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03/09/2017 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) March 9, 2017 Place and time: Parker Room, Town Office Building, 7:30 p.m. Members present: John Bartenstein, Chair; Alan Levine, Vice -Chair & Secretary; Ellen Basch; Eric Michelson; Richard Neumeier; Andrei Radulescu -Banu; Sanjay Padaki; Lily Manhua Yan; Jian Helen Yang; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non- voting, ex officio) Members Absent: None Other Attendees: Ed Bouquillon, Superintendent- Director, Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School (Minuteman Tech); Kevin Mahoney, Assistant Superintendent of Finance, Minuteman Tech The meeting was called to order at 7:35 pm. 1. Announcements and Liaison Reports Mr. Michelson introduced representatives from Minuteman Tech who discussed factors that have influenced the school's budget and have resulted in an increase in Lexington's per student assessment for FY2018. It was noted that the school is downsizing now that the district has been reduced from 16 to 10 communities. The current building accommodates 1000 students; the new building that is scheduled to open in September 2019 is designed to accommodate 620 -650 students. Vacated teacher positions are not being filled. The primary factors for this year's extraordinary increase in Lexington's assessment (21.6 %) are: increased assessment due to 4 additional Lexington students (as per State determined calculations); revised assessments due to there being only 10 member towns (instead of 16 in prior years); and additional assessments due to revenue shortfall (distributed across all member towns). Dr. Bouquillon noted that a recent legislative change requiring prospective out -of- district students to first spend at least one year in the sending town's vocational program has had a negative impact on out -of- district applications. Lexington's assessment in future years will be dependent on a number of factors including the number of students that attend the school, the number of out -of- district students, etc. 2. Approve Report to the Special Town Meeting -1 (STM -1) Mr. Levine reported that he would add language to the text of the report with updated information about the Town's impending purchase of 20 Pelham Road. Mr. Michelson agreed to handle the logistics of getting the document printed. A motion was made and seconded to approve the STM -1 report with the identified edits. The motion passed. VOTE: 9 -0 3. FY2018 Budget Issues and Report to 2017 Annual Town Meeting on Financially Related Warrant Articles Mr. Bartenstein reported that he had a list of articles proposed by the Board of Selectmen for the Town Moderator's Consent Agenda. If a single committee member did not support an article's 1