DATE: Friday, June 6, 1997                  TAG: 9706050454

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Education 

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

EYES AND EARS

PORTSMOUTH

Hardly a big deal?. . . Twelve-year-old James Mason, a sixth-grader at Portsmouth's W.E. Waters Middle School, was one of three district sixth-graders to ace the Literacy Passport Test this year.

Mason, Karen E. Reynolds at Churchland Middle and Kelsey R. Neil at Hunt-Mapp Middle all earned perfect 300 scores on each part of the three-part state test, which measures basic reading, writing and math skills.

The test is first given in the sixth grade. Students must pass it to get a high school diploma.

Asked whether he thought his accomplishment was a big deal, Mason told a reporter:

``I didn't feel like it was too much of a big deal. It was just one test.

``I could see if it was like the SAT or something and I had gotten a perfect score and I'd probably be going to Harvard or someplace.''

- Vanee Vines

NORFOLK

Pass the popcorn. . . Should some school administrators be required to live in Norfolk if they work in the school district? The idea was enough to begin a heated verbal volley among board members during a recent work session.

While it's been said such a move will create more involvement and ownership among top officials and the communities they work in, one board member quickly called the requirement unfair. Another thought it too costly for the school system to pay for moving expenses, which was suggested in the proposal. Another countered that any major business would do that much.

Yet another board member said, vehemently, he wouldn't rest until the policy included principals, and then one frustrated member, tongue-in-cheek, suggested that the district become parsonages, like churches that offer housing to their clergy.

An onlooker, watching the back-and-forth discussion, whispered, ``I tell you, this is better than HBO!''

- Denise Watson

CHESAPEAKE

Ride With Pride . . . Next year, students in Deep Creek, for the first time, will be divided between two middle schools: Deep Creek Middle and Hugo A. Owens Middle.

For a long time, the latter was known simply as the new middle school on Cedar Road. Then it was given a name and school colors of black and gold. Its mascot is to be the mustang.

All that was needed to make its identity complete was a school slogan, which future Owens student Chris Pasnik gladly provided: Ride With Pride. The slogan was chosen out of many submitted by students. It will be displayed on banners throughout the school when it opens in September.

Pasnik is a seventh-grader at Deep Creek Middle and is looking forward to going to Owens Middle because most of his friends are going there - and because when students were asked for their input on the school name, the color, the mascot and the slogan, Pasnik got everything he wanted.

``I pretty much got it all right,'' Pasnik said.

However, all might not be well at Owens Middle.

``It might be haunted because it's near a graveyard,'' said sixth-grader Casey Martin.

Nancy Young

SUFFOLK

Mmm, mmm, good . . . The line formed just inside the gym door at Booker T. Washington Elementary School. Spread across a table were bite-sized chunks of chocolate-iced cake, cornbread, fried chicken and, in little paper cups, ``Papa John's beans,'' a combination of black-eyed peas, rice and sausage.

The food was a popular part of a week-long multicultural program at the school, representing one of the cultures right in our own back yard: Southern cooking.

``I've been cooking all week,'' said a smiling Joan Haskins, a special-education teacher, as she sliced one of the cakes.

Other teachers trooping their classes to the other displays around the gym found time to hover at Haskins' spot.

``This is our favorite table,'' said one teacher, laughing as she popped another morsel of food in her mouth.

- Matthew Bowers ILLUSTRATION: Photo

James Mason

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