Finance Committee unanimously advances fire engine, ambulance and CPA articles to Town Meeting

SUDBURY -- March 5, 2025, Sudbury Finance Committee endorses six warrant articles after SPS lays out $47.3 million FY26 budget. Superintendent Brad Crozier presented a 3.26 percent increase built around a K-5 ELA curriculum overhaul, full-time assistant principals at each elementary school, and a NESDEC-projected 225-student enrollment increase over five years that will add two sixth-grade homerooms at Curtis Middle School. Members voted 9-0 to recommend Article 10 accepting approximately $730,000 in Chapter 90 funds; a $725,000 fire engine and $500,000 ambulance replacement; $146,000 and $382,000 DPW dump trucks; and CPA allocations of $425,346 and $746,993. Member Karl Fries said he wants recurring DPW replacements migrated "into the tax levy" rather than drawn from free cash. Member Henry P. Sorett pressed on $781,000 in federal IDEA and Title I exposure given "the mischief in Washington."