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New faces at Lincoln School in 2012-13

November 5, 2012

Maurisa Davis

(This article originally appeared in the Lincoln Journal on September 27, 2012.)

By Alice Waugh

Among the new faces at the Lincoln School this fall are three teachers, a school psychologist, and several instructional assistants and tutors. The faculty features a pair of new fifth-grade teachers, Maurisa Davis and Lauren Sonalkar.

Davis taught fourth and fifth grade in Amherst for five years before coming to Lincoln. “I grew up in Amherst from the age of 13 and have only lived in western Massachusetts since, so this is a complete adventure for me,” she said. An English major who focused on creative writing, she described herself as a “voracious reader and writer,” an avid shopper, and “a bit of a coffee snob.”

In addition to learning new philosophies and approaches to education, Davis said she looks forward to “expanding my horizons and challenging myself. That’s something I’ve always tried to instill in my students.”

Lauren Sonalkar

The second new fifth-grade teacher is Lauren Sonalkar, who taught fifth grade in Whitney Point, N.Y. for the last two years and worked in kindergarten and second-grade classrooms in Virginia before that. A native of Lexington, she enjoys cooking, hiking and digging clams on the Cape.

“I know Lincoln is a great school district and cares about the whole child,” she said. “My goal is to tap into the knowledge base and really learn from my colleagues and improve my [teaching] practice.”

Alissa Nageotte is a new second-grade teacher this year, though she’s worked at the Lincoln School since 2008 as an assistant, long-term substitute teacher and reading tutor, as well as coaching the middle-school girls’ soccer and basketball teams. The Connecticut native enjoys watching UConn basketball, traveling and cooking.

“I’ve really enjoyed working in Lincoln. I like that the school is a tight-knit community and that I’ve been able to get to know many of the kids throughout the grades,” Nageotte said. “A highlight for me is watching a child that has been struggling with something have that ‘aha moment.’ It’s so fun to watch how excited they are when they achieve something they’ve been working so hard at. I hope that at the end of the year, [my students] can look back and tell me what they learned and that they had fun along the way.”

Anique Lebel

Another new hire is school psychologist Anique Lebel, who previously worked as a school psychologist and team chair at Kingston Elementary School. Lebel has also worked at the Ely Center in Auburndale, helping students with social skills, anxiety management and behavioral strategies.

“I’m thrilled to be working in Lincoln,” said Lebel, who graduated from Acton-Boxborough High School. “The collaborative, inclusive, and dynamic approach of teachers and administrators has been wonderful, and I look forward to a great year.”

In 2012-23, teachers and administrators will continue adjusting the curriculum to align with the Massachusetts “common core” in mathematics and English language arts, or ELA. The newer ELA standards call for a greater emphasis on “informational reading” (in addition to fiction and narrative) to improve students’ competence in learning and expressing information from multiple media and across the curriculum.

This is also the first year that grades 5, 7 and 8 will be using the new standards-based scoring, a system that was piloted in the sixth grade last year. Rather than a traditional letter-based report card, standards-based reports assign numbers (1-4) to indicate whether the child is below, near, at or above the grade level standard for several categories in each academic subject.

Alissa Nageotte

Although they had to learn a new assessment system in 2011-12, “by the end of the year, the sixth-grade teachers said they loved it because it really freed them to teach more creatively, which was my hope,” said Sharon Hobbs, principal of the middle school.

For at least this year, however, eighth-graders will also get letter grades in addition to the standards-based scoring. Most high schools use traditional “A-F” report cards, “and we decided it wasn’t fair to send kids to high school having never seen letter grades,” Hobbs said.

deCordova scraps art classes for adults

November 5, 2012

For the first time in decades, adults looking for hands-on art instruction at the deCordova won’t see any offerings.

(This article originally appeared in the Lincoln Journal on September 7, 2012.)

By Alice Waugh

This fall, for the first time in decades, there will be no semester-based art classes at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. DeCordova has scrapped its school in favor of a greater focus on sculpture and family-based programs. The Lincoln Nursery School, which has rented one of the art-class studios for the past two years, is moving its entire operation into the vacated studios.

The museum school closure, which faculty members were told about last November, has engendered a feeling of loss in many students and longtime deCordova faculty members.

Community center feasibility report issued

November 3, 2012

By Alice Waugh

If Lincoln decides to create a community center to house the Parks and Recreation Department and the Council on Aging in a single building, the most logical site would be somewhere on the Ballfield Road school campus, but further discussion will be deferred until after the town votes on the school building project this fall.

In its report presented to the Board of Selectmen on July 30, the Community Center Feasibility Study Committee examined the current and future space needs of the two organizations and presented information about seven possible sites in town that might accommodate the Parks and Recreation Department (PRD) or the Council on Aging (COA), or potentially both in one multigenerational facility.

For existing and future programming over the next decade, the PRC needs 14,600 square feet of space and the COA needs about 9,700 square feet, but having both in one building would require only 19,300 square feet (5,000 less than the sum of the two separately) because they could share some of the space.

Bemis Hall, the current home of the COA, “is not well suited for use as a senior center” because of issues with insufficient handicapped access, the configuration of the space in the historic building, and not enough safely located parking. There are a few spaces in front of Bemis that require drivers to back out into busy Bedford Road, and if they park in the church lot across the street, they must cross the same road.

While the PRD “is very happy with its current location” in Hartwell pod C, the pods have code violations and general wear and tear that will have to be addressed even if the PRD stays put, the report said. There’s also uncertainty about the process for future repairs, since the PRD is “borrowing” its space from the Lincoln School Committee. Since they are not being used for educational purposes, there is little incentive for that committee to fund repairs. However, the pods could be formally decommissioned, which would effectively transfer authority over the space.

Similarly, the town will need to spend money on Bemis Hall (which formerly housed the PRD) even if the COA stays there. The town should move ahead with short-term improvements to the building to meet the current needs of the COA and then do a “thoughtful suitability assessment” for the best uses of the building, the report said.

“One way or another, Bemis Hall is going to continue to be used,” Selectman Peter Braun said.

The committee’s report looked at the pros and cons of seven potential sites for the PRC and/or the COA: the Hartwell area (including part of the administration building as well as the pods), part of the old Smith School after new construction is completed, Pierce House, the First Parish Church, the Groves, Farrington Memorial, and Lincoln Woods on Wells Road. For each, the report includes data on the suitability of the location; the adaptability of the existing structures; renovation or construction cost; and access, circulation and parking.

The notion of whether the town even wants a one-site community center needs more consideration by officials and residents, selectmen noted.

“We need to articulate a vision and then see what happens with the schools,” said feasibility committee member Bob Sutherland, referring to an upcoming town-wide vote on the proposed elementary school building project.

“This report is not an attempt to sell the town on a need for a community center,” noted Town Administrator Timothy Higgins. “It provides an objective jumping-off point for future discussions that the town will have.”

Selectman Renel Fredriksen praised the work of the committee and the report’s neutrality, though she commented, “I couldn’t help but walk away with some very definite opinions… and I’d be really surprised if a lot of people didn’t reach the same conclusions I did.”

“This is a fabulous report. You’ve done the town a great service,” Selectman Noah Eckhouse told committee members. Though it was finished later than originally planned, the committee spent only $13,000 of the $45,000 it was allocated for its work, even with the hiring of a consultant, he added.