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

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 Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.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

Letter to the editor: McFall invites students and parents to discuss racism

To the Lincoln community:

I write to you from a place of humility, acknowledging that, at this point in time, there are so many areas of uncertainty that I do not have clear responses to or concrete action plans to address. However, what is weighing most heavily on me right now is how to respond, in my role as a superintendent, to the civil unrest taking place across our country and the inequities and injustices experienced by members of our communities.

I know that this message will not resonate with everyone. I also know that I may make points that may be misconstrued. My intent is to acknowledge what many of us are experiencing and feeling and to share some possible ways to come together as a community for reflection, sharing, and consideration of our collective responsibility to make things better.

I do not presume to understand what it is like to be a person of color in our country. But, the only way I know to make sense of what is happening is by making connections to my own personal experiences.

In 1992, I was a middle school teacher in an unincorporated (not a town or city) area of Los Angeles County — Lennox, Calif. This was the community that I grew up in and began my career in education. It is a poor community where most parents work in service industries in and around the Los Angeles airport. The schools were a safe haven for students within the community. I am providing this context because what is taking place now, and has taken place for decades, mirrors what occurred in Los Angeles in 1992 in response to the acquittal of four police officers related to the beating of Rodney King.

As the riots ensued, most school districts closed, but we remained open knowing that our parents were not in positions of privilege and could not stay home from work to care for their children. We kept our students in self-contained classrooms and provided opportunities for discussion about what was taking place and how they were feeling. As you can imagine, my students expressed a wide range of emotions including anger, frustration, fear, inability to reconcile the outcomes with the evidence, and a sense of hopelessness. I perceived their expressions as an overall knowing that they were not valued and protected in our society.

As their teacher, I had a feeling of deep despair. My messages to my students had always been expressions of hope: if you have a goal and you work hard, you can succeed. I held myself up as a model for my students as someone who grew up in their neighborhood and attended the same schools. But in this moment I knew that much of what my students were feeling was the truth and that my message that all you need to do is work hard was not a truth. While much of our lived experience was the same, the color of my skin provided me with privilege and opportunities that they did not have. And the color of my skin provided me with the very basic necessity of a level of safety that they did not experience.

I am certain that students in our schools are feeling these same emotions and always have. The recent acts of violence against persons of color and the ensuing injustices have not created these feelings; they have always been there. When our institutional systems clearly tell you that you have no voice, then you are forced to find other means of communication. I do not say this to universally condone the actions that have been taken, only as an understanding of how we have ended up where we are. It is difficult to think about my experience in L.A. 28 years ago and to see that the experience for black and brown people in our country has not changed. Combined with a pandemic that is disproportionately affecting communities of color, racial inequities have been magnified, and my heart goes out to our families who are shouldering the impact of it all right now.

Please remember that our principals, social workers, school psychologists, and other school personnel are available if you need assistance.

An opportunity for members of our community to come together is scheduled for Thursday evening. Lincoln School grade 5-8 students will have the opportunity to join a discussion group on Thursday during the day. I am providing information below and hope that you will join us.

Please be well.

All the best,

Becky McFall
Superintendent, Lincoln Public Schools

1. Anti-racism resources for parents and educators

2. Event for adults — Thursday, June 4 from 6–7:30 p.m.
A 90-minute webinar from with Kathy Lopes, LICSW for parents, staff, and community members to acknowledge the educational, health, and social-emotional impact of Covid-19 (inclusive of local and national racism) on their communities and the current racial violent acts occurring in the country. Lopes will provide data, age-appropriate strategies, and resources to support adults in navigating the topic of systemic racism and how to approach these tough conversations with children of varying ages.

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://simmons.zoom.us/j/92663677391?pwd=Y3Y0OFBXZ2I3S3Y4TEh4ZXBmakxpQT09

  • Meeting ID: 926 6367 7391
  • Password: 459805
  • For call-Ins: (646) 558-8656

3. Student sessions for Lincoln School grade 5-8
There will be two group discussions, one for students in grades 5-6 and one for students in grades 7-8. Discussions will be guided by the students’ needs and the groups will be facilitated by mental health staff, METCO staff, and teachers. 

  • Grades 5-6: Thursday, June 4 from 10–11 a.m.
  • Grades 7-8: Thursday, June 4 11 a.m.–noon

The link to join will be sent in a letter of invitation to the student sessions on Monday.

Information for Hanscom Middle School student sessions will be provided early this week.

News acorns

Make a ruckus on Friday for graduating seniors

The Lincoln-Sudbury Class of 2020 will be completing their K-12 school years on Friday, May 29 at exactly 2:39 p.m. The L-S Senior Celebrations Committee asks that families, friends, neighbors, and community members join together at 2:38 p.m. and stand outside our homes separately, yet together — clapping, cheering, banging on pots. and otherwise celebrating to honor students from various schools who are marking a high school or college graduation milestone in this challenging spring.

Get ready for kindergarten

For parents of children who will be starting kindergarten in September, watch this “Welcome to Kindergarten” video and come to a virtual kindergarten orientation on Monday, June 8 from 6:30–7:30 p.m. The Google Meet link will be distributed earlier that day. Meanwhile, please complete the forms linked to this information sheet.

COA’s June newsletter available online

The Council on Aging’s June newsletter is now online — read it by clicking here. (Note that the new support group for those who have lost a loved one during the pandemic will begin on Tuesday, June 2, not June 5).

McFall signed to three-year contract extension

Superintendent of Schools Rebecca McFall

The Lincoln School Committee has announced a three-year contract extension with District Superintendent Rebecca McFall. She succeeded retiring Superintendent Michael “Mickey” Brandmeyer in 2012.

“The continuity of Dr. McFall’s strong leadership benefits our children, our faculty, and staff, and our Lincoln, Hanscom, and Boston communities as we work to enhance education while navigating the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic and the process of renovating the Lincoln school buildings,” the committee said in a statement.

“We are grateful for Dr. McFall’s resilience in guiding our schools’ rapid transition to remote learning while never losing sight of our district’s long-term educational goals. She and her leadership team also have reached out with compassion to those who depend on our schools for food, technology, and emotional support.”

Town Meeting plans announced

It’s a go for Annual Town Meeting on June 13 — but (happily for some, perhaps) it will be a lot shorter than usual.

The meeting has been stripped down to 22 warrant articles, with 19 of them voted on as a bloc on the consent calendar.  Residents will be asked to vote on only three other items: a $828,945 supplemental funding request from the School Building Committee, capital items for the Water Department, and the allocation for free cash. Votes on the rest of the articles that were planned before the Covid-19 pandemic, including the citizens’ petitions, will be postponed to a Special Town Meeting in the fall.

The meeting will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 13 in the Hartwell parking lot under a tent (allowing social distancing and handicapped accessibility), with outside seating also available. Other details:

  • Check-in will begin at 8:15 a.m.
  • Masks are mandatory for all workers and attendees; gloves are strongly encouraged. Social distancing guidelines will be enforced.
  • There will be a voting card system.
  • Presentations about warrant articles will be available ahead of time online on the town’s 2020 Annual Town Meeting web page.
  • In case of rain, the meeting may be convened and then quickly postponed until later in the day if the weather forecast is favorable. Any last-minute changes will be communicated through a reverse 911 call to Lincoln households.

The Finance Committee has revised the budget it approved earlier this year, when Town Meeting was scheduled for March 25. Among the changes:

  • Estimate revenue from a projected 3.4% increase to a decrease of about 16%, representing a projected decline of approximately $500,000.
  • The appropriation to the reserve fund has been increased by $200,000 to a new amount of $753,111.
  • The appropriation to the Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) liability fund for retirees was reduced by $200,000 to $350,000. This proposed change from the original recommendation remains within the committee’s OPEB policy given the latest revenue and expense projections.
  • After adjusting some of the component items, the total capital request from the Water Department is now $270,000, up from $250,000. This motion may be amended at Town Meeting but will involve either transfers or bonding, which would require a two-thirds majority vote.

The Finance Committee will hold a town budget question-and-answer meeting on Zoom about a week before the June 13 town meeting, with date/time and login details to be announced.

The following information is available on the 2020 Annual Town Meeting web page:

The town election will also be held outdoors at the same location on Monday, June 15 for the legally required minimum of four hours (noon–4 p.m.). Early voting and absentee voting are encouraged.

News acorns

Bella Wong of L-S agrees to contract extension

The Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School Committee has announced that it has finalized a three-year contract extension with Superintendent/Principal Bella Wong. “We appreciate Ms. Wong’s work and dedication over the past seven years and are thankful to have her experience and leadership as we navigate the challenges caused by the pandemic. We look forward to working together as we confront the current crisis while continuing to move the District forward,” the panel said in a statement.

The School Committee also announced the hiring of Kirsteen Patterson as the Director of Finance and Operations for a three-year term beginning in July. Patterson brings many years of experience in public school finance, serving most recently as the Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Administration for the Medford Public Schools.

Watch town’s Memorial Day observance online

Lincoln’s traditional Memorial Day event has been cancelled. But the veterans of Lincoln and the Parks and Recreation Department have organized a brief and respectful ceremony at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 25 and everyone is invited to watch on Facebook Live by clicking here.

LLCT hosts Wildlife Bingo

The Lincoln Land Conservation Trust is hosting virtual Wildlife Bingo on Wednesday, May 27 for wildlife bingo. You’ll see some of the same birds as the previous Bird Bingo, along with lots of other fun reptiles, amphibians, and mammals of New England. Prizes will include gift cards to local businesses and LLCT swag. Once you’ve registered, you’ll receive a zoom link, and we’ll email you further instructions and your bingo card. You’ll be able to access your bingo card from a browser, or you can download and print the card.

The event is limited to 20 households, each of which will receive one set of bingo cards. If you register and find yourself unable to attend, please update your RSVP on Eventbrite so we can offer that spot to someone else. Click here to register.

How to talk to teens about relationships

Join the Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Domestic Violence Roundtable (DVR) and their partners at REACH Beyond Domestic Violence for a webinar entitled “How to Talk to Teens About Relationships” on Wednesday, May 27 from 9:30–10:30 a.m. This training is designed for parents, educators, clergy, and community members who interact with teens. The one-hour workshop will explore adult and teen perceptions of teen dating violence, discuss messages and barriers that uniquely impact youth relationships, and provide strategies to address these barriers when talking with teens. Registration is required and can be completed by clicking here or on the REACH website. Email Youth Education Specialist Molly Pistrang at molly@reachma.org with any questions.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the DVR is continuing its activities and programming. At the outset of the pandemic, the Roundtable donated $20,000 to five domestic violence agencies for emergency services. If you would like to help, please visit the DVR website for further information.

Drumlin Farm program provides fresh food for the needy

The Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary is helping to provide fresh vegetables and eggs to Cambridge families in need. Each week, Drumlin delivers some of its sustainably grown produce to Cambridge, where Food for Free of Cambridge distributes it to those facing food insecurity, a situation made more dire because of the coronavirus.

Drumlin Farm has also been providing healthy produce to the Cambridge Public School system cafeterias for school lunches since 2017. With school districts shut down statewide and most of its client restaurants also on pause, the sanctuary was determined to keep growing food and ensuring that underserved communities would be a priority — hence the Drumlin Farm Food Donation Project. 

Sanctuary Director Renata Pomponi said this collaboration also offers a great opportunity in a time of stress and uncertainty for businesses and individuals to contribute meaningfully to the moral principle that people should have enough to eat. “It’s inspiring to work with Food For Free and other local hunger relief partners on such a worthy project, especially in this time of COVID-19, and generous donors are already stepping up,” she said. To support these efforts and learn more, visit the Drumlin Farm Food Donation Project website.

High school seniors recognized

The Board of Selectmen, on behalf of the Town of Lincoln, has officially proclaimed Sunday, June 7 as “Class of 2020 Day” in Lincoln to encourage everyone to support opportunities for graduating seniors, recognize their contributions and achievements.

Help for those with financial difficulties due to Covid-19

Many people in the Lincoln community are experiencing financial distress due to the Covid-19 crisis. The Council on Aging’s Emergency Assistance Fund and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Financial Assistance Program and Food Pantry are working together to help. Please contact the Council on Aging (bottumc@lincolntown.org or 781-259-8811) or the Society of  St. Vincent de Paul at St. Julia Parish (781-899-2611 or svdplincolnweston@gmail.com) if you are a Lincoln resident and:

  • Will not be able to pay your rent or utility bills once the State of Emergency is lifted
  • Cannot afford food, medication, health insurance, or other essential health-related costs
  • Are going into credit card debt to pay essential bills
  • Have other financial challenges that threaten your ability to live safely in our community

You may contact either organization for a private and confidential consultation to determine what services and benefits you may be eligible for, including possibly payment of some bills.

Both organizations are funded entirely by grants and donations. To make a donation to the Council on Aging Emergency Assistance Fund, please send a check payable to the Town of Lincoln with a memo line of “Emergency Assistance Fund” and addressed to COA c/o Town Offices, 16 Lincoln Rd., Lincoln, MA 01773. To make a donation to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, please send a check to St. Vincent de Paul, PO Box 324, Lincoln, MA 01773.

Clarification

School Building Committee member Peter Sugar has requested a clarification to his remarks in the May 14 article headlined “SBC to make reduced request for school items at June Town Meeting.” At the SBC meeting, he was expressing the sentiment that the committee should assure the inclusion of the previously trimmed items by electing to pay for them using the construction contingency fund, rather than facing the uncertainty of voter sentiment at the Town Meeting on June 13 and/or a Special Town Meeting in the fall. The contingency fund could be replenished if it runs out later in the project, he noted.)

Sugar also said that, because of the construction schedule, the items totaling $828,945 will cost more if they are not approved in June, even if voters decide to add them back later. (The deadlines vary; for the louvers and the auditorium divider, it’s July 1, and for the glass wall and seat, it’s September 1.)