Fairfield could have new middle school in three years

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield Middle School students could be walking into a new school in three years.

The Fairfield Community School District board of directors listened to a presentation during their Monday night meeting from members of the architectural firm CMBA Architects who have drafted a plan to build a new middle school south of the existing middle school on Fillmore Avenue.

The plan CMBA Architects presented Monday, which still is in a concept phase, calls for a new middle school that would cost about $34 million. The earliest the district could host a bond vote to approve financing for such a project would be in September. Construction could start in the summer of 2022 and finish by the start of the 2024 -2025 school year.

The board’s committees have been meeting for the past few weeks with community leaders and business people about what they would like to see in a new school. Through these meetings, members of the community and board members have been sharing ideas about the future of education in Fairfield.

Board member Frank Broz was a member of the committee that hosted those community meetings about a new middle school. He said there’s a recognition that most of the buildings in the district are nearing the end of their life spans and that the district needs to think long-term about not just repairing them but replacing them. He noted that methods of teaching have changed dramatically in the decades since the buildings were built, and that teachers today have different needs from those of yesteryear.

Under the concept presented Monday, the new middle school would include a section for grades fourth through fifth, and another section for grades sixth through eighth. The current middle school is for grades fifth through eighth.

The tennis courts south of the middle school will need to be moved to make room for the new school and could be moved to the east where the former city pool was located in O.B. Nelson Park. Broz said that would actually be a better spot for the tennis courts anyway, which are maintained and owned through a partnership between the school and city. He said that the city and school were going to have to resurface the current courts anyway.

One possibility discussed Monday is to later move elementary students in grades kindergarten through third into an addition onto the new middle school, perhaps 10 years after it was built. This would allow them to share facilities and save on costs.

The school board is taking into account its projected enrollment in the coming decades in considering a new school building. The district went through a period from 2006-2018 where it was losing about 37 students per year, though enrollment has since leveled off. Broz said data from other areas of Iowa show that the trend of rural residents moving to urban areas is slowing, and that the Fairfield school district expects its enrollment to level off. The district now has about 1,600 students.