Wednesday, July 30, 2003
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Wednesday, July 30, 2003 |
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Newest high school sets high bar: Best in the state By J. FRANK LYNCH
When Whitewater High School held its first open house last Thursday to welcome the Class of 2007, more than 80 percent of the charter freshman class showed up, in the middle of summer, with their moms and dads in tow. According to Principal Greg Stillions, 380 of the 422 ninth graders who've been enrolled so far came out to see what their new school, meeting this year at the LaFayette Education Center, is all about. If they weren't excited before they got there, they were when they left, said Stillions. "Meeting the kids last Thursday was just great," he said. "They were a very pleasant group, a very excited group. It's clear they want to be here. They were asking questions, they want to know what the new building will be like." But it wasn't until Thursday that many of the students, drawn almost entirely from Whitewater Middle, with segments coming from Fayette and Rising Starr middle schools, made this realization: "They'll be seniors for four years," Stillions said, adding he feels confident this group of teens will be the leaders any new high school needs to get off the ground successfully. "Things will evolve naturally," he said. "I really don't perceive it being a situation out of control. Most of the students are excited about the challenge of being leaders from the start. And when we start going to class, that's where you're going to set expectations of what we can do as a school academically, and where we want this class to be when they are seniors." By then, Whitewater High will have been in its permanent campus between Sarah Harp Minter Elementary and the Kiwanis Fairgrounds for three years and it will likely be at its full capacity of 1,500. And just what will the completed WHS look like? Stillions suggests riding out Ga. Highway 54 toward Jonesboro and take a look at the new Mundy's Mill High in Clayton County. Then flip it around in your head. "Our school is a mirror image of Mundy's Mill," the principal said. "Starting with only one grade, that's a tremendous asset for us," said Stillions, who was principal of McIntosh before taking the Whitewater post. He helped open Clayton County's Mt. Zion High more than 10 years ago. "You're not getting anybody, student-wise, who doesn't want to be here. A lot of times when you know you're going to open with 10th graders, when it comes down to starting, they don't want to go and leave their old school." Instead, every student in the Whitewater district who was expected to enroll has done so, and then some. "We've had a tremendous number of special permissions granted to transfer to Whitewater from other high schools in the county. And we've had probably nine or 10 from the private sector, and I'm still scheduling on average one new move-in a day." Space shouldn't be problem, he said. The entire school will be housed in the L.E.C.'s "D" Building, the old main building of Fayette County High before it was relocated in 1997. Whitewater will also utilize the cafeteria, library, band and chorus rooms and the gym. But the rest of the campus, and most especially, the FCHS campus across the road, is off limits. Parents were told of the strict measures Thursday and approved. "Our classes begin at 8:15 a.m. and end at 3," said Stillions. Other high schools start at 8:40 and get out at 3:20. "We will dismiss and clear and not be in the way of Fayette County High, which is an off-limits area, totally. Students who ride to school, even if its with a sibling from the high school, will have to be picked up here at the L.E.C. They cannot cross the road." Most all after-school activities will take place at Whitewater Middle or other locations, said Stillions, since there just isn't that much space to spare between FCHS and the LEC. Stillions considers the extracurricular activities, so vital to high school life, important in many ways in establishing an early identify for Whitewater. "Our goal is to be the model school for the whole state, and that's in all areas," said Stillions. "Everybody, including all our teachers, are gung-ho about what goes on in the classroom, but they are just as gung-ho about what happens when 3:30 hits. That's what makes a good school, when everybody knows what we're here for and it plays such an important part of the student's lives." There's already great enthusiasm for the school's football program, under the direction of longtime and successful Creekside coach Amos McCreary. New "Whitewater High" sweatshirts that brag, "The Only Real Cat in Town" (a swipe at the FCHS Tigers and Starr's Mill Panthers) were fast sellers at the open house. Stillions seems most proud of his faculty, 90 percent of whom are transfers from other county high schools. Transfers were offered on a volunteer basis. "But even in the displaced situations, with staff having to be removed from another school, the difference is that every one wants to be here," he said. "I could have staffed an entire four-year high school if I had to." Stillions, who was an administrator at McIntosh for seven years, most recently as principal, says he misses the intense academic environment, but that Fayette's other high school communities aren't that much different. "At McIntosh, it's easy to push toward a set of standards that are phenomenal sometimes, just due to the kids' capabilities. But I see here the same type ability in the Whitewater kids, too. The expectations are the same, and if you set your expectations high, no matter where you are in Fayette County, the students will go for it." "That's the beauty of Fayette County," Stillions said.
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