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

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Studies on community center, school renovations are underway

blueprintsBy Alice Waugh

Two design firms are now working in parallel on potential town construction projects—a community center and Lincoln School renovations—and both will be discussed at the State of the Town meeting on November 15.

After interviewing four candidate firms earlier this month, the new School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC) selected Dore & Whittier Architects to develop repair and renovation options for the Lincoln School. The firm’s work will build on previous studies commissioned by the town, as well as the work of the first SBAC to identify individual repair and renovation projects and get updated specific cost estimates for each. Voters approved spending up to $250,000 for the study (see the Lincoln Squirrel, April 3, 2014).

Meanwhile, following the recommendation of the Community Center Study Committee (CCSC), the Board of Selectmen has hired Abacus Architects and Planners to do a detailed study of several possible sites for a community center and offer estimates on the scope and cost for each. After being appointed by the Board of Selectmen in June, the CCSC received proposals from seven architectural firms and interviewed five.

Abacus will look at several sites identified in the 2012 report of the Community Center Feasibility Committee as well as any others that may come up. That report was a first step in identifying alternative sites for the Council on Aging, which has outgrown Bemis Hall, and the Parks and Recreation Department. While Park and Rec is happy with its location in the Hartwell pods, those buildings are due for renovation or replacement.

On the radar of both consultants will the Hartwell area, which could be repurposed as a community center and also serve as swing space for the Lincoln School to use during major renovations. The two firms are working independently, but if the town chooses to go ahead with both a school building project and a community center, the Hartwell site will certainly come into play somehow, “and we want to have an answer to how that’s going to work,” Fredriksen said.

Both committees will schedule public discussions before the State of the Town meeting. After a comprehensive $49 million school project failed to win enough support at a special Town Meeting in 2012, some residents said it was because of insufficient communication and public input beforehand.

“The primary reasons for choosing Dore & Whittier Architects were their emphasis on listening to the community—their desire to conduct separate meetings with stakeholder groups as well as their overall understanding of the importance of developing choices and providing accurate cost estimates,” the SBAC said in a statement distributed by co-chair Becky McFall, superintendent of schools. “The SBAC is striving to focus their efforts on process and community engagement, as opposed to the specifics of a particular option. Community input to the consultants will be vital and community members will be encouraged to contribute at several key points along the way.”

The CCSC will hold a town-wide charette in the fall, and while dollar figures will not be discussed, “we want see what those [community center] scenarios would look like and see what direction residents are inclined to go in,” Fredriksen said. “We’re taking it one step at a time.”

The CCSC meets every other week; its next meeting is Thursday, Aug. 7 at 8 a.m. in the Town Office Building. Agendas, minutes, documents and additional information are available on the CCSC’s web page. The SBAC will start its work with Dore and Whittier on Wednesday, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell Multipurpose Room.

School Committee grants annual license to LEAP

leap imageBy Alice Waugh

In early May 2013, the Lincoln After-school Activities Program’s 33-year tenure in Lincoln suddenly seemed in jeopardy when another company outbid LEAP when its lease came up for renewal. But as of July 1, LEAP has an exclusive annual license with the School Committee to use Pod C.

LEAP’s five-year lease for use of Hartwell Pod C was due to expire on June 30, 2013, so as required by state law, the School Committee sought bids from LEAP and others who might be interested in leasing the space for an after-school program.

To the shock and dismay of many residents, the proposal from Springboard Education in America outscored LEAP’s on a number of criteria, and a three-member selection committee recommended that the School Committee award the contract to Springboard—a possibility that brought dozens of parents, current and former LEAP teachers, and a even a few children to an emotionally charged School Committee meeting last spring to plead LEAP’s case (see the Lincoln Squirrel, May 7, 2013).

Faced with this sentiment, the School Committee voted at that meeting to extend LEAP’s lease for a year based on a technicality, because its request for proposals did not state that the Lincoln Recreation Department would occupy Pod C during the summer to run the Lincoln Summer Day Camp.

LEAP has since made leadership changes, replacing longtime director Sue Callum with LEAP faculty members Kathryn Hawkins as program director and Chris Burns as operations director. The program also made several programmatic improvements and successfully renewed its state license with Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care.

Among the improvements that LEAP listed in its license application to the School Committee in February 2014: balancing its budget, installing 15 new computers, a new collaboration with Einstein’s Workshop, closer relationships with METCO and the nearby Magic Garden preschool, Spanish tutoring for kindergarteners and first-graders, and a revamped website. Enrollment in 2014-15 is up by 15 percent over the previous year, LEAP officials said.

In its application, LEAP also included a letter from middle school principal Sharon Hobbs. “In the past year, the board and staff of LEAP have worked together to tighten up programs and procedures that needed attention and to implement interesting new programs,” she wrote. “As LEAP has adjusted to a new organizational structure, the level of program has also been changing. The staff is experimenting in good ways with finding ideal configurations for students to work and play.”

Under terms of the license, LEAP will pay the school district an annual fee of $28,800 (slightly more than the $28,000 it offered last year but less than the $31,000 a year offered by Springboard) for a license that will run from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015. The license confers non-exclusive use of Pod C and may be extended or revoked at any time by the district.

For the school, the change to granting an annual license rather than a multiyear lease for LEAP means “maintaining our ability to use our facilities and knowing we have a shared facility in the summer,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall. The previous arrangement with LEAP was atypical for a lease arrangement, which generally confers exclusive use of the property for the lessee during the term of the lease, even though Pod C was also used by the Recreation Department for summer camp.

Also, the change was made “with a little bit of an eye toward a school building project and the need to use the pods for swing space [during construction] and having a little more flexibility in terms of our needs,” McFall said. The School Building Advisory Committee is in the process of obtaining cost estimates for various school construction/renovation options (see the Lincoln Squirrel, June 19, 2014).

“The licensing agreement with the Lincoln Public Schools is a net positive for LEAP because it provides a new level of stability and predictability for the town’s after-school program,” said LEAP board member Laura Kempke. “In essence, if LEAP continues to uphold the quality standards set by the School Committee, then we no longer need to periodically engage in a fairly resource-intensive review process. This is a win for LEAP staff and families because our full attention is on continuing to improve the program, not on filling out paperwork.”

Full disclosure: Alice Waugh, editor of the Lincoln Squirrel, had children in LEAP until earlier this year and was compensated by LEAP for rebuilding its website.

SBAC working on hiring a design consultant

schoolA subgroup of the reconstituted School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC) is in the process of selecting a school design consultant, and the School Committee is tentatively scheduled to award a contract on July 23.

At Town Meeting in March, Lincoln voters approved spending up to $250,000 to hire a consultant who would define renovation solutions for the Lincoln School and prepare cost estimates for a range of possible projects. Residents asked to see these estimates for “Lincoln only” repair and renovation options before deciding whether to reapply to the state for partial funding for a comprehensive school project (see the Lincoln Squirrel, April 3, 2014).

The SBAC meets every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell Multipurpose Room. All meetings are open to the public. Community attendance is especially encouraged at the following upcoming meetings:

  • June 23 — Designer selection committee will select designer finalists
  • June 25 — Designer selection committee recommends designer finalists to the SBAC for approval
  • July 14-16 — Designer finalist interviews
  • July 23 — School Committee meeting to award contract (date and time of this meeting to be confirmed)

Lincoln student shines in civic orchestra

Helen Montie in rehearsal with the L-S Civic Orchestra. Photo by Dan Pettengill

Helen Montie in rehearsal with the L-S Civic Orchestra. Photo by Dan Pettengill

By Dave McLellan

When asked about her experience during her three years in the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra (LSCO), L-S senior and principal cellist Helen Montie of Lincoln can only say “I LOVE CIVIC!!!!!” in all capital letters, as if she’s shouting it in an email (which she did, actually).

[Read more…] about Lincoln student shines in civic orchestra

Letter to the editor: Thanks for L-S funding

letter

To the editor:

The Lincoln Sudbury School Committee and administration thank the citizens of Lincoln and Sudbury for approving the capital requests, for this year’s technology infrastructure improvements at the high school, at the respective town meetings. We also thank officials from both towns for providing feedback and encouragement through the capital request.

The high school is preparing for the installation of an improved network backbone and the upgrading of some critical servers by the time the school reopens this fall. In future years, we want to address educational technology in the classroom, continue to upgrade critical servers, and return to funding annual scheduled upgrades of the educational technology infrastructure.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Radha Gargeya, Sudbury (chair), on behalf of the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional District School Committee

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published. Letters may be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor.

New School Building Advisory Committee convenes tonight

schoolThe new School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC) will hold its first meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room, when they will begin preparations for hiring a consultant, choose a co-chair and confirm the schedule for upcoming meetings.

The roster for the new SBAC is almost identical to the first version of the committee, which was dissolved after presenting its report to the School Committee in November 2013. Members are Doug Adams, Ken Bassett, Owen Beenhouwer, Vincent Cannistraro, Tim Christenfeld, Steven Perlmutter, Maggy Pietropaolo, Hathaway Russell, Peter Sugar, Gary Taylor, Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall, and Buck Creel, administrator for business and finance for the Lincoln school district.

As per the School Committee’s charge, McFall will be one of two co-chairs; the other will be elected tonight in a vote by all members except McFall and Creel.

 

 

More things to do in Lincoln this month

Theater now, music later on at L-S

The LSB Players at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School will stage the final two performances of The 39 Steps tonight and tomorrow, May 2 and 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Kirschner Auditorium. Based on the classic Hitchcock movie, The 39 Steps is an hilarious farce of mistaken identity, who done it, and deadpan humor. Produced in conjunction with the English Department’s Drama in Production class, the show will incorporate complex stagecraft sure to be crowd-pleasing. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for students and seniors. Go to the LSB Tickets webpage to reserve seats.

Also at L-S in May, the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra (LSCO) will wrap up its 2013-2014 season with its spring concert on Friday, May 30 at 7:30 p.m. Interim Conductor Ray Daniels will direct the orchestra in the overture to Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, Gabriel Faure’s Pavane for a Dead Princess, Alexander Borodin’s On the Steppes of Central Asia, and Felix Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony (#5). L-S senior and Sudbury resident Emily Liang is the featured soloist in the Concerto in A minor, RV 356, by Antonio Vivaldi. Admission is a suggested donation of $10 for adults or $5 for students and senior citizens. A reception will follow the concert.

LSCO is a volunteer community orchestra comprising high school students and adult community members who share a love for preparing and performing substantial orchestral repertoire. The members have classical music training at the intermediate to advanced level and rehearse weekly. Neither professional performing experience nor residence in Lincoln or Sudbury are requirements for membership. Daniels also serves as associate conductor for the Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra and has conducted symphony orchestras throughout the U.S.

For more information about this concert or about participation as a performing member, contact the orchestra at lscivicorchestra@gmail.com.

Spring cleanup at Codman this weekend

Please join us for Codman Farm’s Volunteer Spring Cleanup Work Day  on Saturday, May 3 starting at 8:30 a.m. Come for the day or come for an hour. Volunteers will be treated to a great lunch. We’ll find a task to suit your energy level and time commitment. Tasks include:

  • Barn cleanup
  • Refrigerator shelf cleaning
  • Brush burning
  • Wood pile moving
  • Wood chip spreading
  • Sugar shack cleanout
  • General trash pickup (tell the kids it’s a hunt!)
  • Painting
deCordova

Dance Spot at deCordova.

Dance outside at deCordova on Sunday

Try out your moves on outdoor dance floors in the deCordova Sculpture Park on Sunday, May 4 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Multimedia artist Elisa H. Hamilton pairs colorful diagrams, site-specific dance routines and songs in her participatory installation Dance Spot. Free with admission or membership.

Also on Sunday at the deCordova: celebrate jewelry artist Wiwat Kamolpornwijit, Artist of the Month at the deCordova Store for May 2014, during a drop-in weekend reception at 2 p.m. Admission to deCordova Store is always free.

Garden Club fundraising sale is on May 10

Get out your trowels and potting soil—it’s time for the Lincoln Garden Club’s biennial fundraiser plant sale on Saturday, May 10 at the Codman Barn. There will be something for every type of garden including perennials from local gardens, rare and unusual specimens, patio planters, herbs and shade plants. This year we have an abundant number of peonies and unusual lilies and irises, as well as hostas, ornamental grasses, echinacea, daisies, geraniums, anemones, spirea, trillium, astilbe, bee balm, bleeding heart, coriopsis, rubeckia, and much more. To entertain the kids, the Garden Club has a fun hands-on craft planned that will make a perfect Mother’s Day gift.

Plants will be sold from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., so plan to spend the morning browsing for plants. This fundraiser supports the Garden Club activities such as the planter in front of the library, floral arrangements for home-bound residents, and public lectures on gardening topics. Questions? Email Belinda.gingrich@verizon.net. Learn more on the Lincoln Garden Club website and hear news about meetings and events.

frog

A capella night to support LEAP

Join fellow Lincolnites for a night of a capella at Bemis Hall on Friday, May 16 from 7-10 p.m. to support LEAP (the Lincoln Extended-day Activities Program). There will be food, drinks and fun, as well as a silent auction and raffle to support LEAP, Lincoln’s longtime afterschool program. Prizes to bid on include dinner and a movie with babysitting, gift certificates to salons, a basket of wine, a loaf of bread every month for six months from Nashoba Valley Bakery, 18 holes of golf, Red Sox tickets, and more. Tickets are $25 ($30 at the door). Come to LEAP to purchase tickets in advance. Child care for the event will be provided at LEAP for $10 per child. Reserve a spot by May 14. To donate something to our benefit auction or raffle, please contact Kathryn Hawkins at978-505-8751.

Pie bakers

Rev. Daniel MacDonald and Eva Elder of St. Anne’s show off their pie-baking skills.

Pie-baking competition at St. Anne’s on May 16

St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church  is hosting a pie-baking competition as a fundraiser for the youth mission trip this summer. The event takes place starting at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 16 in Flint Hall. We’ll have pies for judging, pies for eating and pies for buying.

You can submit a pie to be judged in any one of four pie categories (fruit, custard and cream, savory, and exotic); prizes will be awarded for each category as well as Best in Show. Register online at www.stanneslincoln.org. There will also be a pizza pie dinner and live music with admission to this fabulous event. Come hear more about our mission trip to New York City in July, and help support its funding by entering a pie, or buying a pie, or just coming to enjoy the festivities.

“What Makes Me White?”

The Lincoln METCO Coordinating Committee (MCC) will present the 45-minute film What Makes Me White? on Monday, May 19 at 6 p.m. in the Brooks Auditorium. The documentary discusses the role of race in the daily lives of white people. Designed as a gentle tool for the classroom, boardroom, and house of worship, the film avoids blame, guilt, or “political correctness.” The hope is to inspire individuals to reflect on the invisible influence of whiteness on personality and life. The audience will engage in a discussion of the feelings and thoughts raised by the film. Students in grades 6-8 can also see the film on Wednesday, May 21 at 12:40 p.m. Lunch will be provided courtesy of the MCC.

Corrections

  • correction-smToday’s article on the continuation of the Jet Aviation hearing gave an incorrect date for the next session. It will be on April 9 at 7:45 p.m. in the Town Office Building’s Donaldson Room. The article has been updated to reflect this correction.
  • The April 3 article on the effort by a group of eighth-graders to win voter approval for the purchase of bike racks neglected to mention the key role of Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden, who worked with Town Clerk Susan Brooks with the students to get their citizens’ petition onto the Town Meeting warrant. “Sarah has been an essential and invaluable partner from start to finish,” Brooks said.

First annual “Celebrate Asia!” at L-S this weekend

asia-food

The first annual “Celebrate Asia!” Festival on April 12 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. will celebrate the diverse cultures that enrich Lincoln-Sudbury school and town communities and will serve as a fundraiser for the L-S Memorial School, the high school’s sister school in Battambang, Cambodia.

Among the offerings at the festival: crafts activities for kids, cultural performances by diverse dance groups, martial arts exhibitions, henna tattoos, tai chi, yoga, Asian goods and gifts, and some of your favorite Asian foods.

The L-S Memorial School was the brainchild of Mira Vale, a 2009 Lincoln graduate of L-S,  who worked with former history teacher Bill Schechter and others to create the school as a way to help the L-S community heal after the in-school murder of 15-year-old James Alenson in 2007 (see article in the Sudbury Town Crier). Community members raised money in partnership with American Assistance for Cambodia to build the 300-student school, which opened in 2009 with five classrooms furnished with desks, benches, chalkboards, school supplies, and English-speaking teachers.

The school commemorates the L-S students and young alumni who have died during the school’s 50-year history. Names of about 300 deceased students and alumni are listed on the L-S Memorial School website, along with this video of how the  school became a reality.