Lincoln-Sudbury committee previews two-year attendance policy rewrite

SUDBURY — June 9, 2026 — LS School Committee previews attendance overhaul, raises adult lunch and EV rates. Associate Principal Tracy Ryan walked the committee through a two-year rewrite of the class attendance policy that would set per-course absence caps — 14 per semester for eight-times-meeting courses, nine for five-times-meeting, four for wellness — and replace "excused/unexcused" with "verified/unverified" categories. "Absent is absent is absent," Ryan said, citing the "centrality of the classroom." Tier-one family contact would begin at roughly six absences; exceeding the cap could trigger a transcript notation, pass/fail conversion, or a "Topics In" course-title change. The committee voted 5-0 to raise the adult lunch price from $4.28 to $6 after a DESE administrative review found the food service program was subsidizing employee meals, and 5-0 to raise the EV charging rate from $0.28 to $0.42 per kilowatt-hour. Three revolving-fund thresholds were also approved: $650,000 for parking, $125,000 for exams, and three months of operating expenses for food services.