THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996 TAG: 9608260034
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 99 lines
Anyone within earshot of Southeastern Elementary School during the past two weeks had to hear it.
Not the Hickory High School cheerleaders who were practicing there nor their dance music, but that chant. That chant that made even the most vibrant, bubbly, confident of the girls, hesitate for a split second:
``GO BIG TEAL!''
``It is kinda weird. Teal?!,'' said Lauren Dawson, a 16-year-old varsity cheerleader, referring to one of the new high school's primary colors. ``You have to get used to it. We're so used to saying `Go Big Green,' for Great Bridge, but now it's `teal.' It's odd. It's different.''
Different is exactly what many Hickory students and administrators want. The new 1,485-student high school will be one of the biggest changes that will greet Chesapeake students when they return to school next week. The district built the school to accommodate the growing enrollment in the city's schools, numbers that have doubled to nearly 36,000 since the last high school was built in the 1960s.
The new high school - located off Battlefield Boulevard South - is more than welcome in the Hickory community. It will offer the latest computer technology in the school system and relieve overcrowding at Great Bridge High. But the new school means change in a city entrenched with tradition and community pride, where its residents often say, ``I'm from Western Branch,'' ``Great Bridge,'' or ``South Norfolk,'' before they say ``Chesapeake.''
Pulling students from Hickory, Deep Creek and Great Bridge and melding a new identity isn't easy work.
``How did Deep Creek come up with its hornet? I don't know; that's what I've been faced with here,'' said Hickory principal Linda Byrd.
``I've learned there's no check-off list or book on how to start a high school. . . but make no mistake. Hickory will have an identity very different from any school in Chesapeake. We will be the best high school in the state.''
This identity work began two years ago with a series of committees and teams that met to pick those important things that build personality and character: school colors, mascot name, uniforms and alma mater.
A steering committee of future Hickory students, parents and community members brainstormed a list of possible names: Hickory broncos, cardinals, eagles, hawks, hurricanes and rams. The spectrum of school colors ranged from combinations of red, white and royal blue, to black, white, gray and teal.
After Byrd was named principal in February, she went to the schools where Hickory's students will come from - Deep Creek high and middle schools, Great Bridge High and Middle School South - and asked students to vote from the list of mascots and colors.
The choices of ``hawks'' and ``black, white, gray and teal'' were overwhelming favorites.
``Hickory Hawks sounds better, stronger,'' said Karen Lee, 16, who attended Deep Creek last year but will be a Hickory junior next week. ``It sounds like it's going to be a bolder school.''
Byrd was also satisfied with the choice.
``I read in Sports Illustrated that teal is the power color of the '90s,'' Byrd said. ``Everyone is switching to teal.''
Behind Byrd has been the Hickory planning council, another group of about 16 parents, students and community members, which meets monthly as a sounding board to Hickory staff.
``Administrators bring ideas to us and we give our input or suggestions,'' said Sue Basdikis, whose son will be a junior at Hickory. ``As ideas, we bring in some of the best of what we've seen at other schools.''
The planning council gave its nod to band uniform selections and came up with such ideas as a mini-museum at Hickory that will house memorabilia from the old Hickory High School, which closed in the late '40s.
``That was one of the things we noticed they did at Oscar Smith,'' Basdikis said. ``They have a lot of old pictures in their courtyard and we thought it would be a great idea to do something at Hickory.''
The planning council called in a wildlife artist who sketched the soaring hawk that now flies on T-shirts, afghans, seat cushions and uniforms. The group sponsored a contest among Hickory students-to-be earlier this year, asking kids to submit names for the school's newspaper, yearbook, and sketches of the seal and alma mater lyrics. The council received more than 200 entries.
The group then invited local professionals - editors from local newspapers, musicians, artists - to canvass the entries and pick five top choices for each category.
Byrd won't disclose any of the entries. She'll discuss only the prize: reserved parking spaces for the winners.
``This is definite encouragement for students to become involved,'' Byrd said. ``We figure if we can get the students involved, we'll build this incredible school spirit and the community will be proud. That's the goal.''
The ever-present goal for Byrd and many of the students and parents is carving their niche in Chesapeake. One way is to break from traditions like the football booster club and begin a support and fundraising group for all athletic teams like Hickory's SOAR, Support Our Athletic Rosters club. Administrators have set a goal of having all students involved in at least one extracurricular activity to boost school spirit.
The cheerleaders paid extra money for two different cheerleading camps because ``all Chesapeake schools do the same chants and stuff,'' senior Andrea Hinton said, ``and we want to be different, individual. ``It's going to be difficult at first,'' Hinton said. ``For the first few years, Hickory is going to be a castoff of Great Bridge, sorta. But as people go to Hickory, and that's all they know, Hickory will have its own traditions.'' ILLUSTRATION: HICKORY HIGH SCHOOL
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KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE SCHOOLS by CNB