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AC–M2015STM#1&STM#2 PPROPRIATIONOMMITTEEARCH Warrant Article Analysis and Recommendations Special Town Meeting #1 The Warrant for the March 2015 Special Town Meeting #1 contains a single financial article. This was done so that the Special Town Meeting can be dissolved following a vote on the motion, allowing the Town to proceed quickly if the motion is approved. In the event that Town Meeting requires additional time to debate this Article, the Moderator may choose to suspend Special Town Meeting #1 in order to take up Articles in Special Town Meeting #2, which also has matters requiring timely action (see below). FundsFundingCommittee Article 2: Appropriate for School RequestedSourceRecommendation Facilities Capital Projects Approve (9-0) $4,080,000GF Debt Background Recent enrollment growth in the Lexington Public Schools (LPS) has created overcrowding throughout the system. In response, the School Committee and administration appointed the Enrollment Working Group (EWG), and asked it to study the LPS enrollment history and to project enrollment numbers for the next five or more years. It is now clear that the current high enrollments and the likely continuing growth over the next few years require the Town to increase the capacity of its school facilities to restore flexibil- ity and avoid unacceptable levels of overcrowding. In June 2014, a Special Town Meeting appropriated $250,000 for school facility master planning. The School Committee and School Administration then appointed the Ad hoc School Master Planning Committee (AhSMPC). The AhSMPC and Public Facilities Department retained an architectural firm, Symmes, Maini & McKee Associates (SMMA), to evaluate school facilities and formulate a school facility master plan that addresses the enrollment growth and other facility issues. SMMA and the AhSMPC evaluated the capacities of all the school buildings currently in use, and deliv- ered a list of several options for addressing the perceived needs. The School Committee voted to pursue “Option 9”, which had an estimated cost of $119 million (see reference 2). After a series of summit meetings with the Board of Selectmen, Appropriation Committee, Capital Ex- penditures Committee, and Permanent Building Committee, a consensus plan evolving out of Option 9 was developed, with a preliminary estimated cost of $111 million. The consensus plan differs from Op- tion 9 in a few significant areas, in particular the preference for pre-fabricated classrooms at Fiske, and the assumption that a brick and mortar extension at Harrington will only be considered if construction of a new Hastings is not feasible, or if we learn of other reasons that additional classrooms are required. This consensus plan represents an agreement between all these committees about the pressing need to initiate a large interconnected group of projects in response to growing enrollment needs, and to continue studying and refining the school capital plan. As part of that consensus, and apart from the work proposed in this request, the School Committee has agreed to study redistricting options that could lead to policy changes before new classrooms are availa- ble, even though redistricting alone is unlikely to solve the overall capacity issues projected by the EWG. 3