Lincoln-Sudbury committee renews First Student bus contract, joins federal EV rebate filing

SUDBURY -- December 10, 2024, Lincoln-Sudbury committee renews First Student bus contract and signs onto federal EV-bus rebate application. The L-S Regional School Committee voted 5-0 Tuesday to exercise the first option year of its yellow-bus contract with First Student for 2025-26 and agreed to file a joint EPA Clean School Bus Rebate application with Lincoln and Sudbury Public Schools through the vendor Highland by the Jan. 9 deadline. Director of Finance Kirsteen Patterson said rebidding would bring "significant increases." Odyssey Advisors actuary Curtis Thompson reported total OPEB liability fell roughly $2.5 million and the discount rate rose to 6.84 percent, the GASB maximum at L-S's funding level. Clinical counselor Emily Phillips reported that 4 percent of students, about 55, said they had attempted suicide in the past year, and that 55 percent of L-S students reported lifetime alcohol use versus 40 percent regionally.