Tom Weiser, Fairfield’s director of business operations, told the school board “the summer of 2018 will be a busy one in the Fairfield school district.”
“New roofs replace old ones at three schools, brick restoration takes place on the buildings and an elevated walkway at another is replaced,” said Weiser.
“The work is part of an ongoing preventive maintenance program for the district. North and West elementary schools, and Creekside Middle School will get new roofs this summer, while the brick on some exterior areas of East and North elementaries will be repaired (and) South Elementary is in line to have its elevated walkway replaced to address its poor condition,” he said.
In addition to preventive maintenance, the soccer stadium will receive a new face as the grass playing surface is being replaced with artificial turf, he said.
In September, Fairfield made history as a school system by opening three new schools – Central Elementary, Compass Elementary and Fairfield Freshman School – as part of an $80 million building project.
During the two years prior, said Weiser, the 10,000-student district had completed other major projects including: artificial turf installation at Fairfield Stadium, transforming the former administrative offices to the Fairfield Academy, renovating the football stadium and renovating existing space for the district’s first on-campus health center.
Other infrastructure work has included gradually replacing school buses, maintenance vehicles and building equipment such as heat pumps and chillers.
“Air conditioning is now in all schools, and our parking lots are repaired and resurfaced according to the schedule. Additionally, you may have noticed the wood gym floor installed at Crossroads Middle School, and the refinished floor in the high school arena and at Creekside Middle School, as well as the resurfaced tennis courts at the high school,” Weiser said.
Gina Gentry-Fletcher, spokeswoman for schools, said maintaining, improving and replacing the district’s physical structures is a process not always seen by the public.
“School building maintenance is an ongoing process, particularly in a large school district such as ours,” said Gentry-Fletcher. “We follow a maintenance and repair schedule developed to help us stay on track with routine maintenance and equipment replacement. This is working nicely for us, as we are able to budget for items such as school buses, new roofs and other projected needs and unexpected expenses.”
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