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11/05/15 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee November5, 2015 : Hadley Public Services Building, Training Room,7:30p.m. : Glenn Parker, Chair; John Bartenstein, Vice Chair and Secretary; Kate Colburn; Alan Levine;Eric Michelson;Richard Neumeier; Andrei Radulescu-Banu;Rob Addelson (non- voting, ex officio) Members Absent:Mollie Garberg; Beth Masterman Others Present: Ian Dailey, Interim Director of Finance and Operations, Lexington Public Schools; Elaine Ashton, Town Meeting member The meetingwas calledto order at 7:34p.m. Request to Increase Spending Ceiling for School Bus Transportation Revolving Fund: 1. Based onaction at the 2015 Annual Town Meeting,there is currently a cap of $850,000 on funds that can be used in FY 2016 from thisRevolving Fund. Mr. Dailey explained that school bus ridership is9%greater than anticipated. It has been determined thatthe cap needs to be raised to $1.25 millionto cover the shortfall generated by the need for three more buses.Increasingthe cap requires Appropriation Committee and Board of Selectmen (BoS) approval. This requestis scheduled to be presented to the BoS on Monday. Because there is an adequate balance in the Revolving Fund, it will not be necessary to make any changes in the FY2016 school department budget. Thatbudget was based on 45% of the school bus costs coming from ridership fees and 55% coming from the school operating budget.Approval of this request will change the percentagesfor FY2016 and there will be increasedschool bus costs in the FY2017 operating budget.In response to questions, Mr. Dailey reported that the school buses carry about 50% of the students.An individual buspasscosts $300, subject to a family cap of $750. The Town has a contract with C & W Transportation; the annual cost for the use of each bus is$80,000, including driver and maintenance. A motion was made and seconded to increase the Revolving Fund cap to $1.25 million. The motion passed. Vote: 6-0 Minutes: 2.A motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes for October 14, 22,and 29,2015,as amended. The motion passed. Vote: 6-0 Committee Report to the November 2, 2015 Special Town Meeting#1: 3.The report needs to be approved by this Committee on November 19.Preliminary drafts for each of the warrant articleswere reviewed.It was noted that the articles include requestsfor design funds plus the acquisition of property on Pelham Road. Negotiations for the acquisition are in progress. More information is needed to write the report. Mr. Radulescu-Banu planstoattend ameeting with Pat Goddard, Department of Public Facilities Director, Mary Czajkowski, Superintendent of Schools, and Rod Cole, Capital Expenditures Committee on November 9to discuss the school facility issues. Questions for Mr. Radulescu-Banu to take to the meeting were identified as follows: 1