About Fairland Elementary School

Picture of school

Fairland Elementary School is located in the southeastern part of Montomery County in Maryland. It has been at its new location since August of 1993, but it has already outgrown its space. We presently have nearly 600 students from grades K-5, along with 2 Special Education classes. Fairland's very diverse student body has representatives from many socio-economic levels, racial groups, and cultural backgrounds. Our black and hispanic population is about 50% at this time. This allows Fairland to take advantage of the rich and diverse backgrounds of our students and staff. The very active PTA supports the school in many ways, involving many community establishments and parents from all student groups.

The organization of classes varies with grade level. For the most part, lower grades are self contained with sharing among the teachers as they deem appropriate. In the upper levels, 4th and 5th, the classes are departmentalized, with teachers specializing in particular content areas. The students change classes but the classes are located very close to each other. Flexible scheduling is called for quite often and communications among the teachers at these levels is facilitated with common planning time and having known and worked with each other for several years.

The History of Fairland Elementary School

There has been a Fairland School in this immediate area since 1874. Back then, it was a one room school that served the small farming community of Fairland. Located on the crest of a hill, near the present day intersection of Fairland Road and Old Columbia Pike, this one-room structure was built of wood shingles with a stone floor and housed eight grades supervised by one teacher. Since Fairland was a farming community, the number of students varied depending on planting and harvesting. There were as many as 50 students in the winter months.

In 1918, the community had grown enough to warrant building a high school. Fairland High School, a two-story, four classroom structure, was built on the southeast corner of Fairland Road and Old Columbia Pike. Until the new school was completed in 1920, classes were held in the homes of community families. Mr. Maxwell Burdette of Damascus was principal of Fairland from 1919 to 1932. This new building served as a school for children in first to eleventh grades until June of 1932. At that time, grades eight to eleven were discontinued. High school students from this area attended Sherwood or Silver Spring High School until Montgomery Blair replaced Silver Spring High School in 1934. Fairland School at that time added a modern all-purpose room and two classrooms.

As the Fairland community continued to grow, classes were doubling up in basement rooms whose floors flooded in the Spring. Four more classes were added in 1952 and in 1960, an all-purpose room and a kitchen were added. In 1963, nine classrooms were added. In 1970, eight new classrooms and a library were added. This was the last addition to the old building before in was replaced. It is presently being used as a holding school for schools under renovation. The Fairland Elementary School is located at 14315 Fairdale Road, just off of Briggs Chaney Road -- about a mile away from the previous location.  Feel free to give the school a call at 301-989-5658 if you would like to arrange a visit.

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