government

News acorns

August 14, 2014

Voter registration deadline is Aug. 20

The Massachusetts Democratic and Republican parties will choose their nominees for statewide office in the primary election on Tuesday, September 9. Polls will be open at the Smith School gym from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Massachusetts law permits unenrolled (also known as “Independent”) voters to vote either party’s ballot. The deadline to register to vote or to change your party enrollment is Wednesday, Aug. 20.

Primary election absentee ballots now available

Absentee ballots for the September 9 state primary are available now. A written request is required before receiving the ballot. The ballot may be voted at the Town Clerk’s office or the applicant may request that a ballot be mailed. Massachusetts law does not permit persons to pick up ballots for another person, although it does permit certain family members to initiate a request on behalf of another member. For further information, please call the Town Clerk’s office at 781-259-2607.

Boards looking for new members

The Lincoln Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) is seeking new members for open seats on the board. The ZBA is a land use board that interprets and applies the town’s zoning bylaw. It acts on a case-by-case basis on requests for variances, special permits and appeals of decisions by the building inspector, considering the impact on the town and neighborhoods and the requirements of the bylaw. The board, which generally meets one evening a month, has five regular members and three associate members. Click here to download an application or call the Selectmen’s Office at 781-259-2601.

The Lincoln Board of Health is also seeking a new member to fill out the three-year term for a member who has retired. Anyone interested should call Elaine Carroll at 781-259-2614 for further information.

Codman arts and crafts festival coming up

The 32nd annual Codman Fine Arts and Crafts Festival will take place on Saturday, Sept. 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Codman Estate. The event features the work of more than 100 local artisans and features items including wooden furniture and toys, pottery, photography, jewelry, glass, knitted sweaters and throws, children’s clothing, metalware, and folk carvings. Enjoy live music, a food court and first-floor tours of the Codman house. Free to Historic New England members and children under 12; $5 for nonmembers. Purchase tickets online or call 617-994-5900 ext. 5514 for additional information.

School Committee asks House to pass bill on mandates

August 4, 2014

The Lincoln School Committee has sent a letter to the state legislature’s Ways and Means Committee in support of a bill that would create a task force to examine the ever-increasing array of statewide educational mandates that Massachusetts school districts are required to follow.

“The issue is not with a specific mandate—it’s that there have been so many coming down at once,” said committee chair Jennifer Glass. “Many have very good aims, but having to do them all at once means it’s difficult to do everything well and with the energy each initiative deserves. Also, over the years mandates get added, but none get taken away. This bill is designed to take a look at them all and analyze what’s redundant or meaningless or even contradictory.”

The letter from the School Committee is reprinted below.

An open letter to the members of the Massachusetts House Committee on Ways and Means:

On July 23, 2014, the Lincoln School Committee voted to join MASS [the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents], MASC [the Massachusetts Association of School Committees] and MASBO [the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials] in voicing its strong support for Bill H.3722. H.3722 is a bill establishing an education mandate task force designed to examine and make sense of the extraordinary number of mandates school districts are required to adhere to each year. In addition to passing the bill, the School Committee urges the appointment of active school employees (district and building administrators and classroom teachers) to such a task force.

As a committee, we fully appreciate the excellent intentions of many of the mandates, and support those that focus on ensuring all students are in high-quality learning environments. However, there are well over 100 mandated regulations and administrative reporting requirements that currently overwhelm school staff, divert necessary resources, and distract attention from our schools’ primary mission: preparing students to succeed in a rapidly changing, highly competitive global economy. This work is difficult to manage for all districts, and even more onerous for small districts, such as ours, that operate with a small team of administrators and support personnel.

On top of the current requirements, right now there are more than 20 education-related bills before the House Ways and Means Committee. All but one of them, H.3722, advocate imposing additional regulations. Unless there is a task force to holistically examine education regulations, districts will be placed in the unfortunate position of treating these regulations as mere compliance exercises, negating any positive impact they were intended to have.

As outlined in the bill, H.3722 proposes establishing an eleven-member task force that, over the course of a year, would inventory all existing regulations and then recommend measures to streamline, consolidate, or eliminate specific mandates and/or reporting requirements that are outdated, duplicative, or inconsistent with current laws, regulations and practices.

We would deeply appreciate your efforts to champion H.3722 and bring it to a vote. Thank you for your continued support of all the students and educators of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Sincerely,

The Lincoln School Committee:

Jennifer Glass, chair
Tom Sander, vice chair
Preditta Cedeno, METCO representative
Tim Christenfeld, member
Al Schmertzler, member
Jena Salon, member

Studies on community center, school renovations are underway

July 31, 2014

By Alice Waugh

Two design firms are now working in parallel on potential town construction projects—a community center and Lincoln School renovations—and both will be discussed at the State of the Town meeting on November 15.

After interviewing four candidate firms earlier this month, the new School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC) selected Dore & Whittier Architects to develop repair and renovation options for the Lincoln School. The firm’s work will build on previous studies commissioned by the town, as well as the work of the first SBAC to identify individual repair and renovation projects and get updated specific cost estimates for each. Voters approved spending up to $250,000 for the study (see the Lincoln Squirrel, April 3, 2014).

Meanwhile, following the recommendation of the Community Center Study Committee (CCSC), the Board of Selectmen has hired Abacus Architects and Planners to do a detailed study of several possible sites for a community center and offer estimates on the scope and cost for each. After being appointed by the Board of Selectmen in June, the CCSC received proposals from seven architectural firms and interviewed five.

Abacus will look at several sites identified in the 2012 report of the Community Center Feasibility Committee as well as any others that may come up. That report was a first step in identifying alternative sites for the Council on Aging, which has outgrown Bemis Hall, and the Parks and Recreation Department. While Park and Rec is happy with its location in the Hartwell pods, those buildings are due for renovation or replacement.

On the radar of both consultants will the Hartwell area, which could be repurposed as a community center and also serve as swing space for the Lincoln School to use during major renovations. The two firms are working independently, but if the town chooses to go ahead with both a school building project and a community center, the Hartwell site will certainly come into play somehow, “and we want to have an answer to how that’s going to work,” Fredriksen said.

Both committees will schedule public discussions before the State of the Town meeting. After a comprehensive $49 million school project failed to win enough support at a special Town Meeting in 2012, some residents said it was because of insufficient communication and public input beforehand.

“The primary reasons for choosing Dore & Whittier Architects were their emphasis on listening to the community—their desire to conduct separate meetings with stakeholder groups as well as their overall understanding of the importance of developing choices and providing accurate cost estimates,” the SBAC said in a statement distributed by co-chair Becky McFall, superintendent of schools. “The SBAC is striving to focus their efforts on process and community engagement, as opposed to the specifics of a particular option. Community input to the consultants will be vital and community members will be encouraged to contribute at several key points along the way.”

The CCSC will hold a town-wide charette in the fall, and while dollar figures will not be discussed, “we want see what those [community center] scenarios would look like and see what direction residents are inclined to go in,” Fredriksen said. “We’re taking it one step at a time.”

The CCSC meets every other week; its next meeting is Thursday, Aug. 7 at 8 a.m. in the Town Office Building. Agendas, minutes, documents and additional information are available on the CCSC’s web page. The SBAC will start its work with Dore and Whittier on Wednesday, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell Multipurpose Room.

Letter to the editor: Support Berwick for governor

July 16, 2014

To the editor:

Don Berwick, Democratic candidate for Massachusetts governor, sets bold goals:

Single-payer health care
An education system that gives every student the opportunity to succeed
Bold renewable energy and environmental standards
Jobs and an economy that gives everyone the chance to thrive
An end to child poverty and chronic homelessness
No casinos
Grassroots supportive progressive movement

But every politician says he/she will accomplish miracles if elected to ofﬁce—why do I believe Don can do it? First, Berwick is committed to meeting his goals. He boasts that he can accomplish all of them in 10 years—all of them. Second, as a pediatrician, executive and leader, Don has mastered the skills to deliver what he promises:

MD from Harvard Medical School
Pediatrician, Boston’s Children’s Hospital and Harvard Community Health Plan
Founder, nonproﬁt Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), 1991:
- IHI’s current annual budget is $40 million, staff of 150
- IHI projects have saved hundreds of thousands of lives nationally and internationally
- knighted by Queen Elizabeth for making British health care more efﬁcient, 2005
Administrator of U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2010:
- $800 billion budget, staff of over 5,500
- implemented important provisions of Affordable Care Act
Only candidate for governor to state that he opposes casinos

Third, Don Berwick sees Massachusetts as a beacon to lead our nation to the progressive ideals of justice, equality and compassion. The Commonwealth is the ﬁrst state that committed to health care as a human right, that said you can marry whom you love, that built an enviable energy system, and that now has the most sane gun laws in the country.

Grassroots supportive progressive movement: Don needs us. He is calling for a grassroots movement to spread out across our state to educate Massachusetts voters about Don Berwick and his progressive agenda. Help our Lincoln grassroots team hand-address, note and stamp preprinted postcards to voters identiﬁed by the Berwick campaign ofﬁce. Please contact Peggy Schmertzler at alpegs@verizon.net or 781-259-0465.

Sincerely,

Peggy Schmertzler
142 Chestnut Circle

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.

July 4 daytime events cancelled; fireworks on July 5

July 3, 2014

Due to the anticipated tropical storm, the town of Lincoln is cancelling all Fourth of July 4th daytime activities. The road race, children’s bike parade, reading of the Declaration of Independence, main parade, Boy Scout cookout and tennis tournament are all cancelled. The Codman Pool will operate normal hours with standard weather protocols. The evening activities that were scheduled for July 4 starting at 7 p.m., including the concert, BBQ and fireworks display are being postponed to Saturday, July 5. The pool will be open from 12:30-7 p.m.

Because of this last-minute change in plans, the Parks and Recreation Department is in dire need of volunteer manpower to help with parking, money collection and event support on Saturday evening. Please contact Dan Pereira at dpereira@lincnet.org or 781-259-0784 if you can provide any assistance.

Lincoln Dems weigh in on candidates at convention

June 25, 2014

The Lincoln delegates at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention. Top row left to right: Peggy Schmertzler, Lorraine Fiore, Barbara Slayter and Peter Pease. Second row: Al Schmertzler, Marcie Black, Mari Haas and John Santa.

Six Lincoln residents attended the State Democratic Convention on June 14, and four of them—Barbara Slayter, Lorraine Fiore, Al Schmertzler and Peggy Schmertzler—wrote this first-hand account with their impressions of the candidates.

School Committee grants annual license to LEAP

June 24, 2014

By Alice Waugh

In early May 2013, the Lincoln After-school Activities Program’s 33-year tenure in Lincoln suddenly seemed in jeopardy when another company outbid LEAP when its lease came up for renewal. But as of July 1, LEAP has an exclusive annual license with the School Committee to use Pod C.

LEAP’s five-year lease for use of Hartwell Pod C was due to expire on June 30, 2013, so as required by state law, the School Committee sought bids from LEAP and others who might be interested in leasing the space for an after-school program.

To the shock and dismay of many residents, the proposal from Springboard Education in America outscored LEAP’s on a number of criteria, and a three-member selection committee recommended that the School Committee award the contract to Springboard—a possibility that brought dozens of parents, current and former LEAP teachers, and a even a few children to an emotionally charged School Committee meeting last spring to plead LEAP’s case (see the Lincoln Squirrel, May 7, 2013).

Faced with this sentiment, the School Committee voted at that meeting to extend LEAP’s lease for a year based on a technicality, because its request for proposals did not state that the Lincoln Recreation Department would occupy Pod C during the summer to run the Lincoln Summer Day Camp.

LEAP has since made leadership changes, replacing longtime director Sue Callum with LEAP faculty members Kathryn Hawkins as program director and Chris Burns as operations director. The program also made several programmatic improvements and successfully renewed its state license with Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care.

Among the improvements that LEAP listed in its license application to the School Committee in February 2014: balancing its budget, installing 15 new computers, a new collaboration with Einstein’s Workshop, closer relationships with METCO and the nearby Magic Garden preschool, Spanish tutoring for kindergarteners and first-graders, and a revamped website. Enrollment in 2014-15 is up by 15 percent over the previous year, LEAP officials said.

In its application, LEAP also included a letter from middle school principal Sharon Hobbs. “In the past year, the board and staff of LEAP have worked together to tighten up programs and procedures that needed attention and to implement interesting new programs,” she wrote. “As LEAP has adjusted to a new organizational structure, the level of program has also been changing. The staff is experimenting in good ways with finding ideal configurations for students to work and play.”

Under terms of the license, LEAP will pay the school district an annual fee of $28,800 (slightly more than the $28,000 it offered last year but less than the $31,000 a year offered by Springboard) for a license that will run from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015. The license confers non-exclusive use of Pod C and may be extended or revoked at any time by the district.

For the school, the change to granting an annual license rather than a multiyear lease for LEAP means “maintaining our ability to use our facilities and knowing we have a shared facility in the summer,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall. The previous arrangement with LEAP was atypical for a lease arrangement, which generally confers exclusive use of the property for the lessee during the term of the lease, even though Pod C was also used by the Recreation Department for summer camp.

Also, the change was made “with a little bit of an eye toward a school building project and the need to use the pods for swing space [during construction] and having a little more flexibility in terms of our needs,” McFall said. The School Building Advisory Committee is in the process of obtaining cost estimates for various school construction/renovation options (see the Lincoln Squirrel, June 19, 2014).

“The licensing agreement with the Lincoln Public Schools is a net positive for LEAP because it provides a new level of stability and predictability for the town’s after-school program,” said LEAP board member Laura Kempke. “In essence, if LEAP continues to uphold the quality standards set by the School Committee, then we no longer need to periodically engage in a fairly resource-intensive review process. This is a win for LEAP staff and families because our full attention is on continuing to improve the program, not on filling out paperwork.”

Full disclosure: Alice Waugh, editor of the Lincoln Squirrel, had children in LEAP until earlier this year and was compensated by LEAP for rebuilding its website.

SBAC working on hiring a design consultant

June 19, 2014

A subgroup of the reconstituted School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC) is in the process of selecting a school design consultant, and the School Committee is tentatively scheduled to award a contract on July 23.

At Town Meeting in March, Lincoln voters approved spending up to $250,000 to hire a consultant who would define renovation solutions for the Lincoln School and prepare cost estimates for a range of possible projects. Residents asked to see these estimates for “Lincoln only” repair and renovation options before deciding whether to reapply to the state for partial funding for a comprehensive school project (see the Lincoln Squirrel, April 3, 2014).

The SBAC meets every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell Multipurpose Room. All meetings are open to the public. Community attendance is especially encouraged at the following upcoming meetings:

June 23 — Designer selection committee will select designer finalists
June 25 — Designer selection committee recommends designer finalists to the SBAC for approval
July 14-16 — Designer finalist interviews
July 23 — School Committee meeting to award contract (date and time of this meeting to be confirmed)

Letter to the editor: Uphold First Parish decision

June 18, 2014

(Editor’s note: The First Parish Church will go before the Zoning Board of Appeals on June 19 to appeal the Planning Board’s denial of the its request to extend one side of the Stearns Room—see the Lincoln Squirrel, May 15, 2014.)

To the editor:

Ever since the 1700s, Lincoln residents have been concerned about development pressures and carefully crafted thoughtful mechanisms to preserve their beloved agrarian community. In the 1730s, area farmers led by the Flint family began a lengthy effort to separate and remain agrarian. The first step was to convince the Great and General Court that there was a need to be a distinct, self-governing community. The key lay in establishing that travel to existing parishes was prohibitive during certain seasons. Thus, they should be able to create their own parish, easily accessible to area farmers. Land was donated by the Flint family for both a parish building and for a cemetery.

Community Center exploration moves forward

June 17, 2014

Six residents and three town officials have been named to the new Community Center Study Committee, and the town is advertising for a consultant to look at various options for a facility to house groups including the Council on Aging and the Parks and Recreation Department.

The request for proposals from consultants is the next step in a process that began with a study and report by the Community Center Feasibility Study Committee in 2012 and a discussion at the State of the Town meeting in fall 2013 (see the Lincoln Squirrel, November 3, 2012).

While Park and Rec is satisfied with its current location in the pods, the buildings are getting old and will need repairs soon. The Council on Aging has outgrown its Bemis Hall headquarters, which also lack private consultation areas. There are also parking and safety issues, since visitors who park across the street in the church lot must cross Bedford Road to enter Bemis

The committee’s report looked at several possible sites for a community center, though it did not evaluate them in detail. Those sites are the administration building and pods in the Hartwell side of the school campus, the Smith school building, the Pierce House, The Groves (now The Commons), Farrington Memorial, the First Parish Church, Lincoln Woods on Wells Road, the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and Lewis Street.

For a base price of $55,000, the town is looking for a consultant to do a “detailed evaluation of the benefits, challenges, and costs of the options” as well as any other options they might identify, according to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) published by the Board of Selectmen on June 11. Firms have until June 30 to submit proposals.

Town officials hope to have “concept-level plans/options” to present to the community at the State of the Town Meeting in the fall. The consultant will develop schematic design and cost estimates for “the option(s) deemed by the Selectmen based on feedback from the community, to be the most viable and attractive options” to be presented for discussion at the Annual Town Meeting in March 2015. The consultant is also responsible for helping the new committee hold public workshops and hearings as necessary.