Letter to the Editor - The Dale St School Elementary Project

Dear Editor,

The Dale Street Elementary Project

We have lived in Medfield for 23 years. Our reason for choosing Medfield was due to the highly ranked school system, a small and vibrant community and the open space.

As the parents of children who have gone through the Dale Street School for 4th and 5th grade and who currently have children in the Medfield school system, we believe in keeping the Dale Street School at Dale Street and not moving it to the more remote location behind the Wheelock
School. We hope that people will attend the May 17th town meeting so they can hear why so many other residents feel the same way.

We are concerned about the proposal to build a new Dale Street School at the Wheelock location for several reasons. The increase in traffic on South Street, Elm Street and surrounding roads, the increase in cost associated with building a “campus with room for future growth" on Elm
Street and the loss of fields and open space that residents and children in all grades use. We feel that moving the school to a new campus, outside of the downtown area would have a negative impact on the entire community not just Elm Street residents.

The proposal to move the Dale Street School location across town behind the Wheelock School would put a tremendous amount of pressure on an area that does not have the ability to support this. The increase in traffic would impact route 27 and South Street which is already a highly traveled route for morning commuters. The discussion of putting stop signs on South Street where it meets Elm Street would also highly impact all surrounding roadways. The proposal for the new school location calls for not only the school campus but additional parking spaces to be
created beside the new school. There are 200 parking spaces at the high school that run alongside the football field to get a sense of how large an area that alone would cover.

Currently, the open fields behind Wheelock are used for soccer and lacrosse games from all school grades, soccer and lacrosse practices, dog walkers and runners. Every day of the week the fields are full because these fields are accessible and can accommodate high school sports down to elementary sports which is important for our children to have. The proposed school building would take away valuable recreation space during the estimated two year construction time period.

The decision to build a new school in its current location on Dale Street or rebuild across town is up to the residents and taxpayers of Medfield. There are options to build at Dale Street that are 5 million cheaper than building at Wheelock which would not impact roadways, after school
sports, traffic, commuters or add unnecessary infrastructure (sidewalks, traffic lights, road widening). The goals set out by the school board can be achieved at the Dale Street location in a new building. Open learning and teacher collaboration can be met without moving the school
and children would be able to continue to walk to the library, walk to school and be apart of a downtown community.

There is no question that the Dale Street building is in need of repair. After attending the zoom call last October 2020 where a number of potential design schemes were presented by the architectural firm Arrowstreet I was impressed with how many options they presented for the
current Dale Street location. One of the options had Dale Street in its current location, incorporating the inclusion of open space and the ability to add onto the building or rebuild it entirely. Those plans to rebuild or add onto rather than abandon the 47,341 square foot Dale
Street building seemed to be fiscally responsible and met the needs of the school board.

Medfield has a top rated education because we have great teachers. We support our teachers, our school system and also our town and this decision should be made by our entire community.

Moving the school would not change our children's excellent education it would change the landscape of our community.

Tracy Foley, 45 Elm Street, Medfield