Officially cutting the ribbon are (left to right) Steve Banak, senior project manager at Consigli Construction; architect Jennifer Soucy of SMMA; K-4 Principal Sarah Collmer; Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall; John MacLachlan, School Committee chair; Keith Fallon, Executive Vice President of EwingCole Architects; and Select Board Chair Jennifer Glass. See more photos below.
Dozens of residents, school and town officials, and design and construction personnel gathered on October 28 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of the newly renovated Lincoln School.
Half of the renovated school has actually been in use since September 2021 but the other half welcomed students and staff at the start of this school year. But the ceremony was a celebration to celebrate the years of planning, meetings, and general hard work (not to mention money) that went into the project which broke ground in June 2020.
The event was just shy of 10 years since Lincolnites first voted on whether to fund a major school project (the first since the Smith and Brooks buildings were linked in 1994). Voters were asked on Nov. 3, 2012 to approve bonding $28 million, supplemented by a promised state grant of $21 million, to demolish the old buildings and replace them with a new, compact $49 million school. The measure passed at a packed Special Town Meeting by a margin of 370-321 (54% to 45%) — but it wasn’t enough, since a two-third majority was required. As a result, the town forfeited the state funding and eventually approved spending $93 million for a combination of major renovations and additions, retaining the L-shaped campus but also resulting in a cafeteria; upgraded and reconfigured learning spaces; improved lighting, air quality, and acoustics; a link to the Brooks gym; and a net-zero energy footprint, among other things. (For a full history, see the School Building Committee website or read some of the 130+ Lincoln Squirrel articles on the topic.)
Among the highlights of the day were displays of items found in time capsules during the demolition associated with the first phase of the project. The time capsules were concealed within an interior wall in the old “link” under a display case in the interior entrance to the old library, in the area which now serves as the book room off the Dining Commons, SBC vice chair Kim Bodnar said.
“We didn’t know in advance that they would be found in that location,” she said.We knew that there were time capsules, but we thought that they were in or under the bell tower off the library, so Consigli used extra care in demolishing the tower. We were all surprised when the time capsules were revealed later in the demolition.”
“I enjoyed reading students’ predictions, hopes, and dreams. Several predicted we would have a real cafeteria [smiley face],” said Select Board Chair Jennifer Glass.
Some of the time capsule items and accompanying explanatory notes written by the students:
- A new #2 pencil with “DO YOU STILL USE ME?” written along the barrel in red ink
- A crayon (“A crayon is kind of like a marker but it uses colored wax instead of ink”)
- Some cards from Magic the Gathering (“It’s a kind of game that boys and girls in the third grade like to play… we trade and collect these cards”)
- A postage stamp (“I wonder how many cents it is going to be in 25 years. Right now it is worth 32¢”) (Editor’s note: Actually it was worth only 4¢; these G stamps were “makeup” stamps issued in 1994 so people with 29¢ stamps could meet the new letter rate of 32¢. It’s safe to assume that most of today’s second-graders would be baffled by the concept of a postage stamp.)
- A Pog disc
- A plastic Lion King figurine
- A cassette tape of the children’s song “Baby Beluga” by Raffi
- A photo of a second-grader’s Brownie troop
As the ceremony was going on, students in their classrooms did their own ribbon-cutting for the cameras. Below are some of the dozens of photos from the occasion — click here to see the entire gallery assembled by the School Building Committee.
