We know that maintaining safe, modern learning spaces for our students is one of our community’s top priorities. 

The Fairport for the Future 2025 Capital Improvement Project was developed with insight and input from staff members in all of our elementary and middle schools. Over the course of 12 months, a team of Fairport staff members from each of our six K-8 schools met with District administrators to identify and develop facility update priorities for each of the schools. This team brainstormed these priorities from several sources:

1. Building Condition Surveys (BCS), which are required by the state and involve a comprehensive visual examination of each school by administrators and architects
2. First-hand staff accounts and experiences in their buildings
3. Review of building aid and maximum cost allowances for each building

The District is proud to support over 2,200 students in our elementary and middle schools. As any Fairport family or graduate will tell you, each of our K-8 buildings has a culture and a character all its own, with a unique past and a unique present. It follows, then, that any project touching all six of these buildings would need to address a wide range of needs, spaces and upgrades. 

Fairport for the Future 2025 is based around the themes of responsible use of taxpayer investment in our District, the transformation of outdated spaces in our elementary and middle schools and maximizing the efficiency, operations, useful life and versatility of our kindergarten-eighth grade facilities. 

In each building, therefore, you’ll find dollars set aside to address critical health and safety Building Condition Survey (BCS) items, including:

• fire alarm system upgrades
• upgrades and replacement of original HVAC equipment
• electrical panel replacement
• building controls upgrades
• public address (PA) and clock system upgrades
• ventilation and air management updates

You’ll also see provisions for updates to some designated toilet rooms in each building, along with special attention to installing or upgrading air conditioning in large group instruction spaces or assembly spaces. Retrofitting these spaces to provide air conditioning is another community priority; it will help improve student and staff comfort and safety and will also help the District comply with NYS mandates for cooler gathering spaces during warm days.

We followed the money. The Board of Education’s priority for the project was to avoid an additional tax burden on the community. New York State has a complicated formula for identifying how much funding it will reimburse for construction projects in and around schools. Factors at play involve the age of the infrastructure, what projects have been completed in the recent past, how many students are in the building and what kinds of projects are on the table. 

This process boils down to this: the District is committed to responsibly spending the funds our taxpayers have already entrusted to us in our Capital Reserves, and we are committed to developing a project that creates NO additional tax burden to our residents. In order to do that, we calculated:

1. What are the top priorities in each school building
2. How much can the District be reimbursed for projects in each building
3. When will existing debt from previous projects be removed from the books