The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

schools

Letter to the editor: support L-S music programs

To the editor:

Another year of music education has begun at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. Directors Tom Grandprey, Kyung-Nam Oh, and Michael Bunting are working diligently to create and carry out a rich curriculum with a wide array of performances opportunities.

Lincoln-Sudbury Friends of Music (LSFOM), a volunteer organization, seeks to raise funds that will benefit all students enrolled in band, orchestra, and chorus. The financial support you lend will allow us to honor specific requests from the Music Department that the school budget is unable to support. This may include enrichment through master classes, clinics and music festivals; the purchase of supplementary instruments and musical scores; and year-end awards and grants for music lessons, concert attire, and any other needs that families in our district may require to allow their children to succeed in this program.

Specifically, this year we aim to support coaches for orchestra sectionals, clinicians for chorus and band, and equipment requests for band, jazz, guitar, and multimedia music classes. Contributing (tax deductions and matching gifts available) helps us fund the efforts of the staff, directors, and performers. We are grateful and appreciative of those who support us financially and/or by attending our performances.

For more information about LSFOM, a list of upcoming events and to donate, please visit www.lsfom.org. Thank you.

Sincerely,

L-S Friends of Music:
Julie Alix, Laurence Baize, Theresa Kneeland, Carla Lievano, Glenn Merrill-Skoloff, Amy Rose, Rob Silsby, Dawn Solowey, and Maryann Tabola

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 Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

School project outreach sessions scheduled as December vote nears

The most recent floor plan for the revitalized Lincoln School (click to enlarge).

The School Building Committee is hosting a series of outreach sessions this week and next to explain and answer questions about the school project. Members are also seeking public input on the appearance of the roof over the central part of the renovated school.

The outreach sessions will be on the following dates:

  • Friday, Nov. 9 — 8:30–10:30 a.m. in the Lincoln Woods community room, and 1–2:30 p.m. in Bemis Hall
  • Saturday, Nov. 10 — 1–3 p.m., Lincoln Public Library
  • Tuesday, Nov. 13 — 8–10 a.m., Lincoln School
  • Wednesday, Nov. 14 — 9:15–10:15 a.m. the deCordova Cafe/Lincoln Nursery School
  • Thursday, Nov. 15 — 11 a.m.–noon, The Commons

There will also be a multiboard meeting and community workshop on Thursday, Nov. 15 from 7–9 p.m. in Hartwell Pod B.

At the November 1 community workshops, participants were asked to give their opinions about the look of the roof over the new central entrance and commons areas. As of late last week, 79 percent of those who offered feedback at the workshops or online have said they prefer the sloped roof design. Click here to comment on which you prefer. The SBC will discuss the two options at its next meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room.

The Green Energy Committee also gave a presentation November 1 about the sustainability aspects of the project—how the school will be “net zero,” what that means, and how it will be accomplished. Click here to see those slides, and click here for an FAQ document from the committee.

Residents will be asked to vote on bonding the $92.9 million project at a Special Town Meeting on Saturday, Dec. 1 (where a two-thirds majority is required for approval) and at the ballot box on Monday, Dec. 3.

School Committee, Magic Garden have openings

Al Schmertzler has retired from the Lincoln School Committee after 26 consecutive years of service to the town, 12 on this committee and a previous 14 on the Finance Committee, among many other contributions of time and intelligence.

To fill the vacancy created by this retirement, the Lincoln School Committee invites and encourages any town resident with an interest in serving on the School Committee to submit a statement of interest detailing qualifications and experience to schoolcomm@lincnet.org. The deadline is Friday, Nov. 9.

There will be interviews of all candidates in a joint, open meeting of the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 6:30 p.m. in the town office building. Each candidate will be asked to make a brief opening statement, respond to a set of questions from the committee and board members, and have an opportunity to ask questions. Members will vote at that meeting to select one of the candidates to serve as an interim member of the School Committee.

The interim member will serve until the next annual election in spring 2019, at which time there will be an election for a two-year term on the School Committee. (The reason for this unusual arrangement is that Schmertzler’s term ends in 2021, so that is the date for the next election for a full term for this seat.)

Anyone with questions is invited to contact one of the School Committee members.

Magic Garden is hiring

Magic Garden Children’s Center is seeking to hire several staff members as it prepares to expand into a second location (see the Lincoln Squirrel, Oct. 3, 2018). Applications are being accepted for EEC-certified lead teachers for the preschool classroom (3-year-olds), pre-K (mixed ages), and the new Infant and Toddler Center, which is also seeking part-time assistant teachers (20–30 hours per week) and is set to open in early 2019. For more information, see the Magic Garden careers page, contact director Lori Leo at 781-259-8161 or lori.leo@staff.magic-garden.org.

 

GearTicks teach robotics at Girl Scout event

The GearTicks at WPI for the “Geek is Glam” event: Howie Tsang, Ben Morris, Prerna Karmacharya, Andreas Muzila, Erin Crisafi, Amelia Pillar, and Kevin Ji (click to enlarge).

By Prerna Karmacharya

The GearTicks, a local robotics team based in Lincoln, demonstrated their vacuum pump and helped the Girl Scouts build prosthetic hands and drive LEGO Segways at the Girl Scout “Geek is Glam” event on October 13 at WPI in Worcester.

At the event, the Lincoln GearTicks interacted with girls in grades 4–8, teaching them about how robotics is fun and getting them interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).

Prerna Karmacharya shows a 3D-printed prosthetic hand to a Girl Scout.

The GearTicks also take part in a competition called FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) for middle and high school students, where they design, build, and program robots to compete in a challenge once a year. Teams all over the globe compete in this competition. FTC also encourages community outreach.

Last year for FTC, the GearTicks designed a vacuum pump as part of their design for their robot and built the pump from parts they made on their 3D printer. The team also spent lots of time perfecting the custom vacuum pump and enjoy sharing knowledge about it with others.

The GearTicks also 3D-printed prosthetic hands as part of the e-NABLE prosthetic hand project. Through building the hands, they are able to give back to the community using their knowledge, and share their skills with others.

The Girl Scouts came in four groups of about 100 kids in each group. Overall there were about 440 Girl Scouts there. Other exhibitors were iRobot and Bose, along with other groups including a few FRC teams.

Lincoln GearTicks team members Amelia Pillar, Erin Crisafi, Howie Tsang, and Andreas Muzila get ready for the Girl Scouts event. 

One of the Girl Scouts worked with GearTick members Prerna and Amelia to build the prosthetic hands. It turned out that this Girl Scout’s foster sister had a prosthetic hand that was also from e-NABLE.

“It overjoyed me to learn about someone who had benefited from these hands,” Prerna said.

The GearTicks hope that they can keep helping the community. They really enjoyed teaching the Girl Scouts about science and engineering, as well as getting them more interested in STEM. The team strives to use their STEM skills to help their local community.

News acorns

L-S officials to hold coffee, listening sessions

The Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee will be hosting three office hours/listening sessions this week, including one in Lincoln:

  • Thursday, Oct. 25 from 7–8 p.m. — Goodnow Library (second-floor conference room), Sudbury
  • Friday, Oct. 26 from 9–10 a.m. — deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum Cafe, Lincoln
  • Friday, Oct. 26 from 11 a.m.–noon — Karma Coffee, Sudbury

Click here for the full 2018-19 list of dates and times for listening sessions.

L-S Superintendent/Principal Bella Wong will also host a Parent Coffee for parents of current L-S students on Monday, Oct. 29 from 8–9 a.m. in Conference Room A (sign in and get directions at the main office).

St. Anne’s to hold service of remembrance

St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Episcopal Church will mark All Saints Sunday on November 4, remembering those who have died with a special service of remembrance at 5 p.m. The choir will sing Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, accompanied by guest organist David Carrier.  All are welcome.

L-S students commended for PSAT scores

Lincoln residents Irene Terpstra and Colton Volpe are among the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School commended students recognized for their exceptional academic promise by the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program. Nationwide, commended students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2019 competition by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).  

Donate used Lincoln Youth Soccer gear

The First Parish in Lincoln’s Youth Group is collecting used Lincoln Youth Soccer uniforms and gear to send to Ethiopia with Jen Gill and Sylvia Perry when they go to serve as part of a medical team. Collection bins are located on the steps of the Parish House at 14 Bedford Rd. and at the Parks and Recreation office in Hartwell pod A on Ballfield Road. Any used LYS uniforms and gear collected after Sylvia and Jen’s November travel will be sent to an equally deserving soccer program.

 

School project budget, financing aired at SOTT

A summary of “value engineering” items trimmed to bring the school project back to the approved $93.9 budget (click to enlarge).

Town officials provided updates on the two pending school campus construction projects at the State of the Town meeting on October 20, outlining a series of cuts made to bring the school project under budget and a timeline for the community center.

The detailed construction cost estimate presented to the School Building Committee in September was about $9 million more than the $93.9 million budget approved by voters in June, so the SBC had just weeks to decide what to trim as it prepares for bonding votes at a Special Town Meeting on December 1 and at the ballot box on December 3. The areas where cost estimates rose the most compared to the figures presented in June were site work, which went up by $5.22 million, and temporary modular classrooms, which rose by $2.94 million.

After three weeks of painstakingly combing through a list of more than 100 construction items, the SBC got the project under budget. Members actually trimmed more than $9 million because they also added two items: $870,000 for an upgraded HVAC system and $150,000 for a slightly redesigned center of the building.

The biggest savings will come from site work. The SBC lopped $3.9 million from that category by cutting back on granite curbs and repaving and foregoing new plantings, sod for the ballfield, and new playground equipment. Officials expect to save $1.68 million by negotiating less expensive temporary classrooms.

To save another $2.5 million, the town will hire a third-party firm to install the solar equipment rather than paying for and owning it as part of the project. Lincoln would then enter into a power purchase agreement where it would buy electricity, thus shifting much of the financial burden from the construction budget to the operating budget. On the bright side, this also means that enough solar equipment can be installed to make the school “net zero” in terms of energy use.

The final borrowing amount that the town will vote on in December hasn’t been determined yet, because other sources of funding have to be nailed down. Those sources include the following (with current balances in parentheses):

  • The debt stabilization fund ($5.5 million). This fund has been accumulating for years in anticipation of the school project, though the Finance Committee may recommend retaining some of it for the Community Center project
  • Free cash (about $1 million). This is a relatively large amount because the town recently received a large building permit fee.
  • Community Preservation Act funds (about $600,000 not otherwise designated). These funds can be used to outdoor recreational things like athletic fields and playgrounds.
  • The cable revolving fund ($226,000) from the annual license fee to support local cable access. This fund balance increases by about $80,000 a year and Town Administrator Tim Higgins will recommend that the Board of Selectmen “commit the lion’s share of that money” to applicable parts of the school project such as audiovisual work in the Brooks auditorium, he said at an October 18 multiboard meeting.

The town considered using Chapter 90 state funds for roadway improvements to Ballfield Road as part of the school project but decided it would be unwise to divert that money from regular road maintenance around town.

  • Click here for the State of the Town presentations by the School Building Committee and Finance Committee

Estimated property tax increases as a result of the school borrowing (click to enlarge).

The precise tax impacts of the borrowing won’t be known until the final borrowing amount and bond interest rate are known. “It’ll be less than the 20 percent people had in their minds due to the tranching, but it won’t be a lot less,” Finance Committee chair Jim Hutchinson said. “Tranching” means splitting up the borrowing into two or more loans over a period of time rather than borrowing the full amount in a single loan. Earlier FinCom figures indicated tax increases of 19 to 21 percent. The median tax bill in fiscal 2018 was $13,566.

The town also expects to borrow roughly another $20 million in 2024 to build the community center, which will bring the town’s debt service levels back up to 2019 levels. The most recent estimates for that project range from $15.3 million to $16.2 million depending on which design is selected.

”The school project is the biggest need for the town,” Selectman James Dwyer said at the State of the Town meeting, adding that work on the community center will not begin until the school is “substantially complete.” However, a community center building committee could be formed as soon as 2021, he said. There has been talk of forming a “Friends of…” group to solicit private donations for one or both campus projects, but this hasn’t yet moved beyond the discussion phase.

There will be two community workshops on the project on Thursday, November 1 at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. in the Reed Gym. Officials have until November 17 to nail down a final bonding amount for the December 1 and December 3 votes. If approved, architects will require about 12 months to complete detailed drawings before the start of construction, which is expected to take up to three years in two phases.

Birches School celebrates new home

A view of the Birches School from the east. See more photos below.

The Birches School is hosting a community open house for the general public on Saturday, Nov. 3 from 1–3 p.m. to see its new home—the renovated Bedford Road property of the late computer executive An Wang and his wife Lorraine.

The school bought the Wang property in 2016 in concert with the Rural Land Foundation, which then sold four of the 16 acres to the town for use as an athletic field and conservation land. Over the summer, faculty and staff moved into the new building from their original quarters in the First Parish’s stone church.

The move has allowed the school to add a seventh and eighth grade and the space for enrollment of up to about 95 (it has a permit for another addition in front). The Birches opened in 2012 with just five students in grades K-2. The school began looking for a new home when it reached maximum capacity of 49 students more than two years ago and was pleased to find one just up the road.

“We couldn’t realize our nature-based mission almost anywhere else in greater Boston, then-head of school Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis said in 2016.

“It goes without saying that this physical building and also the grounds have been intentionally designed to maximize our mission as a nature-based school,” said Bonnie Ricci, who became head of school in March 2018. The original picture windows stayed and provide natural light for the nature lab and science/tech/art room.

“It feels fresh and airy and spacious and welcoming,” Ricci said. “But we also made a commitment to keep as much of the existing historical house as possible.” This can be seen in one of the entryways, which is clearly the home’s former foyer, with a chandelier and carved banister at the bottom of a staircase.

The building had its beginnings as a mid-century Cape house, and “every time Dr. Wang had a success, he would add a bit on,” Ricci said. A building with nine different elevations had to be made compliant with disability and fire codes, and a 1970s addition had to be torn down because it was no longer structurally sound.

Outside, a swimming pool was filled in and is now occupied with outdoor classroom seating in the form of a circle of stumps from unhealthy trees that were cut down. The geology of the area dictated another feature: huge boulders that were uncovered during excavation were moved into another circle in the woods, a bit like Stonehenge writ small.

Ricci declined to say what the project cost but said the project “benefited from the incredible generosity of friends and supporters of the school … we’re grateful to be in this space and also to Lincoln and the partnerships with Lincoln Land Conservation Trust, Parks and Recreation, neighbors and town officials. They’ve been absolutely lovely every step of the way.”

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”104″ gal_title=”Birches”]

School group to tackle final project cost cuts this week

The School Building Committee plans to finish trimming the school project to get it under budget this week as it also awaits final information about potential savings on things like temporary classrooms and site work.

The current estimate for construction is $84.98 million, but the construction portion of the budget approved by residents in June is $76.01 million, meaning a total of almost $10 million needs to be cut or found from some other source. In its first two “value engineering” meetings, the SBC approved net reductions of just over $900,000.

The SBC meets on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room in a week full of meetings on the school project, including a multi-board meeting on Thursday, Oct. 18. On Tuesday, the Finance Committee will meet to discuss cash flow estimates and bond strategies, solar arrays for the school using capital expenditures vs. a power purchase agreement for the school’s solar array, and the use of debt stabilization funds.

At the October 10 SBC meeting, John Snell, chair of the Green Energy Committee, outlined a combination of construction incentives and energy credits for using green energy sources that could save $400,000–$1 million in the first year, with credits of $208,000–$444,000 annually over 20 years ($4.1 million to $8.9 million total).

The SBC last week also approved several more cost reductions from a list of “value engineering” items provided by architects. The cuts approved in two meetings thus far total $1.05 million:

  • Reseeding rather than sodding playing fields — $141,836
  • Not replacing some existing bookshelves, cabinets, interior doors and markerboards (5 items total) — $511,440
  • Changing floor materials in the learning/dining commons and toilet rooms from porcelain and ceramic to linoleum and epoxy, respectively — $239,514
  • Eliminating a sun shade/canopy and PV array for the new Reed gym link — $68,245
  • Electrical and plumbing items — $90,000

However, the SBC also approved an additional expenditure of $150,000 for a slightly redesigned learning commons/media center/third grade wing, so the net savings thus far are $901,035.

Still undetermined as far as exact dollar amounts are potential savings on temporary classrooms that were budgeted at $3.68 million, photovoltaic direct costs budgeted at $3 million, auditorium work (some of which might be paid for with other funds since that space is also used for Town Meetings), and some portion of the site work (roads and paths, curbs, drainage, landscaping, etc.). A total of $4.98 million could be cut if the only site work done is code-mandated work and repairs after construction.

Finding affordable temporary classrooms (which come with big expenses in addition to their leasing and moving costs) is difficult. “Locally there’s high demand. We have a lot of schools in the area whose enrollment is bursting,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said. School officials even looked at the possibility of busing Lincoln School children to the existing modular classrooms at Hanscom to save on the cost of moving and installing modular classrooms on Ballfield Road, but then every Lincoln School parent would need a pass to get onto the Air Force base, and Hanscom probably has plans for the modular classroom site anyway.

Now that it’s combed through the value-engineering list for items with relatively low dollar values, the SBC will have to discuss cutting some of the bigger-ticket line items. These include:

  • Eliminating all work in the auditorium except code upgrades, sprinklers and HVAC — $1.59 million
  • Eliminating the media center wing and making the learning/dining commons space also accommodate the media center — $1.26 million
  • Eliminating the link to the Reed gym — $1.17 million
  • Keeping preK in the main Hartwell building — $1.01 million
  • Eliminating the third-grade hub space — $210,000

Though not a true savings, officials could also move the $1.06 million cost for furniture and equipment out of the construction budget and into the school’s operating budget.

Sales of dolls, antiques providing big share of MCC budget

Joanna Schmergel (left) and Erica Gonella, MCC treasurer and director of annual giving, in a room full of dolls to be sold by the organization (click images to enlarge).

What began last year as an eBay auction of donated vintage dolls has turned into a multipronged nonprofit effort that has netted thousands of dollars for METCO and provided summer camp scholarships for 34 kids.

Joanne Schmergel’s Cerulean Way home is slowly being taken over by dolls, antiques and other items she’s collecting and selling to benefit the METCO Coordinating Committee. What was once an office become, in her words, “a full-blown doll shop, and our formal dining room is a living estate sale.”

When the MCC first began supporting the summer camp program, they dedicated a majority of funds from its annual mailing campaign—but this drastically reduced the funds available during the school year to pay for late METCO buses, MCC president Pilar Doughty said. When Schmergel approached the group with her doll sales idea, “we thought ‘we don’t have anything to lose.’ Little did we imagine that she’d be able to raise enough money to make doll sales the new cornerstone of our Boston-based student summer camp funding in 2017-18.”

A donated painting for sale, which Schmergel jokingly titles “Why Did We Buy a Farm Share?”

Last year, doll sales netted $7,800, or 45 percent of the MCC’s total annual budget. This allowed the group offer full scholarships to 48 Boston-based, METCO-enrolled Lincoln School children to the four-week Lincoln Parks & Recreation summer camp, allowing them to attend at minimal cost to them (though only 34 kids wound up participating).

Schmergel, who is in charge of MCC’s fundraising and special projects, collected more donated inventory during the summer, including 30 American Girl dolls (now on sale in individual baskets for $59.99 each) and 200 collectible Barbie dolls donated by Lincoln resident Erica Mason that will likely net $3,500–$4,500 on eBay. The MCC also plans to sell antique and vintage dolls at the Boston Toy Show and is marketing more items on LincolnTalk, including four Chinese mud clay figures and various estate-sale items.

Chinese figurines for sale by the MCC.

The next goal is raising money through various methods fund Boston-based middle-schoolers who would like to attend Lincoln Summer Day Camp. Because the middle camp tuition is costlier and the transportation logistics are tricky, the MCC hasn’t been able to advertise the camp scholarship program widely to middle schoolers.

“The MCC had seen steady, gradual decline in both volunteerism and monetary donations over the past five years, and this seriously impacted the number and frequency of programs that we have been able to offer,” Doughty said. “When Joanna came to the team with renewed energy and a ‘can-do and will-do’ attitude, she provided a breath of fresh air. Knowing that we’re on stable financial ground for the year (because of her fundraiser) allows our leadership team to step out of panic mode and plan more effectively for the future.”

Corrections

  • The agenda for the October 20 State of the Town meeting posted in the Squirrel on October 9 was incorrect. Here is the correct agenda for the meting, which will take place in Brooks auditorium from 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.:
    • Campus building projects (10:30–11 a.m.)
    • South Lincoln planning (11–11:30 a.m.)
    • deCordova bylaws (11:30a.m.–noon)
    • Open forum (12–12:30 p.m.)
    • Post-meeting table session (12:45–1:15 p.m.)
  • A photo caption in the October 10 story headlined “Sales of dolls, antiques providing big share of MCC budget” was initially incorrect; the second person in the photo is Erica Gonella, the MCC’s treasurer and director of annual giving.

Both posts have bene updated to reflect these corrections.