Sign pointing to Town Offices
The new proposed budget was the product of “a bit of an all-nighter in the Finance Department,” Select Board Chair Jill Hai said on Monday. “I know this was a particularly challenging year to pull this all together, so we really do appreciate all of the effort.” (Sophie Culpepper / LexObserver)

Hello, Lexington!

Good morning and welcome to this week’s LexObserver news roundup.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us by spreading the word, giving, or passing along story ideas over the past week; we’ve been delighted by a special influx of local news enthusiasm as we get back into our fall routine…please keep telling your friends about us!

In case you’re a new subscriber or missed the past couple editions, this is our Friday news roundup, where you can expect 1-3 stories per week, as well as the latest community announcements and letters to the editor when we have submissions.

On that note, here’s this week’s news.

In this issue:

With “provocative” memo exploring committee changes, Town Manager sparks petition, flood of community backlash

Approximately 80 community members attended Monday evening Select Board meeting via Zoom for memo discussion, while more than 600 signed a petition that opposed transferring some committees’ appointing authority to the Town Manager and considering certain committee dissolutions

Select Board meetings regularly require the Town’s five-person volunteer leadership body to tackle multiple big-ticket items in a single evening. But it’s less common for a large audience to attend these hours-long meetings.

Keep reading
by Sophie Culpepper

This week’s School Committee recap: Sustainable Lexington representation added to LHS School Building Committee, Community Input Team for Inclusion presents final report

LHS seniors Grace Ou and Aditi Swamy join School Committee as student representatives

During Tuesday’s meeting, the School Committee unanimously approved including the chair/member of Sustainable Lexington on the LHS School Building Committee as a voting member in accordance with Superintendent Julie Hackett’s recommendation.

Keep reading
by Sophie Culpepper

Community Submissions

We accept announcements and press releases from community members and organizations for publication on our Community Submissions page. These should be brief (under 200 words) and up to two photos may be submitted. Examples might include upcoming fundraisers for non-profits, cultural celebrations, lectures, or event announcements. Please include an individual’s name with your submission for attribution (not just an organization). Ads or direct appeals for donations will not be accepted. We reserve the right to determine which submissions are appropriate for publication on this page.

COMMUNITY SUBMISSIONS ARE SEPARATE FROM AND DO NOT REFLECT OUR NEWS REPORTING.

To submit a community announcement, please contact community@lexobserver.org. Thank you!

(And if you’d like to submit a letter to the editor, learn how to do that here!)

That’s a wrap for today. Was this roundup useful to you? What do you want to see in this email next week? Let us know, and please ask your friends to sign up and DONATE too! Reach out to sophie@lexobserver.org with tips and questions anytime. As always, you can also check out and share our website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages. Thanks so much for reading and have a great weekend!


Nicco Mele, Sophie Culpepper, Erin Sandler-Rathe and the LexObserver Team

Edited by Sharon McGowan

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