
DATE: Friday, August 22, 1997               TAG: 9708220831

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   97 lines

``HAPPY FACES'' RETURN TO SCHOOL PASQUOTANK COUNTY TEACHERS REPORT A SMOOTH FIRST DAY

Exactly 5,946 students returned without a hitch Thursday to start the 1997-98 school year in Pasquotank County.

Smooth and smiles were the words used.

``The kids seemed like they all wanted to be here,'' said David Christenbury, principal of Central Elementary School. ``Lots of smiles and happy faces.''

``Very smooth,'' said Charles White, public relations director for Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County Schools. ``We have been very pleased with the opening day of school.''

White, with hair and clothes mussed, had just finished delivering thousands of handbooks to all 11 campuses in the system. This was the first opening day in years that no school here was in the midst of renovations, he said.

Learning began immediately.

The first-graders in Janet White's class counted to 21 and mastered facts about the month of August.

``Does anybody know what month it is?'' White asked the nine children in her class. She will also teach 17 kindergarten children in a combined class. The kindergartners arrive next week.

``August,'' replied most of the class as they sat in a semicircle on the floor.

``Where do you find it?'' she asked.

``On the calendar,'' they said.

``Let's spell it,'' White said. She pointed to each letter while the class recited the letters in unison.

One child decided to lie flat on the floor.

``Robert, can you sit up, please?'' White said both sweetly and firmly as only a veteran elementary teacher can do.

``I'm tired,'' he said as he obeyed his teacher.

``We're going to rest in a few minutes,'' White said. There were only 20 minutes before the final bell.

To conclude the day, White pulled up her old-fashioned wooden rocker with a teddy bear in hand. It was time for a class meeting. Whoever held the bear was to compliment a classmate.

Two or three really liked the orange-colored, flower-covered shirt worn by 6-year-old Quanisha Davis.

``It's my favorite shirt,'' Quanisha said.

Casey Lundgren, 6, remembered a lesson in courtesy taught earlier.

``We learned to say thank you and please,'' she said.

``The day went very well,'' White said. ``I had most of these children in kindergarten last year. I know them. They know me. Not a whole lot of getting acquainted.''

Just a few hundred yards away, Northeastern High School Principal Linda Ward seemed as relaxed as if it were the last day of school.

``We've had a wonderful first day,'' she said as she walked on the brightly shined floors. An artistic rendition of the bald eagle mascot appeared on nearly every wall in some form or another. There had been no fights, no disciplinary actions, no protests.

``I'd rank this first day among the best we've ever had,'' said Dennis Dudley, chairman of the science department. Dudley teaches an environmental science class for freshmen.

The new students were unusually aware of environmental issues such as bacteria in the water and hog wastes, he said.

``You just don't get a first day like this that often.''

A few of the 570 freshmen enrolled at NHS got lost during the day and some were confused about when and where to go to lunch, but overall things went well for them, too.

``I met a whole bunch of new people,'' said Shianne Dance, 14. ``I've got a lot of new friends.''

Shawnee Mullen, 14, found high school to be easier than she thought. She didn't get any homework. She didn't mind that most of her teachers promised her plenty of homework from now on.

``As long as I know what I'm doing in class, I know what I'm doing at home,'' Shawnee said.

Amazingly, the teachers were even nice, according to freshman Ryan Caruso, 14.

``I was thinking they'd be tough, but they were friendly,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color photos]

WILLIAM P. CANNON/The Virginian-Pilot

Tiffany Sharp, 6, above, a first-grader at Central Elementary in

Elizabeth City, listens as her teacher, Janet White, holds a teddy

bear and explains that in class only the person holding the bear

right then may speak. At right, White goes over the class rules with

her young charges. She said she had most of the children in her

class last year as kindergartners. ``I know them,'' she said. ``They

know me. Not a whole lot of getting acquainted.'' In addition to her

nine first-graders, White will have 17 kindergartners joining her