Lincoln-Sudbury opens FY26 budget cycle with $39.7 million preliminary request

SUDBURY -- December 3, 2024, Lincoln-Sudbury opens FY26 budget talks at $39.7M as enrollment slides. Superintendent/Principal Andrew Stephens and Director of Finance and Operations Kirsteen Patterson presented a preliminary $39,747,577 budget, a 3.6 percent increase that exceeds Lincoln's 2.5 percent and Sudbury's 3 percent town guidance. Chapter 70 is projected at $4,046,057 at the $30-per-pupil minimum, and the Middlesex County Retirement assessment is up 13 percent and on track to exceed $1 million. Member Cara Endyke-Doran pressed administrators on a three-year arc of rising budgets and falling enrollment: "If the enrollment continues to go down but our costs are going up, somewhere in there there's something that's not aligned." Out-of-district placements fell from 60 to 48, cutting that line by more than $800,000. The committee carries a $4 million placeholder for a fluid-applied roof restoration targeted for summer 2026, and adjourned into executive session on teachers' contract strategy.