THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610040233
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 168 lines
THE NEW PRINCIPAL of Woodrow Wilson High School has ushered in a new sense of fashion at the school.
Skirts are being worn a little longer. Revealing necklines and cropped tops are out. Oversized pants are no longer worn draping the hips.
William E. Gibson Jr. is making sure the dress code lives up to his expectations of how students perceive themselves and school.
From the looks of students filing through the halls, Gibson's message is getting across.
``A lot of guys walk around here with their pants up now,'' said DeWayne Williams, a senior. ``Last year's principal didn't really stress pulling up your pants, but Mr. Gibson does.''
Why would students obey a new principal's edict, especially one who's a novice barely a month into his reign?
``He's bigger,'' Williams said simply as he stood in the cafeteria waiting for lunch to end.
``And he's cool.''
At 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds, Gibson towers above even the burliest of high school football players.
But former students and colleagues say it's more than Gibson's stature that commands respect.
Gibson, 51, knows what it takes to develop a bond with students.
``He understands kids and working with parents,'' said Darnell Johnson, principal of New Directions Center, the city's secondary alternative school. ``He gets around to a lot of civic kinds of things, churches, different organizational functions. . . .
``He goes to football games, to basketball games, to activities where teachers and parents don't go anymore. When you do those kinds of extracurricular activities, kids tend to like you.''
After 22 years with Portsmouth Public Schools, Gibson often finds himself having conferences with parents who were his former students, which further helps to strengthen the kinship students feel for him.
``It makes for good rapport with the kids because the kids feel like he's part of their extended family,'' Johnson said.
Churchland principal Raymond Hale credits Gibson with having an inordinate amount of patience.
``He doesn't just read a rule and say, `The kid did this and the kid gets that,' '' Hale said. ``Anything he can do to get the kid to respond in the right way, he does it.''
For the last two years, Gibson served as one of three assistant principals under Hale at Churchland High School. They also worked together at Cradock High, where Gibson served as a music director from 1974 to 1981.
He was a strong disciplinarian, with little tolerance for laziness. If Gibson thought band members weren't lifting their legs high enough while marching, he would make them run a lap around the football field.
Gibson spent 17 years of his career as a band director and music instructor.
He was an all-state musician for four years at I.C. Norcom High School before he graduated in 1964. He also was an an honor graduate of the Armed Forces School of Music, where he played the tuba and the string bass.
After Gibson graduated from Norfolk State University in the early 1970s with a degree in music, the Armed Forces School of Music wanted to hire him as an instructor, but he preferred a job with the Portsmouth school system.
Gibson's lifelong mentor was his high school band director, Emery Fears, and he always had dreamed of having his own band.
``It's still in my blood,'' he said.
He loves watching Norfolk State and other college halftime shows on TV and has spent the last five years judging bands at festivals, parades and field shows.
In his office are framed photos of the flag squad from Gibson's last year at Cradock and the marching band from his first year at Manor, 1981-1982.
``That band won every competition,'' Gibson said proudly, pointing to the Manor musicians. ``We even went to a national event, the Cherry Blossom Festival, and they won that, too.''
But despite his love of music, Gibson yearned for bigger challenges in the field of education. In the 1980s, he began working toward a certificate of advanced studies from Old Dominion University.
Gibson was named assistant principal at I.C. Norcom High School in the fall of 1991. Three years later, he was transferred to Churchland.
``You know, it hurt me to have to leave Norcom because of my relationship with the students,'' he said. ``And it was a big problem when I first got to Churchland because (Norcom) kids were calling me up crying.''
He thinks about his former students often, he says, and often wonders how they're doing today.
``What is most rewarding to me is to see successful students, students who come back to me and thank me for being so hard, thank me for loving them,'' he said. ``This is when you feel good.''
Gibson was named principal of Wilson High School after Lindell Wallace resigned to take a job as assistant superintendent for middle school education in Virginia Beach.
``I think Gibson will do a good job because Gibson has a very even-tempered kind of personality,'' Wallace said. ``He's the kind of person who will listen and is willing to learn.''
Because Wallace was an immensely popular and highly respected principal at Wilson, it's been said that Gibson has some big shoes to fill.
``Have you seen him? I think Gibson's shoes are a little bigger than mine,'' Wallace said, laughing off the suggestion.
``I don't think Gibson's going to have a problem following me,'' he added, turning serious. ``I think Gibson and I are probably cut from the same mold.
``We both care about people, and we're concerned about their welfare. I just did what was best for everybody, and I think he'll do the same.''
Gibson's goals for Wilson include increasing parental involvement and continuing the school's successful academic programs. He also has challenged each student in the school to make a C or better in every class and expects at least 70 percent of the school's 256 seniors to be on the honor roll.
``Another goal I have is to increase the number of participants in our magnet program and to get more exposure for our magnet program (in international studies),'' he said.
In his first few weeks at Wilson, Gibson has made his presence known.
Every chance he gets, he walks through the school's spacious corridors, alternately checking for hall passes and shaking students' hands.
It may take a while to get to know all the students. After all, Wilson's student body numbers just under 1,700.
``I've told the seniors that when they see me in the hall to come and shake my hand,'' Gibson said.
He refers to them as his ``sophisticated seniors.''
``When you believe you're sophisticated, then that means that you're going to walk around with a certain air of class,'' he said. ``You're going to be doing things according to school policy and you'll be offended when somebody else is doing differently.''
He knows as the oldest students, they are going to be the ones that the other students look up to.
``I have some good seniors,'' he said. ``I'm really depending on my seniors to have an impact on the smooth running of this school.
``See, it can't be the teachers. It has to be the students because we're outnumbered 10 to one.''
Beyond that, Gibson already feels confident that his own experience can go a long way reaching young people.
``I've worked with these kids, I have patience with them,'' he said. ``And you need patience in this job. You need to love these kids.
``If the kids know that you love them, they will work for you.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by MARK MITCHELL
William E. Gibson...
Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
At 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds, William E. Gibson Jr. towers above even
the burliest of high school football players. But colleagues say
it's more than his stature that commands respect.
After 22 years with Portsmouth Public Schools, Gibson often finds
himself having conferences with parents who were his former
students, which further helps to strengthen the kinship students
feel for him.
AT LEFT: Gibson takes time to talk to students in the cafeteria.
Every chance he gets, he walks through the school's spacious
corridors, alternately checking for hall passes and shaking
students' hands.
Graphic AT A GLANCE
Name: William E. Gibson Jr., new principal of Woodrow Wilson High
School.
Born: Aug. 8, 1945.
Hometown: Grew up in the Newtown section of Portsmouth.
Current residence: Dunedin section of Western Branch.
Family: Married to Mary Gibson, a social worker with the city of
Norfolk; one daughter, Camille, 14, a freshman at Western Branch
High School.
Education: 1964 graduate of I.C. Norcom High School. Enlisted in
and served four years in the U.S. Navy. Attended the Armed Forces
School of Music and graduated with honors. Received a degree in
music from Norfolk State and earned a certificate of advanced
studies in administration from Old Dominion University.
Most previous position: Assistant principal at Churchland High
School for two years.
Years in district: 23.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY by CNB