Fairfield schools announce more details about ‘spark sessions’ next week

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield Community School District has announced more details, and a few changes, to the “spark sessions” planned for Monday and Tuesday of next week where the public is invited to share its thoughts on facility improvements.

The school board hired the design firm FEH Design of Dubuque to gather information from the public and from an advisory task force that was formed to study the district’s long-term needs and its vision. The task force just held its fifth meeting on Monday, Nov. 14 at the Fairfield Middle School.

The public has always been invited to attend the advisory task force meetings, but the school district is making a special push to get public input during the two spark sessions on Nov. 21-22. Originally, these spark sessions were going to last from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Fairfield Middle School, but they will now be at the ACT Building at 403 S. 20th St. in Fairfield, and the Tuesday event will start two hours earlier at 8 a.m.

The public can converse with the architects from FEH Design throughout the day, explore solutions to the district’s needs, and evaluate growth opportunities. FEH Design will host a “casual presentation” at noon both days, and a formal presentation at 6 p.m., available both in-person and online. Residents may join these meetings via a Zoom link by entering ID: ID: 833 5515 4382, Passcode: Fairfield. They may also view FEH Design’s concepts during the day by visiting fehdesignsparks.com.

Fairfield School Superintendent Laurie Noll said the advisory task force will hold one more meeting on Nov. 30 to discuss how the spark sessions went and where the district should go from there.

“With these spark sessions, we are truly working with our community to get input,” Noll said. “It’s important for people to drop in and tell us what they feel is important to the future of our facilities.”

Noll said the spark sessions will focus on facilities, though she and the school board recognize that facilities are related to many other aspects such as curriculum. For instance, certain classes require more space than others, and the size of a classroom determines how many students it can accommodate.

For those trying to decide whether to attend the noon or 6 p.m. meetings, they should know that the evening meetings will consist of compiling the information gathered earlier that day into a presentation. For those considering dropping in during the day, they will have a chance to meet with the team of five or six architects, who will write down all the comments the public wishes to share.

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