Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee awards $440,000 lighting bid using stabilization funds

SUDBURY — May 13, 2025 — Lincoln-Sudbury committee reelects Simon, awards $440,000 lighting bid as costs nearly triple original estimate. The Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School Committee unanimously returned Ravi Simon as chair and Catherine Bitter as vice chair at its May 13 reorganization meeting, then voted to award the high school's lighting control panel replacement to Electrical Design and Control of Wilmington for $440,000 — well above the $165,600 voters in Lincoln and Sudbury approved last year. The committee will draw roughly $300,000 from the LS capital stabilization fund, which currently holds about $1.9 million. Superintendent Andrew Stephens warned of "incurring much greater cost at an emergency level" if the more-than-20-year-old analog panel fails before replacement. Member Jack Ryan, who chaired the district's 1998 building committee, also persuaded colleagues to oversee a coming roof replacement through a separate building committee rather than a subcommittee, with Ryan and Maura Carty as liaisons. The committee also approved a four-student overnight trip to debate nationals in Des Moines and chartered a tri-district school calendar review subcommittee with Sudbury and Lincoln public schools.