Our City Schools

I have lived in Fairborn all of my life and I am the third generation of my family to attend the Fairborn City Schools. My grandmother attended Bath Consolidated School (Central School) before and after the merger of Osborn and Fairfield and my mother is a 1973 graduate from Park Hills High School now known as Fairborn High School. I always figured that when I have children and it is time for them to start Kindergarten that they too would go to Five Points until 7th grade at which time I would find an alternative to the Fairborn City Schools.

A couple years ago the school board decided that to conserve money they would combine all of the elementary schools and close down Black Lane and Wright Elementary. I understand that this caused a problem when deciding how to incorporate the students from these schools into the remaining elementary schools. However why did the school board find it necessary to completely change the names of the schools and which grades are taught in each building. I think that having Kindergarten through 6th grade in the same school building offers a social atmosphere that helps children understand how to interact with other children of different ages. Not to mention the safe feeling many children and parents have when a younger sibling starts Pre-School, Kindergarten or 1st grade knowing that an older sibling is in the same building and sometimes either walking or riding home on the bus together. The way the schools are set up right now children from the same family in grades pre-school through 6th grade are separated between 3 different buildings. Pre-School and Kindergarten through 3rd grade is at Fairborn Primary in the Five Points building, 4th and 5th grade is at Fairborn Intermediate in the South-Palmer building on Maple Ave and 6th grade is being taught at the East elementary building now known as the Baker Middle School, East Wing. According to the Fairborn Daily Herald next year Wright Elementary will be opened up for 8 all-day Kindergarten classes which will cost parents $185 per month while pre-school and the ½ day Kindergarten classes will continue to be held at Five Points. If anyone can make since of this I would like to hear his or her reasoning. I am sure that the school board has a good excuse but I do not see how separating yet another grade is a good idea or how re-opening a building for 8 classes is worth the money they saved by closing the same school a couple of years ago.

I want to know why the Fairborn City Schools are insisting on keeping the schools split up the way they are now. How will children know how to relate to older/younger children or know what it is like to be in a school with their siblings and neighbors without having to switch schools at 4th, 6th, 7th and 9th grades? I still remember how nervous all of us were to go to Baker in 7th grade and then to the High School in 9th and now this is an experience children will have every couple years. I do not see how the inconvenience this has caused most parents is still worth the money saved. Is there anyone that sees the benefits of having the elementary schools teach Kindergarten through 6th in the same building? One benefit is that many parents want to take their 5-6 year olds to school during their first year. However, while parents used to do this at 5 different schools now they all have to squeeze in at one. I constantly get stuck in traffic around Fairborn Primary School (Five Points) because of this. It happens at 9am, 12pm and 3pm and there have been times I was stuck in the line of traffic trying to pull into the school parking lot well after 9am. So this inconvenience is not just for traffic or parents but is also causing students to be late and teachers to have to wait to start class. Giving families back the luxury of having all of their pre-teen children at the same school could help solve this problem. Two families from different parts of Fairborn would take their children to different schools the way they used to instead of having to drop their children off at the same school because their grade. Parents would not have to drop their 6th, 4th and 2nd grader off at different schools at different times. Teachers would have less trouble during certain events because they would have assistance from older students. For example, right now at Fairborn Primary there would be a limited number of adults to control approximately 1,500 children under the age of 10 in the event of an emergency.

While the whole country is being asked to conserve fuel, students that go to the Fairborn City Schools that could walk to school now have to either ride the bus or be driven by parents because they attend a school on the other side of town. In the past there would be a bus to bring home high school students around 2:30 followed by another from Baker around 2:45 and then a bus from the nearest elementary school after 3pm. Not too long ago I was stopped by two busses less than a block apart, one from Baker and one from Fairborn Intermediate (4th & 5th). The bus from Fairborn Intermediate would normally run after 3pm as a bus full of elementary school students grades Kindergarten through 6th. This is an added trip that is only necessary because of the changes in the schools.

Maybe people will read this and think it is just another rant about a successful change made by the school district. I hope more people see it as an attempt to expose the problems created by a school district that was desperate to inconvenience our city enough to pass a tax levy. If parents and residents make the school board aware of their feelings we might be able to change how things are now.