THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9408300312
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Jon Glass
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines
Maury High School has proven once again that brains and brawn are not mutually exclusive.
Among Norfolk's five high schools, Maury students continued their decade-long dominance in sports competition and scholastic performance in 1993-94, this month winning the Superintendent's Cup for athletics and the Superintendent's Award for academic achievement.
The school, in Norfolk's Ghent section, has earned the academic award every year since it was first bestowed in 1984-85. Since 1981-82, Maury has won the sports award outright every year except in 1984-85, when Lake Taylor tied for the honor.
Principal James B. ``Jake'' Slaughter attributed his school's showing to ``a lot of hard-working coaches, teachers and kids and very supportive parents.''
After Slaughter picked up the awards at last week's School Board meeting, board member Anna Dodson suggested that a runner-up award be given next year. Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. agreed with the idea.
In sports, Maury won 13 first places out of 21 categories in 1993-94, including field hockey, golf, baseball, drama, debate, girls' and boys' tennis, girls' and boys' cross country, boys' and girls' swimming, girls' track and girls' soccer.
Granby athletes followed Maury with three first-place finishes - in forensics, wrestling and boys' soccer - and five second-place showings.
In academics, Maury had the highest percentage of students earning at least a 3.5 grade-point average (on a 4-point scale), making all A's, scoring 800 or higher on the SAT, completing advanced placement courses, attending classes, and earning the governor's seal on their diplomas.
Granby finished a close second in academics, followed by Lake Taylor. Granby had the largest number of students identified as semi-finalists on the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Granby and Lake Taylor tied for first place in the percentage of students earning academic scholarships and placement in the annual Norfolk Challenge Competition. Classified worker tops
Eugene T. Russell, senior custodian at the Berkley/Campostella Early Childhood Center, has been named Classified Employee of the Year for 1993-94.
Russell, who has worked 21 years for Norfolk Public Schools, was credited for his involvement in school and community activities and for the ``fine example he sets in all that he does.''
Nichols and his cabinet pick the top classified employee. Nichols last week presented Russell with a plaque. Russell also will receive a reserved parking space at the early childhood center identifying him as the award winner.
School Board Chairman Ulysses Turner told Russell that he wished ``we could harness your commitment'' and share it with all school employees. Goals for 1994-95 OK'd
To provide a sense of direction for the school system and its staff, the School Board last week adopted goals for the 1994-95 school year.
Setting priorities has become a yearly practice for the board. Members informally endorsed this year's three goals during their summer retreat last month.
At last week's board meeting, members approved exact language to define the goals, which essentially are the same as last year except with minor changes in wording and emphasis.
Many strategies begun last year, such as Saturday detention hall and security cameras in buses and schools to reduce disruptive behavior, will be expanded this year. The superintendent is expected to present the board with additional strategies within the next few weeks.
The 1994-95 goals are:
No. 1 - To maintain safe, secure schools and to implement new initiatives to bring about a a more disciplined school environment.
No. 2 - To implement programs and practices which will encourage and require students to engage in rigorous academic pursuit and challenge themselves to work hard to achieve a positive, wholesome and productive future.
No. 3 - To encourage and invite meaningful parental and volunteer participation in school activities . . . make schools a focal point of community activities by making school facilities available for community use. Ask, and it may be granted
First-graders in Norfolk's 10 elementary ``community'' schools and seventh-and eighth-graders in Blair and Norview middle schools will have expanded academic opportunities this year thanks to two separate grants.
Norfolk public schools have been awarded a $5,040 grant from Reading Is Fundamental for a first-grade reading initiative and a $4,360 grant from Toshiba America Foundation for a new middle school algebra program.
The reading program will reach 840 first-graders in the majority-black community schools, said Norfolk public schools grant writer Denise K. Schnitzer. Young Park Elementary took the lead in pursuing the ``Running Start'' grant, Schnitzer said. But the money will be used to buy books for all of the community schools for children ``who may not otherwise have access to books at home.''
The program gives first-graders a ``running start'' to become lifetime readers. It challenges them to read or have read to them at least 21 books during a 10-week period. Children who meet the goal get to choose and keep books from the collections selected by teachers.
Blair and Norview will use the Toshiba grant to buy Texas Instruments graphing calculators as part of a new Algebra for Success Project. The two schools this year for the first time are recruiting seventh-graders to take algebra. In recent years, algebra has been offered to advanced eighth-graders, but the subject typically is not offered until ninth grade.
The new two-year algebra curriculum at Blair and Norview is designed especially to reach students who otherwise would not enroll in middle school algebra. The calculators, which will be used as a hands-on learning and problem-solving tool, will be available to a total of 220 seventh- and eighth-graders.
School officials hope that the availability of such technology promotes students' progress and enthusiasm for math.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOLS by CNB