ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 4, 1996 TAG: 9609040078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
SOME YOUNGSTERS start the school year eager to learn, others to see their friends. Faculty members shared their enthusiasm.
Five-year-old Trey Jones sat quietly on the gymnasium floor and rested his chin on his hands as he waited for the school day to begin at Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science.
He seemed more pensive than anxious or excited. He watched the older children playing and talking with friends.
Trey wore a new brown-striped shirt and black shorts with blue-and-white sneakers. He clutched a new blue book bag.
When asked if he was excited about his first day of school, he shrugged and said nothing at first. He waited a few seconds, then he said with determination, "I'm going to learn a million things."
Trey and the other kindergartners could be identified easily Tuesday morning as nearly 400 pupils at the Roanoke school stayed in the gym until the bell rang because it was raining too hard to be outside.
The kindergartners were quiet and orderly. They didn't talk to anyone. Some had new book bags and lunch boxes.
Some mothers and fathers stood by the 5-year-olds, finding it hard to say goodbye. Ernest and Cindy Dent stayed with their daughter, Dawnecia, until the school day began.
The scene was similar Tuesday at elementary schools throughout Roanoke as several hundred kindergartners joined thousands of returning students for the beginning of the school year.
The city's enrollment is projected to be about 13,300 this year, but the number won't be known until the end of the week because only a third of the kindergartners attend each day for the first three days. School officials said this allows teachers to work with a smaller group, get to know the 5-year-olds better and give them more individual attention.
Nearly 1,200 kindergartners are expected to enroll in the city this year.
At Roanoke Academy, 45 kindergartners have registered for the new year, but school officials expect more by the end of the week.
Richard Poindexter, the magnet school's new principal, was busy in his office early, answering questions from the parents of kindergartners and other pupils.
Some children were eager for the new year to begin. They walked to the school and arrived at 8 a.m., an hour before classes started.
"I wanted to get back because there was nothing to do at home," said Sharade Hayes, a fourth-grader.
Fifth-grader Trey Bradburn was glad the new year has begun because he wants to meet new people. He heard during the summer that the school would get a new principal, and he expects Poindexter to be a strict disciplinarian.
"I heard he doesn't take any stuff," Bradburn said.
Poindexter, a teacher for 25 years before being named a principal this year, appeared to be developing a good rapport with the children. He seemed calm and unperturbed by his first day in the job. He moved among the teachers and children in the gym, almost unnoticed at times. He worked in shirt-sleeves and tie, having removed his coat before the children arrived.
``All things considered, it's going OK,'' he said. ``The children and teachers seemed to be excited about the new year.''
Superintendent Wayne Harris stopped by about 9 a.m. to talk with Poindexter, several teachers and some children.
``This is what it's all about,'' said Harris, saying he was almost as excited as the students about the new year. ``This is what I like to see and do.''
Harris had visited Woodrow Wilson and Addison middle schools earlier in the morning. He said he would visit seven additional schools Tuesday and seven more today. By the end of the week, he will have stopped at all of the city's 29 schools.
``I want to see how things are going, the mood in each school and whether there are any problems. I want to encourage the staffs and to spot any potential problems.''
Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for operations, and several other top administrators also visited schools on opening day.
At Addison Middle School, Sandra Puckett, the new principal, greeted students as they began arriving shortly after 7 a.m. There were signs on an easel in the lobby and above the door to the school office welcoming the children.
``Good morning, students. Are you smiling? We're going to smile all this year,'' Puckett said as students streamed through the door.
Puckett is a former teacher and middle school coordinator who was assistant principal at Addison last year. She succeeded Paul McKendrick, who look a leave to enter a superintendent's program at Harvard University.
"It's exciting, but a little scary," she said. "I'm looking forward to it. We have a lot of good kids at this school."
Several students had heard the school would have a new principal, and most said they were happy with Puckett.
"She's a nice lady. I like her," said Steven Wong, a seventh-grader who attends the magnet school for its aerospace program.
Joshua Harrison, another seventh-grader, didn't know Puckett was the principal until he got to school Tuesday, but he was pleased. "She was here last year and she's nice."
Some Addison students were just as eager to return to classes as their counterparts at Roanoke Academy.
"I wanted to come back because I missed my teachers and friends," said Kim Scaggs, a seventh-grader. "I couldn't wait for the new year to begin."
Seventh-grader Crystal Agee didn't share her classmate's enthusiasm. When asked whether she was happy to be back in school, she silently shook her head.
Puckett said Addison's enrollment is expected to be close to 500, about 40 higher than the projection, because of the popularity of its aerospace program. The school might get two additional teachers because of the large enrollment, she said.
At Virginia Heights Elementary, Principal Herbert Olinger said enrollment also was higher than projected, partly because of the increase in kindergartners. The school had 46 kindergartners last year, but it expects at least 58 this year. Overall enrollment could approach 300, up from 250 last year.
Olinger is new at Virginia Heights, but he is a former elementary and middle school principal in Page and Pulaski counties.
"Opening days will be opening days," he said. "You plan out a schedule, but there's always something unexpected."
Olinger spent part of the day retrieving a Virginia Heights pupil who had taken a bus to the wrong school - the Villa Heights Educational Center, an alternative education school.
"That's just one of the duties of opening days," he said. "Going and picking up students who have gone to the wrong school."
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff Addison Middle School's Sandraby CNBPuckett checks on a class Tuesday, her first day as principal.
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