June 1, 2024
Dr. David Lussier, Superintendent of Schools
Ms. Sandra Trach, Assistant Superintendent of Schools
Wellesley Public Schools
Wellesley, MA 02481
Dear David and Sandra,
I’m writing to follow up regarding yesterday’s challenge course accident. My thoughts, and those
of my staff, are with the student and their family. We hope they are doing well and can resume
all activities soon.
We appreciate that student safety is paramount to you, and I would like to assure you that it is
our top priority. Our state-licensed courses meet the standards of multiple accrediting
organizations and are inspected regularly to meet Association for Challenge Course Technology
codes. We comprehensively train new facilitators, require them to shadow seasoned facilitators
before delivering programs on their own, and mandate regular “refresher” trainings to ensure
safety and best practices are top of mind. That said, this unfortunate experience compels us to
do even more.
After extensively debriefing with our staff, we will be taking the following steps as we move
forward:
- A thorough re-training of all our facilitators in standard and local operating procedures,
safety measures, and emergency response protocols. - Additional pre-program training for facilitators working each day of next week’s program
for Wellesley Public Schools. - As requested by the district, we will adjust the Wellesley Public Schools’ 5th grade
schedule to exclude high ropes elements. Students will participate in all other activities,
teambuilding, and low challenge activities.
As had often been done in the past, we would be glad to host a program overview session either
at one of your schools or online early next week and if a parent or guardian would like to visit
Hale in person, we are happy to accommodate that as well. Please invite them to email
tel@hale.education and our Teambuilding & Experiential Learning staff will gladly coordinate a
time.
Finally, I would like to thank you for our many years of collaboration. It has been an honor to
bring learning to life for thousands of students from Wellesley Public Schools. We look forward
to greeting more students next week and helping them safely explore the outdoors together.
Please feel free to contact us at any time.
Sincerely,
Eric Arnold
Executive Director