THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408300176
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story Back to School '94
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINDSOR LENGTH: Long : 160 lines
LIBRARIAN NANCY PARKER is impressed with the communications, the technology, the view from her library and the unique design.
Brian Camden, senior construction manager with Powell Management Associates Inc., is impressed with the inch-thick, sun sensitive, hermetically-sealed windows that line every room in the building and with the security and fire locator systems.
Fred Stanton, Windsor Elementary principal who stopped by for a visit one morning last week, likes the entrance.
``Look at that,'' he said, spreading his arms across the panorama of the new Windsor High/Middle School. ``It looks like a Renaissance palace, doesn't it? All it needs is a couple of fountains.''
WINDSOR HIGH PRINCIPAL Bill Worsham is absolutely fascinated by it all. And frankly, he can't stop smiling.
``It's like `Star Wars,' isn't it?'' Worsham said, as a wide grin spread across his face while he stood beneath the lights on the stage of the 500-seat auditorium.
``It's better than `Star Wars.' We should be able to put the Virginia Symphony up here. Maybe Windsor can finally have a little theater. I wish I were doing it all over again. I wish I were going back to high school.''
Maybe that's what they all wish.
After all, this crisp, spanking new, 850-student combination of a school for middle school and high school students is something, especially when you compare it to the crumbling facility students in Windsor had been housed in for decades.
THE FIRST DAY of school is next Tuesday but town and school officials and residents of the surrounding community have been stopping by for weeks, Worsham said, just to get a glimpse of the progress, to make certain the school would open on schedule.
Construction chief Camden was sure of that. There had been some delays caused by weather but, ``Oh, yeah, we'll be open,'' he said. ``We're waiting for countertops now. As soon as they get here, we'll be all right.''
A new school in the small community of Windsor is something to celebrate, of course. But it's a curiosity as well.
NEVER BEFORE HAS the middle/high school concept been used in Hampton Roads, where students of different ages will share a common building and common campus but seldom cross each other's paths.
``Both middle and high school students will enter at the bus entrance,'' librarian Parker explained while conducting a tour. ``To your left is the high school; to the right is the middle school. There will be some shared areas, but the students won't be there at the same time.''
THAT'S ALL BECAUSE of scheduling, Worsham said, and it hasn't been easy, especially with block scheduling coming to the county high schools for the first time this year.
Classes for high school students will be longer, but fewer. School officials hope it will allow the high school students to concentrate better, take a greater selection of courses, repeat less. And it will create much less confusion in the hallways, when the high school students charge through the halls about half as many times each day as they have in the past.
``Getting the bells set has been a challenge,'' Worsham said. ``We don't want all of the bells ringing at the same time. We're hoping to work it out.''
PARKER, WAS THE first Windsor High faculty member to move in. She packed up, trudged across the still-unfinished parking lot with her burden of books, and staked claim.
Her space, divided into high school and middle school halves and book selections, is the room with the view, centrally located, completely automated, with its adjacent workrooms and computer labs and the ``brains'' of the new school, the technology center, housing six racks of equipment each 7 feet tall, nearby.
``Every classroom will have a TV and a telephone, for security as well as communications,'' she said. ``The day of the intercom, as we used to know it, is gone. If a teacher wants to see a laser disk anywhere in this building, I would program it to go to her room at a specific time. The teacher would have total control over it through her telephone. The stadium and auditorium will have their own separate systems.''
``How's the principal keep all this straight?'' Worsham asked, grinning again.
THE CENTRAL OFFICE is set up in a quad concept - middle school administrators on one side, high school on the other. The drama classroom has its own stage. The art room has display cases in the hall and a separate door to the outside so art students can walk outside without entering the halls to observe nature and sketch landscapes.
The Technology 2000 classroom is one of the most exciting in the school, Worsham said. There, students can study aerodynamics, and build skyscrapers and bridges on a computer.
``Many, many, many things can happen in this room,'' Technology 2000 teacher Mike Crocker said. ``There are lots of computer-driven activities. We are preparing them for life, for society. I feel lucky to be here.''
EVEN THE DECOR of the building is exciting, dynamic. A pattern of cobalt blue tiles is laid in the halls to create an appearance of motion, of forging ahead.
``They gave us several styles to look at,'' Worsham said, staring at the floor. ``I thought this one offered flexibility, freedom.
``And windows,'' he said, pointing as he walked by each classroom. ``That was one of the requirements of the community. They wanted lots of windows. They didn't want the kids to feel blocked in.''
Burlap-covered bulletin boards of blue carry the color scheme throughout the school. The same blue is picked up for signage, made so that disabled as well as able students can fully understand where they are in their school and what's going on.
``We have strobe lights on the fire warning system for the hearing impaired,'' Parker said.
The lockers are a bright yellow-gold. Rather than chalk boards, there are mark boards, bright white, made for a rainbow of colored markers that simply wipe off with a cloth.
THERE ARE TEACHER workrooms in every hall, a place to grade papers, make lesson plans. Classrooms have their own resource room or a shared resource room, where teachers can work individually with those students who need extra help.
Fully-equipped science and biology labs feature individual work stations, ``prep'' room for getting experiments ready and emergency showers and eyewash stations.
In the cafeteria, split for middle and high school students, students will use identification cards that can be scanned to instantly tell the cafeteria clerk if that student gets a free lunch, reduced-price lunch or pays full price, Worsham said. That same card will used for admission into school dances and other school functions.
``And there are about 150 computers in this new school,'' Worsham said. ``That's about triple what was in the old building.''
THE OLD BUILDING soon will be demolished to make way for a modern baseball stadium. The football stadium and other playing fields are ready for action.
And so is Worsham.
The school will be officially opened to the public when it's dedicated this fall, Worsham said.
Meanwhile, ``I'm going to open the doors,'' he said. ``It belongs to the community.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Color on the Cover: Paving the parking lot of the new Windsor
High/Middle School was one of the last projects in the construction
process.
Brian Camden, construction manager with Powell Management Associates
Inc., is confident the school will open on time.
A view of the landscaping through one of the inch-thick, sun
sensitive, hermetically sealed windows.
Bill Worsham, principal of Windsor High School, pauses in the
state-of-the-art gym. ``I wish I were going back to high school,''
he says.
KEYWORDS: WINDSOR HIGH MIDDLE SCHOOL
by CNB