Minuteman school measure passes in district-wide vote

The Minuteman High School funding measure passed by a wide margin in a special election in the 16-town vocational-technical school district, according to unofficial results gathered by Minuteman officials Tuesday night.

By a total of 12,146 in favor to 5,319 opposed (70 percent to 30 percent), voters in the district approved funding for a $145 million new school building in Lincoln. Lincoln’s unofficial total was 294–41 in favor (88 percent to 12 percent).

Lincoln is one of six towns that opted to withdraw from the Minuteman district earlier this year, but that withdrawal does not become effective until July 2017. However, the withdrawal also means that Lincoln will not be responsible for a share of the capital costs for the building as current members towns are. The other towns that withdrew are Boxborough, Carlisle, Sudbury, Wayland and Weston.

Voter turnout was low, with Lincoln at 5 percent (though Sudbury, Wayland and Weston were lowest with 2 percent each). The largest turnout was 19 percent in Belmont, which precipitated Tuesday’s election by being the only town in the district to vote against the funding at Town Meeting earlier this year.

Belmont High School was accepted last spring into the funding pipeline by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), so voters at that town’s May 4 Town Meeting on Minuteman were facing two possible school projects within a relatively short time span. However, this was also true for Arlington, which passed the Minuteman measure.

The unofficial results were gathered by Steve Sharek, Minuteman’s director of outreach and development, from reports by town clerks for 14 of the towns and on-site observers in the case of Arlington and Lexington. His voter turnout calculations used registered-voter totals from either the Secretary of State’s office or individual towns.