ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 31, 1996 TAG: 9609030042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO PHILIP
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Richard Terry couldn't wait. He got up at 6 a.m. Friday and put on new clothes for the day he had been anticipating all summer. He was going to see his new school, meet his teachers and learn his schedule for the coming year.
"He was really excited and looking forward to it," said Mildred Webb, his grandmother. "He kept talking about it Thursday."
A few minutes before Richard planned to leave with his mother for the school Friday morning, they got a call from his father, who had gone to work.
His father had learned there would be no orientation session for Richard or any of the other the other sixth-graders at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Roanoke.
They would have to wait a week. The opening of the school, which has been closed for a year for a $6 million overhaul, had been delayed because the work wasn't finished.
Richard and his family hadn't heard the news.
He was disappointed, but his mother, Karen, was angry that school officials had waited so late to tell parents that the school wouldn't open Tuesday when the rest of the city students will return to classes.
"They should've known before 3 p.m. Thursday that the school wasn't going to be ready," Karen said. "I didn't see it on the news last night, and I didn't read the newspaper this morning. We didn't know it had been delayed."
She said the delay will be an inconvenience for her because she had planned to take off four hours from her job at Roanoke Memorial Hospital on Friday to go with her son to the Jackson orientation.
She also was scheduled to be off Tuesday and Wednesday next week to make sure that Richard and her two younger elementary school children caught the right bus and didn't have any problems starting a new year.
"Now I'll have to do it all over again," Karen said. "I'll still be off for my two smaller children, but I'll have get off next Friday for Richard's orientation and Sept. 9 when Jackson opens."
Some other students also failed to get the word. About a dozen sixth-graders showed up at Jackson on Friday for the orientation.
"We explained to them about the delay. We gave a couple of them a look at the building, but the others left," said Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for operations.
"We've had a few complaints, but most people seem to understand," he said.
Kelley said he understands why some parents might be upset about the delay, but school officials had thought the building would be finished. "We didn't want to delay the opening if it was going to be ready, so we waited until we knew."
Principal Helen Townsend said she believes that it was best to postpone the opening, but she and the teachers are eager to get the students into the new school.
"I'd love to have it all up and ready by Tuesday, because a school is not a school without the children," Townsend said. "Our teachers are champing at the bit to get going."
But she thinks it might have been difficult to hold classes while construction workers were putting the finishing touches on the building.
Jackson's enrollment is projected at 545 this year, including 185 sixth-graders. Jackson's students attended other middle schools during the past year while the school was closed.
The school was a beehive of activity Friday as carpenters, electricians and other workers continued the rush to complete the project. They are installing light fixtures, interior door windows and lockers, putting down carpet and tile, laying bricks in walkways and finishing other items.
Kelley said the contractor and subcontractors have promised to have the work complete by next Friday.
Some students didn't mind the week's delay, though they aren't enthusiastic about the idea of extra homework to make up the missed days.
"I'll have to wait another week to find out my teachers for the year, but I'm not really disappointed," said Mark Deaner, a seventh-grader.
"I like having an extra week," Deaner said. "I get to stay home, watch television and maybe go to the library."
Because the city's school year includes more hours than the state requires, the Jackson students won't have to make up the four days of school they will miss.
But the students will be given additional homework to make sure they cover all of the required course material, Townsend said.
When the Jackson students return to classes, she said, teachers will combine activities to help them make up the lost time.
"This extra week will give our teachers time to redesign assignments and lessons to cover everything."
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