Littleton School Committee Removes Good Friday, Approves Two-Tier Bus System

LITTLETON — March 9, 2023 — Littleton School Committee drops Good Friday and commits $484,000 to shift bus tiers. The committee voted 4 to 1 Thursday to remove Good Friday from the 2023-24 school calendar while retaining Yom Kippur and Diwali, concluding a weeks-long debate that drew dozens of community emails and public comment from high school DEI club members. A motion to remove all three religious holidays failed 1 to 4. The committee then voted 4 to 1 — Member Brett Austin dissenting — to authorize Business Manager Steve Mark to sign a 14-bus contract moving the district from a three-tier to a two-tier transportation system, adding $484,000 to annual transportation costs above the renewed contract price; Superintendent Steve Clinchy said the school choice fund, currently healthy, would absorb the first-year hit of roughly $267,000. In a joint session with the Select Board and Town Moderator Tim Goddard, the three bodies unanimously appointed Ed Mullins — Littleton's Director of Land Use and Buildings — as alternate representative to the Nashoba Valley Technical High School committee for the remaining two years of a three-year term.