THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 30, 1996 TAG: 9608300514
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 71 lines
The convocation opening the school year for the city's public schools Thursday was part pep rally, part revival and part rock concert.
However it's classified, it gave the division's 9,000 workers a welcome shot of rah-rah before Tuesday's school openings.
The atmosphere at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater was raucous and celebratory, with its rainbow of matching school T-shirts and silly hats, costumes, oldies rock 'n' roll music played loud, a dance contest, beach balls knocked around the audience, signs, balloons, pennants, cheers and yes, even The Wave. But there also was a mood of fighting back.
Just this week, the City Council heard that the school system ended last year with a small surplus in its budget. This happy news came after a year of spending freezes and postponed pay raises in the wake of a $12 million deficit that shocked the city, led to new administrators and a virtually all-new School Board, and even criminal malfeasance charges against one former and one current board member. The two were acquitted of the charges, and the system is hunkering down under new Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney.
``We'll move quickly, because this year we must regain our position as Virginia's premier school system,'' said Assistant Superintendent K. Edwin Brown, opening the convocation.
Jenney, who received a brief standing ovation, said he would work to rebuild trust with school employees and the community, and needed their cooperation to return the school system to one ``respected by all and envied by most.''
``I am very glad that last year is behind us,'' Jenney said to loud cheers and laughter. ``You don't know how many days I prayed for sunshine.''
Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf noted that there was increased cooperation under Jenney between school and city officials.
It was the first mandatory-attendance convocation for school employees in several years, and most said they welcomed it.
Up on the amphitheater's lawn, the staff of Providence Elementary School took a break from waving oversized letters spelling out the school's name.
``It's a good way for everybody to get introduced to the new superintendent,'' said Scotty Payne, a library secretary at the school for 15 years. ``We've had a lot of those the last few years.''
``I think it's a wonderful way to get excited and to get motivated,'' added Helen Ryan, an art teacher holding the letter ``S'' and a maraca noisemaker.
The main speaker, Oklahoma newspaper editor and public-education champion Forrest ``Frosty'' Troy, gave a rousing defense of America's public schools, using folksy humor to often ridicule their critics.
He ticked off statistics showing that 89 percent of America's children - who enter school with widely disparate backgrounds and abilities and intelligence - graduate from high school, and many who don't graduate go on to get GEDs, or equivalency diplomas.
``God gives kids different gifts, and the only institution in this country that addresses all those gifts is public education,'' Troy said.
``You can't fry fish - McDonald's won't talk to you - without a GED. We're the most educated people in the world.''
He noted how people from all over the planet come to this country for college and graduate educations. He pointed out that the United States ranks only 14th in the world among industrialized nations in relative spending for education.
``Those people who say money doesn't work - let's try it once, and if it doesn't work, we'll go on to something else,'' he said to cheers.
He urged the teachers to realize how profoundly they touch young lives.
``These are the good old days in American education,'' he proclaimed. ILLUSTRATION: L. TODD SPENCER
Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney said he would work to rebuild trust
with school employees and the community, and needed their
cooperation to return the school system to one ``respected by all
and envied by most.'' He received a brief standing ovation at the
convocation Thursday at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater. by CNB