THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 4, 1996 TAG: 9609040408
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Back To School
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 251 lines
The yellow buses on the roads, the empty swimming pools and park swings, the anxious or giddy parents - depending on the age of their children - all should have been tipoffs Tuesday:
Public schools opened for the 1996-97 academic year.
Many of the thousands of students returning to classes across South Hampton Roads took seats in new or refurbished school buildings. Those at arson-gutted Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, though, remained in a converted shopping mall.
And all started learning under tougher state standards for the basic subjects of English, math, science and social studies that began last year throughout Virginia.
For the students, it quickly became clear that summer vacation was over.
At Norfolk's Ghent Elementary School, Sheri Bailey and her second-grade daughter, Peyton, walked hand-in-hand after school as Peyton talked about her busy day: Her teacher gave the class a list of 50 words to study, such as ``reason.''
``It starts easy, and then it gets hard,'' said Peyton, an A-student last year.
Ghent and Bowling Park elementary schools added sixth grades this fall in an experiment sought by parents who favor the small-school elementary atmosphere over the larger, more impersonal middle schools. Ghent sixth-graders Karl and Amanda Gavin said they were glad to remain another year.
``The thought of being the oldest and in the highest grade made me feel good,'' said Karl, 11. ``I knew everybody here, so I didn't have to make new friends. It's kind of scary making new friends.''
At St. Helena Elementary School in Norfolk, Principal Winifred L. Reid could barely sleep Monday night, excited about seeing her students the next morning in their new navy-blue and white uniforms. The school this year is among four in Norfolk that require color-coded apparel.
``They looked just like little professional people walking around,'' said PTA President Catherine Hyman. ``It was fantastic.''
Reid bought herself a blue dress with white flowers, and said other teachers are adding the colors to their wardrobe. ``You feel a sense of connectedness of unity,'' she said.
Across town at Blair Middle School, students began the year in refreshing peace and quiet: A $925,000 construction project to shore up the school's brick facade had stretched dustily and noisily over the entire last school year, six months past the projected completion date and nearly $300,000 over budget.
``It's less noise, and you can concentrate better,'' Leslee Baxter, a seventh-grader, said Tuesday.
``It's like you'd died and gone to heaven,'' said acting Principal Sarah Bell. ``It gave us a whole new feeling.''
Lots of schools had new feelings - new or refurbished buildings, new faces in the principals' offices.
Emilie Tilley, for one, didn't figure to spend Tuesday in an office anywhere, much less at Green Run High School in Virginia Beach. She was coaxed out of retirement just last week to become interim principal of the school after the original newly appointed principal, Walter Taylor Jr., left at the last minute for the same job at Norcom High School in Portsmouth.
Tilley spent the long Labor Day weekend reading about the changes to Green Run High in the 12 years since she served there as an assistant principal. She had retired in 1993 as the principal of Cox High School across town.
Her first day back? ``Super,'' Tilley said.
``The students were great; the staff was great,'' she added. ``It was like we'd been doing it every day for quite a while.''
Her boss, Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney, and other top school administrators in Virginia Beach visited more than 40 of the division's schools. There were the typical first-day glitches, but otherwise things had gone ``extremely well - knock on wood,'' Jenney said.
And at Celebration Station, Princess Anne High School students started their second year of classes in the former mall. Repairs and renovations to their high school, burned a year ago last Sunday, are scheduled for completion by January.
The fast-growing Suffolk school system, with 300 more students this year than last, experienced some of the pains of growth: crowded buses, the need for more stops and other ``typical bus-route dilemmas,'' said spokeswoman Bethanne D. Bradshaw.
But the first first day for the city's newest school went off virtually hitch-free, ``other than the parents trying to figure out which door to go in,'' said Lybi B. Gittens, assistant principal of Northern Shores Elementary School. ``We're a very large school.''
Not quite as smooth was the first day at Oakland Elementary School, housed in the old Florence Bowser building. Students were evacuated when a heater in the cafeteria wall accidentally was turned on and spewed smoke, setting off the fire alarm.
The school this summer was one of many in Suffolk to receive new heating and air-conditioning systems. ``Those older units should've been disconnected,'' Bradshaw said. They are, now. No one was hurt, and there was no major damage.
Aside from the still-under-construction Hickory High School in Chesapeake, that city's school openings also were relatively trouble-free. A police officer directed traffic in front of the city's other new school, Cedar Elementary, because a turn lane wasn't completed.
Hurricane Edouard's turn north over the weekend erased a big worry here and elsewhere. ``That saved us,'' said Thomas A. Cupitt, Chesapeake schools spokesman.
In Portsmouth, Tuesday also was the kickoff for Hunt-Mapp Middle School's mandatory-uniform policy, the first for a city middle school.
Principal Carroll Bailey estimated that more than 95 percent of students showed up wearing the designated uniforms for their grade level. But school staffers will face the real test over the next several days and weeks as they begin to discipline students who don't wear their uniforms to school.
Things are going smoothly so far, he said. ``Amen.''
A feeling of accomplishment is what Gov. George F. Allen said he hopes students and teachers will experience this year under new, tougher Standards of Learning started during the last school year. The SOLs lay out what the state's teachers need to cover in the core subjects.
``It's the most important thing going on this school year,'' Allen said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Richmond.
``It's great for the students, because they're going to be taught better than anyone in the nation. The best jobs in the future are going to the best-prepared.''
New testing in the spring for third-, fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders will reflect how far students and teachers have or haven't come.
``The way I see it, the vast majority of teachers want to do a good job, and they like it,'' Allen said. ``They feel like they're doing a good job, and this is a way they can be recognized for it.
``But it's a change, and some of them are fearful of some of the changes.'' MEMO: Contributing to this report were staff writers Jon Glass, Aleta
Payne, Vanee Vines.
AMONG THE STUDENTS: Scenes from around Hampton Roads on the first day of
school
7:15 a.m. - A bus stop in Suffolk.
It's the first day of school, and an obviously nervous senior waits
for the bus. Although she attended Nansemond River High School last
year, she still feels new. Worst of all is the fact that she's a senior
without a car and has to face the shame of riding the bus.
As the bus rolls up with a load of middle school students inside,
her worst fears seem to be coming true.
But then the doors open and there is her old bus driver, Mr. Funn,
dressed in a tuxedo for the occasion, smiling and saying, ``Welcome
back!'' - Tiajuana Benson, senior
7:35 a.m. - Physics class, Kempsville High School
A physics teacher is calling roll. She calls out one girl's name and
assigns her a seat.
``You have a brother, right?'' the teacher asks.
The girl nods.
``You're not anything like him, are you?''
``Well, actually, I am.''
``Oh, great,'' mutters the teacher in a sarcastic tone. - Danny
Valentini, senior
8:15 a.m. - Biology class, Woodrow Wilson High School
The new year has brought a new principal to Wilson High. And on the
first day, several students in this class still haven't heard about him.
Then, about 45 minutes after the start of class, Principal William E.
Gibson Jr. - in a deep, raspy voice - makes a brief announcement over
the intercom, introducing himself and talking up Wilson's experiment
this school year with longer class periods under ``block scheduling.''
It isn't long before several students crack up.
Gibson, they say, sounds more like Don Cornelius of
S-o-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-llllllll Tra-i-i-i-i-i-i-nnnnnnnnnnnnn fame than
a high school principal! - Vanee Vines, staff writer
8:30 a.m. - Room 114, honors English class, Tallwood High School
In the middle of calling the first roll of the year for her
10th-grade English class, the teacher asks, ``By the way, is anyone here
a freshman?''
One girl raises her hand, and as the class turns to see who it is,
the boy sitting next to her turns and offers this reminder: ``You're not
a freshman anymore.''
``Oh yeah,'' she says. ``I forgot.'' - Christina Flagg, sophomore
9:40 a.m. - English, First Colonial High School
``OK, now turn to page 13 of your student handbook. . . .''
Students are listening to the rules for the third time today.
``Any display of affection (PDA) on school grounds is considered
inappropriate behavior,'' the teacher reads from the handbook.
``PDA!'' she says. ``That's a phrase back from my time. Only then, it
only meant holding hands. But you kids nowadays . . .'' - Tara Taubman,
junior
12:15 p.m. - Honors senior English, Kellam High School
Things can go wrong on the first day, and one student's schedule has
changed in the middle of the day. The result is that she is sitting
through English class for the second time in a day.
It's like deja vu as the teacher fires a series of tough trivia
questions at the class.
In `A Tale of Two Cities,' what are the cities? the teacher asks.
``London and Paris,'' she answers.
Again and again, the student answers questions that no one else can.
She's blowing everyone away.
But then comes roll call and she is forced to admit that she's in the
class for the second time.
One student mutters, ``I knew it was too good to be true.'' - Anne
Schaech, senior
1 p.m. - Room 820, Kempsville High School
Dr. Mitchell's advanced placement American history class waits less
than eagerly in a tidy, alphabetically ordered line to receive the
1,100-page texts that will burden their book bags for the next nine
months.
Having instructed his students to mark either ``U'' for used, or
``N'' for new on official forms, Dr. Mitchell hands the first student in
line a book. As he does so, the spine of the book falls off, and 400
years of American history flutter to the floor.
``I think you should mark `U,' son,'' he tells the student. - Emily
Letts, junior
Monday, Aug. 26, 9 a.m. - Pre-calculus class, Norfolk Collegiate.
The teacher is going over his policy on quiz and test grades.
``If you work hard in my class you won't fail, but don't think I'm
beyond failing people,'' he says. ``One time I failed 85 percent of the
class.''
Complete silence.
``Oh,'' he adds, smiling, ``but those were eighth-graders. They were
working on simple things like decimals. I'm sure I won't have to do that
with any of you, but I am about due to fail somebody.'' - Ellica Church,
junior, Norfolk Collegiate
Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1:35 p.m. - English - Introduction to Literary
Forms, Cape Henry Collegiate, Virginia Beach.
``Take out a piece of paper,'' the teacher says. ``Now, pick your
favorite animal and write four adjectives that describe it.''
A pause.
``Now, look around the room. Pick out a picture and write four
adjectives to describe it.''
Another pause.
``Now, write down your favorite color and four adjectives that
describe it.''
One student thinks, then writes ``puke green'' followed by the words
``love, hate, putrid and revolting.''
The teacher explains what he was getting at: Psychologists say the
animal represents how you view yourself, the room how you view death and
the color how you think everyone else views you. Then, glancing at the
young lady's paper with the words ``puke green'' scrawled on it, he
grins and says, ``Hmm. Self-esteem problem?'' - Mandy Warren, freshman,
Cape Henry Collegiate ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by STEVE EARLEY, The Virginian-Pilot
BUS RIDES: At Chesapeake's new Hickory High School, cheerleaders
welcome students back to class on Tuesday. Many of Hickory's
students attended Great Bridge and Deep Creek high schools last
year.
BUSTLE: In the halls of Hickory High School, students wind their way
past workers putting the finishing touches on the school's air
conditioning system.
Color photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II, The Virginian-Pilot
BOREDOM: And maybe a little apprehension? In their classroom at
Suffolk's newest school, Northern Shores Elementary, Brittany Ray
Roberts, 5, left, and Brittany Boone, 4, wait for whatever comes
next - sometimes a scary prospect on the first day of kindergarten. by CNB