THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9502250190
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Diane Bradford strode down the Elizabeth City Middle School hallway, bending every few paces to scoop up an errant gum wrapper littering the floor of the recently renovated building.
``I believe we have a two-wadder here,'' Bradford said, snatching up her second wrapper and noticing another. ``Maybe a three.''
Bradford, the school's principal, is probably even more concerned than usual about the way her building looks. On Sunday, the entire community is invited to come look at it.
From the gum-wrapper-free floors to the newly painted walls, from the frontline technology to the rising tide of enthusiasm sweeping students and teachers alike, the middle school has spent the last couple of years remaking itself.
Last summer saw a $1.6 million renovation, whose final touches are still being made by workmen poking their heads through ceiling panels in the hall. The old brick building received a new heating and air-conditioning system and a face lift that included the discovery and removal of asbestos and the redecorating of rooms.
Some late-arriving equipment and disputes with subcontractors set back the completion date and put off the first day of school for seventh- and eighth-graders by seven days.
And the school is still slated for another $1 million or so in repairs, which include sealing the building's cracks and leaks against the elements and fixing up internal facilities like lockers and bathrooms.
But school officials say they are ready to show off what they've done. They're sponsoring an open house and ribbon cutting from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
``We're ribbon cutting a whole new look for the Middle School,'' said Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Schools Superintendent Joseph Peel. ``We sort of had somewhat of an open house for parents. This is really more for the community.''
Changes at the middle school, the alma mater of many a local resident, have been more than cosmetic. The school, formerly known as the junior high, picked up its new name in late 1993 to line up with the concepts it has adopted to better address the needs of children in the middle grades.
Among the changes are a more flexible schedule that shuns bells, and a teamlike structure for organizing students and teachers. The school is also entrenched in four national education projects and is installing a media system that would shock Alexander Graham Bell.
``We are extremely close to the cutting edge of technology and work for kids,'' Bradford said. ``We'll be showing off a little bit of that stuff.''
``Schools tend to be not good public relations agents, and we tend to not share what's going on,'' she said. ``Sometimes if you don't see the inside, and the outside never changes, you assume that the inside doesn't change.''
Bradford walked into the media center, crammed from wall-to-wall with some 50 projects for the science fair that ran last week. Small cardboard booths topped tables with titles like ``Land, Water and Air Pollution,'' ``Can a nail be made rustproof?'' and ``Do temperature and particle size affect the speed of a chemical reaction?''
Toward the back of the room was a table stacked with tens of thousands of dollars in hardware that will soon be the nerve center for all technological activity in the school.
From the central system, teachers will be able to access individual videos, interactive compact discs and still video pictures from cordless telephones based in their rooms.
``We're all definitely in the learning stage,'' said media specialist Sheila Winslow, working off a ``cheat sheet'' to demonstrate how pressing a number on a phone pad can fast-forward or rewind a National Geographic video on elephants.
That technology and the school's national projects will allow students to link up with other kids and professionals around the globe, to see what others see and in a sense to do what they do.
``It's like electronic field trips,'' Bradford said. ``You get to travel throughout the world and never leave your classroom.''
But everything's not up and running just yet, and the school has been without an intercom system for some time.
``Right now we run sneaker-net,'' Bradford said, putting a twist on a new bit of computer jargon. ``The kids get in their sneakers and run up and down the hall to deliver messages.'' by CNB