By J.W. Oliver
School officials and students join Sen. Angus King as he prepares to cut the ribbon for Lincoln Academy’s new residence hall (background) and technology center Friday, April 17. (J.W. Oliver photo) |
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Lincoln Academy senior Thanh Tran talks about his experience as a boarding student at L.A. as Sen. Angus King looks on during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new residence hall and technology center at Lincoln Academy Friday, April 17. Tran is from Vietnam. He plans to attend Bowdoin College in the fall after two years at L.A. (J.W. Oliver photo) |
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, cut the ribbon to mark the opening of Lincoln Academy’s new residence hall and technology center in Newcastle Friday, April 17.
The brief ribbon-cutting ceremony followed speeches by King and others before a standing-room-only crowd in the Cable-Burns Applied Technology and Engineering
Center, or ATEC.
“Education and technological literacy are just like the air we breathe,” King said. “We cannot make it in this world without them.”
“The old model of school being a part of industry where you train people for particular jobs and that’s what they do – my grandfather worked for the railroad for 52
years – that just isn’t the case anymore,” King said. “These young people are not only going to have to change jobs, they’re going to change careers, and we have to design an
educational system that allows them to have … the flexibility and the critical-thinking and problem-solving skills that are going to enable them to succeed no matter what.”
Lincoln Academy Board of Trustees Chairwoman Ann McFarland said the “spectacular” Cable-Burns center would do just that.
The center “provides Lincoln Academy with a state-of-the-art learning facility” where “all of our students and all of our soon-to-become students” can hone their
skills “under the tutelage and guidance of some of the best teachers and instructors in the state of Maine,” McFarland said.
The residence hall, meanwhile, “gives our boarding students from across the state and across the country and across the world a wonderful, safe, and beautiful place
to live and learn and develop and get to know themselves,” McFarland said.
Acting Maine Education Commissioner Tom Desjardin also spoke at the event.
“When I talk about education around the state, I explain to people, especially as we talk about preparing our young people for the job market today, that we’re not
preparing them for the job market today,” Desjardin said. “Our job market is so dramatically changing and evolving that we need to prepare them for tomorrow’s job market more
than we do today’s.”
School officials and supporters stand outside the new Cable-Burns Applied Technology and Engineering Center after a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, April 17. (J.W. Oliver photo) |
“The future really is not only rapidly changing, but is right there in front of us, and for these kids to be able to take advantage of facilities like this and to be competitive
in the job market and hopefully use some of those skills to bring the job market back home to Maine is a great advantage, and that’s why it’s really great to be able to be here
today to see all this happening,” Desjardin said.
The daughter of the late Robert and Margaret Baker, key early donors to the $2.7 million campaign for the technology center, talked about her late father’s passion
for the project.
Robert “Bob” Baker and his wife were philanthropists who contributed to many causes, “but this project was his baby” and his last big project, Catharine Baker said.
Bob Baker overcame dyslexia to obtain a degree in physics from Yale University and become a successful businessman, Catharine Baker said.
“I would say it was about seven years ago that he began to talk to me about the need for kids from our area right here to have access to the skills that made his
life so worthwhile,” she said.
Bob Baker died last November with construction of the center well underway. His daughter left the crowd with a motto from her parents: “In whatever work you do, in
your community and your world, leave no one behind.”
Lincoln Academy Trustee and ATEC Committee Co-chairman Dennis Prior talked about the history of L.A.’s industrial arts program and his experiences as a student in
the program in the late 1980s.
Lincoln Academy completed construction of the Nelson W. Bailey Gymnasium in 1966.
“In the lower level of the gymnasium, a bona fide industrial arts program was born,” Prior said. “It offered students instruction that was useful, practical, and
relevant for its time.”
It also offered the young Prior a foundation for his career.
“As a freshman, I happened to find myself in shop one day, not because I was looking for a place to hide or get away from an upperclassman, but because I mentioned
to someone that I enjoyed designing things,” Prior said.
Today, Prior is an architect and the proprietor of his own firm, Precedent Designworks. He returned to Lincoln Academy as a trustee in 2010.
“The first thing that struck me was the realization that shop had changed very little since I was a student,” Prior said. “In fact, the area dedicated to industrial
arts and technology education had been reduced by nearly a third” to accommodate other programs.
“It was clear that the space built in 1966 was no longer adequate to meet the needs of our students,” Prior said. “Fortunately, long before this realization, a
movement had already begun.”
“This cutting-edge, metal, space-age, Apple-esque facility represents all of the hard work and planning of Lincoln Academy and the generosity of its donors,” Prior
said. “It represents a commitment to the future of our school.”
The Cable-Burns center is already home to a dozen courses, including architecture, art, computer science, design, digital media, and vocational classes, according to
a press release from King’s office.
The center will eventually house classes in automotive technology, boat-building, engineering, robotics, and a wide variety of other disciplines. School officials
have called it the only facility of its kind in the area.
The residence hall currently houses 40 students and 17 non-students, faculty members and their families. The school expects those numbers to grow to 54 and 24,
roughly capacity, in the fall.
Together, the buildings represent the most significant additions to the L.A. campus since 1834.
