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03/08/2021 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) March 8, 2021 Place and Time: Remote Participation: in accordance with the Governor's March 12, 2020 Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law; communication took place via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Meg Muckenhoupt; Lily Manhua Yan (arrived 8:04 p.m.) Members)Absent: Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Other Attendees: Eileen Jay, Vice-Chair, Lexington School Committee; Sara Arnold, Recording Secretary Mr. Parker confirmed attendance, reviewed the authorization for meeting remotely, noted that the meeting was being called to order at 7:40 p.m. on March 8, 2021, and stated that the meeting was being recorded for the purpose of creating minutes. He also noted that materials for the meeting were available on-line. Announcements and Liaison Reports Ms. Jay reported that the State Commissioner of Education recently changed the"time-on-learning" requirements. As a result, the School Department is increasing the number of in -person learning hours for kindergarten through grade 5 starting April 5 and increasing the in-person learning hours for middle schools starting May 17. The remote learning academy will remain an option. The requirement for social distancing on school buses was lifted within the last month. There are no planned changes for the high school during the current school year. June 18 is the last day of school, and plans for the fall should be available by July. Ms. Jay also reported that the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) hopes to announce projects selected for MSBA partnership in April, which could affect the handling of Article 24, Appropriate for Lexington High School Feasibility Study. It was noted that the AC could caucus during the annual town meeting (ATM)to vote on this article. Mr. Parker reported that the Select Board (SB) is meeting tonight to discuss plans for replacing the Police Station. Later during this AC meeting, it was announced that the SB did not take a position on restarting this project, which means that the work that needs to be done prior to going to another town meeting to request funds for the next stage cannot be completed before a fall 2021 special town meeting. Committee Report to ATM 2021 (Report) Mr. Parker led a review of the sections of the Committee report for which there was draft material and a vote had not yet been taken. In some cases, the person who had prepared the material provided a brief summary, questions were asked, and information was clarified. Additionally, votes were taken, as follows: • Article 29, Clean Heat Authorize Special Legislation to Regulate Fossil Fuel Infrastructure and Adopt Bylaw Amendment Enabling Legislation: It was noted that this article is consistent with positions previously adopted by the Select Board and Town Meeting, and it has two components—the financial impact on the Town and the financial impact on 1