Roxbury Site Concerns for Children by Alice Page

Attention Citizens of Washington

I would like to alert you to the consequences we will face if the consolidated Elementary School is voted in. Washington has the most to lose since we have the most students and their parents will have the farthest distance to travel – 45 minutes one way in 50 percent of the cases. We also happen to have the best elementary school building and field space in the district. ----------- As well as the central location for a neighborhood school. Washington Primary also provides facilities for Middle School Sports, Girl Scout Meetings etc. One further cost will be in our property depreciation if we lose our neighborhood schools and local businesses will also be affected.

I would also like to bring to your attention the S/L/A/M Collaborative Report presented to the Board of Education and reported in the February 8 Voices Weekender. This article includes the archcitural site plan for the Roxbury location.

First of all the building is designed for 451 students. This will be a larger enrollment then at Shepaugh H.S., located on a far smaller site, and a much smaller building. (71959 sq feet) Please remember we are dealing with primary school children.

Another detail is the multi use field, it is only 140 x 220 feet. This is smaller than a soccer field. Besides the size, this field and the playground are surrounded by parking lots and the driveway.

Another important detail is the building has three floor levels. The ground level will have all the core services – Administration, Health and the social Worker’s office, Cafeteria Auditorium , Gymnastics, Art, Music and the Media/Computer Centers plus Classrooms for Kindergarten and First Grade. The top level will house 4th and 5th grades and the bottom level the 2nd and 3rd grades. Can you imagine the traffic and confusion.

One further requirement: Daily Physical Education being presented as a federal bill. Regardless if it passes or not, it is important, and with enrollment of over 400 students, it will be necessary to provide two P.E. Teaching Stations both outdoors and indoors.

Where and how can all of this be accomplished on a 20 acre building site in a space of 72,000 sq. feet?

Larry Engel said it well in the March 9th Spectrum View Points: “A small neighborhood School forsters cultural lessons of volunteerism, democracy, tolerance and self-determination”. "It also permits children to be recognized as individuals rather that faceless numbers who won’t fall in between the cracks.”

Alice Page
New Preston