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	There is Another Way (The Wellesley Townsman – 12/06/07) The Wellesley High School Preservation Committee at a recent School Building Committee meeting held for constituencies at the Town Hall on November 28th made the following comments. Our perspective is different from the current thinking on how to proceed on the High School project. We wish to share it with the townspeople. The Wellesley High School Preservation Committee places the highest value on a Wellesley High School building that will continue to promote first-rate education in the 21st century. We are pleased that Wellesley has been included in the first round of negotiations with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to qualify for state reimbursement for the High School project. The next step in the process is to submit a feasibility study. The question is: What is feasible for Wellesley High School and the community as a whole? The Options C and I (“gut-rehab”) and Options J and H (all new building), which the School Building Committee has presented, are cause for great concern. The SBC is not offering townspeople any real choice as to the scope the High School project should have and the direction it should take. An altered quality of life in the High School neighborhood and a financial burden on Wellesley residents that would mortgage the future of the town are among the many objections to these options. Wellesley should not be forced into accepting any such proposal, but this course of action has long been presented as a done deal. Option C creates a “domino effect” of demolishing the Wilbury Crockett Library and building another one in a gutted 1938 auditorium. It also calls for the conversion of the 1938 gymnasium for other uses, the relocation of the first-floor administration offices in space currently occupied by the locker rooms, and moving the main entrance of the High School to the west end of the building. Now we see under Option I that the 1938 auditorium would be drastically altered to accommodate a kind of black box theater that would have far less seating capacity than the present auditorium. Also in this option, the entire 2nd floor would be gutted to make way for a new library, resulting in a net loss of eleven academic classrooms and three other spaces, including one small classroom, an office, and a teachers’ room. The town may decide to build a second auditorium and a new gymnasium with an elevated track. That decision, however, can be made without calling for dismantling the 1938 building, demolishing the library, and making unnecessary changes to the interior and exterior of the High School. The effect of presenting these “gut-rehab” options at an exorbitant cost of $152,000,000 is to make building new at $147,000,000 look like a better deal for the town. But building new also fails to address educational and fiscal reality. A great disservice has been done to the town by the attempt to create the fear that if we don’t get a new building, somehow the educational values of Wellesley High School will decline. Such a view, of course, is untenable. Nevertheless, we expect the School Building Committee is preparing to propose building new, at the cost of $147,000,000, rather than adopting a measured approach that is both educationally sound and fiscally responsible. We are also concerned that in the presentation of these options there has been no account of the number of classrooms that would be provided in relation to the number of classrooms that would actually be needed according to projected enrollment. There is another approach. Let’s begin with what we have, preserve it, improve it, and expand as necessary to meet the needs of the educational program with fiscal responsibility. It is no secret that over the past ten years the Wellesley High School building and site have not been properly maintained. Now we have the opportunity to correct the situation. We need a creative and imaginative vision, one that represents a true reflection of the community, its heritage, and its educational excellence. Ultimately, it will be the townspeople of Wellesley, the voters, who will state their position on the High School project town-wide at the ballot box. It is clear to everyone that more work needs to be done. We invite townspeople to obtain a copy of our handbook, The Wellesley High School Preservation Handbook, the guide to restoration and preservation of the original 1938 building, by e-mailing us at whspreservation@yahoo.com. A copy is available at the Wellesley Free Library.

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