School Committee accepts $1,500 gift, hears Birches School expansion update

LINCOLN -- October 26, 2023, Lincoln School Committee accepts $1,500 gift and hears Birches School expansion plans. At its Dec. 1 meeting, the committee unanimously accepted a $1,500 donation from the Air Force Association's Paul Revere Chapter for the Hanscom eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C., and Gettysburg, on a motion by Chair Jennifer Glass. The bulk of the meeting was a return visit from Birches School, last before the committee in 2014. Head of School Elizabeth Ten Grotenhuis said the independent nature-based school has grown from K-3 to K-6, plans to expand through eighth grade, and is a candidate for three-year accreditation by the Association of Independent Schools in New England. Ten Grotenhuis cited a formal MOU with the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust and daily art classes at the deCordova, calling Lincoln "a treasure of a town." No vote was taken; Glass said the committee would rely on periodic check-ins.