Over two months have passed since the first newsletter, so it is time
to bring alumni up-to-date about new happenings at the old (er, new)
Regional High School. There have been many new developments. Here are some items of interest:

The Class of 1995 gave the school a tree to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII, and as a way of thanking all those in Lincoln, Sudbury, and Boston who helped to win the victory. The small tree was grown from the seed of a Tulip Polar still living on the grounds of Hyde Park, the private home of our wartime leader, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When it arrived, the tree was so small (about 12 inches tall) that we were afraid it would get trampled. So Art teacher Anne Walker offered to plant it in her garden until it became stronger. Transplantation to the school was further delayed when it was announced that a new school would be built. With the help of funds given by the Class of 2004, the tree was finally moved and re-planted this fall. It now stands about 15 feet tall near the flag pole, and a plaque will be put up next spring.

L-S has received its second-straight Ames Award (formerly called the Dalton Award) and the 4th in its history, for the overall excellence of its athletic program. This is a very prestigious award. L-S teams just keep winning, and this year has been no exception.

The horrible Tsunami disaster did have one silver lining for L-S. It brought us together as a community in our new huge, sprawling school, where it has been a little more challenging to make contact with each other. Using a combination of Morning and PA Announcements, a student/teacher coordinating committee organized a two-week campaign involving many different student clubs. The original goal was to raise $5000. L-S ended up raising $24, 000 for Tsunami victims. The achievement really helped us all feel the close sense of community that we felt in the old school.

The 17th annual MLK award was presented to Paul Farmer, the medical doctor who wrote the powerful book about Haiti, Mountains Beyond Mountains. For the first time, there were two assemblies to celebrate the life and work of Dr, King, one for upper-, one for lower-classmen. Both assemblies, which included poetry, the Gospel Chorus and the Step Squad, were moving and powerful.

For most students and teachers, the building is finished. But for teachers of certain art classes (photography), problems continue, mainly around the issue of proper venting. Moreover a variety of problems still remain before the Building Committee--the so called "punchlist" of unfinished jobs, large and small, on which progress has been agonizingly slow. Frustration with contractors mount, as reserve funds dwindle. Of course, work on the athletic fields will continue when the weather improves.

After February vacation, the reproduced copies of the old history murals are going up in the new school. This will signal the beginning of the effort to decorate the building, and new mural and art proposals will be
encouraged. A history wall will also be created to help document L-S history in both buildings.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Regional school district.
It's been such a busy year, what with the move and then setting up the new building, that any commemoration will be put off until next year

On a sad note: In late February, Art teacher Paul Wolfe informed the L-S community that Kate Barton, the former head of the Home Economics Dept. and a beloved, original L-S faculty member, passed away.

History teacher, Bill Schechter, added this remembrance to the staff email conference:

"Just another word about Katy Barton. She was a very innovative leader of the Home Ec dept., and pioneered cooking classes that involved boys, this in the early 70's. As I recall there were all kinds of cooking courses, particularly foreign cuisine. All this was lost, when in the mid-80's, amidst another budget crisis, the entire Home Ec dept was cut (along with the Business Dept.), and L-S moved away from the vision of being a comprehensive high school.

During last years Great Gathering, several alumni commented to me that they were stunned to find the very same smells in different parts of the school building that they remembered from twenty years before. Almost more than anything else, this olfactory trail carried them, high speed, back to their own L-S days. Of course, one landmark was the area around Katy's old kitchens.

So many L-S students loved those old Home Ec courses, and learned more than a measure of self-reliance from them."

A new school budget crisis is at hand, and an override campaign of great consequence for L-S has begun. Enrollment has been increasing for the last several years (we are now close to 1500), but funding has not kept pace. As class sizes rise, some of the qualities that have made the school so special are being threatened. Taxpayers will make their important decision in a spring-time vote.

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PLEASE FORWARD A COPY OF THIS L-S NEWSLETTER TO YOUR
L-S FRIENDS! HELP US TO EXPAND OUR ALUMNI DATABASE AND COMMUNITY!!

-Please note that we are now listing contact information or links to class reunion pages. Send these to us!

-See the link to the Forum for more news.

-Finally, please check out Superintendent/Principal John Ritchie's greeting to alumni.

Send us your feedback! What would you like to see on the alumni web site?.
E-mail Bill Schechter with your suggestions: bill_schechter@lsrhs.net

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