Site Selection is Top Challenge for Dale Street School Project

Soon after the architectural design firm is chosen this week for the Dale Street building project in Medfield, the team anticipates needing to address major questions if the project is to move on the desired fast track to construction.

Based on a variety of Dale Building Project documents obtained from Massachusetts School Building Authority, as well as insights obtained from the Oct. 15 MSBA meeting, key questions that surfaced include: "Where will the expanded school be built?"; "Will current Medfield elementary school grades be reconfigured?"; and "Beyond the estimated $64-93.5 million construction budget, how will non-MSBA approved costs be covered?"

While the Dale Building Committee is pushing for project completion by August 2023, MSBA documents had indicated that it could take a year longer with a new school ready for the 2024-25 school year. Similar to the last Medfield MSBA-supported school building project, much of the speed by which the Dale project moves forward will depend on effectiveness of community engagement efforts, especially with regard to sharing pros and cons of site selection and various grade configurations. Throughout the school building process, MSBA has stated that transparency is important and expected of districts accepted into the program.

How big of a school does Medfield need? The MSBA-certified enrollment projections are 575 for a grade 4-5 school, and 860 for a grade 3-5 school, which represents an estimated 59% increase in students over a 20-year period based on actual numbers today. (At the September Medfield School Committee meeting, it was reported that elementary enrollment for the current 2019-20 school year was flat vs. previous year.)

As part of the enrollment certification process, the Dale Street Building Committee had expressed this preferred scenario for reconfiguring Medfield elementary schools:

- PK and K for Memorial (no total student projection provided)

- Grades 1 and 2 for Wheelock (500 MSBA student projection)

- Grades 3 to 5 for Dale Street (860 MSBA student projection)

The Grade 3-5 school could be sited at its current Adams/Dale Streets location, but the Dale Building Committee had also asked design finalists to evaluate the Wheelock site where a school "campus" (one or more buildings) for a projected 1,360 students in grades 1 to 5 could be established.

What are the Dale building project concerns, challenges or priorities? Based on various documents and presentations:

- Under the current MSBA Proposed Project, reimbursement to the town is limited to 3.5 percent for construction costs, and 10 percent for designer services. If Wheelock becomes the preferred site, all other potential work needed to prepare Wheelock Elementary School beyond the proposed project "would be at the sole cost of the District" requiring separate procurement, contracts, funding and authorization, according to MSBA.

- MSBA calls for environmental sustainability as an integral part of all school building projects, with Net-Zero Energy design a desired goal (but MSBA has acknowleged in other designer-selection presentations that it can be cost-prohibitive).

- Flexible space is desired by Medfield for team teaching, special education and English Language Learning collaboration, and other types of collaboration for Science-Technology-Engineering-Arts (STEAM) and STEM initiatives.

- State-of-the-art classrooms and technological resources appropriate for various elementary age groups should be incorporated into the design.

Throughout the Medfield process, committee members, MSBA officials and others involved with the project have noted that in addition to site selection and grade re-configuration, other challenges include traffic, impact on conservation land and recreation fields, and general viewpoints about the size, scope and culture of an elementary school. Members of the Design Selection Panel often ask finalists how they would propose making a large school feel small and intimate to young children.

Based on the results of the 2016 Medfield Public School strategic planning survey distributed to parents and the community at large, 84 percent of nearly 790 respondents liked the current elementary school configuration as reported to School Committee.

On a recent blog post, Superintendent Jeffrey Marsden provided general estimates for when preliminary Dale Street visioning and community engagement sessions might take place, with workshops and staff sessions expected in November, followed by community forums beginning in December. (See image posted with this article.)

Early Dale Street Building Project-related documents can be found on the district website.However, Medfield residents can access additional documents here, including meeting minutes, enrollment projections, and insights from project manager finalists prior to the selection of LeftField. All of the new documents were provided by either MSBA or Kristine Treirweiler, Medfield Town Administrator. Others have been requested, but have not yet been received or posted.

As previously reported on the Patch, the Designer Selection Process for the Medfield project is scheduled for Nov. 5. This public meeting will take place at 8:30 a.m. at MSBA offices in Boston at 40 Broad Street, Suite 500. The meeting agenda with design finalist names can be found on the MSBA website.

Similar to Medfield, Westwood is also engaged in an elementary school building project that could involve grade re-configurations. The final designer for that project (with a projected grade 3-5 enrollment of 734 students in 10 years) was chosen on Oct. 15.