Sarah Morrison in her LexHAB office
Sarah Morrison, executive director of the Lexington Housing Assistance Board (LexHAB), supports the Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) pro-housing movement. (Sophie Culpepper / LexObserver)

Hello, Lexington!

Good morning and welcome to LexObserver’s Friday news roundup!

Halloween is just three days away, and Lexington’s Vlad Selsky, nominated by Elizabeth Rozan, stole the show with his decorations. We’ll post a full selection to our social media on Monday, but here’s a sneak peak:

Courtesy of Vlad Selsky

Also, heads up that next week, we’re going to launch our next fundraising campaign. But, this campaign is going to be a special opportunity for us to grow, because for the first time we’re participating in NewsMatch, which is exactly what it sounds like: A matching campaign for local news that could double whatever you’re able to give (!!)…

More about that next week! In the meantime, have a festive weekend, and here’s this week’s news.

In this issue:

At next week’s Special Town Meeting, members will discuss, vote on two important measures for increasing affordable housing in Lexington

Article 12 would establish an Affordable Housing Trust; Article 14 would transform the Lexington Housing Assistance Board (LexHAB) from a quasi-municipal organization to an independent nonprofit

Two articles, if passed, could improve and expand Lexington’s tools to address the affordable housing crisis squeezing individuals and families on the local, state and national levels.

Keep reading
by Sophie Culpepper

This week’s School Committee roundup: Educators draw attention to overwhelming workload, student caseloads

The School Committee voted unanimously to approve and implement a new pandemic Memorandum of Agreement, which does not include an extension of paid COVID leave for educators

About a dozen teachers described regularly staying at school late into the evening, struggling to find the hours in the day to complete the work asked of them and sacrificing time with their families for their jobs in emotional public comments during Tuesday’s School Committee meeting.

Keep reading
by Sophie Culpepper

Community Submissions

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

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 Happy Halloween!


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

Edited by Erin Sandler-Rathe

Support LexObserver!

The Lexington Observer is a hyperlocal, digital-first news nonprofit. Our mission is to increase understanding and participation in Lexington, Massachusetts through community journalism about our town. Want to support that mission? You can donate below — even better, become a monthly donor!

Support us

Leave a comment

All commenters must be registered and logged in with a verified email address. To register for an account visit the registration page for our site. If you already have an account, you can login here or by clicking "My Account" on the upper right hand corner of any page on the site, right above the search icon.

Commenters must use their real first and last name and a real email address.
We do not allow profanity, racism, or misinformation.
We expect civility and good-faith engagement.

We cannot always fact check every comment, verify every name, or debate the finer points of what constitutes civility. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem inappropriate, and we ask for your patience and understanding if something slips through that may violate our terms.

We are open to a wide range of opinions and perspectives. Criticism and debate are fundamental to community – but so is respect and honesty. Thank you.