By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor

FAIRFIELD - Partnerships involving educators, parents and the community help children receive a better education.

That was the message Thursday when Fairfield Schools superintendent Robert Farrell gave the annual State of the Schools address at the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

"We educate better when we do it together as a community," Farrell told a group of about 80 businessmen and women.

The district has embraced seven goals for the year and follows a strategic plan developed jointly by educators, business leaders, parents and others, he said.

The goals range from becoming better at welcoming students, parents and community into the schools, to keeping children safe, and to making sure every child learns and is successful in school.

To do that, the district has done things such as providing a translator at parent-teacher conferences for Hispanic families, mentoring students at risk of failing, and bringing in community members to tutor elementary students.

"Encouraging partners is a win-win situation," Farrell said. "I think the person who comes in gets as much as we do."

Farrell cited the district's leap in graduation rate, which went from 81.4 percent in 2001 to 90.3 percent last year.

"We made huge leaps, and this was not a trick of statistics or anything else," Farrell said.

What it did take was working one on one with students to develop a plan to help them graduate.

"We mentored them one at a time. We made contracts with them, focusing on their strengths and how they could use those to graduate."

A program that the district has found helpful in improving academics, Farrell said, was the Raising Our Achievement Results effective schools model.

Under ROAR, model teachers build a calendar of instruction that specifies what concept or skill will be learned at a particular time of the year. Once the material is taught and students tested, teachers review the data and then provide additional help for students who didn't master it or enrichment for those who did.

"It's making a difference in our schools," Farrell said.

He also talked about the need for the 2-mill permanent improvement replacement levy residents will vote on May 6. It would bring in about $2 million each of the next five years to fund specific improvements outlined in a plan.

Since the first levy was adopted in 1978, the district's square footage has doubled to about 1 million. The levy would increase taxes about $45 on a $100,000 home.