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

schools

State says no to Lincoln school funding for the third time

The state agency overseeing school project funding informed Lincoln today that the town would not be invited into the funding pipeline for a school project in 2017. This third rejection means residents must once again decide whether to wait and reapply next year, or proceed with an entirely town-funded school project.

Lincoln submitted was among the 89 school districts that submitted statements of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) this year, according to a letter from School Committee chair Jennifer Glass and Selectman Peter Braun. It was unclear how many of those proposals made the first cut. In 2015, there were 97 applications to the MSBA’s core program (the segment dealing with substantial renovation or reconstruction of schools); 26 were chosen for further consideration and eight were invited into the funding pipeline.

“From previous conversations with the MSBA, we know that there is a very high bar in evaluating applications, and that structural deficiencies, overcrowding and threatened loss of accreditation hold significant weight in the process. Lincoln does not qualify based on the second and third criteria, and interpreted literally, the structure of the building is not in danger of failure,” Glass and Braun said. “However, in the next couple of weeks, we will be in communication with the MSBA to try to learn whether the Lincoln School’s significant infrastructure and systems deficiencies might qualify us for invitation by the MSBA in the near future.”

Four years earlier, the MSBA offered to pay $21 million toward a new school costing $49 million if residents agreed by a two-thirds majority to fund their share. But the margin at a Special Town Meeting in November 2012 was 370-321 votes (54 percent to 45 percent), so the funding offer was withdrawn and the town had to begin the process all over again. The MSBA also declined to offer funding in 2013 and 2015. At Town Meeting in March 2016, residents overwhelmingly approved the latest application to the MSBA.

In 2014, consultants Dore and Whittier determined that the school needed immediate work costing $8.4 million including a new roof for the entire building, a new exterior wall for the Reed Gym, and a new boiler room and pumping equipment for the Smith building. However, even if residents approved funding for that work, the town would have to spend several million dollars more, because by state law, when school renovation costs exceed a certain percentage of the building’s assessed value, the building must also be brought up to current code for handicapped accessibility. For the Lincoln School, the trigger point in 2014 was about $6.5 million.

Meeting only the immediate and near-term facilities needs of the school with no educational improvements or cafeteria would cost more than $27 million, the consultants said, while a comprehensive project meeting all facilities and educational needs would cost almost $60 million.

The School Committee, Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and Capital Planning Committee will hold a multi-board meeting on January 30 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room to discuss any additional information received from the MSBA and to chart a path forward. “This will be the first of several public outreach sessions before any potential school building-related warrants are voted on at Town Meeting, and we hope that all members of the community will lend their voices to the process,” Glass and Braun said.

 

Lincoln robotics teams shine at multiple events

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Jack Hutchinson, Dante Muzila and Calvin Terpstra operate their robot during the FTC event.

The last two weekends have been very busy for Lincoln robotics, as the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team and all six of the Lincoln Recreation Department’s FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams competed in their first events this season.

FTC is an annual challenge in which teams of students in grades 7-12 build robots that fit into an 18-inch cube to accomplish certain tasks. The game is played in a 12-by-12-foot playing field. FLL is similar to FTC, posing an annual challenge with new obstacles to be completed by a robot, though in this case the machines are made of Legos and the students are in grades 4-8. The FLL teams also create a project in which they brainstorm a solution to a real-life challenge.

At a qualifier in Canton on December 4, the FTC GearTicks received the Think Award, which is given to the team whose engineering notebook best reflects the team’s engineering design process journey. Jack Hutchinson, one of the team’s drivers, thought it was a great opportunity to test out this year’s robot. “This excellent start to our season really got our team excited for the coming year,” he said. Teammate Anna Sander agreed. “We had a great chance to meet other teams and see all the cool designs they’re using,” she said.

In separate qualifiers, the FLL Orange GearTicks took second place in their robot competition and received the Champion’s Award given to the top team at the competition, and the Green GearTicks had a great project presentation and ended the day with their robot in 11th place. The Purple GearTicks received the Inspiration Core Values Award, and the Yellow GearTicks received a judges’ award as Rising Stars. Meanwhile, the Blue GearTicks received the Robot Design Award for their interesting turret design and the Red GearTicks won the “Programming Award” for their understanding of PID controllers.

The Lincoln robotics program derives much of its strength from the support it receives from the community. Although the GearTicks FLL teams are run through the Recreation Department, they rely entirely on parent and high school volunteers to coach each team.

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The FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team. Front row: Evan Lee, Howie Tsang and Irene Terpstra. Back row: Caleb Sander, Dante Muzila, Laura Appleby, Jack Hutchinson, Calvin Terpstra, Catherine Appleby and Anna Sander.

“The judges were impressed by the range of in-town experts we consulted for our research project,” team member Emily Appleby said. For their “Active Deer Warning Signs” project, the students worked with Chris Bibbo at the DPW and Tom Gumbart at the Conservation Commission to investigate the problem of deer and cars on Lincoln’s roads.

FLL students agreed that the team has been a great experience. Emily Feng joined the Lincoln robotics program because she wanted to “improve my teamwork skills and learn about programming and building robots,” and she and her teammates certainly succeeded. The team also learned a lot about STEM (science, technology, engineering and math and how to compete under pressure.

“It’s interesting to see how other teams solve the same missions that we do in very different ways,” said Amelia Pillar.

“Out team really learned a lot and improved our teamwork,” said Alex Stewart.

“Sometimes it’s stressful to set up the robot in a gymnasium full of screaming people,” but the teams were equal to the pressure, said Stavros First.

The FTC team advanced from the Canton qualifier and will compete in the Massachusetts FTC State Competition on March 4 at Natick High School. The Orange GearTicks also advanced to the Massachusetts FLL State Tournament, in which they will compete on December 17 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The Red and Blue GearTicks FLL teams will also compete in further qualifiers.

Sale closes on Wang property; town will be asked for $850,000+

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The Wang property is outlined in blue. The lot on which the house sits is in yellow. Click image to enlarge.

The sale of the 16-acre Bedford Road property owned by the late An and Lorraine Wang was completed on November 17 for $2.375 million, and residents will be asked at Town Meeting to approve the purchase of 12 of those acres for use as conservation land and a new town athletic field.

The Rural Land Foundation (RLF) bought the property together with the Birches School, which plans to relocate to the remaining four acres, including the Wangs’ 12,000-square-foot house at 100 Bedford Rd.

The 16 acres of land comprise seven parcels along Bedford Road and Oak Knoll Road with a total assessed value of $2.3 million and a full development value of $3 million to $4 million, RLF Executive Director Geoff McGean said in October when the planned deal was announced.

The RLF and Birches have agreed to carry the cost of the property until the 2017 Town Meeting, when voters will be asked to pay the two organizations $850,000 and to allocate an additional as-yet-unspecified amount to build the athletic field. If residents reject the proposal, the RLF and Birches will seek to develop the property, which has three potentially buildable lots, to recoup their investment.

Officials hope to have the $850,000+ appropriated from funds collected through the Community Preservation Act. Those funds derive from a 3 percent surcharge on property tax bills, supplemented by money from the state, and can be spent on open space, preservation of historic structures, provision of low and moderate income housing, and recreation.

“The decision to pursue this opportunity was done in concert with two partners: Birches School and Parks & Recreation,” McGean said. “We had three different organizations, each with its own unique needs, and the Wang property provided a potential path forward for all of us. We are grateful to the Wang family, which made this transaction an affordable possibility.”

“We’ve been searching for land for more than 15 years and we recognize that when an opportunity like this comes along, we need to seize it,” said Parks & Rec Director Dan Pereira. “The town doesn’t have the ability to act on short notice, so we’re fortunate to be able to partner with the RLF and Birches School to make this an option for the town. Lincoln is also able to take advantage of significant cost savings, since Birches School will be building and maintaining the parking lot for the potential field.”

“This is an exciting opportunity to balance these different community needs while also connecting an important property to adjacent land already in conservation,” said Lincoln Conservation Director Thomas Gumbart.

The Birches School, which currently has 45 students in rented space in the First Parish Stone Church, has already begun to renovate the home, working with Lincoln architects Woodie and Loretta Arthur of D.W. Arthur Associates Architects. The school hopes to move into their new facility by Fall 2017.

Officials will schedule future public meetings to discuss site plans and project funding.

‘Coming attractions’ aired at SOTT open forum

stateofthetown2During the open forum segment of the November 12 State of the Town meeting, residents and officials made comments on past issues and previews of “coming attractions”:

Town athletic fields

Lincoln’s athletic fields are in poor condition because there are too few of them to allow a normal “rest period” for each field, said Parks and Recreation Committee chair Jonathan Dwyer, adding that the group will soon “begin discussions with you on what to do.”

Marijuana sales

“It’s time to discuss marijuana,” said Lynn DeLisi, who is vice chair of the Planning Board. In light of the fact that Massachusetts just voted to legalize sales of recreational marijuana, “South Lincoln could have a marijuana candy store” subject to age restrictions, she said. “I would like to see Lincoln free of marijuana establishments.”

Two years ago, a medical marijuana dispensary in Lincoln was proposed, but the Board of Selectmen declined to send a “no opposition” letter,” Selectman Peter Brain noted. The approved legislation is “full of regulatory holes… this is some we’re going to have to study as soon as we have some new information. We can’t tell yet what will be permitted where and in what circumstances,” he said.

School project

The Massachusetts School Building Authority has said they will notify Lincoln in January as to whether the town will be invited into next year’s funding pipeline for a school project, School Committee chair Jennifer Glass said. “Whatever the answer is, yea or nay, it will be all hands on deck as a town to figure out our next steps and to move forward. We will be asking for everyone’s full participation.” If the state again declines to consider funding a project, the town may have to paying for a project alone.

Town meeting format

A group has formed to discuss the structure of Town Meeting, which some believe impairs full participation by all residents due to its multi-hour in-person Saturday format. “I’d like you to be open. There’s been a lot of talk from the younger generation and we need to listen. I want us to think very, very carefully about it,” said Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden.

Lincoln newcomers

The town recently sponsored an event to introduced new residents to Lincoln, and the Town Clerk’s office has distributed limited copies of printed booklets that they are working to put online for everybody’s use, Selectman Renel Fredriksen said.

Gas leaks

Resident Alex Chatfield highlighted a local environmental problem: leaks from underground gas mains. Though some leaks in town—notably a long-standing odorous leak on Bedford Road near the First Parish Church—eventually get repaired, utilities are not required to do so in a timely fashion, and even when they do, they are allowed to pass on the cost to customers. The Home Energy Efficiency Team website, which has links to maps showing locations of gas leaks in every city and town in Massachusetts, shows that Lincoln had more than 40 unrepaired leaks in 2015.

Natural gas is “80 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide,” Chatfield said. “Embedded in all our bills is the cost of the gas they’re allowing to leak out into the atmosphere.”

The Massachusetts Municipal Association has tried to address this with the state legislature, “but we haven’t been able to make any progress” unless a leak is so severe that it poses an explosion danger, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said.

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Sample ballot (click to enlarge).

More than one-quarter of voters cast early ballots

As of Wednesday morning, 28 percent of the Lincoln electorate has voted, according to Town Clerk Susan Brooks. Though her office has not been tracking ballots cast by registration, the largest segment of the Lincoln electorate is unenrolled (53 percent), followed by Democrats at 36 percent and Republicans at 11 percent. Registered voters can cast their ballots in the Town Clerk’s Office (16 Lincoln Rd.) through Friday, Nov. 4 at 4:30 p.m. Hours for voting are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and until 8 p.m. on Thursday.

Order pies by Thursday to benefit L-S teachers

The deadline to order Thanksgiving pies from the Foundation for Educators at Lincoln Sudbury (FELS) is Friday, Nov. 4. Online and paper orders are welcome. Proceeds support grants to Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School faculty and staff, allowing them to pursue their professional and personal interests and passions. Click here for the online form, or here to download a paper form. Pies will be available on Tuesday, Nov. 22.

Minuteman mulling middle-school career exploration program

Minuteman High School is looking for feedback from in-district middle school families on whether their children might like to participate in an after-school career pathway exploratory Program, possibly to begin next spring. The program would provide a wide variety of career exploration opportunities and an opportunity for middle school students to identify early on what they love to do and what they do well.

Minuteman will hold an informational evening on Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 4 p.m. in the Paul Revere Room for parents and guardians. Register for this event by taking a brief online survey. Lincoln has voted to leave the Minuteman district, but the departure does not take effect until July 2017.

Lectures on Israel/Palestine

The GRALTA Foundation continues its exploration of the Israel-Palestine conflict with two lectures in November. Boston College sociology professor Eve Spangler will speak on “Understanding Israel/Palestine Through a Human Rights Lens” at the Lincoln Public Library on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 13 in Bemis Hall at 2 p.m. Her popular seminar, “Social Justice in Israel/Palestine,” culminates when she leads a trip to the region during BC’s winter break. There is no charge, and light refreshments will be served.

Tea and gift ideas with children’s librarians

Join the children’s librarians for tea, scones and book suggestions for holiday gift-giving for grandchildren and other young readers in your life at a Grandparents’ Tea on Wednesday, Nov. 16 from 4-5 p.m. in the Lincoln Public Library Tarbell Room. This event is open to all adults, not just grandparents.

Letters to the editor on both sides of charter school question

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Vote “yes” on Question 2

To the editor:

As an educator, parent and student, I do not approve of decisions regarding education that are based entirely on (at times erroneously understood) monetary reasons. I would ask that citizens not blindly follow the “no” vote recommended by school committee.

For those educators whose mission in life is that there be a place for every child to learn and succeed, we have seen charter schools save the intellectual and emotional lives of many learners, as well as raise the standard of education in existing public schools.

It has been my experience as a parent and teacher in three states that charter schools can vastly increase chances of a superior education for all kinds of learners. The only detriment to the existing public school that I have seen over the course of 23 years is, at times, that the best and the brightest students often leave their existing public school for what can often be a more diverse and rigorous academic life in a charter, once parents realize the astonishing breadth, depth, and range of knowledge to which a charter school is committing its students.

Charter schools are different from each other and not easy to compare, just as a current public school in an affluent community is quite different from an urban school in a financially poor area. For this reason, rather than make generalizations about all schools, I would urge voters to educate themselves thoroughly on this issue as Ted Charrette has suggested. Please take the time to fully understand why an award winning teacher like Ted is bringing this to your attention.

I cannot say I have ever won an award for teaching, but the well-being and integrity of our American school system and the future of your children is a subject about which I am passionate. Vote “yes” to ensure we put the academic and personal growth of every student in Massachusetts ahead of any other concern. And because it is time to begin making decisions from a place of courage rather than fear.

Sincerely,

Isabella Nebel
1 Millstone Lane

Vote “no” on Question 2

To the editor:

I am no fan of the “Common Core” curriculum, and feel that we have yet to develop adequate reforms to ensure our schools remain competitive and beneficial, especially for students who are less privileged (by virtue of economics, race, native language, etc).

That being said, I agree with the School Committee’s letter to the editor in the Lincoln Squirrel: Question #2, if passed, would pull money away from our public schools and there would be a worrisome lack of accountability for the use of that money. This is deeply concerning.

As I see it, Question #2, even though well-intended, is not a recipe for reform but an abandonment of our responsibility to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity for a good education—so I will be voting “no” on Question #2.

Sincerely,

Allen Vander Meulen III
30 Beaver Pond Rd.

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.

Students apply engineering skills to solving school problems

Lincoln School students in grades 5-8 spent two full days planning and building prototypes in a hands-on engineering effort to solve specific problems at the school they’d previously identified.

STEM Day (science, technology, engineering and math) on October 13-14 involved involved 270 students as well as dozens of faculty and parent volunteers. During the month of September, students brainstormed about problems in the school that could be solved using the engineering design process. A group narrowed the list to the following four:

  1. How do we cover the walkway between the school and the gym so we can get to class without getting wet? Similarly, how do we create portable shade for lunchtime?
  2. How do we keep the soccer ball from going into the street when it is kicked toward the net close to the road?
  3. How do we find places in the building and ways to store things that are too big to fit into lockers?
  4. How do we create portable seating so more kids can eat lunch outside and have a place to sit?

Students consulted with Lincoln Building Inspector Dan Walsh and Parks and Recreations Director Dan Pereira to learn about building codes and how the field in front of the school is used by multiple town groups. They then brainstormed, measured, drew, evaluated, got feedback and built.

Smaller groups of students created prototypes in the classrooms. They then presented them to their peers for feedback and revised their original designs. Toward the end of the day, all four grades gathered in the auditorium, and one project from each problem was presented to the school.

Because the students had chosen their problems, they were excited and engaged from the outset. Along with basic engineering, they had to consider things like budgeting, aesthetics (for example, specifying a stained-glass type of plexiglass roof for the gym walkway so colors could shine through) and sustainability, such as incorporating solar panels as a way to get extra benefits from a project. At the very end of the day, Principal Sharon Hobbs invited students who really loved their designs to come see her to talk about how some of their work might come to fruition.

The prototypes are temporarily on display in the school library so the students can benefit from seeing other people’s thinking.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”45″ gal_title=”STEM Day 2016″]

Land purchase aims to help town and Birches School

A land deal inked last week could mean that Lincoln will get three benefits for the price of one: a new town athletic field, a new building for the Birches School, and several acres of conservation land.

The Rural Land Foundation (RLF) and Birches together exercised an option on September 30 to buy a 16-acre property at 100 Bedford Road from the estate of Lorraine Wang, who died in March at the age of 95. She was the widow of An Wang, founder of Wang Laboratories, Inc., and helped establish the Wang Center for the Performing Arts in Boston.

Geoff McGean, executive director of the RLF, would not disclose the dollar amount of the sale, but it is expected to be below market value. The seven parcels of land along Bedford Road and Oak Knoll Road (with one piece on the east side of Bedford Road) has a total assessed value of $2.3 million and a full development value of $3 million to 4 million, he said. The RLF entered into the option with the Wang family in September, and the sale is expected to close in November, he added.

If Town Meeting approves the purchase of some of the land for an athletic field in March, the approximate division of the property will be four acres for the Birches School, three acres for the athletic field and buffer overseen by the Parks and Recreation Department, and nine acres for conservation, McGean said.

Birches School students read outside.

Birches School students read outside.

A growing school

The Birches School has reached maximum capacity at its current home in the Stone Church across from Bemis Hall and has been looking for a larger home, preferably in Lincoln, which would be in keeping with its curriculum focus. “We couldn’t realize our nature-based mission almost anywhere else in greater Boston,” said Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, head of school.

The school’s share of the Bedford Road property will include the Wangs’ 12,000-square-foot house; once it’s renovated and brought up to school building code, the entire school hopes to move there. D.W. Arthur Architects, which is headed by Lincoln residents Woodie and Loretta Arthur, will design the renovations, ten Grotenhuis said. In the interim, the school plans a phased move-in starting in September 2017 with middle-school grades, including this year’s sixth-graders.

Birches now has 45 students in grades K-6. It will eventually include grades K-8 with a projected enrollment of no more than 95 students. “We’re a micro-school—that’s what we do,” said Cecily Wardell, director of admissions and placement and director of student services.

A Wednesday evening meeting with abutters that included RLF, Park and Rec, and Birches School representatives went well, ten Grotenhuis said. Although cars will enter and exit the property from Bedford Road rather than Oak Knoll Road, there were a few concerns about traffic, but one of the school’s first priorities is doing a traffic study.

“We want to approach everything with as much transparency as possible—open heart, open mind,” ten Grotenhuis said. Neighbors seemed generally supportive, she added, partly because “we are a Lincoln organization and we tread lightly on the ground. it’s not like we’re a foreign entity moving in.”

Athletic field

Like the Birches School, Parks and Rec has been looking for more space for years. When Parks and Rec Director Dan Pereira started in Lincoln 20 years ago, the town had just finished renovating its athletic fields, “but within five or six years, they were degrading so fast, just getting heavily beat up between school sports, youth community… and it was clear we weren’t going to be able to give them the rest they needed,” he said.

Parks and Rec hopes to build a full-size 1.5-acre athletic field that will be used primarily (though not exclusively) for soccer by the town and the Lincoln School. Lincoln Youth Soccer will welcome Birches students even if they are not town residents, ten Grotenhuis said.

It would be at least 18 months from the start of work until the field was ready, Pereira said. Leveling and planting the field is straightforward, but new fields require two full growing seasons before they can be used, he said.

Conservation land

There are no specific plans for the conservation portion other than trails west of Oak Knoll Road connecting to Flint’s Pond land, and east of Bedford Road to the Wheeler Farm land, McGean said. Eventually, older Birches School students will be able to walk from the school all the way to Walden Pond entirely through conservation land.

“We can just imagine Thoreau walking through those woods,” said ten Grotenhuis, who;s already planning field trips. “What a way to study him!”

Lincoln gets funding to help pay for Hanscom retirees’ students

schoolThe Board of Selectmen has formally thanked State Rep. Thomas Stanley in a September 13 letter for securing $100,000 for Lincoln to help offset the costs of educating the children of retired-military families living on Hanscom Air Force Base (HAFB) this year.

Gov. Charlie Baker originally vetoed the funding in the state’s fiscal 2017 budget, but Rep. Stanley successfully lobbied legislative leaders and restored the $100,000.

“The number of non-active, retiree families is projected to keep growing over time and will be unsustainable in the near future for Lincoln,” says the August issue of The Stanley Report, a monthly email newsletter produced by Stanley’s office.

HAFB has about 730 housing units, all within Lincoln’s municipal boundary, though the town cannot collect property taxes on that land, as explained in an FAQ published by the town. The federal government has an enrollment-based contract with Lincoln to educate K-8 children of active-duty Air Force and Defense Department employees living on the base.

About four years ago when the base housing was renovated, some retirees from active-duty military service began living there as well. However, the federal education contract with Lincoln does not cover their children, which now number about 30. Lincoln’s aggregate contract revenue has been sufficient to absorb the costs of the Hanscom retirees’ children in grades K-8 without additional money from the town, though costs would rise sharply if any of the students needed out-of-district special education services.

Going forward, however, the town will no longer be liable for any of those costs because the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will include the Hanscom retirees’ children in the enrollment figure that determines yearly state aid to schools.

“We were quite surprised and pleased about that,” Selectman Peter Braun said.

The town of Bedford has also receives subsidies from both the federal and state governments to educate children of active-duty personnel in grades 9-12 at Bedford High School, partly because of a deal in the 1950s whereby Bedford agreed to educate those children in perpetuity in exchange for a federal grant to build the original high school.

However, high-school children of retirees are another matter. The first retiree-family high school student emerged two years ago, and there were three more each in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Because the students live in the town of Lincoln, Bedford argued that they should enroll at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, while Lincoln argued they should be able to go to the same high school as their Hanscom Middle School classmates. Lincoln eventually agreed to pay Bedford about $17,000 per student to allow them to enroll at Bedford High. But Bedford has said it will not allow any more retirees’ children at its high school after this year.

Bedford Superintendent Schools Jon Sills did not returns calls on Friday and Tuesday.

News acorns

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Election worker training offered

A training for those wishing to serve as election workers in the 2016 Presidential Election will be offered on Wednesday, Oct. 5 in the Donaldson Room at Town Hall from 7-9 p.m. Please call the Town Clerk’s Office at 781-259-2607 to pre-register; space is limited.

‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ screening

The Lincoln Library Film Society presents My Beautiful Laundrette (1985, rated R) on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. in the library’s Tarbell Room. Directed by Stephen Fears, My Beautiful Laundrette is an uncommon love story that takes place between a youth South London Pakistani man (Gordon Warnecke) who decides to open an upscale laundromat to make his family proud, and his childhood friend, a skinhead (Daniel Day-Lewis) who volunteers to help make his dream a reality. The culture-class comedy is also a subversive work of social realism that addresses racism, homophobia and sociopolitical marginalization in Margaret Thatcher’s England. Refreshments will be served.

Open house for nursery school

Lincoln Nursery School, a cooperative preschool at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, will hold its annual Open House on Saturday, Oct. 15 from 9-11 a.m. This is a relaxed opportunity for interested families to tour the studios and play areas as well as meet some of the current parents, teachers and director Nancy Fincke.