As Fayetteville-Manlius School District officials are considering what building projects need to be tackled next, they are also weighing if they should be approaching their long-range planning and construction projects differently.
The F-M Board of Education plans to meet at 6 p.m. Feb 2 in the Eagle Hill Middle School auditorium to be updated on discussions that have been taking place recently at the board’s facilities committee meetings. The board meeting is considered a workshop, which allows board members to informally discuss a topic as part of preparation or training. The workshop is open to the public but will not include time for public comment.
Facilities committee members have been discussing a potential capital project proposal to go before voters in December 2026 or spring 2027 that they would like input on from the full board. The buildings that have risen to the top as having the greatest needs are Enders Road Elementary School, Eagle Hill Middle School and repairs to portions of F-M High School that did not present as issues at the time of the 2021 capital project proposal.
In addition to routine and critical repairs, there are other factors at play that could impact F-M’s building needs and use in the future. The district’s schools are close to student capacity and there will be upcoming enrollment pressures, such as the development of the Micron facility in Clay and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal for universal prekindergarten programs to be expanded.
The district has also been investigating changing its school start times, and a transportation consultant is evaluating its bus routes to determine if there are efficiencies that could be found, which could impact the start times.
Facilities committee members have questioned if they should be taking a more holistic approach to long-range planning. Some districts across the state, including locally the Baldwinsville Central School District, have asked voters to approve large, phased, multi-year construction projects rather than proposing capital improvement projects every two to three years. The 2024 voter-approved $242 million Baldwinsville project spans through 2034.
Fayetteville-Manlius’ most recent Building Condition Survey, completed in 2023, identifies approximately $159 million worth of repairs and renovations across the district. The Feb. 2 workshop will give the facilities committee members a chance to bring the full board into the discussion on whether the committee should continue planning capital project proposals every few years or explore what a multi-year project could look like and how factors such as enrollment pressures and changing start times could impact the district in the future.