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	WHILE WELLESLEY SLEEPS (The Wellesley Townsman – 05/31/07) As the High School project barrels ahead toward the July 1st opening of the new reimbursement program of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), townspeople should be informed about recent developments. Of the five options reviewed by the Wellesley High School Building Committee (SBC) in conjunction with the School Committee, three options have emerged as finalists for consideration. Not included in any one of them is the approach to preservation and restoration that we have advocated. One of the final proposals is the old “Option C,” originally selected by the School Committee in November 2006. It has been repackaged, but it still calls for demolishing the present auditorium to accommodate a Library Media Center and dismantling the upstairs 1938 gymnasium for conversion into space for a Black Box Theater and Administrative Offices. Another option, “D.1,” retains the present auditorium and proposes to expand its capacity by 105 seats, extending the balcony to achieve, supposedly, a “Symphony Hall” look. In Option D.1, the upstairs gymnasium would become a Reading Room adjacent to a Library Media Center, which would be located above the site of the 2002 Fitness Center that is slated for removal. Both of these options call for the needless teardown of one functional part of the school only to rebuild it in another part. They would destroy the Wilbury Crockett Library and the upstairs gymnasium with no consideration of the benefits to be derived from its continued use and preservation. The third proposal, the so-called “Option F,” is to demolish Wellesley High School in its entirety and to build another school. The Option F building would be located in the present parking lot and beyond. Its pod style, featuring narrow and twisted corridors, is being described as “state-of-the-art.” In what looks like an afterthought, its academic classrooms have been relegated to a second-class status of being “stacked,” one floor on top of the other. The building turns in upon itself, blocking out natural light, shutting itself off in prison-like fashion from the neighborhood and from the town as a whole -- convoluted, very trendy, and not at all up to Wellesley’s standards as a leader in New England high school education. Nevertheless, we expect that the SBC along with the School Committee is preparing to select Option F as the final proposal, and that they will cite the claim by the project architects that Option F would cost 10% less than the other two options and would require less time to complete. Implementation of any one of these three options would be ill conceived, exorbitant, and wasteful. No account has been given of the number of classrooms each option would provide in relation to the number of classrooms actually needed. Site plans show all three options overreaching into neighboring wetlands and into the open and wooded public lands that the original Wellesley High School was designed to complement and to fit. Furthermore, the SBC and the School Committee in proposing these options have not addressed their impact on traffic and parking patterns or on neighborhood tranquility. The drawbacks to these proposals are largely attributable to the failure of the SBC and the School Committee to allow broadly based town-wide participation in the actual decision-making process. The withholding of all cost estimates and actual dollar amounts for the project has also been a great disservice to the town. This month’s public reviews have been tightly controlled by the SBC and have been used primarily to advance and defend decisions that have already been made. The SBC and the School Committee have been promoting proposals so expensive and outlandish that the goal of MSBA reimbursement appears to have supplanted what should be the town’s real objective: namely, planning in a fiscally responsible way for a 21st century high school that is architecturally sound and educationally enlightened. The sensible option is to restore and preserve the entire exterior and interior of the 1938 Wellesley High School with its Wilbury Crockett Library, and at the same time to improve and expand facilities to meet departmental program needs. This approach will enable Wellesley to achieve its educational goals in the 21st century with minimal disruption to the school schedule, since the summer months offer the opportunity for a phased implementation of the project. Furthermore, architects have said that a restoration approach is more cost-effective than building new by up to 60% and more. The MSBA will reimburse towns that restore and reuse their schools and even offers an increased rate of reimbursement to encourage communities to adopt this approach. Wellesley should take advantage of this opportunity. We must stay focused on what really needs to be done for the High School and the ways to accomplish it most effectively. Many people at the recent review sessions expressed alarm at the direction the project has taken. Wellesley needs to wake up. Before it’s too late, please register your concerns through calls and e-mails to elected and appointed officials. Contact your Town Meeting representatives, and write letters to The Wellesley Townsman. For further information visit our website: www.savewhs.org.

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