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10/14/15 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee October14,2015 : ReedRoom,Town OfficeBuilding,7:30p.m. : Glenn Parker, Chair; John Bartenstein, Vice Chair and Secretary; Kate Colburn; Mollie Garberg; Alan Levine;Beth Masterman; Eric Michelson; Richard Neumeier;Rob Addelson (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent:Andrei Radulescu-Banu The meetingwas calledto order at 7:35p.m. th Announcements: 1.The next Budget Summit is on November 12. This Committee is ndth meeting on Thursday, October 22and Thursday, October 29. Minutes: 2.A motion was made and seconded to accept the October 7, 2015 minutes as edited. The motion passed. VOTE: 8-0 Articles forNovember 2, 2015 Special Town Meeting(STM)#2: 3.In preparation for finalizing this Committee’s report to the STM, the articles were discussed as follows: STM #2; Article 2: Amend Minuteman Regional Agreement: Mr. Michelson discussed Wayland’s request to withdraw from the Regional Minuteman School district, which must be approved by all 16 member communities to be accepted. If this is approved, Wayland would not leave the district until 2017. Mr. Michelsonreported that David Horton, Lexington’s representative on the Minuteman school board, has not taken a position on this issue; Carl Valente, Town Manager, does not see the value in supporting the request, noting that Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) would have to be shared by 15 rather than 16 communities if Wayland leaves; and Norm Cohen, Board of Selectmen(BoS), does not support approving the withdrawal. There was discussion about the possible influence Lexington’s vote on Article 2 might have on the plans to rebuild the Minuteman School, aproject that has been approved for Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) funding. Mr. Michelsonexplained the three options for proceeding: Meet all MSBA criteria; the cost to the district will be approximately $87 million; Pursue the project without MSBA funding; the cost to the district will be approximately $100 million; Close the school. The Minuteman district members must inform MSBA by February 2016 as to whether they plan torebuild with State support, andall 16 district communities must support the projector a district-wide referendum on suchsupportmustpass with a simple majority. Because of the timing, Wayland will be part of thatdecisionirrespective of its request to leave the district. Mr. Michelson suggested that the decision being posed by Article 2 could be postponed until the spring 2016 Annual Town Meeting, which is when the other district communities are expected to vote on Wayland’s request.After discussing the issues, it was generally 1