Superintendent’s Goals for School Year: Facilities

Editor’s note: This is part three of a four-part series that takes a look at the goals of Medfield Superintendent of Schools, Bob Maguire, who broke each down into four categories.

Medfield Superintendent of Schools, Bob Maguire, is encouraging the school committee to begin discussing improvements needed to the district’s five facilities with a focus on the .

“Dale has certainly provided its value,” Maguire said. “It’s a great location and if you look at the exterior of that school, it’s got a lot of potential and is a beautiful building. It’s got some serious issues in terms of some of its systems, like the heating system and so forth. … It’s got some real issues in terms of providing an equitable education, handicap accessibility issues, a variety of things, where it is a 1940s building.”

It’s been nearly a decade since the completion of major improvements to the and facilities and while other issues at other schools in town have been discussed, the priority remains at Dale Street.

“We are now nearing almost a decade since that work [at Blake and Medfield High] has been completed and we have had conversations kind of around the edges of Dale Street,” Maguire said. “We’ve talked a little bit about some of the needs at which I don’t think are as significant as the Dale Street building.”

Maguire said it is important to begin having conversations of an improvement plan now because of other capital projects looming in town and the amount of time it takes for a project like this to be completed.

“This is not something that is going to happen over night," Maguire said. "The way the state process works, it could be a good several years if the town decided there was a need or something needed to be done. It’s going to take some time, but I think it’s a conversation that we need to have moving forward.”

Maguire credited the school committee and administration for “doing a good job” of keeping up with the conditions of the town’s five schools but it is time to review each of the buildings again.

“We’ve made some investments to try and maintain it safely and provide the best space that we can, but it really has got to be looked at,” Maguire said.

Check Medfield Patch Tuesday for the final part of this four-part series as Maguire outlines his fourth goal: Budget.

To read part one of this series, "Superintendent's Goals for School Year: Technology," .

To read part two of this series, "Superintendent's Goals for School Year: Global Competency,"