Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District

The F-M School District was established in 1951, when the then independent Fayetteville, Manlius and 11 other smaller districts united. Fayetteville High School and Manlius High School remained separate until 1954, when the Manlius School became the Jr. High (7–8) for the whole district and the Fayetteville school became the Fayetteville-Manlius High School (9–12). The new Fayetteville–Manlius High School was constructed in Manlius and first opened in 1960. The former Fayetteville-Manlius High School was renamed to the current Wellwood Middle School in 1965. Manlius High School became Pleasant Street Elementary, which was closed in 1975, sold and is currently a church and daycare. From the time it was formed until the present, the district has been led by only five superintendents.

The district offices located directly west of the high school, on Route 173.

The oak tree is the symbol of the F-M School District and its heritage. A 200-year-old oak stood in front of what is now Wellwood Middle School until it was removed in the 1970s. The characteristics of the tree are reflected in the values, vision, and ambition of Fayetteville-Manlius. The tree is a steadfast, well-grounded, robust, and distinguished entity on the natural landscape. The hornet is the school mascot, and also came from the hornets who nested in the great oak tree. A historical narrative is given by former teacher and assistant principal at F-M High School, Mr. Platt Wheeler:

On the front lawn of what is now Wellwood was a monster, monster oak tree. It has since been taken down. When it was taken down, Ken Phelps, who was then the Principal of Wellwood, had some of the smaller branches cut up into small parts. Ham King, who was the industrial arts teacher, had them finished off with shellac and so forth, and cut up into round pieces and given to various people who had been in the district for awhile and were aware of everything that went by it. As a result of that oak tree, the name of the yearbook was determined to be Oak Leaves. And, at that time when there was only one junior high, the name of the junior high yearbook was called the Acorn...So, out of the oak tree came oak leaves, hornet's nest, the acorns, the alma mater, class rings, etc. These all reflected as a result of the oak tree.

— Platt Wheeler[4]

• Science Olympiad
  • 2004 National Champions[5]
  • Other National Finishes: 3rd Place, 2005, 4th Place, 2000, 2006 & 2007,[6][7][8][9] 5th Place 2009
  • Ten consecutive first place finishes at New York State Championships (2003–2012).[10][11]
• 2005 gold medal and 2006 blue ribbon, Expansion Management magazine's Education Quotient[12]
• 1999, 2000, and 2006 GRAMMY Signature School[13]
• National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Awards (Eagle Hill Middle School, 2011; Enders Road Elementary School, 2014; Mott Road Elementary School, 2020; Fayetteville Elementary School, 2021)
• Six times named one of the American Music Conference's "Best 100 Communities for Music Education in America".[14]
• The district is consistently honored by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards as having one of the best high school art programs in the country.[15] In 2006, students from F-M High School received a record number of national awards, including the prestigious National American Vision Award.[16]
• The state-of-the art observatory and planetarium are some of the only facilities of their kind on a public high school campus.
• The district consistently exceeds average state and national performances on the SAT. In addition, 99% of F-M students take the exam at least once.[17] The average scores for the Class of 2010 are as follows:

• Steve Altes (1980), humorist, graphic novelist, and co-recipient of the National Medal of Technology
• Laurie Halse Anderson (1979), New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist for the novel Speak
• Nina Fedoroff (1960), professor of life sciences at Pennsylvania State University; science and technology adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton[20]
• Sonia Kreitzer (2002), singer-songwriter known as Doe Paoro based in Los Angeles
• Jonathan Murray (1973), television producer and co-creator of MTV's The Real World, Road Rules, and The Challenge
• Tom Rafferty (1972), former professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys
• Chris Wedge (1975), Academy Award-winning filmmaker known for directing Ice Age, Robots, Epic, and Monster Trucks

Fayetteville-Manlius' six schools are spread over four separate campuses in the village of Fayetteville and just west of the village of Manlius. Elementary and middle school students attend a particular school based on their residence within the district. Students entering Eagle Hill are typically from Enders Road and a portion of Mott Road, and those entering Wellwood are from Fayetteville Elementary (Fay El) and the majority of Mott Road. Students from both middle schools go on to the high school.

The district offices, varsity athletic facilities, maintenance facilities, planetarium and observatory are located on the High School campus. The transportation department is located on the Fay El/Wellwood Campus