is automatically approved “by operation of law” exactly as the developer initially applied for it.

The lapse effectively erases substantial changes and conditions that neighbors and town officials had spent months successfully pressuring the developer to accept. Meekins stated she had circulated a memo to the Zoning Board and Town Administrator Scott Lambiase on April 17 warning of the impending deadline, but a scheduled meeting was abruptly canceled without explanation, and no subsequent action was taken.

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The meeting opened with a significant focus on the town’s financial health. Town Administrator Scott Lambiase reported that the state has officially certified Kingston’s free cash at $3.1 million. This certification, along with the successful submission of the town’s balance sheets and Schedule A, ensures Kingston remains in good standing for its state aid allotments. [19:05]

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