LPS -- Superintendent's bi-weekly message - October 30, 2026
Dear Lincoln Public Schools Families,
As I look out my office window at a glorious 70-degree fall day, it seems I was a little ahead of my skis with my recent message about snow day procedures (bad pun unfortunately intended). Here’s hoping that the beautiful weather lasts as long as possible!
For this week’s message I would like to focus on the School Improvement Plans that principals recently presented to the School Committee, and provide information about the upcoming Sherman Bridge closure in Wayland (which could end up impacting traffic to and from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and commuting patterns).
School Improvement Plans
Each year our principals lead a process in their schools to develop School Improvement Plans (or SIPs), which identify some of the larger goals that each school is working on. While the schools often have common themes, they also include some elements that are particular to each school’s needs.
The principals shared their School Improvement Plans at last week’s School Committee meeting. The links to each plan are below, but common themes included ensuring highly effective Tier I instruction for all students (Tier 1 instruction refers to the content-area instruction that occurs each day in classrooms with all students); institutionalizing opportunities for faculty members to learn from and with each other (because colleagues are almost always the best source of improvement); and using feedback from student, staff, and family surveys to identify ways to improve engagement and belonging.
In addition to those common areas of focus, individual plans focused on topics such as supporting English Learners (a preschool focus), increasing opportunities for special educators to “push into” general education classrooms rather than pulling students out for separate instruction (a Hanscom focus), continuing to improve communication between teachers and caregivers (a Lincoln K-4 focus), and implementing new data review protocols in ELA (a Lincoln 5-8 focus).
School Committee members were impressed with all of the wonderful work happening across the district, and the principals did a great job of explaining and advocating for that work. I would strongly encourage you to take a few minutes to read through the School Improvement Plans – here are the direct links:
Sherman Bridge closure
The Sherman Bridge in Wayland will be closing starting on November 9th, and is anticipated to remain closed through the end of January. The bridge’s closure will definitely impact traffic to and from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. In addition, because a lot of other traffic will need to be rerouted, it will likely also impact morning and evening commutes in the wider area. The linked website includes a map of how traffic will be rerouted, and will provide updated information as the project moves forward.
That's it for this week’s message – have a wonderful weekend!
Parry Graham
Superintendent