The impact that facility repairs or improvements would have on the Fayetteville-Manlius School District’s instructional program has emerged as the most important driver of a new long-range facilities plan for the district, according to a district press release.
At the F-M Board of Education’s Nov. 14 meeting, the board prioritized suggested criteria that consultants from School Leadership, LLC gleaned while preparing its K-12 Facilities Study report. The consultants gathered input through numerous stakeholder focus groups, community forums, building walk-throughs and an online community survey.
While the tax impact on the F-M community will remain a priority when making decisions related to district facilities, the board agreed that the instructional program should drive the decisions they make related to facilities repairs or improvements.
The board ranked the suggested criteria, in order of most importance, as follows:
• The impact of the facility repairs or improvements upon the currency and quality of the district’s instructional program.
• The impact of the facility repairs or improvements upon the safety and security of students, staff and visitors to the district’s schools.
• The extent to which the facility repairs or improvements are seen as a priority need of the district by the multiple stakeholders (homeowners, taxpayers, parents, students, and school staff).
• The impact of the facility repairs or improvements on the extent to which the resulting facilities offer environmentally sound, energy efficient and cost effective operations.
• The impact of the facility repairs or improvements upon the stability of the students’ individual school assignments and the need for any temporary or permanent change in those assignments.
• The impact of the facility repairs or improvements upon the efficiency and cost of the day-to-day and extended maintenance of the facilities.
• The impact of the facility repairs or improvements on maintaining a low property tax burden for both bond issue indebtedness and annual operating costs of the district.
The board’s ranking of the suggested criteria closely mirrors the priorities identified in the online community survey. Survey participants were asked to offer their opinion on the priorities that they believed should drive decisions on which facility upgrades are most important.
The five highest priorities (rated “Highest Priority” or “High Priority”) on the community survey were:
• Improving instructional spaces (72 percent).
• Improving safety and security (71 percent).
• Improving utilities (69 percent).
• Improving building envelope/infrastructure (63 percent).
• Ensuring a minimal local tax impact (54 percent).
To weigh in on whether you agree with the order of priorities, send feedback to the district via its Let’s Talk feature (fmschools.org/letstalk), which allows for facilities-related questions or comments to be sent directly to Superintendent Craig J. Tice.
