More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.
Kick off Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend on Friday, May 17 at the Hunnewell Fun Fair. Please join the Hunnewell School community from 3:05pm – 6pm for our PTO’s annual community event.
The Fun Fair is appropriate for all ages. There will be carnival rides, food, games, take-a-cake and more.
WHEN: Friday, May 17, 2019
TIME: 3:05pm – 6pm
WHERE: Hunnewell School, 28 Cameron St.
The Board of Selectmen on Monday had a brief discussion about whether the North 40 property might be an option for housing modular classrooms while the Hunnewell Elementary School is renovated or rebuilt, and members unanimously agreed that the site would be inappropriate at least in the near term.
Selectmen Tom Ulfelder introduced the subject of using the North 40 as such swing space for classrooms just to get it on record as the Hardy-Hunnewell-Upham (HHU) elementary school plan evolves. Having the discussion could benefit the School Building Committee, School Committee and public at large, he said. (The School Building Committee in the past has said that the North 40 was not being considered.)
“The thinking has been that the location of modulars for swing space on the North 40 would require some level of clearing of trees,” including to get utilities onto the property, Ulfelder said. Without having a clearer vision for how the North 40 will or won’t be developed, it would be impossible to say where such modulars could be situated. While the North 40 option has been a reasonable thing to ask about, he said the reasonable answer is that the North 40 is not a good option at least for now.
Fellow BoS member Marjorie Freiman added that without knowing which half of the land would be designated for open space, it would not be possible to determine where modulars could be located.
SUPPORT SWELLESLEY: Here’s how to Advertise and/or Donate to support our independent journalism venture
BoS Chairman Jack Morgan said “the traffic challenges on Weston Road are very strong and I just don’t think this is a viable plan to consider.”
Beth Sullivan Woods noted that the space would seem like an even less viable option in light of the town’s purchase of land behind Hardy Elementary School.
Other options for swing space that have been discussed include within other schools or on other school property, or on the Hunnewell school property itself.
See the discussion via Wellesley Public Media’s recording, at about the 1-hour mark. It only lasts for about 6 minutes.
The School Building Committee in a public meeting last night in the Kingsbury Room at the Wellesley Police Department presented further analysis and a tentative shortlist of four options for a new or rebuilt Hunnewell Elementary school. Two of the options laid out plans for addition/renovation of the 80-year-old, one-story structure, and two of the options are for new construction.
Two of the four options offer the potential (but not a guarantee) of saving the 200-year-old, 30-foot-tall White Oak Tree that graces the front courtyard outside the entrance of the 28 Cameron St. school. More on that here.
Late last year at a joint meeting at Town Hall of the School Building Committee and the Board of Selectmen, representatives from the Compass Management Team laid out ten possible scenarios for bringing the kindergarten – Grade 5 school into the 21st century. Since that time, the School Building Committee has reviewed those ten possible plans and now they are winnowed them down to four. Last night’s meeting was a presentation of each of those four possibilities. Major issues that require attention at Hunnewell: antiquated heating, plumbing electrical, and fire alarm systems; modular classrooms being used well beyond their service life; and the challenges of one space used for the gym, cafeteria, and auditorium.
Whether the end result is renovation or tear-down, the feasibility study put together by the design team at SMMA Compass Project Management is heavy on sustainable design. Using what will be a major building project as an opportunity to create a net-zero energy use situation is a goal of many in town. A building with net-zero energy consumption is one in which the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site. According to the feasibility study, that can be achieved in part through ultra-low water use features, solar panels, and through use of daylight in the interior of the building. Here’s a link to the study.
There will be a Public Forum meeting on January 29, 2019 at the Hunnewell Gym, 7pm to 9pm
The Hunnewell Elementary School project moved a step closer toward either renovation or full tear down/construction as representatives from the Compass Management Team laid out ten possible scenarios for bringing the 80-year old school into the 21st century. The December 20 joint meeting at Town Hall of the School Building Committee and the Board of Selectmen focused on Draft Design Plans, swing space, and educational planning.
Earlier this year at a Special Town Meeting, $1 million was appropriated for the now-completed feasibility study of the school to determine whether it should be renovated or torn down and reconstructed. Some of the problems at Hunnewell include antiquated heating, plumbing electrical, and fire alarm systems; modular classrooms being used well beyond their service life; and the challenges of one space used for the gym, cafeteria, and auditorium. The design team from SMAA Compass Project Management created the feasibility study and its recommendations. Here’s a link to the study.
Five of the plans in the study show what an addition/renovation plan would look like, and five of the plans show what new construction would look like. Each plan lays out a design of either a two-story building or a three-story building.
Swing space was also discussed at the meeting. The ideas include using modular classrooms at the Hunnewell site; using modulars, some at Hunnewell and some at a second or third elementary school site; or using an alternative site such as Wellesley Village Church at 2 Central Street or St. Paul Church at 502 Washington St.
The hot-button issue of the night concerned the fate of the venerable White Oak that graces the site.
Concerned Hunnewell School neighbors, parents, and other stakeholders at the meeting voiced their opposition to destroying the 200+ year old White Oak tree outside the front entrance of the 28 Cameron Street elementary school. The tree, long used by the community for everything from a teaching tool to a place to loll in the shade, could become a casualty of the need to either substantially renovate or tear down and rebuild Hunnewell.
Although the community has accepted that Hunnewell no longer meets the standard for modern education, the idea that the over 30-foot tall tree might fall along with part or all of the building rankles many.
Wellesley resident Janie Penn, whose daughter attended Hunnewell and fondly remembers the huge tree said at the meeting, “Children of that age are very ecologically sensitive…” Penn referenced a book-writing project the second graders worked on that included an author’s biography blurb each child included as part of the assignment. Penn said one of her daughter’s friends wrote, ‘The author lives with her parents and sister and cat, and when she grows up she wants to save the Amazon rain forest.’ The idealism of these children is still inspiring me.”
Wellesley resident Susan Zelenko in an email questioned the idea that the tree should be removed. She said, “Can we not attempt saving it and making it a special part of Hunnewell that sets it apart? There are many architectural possibilities in building around the tree — and many uses for it after…not only to sit under the tree, but to use it for science investigations, for math, even for art. A tree like this is an asset, not an impediment.”
There’s still a long way to go before a decision is made on the issue, however it is an issue that the School Committee will decide because the tree is located on school property and is not considered a public shade tree. That means that neither the Natural Resources Commission, the Park and Tree Division, nor the Planning Board would be a decision-making agency regarding the potential removal of the tree.
Mary Gard, part of the Sustainable Wellesley leadership team, had a simple, big-picture message: “We want the building to be net zero. We just want that on the record.”
A building with net zero energy consumption is one in which the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site. That can be achieved in part by the use of solar panels, for example.
January 3: School Building Committee Subcommittee on OPM Selection (Hardy/Upham), 5:30 p.m., Great Hall
January 10: School Building Committee Meeting (Hunnewell options discussion), 5:30 p.m., Kingsbury Room, Wellesley Police Department
January 17: School Building Committee Meeting (Hardy/Upham OPM interviews), 5:30 p.m., Great Hall
Hunnewell Elementary School feasibility study
Monday, October 15 from 5:30 – 9:30 PM, Hunnewell Elementary School
The School Building Committee invites members of the community to meet with the design team from the architect for the Hunnewell School feasibility study, to hear the latest about building energy-efficient schools, and to provide thoughts on sustainable design goals and objectives for the project.
