Do you remember what the school USED
to look like before the summer "Extreme School
Makeover"?
Click here for thumbnails of the school
30th
Anniversary 2002
It was the beginning of a new decade-the 70’s. Richard Nixon was in the White House, and Ronald Reagan was governor of California. Newspapers were filled with accounts of developments in Vietnam, the ratification of the 26th Amendment, and the orbiting of Mars by the Mariner Space Probe. The opening of a new school in the farthest reaches of Yorba Linda seemed insignificant indeed, and hardly merited a paragraph. But we here today see it as a momentous event, an event, an event which changed our lives forever and had an impact on thousands of other lives as well.
Many of you probably aren’t aware that Fairmont’s first months were spent on other campuses: Grades K-3 at Glenknoll and Grades 4-6 at Bernardo Yorba, itself in its incipient stages. And it will come as no surprise that Fairmont’s early days were chaotic at worst, exhilarating at best, but in a state of flux that has never left us and is probably the key to our vitality. In an environment that has continually changed and expanded, we have never been in danger of stagnating. The staff consisted of one administrator, Marvin Dutcher, and eighteen teachers. Our bucolic surroundings contrasted sharply with today’s bustling neighborhoods. Yorba Linda was still semi-rural, with aromas from avocado and orange trees, as well as numerous horses, permeating the air on windy days. Those of us at Bernardo Yorba could actually watch cattle grazing on the nearby hills!
When the new campus was finally ready, four months later than the promised date of November 1, 1972. Envision, if you can, 500-plus students walking down Fairmont Boulevard with all their scholarly belongings in brown paper bags—only to find that the room were mislabeled and their other supplies awaited them in the wrong locations! But we all survived, good humor intact, together under one roof at last- and blissfully unaware that Fairmont would “increase and multiply” to its present proportions and student body of 1,040. We were blessed with an unforgettable music teacher, but we had no PE teacher, no library, and of course, no computer lab. What we did have were wonderful students, supportive parents from the start, and a staff dedicated to making our new school a shining star in the Placentia Unified School District and all of Orange County. In June, 1987, when our state began officially recognizing outstanding schools, Fairmont was one of the first to be honored as a California Distinguished School, and the flag we were awarded proclaims to passers-by our pride and sense of accomplishment.
Today we’d like to applaud those extraordinary people who have put so much of themselves into our common endeavor-teachers, students, support staff, custodians, parents, aides, as well as our six principals: Marv Dutcher, Gordon McKay, Stan Graham, Donna Jones, Kathy Linden, and our own Nancy Martin. We also salute those who will come after us and carry Fairmont’s torch of excellence into future generations.
Happy Birthday Fairmont!
Mrs. Joan Patakas
Oct 24, 2002