After voters in three Island towns objected to the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s continued funding of its lawsuit against Oak Bluffs over an artificial turf field, the school committee voted Friday to place a cap on further spending as it seeks a settlement with the town.
The school is suing the Oak Bluffs planning board after the board denied the school’s plan to put in a new turf infield and replace the existing track. But the school committee vowed earlier this week to resolve the case after West Tisbury and Chilmark voted against the school’s operating budget in protest of the legal spending, and Tisbury passed a non-binding request to stop funding the battle.
“The committee has resolved and directed the school attorney to engage in settlement discussions,” committee member Kris O’Brien announced at a special meeting Friday morning, following an 80-minute executive session with Brian Winner, the committee’s attorney, and athletic facility designer Chris Huntress.
Mr. Huntress clarified after the executive session that he was not charging the school district for his time in the meeting.
The new cap on spending commits the school to use no more on the turf case than the funds remaining in this year’s legal budget, which finance manager Suzanne Cioffi estimated will be roughly $20,000 when the fiscal year ends June 30.
The committee also voted not to tap the 2024 fiscal year legal budget for any further funding on the case.
“We will spend only up to the available funds in the legal line of the 2023 budget,” chair Robert Lionette said.
The high school committee has been waiting for a land court decision on its request for a summary judgment in the case, which appeals the Oak Bluffs planning board’s 2022 denial, on a tie vote, of the school’s proposal to add an artificial turf infield to its running track as part of a long-planned overhaul of track and field facilities.
After directing Mr. Winner to engage in settlement talks, the committee agreed to meet twice weekly in the high school library to keep tabs on the process.
The next posted meeting is Monday at 6 p.m., followed by one Thursday at 6 p.m. in a schedule that will repeat through June.
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