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

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School Building Committee offers timetable, urges public input

The School Building Committee held its first public forum last week to outline initial steps and emphasize the need for community input and participation in coming up with a school design that voters can eventually approve.

This summer, the SBC will interview, select and negotiate with an architect and owner’s project manager. Part of its work will involve close coordination with the Community Center Preliminary Planning and Preliminary Design Committee (CCPPDC), which is working in parallel with the SBC on a feasibility study for a community center on the school campus. To that end, the Board of Selectmen and School Committee have authorized a Campus Coordination Group to facilitate collaboration between the SBC and the CCPPDC. Members are Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall, Town Administrator Tim Higgins, the chairs of the PPDC and the SBC, or designees, and one other member of the SBC and CCPPDC.

The SBC hopes to develop preliminary design options starting in the fall, with a town vote to choose one of the designs in the spring. If all goes well, the next steps are producing detailed shcematic drawings and thn another town vote on bonding the project in November 2018.

Among the issues that the SBC will tackle early on are where the various functions of the school campus should go (for example, the Lincoln After-school Activities Program, school administration offices, pre-K classrooms and storage); what a “green” or “net zero” building might involve, and what roles that other boards and committees will play.

“We need your help—I can’t stress it enough,” SBC Chair Chris Fasciano said at the June 14 forum. “To bring this project to fruition, it has to be a community project. Not everyone is going to get what they want, but in order for it to succeed, the community has to embrace the process and help us get there.”

Gina Halsted, a member of the SBC Outreach Subcommittee, outlined the various avenues of communication the SBC will use, including social media and LincolnTalk as well as mailings, workshops, forums, coffees, and other traditional methods. Meetings are also live-streamed and recorded for later online playback on the town’s video website, and all meetings are open to the public. Agendas, minutes and other documents can be found here.

Halsted invited residents to submit comments or questions by email to sbc@lincnet.org, though she cautioned that “we can’t respond [via email or social media] unless it’s in a very factual way” due to the requirements of the state’s open meeting law.

The SBC has also posted an online survey asking about residents’ priorities for a school project (building shape, repairs vs. new construction, etc.) as well as how they preferred to informed. The survey is open until July 15.

Groundbreaking caps decade-long drive for new Minuteman school

Some of the many officials who took turns with the ceremonial shovels at the Minuteman High School groundbreaking were (left to right) Minuteman School Committee chair Jeffrey Stulin, State Rep. Jay Kaufman (D-Lexington), MSBA Executive Director Jack McCarthy, Minuteman School Building Committee chair Ford Spalding, and Superintendent Edward Bouquillon (click to enlarge).

Almost a decade in the planning, a new Minuteman High School finally got underway at a well-attended groundbreaking ceremony on June 14. The event took place where the front door of the new building will go, at the western edge of the district-owned property in Lincoln, a few hundred yards from the existing school in Lexington.

The $145 million project cleared its last hurdle last September with a district-wide vote. The new school is expected to open in September 2019, after which the old building will be demolished and new athletic fields will be built.

“An investment in education pays the best interest,” said Jack McCarthy, executive director of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), quoting Benjamin Franklin. The project has been in the MSBA planning process longer than almost any other project in the state, spanning the tenure of several state treasurers, he noted.

“This project is like Job—it went through every trial imaginable… and we were spit out of the whale on September 20″ when the project was approved last year in the district-wide vote, McCarthy remarked. The MSBA is contributing more than $44 million of the school’s cost. To secure project approval, the district also had to revise its governance structure and membership, scale back student enrollment, and change state regulations so non-members contribute to capital costs.

“This project nearly failed several times,” said Minuteman School Committee chair Jeffrey Stulin of Needham. Speaking directly to Minuteman students in reference to how he felt at the project’s beginnings, he said, ” I expect that some time in the future, you too will become involved in an idea of importance where you’re overwhelmed and in over your head… but you have no chance of success if you don’t even try. You have to have courage to accept that you may fail.”

Minuteman Superintendent Edward Bouquillon, a Lincoln resident, said he first realized that the existing building needed significant repair or replacement soon after he accepted the job as superintendent in 2007, thus starting the decade-long journey to win voter approval and state funding. At times emotional, he thanked an array of people and organization, including his wife Diana.

Bouquillon urged officials not to tinker with the existing model for career vocational-technical education. “Now is not the time to shave off the best aspects of high-quality career and vocational technical education and try to graft it onto a traditional high school schedule,” he said. “All that will do is weaken our system in Massachusetts.”

He also urged the state legislature to increase funding for similar projects. “MSBA needs another penny of the sales tax to get all the vocational technical schools rebuilt and to build new ones to fill the skills gap,” he said. Currently, MSBA is funded by 16 percent (one penny) of the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax.

Guests at the groundbreaking included a host of officials from the state and district towns as well as education officials, members of Minuteman’s business-led program advisory committees, and a representative from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

There were no Lincoln officials in attendance, however. The town’s residents voted to withdraw from the Minuteman district in early 2016, a move that takes effect on July 1. At that point, the district will go from 16 towns to 10: Acton, Arlington, Belmont, Bolton, Concord, Dover, Lancaster, Lexington, Needham, and Stow.

The new school is designed for 628 students who will spend their Minuteman “careers” in one of two “career academies”: a Life Sciences and Services Academy, and an Engineering, Construction and Trades Academy. The curriculum’s 16 career and technical education programs will include two new ones: Multimedia Engineering (Technical Theatre) and Advanced Manufacturing.

Gilbane Building Co. is the construction manager for the project and Kaestle Boos Associates is the architect. Skanska USA Building serves as Minuteman’s project manager.

News acorns

School Building Committee workshop

The School Building Committee invites residents to a kickoff workshop on Wednesday, June 14 from 7:30-9 p.m. in the Brooks gym. Attendees will have the chance to met SBC members, learn about the next steps and the draft timeline, and help develop the town’s decision criteria for a school project.

Summer kick-off party for kids at library

Children of all ages are invited to the library on Thursday, June 15 from 3:30–5 p.m. for balloon sculpting, crafts, a raffle, make-your-own sundaes, and a magic show by Ed Popielarczyk at 4 p.m. Kids can pick up their reading Challenge forms. Sponsored by the Friends of the Lincoln Public Library.

Talk on identifying birds

Lincoln resident Gwyn Loud will give an informal talk on the basics of identifying birds and bird calls on Tuesday, June 20 from 9:30–10:30 a.m. at the Lincoln Public Library in the terrace off the first-floor link (rain date: Wednesday, June 21).

Summer Fest at deCordova

The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum will stage Park Fest on Saturday, June 24 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., as well as a 5K trail run starting at 9:30 a.m. (click here to register). Signature collaborative activities from deCordova’s Learning & Engagement Team will include:

  • A large-scale Play in the Park
  • Roaming performances by larger-than-life puppets Big Nazo
  • Guided tours of the spectacular 30-acre sculpture park in full bloom
  • Art sale with more than 30 local artists and artisans
  • Live music throughout the day including local alternative folk duo The Farewells and singer Jenny Riddle.
  • Curator-led spotlight art talks in the galleries
  • Ceramic Sculpture Studio demonstrations by resident artist Bruce Barry
  • Photo ops near Jim Dine’s Two Big Black Hearts sculpture
  • Food and ice cream trucks
Free for members; click here for tickets for nonmembers ($20 for adults 18-60, $15 for seniors, $10 for children ages 6-17, free for children 5 and under).

School Building Committee to discuss public forum, timeline

At its meeting on Wednesday, May 31 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room, the School Building Committee (SBC) will discuss plans for a June 14 public forum, communications with other town boards and committees, and the committee’s timeline. The full agenda can be found here.

In its two previous meetings, SBC members introduced themselves to each other and elected Chris Fasciano as chair and Kim Bodnar as vice chair. The panel also named an Outreach Subcommittee (Kim Bodnar, Selectman Jennifer Glass and Gina Halsted), and SBC members Buck Creel, Craig Nicholson and Peter Sugar volunteered to begin drafting a request for services (RFS) for the owner’s project manager (OPM).

Residents are welcome to come to part or all of the SBC’s meetings. Anyone who has questions or comments for the SBC to address at a future meeting is welcome to send an email to sbc@lincnet.org (back-and-forth email discussions about SBC business are prohibited by the state Open Meeting Law).

Correction

A May 30 article headlined “New preschool opening at Minuteman” incorrectly stated that the addition of the Colonial Children’s Academy (CCA) will the number of preschools in Lincoln to five. There will actually be six, as the Teddy Bear Club and the Drumlin Farm Community Preschool were inadvertently omitted—but the CCA itself will be in Lexington rather than Lincoln when it opens (although it will move over the town line into Lincoln along with the rest of Minuteman High School once the new school is completed). The original article has been amended to reflect this correction.

 

 

New preschool opening at Minuteman

(Editor’s note: This article has been amended to reflect a correction regarding CCA’s initial location and the number of preschools in Lincoln.)

Minuteman High School will open the door in August to the Colonial Children’s Academy, staffed by certified preschool teachers and enriched by high school interns enrolled in Minuteman’s Early Education and Teaching program.

The Colonial Children’s Academy (CCA) curriculum will feature STEM activities, outdoor and indoor recreation, music, literacy, and cooperative play. Activities will be developed from the children’s interests and skill levels. CCA, which serves children between 2.9 and 5 years of age, will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and and will follow Minuteman High School’s school year calendar.

The CCA will be on the Lexington side of the Minuteman campus until the new school building is completed in the fall of 2019. Once it moves into the new building on the Lincoln side, it will bring the number of preschools in Lincoln to seven. The others are Lincoln Country Day School, Magic Garden Children’s Center, Lincoln Nursery School, the Teddy Bear Club, Drumlin Farm Community Preschool and Lincoln Preschool operated by the Lincoln Public Schools.

“At Colonial Children’s Academy, the learning will extend beyond the classroom walls,” said Michelle Roche, director of career and technical education at Minuteman. “Preschool students will get to explore all that Minuteman has to offer with the help from our expert teaching staff. Children can take field trip with the environmental department to explore pond life or visit the automotive department to see what an engine looks like. We’re excited to be able to offer project-based learning even for our youngest students.”

Minuteman’s high school setting will allow the preschoolers to explore many of the school’s career and technical education programs and use facilities such as a large indoor gym. Student-to-teacher ratios far exceed the state standards, allowing adults to provide additional guidance and support throughout the day, Roche said.

The program offers discounted prices for in-district families and staff members of the Lexington Public Schools and Minuteman High School. Enrollment space is limited. For more information on enrollment and tuition, please call Roche at 781-861-6500, ext. 7326 or Mroche@minuteman.org.

Community center, school group both seeking more residents

The School Building Committee (SBC) is seeking volunteers for an Outreach sub-committee. The Outreach Team’s focus is to communicate SBC updates and key community forum details, but also to warmly welcome community input in all our outreach messages and encourage engagement from our residents. The time commitment of our committee members will vary and depend on the role the volunteer chooses, for there are many. Please volunteer if you…

  • Are interested in acting as a neighborhood “captain” to ensure SBC communications reach your neighborhood
  • Would like to be involved in hosting coffees or small group community sessions
  • Have an expertise in updating and managing website content
  • Have an expertise in photography or videography
  • Would like to be involved in communicating community forum details and listening sessions to encourage greater community engagement.

If you’d like to volunteer or just learn more about this subcommittee, please email SBC@lincnet.org.

Community center panel

Selectmen are still seeking candidates to serve on the CCPPDC who have experience in fields that are relevant to the committee’s work, such as architecture, planning or design, project management, or community engagement. There will be four at-large community members on the committee. More information on the committee’s duties can be found here.

Those interested should send letters of interest (mentioning relevant experience) to the Board of Selectmen via email to at ElderP@lincolntown.org by Friday, June 2. The board will appoint members of the CCPPDC at its meeting on June 12. The committee will hold its first meeting the following week and will present public updates (including at the fall 2018 State of the Town meting). If possible, there will be a final report and/or town vote at the spring 2018 Town Meeting.

Lincoln-Sudbury awards and honors

Six L-S faculty win FELS grants

Foundation for Educators at Lincoln-Sudbury grant recipient for 2017. Left to right: Xin Dong, Nancy Dion, Samantha Parker, Nicole Frattaroli, Elizabeth Carver, and Thomas Grandprey (click to enlarge).

The Foundation for Educators at Lincoln-Sudbury (FELS)—a nonprofit that awards enrichment grants to Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School faculty and staff to pursue their professional and personal interests and passions—announced six grant recipients for 2017. Recipients, their departments and projects are:

  • Xin Dong, World Languages —  Dong, who is completing her first year of the new Mandarin pilot program at L-S, will attend the MaFLA Proficiency Academy this summer. The four-day program focuses on curriculum design under the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages proficiency framework.
  • Nancy Dion, Special Education — Her grant will allow her to attend a week-long workshop at The College of the Atlantic in Maine that introduces photographers of all abilities to the art of conservation photography. She hopes print and frame the images for display at L-S.
  • Samantha Parker, Science (Physics) — Parker will travel to the Grand Tetons to witness the total eclipse of the sun on August 21. She hopes to use her explorations to enrich her teaching in astronomy and other sciences.
  • Nicole Frattaroli, Guidance Counselor — Frattaroli will take a 10-week course at The New England School of Photography to advance her strong interest in the art, allow her to contribute to the mindfulness curriculum and online resources, incorporate her photographs into presentations that the Counseling Department coordinates with Student Services for incoming families
  • Elizabeth Carver, World Languages (Spanish) — Carver’s grant will partially fund a four-week trip to Mexico this summer to explore the Mayan culture and study their language and art. She plans to document her work by maintaining a daily journal; recording interviews with Mayan people on their past and present culture; creating portraits, collage, and sculptures of Mayan people and their environment; and writing a narrative for each and of art in English, Spanish and some Maya.
  • Thomas Grandprey, Director of  Instrumental Music — he will visit museums and historic sights in Rome, Florence and other cities as well as music venues in Italy, exploring the jazz culture in Italy and make contacts for future professional and educational exchange.

FELS raises money through donations and also hosts an annual FELS Talk at the high school. Click here to see past grants.

Chess team is tops in Mass.

Left to right: L-S Chess Club members Jesse Sun, Sandeep Shankar, Greer Fried, Eric Feng, and Michael Isakov (click to enlarge).

The L-S Chess Team came in first at the state team chess championship in April, bringing home the Hurvitz Cup as two-time state champions. There were 12 teams with a total of 46 players at the championship. L-S team members were Sudbury residents Michael Isakov, Eric Feng, Sandeep Shankar, Jesse Sun, and Greer Fried. The team won all four of its matches to finish well ahead of the competition.

Ocean sciences team in #9 nationally

The L-S National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) team placed ninth nationally at the NOSB national competition held at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., and won an all-expenses-paid trip to the competition after having won the Blue Lobster Bowl at MIT earlier in the year.

The NOSB competition is largely structured in “quiz bowl” style and covers all aspects of oceanography (biological, physical, chemical, and geological), maritime technology, and marine policy. The competition also required the team to take on the roles of stakeholders testifying in front of a congressional committee, with judges playing the parts of members of Congress, and advocating positions related to an actual and complicated piece of energy legislation. The students were required to submit written statements in advance, and they followed up with oral testimony and answered questions from the committee about the legislation at the competition. The L-S team placed sixth nationally in this portion of the competition.

Team members (all from Sudbury) are seniors Melody Phu, Steven Weiman, and Julia Wyatt, and juniors Michael Isakov and Avi Lepsky. Dr. William Pegram, an earth sciences teacher at the high school, is the faculty sponsor. The team also toured a large National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel based on the Oregon coast, went out on a small research boat to create temperature and salinity profiles of estuary waters and to sort out and classify the life forms found in a trawl of the same waters, and toured a large repository of marine sediment cores stored on the Oregon State campus.

Sobkowicz chosen to work with Apple on classroom technology

Mark Sobkowicz, a computer science and physics teacher at L-S, was selected as an Apple Distinguished Educator for 2017, one of approximately 130 elementary, secondary and higher educators in the U.S. to be so honored. Individuals selected as ADEs work with Apple to develop new uses for technology in the classroom and share insights with educators and policymakers throughout the world.

With the recent improvements to the high school’s information technology infrastructure, technology has been integrated into classrooms across the curriculum. In addition, an AP Computer Science Principles course will be offered at L-S for the first time in 2017-18 with a curriculum was designed by Sobkowicz based on the introductory computer science course taught at Harvard University. A demonstration of how Apple computing is used in L-S classrooms can be found in his online application for the ADE award.

Town seeks members for new community center planning group

The Board of Selectmen is seeking volunteers for the new Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee (CCPPDC) to fill the roster by June 12 after approving the charge to the committee on May 8.

Residents approved $150,000 at Town Meeting in March to commission a feasibility study and draft design for a community center to be located on the Hartwell side of the school campus. The facility will meet the needs of the Parks and Recreation Department, and the Council on Aging as well as other town groups. The CCPPDC will work closely with the newest School Building Committee (SBC), which held its first meeting on May 3.

Selectmen are seeking four community members to serve on the CCPPDC who have experience in fields that are relevant to the committee’s work, such as architecture, planning or design, project management, or community engagement. Those interested should send letters of interest, mentioning relevant experience, to the Board of Selectmen via email to at ElderP@lincolntown.org by Friday, June 2.

The board will appoint members of the CCPPDC at its meeting on June 12. The committee will hold its first meeting the following week and will present public updates (including at the fall 2018 State of the Town meting). If possible, there will be a final report and/or town vote at the spring 2018 Town Meeting.

As its long name implies, the CCPPDC has limited scope, selectmen said. If and when the town chooses to move forward with a community center project, the committee’s preliminary design and cost estimate would be developed by a community center building committee.

The duties of the CCPPDC will include:

  • Gathering stakeholder input, and plan regular communication with and input from relevant town boards, committees, and the community.
  • Hiring a design firm to develop preliminary design plans and provide detailed cost estimates. Selectmen and the School Committee hold out the possibility that one firm could be hired to support both the school building project and the community center process.
  • Developing a detailed program of activities that would take place in a new community center and an assessment of space requirements and optimal adjacencies for the program
  • Evaluate several previously identified community center building locations within the Hartwell area, and any others that may be identified, and develop a preferred building location and supporting Hartwell campus site plan. This will require close coordination with the SBC, particularly with respect to things like future plans for the after-school program, the school’s shop area, any changes in use at the Hartwell main building, parking demands, any reorientation of the Ballfield Road roadway network or playing fields, the possible use of the pods as swing space during school construction, potential shared space opportunities, etc.

“Options for the community center must pair logically with options for the Lincoln School project to ensure all current and desired functions of the campus are included in the overarching plan for the campus,” according to the CCPDC charge.

As with the SBC, membership on the CCPPDC will entail many hours, hard work, and complicated conversations, but also offers a unique and exciting opportunity to participate in the creation of a central piece of the community and the future of the town, selectmen noted. Anyone with questions about the responsibilities and expectations of committee membership should send email before the deadline to the e-mail address above.

The PPDC will also include representatives from the Board of Selectmen, Council on Aging, Parks and Recreation Committee, Planning Board and Finance Committee. Selectmen are encouraging additional boards and committees such as the Conservation Commission, Green Energy Committee, Historical Commission, parent organizations and the Disabilities Commission to appoint liaisons to the CCPPDC.

School Building Committee holds first meeting

The new School Building Committee, appointed by the School Committee on April 11, held its first meeting on May 3. Members voted to appoint Chris Fasciano as chair, Kim Bodnar as vice chair, and Selectman Jennifer Glass as secretary.

As outlined in its charge, the SBC will create a feasibility study resulting in plans and cost estimates for a Lincoln School renovation project costing at least $30 million. In March, voters approved releasing $750,000 to fund work by consultants the group will hire. The group will work closely with a community center building committee, which will be producing its own feasibility study.

The SBC’s next meeting will be Wednesday, May 17 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose Room. The tentative agenda includes a review of a draft Request for Services (RFS), the first step in the hiring of an owner’s project manager. A subcommittee comprising Creel, Nicholson, and Sugar is preparing the draft for review by the full committee.

Members of the SBC are:

  • Becky McFall, Superintendent of Schools
  • Buckner Creel, Lincoln Public Schools Administrator for Business and Finance
  • Michael Haines, Town Facilities Manager
  • Sharon Hobbs, Brooks School Principal
  • Timothy Christenfeld, School Committee
  • Jennifer Glass, Board of Selectmen
  • Gina Halsted, Finance Committee
  • Kimberly Bodnar, community member
  • Chris Fasciano, community member
  • Craig Nicholson, community member
  • Steven Perlmutter, community member
  • Peter Sugar, community member

The following liaisons were also appointed by their respective organizations, with more expected:

  • Doug Adams, Liaison, Historic Commission
  • Ed Lang, Liaison, Green Energy Committee
  • John Ritz, Liaison, Lincoln Council on Disabilities
  • Ian Spencer, Liaison, Public Safety
  • Gary Taylor, Liaison, Planning Board