THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9507010146
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
More than 100 folks clutched umbrellas and cast a wary eye at the darkening skies as they gathered last Wednesday in a field off Respass Beach Road. They were there to witness the ground breaking for Northern Elementary School, the first new elementary school to be built in Suffolk in 17 years.
The wind blew stronger and the raindrops came faster as school Superintendent Beverly B. Cox III presided, in one of his last official acts before retiring this past Friday. The program included several students from the Florence Bowser Elementary School; Northern has been planned to serve students who would have attended Bowser as well as additional students entering the school system from the housing boom in northeast Suffolk.
Although the weather threatened to turn a joyous occasion into what School Board Chairman Arthur D. Smith declared ``a bad-hair day,'' the real downpour held off until the topsoil had been officially turned over. The sprawling, red-brick school, estimated to cost $6 million, is scheduled to open in September 1996.
The 670-student facility will have 27 classrooms for preschool through fifth grade and will house twice the number of students now attending Bowser.
Highlights of the new school include art and music labs, a gymnasium and a cafeteria with a connecting stage area, a media center with a technology lab, and an expandable computer network to access off-site educational resources. Twelve of the classrooms are intended for special-education students.
Northern Elementary will be staffed primarily by teachers now teaching at Florence Bowser. Tentative plans call for converting that facility into an alternative school.
``We are all excited about it because, while our other school is nice and cozy, we have no storage room and it is not air conditioned, so it can get awfully hot and muggy,'' said Sandy Hassell. She is a veteran kindergarten teacher who has been teaching at Florence Bowser for six years.
``I think we will attract more people moving in to public schools. People will see this school, look at Suffolk and know that we are up-and-coming.''
The 15-acre school site was given to Suffolk by The Jorman Group/Harbourview Partners, developers of the Harbour View community that will surround the new school.
``The new school is something we had hoped for in trying to bring a planned community together,'' said Robert T. Williams, Jorman executive vice president. ``The school is essential from a sales viewpoint and will solidify the community.''
Melissa Carr relocated from Newport News to Harbour View last November and has two children - Landon, 8, and Leah, 6 - who will attend Northern Elementary.
``They love Florence Bowser and have done well there,'' Carr said. ``But this new school was an added plus to our decision to move here.''
Duane Rollins, a rising fourth grader at Florence Bowser, expressed his feelings about the new school in a poem he wrote and read at the ground-breaking ceremony: Going to a New School
We're going to a new school. How sad it will be. I will miss Florence Bowser with my teacher, you see. I will miss all of my friends and my brother, too, Because he is going to a new school, just like me and you. There are still some advantages over a new school, too, Like air conditioning, stairs and new friends, just like me and you. So when I go to the new school, I won't be so scared, Because I will have good teachers to guide me, wherever I am. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by Michael Kestner, Staff
Silver-painted shovels wait to be used at the ground-breaking
ceremonies for the Northern Elementary School. The gray clouds
moving overhead threatened to drench plans for the ceremonies.
Members of Florence Bowser Elementary's chorus perform at the
ceremony. Northern Elementary will replace Bowser Elementary.
Ashley Cornelius made sure the American flag stayed put despite the
wind.
by CNB