On June 29, Paul Otten, the district’s exiting superintendent, recommended the proposal. New Superintendent Billy Smith also supports the recommendation, calling the reconfiguration “a historic time” for the district.
“We believe all things considered, this is the best way to redistrict for the 2017-18 school year,” Smith said.
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SEE THE MAPS: Here are the proposed school building boundry maps
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The redistricting follows Fairfield's need to build additional school buildings to accommodate growth of the burgeoning district. The district is in the process of building a new Central Elementary, the new Compass Elementary and a new freshman school that will be a part of the high school campus. Voters approved the $80 million project after passing a $61 mill bond issue in 2014. The state of Ohio is paying for the balance of the project.
Once a plan is approved, that’s when Transportation Director Bill Westerbeck said he and his staff can configure how to get the 8,000 bused students to the right school in what he called “a full blown re-route of the transportation of the district.”
“Cost-wise and efficient-wise, we’re probably going to be pretty close to where we are now,” he said. “We tried to move as few students as possible.”
Even though there will be new schools being built, and relocating some grades to new buildings, Westerbeck said the district tried to have it impact as few students as possible. The actual bus route times won’t be decide when a plan is approved because starting and pickup times haven’t been approved, and a lot will be dependent on the yet-to-be-approved school building boundaries.
The proposed reconfiguration would limit building transitions students would have to experience, said Smith. Currently, a student’s path from elementary to high school includes stops at the intermediate, middle and freshman schools. He said this plan would eliminate one of those transitions, and reduce the crowded population at the middle school, and follows a recommendation of the building pride committee that met several years ago.
And Smith agreed the transition from the freshman to high school would be more like a half-transition since the new freshman will be on the same campus as the high school on Holden Boulevard.
“Everything we do should come back to do what’s best for kids,” said Smith. “We’re very fortunate to live in a community that follows the idea in doing what’s in the best interest of kids. What’s happening now is a result of taking input from our parents, from our community members in doing what’s best for our kids.”
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