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05/15/2017 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) May 15, 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; Andrei Radulescu-Banu; Sanjay Padaki; Lily Manhua Yan; Jian Helen Yang; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Member(s) Absent: Richard Neumeier Other Attendees: Joe Pato, Board of Selectmen (BoS); Kate Colburn, School Committee (SC); Rod Cole, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC); Sandy Beebe, resident; Maureen Kavanaugh, Director of Planning and Assessment, Lexington Public Schools The meeting was called to order at 7:34 p.m. 1. Announcements Mr. Bartenstein reported the following: • He participated in two interviews for a new Department of Public Facilities Director. • There is a joint (BoS, SC, CEC, and AC) meeting scheduled for May 30 to discuss options for build -out at 20 Pelham Road. • There is a New Financial Officials Forum being held in Worcester on May 31. Any new members interested in attending should contact Ms. Kosnoff. • There is a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Hartwell Avenue solar facility from 8:30-9:30 a.m. on May 18. • A summit is scheduled for June 8 to address the anticipated fall special town meeting and debt exclusion referendum Mr. Michelson reported that he plans to look further into the Town's snow plowing contract arrangements to better understand changes in procedures that were implemented last winter. He asked if anyone was interested in joining him in this endeavor. 2. School Enrollment Growth Because of the financial impact resulting from increasing school enrollment, Mr. Pato and Ms. Kavanaugh had been invited to speak about enrollment projections. Mr. Pato and Mr. Cole had participated on the Enrollment Working Group (EWG) that produced a comprehensive report in 2014. Mr. Pato reviewed slides describing the results of the EWG's efforts. At that time, it was determined that the standard methodology (the Cohort Survival Method) for projecting future public school students was underestimating growth at the elementary level. A new methodology (the Housing Demographic Model) was developed to take into consideration the particular factors influencing that segment of the school population. At that time, increases were generated primarily by students living in apartments; currently the increases are spread throughout the housing types. Ms. Kavanaugh presented slides which she had prepared for a January 2017 School Committee meeting discussing current trends. She reported that the continued elementary student growth is 1