The Lincoln Squirrel

News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

schools

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 Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.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

Residents approve up to $250,000 for another school study

moneybagBy Alice Waugh

At Town Meeting on March 29, residents approved spending up to $250,000 to come up with options and cost estimates for school renovation projects, but not without considerable discussion and a number of dissenting votes—though not enough to derail the measure, which required a two-thirds majority vote.

[Read more…] about Residents approve up to $250,000 for another school study

Letter to the editor on school building needs

letterTo the editor:

Before us at Town Meeting will be a warrant article to approve funds to study costs associated with fixing our town’s school buildings. The school building’s needs have been professionally studied for 12 years, yet it’s said at meetings that people may not believe that the needs are real. On paper the school building’s needs may seem distant, debatable, and unrelated to learning. As a parent, however, I consistently see how the building’s needs are affecting children and how they’re related to learning, health and safety.

Our daughter’s classroom has been a stagnant 76 to 78 degrees this winter. She’s been telling us that it’s too hot, that it makes her feel sick and dizzy and that she can’t think. Maintenance sounds like an easy fix, but this classroom is stuck in a “difficult to fix” zone of the outdated Univent heating system. The teacher has had to open the windows and door this winter to provide intermittent relief. In December parents were notified that a Univent motor burned out and filled a second grade classroom with smoke, causing the school to be evacuated. While there was no fire, a situation like this speaks to the importance of having a fire suppression system in the schools, yet we have none.

In the spring, fans will again be brought into classrooms to compensate for the building’s decreased ventilation rates and lack of dehumidification. Opening the windows may sound like an easy fix to increase air flow, but what happens to the children with asthma and allergies that are exacerbated by outdoor pollen, and what happens to the attention and learning of the children who are distracted by the noise from ongoing recess? Sometimes it’s not possible to open the windows.

When this is your child’s everyday learning environment, it becomes clear quickly that the building is making the act of learning more difficult than it needs to be. Support of this warrant article will help further identify costs so we can move beyond studying the problems and get to fixing the problems. The town’s school buildings are telling us a story and it’s my hope that we will both listen and respond with urgency, ensuring the health and safety of children and the delivery of education in this town for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Betsey Yeats
35 Round Hill Road

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.

Letter to the editor on Minuteman revised agreement

letter

To the editor:

Minuteman High School, which provides career and technical education to Lincoln students, has proposed a revised regional agreement as a warrant article for the March 29 town meeting at the Brooks Auditorium. For this new regional agreement to come into effect, it must be approved by a majority at the town meetings of every member town. It is important that stakeholders such as yourselves be aware and informed about the new Agreement so that you and your community can make informed decisions about it. To that end, informational material about the new agreement can be found here along with a seven-minute video explaining the agreement.

Minuteman is a vital resource to the community. Providing a rigorous and relevant curriculum that prepares students for both college and careers is only the first part of our role in Lincoln. We provide education for post-graduate students who seek additional training in order to achieve career readiness. We offer community education programs that enrich the lives of the young and old with new learning opportunities. Our students are involved in community projects across our district. Our restaurant and other service-oriented shops welcome visitors for excellent and affordable service.

In order to continue offering this excellent education and these other services, Minuteman must adapt. One way that we are attempting to achieve this change is by amending the current regional agreement, which will allow the district to move on from a regional agreement that no longer serves the best interests of our students. In brief, the revised agreement makes the following changes:

  • Annual assessments based on a four-year rolling average.
  • Capital cost allocation formula incorporates ability to pay along with a four-year rolling average of enrollment.
  • Minuteman School Committee voting will be weighted, with 50 percent of a member’s vote based on a four-year rolling average.
  • Minuteman School Committee can negotiate a transition period with potential new member communities.
  • Members may withdraw unless disapproved by a majority of remaining member town meetings.
  • Contributions to capital costs by non-members are applied to reduce capital assessments to members.
  • Authorization for new debt must first be pursued through the unanimous approval of member town meetings before proceeding to a district-wide election.
  • Amendments to the regional agreement may be initiated by a 3/4 vote of the School Committee.

These changes are the result of years of work by the administration of Minuteman High School, the Minuteman School Committee, subcommittees and task forces made up of local stakeholders, and local government representatives. The revised agreement reflects the input of every member community and represents a hard-earned compromise between these communities.

The article will be heard at Lincoln Town Meeting, which begins at 9:30 a.m. on March 29 at the Brooks Auditorium. Please take some time to review the linked materials or watch the video and express your opinion at town meeting this Saturday.

Sincerely,

Edward Bouquillon, Minuteman High School Superintendent-Director
10 Mill St., Lincoln

Brendan Dutch, Minuteman High School Communications Coordinator
Plymouth, Mass.

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.