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

School to start on Sept. 2 if panel approves

schoolBy Alice Waugh

School will start next fall after Labor Day and end by June 24 if the School Committee votes in favor of the proposed calendar at its January 23 meeting.

Partly due to unhappiness in some quarters over how late the 2012-13 school year ran, the committee surveyed parents about their preferences in regard to when the school year would start and whether to have no school on Rosh Hashanah, Good Friday, and a day set aside for parent/teacher conferences.

Fifty-nine percent of the 363 survey respondents preferred school to start after Labor Day, according to a letter to parents from Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall.

Thirty percent of parents and faculty who responded said they thought school should not be in session on the religious holidays. If school were held on those days, McFall said in her letter that the school would have to hire 12 to 19 substitutes to compensate for staff who were absent as one or more of their five paid personal days. “Finding this many substitutes on a given day would compromise instruction and place a high logistical burden on the district,” she wrote.

If the calendar is approved, school will start on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2014 and end on June 24, 2015 if all five snow days are used.

Boston Globe editor among speakers at L-S on Jan. 30

lsBy Alice Waugh

Brian McGrory, a Sudbury resident and editor of the Boston Globe will be one of four speakers at the Faye Goldberg-Scheff Memorial Lecture at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School on Thursday, Jan. 30.

The event is sponsored by the Foundation for Educators at L-S (FELS), which funds enrichment grants for teachers and staff at L-S. Traditionally, one of the grantees or another L-S faculty member gives a lecture on behalf of FELS in January, and the group designated the lecture in honor of Goldberg-Scheff of Lincoln, a FELS board member and teacher at the Lynch School in Winchester who died in a car accident in 2011.

Also scheduled to speak are Ana Sortun, chef/partner of Oleana, Sofra and Sarma restaurants; Chris Kurth, farmer/owner of Siena Farms in Sudbury; and author David McCullough Jr., son of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough who gave the famous “you’re not special” Commencement speech at Wellesley High School in 2012.

This year’s format was inspired by TED talks, where speakers keep an audience engaged with short presentations on different topics. “There’s no unifying theme to our FELS talk—it’s just inspiring and captivating speakers,” said Diane Metzger, president of the FELS board. “Our speakers were chosen simply because they are interesting individuals who live in Sudbury or Lincoln.”

The Faye Goldberg-Scheff Memorial Lecture on January 30 will be in the L-S Kirschner Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $10, or $5 for students and seniors.

Lots of opportunities to donate stuff

Several organizations in town are collecting items for charitable causes.Charity hands

Children’s items for Cradles to Crayons
The Lincoln Family Association (LFA) is collecting gently used children’s clothing, coats, shoes, boots, books and toys for Cradles to Crayons. Sizes needed: infant through Adult Small (appropriate for 12-year-olds). We also need books from board/baby books up through sixth grade. Items can be dropped off through January 31 at the Lincoln Public Library lobby or at Sarah Liepert’s house at 108 Trapelo Rd. (leave bagged items by garage door). Contact Sarah Liepert at sarahliepert@hotmail.com with questions.

Toiletries for people in shelters
Women and children who are in shelters remaking their lives after experiencing domestic violence need toiletries like shampoo, soap, toothpaste, hand and body lotions, and more. If you have unopened toiletries from hotels or stores that you can’t use, please bring them to Bemis Hall by Friday, Feb. 7. A Council on Aging volunteer will take them to local domestic violence organizations for Valentine’s Day distribution.

Knick-knacks for school art projects
To help Lincoln School second-graders who are starting a puppet project, art teacher Colleen Pearce is looking for donations of toilet-paper tubes as well as interesting sewing notions such a zippers, trim, odd earrings or jewels. Meanwhile, the fourth-graders are starting a weaving unit, so check your knitting basket for thick yarn you could donate. Any amount is fine, but please no thin-gauge yarn. Please leave donations in the Smith office.

Donelan’s receipts
The Lincoln PTO is collecting receipts from Donelan’s (Lincoln and Acton stores only). Through the Register Tapes for Education program, schools earn points for every receipt dollar, which can then be redeemed for free equipment and supplies including pens, pencils, computers, sports equipment, flat screen TVs, and more. Last year the PTO redeemed  receipts for a markerboard, simple machine kits, activity table and more. Receipts dated no earlier than September 1, 2013 can be dropped off at the Whistlestop Cafe, Something Special, the Smith School lobby or the Brooks School office, You need to do nothing with your receipts other than just drop them off. This program runs though the end of March.

Community preservation panel hears funding requests tonight

The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, January 22 at 7 p.m. in the Board of Selectmen’s office in the Town Office Building to discuss funding proposals that have been submitted this year and to identify those that will be recommended for approval at Town Meeting in March 2014.

[Read more…] about Community preservation panel hears funding requests tonight

Lincoln Winter Carnival schedule announced

winter carnivalHere’s the schedule for Lincoln Winter Carnival 2014, sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Committee. The three-day event is designed to foster a sense of community in the town of Lincoln, and all events are sponsored by Lincoln-based organizations. Please check event description for age limits, admission fees, pre-registration information, etc.

[Read more…] about Lincoln Winter Carnival schedule announced

Democratic candidates for governor speak out in Lincoln

Democratic gubernatorial candidates at the Bemis Hall forum were (left to right) Juliette Kayyem, Steve Grossman, Martha Coakley, Don Berwick and Joe Avellone.

Democratic gubernatorial candidates at the Bemis Hall forum were (left to right) Juliette Kayyem, Steve Grossman, Martha Coakley, Don Berwick and Joe Avellone (click to enlarge).

By Gary Davis and Barbara Slayter
Lincoln Democratic Town Committee

Despite swirling snow and slippery roads, more than 150 people gathered on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 18 at Bemis Hall for a gubernatorial forum featuring all current Democratic candidates.

[Read more…] about Democratic candidates for governor speak out in Lincoln

Library updates for today and tomorrow

libraryDue to the impending snowstorm, tonight’s screening of Tread Softly Stranger at the Lincoln Public Library has been rescheduled for Sunday, Jan. 26 at 3 p.m.

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The Lincoln Public Library will be open until 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 22 for high school students studying for midterms.

Drumlin Farm’s Ms. G goes for statewide groundhog status

Ms. G

Ms. G

By Alice Waugh

Ms. G, Drumlin Farm’s resident groundhog, will soon be called on to predict the weather for the rest of the winter—something she hopes to do in future years as the official state groundhog.

Ms. G will make her prognostication on Groundhog Day at Drumlin Farm on Sunday, Feb. 2, when local meteorologists from WBZ-TV, NECN, and the Blue Hill Observatory will be on hand from 10 a.m. to noon to talk with families about the weather wonders of the seasons as part of Drumlin’s weather science fair.

At last year’s event, just days before the Blizzard of ’13, Ms. G saw her shadow, indicating six more weeks of winter.

Sometime this spring, the state House and Senate should vote on House Bill H2864, a measure proposed by Rep. Alice Peisch that would designate Ms. G as the official state groundhog to encourage students to study weather. The move should also put Lincoln on the map as the go-to Groundhog Day site for predicting the course of the remaining winter season. Also, Ms. G is easier to spell than “Punxsutawny Phil.”

Legislators got an in-person pitch from lobbyists (most of whom were not of legal voting age) during a public hearing on January 8 in Wellesley, where students from the Hunnewell School and staff from Mass Audubon, which oversees Drumlin Farm, testified in support of the bill. They’ve had help over the past year or two from Wellesley resident Mish Michaels, a former TV meteorologist. State residents of all ages can express their support online at MAStateGroundhog.com/vote.

On Groundhog Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Ms. G spectators can also visit with other resident wildlife and farm animals, explore the trails, attend special nature and farm programs, warm up by the fire with a story and cocoa, and make some winter crafts to take home. The Drumlin Farm event is free with paid admission of $8 for adults and teens or $6 for children 2-12 (free for seniors and Mass Audubon members).

Welcome to the new and improved Lincoln Squirrel!

news+squirrelTo celebrate the new year, the Lincoln Squirrel has redecorated a bit to make it easier to read. Also, the Squirrel now has the ability to accept display advertising—both banner ads just above the horizontal list of links at the top, and ads of any height in the right-hand column below the calendar summary, which will be shortened to accommodate ads as needed. Stay tuned to this space for information on ad rates, which will be coming soon. Thanks for reading!

— Alice Waugh
Editor, The Lincoln Squirrel