Check it out! The School Building Committee website (www.lincolnsbc.org) now features Google Translate so that the site is available in multiple languages. Look for the “widget” on the top left side of the home page above the main menu. We hope this makes the site more inclusive of and accessible to our community and to people in other places who sometimes drop by to learn about our process and project.
Want to get the latest update on the project? Join us for the SBC meeting on Wednesday, April 13 @7:00pm. The agenda and Zoom link can be found here.
…To the roughly 275 voters who attended Town Meeting yesterday! It was great to see everyone in the room and to hear the buzz of excitement from people who toured through the building. Many thanks to the students and faculty who shared their enthusiasm and answered questions, to the Girl Scouts for selling treats, and to all the town and school staff members who prepared the building, ran the technology, and kept us informed and organized.
Members of Harriet Todd’s family were on hand as we celebrated the dedication of the Lecture Hall in her name (video should be posted here in the next few days). Also, all three school project related warrant articles passed, for which the School Building Committee is very grateful.
A few more photos have been added to the March photo gallery. The next School Building Committee (virtual) meeting is on Wednesday, April 13 at 7:00pm.
Town Meeting will start with the dedication of the Harriet Todd Lecture Hall. We respectfully ask residents to be signed in and seated a few minutes before 9:30 so that we can begin promptly and celebrate together.
A few Town Meeting reminders:
Voters can check in starting at 8:00am.
Residents are invited to walk through the renovated Middle School between 8:00am – 9:00am. Get checked in and then enjoy roaming the building! Students and faculty will be on hand to direct you and answer questions.
The Girl Scouts will be selling light refreshments.
PLEASE – NO FOOD OR DRINK OTHER THAN WATER IN THE AUDITORIUM! Help us protect the beautiful new seating and carpeting.
New photos have been added to the March gallery – check it out!
Town Meeting is on Saturday, March 26 at 9:30am in the Auditorium!
Middle School Open House 8:00am – 9:00am: Come see the renovated Middle School! (no guided tours, the public can wander through the building and faculty and student docents will be on hand).
Town Elections are on Monday, March 28 from 7:30am – 8:00pm in the Middle School (Reed) Gym!
What is Town Meeting? It’s the day when residents come together to vote on Town and School budgets, capital investments, town bylaws, and citizens’ petitions.
Who can vote at Town Meeting? Everyone who is registered to vote in the Town of Lincoln is a voter at Town Meeting! If you are a resident but not a registered voter, you are still welcome to attend. If there is a closely contested vote, you will be asked to move to a designated area while counting occurs. The meeting will be livestreamed, and state law requires in-person voting.
Will there be votes affecting the school building project? Yes! There are three votes that impact the project:
Article #11: Modular removal and field restoration: The School Committee has approved an agreement to sell the modular classrooms to the Nauset Regional School District for $550,000. From those proceeds the School Committee is asking for $350,000 to remove the modular school and restore the field. The work will include dismantling the temporary school, removing the concrete footers and temporary parking lot, and, finally, restoring the field. Nauset needs to have the classrooms in place for the start of school in Fall 2022. While the sale is happening now, the funds from the proceeds of the $550,000 sale, will not be available for use until FY2025. This means asking residents to approve Article 11 now in order to keep our project on schedule. Once the proceeds from the sale of the modulars are certified, they will be used to reimburse the town.
Article #10 is the list of projects recommended by the Capital Planning Committee. The list includes a proposal to reallocate the remaining $200,000 from the sale of the modulars to replace the building lighting control system in the Middle School. The Audacy system was chosen through the bidding process in 2020 and installed as part of Phase 1. It is a cloud-based system that includes smart outlets, manual controls, and occupancy sensors throughout the building. In 2021, Audacy’s new parent company announced that it would discontinue the system and eliminate product support in 2026 at the latest. In addition, the Audacy components installed in the Middle School have already proven to be problematic. Our project team has been a strong advocate for us, and the supplier of the Audacy system is providing us, free of charge, a replacement Lutron system that is similar to what is being used in the Hanscom schools. The Lutron system is now being installed in the Primary School. The $200,000 we are requesting, along with $135,000 from the project budget, will be used to remove the Audacy system and install the Lutron system in the Middle School over the summer. Addressing this issue now will save the Town money when compared to doing it in the future after the construction project is complete.
Article #24 is sponsored by the Select Board. Before construction began, as the SBC went through the value engineering process, the town agreed to utilize money in the Cable Fund to support new cable television infrastructure in the school. The Cable Fund comes from annual fees paid to the town by Comcast and Verizon. As a result, it takes votes over the course of several years to allocate funds to the project.
Here are the slides from last Wednesday when the SBC provided a Town Meeting update. Click here to see the March gallery.
the opportunity to see the Middle School in person is even better! The school will be open to the community from 8:00am – 9:00am on Saturday, March 26th (Yes! That is the morning of Town Meeting!) Students and faculty will be on hand throughout the building to show you around and answer questions. Town Meeting begins at 9:30 so you’ll have plenty of time to check in, wander around, and get back to your seats in the Auditorium or the Reed Gym.
In case you haven’t heard…TOWN MEETING IS IN THE AUDITORIUM ON SATURDAY, MARCH 26 (9:30am start)! We are so excited to see everyone in person in the renovated Donaldson Auditorium and Harriet Todd Lecture Hall!
We will vote on three school project-related warrant articles this year:
Lighting Control System Replacement: The school is equipped with a system of smart outlets, occupancy sensors, and manual controls. A system manufactured by Audacy was part of the project bid in 2020, and the system was installed in the Middle School phase of the project. In 2021, Audacy’s new parent company announced that Audacy would be discontinued and product support would end in 2026. Additionally, the performance of the installed system was proving to be problematic. Our lighting supplier has agreed to provide, free of charge, a new system manufactured by Lutron to replace the existing system in the Middle School, however we need to pay for installation. A request for $200,000 is included in Warrant Article #10. The funds will be reimbursed to the town when the modular classrooms are sold.
Removal of Modular Units and Restoration of Center Field: The modular classrooms are being sold to another school district for $550,000, and they will be removed starting in July 2022. After the units are gone, the concrete footers and the temporary parking lot can be dismantled and field restoration will begin. Warrant Article #11 requests $350,000 for this work. The funds will be reimbursed to the town when the modular classrooms are sold.
Cable Fund Transfer:Article #24 asks residents to approve the transfer of $75,000 from the town’s Cable Fund to support cable television infrastructure in the school. This is the third and final transfer request for this purpose.
To learn more about the warrant articles and ask questions, tune in to Wednesday’s SBC meeting at 7:00. The agenda and Zoom link are here. (We know that the SBC meeting conflicts with the Candidate Forum being held in person in the Auditorium – both the Forum and the SBC meeting will be recorded and posted on the town website.) If you would like to submit a question to the SBC, please email sbc@lincnet.org.
SAVE THE DATE: ANNUAL TOWN MEETING SATURDAY, MARCH 26TH – in the renovated Auditorium!!!
As the Lincoln School renovation progresses, the project team is planning for the complicated logistics required to bring it to a close. Four major pieces of the puzzle are: 1) installation of the photovoltaic (PV) system; 2) removal of the temporary classrooms; 3) field restoration; and 4) repaving the road and parking lots. Here is what we know:
Our 1 megawatt PV system will include rooftop panels and canopies over both parking lots. There will also be a 500 kilowatt battery storage system.
The PV system is being installed by SunPower. The terms of the contract have been finalized and the rate for solar electricity is locked in for the next 25 years. Many thanks to our negotiation team, (Buck Creel, Jim Hutchinson, and our consultant from Beacon Integrated Systems) and our PPA Subcommittee (Alex Chatfield, Tim Christenfeld, Buck Creel, Jim Hutchinson, Ed Kern, and Peter Watkinson)!
The photo above shows prep work that was completed in the Middle School parking lot. Work to prepare the Primary School parking lot will begin in May.
Installation of the PV panels will begin this summer. Supply chain issues have delated the receipt of long lead-time equipment, but the goal is to have the system fully operational by March 2023.
The School Committee is finalizing an agreement to sell the temporary classrooms for $550,000; the purchasing district needs them in place by the start of school in Fall 2022.
Removal of the temporary school will begin in July; the temporary parking lot and concrete footers will need to be removed before playing field restoration can begin. Click here to see photos of the installation process we went through starting Summer 2019 through Spring 2020.
It will take at least 2 growing seasons until the playing fields are ready for use; target is Fall 2023.
PV installation, removal of the temp classrooms, and restoration of the field are being closely coordinated with the final repaving of the upper portion of the Ballfield Road loop and parking lots. Reminder: the lower portion of the loop will not be repaved as part of the project; will need to be a future town project.
Click here to see the slide deck from the meeting.
In December, Joe Dearden, the Lincoln School’s Network Manager, took some great drone footage of the renovation process. Click the image to check it out!
Since then, our construction team has continued to make substantive progress while navigating the challenges of winter weather, supply chain disruptions, and COVID. Check out the latest photos in our January photo gallery. Just for fun, you can compare them to where we were in January 2021!
The slides from last Wednesday’s meeting are here.
