Candidates in the March 28 town election shared their views on the proposed community center, the Lincoln-Sudbury regional agreement, South Lincoln, and diversity and inclusion at a March 16 forum — the first public event held in the renovated Brooks auditorium.

Four of the races (Select Board, Planning Board, Lincoln School Committee and L-S School Committee or LSSC) are contested, and the Lincoln PTO, the forum’s organizer, addressed questions specific to those groups of candidates. The event, which began with introductions by all 16 candidates who attended, can be viewed here. An earlier forum for the LSSC candidates sponsored by the Sudbury League of Women Voters can be viewed here.

Community center cost is an issue

Select Board candidates Jim Hutchinson and Adam Hogue, who are vying for the seat being vacated by James Craig, said they supported the community center but expressed concern about how to pay for it (although many residents at the State of the Town meeting in November 2021 supported pursuing the project aggressively before costs went even higher). The project is now estimated to cost around $25 million and comes on the heels of a $93 million investment in the Lincoln School.

Hogue said he was against raising taxes to fund a community center, something that would be necessary if it were to be paid for primarily through bonding. “We have to look at different funding options,” he said, adding that the town could consider “pushing off other capital projects so we have to borrow less… This is going to be an expensive project. We have to be very conscious about how we actually fund those [projects] because our taxes have gone up quite a bit in town.”

The projected cost increase for the community center (first pegged at about $15 million in 2018) “has caused a bit of sticker shock for a bunch of us,” said Hutchinson, a former Finance Committee member. “We should take another look at the scope of the project and see if there’s any way we can maybe move some of the functions to our newly renovated school or other spaces in town and keep costs under control somewhat.” 

The town’s debt stabilization fund is another potential source of funding, as are private donations, though the town is not permitted to actively solicit donations for public projects, Hutchinson said. “I want to have dialogue with the community and do what you all want, not what I want to do.”

L-S regional agreement

Earlier this month, the L-S School Committee established a subcommittee to look at the regional agreement governing how funding for the high school is apportioned between Lincoln and Sudbury. That agreement has not been reexamined in many years.

The agreement “should be treated almost like a marriage, and what makes a marriage stronger is trust, respect, and communication,” said LSSC candidate Maura Carty. Budgeting timelines in the two towns have diverged, and the superintendent of schools must spend considerable time making both operating and capital budget requests to both towns. “I’d like to give the superintendent more time to spend with our students” while streamlining the budget process, Carty said.

Current LSSC chair Cara Endyke Doran agreed that a review of the agreement was overdue, saying the committee should update it to reflect “standard legal language and best practices.”

“There’s been a lot of talk across the river in Sudbury that’s really alarmist” when the subject of reviewing the regional agreement comes up, said incumbent Kevin Matthews (all three candidates vying for two open seats are Sudbury residents). “It’s a contract between two towns, but it’s also an opportunity to build more trust between the towns. There’s no way that anyone is going to snowball the other one in something like this.”

South Lincoln zoning changes

The future of South Lincoln in light of the state Housing Choice Act was issue #1 for the three Planning Board candidates competing for two seats. The board and its SLPAC subcommittee were working on ideas for rezoning the area to encourage more housing and commercial development even before last year’s passage of the state law, which (if enforced in its current form) would require Lincoln to allow at least 750 housing units within half a mile of the commuter rail station. They went back to the drawing board after residents complained two years ago that an initial rezoning proposal would give the Planning Board too much power at the expense of Town Meeting.

All three candidates emphasized that any changes will have to be approved by residents, not just the Planning Board. “We’re all ears to hear anyone’s suggestion,” Gladstone said. “Our job is to facilitate bringing as much information to as many people as possible so the town can decide.” Though some fear that the “we’re going to make a decision and suddenly something is going to be foisted on the town, that is simply not the case.” 

“If it does require some rezoning, the town will make the final decision,” said Ephraim Flint, a challenger who previously served on the board.

“South Lincoln is very important to the town, and whatever changes we make there, we will be living with for many, many years,” Planning Board Chair Margaret Olson observed. “I’m looking forward to hearing about more options and tools to help us all understand what something might even look like, being able to visualize and understand what this means and what the implications are.”

Mental health, diversity, and social issues in schools

The two Lincoln School Committee candidates (both newcomers running for a vacant seat) said they supported the school district’s work around AIDE (antiracism, inclusion, diversity and equity). “We have to have smart educational accountability. We spend a lot of money and we have to be sure everyone is included and gets a good education,” said Joseph Dwyer.

Kim Rajdev implied that the goals of AIDE are not well served by having children grouped by ability. “It really pains me when I hear a very young child say ‘I’m not good at math’,” she said. The schools need to “move away from content and more toward adaptability and teamwork skills… thinking on our feet.”

Later in the forum where each contested candidate was asked about the most significant issue facing their board, Dwyer echoed Rajdev’s sentiment. “What students specifically learn today will be irrelevant as a flip phone 20 years from now. We have to teach them how to learn, not just regurgitating numbers and facts. They need to learn how to learn, analyze a situation, improvise, adapt, and overcome that situation.”

Mental health for teachers as well as students in the wake of the pandemic’s disruptions is also a central issue, Rajdev said. “We need to have deeper learning, but in a measured way and check in with teachers to make sure it’s not overwhelming for them,” she said.

The L-S School Committee candidates agreed on the importance of addressing mental health issues among students. The high school needs more data and metrics on this issue, Carty and Endyke Doran said. 

“The services are there,” but a majority of students don’t feel comfortable asking for help with mental health. More school-wide programs and events would help with that issue as well as building a sense of inclusiveness and confidence among students, Carty said.

Matthews supported improving student services but observed that “all of that needs to be paid for,” which is challenging in a time of declining enrollment and revenue at the high school. “It’s important  for us to be very cognizant of how we’re going to take care of students who have been impacted by the pandemic mentally and emotionally and have them be educated in a way that’s equal to everything else.”

“We need to know what’s working and not working so we can appropriately allocate funds and resources for our students,” Endyke Doran said.

The School Committee candidates were also asked if parents should have input on how the schools present information on controversial social issues to students. Many districts around the country are arguing over how (or even whether) to teach about topics such as race and homosexuality, although those issues were not mentioned specifically in the Lincoln forum.

“Yes, it’s our kids, and we should have input,” although local schools must be guided by state education standards, Rajdev said. If a parent is concerned about age-appropriate teaching material on controversial topics, “that discussion should be happening with the teacher and the superintendent. The School Committee is there to make sure the district is following the strategic plan and is supporting the administration” as its board of directors.

“There’s something that should be 100% clear: anything that is taught at school should be public to the parents,” said Dwyer, adding that he was recently told that he would have to sign a nondisclosure agreement if a school board were to tell him what was being taught. “That’s wrong. Parents have the primary responsibility. It’s very important for parents to know everything that is being taught, chapter and verse.”

Housing and diversity

Both Select Board candidates identified the housing crisis as the most pressing issue facing the board. “We need more housing and I do believe we can afford to do those housing units down there” as directed by the Housing Choice Act, Hogue said. “We can’t move slow on this; there’s a housing crisis in this area, and we need to develop and pass more housing options for people… [if] we’re going to get serious about this as a community.”

While Hutchinson said he supported the act’s intentions, he said it’s flawed in its current form. “The state needs feedback from us on how to fix this. Seven hundred and fifty units is not appropriate for our town… I believe residents would like to help do our share with the housing situation, but let’s get the implications of this act right first.”

Two of the Planning Board candidates agreed that housing is the biggest issue for the board right now. “The housing crisis is real. We all want South Lincoln to be a more vibrant place, and that probably requires having more housing there,” Olson said. “This will consume a great deal of the Planning Board’s time over the next couple of years.”

“What’s being asked of the town is some that’s desirable in some sense, but the scale is out of proportion to what we can achieve,” Flint said. Because of two-acre zoning and other  factors, most of Lincoln’s housing “tends to be upper-end and that’s significantly changed the economic demography of the town. How do you deal with that?”

Gladstone said he felt strongly about getting the community center built and hoped that additional development would help pay for some of it. 

“It all goes back to housing,” Hogue said when he and Hutchinson were asked what they would do to help Lincoln become more inclusive and diverse. “You can talk about diversity all you want, but if people can’t move here and afford to live here, we’re not going to have diversity.”

“We have to put our money where our mouth is,” said Hutchinson. As a member of the working group deciding how to spend federal pandemic relief money, he said he supported creating two new AIDE-related positions, one to guide teachers and a consultant to help build the town’s diversity programs. “It’s not easy to figure out what to do on some of these issues, and I’m looking forward to learning lessons [from the consultant] on best practices.”