Editor’s note: This letter has been amended after publication to reflect a correction in the writer’s name. Town Meeting Warrant Articles 30 and 31 are explained in this earlier letter to the editor by School Committee chair Jennifer Glass.
To the editor:
At this Town Meeting, Lincoln’s citizens are challenged to join in constructing a renovated school building so it may engage new educational initiatives. Broad support will strengthen us in many ways, so for us all, an Alpine winter may be displaced by spring action.
I write to engage your collective support so that this spring we will be well served to support the school committee motions to (1) Spend more than $30 million on a school renovation (not repair), and to also (2) to seek to be accepted again by the MSBA [Massachusetts School Building Authority] to seek state funding support for Lincoln’s school renovation.
Over time serving as co-chair of the Lincoln School Building Advisory Committee (LSBAC), the importance of this decision has been clarified. Today, based upon the work of the LSBAC, we would not build a school of single classrooms along linking hallways. Once we renovate our school building to current codes, then and only then may we expand educational learning options into wider classroom hubs and rebuild a renovated model school with varied scale learning spaces. How unlike the single classroom of the past!
Three distinct findings resulting from the community dialogue over the last year reinforce the importance and relevance of supporting Articles 30 and 31 at Town Meeting:
- Building code mandates—meeting current building code requirements calls for comprehensive and integrated renovation efforts. For example, as you renew a building roof membrane, you face insulation betterment standards and new seismic and structural code standards. Is this winter not a message on the need for rational repairs vs. risk of failure? Meeting code requirements is a critical first step in producing a building environment that leads ultimately to a better educational environment. The “triggering effect” of multiple code mandated remedies argues against any incremental approach to bettering Lincoln’s school.
- Educational spaces—when we fix roofs, install good acoustics, balance ventilation and install new sprinklers (mandated for any building larger than 7,500 square feet), then hallways may be opened up, and used differently to complement classrooms. Once code is fulfilled with automatic door operation, then we may create learning hubs between rooms and add some small rooms supporting individual and small-group learning. So in a new code-compliant school, perhaps 20 percent more space may be realized within the existing structure providing the alternative learning spaces key to advanced teaching approaches. Renovation gains us back more educational opportunity.
- The Ballfield Road campus—Always our central academic campus and a place of youthful vitality and growth, the Ballfield Road campus is seen increasingly as a community-wide resource with the possible inclusion of a new community center near the Hartwell School. The sports fields on which our youth compete and play can be a centerpiece of a campus that supports a broader civic purpose in our community. May we play and learn with joy and challenge!
We now need an adequate scale of renovations so varied spaces essential to new educational options within a reconfigured building will constructively support our educational goals. As we seek to deliberate about the best school project on our civic campus, wrapping about a field upon which we learn and compete so our educators need new learning spaces. All are potentially things of beauty!
We invite your support of Article 30 and Article 31.
Sincerely,
Douglas Adams
19 Granville Rd.
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrel.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.
Alice. Sorry above letter was by Douglas Adams