Committee learns plans for Fairfield schools

Eleven members of the community, asked to serve on the School Improvement Advisory Committee, spent a few hours Tuesday discussing information about the Fairfield Community School District.

Superintendent Art Sathoff and Fairfield High School Principal Aaron Becker headed the discussion about school programs. Sathoff outlined two new programs being added next school year, the Career Academy and the Young House Fairfield Center.

The Career Academy is a partnership among Indian Hills Community College, Fairfield, Cardinal, Harmony and Van Buren school districts.

High school juniors and seniors can enroll in Career Academy classes, pay no tuition, fees or book fees, and earn dual-credit high school and college credits.

Parent Karen Swanson, who also is IHCC coordinator of high school programs, said students attending Career Academy classes for two years in high school can graduate from high school with 35 college credits. And it?s a savings for families, because to attend classes at IHCC costs $137 per credit hour, plus fees and books? costs.

Students with two years of health occupations classes can graduate high school with a certified nurse?s assistant certificate.

?A senior graduating in May with a CNA, can then continue at IHCC for two terms, and if enrolled in the summer term, can earn their LPN [licensed practical nurse] by November the same year they graduated high school,? said Swanson. ?From there, students can work, continue on to RN [registered nurse] or transfer to earn a bachelor?s in nursing.

?Nursing isn?t the only choice for health occupations,? said Swanson. ?At Indian Hills, we have seven pathways to continue, nursing is just one of those. We also have physical therapy assistant, pharmacy technology, therapeutic massage, medical transcriptionist, EMT and more.?

Fairfield is starting its Career Academy in the former Lincoln Elementary School, now designated as the Lincoln Center. Three strands of classes will be offered: health occupations, business/finance and industrial maintenance.

Students enrolling in any one of the three academies will attend Career Academy classes three hours a day at the Lincoln Center and take the rest of their regular classes at FHS.

?We?re hoping to enroll 95 students,? said Sathoff.

Becker said 45 from FHS have signed up so far; 25 students are planning to take health occupations, 17 want to take business/finance classes, and three have registered for the industrial. He doesn?t have enrollment figures from the other high schools yet.

The Young House Fairfield Center also will be housed in the repurposed Lincoln Center. Already housing the district?s alternative school the Opportunity Center it will remain at Lincoln but be shifted to other rooms.

?Usually, we?ve had three to six students being bussed to Christamore in Mount Pleasant or Gateway in Ottumwa,? said Sathoff. ?These are structured settings for students with behavioral issues. We spent $45,000 on that transportation last year.

?Even if having our own program is a wash money-wise, it will be an advantage to have our own program in the district. We eliminate bus behavioral issues. We can have a smoother transition for students moving back into regular schooling.?

The program can accommodate up to 10 students, grades 5-12. Seats not filled by Fairfield students can be used for students from other districts, and each student?s tuition follows the student to where they attend.

Advisory Committee members asked if fifth grade students would share a classroom with seniors in the Young House program. Sathoff said there is enough space to separate levels, but each grade will not have a separate classroom.

?It?s a very structured program,? he said.

Participants also had questions about the differences between the alternative school and the Young House program.

?Students in the alternative school are not there because of behavioral issues,? said Becker. ?They are there for a variety of reasons, but it?s more accommodating to their need for flexibility or need for smaller class size. All Opportunity Center students work through courses online. We have a lead teacher and an assistant, to manage the school and consult with students, but they work independently.

?The Young House program deals with behavior. Typically a student will attend for six months or so. They do not work independently; Young House hires its own teachers.?

Facilities

?The middle school is getting a major renovation this summer, probably the first major renovation in the district in 20 years,? said auxiliary services director Fred McElwee. ?We?ve already removed the old boilers and drilling has begun for the geo-thermal wells. They are drilling three layers of wells ? at 15, 20 and 45-feet deep. The wells are going south of the building, under the balls fields but won?t interfere with them.

?We will empty out the building when school?s out. We hope to have a portion of air conditioning running when school starts in August and the contractor has to provide heating ability and be finished with major things by October. The official end of the project is December.

?We are keeping staff informed because it is a major project. When students return, there will still be disruption of a classroom or two at a time, but not a whole-school disruption.?

Lincoln Center will also receive much attention this summer to prepare for the three programs to be housed there in August.

The school board will consider architects? views and construction managers? ideas about updating the high school, said McElwee. Two architect firms and three construction manager firms have agreed to meet with the school board and review priorities and make suggestions.

?The board has said it can work with an $11 million budget,? he said. ?The top priorities include air handling and air quality, science classrooms, security and handicap access.?

A couple of parents expressed relief and appreciation that a budget figure has been settled. One participant said the project should start with how much money can be spent.

Another parent voiced concern about the lack of fencing around the playground at Washington Elementary School along the south and east. McElwee said he would look at it.

The district is also working through its 10-year facility plan, and will install a new press box at the baseball field and a new restroom facility at Trojan Stadium.