Editor’s note: This is an abridged version of a letter that McFall sent to Lincoln School faculty last week.
To the editor:
There’s a lot happening on the facilities front in the Lincoln Public Schools district this year.
Hanscom Middle School is on schedule to move into the newly constructed building over the April vacation week. This will require a calendar adjustment to ensure adequate time for the move, and we’ll be communicating these changes and soliciting input from the Hanscom community shortly. Also, Hanscom Primary School will be packing up for their move into the temporary school at the end of this school year, and demolition of the old building will begin over the summer. The new Hanscom Primary School is scheduled to open in spring 2018. We’re looking forward to the 2018–2019 school year when all of our Hanscom students, faculty, and staff occupy their new schools.
On the Lincoln campus, work continues with the community to ensure that best-effort planning takes place to meet the needs of the town of Lincoln and use of the Ballfield Road campus. Last spring, Town Meeting voted to appropriate funds for a Lincoln School feasibility study should the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) invite Lincoln into the MSBA process. Over the summer, Lincoln school and town government representatives met with MSBA officials and outlined the work that’s been done by the School Building Advisory Committees over the last three years to bring the town to consensus on addressing the needs of the Lincoln School.
At the moment we’re waiting to hear from the MSBA regarding acceptance of our Statement of Interest application, and we are not likely to get a formal response to our application until January 2016.
Meanwhile, the Campus Master Planning Committee (CMPC) and Lerner Ladds Bartels (LLB) Architects have been studying the basic infrastructure and physical layout of the Ballfield Road campus to inform the planning for the contemplated school building and community center projects.
On Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Reed Gym (Brooks), the CMPC and LLB Architects will host a public forum to share their current findings and solicit input from the community. As high-level users of the school and campus, I strongly encourage faculty, staff, and parents of the Lincoln School community to attend this public forum and participate in the discussion. It’s important that your voices are included in the process that will inform the outcomes for this campus.
We know that the number one factor in a child’s education is the quality of their teachers. However, it’s also understood that the learning environment contributes significantly to a child’s ability and desire to attend to learning. As such, it’s essential that while we as educators continue to learn and grow in our professional practice, we also work to improve the educational environment to maximize learning.
Sincerely,
Becky McFall
Lincoln Superintendent of Schools
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.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.
The children and staff are entitled to new school for so many obvious reasons and there is just not enough room in this post to list them all. In this town there seems to be a small group of loud obnoxious voices that cannot accept the fact that this is 2015 and the rest of the world is moving on without us. Are we just waiting for the roof to cave in at Smith during another bad Winter to finally make the right decision? The time it has taken to move this project forward is just reckless for the safety of those who work in our schools. Some in town seem to forget about the kids and put them dead-last in terms of what the priorities of our town should be.
And let us not forget the simple fact that the front doors of our schools remain unlocked which is beyond disturbing in this day and age. When I approached someone in a high position last year I was told that some parents in town want them to remain unlocked to keep in line with Lincoln’s welcoming and open culture.
The Lincoln Way should also be responsible and not so hung up on it’s past that it becomes hurtful to future generations. Enough is enough.
I hate my taxes just like my neighbors in town. But I value in getting the best public school education possible for our children and believe that a good school can often make or break a town. We just don’t have the proper facilities…..and major components within are breaking down. It’s not about making these kids tough it out in an old stuffy building. It’s about safety, health, and common sense.
Here come again! The Lincoln School at Ball Field road currently only have 470 resident students, and 130 plus city student and town employee children. Do Lincoln really has the responsibility to educate those 130 plus student? The town meeting 3 years ago clearly said NO! Lincoln’s tax is already among the highest, and our houses do not appreciate like our neighbors, Lexington and Concord. Wake up please, 470 local students is a hard sell to build a new school. The young parents are setting up school in the old church, like Birches.