The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School field will be making another appearance before up-Island voters in June.
The Aquinnah Select Board unanimously approved the special town meeting warrant during a Tuesday meeting. Among the warrant articles, two are citizens’ petitions requesting nonbinding resolutions for the athletic field. One petition, which received 60 signatures, asks for an “all-grass MVRHS campus with no plastic fields”; the other, which received 52 signatures, requests a commitment that no anonymous donations over $5,000 for “legal action, experts, project design, and permitting related to any and all plastic fields” could be used for the high school campus.
Aquinnah town clerk Gabriella Camilleri certified the signatures for their inclusion in the warrant.
The Aquinnah special town meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 14.
Similar petitions were presented in Chilmark, both receiving 100 signatures, and will be voted on during the Chilmark Special Town Meeting on Monday, June 5.
Aquinnah, Chilmark, and West Tisbury voters decided to zero out their share of the MVRHS budget during their annual town meetings. This was done in protest of an ongoing lawsuit between MVRHS and the Oak Bluffs planning board over a proposed turf field. Voters in all three towns spoke to the detriments of the continued lawsuit, and some Aquinnah residents underscored concerns about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Down-Island towns voted in favor of funding their share of the MVRHS budget, so only up-Island towns will need to hold special town meetings.
West Tisbury will hold its special town meeting on Tuesday, June 13.
The votes forced the budget back to the MVRHS School Committee for reconsideration. The school committee voted to recertify the same budget, with an explanation that no fiscal year 2024 money will be used for the field lawsuit, and any spending on the litigation will be capped at $20,000 of the remaining $25,000 in the fiscal year 2023 budget’s legal line.
The school committee has also decided to enter into settlement negotiations with the planning board.
After an executive session on Monday, school committee chair Robert Lionette read a statement saying the school’s attorneys presented a possible settlement agreement to Oak Bluffs two weeks ago. He said the planning board has since responded, and the school’s attorneys have been tasked with engaging in discussions to move an agreement forward. No further details were released during the Monday meeting about the settlement, and Lionette said he could not release further information on the possible agreement.
During the Monday meeting, Martha’s Vineyard Superintendent Richie Smith also discussed potential cuts the high school may make if the up-Island towns reject the budget again during their special town meetings. If no budget is accepted, the high school will likely be forced to use the same budget as fiscal year 2023, which ends in July. This means working with $500,000 less than planned for the upcoming school year, according to Smith. The reduction could mean decreasing administrative positions and cutting some school programming. The superintendent said the last thing that would be considered are bargaining units — basically teachers, custodial staff, and other personnel.
Smith said he didn’t want to discuss too many details “simply because we already have an anxious staff.”
Four out of the six towns need to approve the budget for it to advance, so an approval at Chilmark Town Meeting on June 5 could settle budget discussions.
Reached for comment Tuesday, Lionette, who spearheaded the MVRHS budget rejection in Chilmark, said how residents voted during the special town meetings on the petition articles will shape how he approaches the settlement negotiations moving forward. If voters reject a synthetic turf field at the special town meeting, Lionette said, he will represent their views.
“Voters need to have a voice, and we’ve never asked that simple question,” Lionette said of the petitions. “I want to hear from the voters of my town.”
The school committee is expected to meet again on Thursday, May 24, in executive session.
