Massapequa's own Fairfield Elementary turned 100 this week!

Earlier this week, Fairfield Elementary School in Massapequa, NY turned 100 years old, first opening back in 1925. Class of 2014 graduate Ryan Pagano discusses this news and his experience as a Fairfield student from 2007 to 2014.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to pag's Perspective with your host Ryan Pegano, getting
this out today before the end of the week and
before we hit the Memorial Day weekend, which, by the way,
a happy Memorial Day. Especially to all those who have
served and to those who are no longer with us.
Thank you for everything that you have done for this

(00:20):
great and wonderful country. It's why we're enjoying all the
freedoms that we have right now, and that would not
have been possible without your bravery and commitments. So a
big thank you, and I want to take this episode
today to my hometown, Massapequa, a very big law enforcement
and military community, and also the hometown to some man

(00:45):
with the podcast by the name of Ryan Pegano podcasting radio.
Never mind really using your voice as a career that
seemed so pie in the sky in my days as
an elementary schooler at Fairfield Elementary where character leaves its
mark God, I remember singing that song constantly throughout my

(01:07):
elementary school days. It was kind of like the low
key anthem, the school song, if you will, embodying the
school spirit that us young kids had at that point,
and I guess it really helped us to have an
appreciation for our community, the massipucle community, especially as we
went into high school and being introduced into the Chiefs fandom.
Well before that became as controversial as it is now,

(01:30):
and I mean a it still is. There's now a
new fundraiser called Save the Chief to try to preserve
the Massapequa Chief's name. And this coming is the Massapequa
School District filed an amended complaint against the state following
a law that was already passed where any school with
Native American themed logos, anything associating with Native American culture,

(01:54):
they have to change all that by next month June,
or else they risk losing their state funding. And if
you could believe this, President Trump has taken aside posting
to Truth's social last month quote, the school board and
virtually everyone in the area are demanding the name be kept.
It has become the school's identity and what could be
wrong with using the name chief. I don't see the

(02:15):
Kansas City Chiefs changing their name anytime soon. By copy
of this Truth, I am asking my highly capable Secretary
of Education, Linda McMahon, to fight for the people of
Massapequa on this very important issue. Long live the Massapequa Chiefs,
and it's really no wonder why so many people in
my high school class, the class of twenty twenty, are
very against the chief's name being just completely erased from

(02:38):
history altogether. It's what they grew up with, It's what
their hometown means to them. In some cases, if anything,
it's honoring the very people who had first inhabited that land.
But now it's on the verge of being erased. But
if you didn't want this many people around my age
to be very against it, then maybe they shouldn't have

(02:58):
instilled this kind of school spirit back when we were
young kids, which is why I still have the Fairfield Song,
the Fairfield Anthem still ingrained in my head. The reason
I bring up my experience at Fairfield Elementary School today
is because this week the school turned one hundred. How
about that Fairfield Elementary celebrating its one hundredth anniversary on

(03:21):
Wednesday with students, alumni, staff, and community members honoring a
century of education. It originally opened back in nineteen twenty
five as the Massapequa Avenue School, originally hosting just eighty
students in five classrooms, and for context, when I graduated
from there in twenty fourteen. My graduating class I think
was probably a little over one hundred and that's just

(03:44):
in one grade. Now try doing that from kindergarten all
the way through sixth grade at least at that time.
Now it's K through five instead of K through six.
And you know what, I actually did not know about this,
but it almost closed in the eighties. Now I know
there some realigning of the massa Peaka School district in
the mid to late eighties when they initially closed what

(04:07):
is now Berner Middle School down used to be a
high school. Shout out to my dad class of eighty
six at Berner High School. Then it turned into a
middle school where I went in seventh and eighth grade.
There really was a lot more change back in the
day in Massapequa, at least compared to now. And a
shout out by the way to the Long Island Press
for their article on this, and also for a good

(04:29):
amount of information that I didn't even know about the
school in the first place. The same school that I
went to from kindergarten through sixth grade really is some
full circle stuff. It's pretty much where I started to
first learn to not be the schist person in a room,
and although I might not have known it at the time,
it was the first few bricks that got laid in

(04:50):
my career in radio all the way over there, all
those speech classes at Fairfield Elementary. So Fairfield, a big
thank you for allowing me to do what I love now.
And it also is great seeing which current and former
staff were shouted out in that Long Island Press article,
a lot of which had coincided with my time at

(05:11):
the school. Jason Esposito, Lori Dano, both former principals when
I was there. They were in attendance for the celebration. Also,
missus Landman, one of my former teachers, giving a quote
in that article to quote, it's a true honor. This
celebration is beautiful. She was one of my kindergarten teachers,
so she was one of my kindergarten teachers in seven
o eight, so that was very special to see her

(05:33):
be mentioned in the article. So yeah, Fairfield now officially
one hundred years old. Here's to another one hundred years,
and a big thank you to all of my teachers
from Fairfield to supported me in my time as a
student there, and even the teachers that I still keep
in touch with every now and then who still continue
to support me in my radio journey really means a lot.

(05:56):
And Fairfield turning one hundred something that really means a
lot to the massive Pequod community. I love giving my
perspective on these kinds of things, especially when it just
hits so hard to my local community. It's what Pack's
perspective is all about. Baby