Fairbanks is asking the community to be part of creating a long-term facilities plan for the district.
“Please, please join us in this process and invite others in your circle to join in,” said District Superintendent Adham Schirg.
He said that over the next several years, Fairbanks will be starting a master facility planning process.
“This process is to develop plans that will attend to the educational and community needs for our students, staff, families and residents,” Schirg said.
The superintendent said the district schools are “a great source of pride in the community.”
“In order to protect our residents’ investment in our schools, we analyze the way we do business to ensure we deliver on the quality and efficiency our community expects, including our school buildings,” Schirg said.
At a recent school board meeting, Schirg said the board will hold a series of special meetings for the community to weigh in on the process.
The superintendent stressed there are “no preconceived notions or decisions made about what the future will hold once this process is complete.”
The board will host a special meeting at 5 p.m. July 13, at the high school “to listen to three to four presentations from groups to help support and facilitate our master facility planning process over the next year.”
He said the district has three reasons for going through the facility planning process. He said the plan needs to address capital improvements for things like the district’s aging systems; school safety and security; updating spaces to meet the curriculum needs and flexibility students will face in the world of agriculture, stem and evolving economic fields; and providing for the increased capacity needs of a growing district.
“In this process we will look at current facilities, visioning for future education settings, growth projections, and financing scenarios,” Schirg said in a prepared statement to the public. “This will all take place prior to the discussions of any ballot issue.”
He said the process will look at possible funding options for recommendations.
Schirg said that once the consultant is selected, the process will take at least 12 months.
“For many this will be very quick, for many it will be too slow,” Schirg said. “Our hope is to be intentional about the planning process to get input from as many students, staff, parents and community residents as possible.”
He said a “critically important” piece of the process is bringing the community together to be a part of the process.
“Our district, Fairbanks Local Schools, is a unique school district and it is something special that we all take deep pride in and this plan should reflect the community,” Schirg said.
He said the district does already have two short-term projects — an extension to the field house and traffic intervention study. He stressed the projects will be funded by existing funds and will not impact taxes.
“Both projects will support student safety and enhance positive school experiences,” Schirg said.
The district will provide two opportunities for the public to learn about the projects —6:30 p.m. Monday, July 12 and 6 p.m. Monday, July 19, before the regular Board of Education meeting.
The meetings will be held in the Middle School/High School Media Center.
District officials have said the field house will provide space for athletic teams that currently do not have permanent facilities and allow the district to provide space for youth sports teams.
“Additionally, it will provide another space for physical education or health classrooms to access during the school year,” Schirg said.
He said the traffic study is, “an attempt at coordinating multiple variables while keeping safety of students as the top priority.”
“This project has an immediate impact on the operations and experience of people engaging with our schools,” Schirg said, noting that anyone who has either dropped off or picked up students knows there is a concern.