20 Brooks Rd. — John B. Collins to Erik Larsen and Jeannie Chun for $935,000 (January 17).- 118 Lexington Rd. — Patrick T. Davis to John Yee and Chung-Yee Mia for $1,460,000 (January 18).
- 28 Old Concord Rd. — Clifford C. Cort to Keith M. Gilbert for $2,430,000 (January 31).
news
Letter to the editor: time to move forward with a school project
(Editor’s note: There will be a multi-board meeting and forum on Wednesday, March 8 at 7 p.m. in the Brooks Gym. This is the second such meeting in recent weeks about the school project; click here for coverage of the first multiboard meeting on January 30.)
To the editor:
Last April, Lincoln again applied for state funding for a school building project from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). In December, the town learned that we were not invited into the 2016 funding pipeline. After careful consideration, we, the members of the Lincoln School Committee (LSC), have voted unanimously to recommend that the town move forward independently and begin planning a Lincoln-funded school building project. This is an opinion that we have shared openly with other boards and that we introduced to the public at the January 30 multi-board meeting. It has since been endorsed by multiple town boards and committees.
The purpose of the January 30 meeting was to launch a community process that we hope will bring the town to consensus on a Lincoln School building project. The first decision will be made at the March 25th Annual Town Meeting. The LSC is bringing forth for the town’s consideration two warrant articles that represent two different pathways:
- Article 33: Using the money we already set aside in 2015, will the Town permit the School Committee to begin planning a Lincoln-funded project? OR
- Article 34: Should the Town continue to re-apply to the MSBA?
The LSC views these articles as an either/or choice representing two distinct pathways and timetables. The School Committee recommends voting “yes” on Article 33 and passing over Article 34.
Article 33
As stewards of the school, we believe the time has come to act independently for the following reasons:
- The Lincoln School’s building systems are at increasing risk of failure, and the fiscally responsible approach is to address the deficiencies with a thoughtfully planned single project.
- We are committed to creating a learning environment that supports the town’s educational vision.
- There has been considerable community engagement over the past five years, and a growing consensus that a school project is one of the town’s top priorities.
Certain systems in the school, such as the roof and boilers, are on borrowed time. With immediate action, the earliest completion date for a renovation project is late 2021. Waiting to act lengthens the timeline and increases the risk of a costly infrastructure failure that would force us to reactively spend millions of dollars.
Since 2002 when the Capital Planning Committee first recommended a comprehensive approach to addressing the school’s capital needs, the town has conducted five studies of the facility. Each study has confirmed the idea that it is fiscally prudent to thoughtfully plan a project that holistically addresses the school’s infrastructure needs.
For the past several years, because we sought to maximize the impact of the town’s investment, the LSC asked for town support to seek MSBA funding. Yet, since we applied last April, we have learned more about the current competitiveness of the MSBA process. The MSBA uses weighted criteria to evaluate proposals, including:
- Is the building structurally sound?
- Is there severe overcrowding?
- Is there a threatened loss of accreditation?
- Does the district foresee future overcrowding?
- Are the major systems obsolete?
- Will there be short-term enrollment growth?
- Are the educational spaces outdated?
The Lincoln School, like many around the Commonwealth, falls firmly into categories #5 and #7. Many districts around us, however, are also facing severe overcrowding, and there are some facilities around the Commonwealth that are considered unusable. The MSBA is using its limited resources to fund projects around the state that fall squarely within categories #1 and/or #2. We believe that with the current focus on these top two criteria, we are unlikely to receive state support in the foreseeable future, and that given the condition of the building, the responsible financial choice is to move ahead on our own.
Supporting high-quality public education is one of Lincoln’s core values. This goes beyond academic rigor, encompassing a vision of education that is innovative, engaging and inspiring. To realize that vision, we know we need highly effective educators in an environment that supports teaching and learning. Lincoln consistently supports the educational program, and now it is time to invest in our infrastructure. Our goal is a school facility that fosters collaboration and communication, is flexible and sustainable enough to meet educational needs for decades to come, and is safe and accessible to, and supportive of, all our learners.
Finally, for the past five years the LSC has worked with the citizens of Lincoln to cultivate a shared vision of education, and an understanding of the Lincoln School building’s deficiencies. Among the several hundred people who have engaged in this process, the public has indicated consensus on several points:
- Maximizing educational benefits is the community’s first priority when evaluating a potential project.
- A minimum investment of $30 million (2014 estimate) is required to achieve a responsible repair project that addresses basic infrastructure and meets current safety, structural and accessibility codes.
- In order to achieve an education-focused transformation of the building, a significantly greater investment will be required. According to several studies, the potential cost is $40-$65 million.
- This cost range is based on the 2014 Dore & Whittier estimates commissioned by the School Building Advisory Committee II (SBAC II); the total cost of the project proposed in 2012 was $50 million.
- When asked at the 2014 State of the Town Meeting, those present demonstrated strong support for a transformative project, even if we need to pay for it on our own.
- Many residents are also interested in building a community center on the Lincoln School campus and favor a parallel planning process.
- A school project will be a major community investment. It is important to build on the community’s demonstrated engagement in planning these projects.
Approving Article 33 is the first of three votes the town would take to plan and achieve a revitalization of the Lincoln School. Community input has been and will continue to be crucial in planning for the choices the Town will make at each of these stages. The following “feasibility study” process is based on a standard project management model:
- After a “yes” vote on Article 33, the School Committee appoints a School Building Committee to choose an architect, hire an owner’s project manager, and develop a series of project concepts and budget estimates from which the town will choose.
- The town votes to choose a project concept and estimated budget range. This determines key components of the project such as the number and types of spaces needed, and the footprint of the building.
— Preliminary design phase: After the town chooses a concept, the architect and Building Committee will do preliminary site planning and choose major systems and materials such as heating/ventilation, roofing, exterior materials, windows, insulation, lighting, and plumbing.
— Two independent cost estimates are commissioned and reconciled. - The town votes to bond the project, beginning the final phase:
— Final design development: The Building Committee and architect choose interior finishes, finalize site plans, and create construction drawings.
—The construction contract is put out to bid, is awarded, and the project begins.
Article 34
Article 34 asks whether the town should re-apply for funding from the MSBA. The LSC has advocated for this pathway over the past couple of years, but now believes that our near-term acceptance into the funding pipeline is highly unlikely given both the level of need around the state, and the MSBA’s available resources. As outlined above, large infrastructure items such as the roof and the heating system are at an increased risk of failure, and even the most ambitious project schedule takes four years. The LSC recommends voting “yes” on Article 33 and passing over Article 34.
Why not vote “yes” on both articles?
- One advantage of funding a project on our own is that we are not constrained by MSBA limitations on building and site use, thus facilitating parallel planning with a community center.
- Potential waste of taxpayer money: If we spend money to develop a project on our own and then receive an invite from the MSBA, we would have to put that work aside and begin a new, state-approved process. This would mean appropriating more money, hiring a state-approved architect and owner’s project manager, and starting the work again. This also delays planning for a community center project.
- Respect for the town’s human capital. During the most recent study of the Lincoln School, SBAC II meetings consumed over 110 hours of our educators’ and fellow citizens’ time. The LSC wants to ensure that we are using our human resources judiciously and productively.
Questions? Want more information? Please join us at the multi-board meeting and forum on March 8 at 7 p.m. in the Brooks Gym.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Glass, chair (on behalf of the Lincoln School Committee)
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters 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.
Correction
The first paragraph of the March 6 article headlined “More candidate answers before March 11 forum” gave an incorrect date for the upcoming candidate forum at Lincoln Woods. It is March 11, not March 27 (that’s the date of the election). Also, the last word in Laura Sander’s response was cut off. Both errors have been corrected in the original article.
News acorns
Absentee ballots available
Absentee ballots for the March 27 town 2017 election are now available in the Town Office Building. Residents can come in and vote over the counter or apply by mail. Under state law, the town cannot allow anyone to deliver a physical ballot to a voter. A family member may apply for an absentee ballot to be mailed to another family member. Click here for more information on absentee voting.
Haitian dance performance at L-S
The Jean Appolon Expressions dancers.
On Friday, March 10, there will be a performance by the Haitian dance company jean Appalon Expressions at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. The performance, “Angaje” (which means “engaged” or “committed” in Haitian-Creole) is inspired by the struggle against homophobia and the power of Haitian cultural tradition in the fight for justice. It is a reflection of various forms of social oppression and more particularly the violence against LGBTQ people in Haiti, who are not only victims of discrimination, but also the targets of violence by anti-gay groups.
There will be a reception starting at 6:30 p.m. and the performance will start at 7:30 in Kirshner Auditorium. The performance is free, but donations will be accepted to benefit Partners in Health. The event is hosted by the L-S French Department and the METCO program and sponsored by SERF (Sudbury Education Resource Fund).
Also as part of World Language Week next week, the public is invited to the 14th Annual World Language Declamation Contest in the L-S Auditorium on Thursday, March 9 during block 4. Students including Lincoln residents Zoe Belge, Marissa Cannistraro, Cal Hamandi and Irene Terpstra will recite pieces they have memorized in the languages they are learning. World Language Karaoke will take place on Friday, March 10 in Kirshner Auditorium during blocks 6 and 7 with singing in French, Mandarin, German and Spanish (karaoke lyrics will be supplied). Email World Language Department Coordinator Joan Campbell at joan_campbell@lsrhs.net for more information.
Free after-school classes for kids
The Learning Hub at the Lincoln Public Library is offering free Friday afternoon classes for children ages 7-11 on four Fridays this month from 3:30-4:40 p.m. Topics include:
- Picasso Cubism Paper Bag Art (March 10)
- Catapulting with Marshmallows (March 17)
- Make a Simple Glider (March 24)
- Build a Bubble Rocket (March 31)
To sign up for any or all of the classes, contact the library at 781-259-8465 ext. 4 or email jflanders@minlib.net. Classes are provided by The Learning Hub in Worcester.
Elder law clinic on March 13
Got a question about issues such as estate planning, MassHealth, protecting assets for a loved one with a serious disability, guardianship, conservatorship or probate? The Council on Aging is offering a legal clinic with elder law attorney and Lincoln resident Sasha Golden on Monday, March 13 from 2-4 p.m. There is no charge for the 30-minute consultation, but please sign up by calling the COA at 781-259-8811.
Glass brings School Committee experience to bid for selectman
Jennifer Glass.
After nine years on the School Committee during a period when the town planned and then failed to advance a school building project, committee chair Jennifer Glass is hoping to apply what she’s learned to a new town government position: Board of Selectman member.
Glass is running against Allen Vander Meulen for the remaining year in the term of Selectman Renel Frederiksen, who is resigning from the board as of this month. Also on the ballot for selectman in the March 27 town election is Jonathan Dwyer. He is running unopposed for the open seat of Selectman Peter Braun, who is stepping down after two terms.
The Glass family—Jennifer her husband Andrew, an attorney, and their daughters Caroline and Emily, who are juniors in college and at Lincoln-Sudbury, respectively—have lived in Lincoln since 2006. She has a bachelor’s degree in Russian studies and a master’s in education, and taught kindergarten in Newton before from Brookline to Lincoln, where she has been a full-time parent and volunteer.
“I moved here and jumped in pretty quickly [into school matters], and I’ve enjoyed the fact that this is a town that welcomes people who want to do that. It’s easy to feel engaged, and it’s what has made our time here a lot of fun,” she said.
“What drew me to [running for selectman] was the confluence of events going on in the town right now,” said Glass, referring to a renewed school project push as well as a municipal solar installation at the landfill, economic development in South Lincoln, a possible community center and the Complete Streets initiative. “There are a lot of pieces that individual committees have talked about for a while but are all coming together in a big picture, which I find very interesting and exciting… I believe the experience I’ve had in meeting with other [town government] committees will help further the conversation about how we manage all of these different ideas and projects that seem to be coming together at the same time.”
School building saga
During the first school building process (which ended in defeat in late 2012 when less than two-thirds of voters approved a $49 million total expenditure at a Special Town Meeting), Glass had many dealings with other areas of town government including the selectmen, the Finance Commission, the Capital Planning Committee, the Council on Aging, and the Parks and Recreation Committee.
Reflecting on those events four years later, the failure to advance the project was “really due to a combination of factors,” she said. “There was some initial sticker shock—these are big numbers we’re talking about for the town. To support a project of that magnitude, you have to feel like you’re getting good value for the money you’re spending. Though we had a majority, not everyone was ready to say ‘yes, this was the right value for my dollars,’ whether it was because of the layout of campus, a purely financial decision, or a desire to better understand the connect between a building and the delivery of education,” she said.
Getting formal town consensus on a school and campus design before the funding vote “was really that missing step. We had public forums and neighborhood coffees and so forth, but somehow that step where we made a choice between keeping the building in the general shape it is now and approving the other scheme, somehow there just wasn’t enough vetting of that,” Glass said.
Asked what lessons she drew from the 2012 experience, Glass said, “I’ve certainly learned the importance of talking early and often, whether with other boards or the public. We tried to be very transparent at the time, but you can never stop trying to be transparent. You just have to be very clear and up front about what the decisions are.”
The reversal didn’t sour Glass on the town’s commitment to education—far from it. “Immediately after the [2012] vote, people came to me and said, ‘I couldn’t vote for this but I want to help. What can we do?’ That told me it was not that the town didn’t want to do something, but that we had to go back and figure out how to do a better job of communicating,” she said. “We knew we had to put in place a moment where, after developing a bunch of options, we would come back to the town to get a vote” on one of those design option before the actual funding vote.
Asked about how a community center might fit in with a school project, Glass said she was “very much in favor of those two processes going forward together.” Actual construction may have to be staggered, “but we just don’t know the answers yet. Both feel like good long-term solutions. What we’re trying to aim for is how do we get the most out of both projects.”
Likewise, planning for South Lincoln should move forward even though the town doesn’t yet know the final plan, Glass said. “Depending on what budgetary implications there are, we have to see if the town has the bandwidth, but the conversations have to keep going, even if means there isn’t immediate action on development.” The commercial district can benefit fairly soon from relatively low-cost measures such as marketing and signage, she added.
A young board
Regardless of who is elected to the Board of Selectmen this month, the group will be short on experience, with two new members and a third (James Craig) who has been serving for only a year. “It means that there would be a steep learning curve, clearly. But there’s a deep institutional knowledge in Town Hall,” Glass said. “And there are many people in town who have served in this role before who I’ve always found to be very wiling to give their input and advice and fill in on the historical info that I may not have at my fingertips.
“While I certainly have a lot to learn, I understand how town government works and how the meeting law works and how all of these pieces fit together. I don’t see it as a problem because I know there’s this kind of support network out there” of professionals and volunteers,” she said.
Glass feels that the past nine years have honed her political skills a well as procedural knowledge. “I think I’ve shown that I have a fair amount of perseverance and willingness to continue difficult conversations and find common ground. I think I’m willing to listen and keep talking and try to find solutions that bring people together,” she said.
Vander Meulen charts a people-centered path
Allen Vander Meulen.
ADDENDUM: This article was updated on March 2 to include Vander Meulen’s campaign website.
(Editor’s note: The Lincoln Squirrel will profile Board of Selectman candidate Jennifer Glass on March 2. Click here for an earlier story about candidate Jonathan Dwyer.)
Allen Vander Meulen has been an IT executive and a minister. Now he hopes to parlay his experience in facilitating communication and “finding solutions where no one had even thought of them” into a new role as selectman in Lincoln.
Vander Meulen is competing with Jennifer Glass for the remaining one year in the term of resigning Selectman Renel Frederiksen. Also on the ballot for selectman in the March 27 town election is Jonathan Dwyer. He is running unopposed for the open seat being vacated by Selectman Peter Braun, who is stepping down after two terms.
After studying history at North Central College in Naperville, Ill., Vander Meulen spent 25 years in the information technology field in managerial and executive roles, “oftentimes fixing chaotic situations… I could come in, calm people down, and negotiate with both the IT folks and our clients,” he said. “I was good at it and I enjoyed it, but my focus was always on the people, not the technology.”
Living all over the country with his first wife, a conservative Christian, Vander Meulen attended all sorts of churches. “It gave me a real appreciation of the depth of the faith experience and the racial experience in this country,” he said. He subsequently decided to become a minister and earned his M.Div. degree from Andover Newton Theological Seminary in 2013. His father was a minister in Vermont but later became a professor of economics; “I went in the opposite direction, but it took me a lot longer to get to that point,” he observed.
Vander Meulen was a student minister at the Memorial Congregational Church in Sudbury and more recently a part-time minister at a church in Dalton, a post he is leaving in June. He has lived in the Boston area since 2006 and moved to Lincoln two years later with his wife Stephanie Smart, a chiropractor, and their seven-year-old son, who attends a private school in Lexington.
Lincoln appealed to Vander Meulen and his wife because of the open space and the town’s “leadership in zoning and conservation values,” he said. In the eight years since moving to town, he came to appreciate the supportive culture of volunteer town government.
“One thing I’ve noticed about Lincoln is that there are so many people who not only work hard at trying to build consensus and making sure people are heard, but who also really want people to succeed,” he said. He is now co-chair of the Housing Commission and expects to be involved one way or another with the South Lincoln Implementation Planning Committee. (If elected to the Board of Selectmen, he will resign from his other town positions.)
Like many Lincolnites, Vander Meulen is pondering the best way forward for the Lincoln School, which will have to be substantially repaired or replaced, most likely without state funding. “Replacing the entire structure, particularly doing it at one shot, is a bad idea,” he said.
A new school that attracts lots of young families may have unintended consequences, he added. “If we put in a big beautiful new building all at once, we could become another Sudbury,” where people move to town only for a few years and then leave once their kids are out of the house. When he was a student minister in Sudbury, “It was very apparent that was the case… people came, stayed for 12 years and moved, but people in Lincoln move here and stay,” Vander Meulen said.
Although more expensive in the long run, it would be wiser to rebuild the school a piece at a time, he said. This would also give the town a chance to adjust to changing enrollments without being “locked into a set of assumptions about how many students there will be.” An incremental approach would also lower the year-to-year cost by spreading payments over a longer period of time, Vander Meulen added, saying, “we don’t need to replace it all in the next five years or 10 years.”
Affordable housing, economic development
Affordable housing is another important issue facing Lincoln, which is in danger of falling below the state-mandated 10 percent minimum when the 2020 census is taken. “We’re right on the knife’s edge,” Vander Meulen said. If this happens, a developer could be allowed to build affordable housing as part of a large subdivision that normally wouldn’t pass zoning muster. Creating more affordable housing with incentives for accessory apartments would avoid large-scale construction while maintaining the economic diversity of Lincoln. “We need people in town other than those of us who are wealthy,” he said.
Vander Meulen is also in favor of more economic development, especially in South Lincoln, as well as measures to encourage people who visit Lincoln for one reason (such as going to Drumlin Farm) to sample other attractions such the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, or Codman Community Farm. He’d also like to make it easier for pedestrians to get from the library area to the deCordova, and along Route 117 from the police station toward Stonegate Gardens.
“When Allen approached me about running for the Board of Selectmen, I said great—not because we’ve been here forever, and not because he has any firm opinions about how Lincoln needs to change, but because he has the skill set to help the government achieve what they want to happen,” Smart said.
“I want everyone to have a seat at the table. People may sometimes be irritating, but they need to be listened to,” Vander Meulen said. “The emotion is always valid, so you need to understand why they’re feeling that way.”
L-S student advances to state poetry event
Piyusha Kundu
Piyusha Kundu of Sudbury took top honors at the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School finals of Poetry Out Loud, a national poetry recitation contest, at an event at Bemis Hall on February 3.
Sixteen students competed, including Lincoln residents Rebecca Dubrovsky and Owen Finsthwait, and Sudbury residents Ethan Minkoff, Marisa Singh, Lara Garabedian, Michaella DeSantis, Melody Phu, Elina Suter, Ella Houlihan, Parker Simon, Mary Lee, Julia Martin, Kate Molloy, Lee Goff and runner-up Kendall Dawson.
Kundu will represent L-S on March 4-5 at the regional semifinals. If she makes it to the top tier, she will move on to the state finals on March 12 in the Old South Meeting House in Boston. This event is free and open to the public.
At the finals in Lincoln, students read poems by a variety of authors from Audre Lord to Robert Frost to Li Young-Lee. Judges for the event were L-S history department coordinator Phil James, English teacher Susan Frommer, and L-S School Committee members Nancy Marshall and Radha Gargeya. Organized at L-S by English teacher Danielle Weisse for the sixth year, Poetry Out Loud involved approximately 200 students in the preliminary rounds. The classroom winners competed in the semifinals at L-S on February 1.
Each winner at the state level will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip with an adult chaperone to Washington to compete for the national championship. A total of $50,000 in awards and school stipends will be awarded at the national finals. The winner of the National Poetry Out Loud Contest wins $20,000.
Poetry Out Loud is a program supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, who have partnered with state arts agencies to encourage the nation’s youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. The program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence and learn about their literary heritage.
GearTicks qualify for state championship
Lincoln GearTicks Jack Hutchinson, Dante Muzila and Calvin Terpstra operate the team’s robot.
The Lincoln GearTicks FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics team had another successful tournament earlier this month, winning all their events plus an additional award at the “Twister on Lowder Street” qualifier in Dedham.
FTC is an annual challenge in which teams of students in grades 7-12 build and program small robots to play a game that changes each season. The game is played in a 12-by-12-foot playing field with each match consisting of four randomly partnered teams on two alliances. This year’s challenge involves tasks such as shooting small balls into two large hoops in the center of the field, pressing buttons on beacons to capture them for one’s alliance, and lifting and capping the center hoops with yoga balls—quite a challenge for a robot that has to fit in an 18-inch cube at the start of the match.
After winning all five of their qualification matches, they proceeded to the alliance selection, in which the top four ranked teams choose two additional teams to join their alliance. The GearTicks selected Loose Screws Robotics and Hailstorm, with whom they continued through the semi finals and into the finals before becoming the winning alliance.
“Our alliance partners were really great and had awesome robots,” Driver Calvin Terpstra. Teammate Anna Sander added, “It was fun to see Loose Screws again, as they competed with us last year from our league all the way through the World Championship.”
In addition to being the captain of the winning alliance, the GearTicks also received the Think Award, which is given to the team whose engineering notebook best reflects the team’s engineering design process journey.
Next stop: the state championship on March 4 at Natick High School. The event is free and open to the public. The team is also planning to demonstrate their robot outside Lincoln’s Town Meeting on March 25. You can find out more about the GearTicks at gearticks.com.
The winning alliance: The GearTicks, Loose Screws Robotics and Hailstorm (click to enlarge).
News acorns
Con Com seeks member
The Conservation Commission is looking for a new commissioner to complete the term of a member who has moved out of town. The group, which meets every third week on Wednesdays from 7-10:30 p.m., approves or denies permits under the guidelines of the state wetlands law and town bylaw. The Con Com also maintains 80 miles of trails in town and stewards 200 acres of agricultural land. Commissioners are expected to participate on related town boards or committees as representatives from Con Com.
Anyone interested in this or other town volunteer opportunities should visit this Volunteer web page, download the application and send it to Peggy Elder in the Board of Selectman’s office. Appointments are made by the board. For more information, please contact Tom Gumbart in the Conservation Department office (781-259-2612) or any commissioner.
Library activities for kids this week
- Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 11 a.m. — Luna Goes to Mars! is a play about 11-year-old Luna who is determined to build a rocket to go to Mars, with a little help from her pet hedgehog, Astro. A production of ArtsReach, from UNH. Recommended for ages 6 and up. Drop in.
- Thursday, Feb. 23 from 4- 5 p.m. — Brixology! Kids will learn about different types of engineering and then team up to construct an engineering-themed project using LEGO bricks. Ages 6 and up. To register, call the library at 781-259-8465 ext. 4
- Friday, Feb. 24 at 10:30 a.m. — Movies and Muffins. Gentle science-themed films based on beloved children’s books. Ages 2 and up. Drop in.
- Saturday, Feb. 25 at 11 a.m. — Meet author Joshua Funk, who will read from his picture book about the funniest food fight ever: Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast. Recommended for all ages. No registration necessary. Join us after the story time for mini pancakes and waffles.
Library to screen “Seven Beauties”
The Lincoln Public Library Film Society presents Seven Beauties directed by Lina Wertmuller (rated R. approx. 121 minutes, in Italian with English subtitles) on Thursday, March 2 at 6:30 p.m. This 1976 film stars Giancarlo Giannini as a petty crook with seven unattractive sisters to support, and it features a picaresque, World War II-era journey through a prison asylum, army service and a Nazi concentration camp. Giannini became a 1970s international icon partially on the basis of this work.
Tour the new Hanscom Middle School
Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Becky McFall and Principal Erich Ledebuhr will lead tours of the new Hanscom Middle School school on Wednesday, March 8 and Monday, March 13, both from 9-11 a.m. The 85,000-square-foot building serves 300 students in grades 4-8 and cost $34 million, funded entirely by the Department of Defense. The school’s design is based on grade-level “neighborhoods” where individual classrooms are clustered around common areas and small break-out spaces. This creates a flexible environment that fosters collaboration, accommodates project work, and provides opportunities for small, class-sized or grade-level groups. The music room, art room, library, full kitchen and gymnasium all have direct access to a central commons that features a stage and serves multiple functions: cafeteria space during lunch, performance center for music and drama, and a place to practice presentation skills for individuals and groups of students.
Tour participants must sign up in advance in order to be granted access to Hanscom Air Force Base. Please contact Mary Gately at gatelym@lincnet.org or at 781-274-7720. The signup deadlines are Marchy 3 for the March 8 tours, and March 8 for the March 13 tour.
Spelling bee registration coming up
Registration for the Lincoln School Foundation’s 10th Annual Spelling Bee will begin on February 27 and run through March 10. The bee will take place on Sunday, April 2 in the Brooks Auditorium from 1-6:30 p.m. This fun, multi-community event is open to all students in grades 3-6 from Smith, Brooks, the Hansom Schools, and Lincoln residents who attend private school or are home-schooled. Children within the same grade will register as a two- or three-person team and compete against other grade-level teams. For more information, see the LSF website or email Gabby Berberian at bee@lincolnschoolfoundation
Fireside Chats on civic engagement, American opportunity
Sharon Antia will lead two Fireside Chats in Bemis Hall on “What Does Civic Engagement Mean to You?” on Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 11:30 a.m., and “Is America Still a Land of Opportunity?” on Wednesday, March 22. Both events run from 10-11:30 a.m.
America prides itself on being a place where anyone can succeed, but is this still true? Do some people grow up receiving a better education which leads to better jobs, health and other benefits? How much of an advantage does coming from a wealthier family convey? What do the answers to these questions mean for our society? Come join others in a lively but respectful discussion of this topic facilitated by Sharon Antia using questions and answers on March 22. The purpose of the Fireside Chats is not to convince others of your opinion, but rather to share information and ideas so as to create dialogue and greater understanding.
Author talk on fly-fishing and friendship
The Lincoln Public Library presents a book talk and signing on The Confluence: Fly-fishing & Friendship in the Dartmouth College Grant with former Lincoln resident Phil Odence on Thursday, March 9 at 7 p.m. In a collection of intertwined essays, seven authors who head north each June to a remote cabin reveal how their friendships have grown deeper as their lives flow into middle age, with laughs, tears and insight into the intersection between humanity and the natural world. The reader comes along to experience New England wilderness wonders, stinky outhouses, original watercolors, floods, a wine tasting, a dramatic search and rescue… and fly-fishing for native brook trout. Odence and his family, who are now Waltham residents, lived in Lincoln for more than a decade. He was a long time coach and president of Lincoln Youth Soccer. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.
Public hearings coming up
The Lincoln Planning Board will hold public hearings on Tuesday, Feb. 28 to review applications for Site Plan Review at the following times:
- 7 p.m. — Emanuel Lewin, 105 Tower Road, proposes to construct a new home at 35 Huckleberry Hill.
- 7:15 p.m. — Elizabeth and Robert Orgel, 237 Old Concord Road, propose to construct a new home.
- 7:30 p.m. — Minuteman Vocational Technical School proposes to construct a new school.
The Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing on Thursday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. to hear and to act on the following petitions:
- Brian Cummings, 188 Concord Road, for renewal of an accessory apartment special permit.
- Daniel England, 22 Weston Rd., for renewal of an accessory apartment special permit.