Sudbury, MA

The short version:

• The meeting was Superintendent Brad Crozier’s last. All three public-comment speakers, including a Select Board member, used their time to thank him.
• Minutes later, the committee divided over whether finding his successor was worth naming as a goal for the year. The three-member majority said no.
• It also dissolved the superintendent search subcommittee it had created four weeks earlier, to restart the process under a new structure. The details come July 6.

The Sudbury School Committee met June 15 for the last regular meeting of the school year, and the last with Superintendent Brad Crozier, whose departure takes effect June 30. Jessica McCready chaired; members Karyn Jones, Betsy Sues, Julie Durgin-Sicree, and Ellen Lederer-DeFrancesco were present, with Assistant Superintendent Annette Doyle, who becomes interim superintendent July 1.

Public comment was a farewell. All three speakers used their time to thank the departing superintendent. Two were residents, one a longtime educator who told Crozier his service “was meaningful, and it was seen” (0:05:49); the third was Select Board member Dan Carty, who praised his “calm guidance through some incredibly challenging years” (0:06:31). No one raised the May 20 Special Town Meeting, the no-confidence vote, or how the superintendent came to be leaving. The committee removed Crozier this spring with no public vote and no stated reason; on his last night, the public record is a set of thank-yous.

And then they declined to make replacing him a goal. Reviewing the members’ draft goals for 2026-27, McCready noted that two had listed a superintendent search, and three had not. The two who listed it argued it belonged there precisely because of its weight: “It is a goal. It’s our goal this year to get that done,” said Lederer-DeFrancesco (1:39:59), while Durgin-Sicree called the search “probably one of the most important things we do,” and “our compass and our radar for the year” (1:40:16). The majority disagreed. Jones called it “something that we are just doing,” work a hired firm would carry, and said “it’s not helpful to the community to even have it be a goal” (1:39:02); Sues was “personally okay not having it as a goal” (1:39:15). McCready agreed it need not be a standalone goal, reasoning that because the search and a possible override will fill the year, the committee should commit to fewer goals, not more: “We have to narrow down what we’re able to accomplish” (2:01:28).

A committee goal is a public commitment the board reports against at year’s end. Under the majority’s approach, choosing the district’s next leader will be the central work of the year, but will not appear on that list. No vote was taken; the goals will be finalized at a July 27 workshop.

A search restarted before it started. On the consent calendar, the committee also dissolved the Superintendent Search Subcommittee it had created only May 18, when it named McCready and Lederer-DeFrancesco to it. In a memo, McCready wrote that most area districts use a “Screening Committee” of “two School Committee members and various stakeholders” rather than a subcommittee, and said she wanted “to start fresh” rather than let the old body “start to do work” because “it might get a little bit messy” (1:10:43). The new body adds outside stakeholders to two committee members, and the full committee still interviews finalists and votes the hire. Who fills the two seats, and how the stakeholders are chosen, is set for July 6.

Also at the meeting. Five principals presented year-end reports. The committee approved a summer governance workshop with consultant Anthony Bent, 4-1 (Jones abstained), and voted to raise extracurricular club fees to $125 per student, up from $100, with no minimum enrollment, plus a $75 unified-program fee. It heard that the Haynes and Nixon roof projects are on schedule for fall, and told the Select Board it had no warrant articles for a possible fall Special Town Meeting. The consent calendar also approved meeting minutes and the SEPAC and LGBTQ+ PAC year-end reports.

The next School Committee meeting is scheduled for July 6, 2026.