Most students only pass through Fairview for a brief period of time. To truly understand how Fairview has changed over the years requires the long view. Fortunately, we are lucky enough to have teachers that have been at Fairview long enough to witness changes in technology, sports, school spirit, and more. Drawing on this experience, we heard from some of these teachers who shared insight on how they have seen the school evolve over the years.

One big change to Fairview in the past thirty years is the introduction of technology. “Computers in the classroom are helpful and they are also problematic,” said Darrell Billington, a history teacher who attended Fairview as a student and has taught here for the past 20 years. “Technology has really opened up our access to information. We used to not be able to access so much information and get the answers so quick. Now we have to understand if the answers we get are actually right and true so that is a whole other set of issues.”
Dan Albritton, another teacher who attended Fairview as a kid, and has taught since 1999, thinks technology is a positive. “Technology has really allowed us to expand our teaching. Now we can show videos or little clips of an experiment. We can project things. So I think the technology is amazing.”
When talking about technology, it’s impossible to ignore the impact of cell phones on students. Walking down the hallways at lunch, waiting for class to start, students are constantly on their phones. While the teachers acknowledge the positives, they also bring up the new challenges that teens now have to face because of cell phones.
“A phone was attached to the wall back in the day,” said Billington. “Now your cell phones are kind of ‘you’, if I take your phone away from you, I haven’t just taken your phone away I have taken you, and your connection to your people away. While it’s great to have all that stuff and to be connected, I could escape it, you can’t.”
Tom McCartney, who has taught at Fairview since 1993 and has served as the head football coach for the past 30 years, has a unique perspective on school spirit. McCartney suggests that Fairview’s reputation as the top school in Boulder actually hurts the attendance at sporting events. “We have a lot of students who open enroll to Fairview (who) don’t live as close and as a result, at athletic events, we may not have the attendance that potentially other schools have,” said McCartney.

While many of the changes over the years have been positive, there’s one thing that both Billington and McCartney would like to bring back. “I would like to have our spirit back. I think we’ve been down on ourselves for a little bit and I don’t know why. I think a lot of people at our school are just awesome,” said Billington.
“I love it when school spirit is really really high and people want to be at different events. I would love to always see more people at different things,” said McCartney.