Panther Pulse

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Dear Fairbanks Families and Residents,

It has been a great start to the 2024-2025 school year in Fairbanks! We have students, staff, and community members living our mission everyday. Here are three examples of the extraordinary things our Panthers are doing.

• Showing Pride in our Past, middle school social studies teacher Claudia Bartow leads outreach efforts to our veteran community. In addition to planning our Veteran’s Day activities each fall, she connects students and staff with Honor Flight. Mrs. Bartow and veterans have now been accompanied by two Fairbanks student groups for flights to Washington D.C. What an extraordinary experience for both students and veterans!

• Members of the class of 1961 show Passion in the Present by donating a retractable American Flag for our competition gymnasium. This project will leave a lasting legacy of pride and passion held for our community, state, and nation. Stop out for a game to see it.

• FHS senior and aspiring Eagle Scout, Kadence Kise is Preparing for the Future with her Eagle Scout project. She is working to install a communication board at the FES playground making it easier for students of all abilities to communicate their wants and needs. Way to go Kadence!

There are countless examples of extraordinary feats our Panthers do every single day. We are so proud of each accomplishment and how they live our mission across Fairbanks. It is a great time to be a Panther!

For Fairbanks,

Adham Schirg

Fairbanks Local School District, Superintendent

Join Fairbanks Superintendent, Mr. Adham Schirg at Richwood Coffee each month for Community Coffee Chats. This is a great way to stay up to date with everything on campus from the latest football game to facilities.

Community Coffee Chat Schedule

• September 27 - Plain City
• October 25 - Marysville
• November 22 - Plain City

Richwood Coffee Marysville

250 E 5th St

Marysville, OH 43040

Richwood Coffee Plain City

112 S Jefferson Ave

Plain City, OH 43064

Fairbanks FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) would like to send a HUGE thank you to the incredible sponsors that donated towards their recent trip to the National Competition in Seattle, Washington.

Gold Sponsors:

Impact 60

Memorial Health

Middlefield Banking Company

Union County Foundation

WD Excavating

Fairbanks School along with community youth teams and clubs will be riding and walking through the streets of Milford Center for our 2nd Annual Homecoming Parade. Grab your family and friends and join us on September 25 at 6:00!

* Following the parade will be Powder Puff Football. The HoCo game against Triad will be on Friday, September 27 at 7pm.

FES PTO, NJHS and NHS will host Fairbanks Fall Fest on October 19th.

This event will be held behind the middle school in the space between the middle and elementary school.

Activities include: Trunk-or-Treat, Vendors/Games, 5K/Hustle and the Haunted Hallway.

The Fall Fest schedule and even details will be posted to our website and sent in building announcements in the weeks leading up to Fall Fest.

Camp Invention is a nonprofit program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame which will be offered to current FES students from June 2-June 6, 2025. View the flyer for additional information and to secure your spot. Save $50 on registration by using promo code CAMP2025 before 9/30/24.

Fairbanks Panthers Athletic Boosters will host their annual Panther Pawlooza on Saturday, November 16 at Grain Wedding & Event Center in Marysville. Tickets can be purchased online through the Fairbanks Boosters website.

Mark your calendars for April 11, 2025, as FEF hosts its second annual, "Panthers & Purses" Designer Purse Bingo fundraiser.

The Fairbanks Education Foundation (FEF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization aimed to enhance the educational experiences for Fairbanks students by funding innovative instructional opportunities that connect classroom learning with real-life applications, creating lasting impacts.

For additional information, visit the FEF Website.

August 12th we wrapped up Phase I of the master facilities plan and opened the 6 classroom addition to the elementary school. It was a fun night celebrating this milestone for our school and welcoming elementary students and families back on campus for our Back-to-School night. Families were able to tour the addition and students were able to connect with friends and meet their teachers for the new school year.

Now that Phase I is done and the new classrooms in the elementary school are open, we are able to welcome preschool students back on campus this year. Due to lack of capacity, preschool was previously located off campus at St. Paul's. It is great having our youngest Panthers back on campus with everyone else!

Fairbanks Middle School has had a strong start to the 2024-2025 school year jumping into some fun hands-on learning activities!

Students have completed activities centered around the content standards of natural selection as well as technology based lessons that include robots.

The natural selection lesson focused on the random chance of mutations and examining how they can impact an organism's ability to survive and reproduce. In this lesson, students were assigned a random mutation ranging from lack of vision or fingers to fused ankles. They then had to retrieve and store their food source in order for their species to survive. This was a hands-on experience that allowed students to understand the challenges or benefits of mutations on an organism's everyday life.

In Tech For Life, students were tasked with creating an Ozobot City based on themes ranging from Jurassic Park to the Marysville Golf Course. Students learned about the mechanics of the Ozobots, autonomous driving concepts and how to code via line following and block coding technology!

Students and new principal, Mr. Jerry Obney were welcomed back on August 14th. It's been a great start to the new school year. Students seem to be back to their school routine with a strong focus on academics and authentic learning. But, it's not all work, work, work. With Football Friday Nights, Homecoming, and other fall festivities just around the corner, there is a lot of excitement on campus!

Over summer break, our 5 officers completed a service project at Impact Station, helping to sort and organize donations they had received.

FCCLA has a big year planned with the following events: member bonfire, quarterly coffee shops in the HS, Kindness Week, Milford Center mobile market, the annual Father Daughter Dance, Christmas caroling, Earth Day park clean up, Trunk-or-Treat at the Bluebird Nursing Home, a distracted driving event, regional/state/national competition and more!

Fairbanks FCCLA recently took a trip the National Competition in Seattle, WA thanks to the generous support of our sponsors: Impact60, Memorial Health, Middlefield Banking Company, Union County Foundation, WD Excavating.

• Emersen Cochran competed in the “Career Investigation” category. She researched, job shadowed, interviewed and planned for her future career as an infectious disease doctor. She had to compile her information into a portfolio and prepare a 10 minute speech to present to a panel of judges.

• Caroline Wilson competed in the “National Programs in Action” category. She and her partner Kyle Eischen (who was unable to attend nationals) organized a funky sock sale through the organization “We Help Two.” They made $787 selling socks throughout the school year, which paid for 2 babies born in third world countries with clubbed feet to have surgery. They were also able to donate 98 pairs of socks to our local Impact Station in Marysville.

Both projects were awarded Gold!

Keagan Nicol had some big shoes to fill after Rob Riddle's retirement this past spring. He has been very busy around campus but it's easy to see that he is settling in to his new position as Fairbanks FFA Advisor and Vocational Agriculture teacher.

Fairbanks FFA members earned several Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion awards at the 2024 Union County Fair.

Fairbanks Bands are off to a great start this year! Lead by Mr. Cameron Reinbolt, Marching Band is working hard on this season's show, "Woodland Voices". Their first performance of the year at the football season opener was a success! If you missed it, you'll have the chance to see it again at any of this seasons football games as well as multiple OMEA competitions.

All band members have been been busy preparing for the first concert of the 24-25 school year. The fall concert will be held on October 29 at 7pm featuring Middle School, High School and Marching Band members.

The Master Facility Plan started in 2021 with a task force set out to develop a plan to address the 3C’s of Facilities: Capacity, Curriculum and Capital Improvements. This multi-phase plan has made tremendous strides to improve the 3C’s. Phase I was completed this summer with the Elementary School addition. Portions of Phase II are currently in progress. Below is a preview of work scheduled for 2025:

• High School HVAC Replacement - A more efficient and modern HVAC will replace the existing system creating a better learning environment for students. Part of this replacement includes full building window replacement in both the middle and high school.

• Secure High School Entrance - Focusing on security, the high school entrance will be reconfigured to create a secure entrance similar to what we have at the elementary.

• Updated Restrooms - High school restrooms will be renovated adding capacity for daily use. Additionally, the high school staff lounge will be relocated and opened to create two single family restrooms addressing capacity needs for both students during the school day and families during after school events.

• Additional Renovations - Due to continued district growth, the district is looking at spaces where additional classroom space could be created. These plans will be shared as they are finalized over the next two months.

• Campus Access Road - Construction on a new access road is scheduled for early 2025. The access road will create a new traffic pattern addressing safety concerns by alleviating back ups on State Route 38.

Our district website, FairbanksPanthers.org has a ton of useful information from school updates, facilities planning, parent resources to follow student progress or add money to lunch accounts and community flyers for local sports leagues and volunteer opportunities. Please see below for some links that may be of interest.

• Community Connect - for information and dates of upcoming events like community coffee chats.
• Community Flyers - Local information including mental health resources, free tutor opportunities, family fun events, and sports leagues.
• Who Do I Contact? - Know who to contact for questions or concerns you may have.
• For Fairbanks Blog - Messages from the Superintendent
• Athletics - Purchase tickets and view sports schedules