THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200374
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
If you're out at Virginia Beach Middle School looking for principal Don Harvey, don't bother going to the office.
First thing in the morning, he's likely to be in the foyer, greeting students as they arrive and teaching them yo-yo tricks.
Later in the day, look for Harvey in a classroom where he's making sure one of his charges is recognized for a special accomplishment.
After school, head to the athletic fields where he's likely to be cheering on a Seahawk team.
Harvey, recently named Virginia's Secondary School Principal of the Year, likes to be where the action is. So he avoids where it is not - buried in the paperwork on his desk.
``He's nice,'' said Adriane Edwards, a 13-year-old eighth-grader. ``He communicates with everybody, rather than being the person up at the office.''
Harvey came to Virginia Beach Middle School four years ago, after a year and a half working for the central office on plans to convert all of the city's junior high schools to middle schools. He got antsy being so far away from the classroom.
``I have fun here with the kids,'' Harvey said Thursday, sitting in his office for a change. ``I love it here. I want to be here.
``The most rewarding thing is when the kids come back and say, `We remember Virginia Beach Middle School as one of the most significant times in our lives.' ''
Harvey makes it significant by creating a warm, supportive atmosphere in which everyone feels valued, say students, parents and teachers.
During the school year, the halls are festooned with brightly colored flags representing the different core class teams to which students belong. Teachers greet arriving students, handing out candy canes during the Christmas season. At the end-of-the-year awards ceremony, hundreds of children are honored.
``You have a nurturing environment,'' parent Rosemary Wilson said. ``And it all starts at the top.''
``Children,'' said special education teacher Jon Irby, `` are allowed to shine here.''
Harvey's influence extends from the academic - making sure special education students are included on the honor role - to the mundane. When the need for students to share lockers began creating problems, he had shop classes make shelves to divide up the space.
Nominees for the state principal honor, and for the national award to be presented in January by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, are judged by several criteria that include taking risks to improve student learning, involving the community in the school and demonstrating creativity and imagination to create positive change.
The nomination procedure requires only four letters of recommendation, but the information collected for Harvey is stacked in a 4-inch binder. Kudos arrived laser-printed on corporate letterhead and scrawled brightly in magic marker.
``Go, Mr. Harvey. You go, go. You're the best. Everyone knows,'' one student wrote.
Harvey says that his successes at Virginia Beach Middle - affectionately known as Camp Seahawk - are the result of the parents, staff and students who surround him.
``It's a combination of a lot of people working hard,'' he said. ``It's not me sitting here behind the desk and saying, `Let's hand out candy canes.' It's them coming to me and saying, `What do you think about . . . ?'
``It's easy when they come to me with creative ideas, and I just support them.''
Harvey's staff deflects praise back to him.
``He tends to shy away and say how wonderful the staff and students are. We couldn't be that way if he wasn't like he is,'' teacher Jeannie Henschel said. ``The kids have pride in the school, and that comes from the top.''
The seeds of success for this year's Virginia Secondary School Principal were planted, back at Newport News High School, by a chemistry and advanced science teacher who inspired Harvey to begin his career as a science teacher. Thirty years later, Harvey still remembers Richard Leonard.
``He was genuinely interested in the well-being of kids - not just in his subject but in the success of kids,'' Harvey recalled. ``He made everyone feel important.''
Not everyone would be inclined to oversee 1,000 young people navigating the treacherous social, physical and academic landscapes of early adolescence, but Harvey relishes it.
``I'm such a cheerleader for this school,'' he said. ``But I believe we provide . . . a program that makes students want to be here and makes them want to succeed.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo Don Harvey
KEYWORDS: PRINCIPAL OF THE YEAR by CNB