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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE REPORT TO THE JUNE 2014 STM The granting of easements may involve paying compensation to the owner of the land,but in this case the easement will have zero cost to the Town. This article will be indefinitely postponed if Article 3 does not go forward. The Committee recommends approval of this request(7-0). Article 5: School Master Plan Funds Funding Committee Requested Source Recommendation $250,000 GF Approve (9-0) Student enrollment in the Lexington Public Schools (LPS) system has steadily increased for the past five years, and the School Department's preliminary analysis states that most school buildings are at nearly full capacity. There is a reasonable likelihood of further growth in enrollments over the next few years. Depending on the size and distribution with respect to school buildings, future enrollment growth could severely strain the system capacity and lead to an unacceptable level of overcrowding. Thus it is prudent to assess the capacity of the school system and school buildings as they stand today, and to study options for handling larger enrollments. Options for increasing the capacity of the school system that may be worth considering include: • internal reconfiguration of existing school buildings • construction of permanent additions to school buildings • additions of modular classrooms to existing school buildings • use of the old Harrington School as a school or school annex • construction of a new larger school building at the Hastings School location, and • construction of a new school building at a new location. Professional consultation with an architectural firm experienced in school capacity planning will be es- sential for assessing the LPS system and evaluating the above options and any other options that may be identified. The master planning effort proposed under this article is an effective way to address these is- sues. In collaboration with the School Department and Public Facilities Department, the Town has issued the Request for Qualifications for Designer Services for Lexington Public Schools Master Planning, which contains the following summary: The Town is seeking a qualified architectural firm with PreK-12 Master Planning experience to identify the existing educational capacity and space utilization of ten LPS facilities and to develop strategies and plans to respond to short term and long term enrollment changes. The work will be completed in multiple phases. In Phase 1, the consultants will report on their analysis of the current capacity of the system and options for accommodating projected enrollments. The report will be due on September 1, 2014. In Phase 2, the consultants will develop an estimate of the amount of FY2015 funding to request at a po- tential November 2014 special town meeting, or the 2015 annual town meeting, in order to meet short- term capacity needs based on enrollment forecasts from the Enrollment Working Group and consideration of spaces needed to meet modern educational standards. z See, for example, an interim report in Report of the Working Group on Enrollment Study that may be found at the Lexington Public Schools web site: http://tps.texingtonma.org/. 5