Lincoln Selectmen to call June special town meeting on high school funding

LINCOLN — May 7, 2012 — Lincoln Selectmen will convene a June special town meeting to absorb a $170,000 cost shift from a state Supreme Judicial Court ruling on regional school funding. Selectman Renel Frederickson and Finance Committee Chair Laura Sander told the board the January Dartmouth v. Greater New Bedford decision requires regional districts to apply the Education Reform Act's wealth-based formula to foundation-level spending, overriding Lincoln-Sudbury's enrollment-based regional agreement. Because Lincoln already appropriated a cushion at annual town meeting, the net additional ask is $94,509.82, drawn from a stabilization fund that already holds $161,000 left over from fiscal 2012. Selectman Peter Braun pegged the per-household impact at roughly $50, calling it "relatively insignificant in terms of total tax burden." Separately, the board unanimously approved letting The Groves at Lincoln temporarily repurpose two affordable apartment units to launch a Hearthstone-affiliated Montessori memory-loss program, and reauthorized $552,000 in school feasibility-study bond anticipation notes at 0.644 percent.