Elementary School Comm Conversation Held at Dale Street School

The following submitted from the School Building Committee.

Elementary School Community Conversation Held at Dale Street School

Last week the School Building Committee (SBC) held another Community Conversation regarding the proposed new elementary school, and more than 50 Medfield residents participated either by attending in-person in the Dale Street cafeteria or by tuning in remotely via Zoom, Facebook Live or Medfield TV’s YouTube channel.

Since 2019 the SBC has held over forty meetings - open to the public - including Community Visioning Sessions, SBC Meetings, and Public Forums. Additionally, throughout the summer and now into the fall the SBC has been holding Community Conversations with town residents to share why Medfield needs a new school, why they believe the Wheelock campus is the best location, what the proposed school would look like, and the educational benefits of the new school. Last month the SBC shared that the Dale Street School, built in 1941, is now over 80-years-old. It no longer meets the educational needs for Medfield’s students. For example, a large number of the classrooms and other educational spaces are undersized or not available. The building lacks accessibility required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Many learning activities are held in hallways or in other “found” spaces, and most building systems and components are obsolete and need to be replaced.

Last Wednesday’s Conversation began with Medfield School Superintendent Jeff Marsden and Dale Street Principal Steve Grenham providing an overview of the educational benefits of having the proposed new school co-located with the Wheelock School, which would include the sharing of staff, resources and programming, teacher collaboration, and enhanced student well-being -- as co-located schools would ease one of the transitions Medfield’s students repeatedly experience when moving between the town’s multiple schools. Grenham, reviewed the benefits of the school being located on land that is graced with an abundance of outdoor space and natural resources.
The next speaker was Emily Grandstaff-Rice -- an architect and senior associate of Arrowstreet, the architectural firm that is collaborating with the SBC. Grandstaff-Rice shared exciting architectural renderings of the school, including schematics of classrooms that are sized and equipped for a modern learning environment designed to engage students in smaller groups, through project-based learning, as well as provide independent learning spaces for the town’s 4th and 5th graders.

The final speaker was SBC member Mike Quinlan who spoke about the proposed school’s plan for attaining a net zero energy status. He described the plan for a fully electric school including the desire to install geothermal heating and cooling, photovoltaic panels on the school’s rooftop, and charging stations and solar canopies in the school’s parking lot.

“I’d like to thank everyone who came out in-person or virtually to learn about the proposed elementary school,” said Superintendent Jeff Marsden. “A public forum will be scheduled for this fall, and it will be dedicated to discussing the project in its entirety. Please note, one of the topics of September's Community Conversation will be the costs and tax impact of the proposed school. The dates for the special town meeting and the next Conversation will be released soon. We hope that everyone attends these presentations. The SBC and I believe that this school, at this location and at this time, together create the best path to the next generation’s modern educational environment for the children that we are entrusted to educate.”

This fall at the special town meeting and at the ballot, Medfield residents will be asked to vote on whether or not they support the proposed school on the land adjacent to the Wheelock School.
Questions for the SBC may be submitted to: NewElementarySchoolProject@gmail.com, and for more information on the Medfield Elementary School Project, please visit:tinyurl.com/mednewschool.

Those interested in receiving future school project updates may enter their email addresses at the bottom of the home page. Updates and facts on the proposed school can be found on Facebook - “Elementary School Project - Wheelock Campus.”