UPDATED: Medfield Public Schools Will Open Wednesday

Editor's Note: Medfield Police Chief Robert Meaney Jr. and Medfield Superintendent of Schools Bob Maguire told Medfield Patch Tuesday that public schools will open for classes on Wednesday, as expected. The following are updates throughout the day as the town continues to recover from Irene.  

(5:30 p.m.) UPDATE: Medfield Superintendent of Schools Bob Maguire told Medfield Patch two roads will remained blocked when schools open Wednesday, forcing two buses to reroute. "I think we’re rerouting about 13 kids total in the town because there’s still two locations that have a blockage[Plain Street and Snyder Road]," Maguire said. "So we are reorganizing the bus route to deal with that. We are notifying those families [by] going out to the neighborhoods to make sure they get the message personally. There’s still a couple of areas with power out. Dale Street just opened up and Bridge Street has been opened up. Two wires we are concerned about, there’s one on Curve Street and one at the Wheelock School, which has been addressed with a lot of effort [Tuesday]. Hopefully [after this] we will have a smooth opening."

(4:55 p.m.) UPDATE: Medfield Chief of Police Robert E. Meaney Jr. confirmed to Medfield Patch that the Medfield Public Schools 2011-2012 academic year will begin on Wednesday, as originally planned and was not affected in any way by Tropical Storm Irene last weekend. Meaney met with the Medfield Fire Chief William Kingsbury, DPW Superintendent Ken Feeney, Town Administrator Michael Sullivan and Superintendent of Schools Bob Maguire. Meaney said roads that have been closed as of Tuesday morning are still closed: Dale Street at the Bridge Street end, Synder Road and Plain Street and that approximately five percent of the town remains without power. 

(2:57 p.m.) - Medfield Superintendent of Schools, Bob Maguire, said at Monday's School Committee meeting the district "had some issues" he and his administrative team are "dealing with" as a result of Tropical Storm Irene. 

"We had a lot of communication in the last day with primarily the police chief, who is our point person, on issues regarding safety," Maguire said. "We had conversations [Sunday night] until about 9:30 p.m. about whether or not [staff and faculty] could be in school [Monday] because of some issues with electrical power and road issues and things like that."

Maguire said faculty and staff were able to enter the buildings and that all schools, with exception of are running "with full power." Wheelock, according to Maguire, was running at "half power" as of Monday night. 

"All the light safety systems were in place so we felt it was perfectly safe to have the building occupied and have the staff in," Maguire said. 

The major issue the district is facing on the eve of students returning to schools is transportation, according to Maguire, who met with town officials Monday and Tuesday to discuss issues the town and school district are facing in the aftermath of Irene. 

"We contacted town officials [Monday] and met with the fire chief, police chief, DPW, [Town Administrator] Michael Sullivan, our bus company attendant, Charlie [Kellner] and his folks attended," Maguire said. "We had an open conversation about the issues we had and then got into a conversation about where are all the other issues that are out there [in town]."

Maguire said the school department was able to identify at the meeting a number of streets that were closed Monday.

"We came up with a plan to review each one of those [closed street] locations to see if there are work arounds in the event that they don’t get cleared," Maguire said. "We have been in coordination with the DPW and police department and we certainly still have a number of homes that are without power and that’s something we are looking at in terms of what's the volume of the number of homes that are without power."

As of Monday, according to Maguire, the school department had a contingency plan in place and would receive an update from town officials on Tuesday. Medfield Police Chief Robert Meaney Jr. said it was determined at Tuesday's meeting that schools would open on time and as expected on Wednesday. 

"There will be school," Meaney said in an e-mail to Medfield Patch following Tuesday's meeting. 

Maguire said Tuesday's meeting was held to revaluate where the town and school department is and how it affects Wednesday's opening of schools. 

"We looked at the remaining issues and determined we could open and make things safe," Maguire said. "The feeling was getting [students] in school was probably the best place for them to be."

In terms of damage to the schools, Maguire told the committee Monday there were no "major issues" on school property but some minor damage occurred at Wheelock and Memorial schools.

"There was a good-sized tree down at Wheelock," Maguire said. "[The tree] took down a power line that feeds some of the exterior lights that heads out to the field area. We were able to isolate that and rope it off. In addition to that, one of the roofs blew off one of the dugouts at .

"We were going to look at that and determine the cause of that. We were able to look at the other dugouts and make sure that same condition didn’t exist on the other dugouts and we were able to deem the others don’t have a problem. That’s being attended to [Monday] as people are over there and removing the debris off of the campus."

On Monday, faculty and staff were all in the buildings preparing for the arrival of students on Wednesday and Maguire said there was "a lot of positive energy" amongst staff.

"We had all of our staff in and held an open meeting with them [Monday]," Maguire said. "Staff was in faculty meetings, getting oriented to policy changes, different kinds of procedures and getting their rooms set. There really was a nice feel to the opening. All of that is ready to go."