Finance Committee hears Sudbury schools FY25 operating budget of $45.8 million

SUDBURY -- February 15, 2024, Sudbury Finance Committee takes up $45.8 million FY25 schools budget, with FY26 forecast already at 3.72 percent. Superintendent Brad Crozier and Director of Business and Human Resources Don Sawyer told the committee that the $1,427,328 increase meets the town manager's guidance, with roughly 60 percent absorbed by contractual steps, lanes and cost-of-living. The district absorbed about 7.4 FTEs previously paid by ESSER and ARPA grants and folded the summer program into the operating base. Tier one items that did not make it in include a recurring $50,000 curriculum-review line and a five-year refresh of 12-to-14-year-old classroom projectors. A $289,767 circuit-breaker prepayment is scheduled into FY25 against roughly $1.1 million expected. Member Mike Joachim called out a transparency problem after a Chapter 70 appropriation was booked to the ESL line, inflating FY24 by about $114,000.