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November 21, 2025

Welcome back!

It was one of those weeks where everything seemed to happen all at once. And that’s not a bad thing… but it makes for another hefty edition of this newsletter!

The highlight was undoubtedly the Financial Condition of the Town presentation on Tuesday. Financial presentations can be rather dry, but the Town staff gave ye olde donkey kick to rampant disinformation about Sudbury’s finances. So that was fun.

Kicking Joe Biden GIF by Creative Courage

We’re receiving a lot of event listings for the holidays, including several nonprofit fundraisers to help those in need, so we’re elevating those to the top of the newsletter for the next few weeks.

excellent GIF

Here’s what we have for you this week:

  1. Events!

    1. Hosmer House Holiday Open Houses and Sudbury History Center and Museum Open Houses

    2. Join the Domestic Violence Roundtable for a Financial Abuse Webinar

    3. Holiday Drives to Benefit Survivors of Domestic Abuse

    4. HOPE for the Holidays Gift Drive

  2. The Music Man Review: LSB Players Make Beautiful Music Together

  3. Sudbury Weekly Guide: How To Shop Local This Holiday Season

  4. Further Development Proposed at Broadacres Farm

  5. RTAC Advises Against Horses On Bruce Freeman Rail Trail

  6. Deeply Rooted Counseling: Unearthing Strength and Connection for Families

  7. Sheehan’s Financial Condition of the Town Calls For Unity

  8. Is The Sun Setting On Sudbury’s Solar Ambitions?

  9. FinCom Supports School Roof Projects

  10. Thoughts In Return? This Resident’s ‘Civic Copilot’ Puts AI To Work For Fellow Residents

  11. SPS Teachers Take to the Streets – But Is It Too Late?

  12. Sudbury’s Financial Check-Up: DLS Report Urges Charter Review and Departmental Changes

  13. Opinion

    1. A Parent’s Appreciation of Hosmer House

    2. LWV Supports Five Warrant Articles at Special Town Meeting

    3. A Moment of Hope: Sudbury’s Journey Toward an Inclusive School Calendar

Let’s get into it!

Events!

The Music Man Review: LSB Players Make Beautiful Music Together

The Music Man is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials supplied by MTI www.mtishows.com 

FEATURES
By Ellen Gitelman

See it before the last show on Saturday at 2:00 PM

In case you were on the fence about seeing the LSB Players’ production of The Music Man, don’t hesitate: get your tickets before the last two shows (Friday, November 21 at 7:30 PM and Saturday, November 22 at 2:00 PM) sell out. In all my years watching their shows, I can’t ever recall seeing a standing ovation before anyone has taken a bow.

Sudbury Weekly Guide: How To Shop Local This Holiday Season

FEATURES
By Sudbury Weekly

Black Friday is fast approaching, and horrible memories of shopping mall traffic, long checkout lines and parking lot road rage are resurfacing. Fortunately for Sudbury residents, they won’t have to venture far from home to get most everything on their holiday shopping list.

The local retail landscape in Sudbury offers a remarkable breadth of products, catering to nearly every need and interest, from sophisticated home décor to specialized outdoor hobbies.

Further Development Proposed at Broadacres Farm

NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise

The Town of Sudbury acquired the Broadacres Farm property on Morse Road in 2019, and it’s now home to a proposed project that could add as many as two baseball diamonds to the property.

On Wednesday, November 19, Park and Recreation Director Dennis Mannone presented a design project to the Community Preservation Committee (CPC). If supported by the CPC and passed at Annual Town Meeting, the funds would cover the topographic survey, geotechnical evaluation, layout/grading/drainage plans, permitting, and bid-ready documents for the project to add fields and amenities to the site, as well as the adjacent Featherland park. The construction of the final project would need to get funding at a future town meeting.

RTAC Advises Against Horses On Bruce Freeman Rail Trail

NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise

During the Wednesday, November 19 meeting of the Sudbury Rail Trails Advisory Committee (RTAC), the committee discussed horses on Sudbury rail trails.

With several members of the horse community present and providing public comment, RTAC heard about the long history of horses using Sudbury’s trails before the rail trail was built. The primary focus for those present to represent the horse community was the Mass Central Rail Trail, which connects to Hop Brook, Memorial Forest and Hudson.

Deeply Rooted Counseling: Unearthing Strength and Connection for Families

Sudbury resident and Licensed Mental Health Counselor Caitrin Adelman has brought her expertise closer to home with the opening of Deeply Rooted Counseling in Wayland, a practice dedicated to serving the children, caregivers, and families in the area. After years of commuting, Adelman’s decision to launch a local practice was driven by a desire to be more present for her own children and to help fill the local shortage of therapists who work with children and caregivers.

Adelman brings a unique mix of skills to an area that has an unusually high percentage of households with school-aged children. Her extensive experience practicing in school settings prepared her for this. Knowledge of the schools, the IEP process, and the interplay with supports delivered outside of school, give Deeply Rooted Counseling an uncommon dimensionality and breadth of services and supports. 

At a time when social pressures are complex for parents, Adelman brings a healthy dose of empathy as a local parent who experiences similar pressures, challenges and emotions. 

There’s no shortage of discussion in public schools about impulse control and executive functioning skills. But how can parents best support their children, especially if they’ve been labeled a “disruptive” student? And what support might the parents need to navigate the situation?

Sheehan’s Financial Condition of the Town Calls For Unity

NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise

Sudbury Town Manager Andy Sheehan is no stranger to big finance meetings. His first day as town manager fell on Sudbury’s “Capital Night” — an annual joint meeting of multiple boards and committees to review the capital budget ahead of Annual Town Meeting.

Sheehan gave his Financial Condition of the Town presentation on Tuesday, November 18. He has been warning of a potential override in Fiscal Years 2028 or 2029. As the Town begins the process of assembling the preliminary Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget, Sheehan’s presentation sought to demonstrate the progress the Town has made towards a sustainable budget, while simultaneously setting the record straight in the face of mounting disinformation in Sudbury about free cash, other reserves, and State aid, to name a few.

Is The Sun Setting On Sudbury’s Solar Ambitions?

NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise

On Monday, November 17, the Sudbury Park and Recreation Commission voted down a motion to support an article at the December 1 Special Town Meeting that would authorize the Select Board to proceed with a Power Purchase Agreement for a solar canopy in the parking lot at Haskell Field.

The canopy, which would be a scaled down version of what already exists at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, was accelerated for consideration at Special Town Meeting following the passage of the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act” earlier this year. That legislation gutted incentives for solar projects, setting off an industry-wide scramble to safe-harbor projects and lock in incentives. In Sudbury, that included projects at Ephraim Curtis Middle School, the Sudbury Police Station, and Haskell Field. The Sudbury Public Schools School Committee has already voted to authorize the Superintendent to proceed with an agreement for an canopy at Ephraim Curtis Middle School bus parking lot.

FinCom Supports School Roof Projects

NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise

The Sudbury Finance Committee met on Monday, November 17 and discussed a number of articles for the Special Town Meeting scheduled for December 1.

The Special Town Meeting was called primarily for two school roof replacement projects at General John Nixon Elementary School and Josiah Haynes Elementary School. The Finance Committee asked Sudbury Town Manager, Andy Sheehan, and Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director Victor Garofalo a variety of questions about the project.

Thoughts In Return? This Resident’s ‘Civic Copilot’ Puts AI To Work For Fellow Residents

FEATURES
By Sudbury Weekly

Harry Hoffman is an Associate Commissioner on the Sudbury Conservation Commission, and a member of the Sudbury Community Preservation Commission. That’s no small commitment to make to his community. But he has gone a step further, launching a Sudbury MA Civic Copilot using one of the most popular large language models (LLM) in the world, with some custom tuning for Sudbury. Sudbury Weekly connected with Hoffman to learn more about his ambitious, and compelling, project.

Can you describe for readers exactly what your Sudbury MA Civic Copilot is, and how people can access it?

The Sudbury MA Civic Copilot is an easy-to-use digital guide that helps residents make sense of local government. It answers plain-language questions about boards and committees, bylaws, zoning, Town Meeting, public hearings, conservation rules, and more all using information drawn directly from the Town of Sudbury’s official website and public documents.

You’ll need a free or paid ChatGPT account to use it, and you must be logged into your ChatGPT to access the app.

What was the specific ‘pain point’ or experience that inspired you to create the Civic Copilot, and how long did the development process take from concept to this initial launch?

SPS Teachers Take to the Streets – But Is It Too Late?

NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise

Sudbury Public Schools (SPS) teachers held signs in Sudbury’s town center on Friday, November 14. They’re calling for a “fair contract” while negotiations with the district are ongoing.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) data indicates that SPS teachers have an average salary of $100,892, putting them in the top 20 in the state when excluding the charter schools included in the DESE data. The DESE data was updated in 2023.

Comparable districts like Wayland, Dover-Sherborn, Weston and Concord-Carlisle range from $105,651 for Wayland and a chart-topping $117,960 for Concord-Carlisle. It’s important to note that new contracts may have been put in place for many districts since this data was uploaded. Furthermore, pay varies dramatically depending on tenure, advanced degrees and other criteria in some contracts. New teachers often receive base pay well below the $75,000 minimum living wage in Massachusetts.

Sudbury’s Financial Check-Up: DLS Report Urges Charter Review and Departmental Changes

NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise

The Town of Sudbury has received a comprehensive Financial Management Review (FMR) from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Division of Local Services (DLS), which outlines a series of recommendations aimed at strengthening long-term fiscal health and modernizing day-to-day operations.

The report, prepared at the Town’s request and dated October 2025, emphasizes the need to update governance documents and streamline financial technology processes — but the vast majority of the recommendations are anchored in the minutiae of municipal finance processes and procedures.

At the highest level, DLS lauded the progress Sudbury has made since it last conducted a review for Sudbury, and highlighted the impact of new leadership in Sudbury:

Opinion

Parting Thoughts

With the Town’s Holiday Village moving to the Fairbank Community Center, the upcoming open house events at the Hosmer House might fly below the radar this year, and that would be regrettable indeed.

One of the remarkable things about the Hosmer House is the way it weaves itself into the lives of residents generation after generation. It’s historic, but it seems to reinvent itself as the decades pass. It’s a house museum, but it’s living history.

Walking through the front door doesn’t necessarily have to be a stride into yesteryear. For some, it’s a reminder that modern day Sudbury is still a place that cherishes its history. For others, it’s a reminder of the contributions of everyday residents to a town that they love dearly.

The Hosmer House hasn’t been home to anyone for decades, and yet it tells every resident of Sudbury “you’re home” as they enter the front door during an open house, or even as they drive by on the way home from work.

The house continues to tell the story of Sudbury, even as today’s residents write the next chapter. When dressed up for the holidays, it’s inescapably captivating. Not just because it’s a special place itself… but because it reminds us why Sudbury is a special place.

They’re calling it a “holiday open house,” but if you attend, you might just find that it feels more like being… home for the holidays.

Onward!