Submitted by Fairfax R-3 Superintendent
Dr. Jeremy Burright
What an incredible year this has been for the Fairfax R-3 School District. We are reaping the benefits of a new tax levy, our first year of windmill revenue has been disbursed to us, we are completing remodeling projects, and our state Annual Performance Rating was once again very strong. Our continuous success is a credit to our families, our staff, and our students. We are a community that understands how important it is to work together for everyone’s benefit.
In the spring of 2018, our local voters approved a $.75 increase to our local tax levy. This increased our levy rate for the first time in more than a decade and has allowed us to undertake district improvements that would have otherwise gone undone. While most people think of “construction” as district improvements, our improvements were not only limited to construction. We increased maintenance hours, purchased an academic diagnostic assessment system, increased pay for teachers by 1.3%, and have budgeted a reimbursement to our reserve fund to pay for the bus we bought in the 2017-2018 school year.
Altogether, the district has received more than $280,000 in new revenue this year. These funds represent the willingness of our community to support their local school and these funds are being put to good use. As we shared with the public, we entered into a lease purchase agreement this year in order to gain $450,000 in funds for building remodeling and improvements. We have replaced gym windows, refinished floors in locker rooms and bathrooms, installed new bathroom stalls in our main building and gym, installed motion sensing hardware for toilets and sinks, performed tuck-pointing, repaired our gym’s support beams, and updated the safety measures in our science lab. Additionally, we will receive a rehabilitation of the exterior arches on our gym this spring through our lease purchase and our gym roof will be completely replaced with money from a 2017-2018 insurance claim.
While renovation is something that is easy to see, facility maintenance is only a means to an end. Our most important story this year is our district achievement on our state Annual Performance Report (APR). Once again, we scored top marks with a 99.6%. We earned 100% of the points in the categories of Subgroup Achievement, College and Career Readiness, Attendance, and Graduation Rate. Our academic achievement was 98.8% which is still very good.
All scores are calculated as an average over three years of data. Traditionally our academic scores have been higher than this year’s. Changes to the test caused lower scores across the state. Even with this barrier, our students still outscored the state average of proficient and advanced students 63% to 49% on Language Arts and 69% to 42% in Math. We can continue to boast about our 100% graduation rate and 0% dropout rate. Our average ACT score was 19.1 versus a state average of 20 and national average of 20.8.
We are in the process of expanding our Project Lead the Way initiative into the middle school and hope to implement this program there as early as next fall. Project Lead the Way is a program that takes kids out of the classic learning structure in the classroom and asks them to solve problems in engineering, medicine, or even toy design. Its focus is science and all lessons in PLTW revolve around discovering scientific process and content.
Our combined Wolves co-op continues to be competitive. This year, our volleyball team finished 19-9 with a conference championship, football finished 7-4, Zack Garrison went to the state competition for cross country, boys’ basketball finished 22-4 with a 275 Conference Tri-Championship, and girls’ basketball finished 24-3 with a second place finish in the Class 1, District 16 Tournament. The Marching Bulldogs also performed admirably this year placing 3rd at the Hamburg competition, 4th at the Clarinda competition, and 2nd at the NWMSU competition.
As we look forward to spring and the 2019-2020 school year, our next steps are to continue fiscal responsibility while we find ways to continue improving our district. Maintaining a highly qualified staff through teacher pay and training are at the top of almost every district’s list of concerns and we are no exception. Fairfax R-3 also has a list of items that we were unable to accomplish through our lease purchase funding, and there are always unanticipated general operating concerns that emerge. Fairfax R-3 is a district that is healthy. Though we will always prioritize budgetary items, we have done so in a way that addressed emerging needs. With the assistance of our families and hard work of our staff, our students continue to exhibit performance that is above the curve, and our Board of Education continues to be discerning regarding the choices made for our district. It is my pleasure to work for and in a community that is so positive and understands the importance of a local, strongly supported school system.
