
DATE: Monday, September 15, 1997            TAG: 9709150064

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  172 lines

GOALS HAPPEN WITH HELP FROM ALL SIDES, SAYS SCHOOLS CHIEF

Perhaps the best symbol of school Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols' leadership style is the latest update on the district's school improvement plan.

Develop a two-year algebra I course for students not ready for a one-year course. Check.

Conduct regular dog searches for drugs and guns in all middle and high schools. Check.

Increase opportunities for interaction between community, students, parents and school personnel. In progress.

There are 178 such recommendations - some broad, some nitty-gritty - across seven areas including school safety, rigorous educational standards, technology and community involvement.

Each quarter, the School Board gets a report card. To date, 63 recommendations have been implemented. If things go according to plan, all the recommendations should be in place over the next five years.

It would be fair to say the district's school improvement plan is Nichols' plan. After all, when he interviewed for the superintendent's position three years ago, he had the seven areas he wanted to focus on mapped out.

But the specifics of the plan, the recommendations, were the work of 300 community members, teachers, parents and administrators. So the plan really isn't just Nichols' plan, or even his administration's plan.

And that has been Nichols' plan all along. ``The collective wisdom of people in this city is greater than the collective wisdom of just the people in this building,'' he said.

Long known as former superintendent C. Fred Bateman's right- hand man, Nichols has come into his own, quietly, as he begins his third full year as superintendent - his 39th year in the district where he started as a junior high science teacher in 1959. The School Board recently gave him a four-year contract, to begin when the existing one runs out next year.

Nichols is not given to fiery speeches. He doesn't grab the limelight, but he is there, behind the scenes of the district initiatives, board member James J. Wheaton said. ``I think a lot of them really go toward creating a framework in which change can occur,'' Wheaton said.

For some, that change may seem slow in coming. Some of the initiatives - such as joining a state program serving at-risk preschoolers, arranging for before- and after-school care and requiring a minimum 2.0 grade point average for participation in sports - have been staples in other districts for years.

And while the district consistently scores above the state average on standardized tests, that is to be expected in a city with an above-average family income and education level. Large disparities remain between the test results of the district's poorest and wealthiest schools.

The district is focusing on more rigorous academic standards, but with the passage of the state's 1995 Standards of Learning, so is every other district in the state. Nichols, whose tenure as superintendent began in 1995, said he would have pushed the district toward meeting tougher standards even without the state's initiative.

But while the district may have been sluggish in some areas, the plan seems to represent an active attempt to fill gaps and then build on that foundation - and to include teachers, parents and community members in the building. The same process used to create the districtwide plan is now going on within individual schools and their communities. ``He keeps going back to the teachers (for opinions), and it's not him sitting there saying, `This is how it's going to be done.' It's working with him, in most cases, not working for him,'' said Randall Trivett, president of the Chesapeake Education Association and Western Branch High School physics teacher.

The district plan has reached people even when Nichols personally has not. Sue Futty, a parent who was president of the Indian River Middle School PTA last year, has not worked with Nichols one-on-one, but she thinks he's doing ``a fine job.'' Why?

``The goal-setting, the different committees, the action plans. There's a real sense of pulling people together,'' Futty said.

Nichols' respect for the opinions of people from all walks of life, not just educational experts, might be related to his own upbringing in the rural farming community of Ahoskie, N.C. A far cry from the district of more than 36,000 students and 43 schools he now presides over, Nichols went to a school where the 350 students in grades one through 12 were in the same building; his graduating class: 45. ``I was not born with a doctorate degree. People think if you have one you were born with it, but I grew up on a farm, worked in the fields,'' Nichols said.

When he entered the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Nichols said, he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life.

``My ambition was to go to pharmacist's school. It took one course of chemistry to convince me otherwise,'' he said. After talking with a friend who was majoring in education, he signed up for a course, and hasn't looked back in regret. His career has included teaching, coaching, counseling, overseeing the city's testing program, directing special education, and overseeing the district's finances.

Cynthia Sparks can remember dissecting a frog in a seventh- grade science class as a member of the first class Nichols taught in what was then Norfolk County in 1959. What she remembers most was how he took the time to teach his students organizational skills - skills that came in handy when she came back to teach in Chesapeake, eventually becoming principal of Crestwood Middle School.

``He's excellent to work for, just a wonderful listener,'' Sparks said. ``He provided the structure within which we could let our schools be different.''

Sparks is no longer principal of Crestwood Middle School. She's the supervisor of instructional technology for the district, overseeing the integration of technology in instruction. Creating such a position was a recommendation under the technology section of the district's school improvement plan. Check.

Nichols said that his first priority when he became superintendent was the development of a districtwide plan, something he felt was lacking - but that coming up with a plan couldn't be an end in and of itself.

``Often people come up with a grandiose plan, but it doesn't go anywhere,'' he said. ``I have a research mentality. You have to study whether things work or not.

``If they don't work, you ought to change it, scrap it or do something else. We've actually stayed on course and are doing what we said we were going to do.''

That's one of Nichols' qualities that school board member Patricia P. Willis admires, saying he manages to combine the values of the institutional memory his 39 years in the district has given him with the latest educational research.

``What I'm most pleased about is his emphasis on accountability,'' said Willis. ``He's willing to get in there and look at each thing fresh, and I think that's terrific.''

One of the things Nichols' administration took a second look at was the district's earlier decision not to participate in a statewide initiative to offer services to at-risk preschoolers. Chesapeake is the lone South Hampton Roads district that doesn't take part - and has received criticism for leaving its needy preschoolers in the lurch.

Starting with the 1998-99 school year, that will change, Nichols said. He said Chesapeake needs this year to develop a proposal, but the school board has approved the concept.

``We're not going to study it. We've studied it enough. We know it will work,'' he said.

But it's not just the kids on the fringes that Nichols worries about. For too long, he said, not enough has been expected from the ``forgotten middle,'' the 50 percent of students who limit their chances of going to college by not taking a rigorous course load.

To help kids succeed in more rigorous courses, the district is implementing flexible foreign language and algebra classes that will allow students to take what have traditionally been one-year courses over two years. ``If those kids don't get into those programs (usually by freshman year), their futures have been decided for them, and that's too early,'' he said.

Part of keeping students' options open has included an emphasis on vocational education as well, particularly the integration of vocational education with traditional college preparatory courses in a program known as Academic Tech Prep. Last year, the district's program was one of four chosen by the state as a ``model program.''

But whatever the accomplishments of the district during his tenure, you won't find Nichols taking credit for them. For him a good education comes down to two things: a good teacher and a good parent.

``Those two working together - it's unbelievable what they can do,'' he said.

Particularly if they have a plan.

Check. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Some Chesapeake School District goals for 1997-98

(From W. Randolph Nichols' State of the School System Address)

1. Alternative education - Develop a new comprehensive plan for

behaviorally at-risk students, grades K-12.

2. At-risk 4-year-olds - Develop a plan to join state program in

1998-99 school year.

3. Accelerated reader - look at resources available in each

school and develop a plan to achieve equity.

4. Middle school - Evaluate the use of instructional time, the