My Turn: More affordable housing will not burden schools

The Lincoln School Committee wishes to make clear to the community that development of affordable family housing in Lincoln will not burden our schools. In fact, just the opposite is true. We welcome more students.

• We have spaces open in our classrooms. Enrollment has been decreasing for more than a decade and is expected to continue to decrease in communities like ours, not due to increased attrition to private schools, but because of aging populations, declining birth rates, and the high cost of suburban housing.
• Optimizing enrollment and increasing the diversity of students supports our best educational models. Grade-level middle school teams of subject-specialized teachers need an adequate cohort of students. Greater diversity in every classroom broadens all children’s educational experience.
• Providing a greater variety of housing options will give the schools — and all town agencies — greater advantage in attracting faculty and staff who may want the opportunity to live in the community where they work.

Approved unanimously by the Lincoln School Committee, May 19, 2022.

John A. MacLachlan, chair
Tara Mitchell, vice chair
Adam Hogue
Kim Mack
Kim Rajdev
Susan Taylor
Laurel Wironen

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.