Fairfield Starts School Year With More Teachers, Less Technology and Unresolved Issues

Fairfield starts its school year Thursday with 17 additional teachers despite a $3 million cut to its proposed budget last spring; one school under construction and another soon to be under construction; a new superintendent of schools; less technology than the board wanted back in January; and a host of unresolved issues that will affect students at this time next year.

But the first day of school is always exciting, and Board of Education Chairman Sue Brand said Wednesday that the start of the 2010-11 academic year in Fairfield is no exception.

"The beginning of the school year is always full of excitement...and hope. This year, Dr. Title joins us in welcoming the students and the faculty to the school year 2010-11. Special thanks to all involved with the Stratfield Building Committee. They are opening on time, although they are under construction," Brand said.

Town Building Official James Gilleran said Wednesday that he had issued a temporary certificate of occupancy to Stratfield School, which is undergoing a $17.6 million renovation and expansion, and that the temporary CO did not include the school's lower level, where the Melville Avenue elementary school's library, computer lab and four of its classrooms are located. The eight-classroom addition is ready for occupancy, and Malkin Construction Corp. of Stamford, the general contractor on Stratfield's renovation, plans to renovate existing classrooms and build an administrative wing over the course of the school year, according to Al Kelly, chairman of the Stratfield Building Committee.

The other school slated for construction, Fairfield Woods Middle School, still needs approval for its $24.2 million expansion and renovation from the Town Plan and Zoning Commission. An application to amend town zoning regulations to allow the middle school's capacity to expand from 650 students to 840 students and to allow an auditorium to be built likely will be presented at a public hearing of the commission in October.

John Fallon, the Fairfield Woods Middle School Building Committee's attorney, said this week that the project also requires approval from the town's Conservation Department because the overall 25-acre property, which also includes Jennings School, has wetlands. Conservation department employees said the wetlands aren't near where school construction is planned so they plan to issue a "certificate of wetlands conformance," or over-the-counter permit, for the project. If a resident objects and wants a public hearing, the town's Inland Wetlands Commission would have to decide whether to hold a hearing or uphold the department's decision.

Fairfield's 16 public schools start the year with 17 additional teachers and 11 more paraprofessionals due to an enrollment that was expected in January to climb from 10,032 to 10,161. The final enrollment anticipated for the new school year wasn't available.

The Board of Education in January had adopted a $144.6 million budget for the fiscal year that started July 1, but the Board of Selectmen cut $3.1 million from that proposed budget, and the Board of Finance restored only $100,000. The Representative Town Meeting couldn't add money to the budget, so the $3 million cut remained in place.

Even with a $3 million cut, the school board's budget rose $2 million, or 1.4 percent, from the $139.6 million that funded the public schools in the 2009-10 school year.

The school board managed to avoid eliminating additional teachers and paraprofessionals to cope with the $3 million cut by approving a $394,347 reduction to its proposed technology budget, which eliminated, among other things, 55 laptop computers for the elementary schools, wireless capability in the middle schools and a Smart Boards initiative.

The school board also made up the $3 million difference through a $1.6 million reduction in costs for medical insurance for school district employees, which was based on its medical retention fund balance; a $153,588 reduction in its proposed maintenance budget; a $328,500 reduction in special education by assuming a higher state reimbursement rate on excess costs; and $255,600 in savings due to seven more retirements than were anticipated in January, since new hires are paid less than those with many years of experience.

Brand said Wednesday that she did not believe the school board's class-size guidelines of no more than 23 students in kindergarten through second grade; no more than 25 students in grades 3 to 5; and no more than 28 students in grades 6 through 12 had been breached.

While Fairfield's more than 10,000 public school students start tackling homework and sports practices again, a lot of action will take place outside the schools, as the Board of Education this fall debates district-wide issues that include a new middle school feeder pattern, so Fairfield Woods Middle School's expanded capacity can be filled in 2011-12; revisions to a plan for capital improvement projects at elementary schools and high schools; a potential redistricting at the elementary school level; a revised plan to reduce McKinley School's racial imbalance; a proposal to require students to be breathalyzed before they enter school dances; and results of an operational audit of the board's budget.

The Board of Selectmen recently approved $100,000 so the town's Special Projects Standing Building Committee can hire an architect to begin renovations at Roger Sherman School, a project that's capped at about $1.6 million due to flood plain regulations, and Flatto said Monday night that he'd like the Board of Education to spend no more than $19 million on capital improvements at the schools over the next five years ($15 million if anticipated state reimbursements are included.)

It appears the school board, if it adheres to that figure, will have to make some tough choices, as the district's Central Office, over the next five years, had planned additions and renovations at Riverfield School, Mill Hill School, Holland Hill School and Dwight School and had planned to expand the cafeterias at Fairfield Ludlowe High School and Fairfield Warde High School so the enrollment bubble now entering middle school will be accommodated when it reaches high school. The board also wanted to replace the roofs at Warde High during that time frame, and the Board of Finance's vote on $3 million to replace windows at Ludlowe High is still pending.

The Central Office's plan for capital improvements at the schools will be revised based off new enrollment projections that the board expects to receive later this year.