DeSorgher: Our Schools, our Children; Medfield Superintendents of Schools Since WWII

Editor's note: This week’s covers Medfield's Superintendent of Schools from 1949 to present day.

In 1949, George C. Roy replaced Superintendent E. Perley Eaton as Superintendent.

Superintendent Roy was faced with the issue of overcrowding conditions in the schools. Medfield now had two schools, the Hannah Adams Pfaff Elementary School (now the Pfaff Center), which held all elementary grades and the Hannah Adams Pfaff High School (now the ), which held grades 7-12. Due to increased enrollment in grades three and four, the sixth grade was moved over to the high school. The new athletic field, next to the high school along Adams Street, was dedicated in memory of those who gave their life from Medfield in time of war. The field was used as both a football field and, with a diamond and infield built, for baseball. By 1951, three elementary grades were now located in the high school; the mechanical drawing room was used for grade five, the cloak room for grade four and a classroom on the second floor for grade six. 

In 1952, Medfield Town Meeting voted to consolidate the positions of Superintendent of Schools and principal of the high school. William H. McLin became both the new superintendent of schools and the new principal of the high school. 

The school population continued to be the main problem confronting the superintendent, especially the large numbers of first grade students entering the school system. This reflected the post WWII building boom that resulted in Medfield’s first housing development in the area of Summer Street and Lowell Mason Road. In 1951, a new elementary school on Adams Street was completed. It was named the Memorial School in honor of those veterans of WWII. It was a one-story masonry and steel building with six classrooms, one kindergarten and one cafeteria/all purpose room. Superintendent Roy also pushed through substantial teacher salary increases to help stop the frequent changes in teaching personnel taking place in Medfield.

The new school, however, was filled to capacity almost as soon as it opened. By 1953, it became necessary for the superintendent to eliminate kindergarten for additional first grade classroom space. Superintendent McLin reported the need for an additional second and third grade teacher. He called for the construction of more school space or have the system go to double sessions.

In 1954, Superintendent McLin expressing great concern about overcrowding reporting that in the United States at the present time “there is showing a net gain of one new citizen every 12 seconds, day and night, summer and winter, fair weather and foul. There is one live birth every eight seconds, one immigrant every 12 minutes. Factoring in the death rate, there is a net gain of five new citizens every minute around the clock, around the calendar, around the country. But we don’t have to travel around the country to see these effects. In our town we are feeling the effects of this swelling population. Based on the average number of children of the 25 families most recently moved in to Medfield, the average number of school age children is 2.15. One new pupil is entering the Medfield schools per week. If new school construction is not completed by September 1956, we will be forced to go to double sessions.”

Elementary principal Dorothy Brown added that “the elementary enrollment continues to surge.” Since the opening of school in September she reported 17 new pupils to the Memorial School and six new pupils to the North Street Hannah Adams Pfaff School; a total of 23 new pupils in 16 weeks.

In 1955, Superintendent McLin reported that the tidal wave of students was sweeping through our elementary schools approaching the secondary schools. “The sheer impact of unprecedented numbers will force us to explore every resource and exert every effort to prepare for their coming.” In 1955, due to the increase in enrollment and the pressure of increased duties for the superintendent, Medfield voted to no longer combine the positions of superintendent and high school principal. William McLin remained superintendent and Charles Mains, who had been teaching in Medfield since 1949, became the principal of Medfield High School.

To address the overpopulation issue, Town Meeting voted to build an addition to the Memorial School. The new 13-classroom addition to the Memorial School opened for the start of school in September 1956.

In 1957, Superintendent McLin resigned and was replaced by Thomas A. Blake.

Mr. Blake moved to Medfield with his family and became one of the most recognized and respected individuals in town. He served as superintendent of schools from 1957 until 1972. During that period, Medfield saw the greatest increase in student population in its history. During Mr. Blake’s watch, he oversaw the building of the high school on 24 Pound St. and then the middle school at 88R South St., the building of the addition to the Dale Street School and the building of the Ralph Wheelock Elementary School off Elm Street. When Superintendent Blake took control of the Medfield Public Schools in 1957, the school budget was $214,671, there were a total of 798 students in the school system and there were 40 people on the school staff, including administrators.

When he retired in 1972 the school budget presented at Town Meeting was $2.7 million. There were 2,725 children enrolled in the schools and the school department had 259 regular employers. It was a time period of exciting change and progress for the Medfield Public Schools. Superintendent Blake received great respect from students, parents, teachers and townspeople with his straight forward talk, honesty and old-school philosophy. His looking you in the eye and his strong handshake was often all that was needed to completed business.

Under Mr. Blake, the Medfield school system became college oriented with the Medfield students beginning to attend top level colleges in larger and larger numbers. The beginnings of today’s outstanding reputation enjoyed by Medfield High School had it seeds planted during Mr. Blake’s tenure.

The year 1972 was marked by the retirement of Thomas A. Blake as superintendent and the replacement of new superintendent, Dr. Bruce Pulsifer.

In 1973, state law mandated the addition of kindergarten once again. With the new law, 181 new students were added to the elementary school enrollment. The massive increases in student populations felt since the early 1950’s actually began to level off in the 1970’s; caused by a declining birth rate and a drop in new home construction. This trend of decreasing enrollment at the elementary level continued throughout Dr. Pulsifer’s term here in Medfield. In 1975, Medfield voted to join the Tri-County Regional Vocational-Technical High School system.

 In 1976, Superintendent Pulsifer resigned to go into private business in Maine. He was replaced by Robert Cresto. By 1979, student school population had declined by 102 students. A school reorganization committee was formed in 1979 to study the possible consolidation of elementary school buildings. The state-wide passage of proposition 2 ½ put considerable strain on the school budget and on the superintendent to come up with a budget that did not bring about an educational set-back for the students.

In 1981, under Superintendent Cresto, the Memorial School now housed all grades 1-3, the Wheelock School housed all grades 4-6, the kindergarten was located in the new addition to the Dale Street School and the original part of the school was closed. For the first time in many years, all town students were now together in one grade; replacing the previous north/south divide that had elementary students split between Memorial/Dale for students living in the north end of town and the Wheelock School which had all elementary students living on the south end of town.

Superintendent Cresto resigned in 1984 and Thomas M. Reis was appointed as the new superintendent.

With school enrollments continuing to decline, Superintendent Reis worked with a reorganization steering committee studying the most cost effective ways to utilize the Medfield school buildings. 

Under Superintendent Reis, and proposed by Jr. High Principal, G. Douglas Ide, Medfield adopted the Middle School concept, with grades 6-8 being housed in the now Middle School. The High School contained grades 10-12 with grade 9 housed in a section of the middle school, known as the High School Annex. By 1985, grades K-3 were housed in the Wheelock School, the Dale Street School was re-opened and grades 4-5 were moved into that building.

The Memorial School was closed and a committee was formed to consider different options for its disposition. It was recommended to lease the Memorial School to the South Norfolk County Association for retarded Citizens (SNCARC).  More and more the use of the over-ride of Proposition 2 ½ became common practice by the town citizens concerned for quality education. By 1988, the student population was again increasing, causing a new reorganization committee to be formed. The committee recommended the removal of the kindergarten from the Wheelock School, re-opening the Memorial School and housing the kindergarten there.  

In 1991, Town Meeting voted the formation of a regionalization Study Committee to investigate the feasibility of Medfield merging with another town to form a regional school district. The committee contacted representatives from Westwood, Dover and Millis. The only positive interest came from Millis, however after considering the issue carefully; the committee felt that regionalization was not a viable option.

Also in 1991, the name of the Medfield Middle School was officially changed to the Thomas A. Blake Middle School, in honor of the former superintendent who served Medfield from 1957-1972. In 1992, Town Meeting passed funding for a $6.9 million dollar addition/renovation project for the high school on 24 Pound St. In 1994, the elementary schools re-organized again, this time Pre-K, Kindergarten and grade 1 were at the Memorial School, grades 2 and 3 at the Wheelock School and grades 4 and 5 at the Dale Street School. Under Superintendent Reis, the use of technology in the schools began to increase.

In 1995, the School Committee voted to hire Dr. Christopher Martes, to fill the retirement of Superintendent Thomas Reis. 

School overrides of Proposition 2 ½ continued to pass in Medfield, preventing drastic cuts to the school budget. In 1995, the addition and renovations to the high school were completed. Under Superintendent Martes significant progress was made in wiring the classrooms and schools to take advantage of the power of technology.

In 1998, Medfield High School finished first in the state in the  Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests and the public schools as a whole finished second in the state. By 1999, enrollments continued to increase, with 120 students graduating from the high school and 211 kindergarten students entering the system.

Another committee was formed to address the needs for the expansion of the school facilities. Their recommendation was to expand and renovate the Blake Middle School, making it the new high school; convert the current high school into a middle school; and to renovate and expand the Memorial School.  In 1999 Superintendent Martes announced he would be leaving to accept the position as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents.

The superintendent search committee failed to find a suitable candidate.

High School principal Robert Maguire was selected to serve as interim superintendent. After two months on the job, the School Committee, impressed with the job he was doing, appointed him as superintendent.

Superintendent Maguire's immediate concern was the large increase in student population that put a strain on the space availability in the schools. In 2001, Town Meeting passed the $49.6 million dollar building project as recommended, switching the middle and high schools with renovations and additions and expanding and renovation the Memorial School. In 2002, an additional $6 million dollars was added to the project. The three-school project took much time and planning by Superintendent Maguire.

Superintendent Maguire also successfully worked to build positive relationships between the town-side of the budget, which in the past had been at odds with the school-side of the budget. By working with the selectmen, town administrator and others, the wall of suspicion that had existed between town and school was whittled away. The eight-classroom addition to the high school was completed in 2003 and the grade 6 students were relocated there from the middle school. The following year construction at the Memorial School was completed and by 2006, all major construction at the high school and middle school was completed.

In 2006, the Field of Dreams Committee donated $630,000 to the Medfield Public Schools for the new turf field outside the high school. With the growing influence of China as a world power, Superintendent Maguire took particular interest in adding Mandarin as a foreign language in the middle school and high school, with future plans to expand the language into the elementary grades. During 2009, the Medfield Public Schools entered into a partnership with the Bengbu Middle School #6 located in the Anhui Province of china. Bengbu Principal Chen visited Medfield in February and Superintendent Maguire visited Bengbu in the spring and had the opportunity to experience the Chinese educational system.

Teacher exchange programs followed at the start of the 2009 school year and in 2010 student exchanges took place with the Chinese students staying with Medfield families and the following year the Medfield students traveling to Bengbu. Skype contacts also began to take place between the Medfield and Bengbu students. Throughout the first decade of the 21^st Century, the Medfield schools continued to excel, with MCAS scores among the top in the state each year.

List of Medfield Superintendent of Schools