Friday's Internet Edition, July 25, 2008.
|
| STUDENTS IN THE GIFTED and talented program at Fairfield junior high school have set a goal of raising $500 for the Make a Wish Foundation that provides special gifts and trips to children facing life threatening illnesses. |
Those attending an information meeting on the bond proposal declared that they want the district to build a campus to house grades three through five, the biggest of three options for a new school.
Cost of the 3-5 school, which could serve 720 students, is estimated at $16.85 million.
An expansion of Fairfield high school, adding three science laboratories, two regular classrooms, a computer classroom, computer workshop, language lab and restrooms, is estimated at $2.3 and is all but mandated by updated state education requirements.
In a move to beef up public education, the state legislature now requires four years of science and four years of math to earn a high school diploma.
Fairfield Independent School District superintendent Tony Price points out that the senior high school has enough room for its students, but does not have adequate science laboratory facilities to fullfill the new state requirement.
FHS also is is need of additional computer classroom space and a language laboratory would allow the school to expand foreign language offerings, as well as aide instruction in required Spanish classes.
Three options are on the table for a new campus, an intermediate school for grades 3-5, intermediate school for grades 4-5 and primary school for pre-kindergarten through first grade.
All three options are designed to relieve crowding at the intermediate and junior high schools, and all three call for the fifth grade to be moved off the junior high school campus.
“It hasn’t been decided what we are going to do yet,” Price says.
The only decision made to date is location of a new campus—-trustees last month approved putting down escrow money for a 31-acre tract of land on the west side of N. Fairway, a few blocks north of the elementary school.
The superintendent reports that since the $12.5 million elementary school was opened in 2002, student population in Fairfield schools have grown by 284 students to a total of 1,827 today, and that growth is crowding the three campuses.
“We are having a very substantial, slow and methodical growth,” Price says.
He notes that at the present growth rate, the district will be short of space in 6-7 years and that he does not feel it is wise to wait until facilities are filled.
FHS space needs were addressed three years ago when voters approved another $12.5 million for an expansion that included construction of two new gymnasiums, library, a pair of lecture rooms, computer laboratory and two science laboratories, as well as remodeling several classrooms.
The 3-5 campus option would encompass 69,910 square feet with 30 classrooms, three extra classrooms, 10 special needs classrooms, cafeteria, play gymnasium and offices.
An option to build a pre-K through first grade campus calls for a 55,625 square foot facility with 24 classrooms, each with a restroom, five special needs classrooms, cafeteria, play gymnasium and offices. The pre-K through first grade facility would house 500 students and cost $13.4 million.
An intermediate school for grades 4-5 would include 56,265 square feet, housing 20 classrooms, two extra classrooms, 10 special needs classrooms, cafeteria, play gymnasium and offices. The school, which would house 480 students, is estimated at $13.6 million.
The play gymnasium called for in all three options is a facility with a soft surface floor designed for physical education classes and break periods, similar to the junior high school commons area.
Fairfield native John Fryer, as well as other attending the meeting, favors the 3-5 proposal, the biggest proposed by trustees.
“Based on what I see, it is best for us to go for the big one,” Fryer says. “I would like to recommend we go for the big bond because we get more bang for the buck.”
He also points out that Fairfield has boasted a superior school system for years and it would be short sighted to build a facility that would only hold a growing student population for a few, short years.
All three new campus plans, Price points out, would not only hold student growth but would be designed to allow for expansion.
The superintendent estimates it would cost about seven cents per $100 assessed property valuation to pay for a $16-18 million bond issues over 15 years, which would raise the interest and sinking fund assessment to 17.97 cents.
He notes that when the elementary school bond issues was approved in 2000, it was estimated to cost 18 cents to retire $12.5 million over 15 years.
However, raising property valued in FISD, fueled largely by natural gas exploration and production, has lowered the bond rate to 10.72 cents this year, in spite of approval of a second $12.5 million issue to fund construction of Johnson Activity Center at FHS.
Simply, FISD residents are paying less for $25 million in construction bonds than they believed it would cost for half that amount when the elementary school was built.
Trustees must decide next month whether to call a bond election, and for which new campus project, in order for votes to be cast during the annual school board election on May 10.