Friday, September 04, 2009
Fleming swells with pride as new building opens
The sprawling new William Fleming High School features wide hallways, plenty of classroom space and a visual and performing arts wing with a 450-seat auditorium.
Photos by JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times
Mimi Baskin explores the gymnasium at the new $57 million William Fleming High School with daughter Taja Baskin and son Ashton Nelms during the school's grand opening Thursday. Baskin's two older children attend Fleming.
Some 15 years ago Paul Andrews was coaching William Fleming High School's track team when something happened he has not forgotten -- or forgiven.
An athlete visiting Roanoke from a neighboring school district stepped off the bus, took one look at the aging campus-style school and said it was the ugliest thing she had ever seen.
"She said it looked like a prison," recalled Andrews, a retired Roanoke school employee.
He took the young lady's first impression personally and for years her words have been tucked in his memory. But Thursday he retold the story with a broad grin.
"Man, I wish I could find her now," he said.
He likely would relish in showing off a state-of-the-art, brand-new school that looks nothing like a penitentiary.
Colonel pride swelled Thursday afternoon as hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the new $57 million William Fleming High School -- the second multimillion dollar high school renovation completed in Roanoke in as many years.
"I said at the PH [Patrick Henry High School] dedication, 'Dreams do come true,' " Roanoke schools Superintendent Rita Bishop said at Thursday's ceremony. "But rarely do two dreams come true in our lives in such a short time."
Students, teachers and administrators said they are excited and reinvigorated about the opportunity to start classes in the new school next week.
Senior Aaron Colston said the technology upgrades, such as interactive smart boards in every classroom, will give students an edge.
"I think we can be more competitive with other schools now," Colston said.
The morale boost could not come at a better time -- the spotlight has been on school Principal Susan Willis in recent months for a schedule-manipulating scandal that kept dozens of students from taking state-mandated Standards of Learning tests. Willis' grievance hearing continued Thursday.
Retired teacher and administrator Doris Ennis, a familiar face in the school system, is leading the school for the interim as the administrator on assignment.
"She has retired hundreds of times -- and she's not done yet," Mayor David Bowers said.
Work by the city council and the school board on the much-needed upgrades goes back more than a decade. And there's been tension among residents in the northeast and northwest quadrants for years because they feared the students in the southern parts of the city were getting something more or better because Patrick Henry was renovated first.
The high schools are equally impressive yet very different. Patrick Henry's look resembles a traditional high school and the facility fits in with the surrounding neighborhood. Fleming's design is more sleek, with lots of glass. It looks more like an airport or corporate headquarters than a school.
By the fall of 2010 both schools will have football stadiums on their campuses. For Fleming, it will be the first time the school has had its own home field. Both city high schools played at Victory Stadium, which was demolished in 2006.
The sprawling new school features 15-foot-wide hallways, plenty of classroom space and a visual and performing arts wing that includes a 450-seat auditorium and black-box theater.
"What I really appreciate about this facility is the amount of space," said Marcia Shelton, an earth science and astronomy teacher.
She said she is most grateful she will no longer have to keep her lab supplies in boxes in the closet.
The 330,000-square-foot school is able to accommodate 1,800 students.
Roanoker Jan Bruce, who graduated with the old school's second class in 1963, attended Thursday's event.
"I guess my sad part [for me] is to watch my old school be torn down," he said. "But this is the future."
