schools

The School Committee has voted unanimously to enter into negotiations to hire Dr. Frank Parry Graham as Lincoln’s next Superintendent of Schools.

Graham currently serves as the Assistant Superintendent of the Wayland Public Schools, which he joined in 2018 (read a Wayland Student Press Network profile of him here). Previously, he was Nashoba Regional High School Principal in Bolton for five years and principal of the Lufkin Road Middle School in Wake County, N.C. for four years. He also taught German at North Andover (Mass.) High School. Graham holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master of arts in teaching from Tufts University, and bachelor’s degree from Williams College

The PTO, LSF and MCC thanked everyone who assisted in the search:

“The Lincoln METCO Coordinating Committee, Lincoln PTO, and Lincoln School Foundation would like to thank all members of the LPS community who participated in the Superintendent search process. Notably, we are grateful for the countless hours our School Committee devoted to ensuring a thorough and transparent process that balanced many voices. We would also like to express our gratitude to Dr. Becky McFall for giving her successor big shoes to fill — and look forward to continued academic and social-emotional growth for our students and AIDE work together with our community under Dr. Parry Graham’s leadership.”

Kristen Ferris, MCC President
Liz Butler Everitt and Maria Miara, LSF co-chairs
Julianne Schwarzer, PTO chair

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There are two school superintendent searches involving Lincoln going on right now, but one is going more smoothly than the other.

The Lincoln School Committee held a Zoom meeting for the community on January 19 for the first of four finalist candidates, and there will be three more next week (see below). Meanwhile, things got a little testy at a January 10 meeting of the Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee (LSSC), which is seeking a successor to Superintendent/Principal Bella Wong.

The LSSC meeting was covered in the Sudbury Weekly, a e-newsletter operated by Sudbury resident Kevin LaHaise, in a January 13 post titled “Big Decisions, Big Feelings.” LaHaise started the newsletter last spring after the Sudbury Town Crier suspended print publication. He writes articles recapping town government meetings based on the recorded videos, and the Sudbury League of Women Voters contributes election news.

At issue was whether the Superintendent Search Subcommittee should retain its power to appoint members of the Screening Committee. “We shouldn’t be hand-picking” those members… it doesn’t seem appropriate,” LSSC member Candace Miller said. “I would like more of an open process.” Member Cara Endyke-Doran agreed. “If you want community buy-in, you have to let the community buy in,” she said.

But other members argued that time was growing short and anything that might slow down the search process could cost L-S good candidates. At one point, Committee Chair Heather Cowap had to admonish Miller and Harold Engstrom not to “sling mud” after they charged each other with being “unprofessional.” The LSSC ultimately voted 4-2 in favor of keeping the process as is.

The 11-person screening committee roster was approved two days later at a Superintendent Search Subcommittee meeting, but not until after Miller upbraided committee chair Matthews at that meeting for not allowing public comment until after the discussion and vote. “What kind of discussion could we have right now?” she said.

“This process is atypical,” Miller added, referring to the recent search process for a new town manager. Matthews and Engstrom voted in favor of the screening committee roster while Miller noted no.

The screening committee consists of Matthews, Engstrom, and Miller from the LSSC, Brendan Wimberley and Susan Shields from the faculty, Martha Wahl and Damon Kelton from the administration, Lincoln School Committee liaison Tara Mitchell, Sudbury School Committee liaison Silvia Nerssessian, and community representatives Carole Kasper (Lincoln) and Maura Carty (Sudbury).

Carty has pulled candidacy papers for one of the two openings on the LSSC in the March 27 Sudbury town election. Ravi Simon of Sudbury has also pulled papers, though no one from Lincoln has done so yet (the deadline is February 1). The open seats are currently occupied by Miller of Sudbury and Engstrom of Lincoln.

Lincoln superintendent search

Three public forums for Lincoln Public Schools superintendent finalists will be held next week at 6 p.m. in the Lincoln School auditorium:

• Monday, Jan. 23 – Michael Caira, currently assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction, and assessment for the Ashland Public Schools (Zoom link)
• Tuesday, Jan. 24 – Annette Doyle, currently principal at the Peter Noyes Elementary School in Sudbury (Zoom link)
• Thursday, Jan. 26 – Jessica Rose, currently assistant superintendent for the Lincoln Public Schools  (Zoom link)

Frank (Parry) Graham, currently assistant superintendent of Wayland Public Schools, was the focus of the January 19 forum. The forums are not interviews but rather an exchange of questions and ideas. To view the finalists’ resumes and learn more about the superintendent search process, click here.

Each of the four finalists will spend a day visiting Lincoln schools and meeting with staff, students, and parents/community members. This “day in the district” is partially to help the finalists learn more about the district and our communities to inform their decision making but is also an opportunity to learn more about each finalist.  

Becky McFall announced in October that she will retire at the end of June after 11 years as Lincoln’s school superintendent.

The School Committee will conduct final public interviews with each finalist on January 30 and 31, and February 1 and 2 at 6 p.m. in the school district offices’ multipurpose room. The interviews also will be streamed live via Zoom. While the interviews are public, only School Committee members will be allowed to engage with each finalist.

Bella Wong, Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School’s Superintendent/Principal for almost a decade, will not be returning in the fall in what L-S School Committee Chair Heather Cowap said was a mutual decision.

In a statement, the committee praised Wong’s fiscal management, work in building community within the school, and strengthening special education and accommodation services, particularly in overseeing creation of the Beacon, Link, ACE, Excel, L-S Academy, and Partners programs. Many of these programs have allowed students to remain at L-S who might otherwise have to be placed out of district at another school that was better equipped to educate and support them — a costly alternative.

Those programs were a joint effort between Wong and the special education staff at L-S. “It was very much a collaboration and a willingness to say yes, let’s do this and commit to the kids in this way,” Cowap said.

In an email to the Lincoln Squirrel, Wong also pointed to those efforts as one of her key achievements. “We’ve extended services for students with emotional disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, transitional needs, and non-language disabilities. We’ve also expanded targeted intervention services for students not on IEPs or 504 plans. This is rare at the high school level,” she said. 

Wong said she was proud of the school’s expanded student access to travel abroad (a “personal interest” of hers) and “coming strong” out strong out of the pandemic. “We completed several tasks on time such as review of our schedule, developing a new advisory program, and successful completion of our decennial NEASC accreditation. Our students report being well supported by adults at school,” she said.

However, it was clearly time for a change, not only due to Wong’s long tenure at L-S but also because of some public discontent. “From the School Committee point of view, there’s been a very loud community majority asking for new leadership,” Cowap said. “The most consistent ongoing concern has been communication, which has been a confusing conversation because in her evaluation survey, parent feedback said it was fine and they were being provided with information, and yet we’ve heard from the general public in emails and other venues such as personal conversations that they find the communication frustrating and confusing.”

Most Massachusetts school superintendents serve terms of five to six years; “ten years a phenomenally long time to serve in a district,” Cowap said. “You reach a point where you need fresh eyes, new ideas, a new approach.”

The School Committee has begun looking for a search firm to identify a replacement for Wong. and will discuss it at its October 25 meeting. The firm will help map out a timeline and hiring process. Although the goal is to have a new superintendent on board by July 1, “as a committee, we’re unwilling to rush the process,” Cowap said, adding that an interim hire was possible if the right candidate didn’t emerge.

Becky McFall, superintendent of the Lincoln Public Schools, also recently announced her retirement. The Lincoln School Committee has hired the Edward J. Collins Center Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts–Boston as its search firm. “Certainly we’ll consider them, but we’re not necessarily expecting  that we’ll be using them” for the parallel L-S search, Cowap said.

Wong was named interim superintendent/principal in June 2013 after two other interim candidates dropped out. She has already been at L-S for 14 years (seven as a science teacher and seven as a department coordinator). Previously she was an assistant superintendent and superintendent in Wellesley. She resigned from the latter position in 2012 following public concern over the operations of the district’s business office, according to a 2013 Boston Globe article.

Dr. Rebecca McFall, Lincoln’s Superintendent of Schools since 2012, announced that she’ll retire after the 2022-23 academic year, concluding a tenure that saw both upheaval and renewal.

“While we commend Becky for the day-to-day management of the district, the truly exceptional component of her tenure with us has been her leadership through three building projects and a global pandemic. Dr. McFall’s tireless leadership, dedication and creative problem-solving is something that we are grateful for and will not soon be forgotten,” School Committee Chair John MacLachlan wrote on behalf of the group.

He also paid tribute to her good working relationships with union leadership, Lincoln administrators and committees, and the Department of Defense, which funds the Hanscom schools, as well as her cross-district initiatives, strategic planning and execution, and commitment to anti-racism, inclusion, diversity, and equity.

McFall began her career as a middle school teacher assistant 39 years ago and has also worked as a middle school teacher, a director of curriculum and instruction, a K-5 science coordinator, assistant professor of education at Endicott College in Boston, she wrote in a letter to the School Committee posted on LincolnTalk. She succeeded Michael Brandmayer as superintendent after served as an interim principal and elementary science coordinator in Wellesley.

The School Committee has hired the Edward J. Collins Center Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts–Boston to help with the search for a new superintendent. John R. Brackett, a consultant at the center, will hold an orientation on the search process at the committee’s October 3 meeting. They hope to have a replacement selected by Town Meeting in March.

“Together we have created a great place to work and an exceptional place for students to attend school. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity I have had to lead this district for the past ten years and I extend my thanks to the entire LPS community for your support, hard work, and collaborative nature,” McFall wrote. “I am confident that this will be a highly coveted position providing several strong candidates. Please know that I will be doing everything in my power to ensure that the district is in good standing and ready for a transition to new leadership.”

Online registration is now open for a range of summer programs for preschoolers through adults starting on July 11 by Minuteman High School in Lincoln and Lexington. They include:

• An Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) course for anyone age 17 or older.
• A high school student academic recovery program with numerous courses. Open to any high school student, even if they do not attend Minuteman.
• A middle school enrichment program with courses in career technical education areas such as auto mechanics, plant science, multimedia, animal science, cosmetology, and early education
• A preschool program at Minuteman’s Colonial Children’s Academy.

Minuteman Technical Institute (MTI), the adult evening division of the Minuteman school district, is also offering workforce development programs. Classes begin in August or September, depending on the program. The 10-month programs run the length of a traditional school year and require tuition. The 15-week programs are funded through grants from the Governor’s Workforce Skills Cabinet and are free for qualified applicants, which includes most recent high school graduates.

Classes are held weekday evenings and Saturday mornings depending on the program. MTI is open to any student over 18 with a high school diploma or GED (applicants do not need to be a resident of a town in the Minuteman school district).

Minuteman Technical Institute will offer ten-month programs for automotive technology, cosmetology, and electricity from August 2022 to June 2023. Tuition payment plans are available, and additional tuition support may be possible for students ages 18-24 or for anyone who is unemployed or underemployed. View MTI’s Applications and Admissions page for details.

Fifteen-week programs beginning in September 2022 are CNC machine operator, carpentry pre-apprentice, facilities management, robotic technician, and welding. Anyone interested in these courses must apply through a designated MassHire Career Center: MassHire Metro North in Cambridge, MassHire Metro South/West in Framingham, and MassHire North Central in Leominster.