Fairmont East High School, located in the eastern part of the city of Kettering, Ohio, USA, was opened in 1963 as a second campus style high school in the town. The existing school was renamed Fairmont West High School. Fairmont West retained the Dragons mascot and colors, while Fairmont East adopted the Falcons mascot and the colors Columbia blue and red. In the 1970s, the vocational facilities at Fairmont West were expanded as the Kettering Fairmont Career Tech Center. But overall enrollment began to decline in the school district. After 20 years, the Fairmont East campus was converted to a middle school and the seven buildings at the Fairmont West campus were connected with 35 new classrooms and expansion of facilities such as the library/media center, cafeteria and gymnasium. For the first time since the 1940s, the high school was again a four-year high school. From 1970 to 1976, Fairmont East rivaled Fairmont West. Coached by Neal Charske, the cross country teams reached the State championships three times and the Western Ohio League several times in a row. The track and field athletics team reached the State district championship three times in a row. In 1972, Charske, put together a team that ran for 24 hours in August with the Amateur Athletic Union as witness to the event. Each man ran a mile and passed the baton, rotating in sequence through the night beginning at 7 p.m. in the evening and ending at 7 a.m. in the morning, accumulating enough miles at the end of 24 hours, to set the world record for a 7-man relay team. Fourteen-year-old Thomas A. Link was holding the baton when he crossed the finish line to break the world record with two hours remaining. The rest of the team added more miles in those two hours to surpass the world record. Each member of the team averaged 5 minutes and 22 seconds per mile, approximately 22 miles each. In fall 1983, the consolidated school reopened as Kettering Fairmont High School, with students from both East and West joining as the Fairmont Firebirds, taking the flight of the Falcon and the fire of the Dragon. The new school colors are navy blue, silver and white. The current enrollment is about 2600.
