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Sudbury’s 2025 Annual Town Meeting has been slow moving, particularly considering the outcomes of the votes haven’t been very close. Yet one article, Article 34, inspired an urgency that was absent in most of the other articles.
Article 34 would provide additional funds for repairs to the Atkinson Pool. When the article came up on Tuesday, May 6, Town Meeting attendance was at its peak. The hall was filled with voters, but also with Sudbury’s youth. Some were of voting age, some were not. The message to the hall was clear: Sudbury’s kids wanted to keep the pool. Sudbury’s kids wanted the town to fix the pool.
It was not clear if Article 34 would pass at the start of Town Meeting. The Atkinson Pool has been at the center of several contentious local debates in recent years. That started with the new Fairbank Community Center, which took roughly a decade to gain approval from voters. The project included an expanded viewing room for the pool and new locker rooms, but no major changes to the pool itself. The pool, built in the late 1980’s, had never undergone significant renovation. It is still sporting the original roof, which is nearly as many years past the useful life of a roof as the expected useful life of a roof. The pool’s exclusion from the community center project baffled some residents, though others felt that omitting the pool from the project would keep the price of the project tolerable for voters. The recent challenges at the pool cropped up long after the Town designed the community center.
As for Article 34, it was the second bite at the apple. Town Meeting approved an article in 2024 to renovate the pool. But the bids came in high. Article 34 was an ask for more funding. Nearly $1 million more. That didn’t sit well with some voters, and criticism has surfaced on social media in recent weeks. But a shutdown during swim team season earlier this year has tempered the criticism, as the visceral experience of losing the pool hit home for Sudbury’s swimmers.
After a detailed presentation from Combined Facilities Director Sandra Duran, the Town Moderator opened up discussion to the hall.
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School (L-S) student, Graham Skelly, who is on the swim team, got the microphone early in the discussion period. The moderator first verified that Skelly was of voting age, which Skelly confirmed. What happened next was equal parts a triumph in direct democracy, and a celebration of the values espoused by Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School for decades.
The Courage to Speak
Town Meeting in Sudbury is itself a tradition in many ways. But inside that tradition is yet another tradition—there’s a core group of residents who tend to do most of the talking. It’s daunting for the average resident to stand up, take the microphone from a Scout, and express their thoughts to an auditorium of voters. There’s no escaping it. For most people, it’s incredibly intimidating.
That didn’t stop two L-S students. It didn’t even slow them down.
Graham Skelly and Joslin Halsey raised their hands confidently, if not eagerly. They commented one after the other, captivating the hall. Skelly went first, standing in the back third of the auditorium. Heads swiveled from the front rows when they realized a student was commenting. The moderator may as well have called the vote at that moment, as the outcome was all but certain. But the hall was instead gifted something in the moments that followed that meant more than a mere vote on an article at Town Meeting.
A Legacy of Civic Engagement
L-S has a longstanding tradition of civic engagement. It’s written into the mission statement of the school.
“The school culture also seeks to join academic skills to an active civic concern for the Lincoln-Sudbury community, American society, and the world beyond.”
It’s also reflected in the L-S “Portrait of a Graduate.” That calls for students to be “Global Citizens” and reinforces a time-honored motto at the school “Think for yourself, but think of others.” That motto was adopted by the faculty and staff in 1997, according to the Lincoln-Sudbury Alumni website.
The tradition of civic engagement isn’t just words at L-S. It’s expressed in action and art as well. That includes the school’s response to the September 11 attacks, politically-themed murals on the walls of the old building, walkouts, and various other demonstrations.
It was fitting that Town Meeting was located in the heart of L-S on this night… A night that belonged to students, not just in the hall, but outside the front doors where students handed out flyers for a petition to lower the voting age in Sudbury to 16.
The Moment
The microphone was passed down the row to Graham Skelly, who stood unassumingly, almost relaxed, amid the crowd. He explained to the hall what the pool meant to him as a competitive swimmer at L-S and a coach for the Sudbury Swim Team, but also what it meant to him on a personal level “I know personally the four years I’ve spent on the L-S swim team have been the best four years of my life. I’ve made countless connections…” He then focused his attention on the younger swimmers that hope to follow in his footsteps “Taking that away from younger swimmers that I know would be awful.”
Skelly’s comments then turned the focus to future generations: “As a coach, I’ve made connections with many younger kids in town. Seeing these kids in the pool, having fun with their friends and becoming better swimmers throughout their time with me and many other coaches has been great. I just want to say taking away this pool takes away an outlet for kids to make connections throughout an entire town.”
Joslin Halsey, a member of the L-S Girls Swim Team, took the microphone next. She expressed similar sentiments, but added a bit of (hard-earned) L-S Athletics pride. She told the hall, of the L-S Swim Team and Sudbury Swim Team, “It is the best sense of community that I’ve ever been a part of, all around.” She went on to say “The women’s team over my four years has gone third, first, second and second at States. We are one of the best teams in the state and it’s frustrating to see that the pool has been left for so long.”
Skelly and Halsey were speaking to their fellow voters. Their fellow students. Their community. And there wasn’t much self-interest at play. Skelly and Halsey are seniors. Their swim careers at L-S have come to a close. It was other Sudbury students who would benefit if the article were to pass.
Their ask was simple: vote yes for Article 34. Vote yes for Sudbury’s pool. Yet it was hard not to hear “Think for yourself, but think of others” when the vote came in at 209 in favor to 23 opposed.
The article passed by well more than a majority of the legislative body—many of whom are not on a swim team, are not Atkinson Pool members, but opted to “think of others” when the time came.
Feature image: SudburyTV