Fairfield parents to receive survey on school designs

FAIRFIELD — Families in the Fairfield Community School District will have another chance to voice their opinion about potential improvements in the district through a survey.

The Fairfield school board hired FEH Design to study the district’s long-term facility needs, which included meeting with an advisory task force from September through November, culminating in two full days of spark sessions where the public was invited to give feedback on different master plans for the district’s future.

Tyler Riley, FEH Design project architect who is spearheading the company’s work in Fairfield, said the next step in the process is to survey the parents in the district to get a better picture of what they want, such as which buildings to renovate, perhaps which buildings can be combined, or perhaps where new construction should occur.

Riley said that FEH Design has prepared a survey of eight or nine questions that will be sent to parents online, with hard copies available, too. It will include questions about how big of a bond they are comfortable with, and asking them about various building reconfigurations and which ones they like the best.

During FEH Design’s spark sessions Nov. 21-22 at the A.C.T. Building, the company prepared 14 scenarios to consider. They ranged from maintaining all four buildings in the district — high school, middle school and two elementary schools — while making additions to each one; building a new middle school and improving the high school; combining the elementary schools into a single building; and building all new schools at a single campus.

Riley said his main take-away from the November spark sessions was that the public liked the idea of having a long-term master plan that considers what the district will need decades in the future. Of the 14 scenarios presented, the most popular was the single master campus.

“It wouldn’t mean all grades are in one building, but it could be different buildings located next to each other,” Riley said. “It would likely be at the middle school, because that’s where the district has the most land available.”

Riley said the comments he heard in support of a single master campus was that students would be familiar with all buildings as they progressed through the grades, and that it would be more efficient for parents to pick up and drop off their kids.

“There are a lot of students and staff who go between the middle and high school, so a [master campus] would make that a lot easier. There would also be mentoring opportunities for high school students to read to younger students, and good collaboration opportunities among all the grades.”

Riley said it will be up to the district when this survey goes out, and whether it will be mailed to families. He said he doesn’t have any plans to appear before the Fairfield school board in the coming months.

“We really want to get the survey results back before we start meeting with the district again and looking at the next steps,” he said.

FEH Design has offices in Des Moines, Sioux City, Dubuque and another outside Milwaukee. Riley said the company has done design work for schools, city halls, libraries and corporations.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com