Source
At the November 29, 2023 Board of Finance meeting, with the auditor present, the board worked through the statutory design of the new AES capital fund and stated the consequence plainly. On the difference between the school's existing 2 percent non-lapsing account and the new town-held capital fund: "I think what changes in terms of the statute is the authority to spend. So under the 2%, it should be the Board of Education" -- "under the capital, that would be the Board of Finance" (~24:41). The board noted that the school could have paid for the parking lot out of its own non-lapsing account, "we certainly could have done the parking lot and paid for it out of that account with their blessing," but that the school wanted to keep that as its reserve; and acknowledged that with the new fund "the downside with the schools [is] they don't have as much authority over that" (~28:04-28:59).