Above, Fairbanks Board President Mark Lippencott accepts a gift of baked goods from one of the students who uses the district’s new Life Skills Lab. The district held a ribbon cutting for the facility as part of Monday’s board of education meeting. The lab has kitchen, laundry and bathroom facilities. It is meant to help teach daily living skills to students with special needs. (Journal-Tribune photo by Mac Cordell)
The Fairbanks School Board held a ribbon cutting Monday for the district’s new Life Skills Lab.
“I think it is an excellent opportunity for the kids and something they can use,” said Superintendent Adham Schirg.
He said the facility makes it easier to teach “daily life skills” to students with special needs. The lab includes a kitchen, laundry facilities and a bathroom.
“They love the room and coming to school,” Teacher Kristi Payne told the board.
Students in the room said they enjoy cooking and baking best in the new room.
Payne said she appreciates the board recognizing that teaching students independent living skills is important to students with special needs need and that they need to learn in a different environment.
“It is not always easy for other people to see the need,” she explained.
She presented a plaque dedicating the room to “all of the students and all of you who made it happen.”
“It has been a long time coming, but it has turned out great,” Payne said.
Board President Mark Lippencott said board meeting nights, “don’t get much better than going down there.”
Lippencott has said that in the past, facilities have limited the life skills the district was able to teach. He said that as officials look to the future, the ability to teach these skills will be important.
Board member Brian Phelps said the lab shows what is capable in the existing high school/middle school building.
“When you look at that space, in a building some have said is not conducive to education, I think you can make space conducive to education, whatever you decide.”
Officials said they initially went to bid on creating the lab. When the bids came back higher than expected, some of the work was done by district employees and other work was done by local contractors.
“I think the whole process went well,” Lippencott said.
In other business:
– Students in John Finney’s Psychology class made a presentation to the board. The class was recently invited to the Ohio Statehouse as part of the Teens Behind the Wheel day, dedicated to young drivers’ safety.
“Typically, safe driving campaigns are surrounding urban drivers,” student Kalor Greve said, noting that rural drivers often face different challenges and distractions.
Class advisor Brittany Shoots-Reinhard said Ohio Department of Transportation Director Jack Marchbanks was in attendance and was impressed.
“Some of the ideas he thought were imminently doable,” Shoots-Reinhard said.
She said the governor has made teen driving safety a priority. Finney said the Fairbanks students served as a prototype for what teens think about legislation.
Schirg said he was impressed with local students who were willing to speak about something they are passionate about in an environment that, “can be intimidating.”
– Schirg said the district received a safety grant for $4,700 from the Ohio Attorney General.
“We are evaluating needs and will be spending these funds over the next several months,” Schirg said.
– Schirg updated the board on state legislation. Schirg explained that state officials have expanded a program that allows local students to go to private schools. Under the program, if the public school in an area fails to achieve certain benchmarks based on state testing, students can apply for a voucher to go to a private or charter school. Money for that student would be taken from the local district’s state funding. Schirg said the district scores have not changed, but the state rules have. He said that in the past, Fairbanks did not meet the criteria for students to qualify for voucher assistance.
“Under the new criteria, we would,” Schirg said.
He said that he does not have “a great fear,” but said the legislation is, “something we need to keep an eye on and talk to our local legislators about.”
Lippencott said the Sandusky school district failed to meet the older criteria. He said about 300 students left the district.
“We have been impacted slightly so far, but it can really impact a district,” Lippencott said.
Schirg said this reinforces the need for teachers to connect with their students.
“The reason we have to connect with students is that in a choice-based environment, you have to establish those relationships,” Schirg said.