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Beach reading
Welcome back!
It’s the middle of summer, and it’s hard to imagine things picking back up to full speed again. They inevitably will speed up, but why not enjoy the lull a little longer?
Here’s what we have for you on this blissfully calm week:
Sudbury Community Food Pantry Announces Permanent Home in Wayland
SPS Advances Gender Identity and Inclusivity Policy
BFRT Iron Sculpture Fabrication Is Complete
Under A Mutant Sun
SPS Committee Struggles with Procedures, Packet Materials Following MASC Guidance
Let’s get into it!
Sudbury Community Food Pantry Announces Permanent Home in Wayland
NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise
After 35 years of serving MetroWest families in need, the Sudbury Community Food Pantry (SCFP) has announced the purchase of its first permanent home at 534 Boston Post Road in Wayland, a significant step forward for the volunteer-powered organization that has become a regional lifeline.
Founded in 1990 to address local hunger in Sudbury, the Pantry has since grown to serve residents from more than 85 cities and towns, distributing over 30,000 bags of food annually through nearly 6,000 client visits. Until now, it operated out of shared space at Ascension Parish in Sudbury. The new facility—a 3,250-square-foot building on 1.05 acres—represents the Pantry’s first fully owned home and a dramatic expansion of its ability to serve.
SPS Advances Gender Identity and Inclusivity Policy
NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise
On Monday July, 21, the Sudbury Public Schools School Committee voted unanimously to advance a proposed Gender Identity and Inclusivity policy to the next step in their policy adoption process—legal review. (Page 88)
During discussion, member Nicole Burnard raised questions about the exact nature of the legal review, suggesting that the district’s legal counsel should be asked to evaluate if the district would risk losing federal funding should they pass the policy.
BFRT Iron Sculpture Fabrication Is Complete
FEATURES
By Len Simon
INTRODUCTION
An iron sculpture commissioned by the Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail has been completed.
The sculpture was fabricated by Walter Clark at the Stonybrook Fine Arts workshop in Jamaica Plain. It has been gifted to the Town of Sudbury as an artistic sculpture in iron to be installed along the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.
BACKGROUND
As the railroad along the BFRT corridor was being dissembled in 2023, I picked up a few pieces of iron, not knowing exactly what they would be used for. I just thought the iron was interesting and could someday be repurposed or used to remind us a railroad ran there.
Under A Mutant Sun
FEATURES
By Rev. Eric Wolf
Exploring the intersection of sacred and secular.
Growing up, I dreamed of being powerful — not the political power, or even power over others, but powerful in my own right. Of course Superman’s power was alluring, but what I needed was healing.
Hello, Fellow Humans
For those of you madly looking for a comments section to tell me that if someone manages to leave a mark, Superman does heal, and fast, the trouble is that when you really dig into him, he’s utterly vulnerable. He’s an orphan. He grew up in a nation destined to betray him — and not for his dubious legal status — but because he was too much: too strong to be controlled, too principled to be useful.
The problem with power isn’t (only) that we tend to give it to cowards who think violence is strength, but that so few understand that power is always a function of consent. Superman may be the strongest being around, but what he has isn’t power as much as capacity. In fact, it took a little while for Superman’s creators to figure this out, since he was first written as more of an antihero, part spy who infiltrated evil gangs and part prize fighter who never encountered a problem he couldn’t punch his way out of. In Action Comics #3, our hero lured an evil robber-baron and his dinner guests into a mine, trapping the owner there until he found Jesus or OSHA. It’s good to know that ham-fisted woke agendas — like providing safe working conditions — are a staple of the genre, not a recent innovation as some seem to believe.
SPS Committee Struggles with Procedures, Packet Materials Following MASC Guidance
NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise
The July 21 meeting of the Sudbury Public Schools School Committee featured multiple debates about packet materials and procedures. Before the meeting broadcast began, the school committee conducted a workshop on norms, protocols and procedures with Alicia Mallon, a field representative from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC). According to comments during the recorded portion of the meeting, it didn’t go well. By the end of the recorded business meeting, the committee was mummified in its own red tape.
Parting Thoughts
The Town of Sudbury has once again received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). The award is for the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, which goes through next summer.
The GFOA press release states “The award represents a significant achievement by the entity. It reflects the commitment of the governing body and staff to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting.”
In a town that has one of the highest median tax bills in the state of Massachusetts, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for taxpayers to expect such an award. Perhaps, given that Sudbury has received the award many years in a row, it would even be taken for granted.
Yet it’s hard to take it for granted when the unique aspects of Sudbury’s finances are put into perspective. There’s the Town, but then there’s a K-8 school district and a separate regional high school. There’s also an entirely separate water district which functions independently and doesn’t feature in the Town budget, but requires collaboration with Town departments. The budget presentation doesn’t just cover the money; it covers policy, planning and operations, too. All of that needs to meet GFOA standards to achieve the award.
The financial reporting doesn’t stop there. The Town recently published a 172-page Financial Report and Reference Guide that provides ten fiscal years of comparative analysis with 15 other municipalities.
At a time when trust in the federal government is low, trust in local government is actually rather high. In Sudbury, 185 pages of an award-winning budget presentation, and a supplemental 172-page comparative report, might just illustrate one of the ways that local governments have successfully bucked the national trend in recent years.
Budget reports may not be “beach reading” material…
But they’re waiting for you right there on the Town website whenever you want them, or whenever you need them.
Onward!