Accountability posts

**Lexington Select Board Meeting — February 2, 2026: What Happened, What Was Decided, and What the Official Minutes Left Out**

Lexington residents showed up in force at the February 2 Select Board meeting to demand independent financial oversight of the new high school construction project, one of the largest capital expenditures in the town's history. A citizen petition (Article 26 for Town Meeting) proposed creating a formally constituted, independent Financial Advisory and Transparency Committee. Staff and the board resisted, citing the existing internal review process — Mike Cronin noted his team spends between 1,000 and 2,000 hours per month reviewing invoices — and instead committed to building a public-facing dashboard and creating an internal Finance Subcommittee. The board unanimously acknowledged communication failures. What they did not do is endorse an independent external body with real oversight authority. Residents who believe that internal self-reporting isn't sufficient oversight for a project of this scale now have that answer on the record.

On the school budget: LEA President Robin Strzak told the board directly that Lexington schools are in crisis — teachers have resigned mid-year, and the superintendent requested $900,000 in one-time free cash to prevent further staff and program cuts. The town manager stood firm against using one-time revenue for ongoing expenses, a structurally sound but politically painful position. A last-minute revision to health insurance projections (down from a 13.5% to a 9% increase) relieved the immediate pressure and allowed the board to remove the free cash plug from the budget while restoring some previously cut positions. A final budget vote was deferred to February 9. The crisis was narrowly averted — this time — but the underlying structural pressure on the school budget was not resolved.

Also at the meeting: resident Bob Pressman asked the board to direct Lexington police officers to photograph federal immigration enforcement actions occurring in town, as a concrete accountability measure. Chair Hay acknowledged the concern and pointed to the town's immigration rights resource page. Pressman's specific operational request — police documentation — received no direct commitment or rejection.

One more thing residents deserve to know: the official published minutes for this meeting cut off mid-sentence during the Community Preservation Committee presentation (Article 10) and contain no record of the high school oversight debate, the school budget crisis discussion, the Skip the Stuff bylaw hearing, or the action items formally assigned to town staff. That means the permanent public record of this meeting is missing most of what actually happened. The minutes have been published — they're just incomplete. Lexington residents should ask the town to correct the record. https://meetingwatch.org/ma/lexington/select-board/2026-02-02/ #MeetingWatch #LexingtonMA