Back to the grind...

Welcome back!

It’s about as busy as it gets here in Sudbury. The week kicked off with a dramatic school committee meeting and things only got more interesting from there.

Here’s what we have for you:

1. SPS Ponders Terminating Combined Facilities Department Agreement With Town of Sudbury

2. SudburyWeekly.com News Roundup

3. ZBA Continues Discussions On Firearms Business Zoning Bylaw

4. Write-In Campaign Creates Contested House Race

5. L-S Committee Meeting Clarifies Status Of School Resource Officer

6. Select Board Allocates $10,000 In ARPA Funds For War On Devices

7. Waitlist Expanded - Should This Book Be in School?

Let’s get into it!

SPS Ponders Terminating Combined Facilities Department Agreement With Town of Sudbury

By Kevin LaHaise

[This article first ran on SudburyWeekly.com on September 10]

As SPS Relations Turn Tense With More Town Groups, Union Contract Negotiations Loom

The Sudbury Combined Facilities Department, established by way of an agreement dating back to 2012, could be on the chopping block. On Monday September 9, the Sudbury Public Schools School Committee discussed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that created the shared department between the Town of Sudbury and the Sudbury Public Schools district (SPS). Though residents voiced fears that SPS was gearing up to terminate the agreement with the Town of Sudbury, the committee ultimately resolved to gather more information before taking any action.

How We Got Here

Ahead of the meeting, concerns arose that the committee would vote to terminate the Combined Facilities Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).

The SPS School Committee agenda used vague language to describe the “Combined Facilities MOA” and “(Discussion/Action)” – but concerned residents began writing various boards and committees about a suspected vote to terminate the agreement.

The MOA created the Combined Facilities Director role, and set terms for Sudbury Public Schools and the Town of Sudbury to share the resources and costs of the department. It was broadly seen as an opportunity to create greater efficiency in the cost center budgets by sharing a resource. The arrangement is similar to the way Towns regionalize roles and services to reduce the costs for each town, or improve overall service delivery. The approach is generally recommended by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

During discussion on Monday, Superintendent Brad Crozier and Chair Nicole Burnard acknowledged that most peer districts have a combined facilities director, albeit with a larger supporting staff than Sudbury has in its department.

If SPS were to terminate the MOA, the decision would go into effect at the end of the current fiscal year, which is June 30, 2025. At that point, the Town would either need to have the funding for the full facilities department staff, or make deep cuts.

The SPS School Committee has had multiple discussions about the MOA in recent years, including in 2022 and 2023.

In 2022, after concluding they felt the MOA was outdated, the school committee voted to authorize the Superintendent, the Director of Business and Finance, and then-chair Silvia Nerssessian to “initiate a conversation with the Town of Sudbury about the process to amend the Memorandum of Agreement for the Facilities Director position.” (Minutes here)

During the December 2023 discussions they voiced frustration with their perceived lack of control over the costs of the department, timelines for completion of projects, and other facets of the agreement. The December 2023 minutes of the SPS School Committee state: “Vice Chair Meredith Gerson moves to authorize Silvia Nerssessian, Chair of the Sudbury School Committee, and Brad Crozier, Superintendent, to engage in restructure and renegotiate the MOA for the Facilities Department. Sarah Troiano seconded the motion.” (Minutes here.)

The vote was unanimous both times, but it was unclear what SPS leadership did after either vote, and what conversations may have happened. When asked on Monday, Superintendent Crozier informed the board that he had a conversation with Sudbury Town Manager Andy Sheehan about the arrangement, and they resolved to review the MOA to determine how it could be updated. Crozier then discussed the MOA with SPS legal counsel, and determined that there was no way to update the MOA to meet the needs of SPS, but he did not elaborate other than to say it was very difficult to know if SPS was getting 50% of a facility department employee’s time if they were paying 50% of their salary.

In Search Of A Basis

On Monday, the discussion was at times rudderless, in part because very little supporting information was provided to the committee to enable them to make a decision anchored in data. Superintendent Crozier and SPS Director of Business and Finance, Don Sawyer, provided their assessment as leaders of the district live in the meeting. (1:10:00)

Crozier focused on a few points. First, he felt the building projects in upcoming years, including all the school roofs, warranted a full-time facilities director in the schools. If they were to terminate the MOA, he felt the approximately $170,000 they pay as part of the MOA could be utilized to pay for a full-time, dedicated director for the schools. But that would leave the Town in a pickle. School Committee member Mandy Sim voiced a desire to more fully understand the impact such a decision would have on the Town.

Sawyer argued that SPS wasn’t getting what it was paying for in the MOA; going so far as to say that the schools get virtually zero services from two supporting members of the Combined Facilities Department (an electrician and an assistant role). He added:

Discussion about the workload and volume of projects in coming years was a recurring theme throughout the discussion. Committee member Mary Stephens wasn’t satisfied with merely rattling off projects as proof that a full-time hire was needed. She responded: “That’s not data. That’s not figures.”

Committee Member Mandy Sim asked for more information about what peer districts are doing, and that uncovered another piece of context that was not provided to the committee in advance: the vast majority of peer districts have a combined facilities arrangement with their respective Towns. Crozier referred to a survey he had seen indicating that over 80% of respondents had a combined facilities approach. Chair Nicole Burnard later added that she had done some research and found that almost all of SPS’ peer districts had a combined facilities approach, though she reiterated that she found the other towns had much larger facilities departments.

From there, the discussion shifted away from the case for a full-time hire, and towards evaluation of how the current MOA was being administered by Superintendent Crozier and Town Manager Sheehan. Crozier noted that Sheehan had called him earlier that day and he paraphrased the Town Manager as saying: “Can we talk about this more before you blow it up?”

But Crozier went on to tell the committee that they could vote to terminate the MOA that night anyway, and he could continue to have conversations with the Town Manager about how they could work together in the future.

The discussion was filled with recurring questions about communication between the schools and the Town. Superintendent Crozier had argued earlier in the meeting that the supervision piece was well under control because he has weekly meetings with the combined facilities director. However, he felt SPS had no visibility into the compensation and raises the Town was giving to the facilities department. Sawyer echoed those concerns and added:

Soon after those comments, member Mary Stephens quoted Superintendent Crozier’s 2022 comments voicing support for the combined facilities director approach, and emphasized that she believes there’s a communication problem that needs to be solved. It did not appear based on the comments that either party was abiding by the terms of the MOA.

Concerns about communication bookended the discussion. Stephens asked one of the last questions of the night; wanting to know how frequently Superintendent Crozier, Town Manager Andy Sheehan and the Combined Facilities Director meet to discuss priorities. Superintendent Crozier responded:

The committee provided guidance to the Business and Finance Director to gather more data to help them make a fully-informed decision in the future. That could include more detail on upcoming capital projects, data demonstrating a need for a full-time facilities director, data outlining the benefits and efficiencies of a combined facilities approach, and more.

Tensions Abound

A termination of the MOA would punctuate multiple years of conflict with other Town departments, union groups and committees for SPS.

The start of their Monday meeting was set aside for executive session. They were discussing the school nurses’ contract, which went unsettled for three years. That recently concluded, but it’s now time for the next contract to be negotiated.

The previous contract with the teachers’ union went unsettled for nearly six months after the prior contract expired. The next teachers’ contract will also be negotiated this year.

There have also been public dustups with the Finance Committee and the Select Board in recent years, particularly when those boards asked questions about how SPS was managing its budget. When the committee was building the FY25 budget in December of 2024, members bemoaned the budget guidance provided by the Town Manager, arguing that it would pit departments against each other and was not equitable to SPS.

In June of this year, the committee received public comments from employees expressing frustration over a policy change made earlier in the year, which they felt was not done transparently. The change eliminated the option for support staff to send their children to SPS like their DESE-licensed colleagues.

And on Monday night, the school nurses made public comment calling for pay parity with the teachers, later posting it to social media:

The statement went on to add: “We felt under valued when our staffing was reduced from six full-time nurses to 5.8, even after a pandemic that demonstrated the critical need for full-time nurses in our schools. If we had six before COVID-19, why only 5.8 now?”

An Uncertain Future

While the committee is expecting to take this discussion up again in the future, it remains to be seen if the looming threat of terminating the agreement will get all parties working collaboratively or productively.

The discussion on Monday highlighted staffing shortages on the Town side. Termination of the MOA may free the schools up to meet their own needs on their own terms, but doing so could send the Town staffing situation from bad to worse.

SPS, as highlighted by public comment from the school nurses, is also balancing competing priorities in their budget. Negotiations with the unions can be unpredictable, and the track record with the nurses’ contract and teachers’ contract suggest that more tough choices are ahead.

SudburyWeekly.com News Roundup

News

Sudbury Housing Authority Receives $1.2M For Duplexes

Events

The Art of the Quilt 2024

Opinion

Sudbury Facilities Are Already Working For All Of Us

An Open Letter Regarding Irresponsible Duplex Development in Pine Lakes

ZBA Continues Discussions On Firearms Business Zoning Bylaw

By Kevin LaHaise

The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) is continuing discussions about a business use zoning bylaw that would regulate firearms businesses in Sudbury. (2:02:30)

The new bylaw draft was developed by what the ZBA described as an ad-hoc committee of residents, as well as ZBA member Frank Riepe. Sudbury Weekly covered the new approach and draft bylaw back in July.

During their discussion on September 9, members of the ZBA asked questions about the draft and provided some feedback, but the broad strokes of the bylaw don’t appear to have changed significantly since July. They’re contemplating how the bylaw might address firearms manufacturing as a business use, and some adjustments are expected in a future draft.

Members did point out that the location where the bylaw would allow a gun shop on Route 20 was still relatively close to other businesses that serve children and families, which were also a point of concern for some opponents to the Select Board’s unsuccessful bylaw at the May 2024 Annual Town Meeting. Member Frank Riepe pointed to the nature of the land where a firearms business would be allowed to operate under the bylaw. He felt is was sufficiently set back and isolated from the street and other businesses. They also discussed signage, as a sign for a business could technically be in Wayland and subject to Wayland’s regulations, not Sudbury’s.

The ad-hoc committee, represented by former Select Board member Len Simon during the meeting, is expected to continue iterating on the bylaw, but eventually wants the ZBA to take it up as their own article for Town Meeting. The ZBA Chair, John Riordan, indicated that he would like to hold a public hearing for public input on the bylaw at some point. Articles are typically due at the end of January, so developments on this bylaw could pick up quickly this fall.

Write-In Campaign Creates Contested House Race

By the League of Women Voters of Sudbury

A successful write-in campaign in the Sept. 3 Republican primary has created a contested race in November for the 13^th Middlesex State Representative seat.

Virginia A. Gardner of Wayland ran as a write-in candidate for the Republican nomination for the House seat, and received enough write-in votes to qualify as a candidate in the November election.

She will face Carmine Gentile, the incumbent State Representative, who was uncontested in the Democratic primary.

According to the Secretary of State’s website, "To win a state primary election as a write-in or sticker candidate, you must receive more votes than any other candidate. You also have to receive at least as many votes as the number of signatures that you would have needed to file to get on the ballot for that office.”  For State Representative, the required number of signatures—and, therefore, write-in votes—is  150.

The 13^th Middlesex district includes all of Sudbury, and precincts 3 and 4 in Concord; precinct 1 in Lincoln; precincts 1 and 4 in Wayland, and, in Marlborough, precincts 1 and 2 in ward 1, precinct 2A in ward 2, and precinct 2A in ward 7.

Gardner received 151 write-in votes across the district:  Sudbury 67, Concord 21, Lincoln 10, Wayland 28, and Marlborough 25.  Results are here.

The League of Women Voters of Sudbury will record a candidates' forum with the two candidates. The forum will be broadcast and available on demand via community media (cable) stations in the district. The forum is co-sponsored by the Leagues of Wayland and Concord-Carlisle.

District residents are encouraged to submit questions for that forum by email to [email protected] or by mail to LWV Sudbury, P.O. Box 338, Sudbury, MA  01776. Questions are due by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2.

In the contested race for U.S. Senate candidate on the Republican ballot in the Sept. 3 primary, John Deaton defeated two other candidates.  He will face incumbent U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren in November.  Warren was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

In the Democratic primary race for the third district seat on the Governor’s Council, challenger Mara Dolan defeated incumbent Marilyn Petitto Devaney.  There is no Republican candidate for that seat in November.

L-S Committee Meeting Clarifies Status Of School Resource Officer

By Kevin LaHaise

After a couple weeks of speculation on Sudbury social media, Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Superintendent Andrew Stephens provided an update on the school resource officer (SRO) program.

With rumors swirling that the high school’s school resource officer was no longer in the school, Stephens stated plainly:

Stephens emphasized that the SRO is still very attentive to any situations or cases where the education world and the legal world mix:

Stephens explained that a staffing shortage in the Sudbury Police Department has required the SRO to fill in on patrol, and required the SRO to balance time across all the school buildings in Sudbury. That significantly reduces time spent in the building, which raised school safety concerns for members of the committee.

The committee discussed that they value and appreciate the SRO program for a variety of benefits ranging from school safety to mental health and mentorship for students.

They agreed to draft a letter to the Sudbury Select Board and Town Manager, but the exact angle they will take remains unclear. Some members wanted to call on the Sudbury Select Board and Town Manager to “adequately staff” the police department. Others wanted to stay more in the school committee’s lane and call for the Town of Sudbury to fulfill it’s obligation under the memorandum of understanding that establishes the SRO relationship between the Sudbury Police Department and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.

The general consensus seemed to be that they wanted to be careful with their tone and get an understanding of the Town’s plan to sort out the staffing challenges in the police department.

Police staffing shortages are a nationwide issue, including in Massachusetts. Last year, the State Police lost half of their recruits during training, but the shortages trace back several years. Police departments across the state have cited difficulty recruiting and retaining officers, a wave of resignations and retirements after the Covid-19 pandemic, among several other issues.

As for next steps with the Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee - they assigned member Maura Carty the task of drafting a letter and the committee will review it at their next meeting.

Select Board Allocates $10,000 In ARPA Funds For War On Devices

By Kevin LaHaise

If you sometimes wonder if Siri and Alexa are playing too large a role in raising your children, there’s an upcoming event that might pique your interest.

On Tuesday, September 10, the Sudbury Select Board voted 3-1 in favor of allocating $10,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to fund a presentation, featuring guest speaker Dr. Jean Twenge, PhD. The presentation, “Parenting Today’s Super Connected Kids,” will cover the effects of technology, including smartphones, on the mental health and wellbeing of children.

During the meeting there was confusion about who was bringing the ARPA request forward, but it appeared to be a collaboration between the Town Manager’s office and a local group called Sudbury For Digital Balance. The funding request was support by the Sudbury Social Work Office, which included a letter stating:

The event is tentatively scheduled for November 12 at the Ephraim Curtis Middle School. Sudbury for Digital Balance will be promoting the event in the coming weeks. The location of the event will surely be a relief any parents of high school students who get agitated by the lack of cell coverage at Lincoln-Sudbury.

Waitlist Expanded - Should This Book Be in School?

By Sudbury for Racial and Social Justice

The waitlist for “Should This Book Be in School?” has been expanded. If there is sufficient interest, a second discussion group will be added. Please join the waitlist if you would like to attend.

Should This Book Be in School? – a book discussion sponsored by Sudbury for Racial and Social Justice (S4RSJ) and Goodnow Library – will dig deep into four books that have been challenged in America’s schools.

We’ll read and discuss one book each season, beginning with “Ban This Book” by Alan Gratz this fall. We will meet IN PERSON on Sunday, September 29, from 3-4 p.m. You’ll leave with a toolkit for discussions about books.

Space is limited. For more information and to register, click here.

Parting Thoughts

Eisenhower said “You don’t lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership.”

It’s such a plainly obvious truth that the mildly amusing quip is almost worthless. Except it’s deeply resonant for most people who have been on the receiving end of that type of leadership, particularly at work. It strikes a nerve.

In the context of public service, it takes on new meaning. There will always be some amount of dissatisfaction with government services at the local, state or federal level. Residents and citizens will voice their concerns, and some days a government employee may feel like they’re staffing a vicious complaint department. Sometimes the complaints might be warranted, other times taxpayers want government services to be fast, good and cheap — the mythical trifecta of municipal perfection. Anything short of that, and public servants can sense it coming: a hit over the head for every mistake or bad break.

But what happens when local government institutions do it to themselves, or among themselves?

In a recent survey, 41% of government workers reported that they felt burnt out. That’s astonishing. But get this: that number was a 24% improvement from two years ago. A 24% improvement never felt so… bad.

The fine folks at Gallup did some research to identify the top five drivers of burnout at work. They included: unfair treatment at work, unmanageable workload, unclear communication from managers, lack of manager support and unreasonable time pressure.

Maybe the meaning of that Eisenhower quote isn’t as obvious to as many people as you might have thought?

Onward!