2015-11-02-AC-STM#2-rpt (addendum)

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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE - NOVEMBER 2015 STM #2 ADDENDUM Addendum to the Appropriation Committee Report to the November 2015 Special Town Meeting #2 Released October 30, 2015 Article 2: Amend Minuteman Regional Agreement Funds Requested Funding Source Committee Recommendation None N/A Disapprove (1 -5 -2) This section extends and clarifies the Committee's discussion of Article 2. Errata The Committee's report released on October 26, 2015 misstated the estimated cost of the MSBA project to replace the Minuteman School as $114 million. The correct estimate is $144.9 million. Building Project The MSBA- approved project to rebuild Minuteman Vocational High School has a total estimated cost of $144,900,000. With a minimum reimbursement rate of 40% from the State, the net cost to the District will be approximately $87,000,000. The District faces a hard deadline of June 30, 2016 to approve the MSBA project. Approval can be ob- tained either by unanimous approval of all 16 Town Meetings, or by simple majority in a District -wide referendum. If the District rejects the MSBA project, the current alternative is for the District to renovate the current building at a minimum estimated cost of $100,000,000. With no State reimbursement, the full cost of this renovation would be assessed to the District members. Procedural requirements for Wayland to leave the Minuteman District Even if all 16 District members were to unanimously approve Wayland's request to leave the Minuteman District, that is not the final word in the matter. The State Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education must then approve Wayland's plan to provide access to Career and Vocational Technical Edu- cation similar in quality to what they currently provide. Simply relying on out -of- district access to Min- uteman could be deemed inadequate, given the lower enrollment priority for students from non - member municipalities. Wayland cannot exit the District until such approval is granted by the Commissioner. Wayland's debt responsibilities if withdrawal is approved If the request to withdraw from the District is approved, Wayland will still be obligated for its portion of the debt incurred by the District prior to the anticipated departure date of July 2017. If the MSBA project goes forward, the Minuteman administration estimates that at least 35% of the total debt will have been incurred prior to Wayland's departure. The balance of around $57,000,000 to be in- curred after the departure would be apportioned to the remaining District members. In any case, based on Wayland's currently low enrollment at Minuteman, the actual increase in each Dis- trict member's assessment resulting from Wayland's departure would be well within the Town's ability to absorb. However, if this was the initiation of a series of departures, the impact would be more significant. 1