THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505050235
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 173 lines
COME SEPTEMBER, the Portsmouth school system will launch its community school plan, and a converted 37-year-old S.H. Clarke building will open its doors for the first time to elementary school children.
By then, Daisy M. Murphy - now the school system's director of instruction - will take her place in the principal's office.
Not every school administrator would consider it a dream job.
The new elementary school will serve as many as 580 students from Ida Barbour and Jeffry Wilson public housing communities. That will mean a larger population of students who live in poverty and who come from single-parent homes. Many of them will be the offspring of young mothers who did not finish school themselves.
Research shows those are the parents most prone to shy away from getting involved in their children's school. And that parental and community involvement is one of the main arguments for community schools.
Some people asked Murphy if she was sure she was doing the right thing. Some even looked at it as a step back for the central office administrator, who has three academic degrees and is working on a doctorate.
But Murphy has no doubts. She talks about it as a calling, bubbling over with an almost evangelistic fervor.
It's not an image that she would dispute.
``I have said to Dr. Trumble and the board that I felt that this assignment was an assignment given to me by my creator,'' Murphy said in a recent interview.
She didn't come to the decision overnight. She started asking herself where she could ``do the greatest good.''
That question nagged at her until she finally sat down and wrote out her answer. She started to feel good again after that.
So good that she delivered those thoughts in a proposal to School Superintendent Richard Trumble in December 1993.
She wanted to be first in line for the job of principal at the new S.H. Clarke Community Academy.
Murphy sees it as no less than a chance to turn the 37-year-old Clarke building into an urban school filled with children forever instilled with what she calls a ``love of lifelong learning.''
Recently, she donned a hard hat, ignored the dust kicked up by construction workers renovating the school and showed off the building's amenities.
There are many.
A huge library is filled with sunlight, surrounded on three sides by windows. Light also pours in from old, round skylights. There's plenty of room for the reading loft Murphy plans on having, as well as other special nooks and crannies.
The school will have to raise funds for playground equipment, but it has two large gyms plus a beautifully landscaped garden and greenhouse.
Other elements of the former vocational school also will provide unique areas for elementary school children. One classroom has a raised stage, perfect for debates and small plays.
The old food-services classrooms are perfect for kindergarten students, with adjoining doors and lots of cabinets that can be used for art supplies.
Murphy showed off a gigantic shop room and shared her vision of an art studio and photography club.
But all of that will take more money than the school system has budgeted for the school's renovation. So Murphy is looking at other avenues for building her dream school.
She's written letters to everyone from Oprah Winfrey to the Green Bay Packers, asking for contributions or donations of items. The Bullets pro basketball team sent 30 copies of Inside Stuff magazine for students, and electronics retailer Circuit City sent her a $100 gift certificate.
But Murphy knows most of her support must come from the community. She's been all over the city sharing her dream.
She hands out ``Wish Lists'' giving potential school supporters an idea of the ways they can volunteer or contribute. Items needed for the newly converted building range from lamps to carpet remnants.
``I believe it's important for the community to know that they have a critical role to play and their involvement is desired,'' she said. ``I envision them becoming tutors, mentors, homework helpers . . .''
After Murphy spoke to the Portsmouth Rotary Club recently, two members sent her $100 checks. One of them promised that she and her staff would begin collecting children's books for the school.
A Chesapeake resident pledged $200 and promised to visit classrooms to talk about the joys of collecting coins, driftwood, rocks and stamps.
One of Murphy's former students volunteered to reupholster old sofas for the library's ``soft area'' reading section.
Murphy also has had lunch and brainstorming sessions with retired educators.
One sent a donation to buy one of the new school uniforms for a child who needed financial assistance. Murphy surveyed parents of Clarke-bound children and found that most were in favor of their children wearing uniforms, so that idea will be implemented.
Another came up with the idea for Murphy's most recent endeavor - a banquet this month to enlist the support of Clarke alumni.
After school integration, the Clarke school building was converted into a vocational and technical school. More recently, it also housed an alternative program for students with disciplinary problems.
But when it opened in 1957, S.H. Clarke was the only junior high school for black students in Portsmouth.
It was named in memory of an African-American principal, who served as a Portsmouth educator for half a century.
Murphy hopes that, like I.C. Norcom, Clarke's symbolism will stir some sentimentality among all those alumni who once benefited from determined educators like herself.
Murphy has worked for months to contact parents and students and include them in planning for the new school.
There have been uniform-fitting parties, as well as a breakfast and a spaghetti dinner to help iron out details ranging from school colors to the organization of a PTA.
Lebretia White, the school's social worker, has visited the homes of more than 100 Clarke-bound children and called more than 200.
Murphy has interviewed teachers, trying to find those really open to the school's mission.
The school's philosophy, she said, will be centered on the work of Harvard University scholar Howard Gardner. His research has led him to conclude that intelligence takes many forms and, in turn, children think and learn in different ways. Teachers, he argues, must use a variety of methods to hook all types of students on learning.
The school logo symbolizes the open mind of a child and seven overlapping forms of intelligence, Murphy explained.
But that's the educator and lifelong scholar talking. At Murphy's core lies a foundation simpler and deeper than discussions of teaching models in education jargon.
Murphy knows what many of the children who will come to school at Clarke are up against.
Herself the child of a broken home, Murphy grew up in the care of a grandparent who remade old clothes for her.
``There was something called a food card, a forerunner to the food stamp,'' Murphy recalled, ``and my family was eligible.''
Once a month, she said, she and her great-grandmother would get in a taxi and take the food card to a store where they would pick up government-subsidized foods such as cheese loaves and canned meats.
Murphy talked about that childhood background when she made her presentation to the School Board. She tells the story, she says, because it is important for people to see that there's hope for every child.
For Murphy, it was many teachers and administrators who spurred her on and helped her gain confidence. They pushed her take the classes that would pave the way for a scholarship and college.
Once she got to what was then called Norfolk State College in the mid-1960s, she found her teachers had done their job well. She excelled and was popular with other students.
She was selected Miss Alpha Kappa Alpha and Miss Dream Girl, which meant a spot on the Azalea Queen's court the year Tricia Nixon reigned over the annual Norfolk festival.
She still marvels at a world that took a poor little girl from an uneducated and broken family and placed her next to a president's daughter.
``My life has been nothing but a blessing,'' Murphy said. ``But if people had not been placed there to help me along the way, I don't know where I would be.''
Now she wants to be there to help someone else along the way. MEMO: [For a related story, see page 11 of The Currents for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
DREAM SCHOOL
[Color Photo]
Photo by Gary C. Knapp
Daisy Murphy
Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
Ernie Hanks takes a break from working on a gutted restroom in the
S.H. Clarke building, which Clarke has worked in for 23 years.
Workmen get started on turning a gigantic shop room into an art
studio.
A contractor sweeps the floor in one of the S.H. Clarke classrooms.
Light pours into the future library from skylights and windows.
by CNB