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Tag: Sustainability

Town Meeting, and some big “Thank you’s”!

ANNUAL TOWN MEETING! Saturday, March 25, 2023 in the Lincoln School. Check-in begins at 8:30am, Meeting begins promptly at 9:30am! Learn more here!

Thank you, FoMA and the Project Team! At the Lincoln School ribbon cutting ceremony in October, the Friends of Modern Architecture (FoMA) announced that it was awarding the project team (Architects SMMA & EwingCole, Consigli Construction, and Owner’s Project Manager, CHA) with its annual “Excellence in Modern Architecture” award. This past Thursday, FoMA president, Andrew Glass, and SMMA Project Architect, Jennifer Soucy, gave a presentation about the architectural history of the school and how the renovation built on the school’s Modern history while creating transformational educational spaces in a sustainable, net-zero building. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion featuring Chris Fasciano, SBC Chair; Kim Bodnar, SBC Vice-Chair; Buck Creel, Administrator for Business & Finance/Project Manager; and Jennifer Glass, SBC Member. The FoMA & SMMA slide decks are here, and the recording of the event will be posted soon!

Thank you, Sharon & Jennifer! At this week’s SBC meeting we gave heartfelt thanks to two departing committee members, Jennifer Glass and Sharon Hobbs. 

Sharon will be retiring as the Lincoln School Middle School Principal at the end of June and last week’s SBC meeting was her last. Sharon consistently provided the important voice of the students, faculty, and staff throughout the building project. She braved late night meetings, often with her young daughter in tow, as critical educational based building decisions were being discussed and debated. Over the past 15 years, she spoke about the need for a project at many parent meetings, and during construction she worked quietly behind the scenes to ensure smooth transitions to and from the temporary classrooms and into the new school facilities. We are so grateful to have had her expertise and calm leadership guiding us through the project, and we wish her the best in retirement!

Jennifer, a member of the Select Board, is stepping off the SBC to avoid violating Open Meeting Law when SBC Vice-Chair, Kim Bodnar, joins the Select Board later this month. Jennifer’s unwavering dedication to the School Building Project began nearly 15 years ago when she began her tenure on the School Committee, and continued through her work with the many committees that contributed to the successful completion of the school project. Jennifer’s commitment to engaging residents through an open and transparent process resulted in countless community discussions, charrettes, public meetings, presentations, and the dynamic SBC website. As a member of the Outreach sub-committee, Jennifer helped craft hundreds of engaging and informative blogs, informing residents about the building project at each step along the journey. Her SBC meeting minutes are legendary and capture every detail of discussion and decision. The words “Thank You” hardly seem adequate to express the level of appreciation we have for Jennifer’s leadership over the past 15 years but … thank you!

– Kim Bodnar & Gina Halsted, Outreach

The slides from last Wednesday’s SBC meeting can be found here. Next meeting is on Wednesday, April 12, 2023 at 7:00pm.

Thursday: Friends of Modern Architecture Honors Lincoln School Project Team!

(And the School Building Committee meets on Wednesday! Agenda is here.)

Lincoln’s 200th anniversary was in 1954, and this comes from a calendar published by the Lincoln Bicentennial Committee. The photographer was Henry Bugbee Kane.

The Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln (FoMA) invites you to a presentation, panel discussion, and reception celebrating the revitalization of Lincoln’s Modern school. Lincoln Modern architects Lawrence B. Anderson and Henry B. Hoover, who designed the original school buildings beginning in the 1940s, saw the power of Modernism to reimagine how architecture could assist the school community to think and learn in new and inclusive ways. With the generous support of the Town, the School Building Committee and the project architects have again reimagined the transformative power of architecture. The project team has realized an ambitious, first-in-the-state net-zero renovation that centers on teachers and students while preserving Anderson’s and Hoover’s original design intent of creating close connections to nature and using natural light to create calm energy throughout the building.  

Please join FoMA in the Learning Commons at the revitalized Lincoln School for a lively evening of architecture, education, and sustainability on March 16, 2023, from 6:30-8:00pm. Or join remotely via Zoom webinar at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82628178201 

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1994 – 1995 Time Capsules are on display in the Lincoln Public Library until Sunday, March 25th! Please stop by and see the 6th and 7th grade time capsules.

Battery is included!

Last week, a Tesla battery, which will be tied into the School’s system of solar panels, was installed on the north side of the building. The battery is a Tesla Megapack 2, rated at 500 kVA. The 2-hour 562 kW battery array stores 1124 kWh of electricity, which is produced by the solar panels and stored when not needed for current building operations. The stored power is released back to the building during periods of peak building usage or solar panel unavailability.

Now at the Lincoln Library! Items from the 1994-1995 school project time capsules are now on display at the Lincoln Public Library. Stop in to check them out!

The presentation from the January 11th SBC meeting is here.

Thank you, Joel Seeley!

https://www.smma.com/people/joel-seeley

Congratulations! At our December SBC meeting, Joel Seeley, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at SMMA Architects, announced that he is retiring at the end of the year. Joel, who has served as our Project Manager, has been such an important part of the Lincoln School project. Through all the ups and downs of the process, he has been a calm presence, a steady voice, and a source of wise advice. We are so very grateful to have had his expertise and experience guiding us over the past 5 1/2 years. Congratulations, Joel, on a career that has had an enormously positive impact on thousands of students and faculty! We wish you all the best whatever the next chapter brings.

(P.S. Want to see the info about our project on the SMMA website? Visit https://www.smma.com/work/modernism-twist, and here is a link to the end-of-project tour booklet.)

Project Update: The concrete pads for the transformers and the back-up battery have been installed. The equipment is scheduled for installation on December 27th, and it will require big machinery. Want to watch? The area near the Codman Pool provides a safe view. Click here for a link to the slides presented at last Wednesday’s SBC meeting.

1994-95 Time Capsules @ the Public Library: Starting in January, the Time Capsules that were on display during the Ribbon Cutting will be on view at the Library. The exhibit will span about 2 months, and will change every two weeks. Starting with Kindergarten and Grade 1, two grades will be on view at a time for a period of two weeks.

Ceiling combines wood and linear LED lighting.

Putting it all Together

You know that when there is a clock on the wall that final pieces of the project are starting to fall into place! Teachers will be able to move into their classrooms the week of August 22nd, and school starts on September 6th.

Installing desks and furniture in the Main Office.

SAVE THE DATE! THE COMMUNITY IS INVITED TO THE OFFICIAL RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28 @ 1:30pm!

Building tours on Friday after the ceremony and on Saturday afternoon, October 29. Stay tuned for more details!

More photos in the August gallery, and here is the slide deck from Wednesday’s meeting.

Getting ready to catch some rays!

Installation of the photovoltaic (PV) panels has begun! These panels are on the roof of the Auditorium connector.

The School Building Committee meets this week on Wednesday, August 10th at 7:00pm via Zoom. The agenda and link can be found here.

Check out the new August photo gallery and some final additions to the July gallery!

And away they go!*

Modular units ready to leave the Lincoln School campus. Photo by Peter von Mertens.

Remember how excited we were to see the temporary school being built? We are now just as thrilled to see it being deconstructed! One by one, the modular units are being prepared for transport to their new home at the Nauset Regional High School. It will take a couple of weeks to remove the temporary school, the concrete footings, and the parking lot. After that, reconstruction of the field can begin.

Nauset High School construction site. Photo by Clay Reaser.

Also, at this week’s meeting, we learned:

  • Installation of playground equipment will begin soon!
  • The racks that support the PV panels on the roof are being installed. Work began on top of the Middle School (Reed) Gym and will progress along the building.
  • Concrete and paving work continues on the Commons courtyard, main entrance, and walkways.
  • Interior finishes are well underway, and final clean-up is starting at the preK/Kindergarten end of the building.

The link to the meeting presentation is here, and more photos have been added to the July gallery.

*Our thanks to Peter von Mertens for the title of the blog post!

Town Meeting on Saturday!

2022 Candidate Forum: Watch it here: https://lincolntv.viebit.com/player.php?hash=2Qa8G3yMWgWK

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Here comes the sun (eventually)

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.

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