government

   

State officials this week gave a thumbs-down to the “L-shaped proposal” for the Lincoln school project, saying it’s different than the one they approved earlier—and therefore it doesn’t qualify for a promised $21 million in state aid for the work.

In a February 27 conference call, Massachusetts School Building Authority officials told Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall and School Committee chairman Jennifer Glass that the L-shaped proposal is a different project because the “sizes, locations and adjacencies” of the rooms are different, meaning the project has a different scope of work from the previously approved project, and also because there is a change in the ratio between new construction and renovation, McFall and Glass wrote in a school district email on Thursday.

The L-shaped proposal.

By Alice Waugh

School officials have formally asked the state to approve a new “L-shaped” design for the Lincoln School so the town can still receive $21 million in state aid that was promised as part of an earlier plan approved by the state but which didn’t garner enough resident support at Town Meeting.

The L-shaped proposal advocated by residents including Douglas Adams and Ken Bassett calls for retaining the 1994 portion of the Smith building and demolishing and rebuilding the older portion closer to Brooks, thereby reducing the size of the block of new construction just south of the current Brooks building. Proponents feel this option would retain more of the “campus green” feel by maintaining more physical separation between the younger and older groups of students and making fewer changes to the landscaping.

(Below is an unedited version of an email sent out to Lincoln School parents by the Lincoln PTO.)