About Fairview

Fairview Highlights
In the early 1970s the Cincinnati Board of Education developed magnet schools to promote desegregation and offer area parents choices in education for their children. The magnet schools in addition to the standard curriculum focused on a special interest, skill or teaching technique and accepted applications from all over the city of Cincinnati.

Fairview is Cincinnati's second oldest magnet school. It began with the addition of two first and second grade classrooms in neighborhood schools at Fairview and Schiel in 1974. Following WW1, this was the first public school program in the U.S. to offer intensive instruction in German to primary pupils.

Fairview History
Fairview School was built in 1888 in the Romanesque Revival style with a brick-paved schoolyard to hold 750 neighborhood students. The Board of Education's annual report that year stated that the building would "supply a much-needed want in a part of the city which is rapidly improving, as well as being a credit to the Board and an ornament to its surroundings." The curriculum included Household Arts, Industrial Arts, Kindergarten, and, until WW1, German. An auditorium was created on the third floor by raising a large blackboard between rooms 301 and 302 into the ceiling. The custodians lived in apartments in the attic of the school until it was realized that this was a fire hazard. The school was becoming crowded by the turn of the century, so a temporary structure called the colony was constructed (and used until 1958). Less than 20 years after the first temporary structure, another temporary building was added. Still, by the 1950s the building was so crowded that the lower grades were being taught in local churches. Crowding was finally relieved in 1958 with the dedication of what was known as the Fairview School Annex, now called the "new building." This building was only a part of a planned new building, with the "old building" scheduled to be torn down. The changing neighborhood and the movement of young families to the suburbs caused a decline in the number of children in the neighborhood however, and this plan was not implemented.

In the early 1970s the Cincinnati Board of Education was developing alternative schools to promote desegregation and to offer area parents choices in education for their children. The alternative schools, in addition the standard instruction focused on a special interest or skill or teaching technique and accepted applications from all over the city. The German-English Bilingual Alternative program, Cincinnati's second alternative school, began in 1974 with the opening of two 1st and 2nd grade classrooms at the neighborhood schools of Fairview and Schiel. These schools were chosen because of their central location and proximity to each other, as well as for their availability of space. The program was the first in a public school in the United States to offer primary pupils intensive second language instruction.

The parents, a strong group from the beginning, formed a long-range planning committee in 1976. The goals of the committee were three-fold: continuation of the program beyond the sixth grade, the establishment of a non-profit foundation (GEBAS) and the development of an exchange program for trips abroad.

Originally, the majority of parents wanted an independent school with grades K-8, but were unable to get Board of Education approval, as there were no K-8 schools in the district at that time. Unwilling to have the program end with the 6th grade, the German parents began meeting with the French and Spanish alternative schools to promote the idea of a middle school (grades 6-8) for all three languages. In the spring of 1978, the Board of Education gave approval for a language middle school.

In 1978 Fairview was closed as a neighborhood school and became an alternative school only. The middle school opened in the fall of 1979 at Schiel. French and Spanish students arrived the following year. In the spring of 1981, the first German students graduated from the 8th grade. Schiel continued to house a neighborhood program until the fall of 1982, when it became the Cincinnati Bilingual Academy. In 1985 the program moved to Sawyer School.

The establishment of an exchange program for 7th graders was a high priority of the program, but sending 12 and 13 year old children abroad had just not been done before. The students' knowledge of the culture of Germany as well as their proficiency in the language, was instrumental in achieving the objective. Amid great excitement, the first group traveled to Donauseschingen, Germany, in the spring of 1980, with the first group of German students arriving here two years later.

In 1982, Fairview officially became the Fairview German Bilingual School. During the 1994-95 school year, Fairview German Bilingual School changed it's name to the Fairview German Language School to more accurately reflect it's program. In the fall of 1995, Fairview added 6th grade classes. The school has consistently ranked among the top in the city scholastically and in 1986 was one of 23 Ohio public schools to be recommended for National Department of Education recognition.

Fairview School is currently one of five Cincinnati Public Schools to receive the state’s highest rating. Schools that receive an excellent rating must meet or exceed performance, attendance, yearly progress and, where applicable, graduation standards. Fairview, a district-wide magnet school, represents a broad range of student abilities and backgrounds. A strong coalition of teachers, administrators and parents work together to support every student and encourage excellence individually and as a whole. As the entire Fairview community celebrates the recognition that the excellent rating brings, they will work to maintain and improve their record of success in the years ahead.

Fairview German Language School is currently located at 2232 Stratford Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio, however Fairview will be moving to a brand new building at a new location slated to open in 2007 located just a few miles away on the corner of Clifton Avenue and McAlpin Street in Clifton. To learn more about the new building and the progress being made of the new facility, click here.