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

Balancing act (Lincoln Through the Lens)

Lincoln resident and Birches School fourth- grader Atticus Borggaard balances on a fallen tree in the conservation land behind the Birches School during a nature play afternoon. (Photo submitted by Cecily Wardell)

Lincoln resident and Birches School fourth-grader Atticus Borggaard balances on a fallen tree in the conservation land behind the Birches School during a nature play afternoon. (Photo submitted by Cecily Wardell)

Readers may submit photos for consideration for Lincoln Through the Lens by emailing them to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. If your photo is published, you’ll receive credit in the Squirrel. Photos must be taken in Lincoln and include the date, location, and names of any people who are identifiable in the photo. Previously published photos can be viewed on the Lincoln Through the Lens page of the Lincoln Squirrel.

News acorns

acornLincoln Lab to be modernized

The Department of Defense plans to begin a multi-year modernization of MIT’s Lincoln Labs that will amount to an investment at least $265 million investment in the facilities, the Worcester Telegram reported.

“Through its robust work and partnership with Hanscom Air Force Base, Lincoln Lab is advancing breakthrough technologies, keeping our armed forces safe, and powering our innovation economy with hundreds of high-tech jobs. I’m grateful that the Air Force is committed to strengthening the work of Lincoln Labs with these new investments,” State Rep. Katherine Clark said in a statement.

Polito to appears at next HATS meeting

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito will make remarks at the next meeting of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee (HATS) on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Town Office Building. SHe is expected to discuss Hanscom Air Force Base and the Military Assets Task Force as well as the Municipal Modernization Act, among other topics. The meeting will also feature updates on the two state highway projects on Route 2.

Letter to the editor: Minuteman offers an ‘invaluable experience’

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To the editor:

I’m writing in support of Lincoln’s membership and involvement in Minuteman High School, including their plans for a new facility.

My oldest daughter attended Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School for her freshman and sophomore years. During the end of that second year, we determined that L-S wasn’t an appropriate placement for her. It was such a relief to have Minuteman right next door, which she attended for her junior and senior years. We were thrilled when she graduated as a National Merit Scholar and a certified preschool teacher in June 2011. Since her graduation, she’s been employed either part-time or full-time as a preschool teacher while she’s attended four year colleges either full or part-time, respectively.

The bottom line is that Minuteman was an invaluable experience for her, providing her with confidence and a career. I encourage Lincolnites to embrace the school and its varied offerings.

Sincerely,

Carol Kochmann
9 Brooks Hill Rd.

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

Letter to the editor: CapComm recommends Minuteman withdrawal

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To the editor:

Tonight, the Vocational Education Options Working Group will be holding a public forum to discuss their findings and offer the opportunity to ask questions about Lincoln’s vocational education options in advance of the upcoming Special Town Meeting. I encourage you to attend the meeting and learn about the various options and their implications.

[Read more…] about Letter to the editor: CapComm recommends Minuteman withdrawal

Letter to the editor: Barrett’s bill is a ‘first step’ toward climate accord

letter

To the editor,

In early December, a letter was published in the Lincoln Squirrel highly critical of Sen. Michael Barrett’s legislative bill S1747–An Act Combating Climate Change. The goal of this bill is to reduce the use of fossil fuels understood by the vast majority of citizens and scientists around the world to be a primary cause of climate change.

By coincidence, a week after this critical letter was published, 195 countries from around the world met at the Paris Climate Change Conference and unanimously adopted an agreement that documents the role of fossil fuel emissions from human use as the primary cause of climate change. With the bill as proposed by Sen. Barrett, Massachusetts will join a few other states and countries in a leadership role promoting real steps to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the guiding principle of the Paris Accord.

For the first time, enlightened representatives from around the entire world have agreed, and have committed to specific steps and goals to lower greenhouse gas emissions as the primary means of reducing the dramatic effects of climate change. The world has already witnessed rising sea levels, increasing global temperatures, loss of polar and glacier ice, severe droughts, flooding, more destructive storms, as well as food and water shortages.

A world committed to reduced and ultimately eliminated use of fossil fuels will also find a more sustainable economic future in development of renewable energy sources and innovative production means. Legislation like Sen. Barrett’s bill is a first step that must be taken if the goals of the Paris Accord are to be achieved.

Sincerely,

Gary Davis
20R Indian Camp Lane

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

Selectmen presented with voc-tech information

voc-techBy Alice Waugh

Town officials offered a preview Monday night of vocational-technical costs and options for Lincoln students in advance of a February 11 public forum at 7 p.m in the Hartwell multipurpose room and a Special Town Meeting later this month.

On February 23, Lincoln voters will be asked if the town should withdraw from the Minuteman school district. If the answer is no, they will then be asked to approve the amended Minuteman High School regional agreement. Selectman Peter Braun, a member of the Vocational Education Options Working Group (VEOWG), said last week that it would make sense for Lincoln to withdraw, in his opinion.

Earlier in the process of hammering out a new regional agreement, “we had never even conceived of withdrawing” from the district, largely because the new Minuteman school building will be on Lincoln land and the current agreement requires the school to be located within a member town. But as Lincoln’s dissatisfaction with the new agreement’s cost formulas became an issue, the Minuteman School Committee offered Lincoln (along with six other towns) an expedited withdrawal option, along with removing the school location requirement.

If Lincoln votes to withdraw, it can leave the district without incurring a member town’s share of the debt for the new building—assuming the agreement is also approved by the district’s other 15 towns. It would also forfeit representation on the Minuteman School Committee but would pay less overall for vocational-technical education.

The VEOWG gathered cost estimates for various scenarios such as staying in the Minuteman district, leaving but still sending students to Minuteman as an out-of-district town, or sending them to any of three other technical schools in the area (all of which have been recently renovated). They also compiled information on curriculum and career data for all four schools, as well as an FAQ with background on the issue and what factors to consider before voting.

“It’s been an eye-opening experience. We had absolutely no clue about what withdrawal would look like, or what other schools would look like, or the cost comparisons,” Braun said.

Lincoln’s estimated costs

Selectmen noted that Lincoln has always been in favor of a new Minuteman building and would have paid its share of the cost under the current agreement. However, Braun noted at Monday’s Board of Selectmen meeting that under the new agreement, which takes into account both enrollment and each town’s “wealth factor” as determined by the state, Lincoln’s debt obligation would double and its voting weight would be reduced from the current 6.25 percent (each of the 16 towns gets one vote) to less than 4 percent.

Assuming Lincoln sent five students to Minuteman in fiscal year 2020, the cost would be almost twice as much per student ($55,911 vs. $29,503) if Lincoln were a member of the Minuteman school district than if it were not. The cost for sending those five students to one of three other schools instead would range from about $21,000 to $24,000 per student.

Options at other schools

If Lincoln does withdraw from the Minuteman district (which would take effect July 1, 2017), “a future committee will have a year and half to focus in some preferential way on another school or Minuteman” for Lincoln students, Braun said. However, the choice will always rest with students, who are free to go anywhere as long as a school has capacity.

“Not being a member of a district creates the ultimate flexibility,” Braun said.

Based on site visits and discussions with Assabet Valley Regional Technical School in Marlborough and Nashoba Valley Technical High School in Westford “clearly have capacity… and indicated they would welcome having us,” Braun said. The working group has not yet been able to meet with officials from Keefe Regional Technical School in Framingham due to inclement weather, but members included cost information for all five schools in their cost estimate chart.

The VEOWG did not gather information on Shawsheen Valley Technical High School in Bedford because that school does not take out-of-district students, Braun said.

As an out-of-district town, Lincoln would not be guaranteed slots for its students at Minuteman. The new building will have a capacity of 628 students. The current enrollment is 673, but that number will decline if towns withdraw from the district. The school may also see fewer out-of-district students from Boston and Waltham. Boston has improved its vocational-technical facilities and Waltham’s planned new or renovated high school is expected to include voc-tech programs, according to the working group’s FAQ document.

At the selectmen’s meeting, resident and former Selectman Sara Mattes asked if withdrawing from the Minuteman district would amount to “treating vocational-technical kids differently than our other kids… is this not a version of school choice?”

“This has nothing to do with the school choice you’re talking about, with reciprocity between districts,” Braun responded. Many Massachusetts towns are not a member of a vocational-technical school district, “and it’s very common for towns to have multiple choices available for their [vocational-technical] kids. I’m comfortable with the sense that this is not an unusual situation we would be putting our kids in.” About 41 percent of Minuteman’s students this year are from non-district towns.

Based on questions and discussion at Thursday’s public forum, the FAQ document may be revised before the Special Town Meeting, Braun said.

Codman welcomes new farmers

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The Codman Community Farms board welcomed the new family running the farm: Jen Hashley (front row center), her husband Peter Lowy to her left, and their son Abraham. Also in attendance at the Pierce House welcome was Ellen Raja (front row left). Second row, left to right: David Alperovitz Erica Mason, and DJ Mitchell. Third row: Chandler Fritz and Julia Craig. Fourth row: Toni Gersh (with her son behind her) and Chris Fasciano.