A Change in The Matrix

The effect of changing FHS’s student-run website to a district managed platform story and design by elliott pease and addison washburn for transferring the website’s information on to the new website over the Summer of 2022. or the first time in 11 years, the Fairview website has shifted domains and is being remade on a new domain name. This has been a shock to the Fairview community, especially the current web team who maintained the previous website.

“This website has been in continuous development since, you know, 2010, 2011,” said Michael Brennan (12), a co-leader of the Web Team. “Over that time we’ve built up a huge set of features that are very specific to the needs of Fairview, the needs of the students, the needs of the teachers.”

The Web Team believes they have a wealth of information, knowledge and experience they can provide to any effort to transition or transform the FHS website to BVSD standards-- but they haven’t had any active say in the new changes to the website.

“We tried to meet with some of the people here at Fairview who are responsible for the website, and they just flat out kicked us out of the room-[they] told us it was adults only, which I think is a little weird considering that we’re the ones that developed the website,” said Brennan.

John Osbourne, a teacher at Fairview, was the individual responsible

“So January of 2020 was when they rolled out what is called Finalsite. All the schools embraced it, because they didn’t have a choice, and Fairview was the last holdout,” said Osbourne. “Last year, the district basically said, ‘you can’t be a holdout anymore’ and ‘you do it or we’ll do it for you’.”

“The biggest reason for it [changing the websites] was something called the Office of Civil Rights,” said Randy Barber, Chief of Communications for BVSD. “They’re the ones that oversee making sure that school districts abide by the civil rights laws. And one of those things is about accessibility of websites. My understanding is that there was one person that was going after school districts and filing these, what we call OCR complaints, and making a big deal about the accessibility of those websites.”

The change of websites, combined with the non-essential role of students in the new website’s development may spell doom for the Web Team, an extracurricular that has existed since 2004.

“There isn’t really a guarantee that the web team will continue past this year,” said Austin Campbell (12), another co-leader of the web team.

Such a historic extracurricular has undeniable impacts not only on the school, but on its members themselves.

“This club was special to me because we were able to change something that would actually have an effect on the people on Fairview,” said Pranav Kadekodi (12), another co-leader of the Web Team. “It’s disheartening to see it go away, but I’m at least glad that I’ve had the chance to do something special.”

On August 4, 2022, Fairview’s new principal, Dr. Chopin, sent out her back-to-school email sharing with the Fairview community the news of the sexual assault trial of a former Fairview student, as well as information on a former Fairview student who pled guilty to three juvenile sexual assault charges.

“I will strive to share tough information with our community,” Chopin wrote, “Before you hear it in the rumor mill or media.”

“I think that in the past, there has not been action on the part of the administration,” said Anabelle Katz (12), referring to Chopin’s transparency. Chopin explains the reasoning behind her openness, saying “I addressed the situation directly and in an upfront way to acknowledge and respect the impact of the situation on our community.”

Chopin talks about the importance of transparency and honesty in her leadership position. “School culture is impacted positively when students trust adults in the building, including leadership,” she said. “Trust improves communication and collaboration between students and leadership.”