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The Town of Sudbury recently published a Budget and Financial Study spanning nearly a decade, covering Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) through Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26). Sudbury Weekly covered many of the highlights in a previous article, but has continued to dig into various aspects of the massive and incredibly detailed report.
In the latest review, trends in staffing data caught our eye. While many residents may assume that staffing would increase significantly with the overall budget and town growth over the years, the data tells a different story.
At the highest level, total “Full Time Equivalent” (FTE) employees of the Town have only increased from 170 in FY17 to 180 in FY26. Town employees are counted separate from school employees, which we will get to shortly.
The growth in Town employees came primarily in two years — a five-employee increase in FY18 and a six-employee increase in FY20. Staffing held steady at 180 FTE’s between FY21-23. They jumped to 183 in FY24, then dropped back down to 180 in FY26. The pattern indicates significant restraint in adding staff positions to the budget across three different Town Managers in those years. (Page 165)
Tracking the Departments
Things get interesting at the departmental level, though the overall trend is still evident. We pulled the FTE’s from each department in FY17 and FY26 to see where the most movement has happened during the study period.
| Department | FY17 Total | FY26 Total |
| Select Board/Town Manager | 4 | 6 |
| Human Resources | 2 | 2 |
| Law | 1 | 0 |
| Accounting | 4 | 4 |
| Assessors | 3 | 3 |
| Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director | 5 | 4 |
| Information Systems | 2 | 3 |
| Town Clerk | 4 | 4 |
| Conservation | 2 | 3 |
| Planning | 4 | 4 |
| Police | 39 | 36 |
| Fire | 35 | 43 |
| Public Works | 34 | 35 |
| Health | 4 | 5 |
| Senior Center | 4 | 6 |
| Veterans Affairs | 1 | 1 |
| Goodnow Library | 14 | 14 |
| Recreation | 4 | 3 |
The Fire Department saw the largest growth, from 35 to 43 FTEs in the study period. The only other departments that added more than one position were the Senior Center and the Town Manager’s office. Notably, the two-position increase in the Town Manager’s office is partially offset by a one-position decrease in the Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director department.
The Police Department saw the largest decline in size, but it’s misleading to characterize it that way. The Town regionalized dispatch through the Holbrook Regional Dispatch Center, which eliminated nine FTE’s. Regionalization is typically done to increase efficiency and/or enhance service delivery — meaning Sudbury is still getting the necessary dispatch services, just through a different model. At the same time, the change appears to have made it possible to add four FTE Departmental Assistant roles. Those were added in FY26. All other roles have remained steady at their FY17 levels, except for the addition of two Patrol Officers, taking that total from 25 to 27.
In total, seven departments added FTE’s during the study period, four departments reduced FTE’s, and seven remained flat.
Schools, Staffing and Pandemics, Oh My!
Sudbury Public Schools (SPS) saw some of the most dramatic staffing swings in the study.
The study did not include Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School since regional schools operate almost like their own municipality. And the data on SPS stayed high level. Nonetheless, there was a 30 FTE reduction from FY20 (413) to FY21 (383). The district then added a whopping 45 FTE’s in FY22 (428), and has more steadily risen by about 20 FTE’s total to an estimated 448 FTE’s in FY26. That exceeds pre-pandemic staffing levels by about three-dozen FTE’s, but by a smaller amount compared to FY17.
Takeaways
While slight variations between departments are to be expected, the trend line was remarkably consistent across the board. Sudbury has not significantly increased Town department staffing levels in virtually any area since 2017. Public Safety saw, by far, the most growth in net-new positions added in the study period.
While Sudbury Public Schools has added a large number of FTE’s since the pandemic, it’s only 18 FTE’s more than the report indicated they had in 2017. It took a roller coster route to get there, but the long-term trend is also modest growth.
In fact, Sudbury’s staffing data tracks closely to some findings in a recent report from the Massachusetts Municipal Association. (Full coverage here.) That report pointed out that municipalities have been desperately driving efficiency to stretch their budgets, but are now at a breaking point as there’s not much left to cut.
The Town of Sudbury’s Budget and Financial Study is embedded below.