Potomac Falls High This article is one of seven looking at the challenges that educators, parents and students faced in creating a new Virginia high school. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Part 1: Boundary Decision Delayed Part 2: Dispute Over School's Size Part 3: A Study in Starting Fresh Part 4: A Learning Experience Part 5: New High School Debuts Part 6: Club Membership Lags Part 7: "Big Game" Unites Students

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 6, 1997; Page C01

As she stood in the main foyer of brand-new Potomac Falls High School in Sterling, 16-year-old Laura Chornock wasn't staring at the high, purple ceilings or the wide, teal hallways but rather at the small Xeroxed map of the building that she held in her hands.

Like many of the 860 students entering the school on opening day, she had a vexing problem: She couldn't find her homeroom.

"This is pathetic!" said Chornock, noticing the various knots of students who were lost in the halls. "Everyone is equal. Whether you're a freshman or a junior, we all don't know where we are."

The main reason for the confusion was that students -- and many teachers, too -- failed to turn the map over to see the floor plan of the school's second level.

"It's amazing how many people don't know we have two floors," said Principal E. Wayne Griffith.

No matter how much planning you do, there always will be surprises. That was the watchword at Potomac Falls this week, as Loudoun County's first new high school in 21 years welcomed students. The same process will occur in many other Washington area communities over the next decade, especially in outer suburbs where rapid enrollment growth has triggered a boom in school construction.

At Potomac Falls, the arrival of students was the long-awaited test of four years of designing, building and fretting by Griffith and other school officials, and the unexpected problems ranged from long lines in the lunch room to a marching band that had no uniforms.

But the glitches were relatively minor, and Griffith said he was mostly satisfied with how the opening week went.

Once they found their classrooms, the students, too, gave thumbs up to their new school. Formerly students at Broad Run High, Park View High or Seneca Ridge Middle School, they have swirled to form a new constellation in a place that slowly will develop its own spirit and identity.

Several students said that, although they had to leave behind good friends and familiar surroundings, they liked the fact that going to a new school meant a chance to start over. Old reputations could be left behind, old grudges buried. Athletes and musicians who didn't make the cut at Broad Run or Park View might become stars at Potomac Falls.

"I kind of wanted to stay at Broad Run, but the more time I spend here the more I like it, because it's a new start," said junior Anthony Colucci, 16, who volunteered to help the faculty unpack boxes during the summer and happily accepts the title of Potomac Falls's first Teacher's Pet.

Some students said the school's impressive facilities helped ease their fears about the transition.

"The classrooms are a lot nicer than Broad Run, newer, more modern," said junior Jenn Meyers, 16. "And the halls are much bigger. At Broad Run, teachers were always yelling at you to move to the side to let other people walk by."

Potomac Falls will feel particularly spacious to students this year because there is no senior class.

But what is new also can be confounding. The state-of-the-art lockers at Potomac Falls, for example, were built without handles, and many students found them hard to open.

"Broad Run has lockers where you could pull up the handles," said junior Dawn McNerney, 16. "These you have to turn to the right number, then yank them. I had to try four or five times."

On the third day of class, Griffith announced that any student who was still having trouble with the lockers should come to the main office for a demonstration. Dozens showed up.

Nor were students accustomed to the automatic timers on the locker-room showers. The girls' cross-country team unintentionally failed to set the timers, so the showers kept running until the volleyball team entered six hours later. "They said it was like a sauna in there," Assistant Principal Sherron Gladden said.

Administrators and teachers were stationed throughout the building to check on how everything was functioning. Griffith added a third lunch shift after a teacher monitoring the cafeteria saw students gobbling down their food as the bell rang to resume classes and after students complained about the long lines.

The school's first football game took place on Aug. 29, even before classes started. It was a home game against Osbourn Park High School, of Manassas, and the first opportunity to create a feeling of school unity. The Potomac Paws, Potomac Falls's booster club, sold buttons and T-shirts bearing the team's mascot, a purple panther.

Unfortunately, the school's marching band also was forced to wear the shirts because its uniforms had not arrived. School officials blamed the delay, in part, on the United Parcel Service workers' strike.

At halftime, the band -- whose director had been hired just a week earlier -- stood on the track surrounding the field. The band members played but they didn't move.

"We don't have routines yet, so we can't go on the field," explained sophomore Traci Graybill, 15, the captain of the flag guard.

Lacking seniors, the Panthers lost the game, 38-14. But they still got a standing ovation from the home fans.

One other football-related problem: The players had trouble getting their helmets into the lockers. "That's one of the things that truly bothers me," Griffith said. "If I ever open another school, I'm going to go down and measure the lockers personally."

By week's end, the school had lost its sanitary feel and gained a lived-in appeal. Someone posted colorful signs on the volleyball players' lockers that read: "Shut 'em out" -- a reference to a game against Osbourn. Teachers had decorated their rooms with pictures of Albert Einstein and cardboard cutouts of the Eiffel Tower.

As he left school yesterday, with students buzzing about that night's football game against their old mates and new rivals at Broad Run, Griffith was reminded once more why he worked so hard during the long planning process.

"When things weren't going well during the past year, I'd look in the mirror and say: `Panther pride! Panther pride!' " he said. "Then I'd remember why I was doing all of this."

This article is part of an occasional series on Potomac Falls High School that looks at the creation of a new school and the challenges that students, parents and educators face during the process.