The Lincoln Squirrel

News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

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News acorns

Fall farm fun for church group

First Parish in Lincoln church members and friends enjoyed socially distanced picnicking, pumpkin-picking, hay ride, and ice cream truck hired by the church at Matlock Farm on September 27. FPL member families, whose children have missed seeing each other on Sunday mornings, were happy to be together again on a beautiful fall day. Several parents commented that without the Flints’ pumpkin patch, they wouldn’t have felt comfortable engaging in the fall tradition of going into a field to get a pumpkin, as the larger farms are often crowded. The farm will be open for family fun every weekend this month (see the Lincoln Squirrel News Acorns on September 21 for details).

Confronting the climate change crisis

“24 Hours of Reality” with former Lincoln residents Ariel Hoover & Bob Moore, an international event organized by the Climate Reality Project, takes place via Zoom on Sunday, Oct. 11 at 2 p.m. via Zoom. For 24 straight hours, activists from around the world will lead digital presentations and discussions highlighting what people can do to confront these challenges. To receive the Zoom link, RSVP to climatereality.leecountychapter@gmail.com and indicate you’re from the Lincoln Public Library. Participation is free and open to all.

Scarecrow Classic 5K on Oct. 18

On Sunday, Oct. 18 from 8 a.m.–noon, the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust is holding the eighth Annual Scarecrow Classic 5K as a limited in-person race. There will be many physical distancing protocols in place, and runners will sign up for a start time, with each time capped at 10 participants. There also won’t be a gathering before or after.

To offer maximum flexibility, the Scarecrow Classic 5K will also include a virtual race option. Participants who sign up will receive their race shirt in the mail and can choose to run anytime, anywhere from October 11–18. They’re are encouraged to share pictures and experiences on social media.

Register by Wednesday, Oct. 7 to get your shirt on race day. There will be no day-of registrations and space is limited, so sign up today. The race directly supports LLCT and helps fund conservation acquisition projects, land stewardship goals, and educational programming. For registration and more details about safety protocols, visit www.scarecrowclassic5k.com.

Domestic Violence Roundtable hosts “What to Do, What to Say”

The Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Domestic Violence Roundtable invites area residents to its meeting via Zoom on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 3 p.m., where staff from REACH Beyond Domestic Violence leading a discussion entitled “What to Do, What to Say.” This hourlong workshop will review warning signs and patterns of abusive relationships, identify available resources, and develop the skills of friends, family, and neighbors to support loved ones in their lives. Registration is required and can be completed by visiting the organization’s website.

Please note that the meeting will be recorded. Those who wish to not be viewed in the recording are encouraged to turn off their video. We will hide those with videos turned off from the recording. Folks are also welcome to change their name for the meeting. We will review how to hide video and change one’s name at the start of the meeting. Anyone with questions may email infodvrt@gmail.com.

Fill out online survey for Connections

Connections, a program to connect high school students and seniors, kicks off during the week of October 17, and the program has launch a website (www.connections01773.org) where all participants can fill out a brief survey about their interests, schedule, and preferred method of communication (phone, Zoom, or paper letter). Click here to go to directly to the survey page. The deadline is Friday, Oct. 16.

Library event celebrates voting rights anniversary

Sheryl Faye as Susan B. Anthony

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote and learn all about Susan B. Anthony’s life in an immersive multimedia show where Sheryl Faye will portray Anthony followed by a Q&A session on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. via Zoom. Free and open to all ages. For a Zoom invitation, email lrothenberg@minlib.net. Sponsored by the Friends of the Lincoln Library.

LLCT hosts author Richard Primack

Richard Primack

Join the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust for a talk by Richard Primack, author of Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. The evening will begin with a brief business meeting to elect/re-elect trustees.

Primack is a professor of biology at Boston University with a specialization in plant ecology, conservation biology, and climate change biology. He and his team have been using Thoreau’s records from the 1850s to document changing flowering and leafing out times of plants, earlier flight times of butterflies, and changes to migratory bird patterns. As his work gains momentum, he is extending his research to look at changes to the autumn season as well.

All are welcome to this free program; click here to register. If you would like to attend but need help registering, email llct@lincolnconservation.org. 

Lincoln’s Emanuel wins award from WGBH

Gabrielle Emanuel

WBGH reporter and Lincoln resident Gabrielle Emanuel has been named a 2021 Margret and Hans Rey/Curious George Fellowship awardee by WGBH. She’s among a group of five WGBH content creators who were recognized for their outstanding work with the Boston public media producer. The award noted that Emanuel has produced “thoughtful and in-depth journalism, unveiling nuanced stories on subjects such as the opioid trials in federal court and the untold history of the Reverse Freedom Riders.” Made possible through a bequest from author Margret Rey through the Curious George Foundation, this fellowship recognizes GBH creators who work in areas reflecting Rey’s broad interests, including science, public affairs, arts, health and children’s programming. Emanuel has received numerous other awards for her reporting, including national and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Sigma Delta Chi Award, and a Clarion Award. 

Buy used books at the library

The Lincoln Public Library is now open by appointment, and visitors are welcome to browse carts of used books for sale in the connector lobby. Books are $2 each; please bring dollar bills as staff will no be able to make change. All revenue from book sales supports programs and special equipment at the library.

Face masks required for everyone on school campus

Face masks are now required by everyone on school property (students, staff, parents, visitors, and construction workers) at the Lincoln School and on school vehicles. Masks must be worn securely over nose and mouth at all times indoors, and outdoors any time you’re within six feet of another person. The policy follows recommendations by the CDC, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Based on guidance from health authorities, neck gaiters, open-chin, triangle bandanas, and face coverings containing valves, mesh material, or holes of any kind will not be considered appropriate. Masks must have at least two layers of breathable material and must be worn by all individuals in school buildings, on school grounds, and on school transportation.

Masks may be removed during “mask breaks” and while eating and drinking. Appropriate accommodations will be made for those who are unable to wear masks due to medical conditions, disability impact, or other identified health or safety concerns. If students are in violation of this policy, the building principal will consult with the parent/guardians to determine whether an exception is appropriate, or the student may be removed from the school building and transferred to remote learning until such time as they can comply with the requirement or the requirement is lifted. This policy will remain in place until rescinded by the School Committee.

Lincoln teens pitch in to help those affected by Covid-19

Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School made the national news this week after dozens of students attended a party a party on September 11, forcing the school to delay the start of in-person classes due to worries about the possible spread of Covid-19. But other students are getting involved in projects designed to help seniors and the homeless affected by the same disease.

Joanna Schwartz, co-founder of Connections.

Joanna Schwartz, an L-S senior from Lincoln, got the idea last spring to do something to try to counteract the loneliness many people, especially senior citizens, were feeling as the pandemic lockdown took hold last spring. She partnered with the Lincoln Council on Aging to launch Connections, a program where seniors can converse with a high school student via Zoom, phone, or letter. Students can get community service credit, and both young and older participants can forge new bonds by sharing their life experiences or just chatting about their week.

Seniors are invited to a Zoom open house on Monday, Oct. 5 from 4–5 p.m. to learn more about the program. Schwartz will email a survey link to gather information on interests and preferred means of communication to match students with seniors. To get the Zoom link for the open house, contact Amy Gagne at the COA at 781-259-8811 x102 or gagnea@lincolntown.org by Friday, Oct. 2.

“My mom is a general practitioner, and would often tell me how her older patients were expressing feelings of loneliness and isolation during this time,” said Schwartz, a Lincoln resident who got the idea for the program last spring during the initial Covid-19 lockdown. “Moreover, I was frequently talking with my own grandparents on the phone and heard that they too were feeling isolated because of the pandemic. They missed getting together with their friends and seeing their family. I soon learned that just a 10-minute phone call would brighten their day.”

For those opting for Zoom or phone, the program will initially comprise four 20-minute weekly sessions starting in mid-October at times arranged by the participants. “Pen pals” will mail about one letter per week to each other over the four-week period, with the students initiating.

“That said, I hope the program will continue on after the pandemic, as there’s always a need for bridging the generation gap in our communities. And what better way to connect the generations than through conversations?” Schwartz said.

Swapping services for donations

More than 30 L-S students have banded together as the Coupon Collective, offering personal services and products to people in the area in exchange for donations to the Pine Street Inn in Boston.

“We ask the providers of the product to tell us how much they think their product is worth, perhaps for a little markup for charity; then we put that on our website and we ask people to donate that amount,” Rhea Karty, a senior from Lincoln, told Boston 25 News. Instead of pocketing the cash for what they provide, the students donate 100% of what they would’ve earned to the COVID Relief Fund of the Pine Street Inn, Boston’s largest homeless shelter.

The services and products that the group is offering include yard work, babysitting, friendship bracelets, baked goods, custom artwork, web design, and instruction in coding, languages, piano, volleyball, and more. They’ve also “sold” gift cards from businesses who’ve donated, including Learning Express and several restaurants.

Other students from Lincoln involved in the Coupon Collective are Samantha Broglio, Jennie Christenfeld, Bella Omar, Dasha Trosteanetchi, and Caleb Yee. The group has already raised about $2,000 for the Pine Street Inn.

“We’ve been able to have students at our school and others provide things they are very passionate about so they are able to keep doing what they love during a time they may be stuck at home and especially help people who may not have a home,” Sudbury senior Davin Martin told Boston 25 News.

The latest efforts add to the roster of public service projects recently undertaken by Lincoln youth.

My Turn: Statement from officials on schools and Covid-19

By 12 Lincoln and Sudbury officials*

For our children, teachers, and community, please take the pledge to prevent Covid-19.

We all are eager for a safe and healthy 2020-2021 school year. To make this happen, we must work together and be vigilant, every day, to ensure there is minimal community spread of Covid-19. For our schools to open and remain open, it is critical that we prioritize the health and safety of our teachers, students, administrators, and families. The best way to educate our children, support families, and reopen our economy is for each one of us to pledge to take all necessary steps to prevent Covid-19 exposure and spread so that we eradicate this dangerous virus.

We ask all residents, local businesses, and visitors to prioritize safe school reopenings and the health and wellbeing of your neighbors in all your decisions. Throughout August, please continue to stop the spread by practicing healthy hygiene and social distancing, avoiding travel to hotspots, wearing face coverings, limiting the size of groups and large group activities, and getting tested if you suspect exposure. Please make sure your family members, your employees, and you know how to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and that you follow Centers for Disease Control and Mass. Department of Health guidelines.

We are all painfully aware that new Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are increasing across the U.S., and many school districts are moving to fully remote learning because of high community transmission. While Massachusetts has made great strides and Lincoln and Sudbury have kept case numbers low, our progress is fragile, and we remain at risk.

Our collective decisions in August and throughout the school year will determine whether Covid-19 spreads throughout our communities and whether our schools can stay open. Our combined future is in our collective hands. The health and safety of our teachers and administrators, our town employees, our children, our families, and our patrons and visitors depend on all of us. Thank you for consistently doing your part.

* This statement is by the Lincoln, Lincoln-Sudbury, and Sudbury School Committees and Superintendents, Select Boards, the Lincoln Town Administrator and Sudbury Town Manager, the Lincoln Public Health Nurse, and the Sudbury Board of Health. The original signed document can be seen here.

”My Turn” is a forum for Lincoln residents to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Lincoln teachers worried about in-person instruction

As schools in Lincoln gear up to restart next month, several teachers and staff expressed concerns about infection risks of teaching students in person.

The teachers spoke at the August 13 School Committee meeting where administrators unveiled the results of a survey that asked parents to select either all-remote or fully in-person instruction to start the school year on September 16. The state cut the 180-day school year requirement back to 170 to give schools more time to prepare before classes start.

About 80 percent of teachers in Lincoln would prefer to start the school year fully remote and not in person, said Matt Reed, co-president of the Lincoln Educators Association. In contrast, 77 percent of parents in the new survey said they would like to see fully in-person classes, vs. 21% advocating fully remote.

The same survey revealed a mix of sentiments among faculty, with a plurality (36%) preferring a remote assignment, 22% preferring fully in-person, and 16% expressing no preference. Thirty-three percent of instructional support staff said they had no preference, while 31% preferred fully in-person work and 16% preferred remote.

In an earlier survey, 53% of families said their first choice was fully in-person learning with safety protocols and 20% said fully remote learning, while 25% preferred one of several hybrid options.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has urged school districts to hold classes in person if possible, though they must also offer remote instruction for those with medical vulnerabilities or simply prefer not to attend, even with classroom social distancing, mandatory masks for students, and other Covid-19 precautions. Some towns are also offering a third hybrid option, with some days in person and other days remote.

Every Massachusetts district is wrestling with the decision about what to do. The Wayland School Committee recently voted to begin the school year fully remote. The Concord and Concord-Carlisle districts are still debating which options to offer, though Concord educators have urged their school committee to consider starting the school year remotely. Teachers in Sudbury held a “day of action” at three locations on August 13, hours before the town’s school committee was scheduled to meet, with a flyer saying “Only When It’s Safe — Students First.”

As required by the state, Lincoln submitted a detailed reopening plan earlier this month outlining health and safety precautions, scheduling, and more. The Lincoln teachers’ expression of concern “is in no way a reflection of dissatisfaction with [the school administration’s] work or the plans they submitted to DESE,” Reed said at the August 13 meeting. “It’s the unknowingness that gives many people pause, and teachers want to feel fully prepared.”

“We are worried for our own health, the health of our students, and their families,” both physical and mental, said Lincoln School fifth-grade teacher Joe Colombo, referring to the “stress and anxiety every time a mask slips off someone’s face or someone sneezes.”

“Many teachers have begun to wonder if [the advantages] of the in-person model can actually be fully realized,” said Lincoln School kindergarten teacher Michael Chin. “We’re not choosing between remote and in person; we’re choosing between remote compared to a shell of what in-person learning used to be before Covid-19.”

“How often will I need to remind our first-graders about picking their nose, wiggling a loose tooth, or sucking a thumb?” said Lincoln School teacher Rachel Goldner, lamenting having to fight the “urge to connect and communicate… with a reassuring hand on a child’s shoulder or a hug,” or having morning meeting not in a circle but with “kids in various corners of the room unable to see other children’s smiles and frowns.”

She also touched on the “mind-boggling number of logistics that still need to be ironed out” with regard to things including snack and lunch time, policing recess, student arrivals and departures, after-school activities, and a likely shortage of substitute teachers.

Other teachers worried about safety protocols surrounding toileting and general cleanliness for preK children, evaluating and working with special education students, and making the frequent arrival of new Hanscom students feel welcome.

“Just because we can be fully in-person at the beginning of the school year, should we?” mused Hanscom Middle School fifth-grade teacher Erin Dotson.

“We know there’s a lot of detail still to be worked out,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said. Under the Family First Coronavirus Act, teachers are eligible for paid leave if they or a family member gets sick.

Another big issue is staffing. “If we’re fully remote, we won’t be able to do what we did in the spring and keep people on the payroll — we will have to furlough people,” McFall said.

“Without medical data showing we should absolutely not bring kids back to school, it’s difficult for me to say we should go fully remote,” she said. “I have to follow the guidance of the governor and the Commissioner of Education, and what families say they want and need.”

Lincoln schools are not offering a hybrid option because they have the space to allow fully-in person instruction even with social distancing. “We didn’t see that a hybrid model has that much more benefit,” since all students will still be in the building at various times, and teachers would have two cohorts of students at different parts of the week,” McFall said. “It’s a hard, hard place for us all to be right now, but I think we’ve provided the right options for folks.”

K-8 parents must choose in-person or fully remote schooling; safety protocols outlined

The Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) will start the school year in mid-September, and parents will have to choose by August 10 whether to keep their children home for fully remote learning or send them to school five days a week.

In a June 25 memo, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) told Massachusetts school districts to make plans for “start[ing] the school year with as many of our students as possible returning to in-person settings—safely” but also told districts to plan for fully remote instruction or a hybrid model where students have some days at school and some online instruction at home. 

Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall announced the district’s decision in a July 23 email to families, and she and other members of the LPS Education 2021 Task Force presented details via family forums on Zoom on July 29 and 30 (faculty/staff forums were also held on those days). The forum PowerPoint presentation, as well as links to previous emails from McFall to families, can be seen on this LPS website. The presentation can also be viewed and downloaded from this link.

Lincoln’s school buildings (including the portables on the ballfield) have enough space to bring most students back to school full-time, even with social distancing and teaching student “cohorts” of 11-15, McFall said during the July 29 family forum. Other school districts without enough room are offering online-only or hybrid instruction. If at all possible, “it’s really important and valuable for students to have the opportunity to be with their peers and taught in person,” she said.

The School Committee is scheduled to review and vote on the final plan on August 6 after a review by DESE. Families will be asked starting the same day to commit to either in-person or remote instruction for the school year. There will be more family and faculty/staff forums on August 7, and family decisions are due no later than August 10. 

Survey results

In a survey whose results McFall reported in her July 26 email, 53% of families said their first choice was fully in-person learning with safety protocols and 20% said fully remote learning. A slightly larger proportion (25%) preferred one of several hybrid options. The remaining 2% said they planned to withdraw their child from school and opt for private school or home schooling.

When faculty and staff were asked about their preferences, a slight majority (40% vs. 38%) said their first choice was fully in-person rather than fully remote learning, with 21% specifying one of the hybrid models as their first choice.

After the school administration gets the final count from families of how many children choose each of the two options, they will release more detailed plans about student groupings, teacher assignments, and day-to-day school operations.

If Covid-19 cases starting rising in the fall, the school will be ready to make a “quick, seamless transition to all-remote [learning] at the cohort, school, or district level,” McFall said. State officials are discussing infection thresholds for closing schools, “and we’re hoping for guidance for all districts,” McFall said. 

The DESE has reduced the number of required school days from 180 to 170 to allow more time for faculty to prepare their teaching plans. As a result, school will not begin in Lincoln until September 16. School will start each day at 8 a.m. but will end at 1:45 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (Wednesday will still end at 12:35 p.m.) to meet contractual requirements for teachers. The new teaching model with smaller cohorts means that teachers will be working at the same time with no breaks and will continue to work after dismissal until 3 p.m. The extra student-free time in the afternoon will also allow for more intensive cleaning.

Among the many safety protocols McFall outlined:

  • All preK-8 students and employees except those with disabilities or medical conditions must wear masks all day in school. They must supply their own masks, though the schools will have extras on hand if needed. Students will get two outdoor “mask breaks” per day while still maintaining six-foot social distancing.
  • must check their child’s temperature each morning before school and may not send any children who have a fever or symptoms of illness to school. Faculty and staff must also take their own temperatures each morning.
  • Hand-washing and physical-distancing protocols will be in place, and high-touch surfaces will be sanitized multiple times a day.
  • must provide written authorization for administering acetaminophen or ibuprofen to their child at school if necessary. Per CDC guidelines, flu shots are highly recommended for everyone once they become available.
  • Fans will not be used in school to prevent the spread of airborne germ droplets. All classrooms except those in the new Hanscom Middle School have operable windows, and screening will be used to reduce sun glare. The later start to the school year should also mean that the worst of the summer heat has passed. 
  • Two 3,800-square-foot tents will be used while weather permits to allow for outdoor learning.
  • There will be assigned seating on school buses with one child per bench seat except for those who live together. Drivers and monitors will wear masks, and buses will load from back to front. Bus windows will be half-open at all times except in extreme weather. The schools expect there will be enough buses for everyone in Lincoln, though some routes may be adjusted, and they will add a third Boston bus.
  • The buildings’ air-intake filters will be upgraded. 

School officials took some questions after the family forum presentations, but they will take more at the August 7 forums and also invite parents to submit questions ahead of time. 

News acorns

L-S Environmental Club offers webinars

The L-S Environmental Club has organized a summer environmental webinar series on Thursdays, July 16 to August 13 at 7:30 p.m. Click here for a bios of speakers (including Lincoln resident Alex Chatfield, the climate justice ministry coordinator at St. Anne’s in the Fields Church) and click here to register for any or all sessions.

Lincoln awarded five-year contract to continue operating Hanscom schools

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded the Lincoln Public Schools a contract to continue operating the schools at Hanscom Air Force Base (HAFB) for the next five years — one year with four option years. The contract provides critical financial support for the cost of the district’s central administration and student services shared with the town of Lincoln.

Lincoln Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall and Buckner Creel, administrator for business and finance, led Lincoln’s role in the extensive proposal and award process that required fixed-price budgets for the next five years. The School Committee approved the new Hanscom budget on June 23. The video of the full presentation can be viewed here.

The Lincoln Public Schools have operated the Hanscom schools for more than 50 years.

“Negotiating the Hanscom contract is a complex and arduous process, and the stakes are very high for the school district, the town, and students,” said School Committee member Susan Taylor. “It is never a forgone conclusion that the military will want to continue to contract with local schools, so the five-year commitment is a great honor and affirmation for our district.”

My Turn: School district race, equity, and inclusion work

By Becky McFall

Dear Lincoln community,

Following George Floyd’s murder, you received messages from Lincoln METCO Director Marika Hamilton, me, and recently a statement from the School Committee expressing a commitment to focusing on race, inclusion, equity, and diversity in all aspects of our schools. The School Committee and administration have received messages from many of you expressing your strong commitment to this work as well, and a request for an action plan to move forward together as a district. Planning efforts are underway to ensure that we are prepared to engage in our own learning as well as work with and support students as they return to school in September.

One of our eight working groups to plan for the opening of school is the Race, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group. We also have a Social Emotional Learning Working Group. These two groups are focused on what we need to have in place for the beginning of the school year to support students and faculty. We know how important diversity and inclusion are to student success and we are eager to continue growing in this area together.

Plans are being developed for professional development for all employees for the coming school year. There are several conversations taking place that include faculty members and administrators. As plans solidify, our goal is to communicate with you as soon as possible. Our first priority is to be prepared for the opening of school and our next priority is to develop plans for our areas of focus for the school year that will absolutely focus on race, equity, and inclusion. Please know that it will be a multi-faceted and multi-year endeavor. I look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming weeks.

McFall is Superintendent of Schools in Lincoln.

”My Turn” is a forum for Lincoln residents to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

School project gets donations for trees, walkways, benches

Last week marked the official start of the school project, and the SBC Outreach Team organized a socially distanced groundbreaking photo on the ballfield immediately after the Town Meeting. The picture (a drone photo taken by Lincoln resident Tyler Ory) photo will become part of a virtual groundbreaking ceremony that will try to capture the community’s involvement in the project. One of the people in the photo is SBC member Peter Sugar, who sported the shovel and hard hat he wore at the last Lincoln School project groundbreaking almost exactly 26 years ago. (Click image to enlarge.)

Donations from eighth-graders, a Lincoln couple, and the estate of Harriet Todd will allow the School Building Committee to add back some of the items that were cut earlier this spring but not restored by the recent Town Meeting vote.

Robert and Jacquelin Apsler have donated $32,328 to pay for concrete walkways behind the refurbished school’s learning commons as well as interior benches in the Reed/Brooks connector and the dining commons. Those features didn’t make the list of items that voters restored with an $828,945 appropriation on June 13. However, they were part of an earlier list for which that the SBC was planning to request $2.02 million back in March (itself a subset of the $3.5 million in cuts that the committee made in February after bids came in over budget).

“I want to publicly thank the Apslers for their incredible generosity, SBC chair Chris Fasciano said at the June 17 SBC meeting. “It was a very pleasant surprise when we heard that news and it’s very much appreciated.”

As its class gift to the Lincoln School, the graduating eighth-grade class of 2020 created a school project tree fund and started it off with a $500 donation. That amount got a boost of $20,000 from the estate of Harriet Todd, a former Selectman who died in 2018 and left the town $500,000 in her will. Her family agreed that $275,000 of that bequest could be spent on auditorium seating, carpeting, and stage paneling (the rest will endow a scholarship for Lincoln students). However, the auditorium work will cost only about $255,000, so the Todds agreed that the $20,000 balance could go into the tree fund.

An amount of $56,084 was originally budgeted for 52 new trees but was one of the items cut in February. After the School Committee votes to establish the gift fund, residents will be able to make additional donations for trees.

“It’s just lovely on their part, and it obviously gives a big boost,” Fasciano said of the Todds.

Hanscom students compete for national history award

Seven students at Hanscom Middle School will represent Massachusetts in this year’s National History Day, a rigorous academic contest that engages 500,000 middle and high school students in historical research.

The Hanscom student projects — all based on this year’s “Breaking Barriers” theme — include exhibits, research papers, and documentary films. The projects were selected for the national contest at Mass History Day, overseen by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

“This is an incredible accomplishment for such a small school,” said Erich Ledebuhr, principal of Hanscom Middle School, which has 266 students on Hanscom Air Force Base in grades 4–8. “I’m extremely proud of all our students and teachers.”

This is the fourth year HMS students have entered the contest under guidance of teacher Jay Peledge. “Our ‘Bessie Coleman’ group just finished the final touches on their documentary, including working in a last-minute interview with Bessie’s grandniece, Gigi Coleman, whom we’ve been trying to get in touch with since October,” he said.

The Coleman film about a pioneering black woman aviator was created by seventh-graders Malinda Jenkins and Morgan Gibson. Other contestants are seventh-grader Madison Yablonski for a research paper on women anthropologists, “The Trimates;” eighth-graders Talla C. Graham and Kirsten D. for “Ted Geisel’s War on Illiteracy;” eighth-grader Emily Doucette for an exhibit on Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; and eight-grader Andrea A-R for a documentary titled “Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked a Gay Revolution.”

Typically there would be a week-long program for contestants at the University of Maryland, but this year the ceremonies will be held virtually from June 14–20, and a virtual awards ceremony will take place on June 20 from 3–4:30 p.m.

 

 

Forum offers a closer look at school project items

The items in green are those for which the SBC is seeking additional funding at Town Meeting (click image to enlarge).

The School Building Committee answered questions and made its case for appropriating another $828,945 for the school project during a June 4 public forum conducted via Zoom.

The forum, which had 27 participants (about half of whom were SBC members and construction staff), was one of two such events scheduled before the June 13 Town Meeting, when residents will vote on moving money from the town’s free cash to restore some of the items that were cut from the project after bids came in $3.5 million over budget. The second Zoom forum will be on Monday, June 8 at 8 p.m. (participants must preregister but may do so right up until the start of the event). Click here to see a recording of Thursday’s forum.

The $828,945 would add back some items that either cannot be restored later, or could be restored later but only at significantly higher cost. The requested amount is a reduction from the $2.08 million that the SBC had planned to seek in March before Town Meeting had to be postponed and the town budget reexamined in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The SBC outlined background material and the list items on the list in this memo and this slide deck shown during the forum, when officials offered more details about some of them:

  • The obsolete auditorium divider dates from the building’s opening in 1963 and is necessary for separating the stage and performance space from the lecture hall. Installing a new one later would mean tearing up some of the newly refurbished areas that are being particularly funded by a gift from the late Harriet Todd.
  • The sun control louvers in several areas of the building are needed to reduce glare and save money on heating and cooling.
  • An interior glass wall will allow more natural light into a deeper part of the building and allow greater space flexibility. Also, although minimizing contagion was not its original intent, the interior glass wall will enable teachers to separate students into smaller groups while “still maintaining sight lines and supervision,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said.
  • Concrete pavers are much more durable and attractive than asphalt, and ripping up the surface and installing pavers later “would not be good value for money,” Selectman Jennifer Glass said. “Going back and undoing work makes it much more expensive.”
  • The partial restoration of the furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) budget will allow replacement of the outdated phone system and some of the oldest furniture.

The cuts in February were “rough,” SBC co-chair Chris Fasciano said. “For the first time, the SBC needed to eliminate parts of the project that we had tried really hard to protect and that represented collective community values. They’re so important to the project that we were willing to come back to the town and ask for additional funds. The SBC is acutely award of the pressure of the current situation… but in the end, we feel the responsibility to deliver a school project with the greatest long-term value for the community.”

Not included in the June 13 request are other cuts including bike paths, playground equipment, replacement trees, interior benches, theatrical rigging, and the majority of the budget for FF&E. Some of them may be eligible for future Community Preservation Act money, Complete Streets grants, or private fundraising. 

In answer to resident Sara Mattes’s question about whether there was a “hard stop on what we’re spending,” Fasciano said the SBC has not made a decision about when or whether to come back to voters for more supplemental funding. However, the remaining FF&E budget “will have to go to the town again,” he said, as purchases have been deferred for many years while the town struggled to approve a school project. “The economic environment and town finances will be a major factor in those decisions” about any future requests, he added.

Resident David Stifter expressed disappointment at some of the cuts, saying, “it seems like we’re getting some very different from what was in the renderings.”

“The SBC is as frustrated as you are,” Fasciano replied.

“We’re all disappointed it’s not going to turn out exactly as we envisioned it… but there are so many things that are great about this project,” said Buck Creel, administrator for business and finance for the Lincoln Public Schools. “I’m actually delighted we’re able to accomplish as much as we can given all the constraints.”