THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 8, 1995 TAG: 9509070188
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Plans to relocate students at fire-damaged Princess Anne High School are rapidly falling into place, with a few changes likely to pop up before classes start at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Schedules, supplies, equipment, activities and transportation that had been disrupted by the early morning Sept. 1 fire are being firmed up, ordered or arranged to make ready for the opening day.
Harried principal Pat Griffin says her faculty and staff are showing that true ``P.A.'' fighting spirit by rolling up their sleeves to restore order and calm in the midst of chaos. ``Our teachers are positive and enthusiastic and creative,'' Griffin said Wednesday as staffers bustled in and out of a series of portable buildings, where she had set up a temporary office.
Most Princess Anne teachers and students will start out their school year at Celebration Station, a one-time shopping center leased by the city school system since 1992 to house several educational programs. The structure is a few blocks east of the high school campus on Virginia Beach Boulevard at Little Neck Road.
Initially, about 1,500 Princess Anne High students will attend classes at Celebration Station. About 500 will go to school at least part of each week inside 18 portable classrooms set up at Princess Anne High School. Most of these students in the portables will be ninth-graders, with a few 10th-graders thrown into the mix.
Griffin offered the following plan of attack for the opening of classes next Tuesday:
At the Princess Anne campus, portable buildings will be used for ninth-grade English, physical education and earth sciences. Tenth-grade physical education and biology also will be housed at the Princess Anne campus.
``We're trying to arrange the scheduling so ninth-graders can take the courses without taking the shuttle (bus) to Celebration Station on the same day,'' she said. ``They would go to Celebration Station the next day.''
Also to be offered at the Princess Anne campus will be elective physical education for older students and NJROTC.
All other courses will be offered at Celebration Station, which will house about 32 classrooms.
``There's plenty of classroom space to support everybody,'' Griffin said. ``And no courses are being dropped.''
Students will attend three classes on ``A-days'' and three classes on ``B-days'' between 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Some students, including those taking seven and eight courses, will attend a fourth class from 12:45 to 2 p.m.
Students reporting to classes Tuesday morning will be on B-day schedules.
As workmen reclaim the burned out sections of the high school, ``we will be moving back in,'' Griffin said. ``At the end of October we want to get into the new wing, which is still intact. In there are three state-of-the art science labs.''
All Princess Anne buses will drop off or pick up students at both Celebration Station and the main high school campus during morning and afternoon runs. Students living in walking zones near the school also will be provided bus service.
No lunches will be served on either campus. However, vending machines offering soft drinks and snacks will be available at both campuses.
Supplies and equipment are either available or on order. Some computers have been ordered and others will be gathered from other city schools.
``We expect to have all computer labs running at Celebration Station,'' said Griffin. ``It's already wired for them.''
A telephone system is being installed at Celebration Station.
Desks will be available for every student. Furniture has been ordered.
Library space has been set aside at Celebration Station and Griffin hopes to have a technology section available as well - complete with CD-ROMs and computer hookups to the Central Library.
The school library staff is working with the Central Library staff to allow students access to reference materials and to do classroom research.
Students will get school handbooks when they arrive for classes at both campuses. The 90-minute A and B time schedules will remain the same as they have in the past.
Student activities will be conducted as they have in past years. They will be held after classes at Celebration Station during the fourth (afternoon) time block, said Griffin.
Athletic competitions will go on as scheduled for both home and away engagements. Coaches and athletes will meet after school to discuss arrangements for practice, lunch and supervised study schedules.
The main office, including Griffin's, will be shifted to Celebration Station. However, the high school will be manned at all times by at least one administrator, she said.
Extra security has been hired to man Celebration Station. Security personnel will be equipped with a two-way radio or phone.
Student schedules were not complete by press time. However, Griffin said, schedules would be ready by today. They would either be mailed to students or available at the two campuses when they report to classes.
Additional scheduling information would be available on Cox Cable channel 46. MEMO: [For a related story, see page 10 of The Beacon for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MORT FRYMAN
The converted building will not have a cafeteria, although it will
likely have a series of vending machines to meet basic nutritional
needs and desires for snacks.
by CNB