The Fayetteville-Manlius School District Board of Education plans to continue discussing a new long-range facilities plan during public meetings on Dec. 8 and 12, including weighing five suggested options from the district’s facilities consultants.
Educational consultants School Leadership, LLC identified for the board’s consideration five possible options informed by stakeholder focus groups, community forums, building walkthroughs and an online community survey. The approaches include fixing only the identified infrastructure needs in each building without making programmatic enhancements to holistically rethinking school climate and culture and the programmatic needs of students for generations to come.
At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, the board’s facilities committee, which includes the full board, will meet at Mott Road Elementary School. The board plans to discuss the consultant’s five suggested options and any additional hybrid options from among the five original choices.
The board has a regular board meeting scheduled 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 12 at Eagle Hill Middle School and anticipates discussing facilities, including the aforementioned options in more detail, that evening.
An additional 6:30 p.m. Dec. 13 facilities committee meeting is scheduled, but the board anticipates entering into a private exempt session with its attorney on another matter. No public business is planned, and a location has not yet been finalized. The district website, fmschools.org, will be updated once a space is secured.
While each option identified by the consultant assumes relatively stable enrollment as projected, most are not informed by clearly-defined instructional needs, which the district would identify through a Long-Range Instructional Plan. These factors would influence the degree to which any of the options might be viable, the consultants stated in their K-12 Facility Study report. Pros and cons of each option are identified in the report, which can be found at fmschools.org/let’stalk, where individuals may submit questions or feedback to the district.
Below are the five options the consultants presented to the board in the facility study report.
Option 1: Complete necessary repairs to each school as estimated on the Building Condition Survey and Facility Evaluation.
Option 2: Complete necessary repairs to each school as estimated on the Building Condition Survey plus additions to each building to accommodate program enhancements.
Option 3: Consolidate to one middle school by repurposing Wellwood; complete repairs to the other five schools; add classrooms at each elementary school and enlarge Eagle Hill to accommodate expanded enrollment under current grade-level configuration (grades 5-8).
Option 4: Consolidate to one middle school by repurposing Wellwood; complete repairs to the other five schools; add classrooms at each elementary school to accommodate an additional grade level (grades K-5) and enlarge Eagle Hill to accommodate enrollment in grades 6-8.
Option 5: Repurpose Wellwood; construct a new high school building; convert the existing F-M High School into a single middle school (or two smaller middle schools within one building); decommission and demolish Enders Road and transform Eagle Hill into an elementary school (for the Enders Road attendance area); complete some upgrades to Mott Road, Fayetteville Elementary and Eagle Hill (including a retro-fit for elementary students).
To weigh in on the options, or any facilities planning issue, visit the F-M Let’s Talk! webpage at fmschools.org/let’stalk.ext
