THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 12, 1995 TAG: 9509120255
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
The floors are swept and the chalkboards are ready. Most of the books are in place as the teachers wait for an estimated 1,500 students to arrive today at Celebration Station.
Eleven days after an arsonist's fire swept through the main wing of Princess Anne High School and closed it indefinitely, the school system stands ready to welcome students into the polished halls of a former shopping mall and adult learning center.
``We're ready to roll,'' said Pat Griffin, Princess Anne's beleaguered and widely cherished principal. ``Overall, we're ready to get down to the business of teaching.''
Administrators fully expect some problems, from missed buses, to confused students, to harried teachers who were told to expect supplies only to find they hadn't arrived on time.
To each of these frustrated people, the school system has one bit of advice: Be patient. Whatever problems exist, they will be solved.
``Opening day is never without problems,'' said Griffin. ``Usually, we have at least one class of students - the freshman class - that does not know the building. Now no one knows the building, from the teachers on down. But we're going to work out whatever problems we have.''
Anne Meek, an associate superintendent for Virginia Beach schools, said guidance counselors will be at both campuses with access to computers to help route students to their assigned rooms.
``We know there will be confusion,'' Meek said. ``Most of the students will be at Celebration Station and at a building they're not familiar with. We will have volunteers from the central office with maps to help students get around.''
From the moment the school system decided to move students to Celebration Station, the pace of activity in the building began to accelerate slightly, gaining momentum as the mission to convert the building became more focused.
By Monday, the pace had become positively frantic.
Huge rooms that once held merchandise had been subdivided with metal framing, hung with drywall, painted and transformed with bulletin boards, posters, learning aids and desks.
In nearly every one of these makeshift classrooms, teachers, some assisted by motivated students, worked feverishly to staple pictures to the walls, arrange desks or answer questions from harried colleagues.
In the main hall, a stack of cardboard boxes that once held school supplies stood nearly 6 feet high. A shipment of desks and chairs sat in a corner waiting for a mover while workmen pushed hand trucks loaded with the vending machines that would help serve as the makeshift cafeteria.
Workers of every description prowled the hallways - from people who mounted pencil sharpeners onto new walls, to electricians working in back rooms, to members of the custodial staff - the unsung heroes of any well-kept school building.
``We'll get there,'' said Judy R. Hayes, a business teacher who has taught at Princess Anne for two years and who even now fights back tears when recalling the events of the past two weeks.
``It's not what I lost,'' she said after taking a moment to collect her thoughts. ``I think I've become part of the Princess Anne family. It's not just the city and the administration, but the teachers and the students, too. That's the family I refer to. I feel like now I belong.''
Like many Princess Anne teachers, Hayes did not have access to her regular teaching aids and equipment. All of it is locked up in areas of the old building that remain off limits.
But she did have 25 typewriters for her class - even if she didn't have the power yet to run them.
Other teachers, like Dennis Nixon, who teaches oceanography, were assigned to rooms that hardly compared to their old stations. In Princess Anne High, Nixon used nine 55-gallon saltwater aquariums to help students learn about the seas and their environments. On Tuesday, he will have a room one-third the size of what he's used to with no aquariums and a limited set of textbooks - but enough enthusiasm to see him through.
``Everything is going to be all right,'' Nixon said. ``We'll all just have to roll with the flow.''
But some were clearly uncertain about how far they could go into their course plans. Rose M. Koroly, a culinary arts and independent living teacher, was assigned a room that looked pleasant enough.
The only problem was, she teaches a cooking class and the room was not ventilated, and had no cooking equipment or refrigerators.
``We'll be fine,'' she said with a sigh.
If Celebration Station was a beehive of activity, the Princess Anne campus seemed oddly quiet. At 3:30 p.m. Monday, the parking lot next to the portable classrooms and the portable office was virtually deserted.
Only the school band practiced in a nearby vacant lot, and school secretary Gay Eley and one of three members of the office staff lingered briefly to discuss the opening day of classes today.
A little more than 700 students will descend on the main campus, where 18 portable classrooms and 12 portable toilets have been assembled to accommodate the crowd of mostly ninth- and 10th-graders.
``It's the best that can be done on such short notice,'' Eley shrugged. ``Everybody wants to help - parents, kids, teachers. It's been wonderful. If it hadn't been for them, we wouldn't have gotten this far.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Rose Koroly, culinary arts teacher, has a room - but no stove or
vents. That's just one challenge facing teachers in a onetime mall
and adult learning center. Some 1,800 students start school there
today.
MORT FRYMAN
Staff
Princess Anne teacher Judy Hayes readies her room for the delayed
school start. ``We'll get there,'' she said. Rushing about to create
a classroom in a former mall has, she says, helped her gain a strong
sense of belonging to the school family.
STUDENT REMINDERS
Student schedules for the regular Princess Anne program were
mailed Friday. Students must bring them to class today, which is a
``B'' day on the schedule. If they did not receive a schedule,
students must contact school counselors upon their arrival.
Students who still need to register must call 473-5099.
The following classes will be held on the Princess Anne campus:
ninth- and 10th-grade physical education, elective 11th- and
12-grade physical education, NJROTC, ninth- and 10th-grade English,
Earth science and biology. All other courses, including
International Baccalaureate classes, will be taught at Celebration
Station.
by CNB