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
Monday, December 1, 1997; Page B01

Soon after it opened in September, Loudoun County's Potomac Falls High School held an "activities fair" to publicize the 16 student clubs that teachers were sponsoring. Hundreds of students attended the event in the school cafeteria and studied the menu of extracurricular activities at the brand-new school.

But almost three months later, some of the clubs still haven't formed, and several others are barely functioning because of low membership. The yearbook club has about 12 members, compared with yearbook staffs of 30 to 40 students at other Loudoun high schools. Future Educators of America, a club for students interested in becoming teachers, has nine members so far, compared with 100 members at nearby Broad Run High.

Only a handful of students have joined the Spanish club, and the forensics club and Operation Smile -- a group that raises money for medical aid to Third World countries -- haven't even gotten off the ground.

"It's a great school, but the kids aren't vested in the school yet," said Sue Pearson, a special education teacher who is trying to start a Students Against Driving Drunk chapter at Potomac Falls but drew only two students to the group's first meeting. "They don't want to come early. They don't want to stay late. I think they're a little apathetic. That's one of the problems with starting a new school."

Indeed, teachers and administrators at Potomac Falls, Loudoun's first new high school in 21 years, are learning that building student organizations is one of their biggest challenges. They can design new courses and dictate an academic schedule, but they can't force students to join after-school clubs. Yet a large part of a school's spirit and identity come from its extracurricular activities, school officials say, so they are doing whatever they can to foster the clubs' growth.

The same issue will confront educators in several other suburban Washington school systems that are building new schools because of rapid enrollment growth.

Students at Potomac Falls say that no matter how much a teacher may promote the activity he or she is sponsoring, students are more likely to listen to their peers for advice on what clubs to join. And at a new school, there are no examples to follow or club histories to talk about.

"When you go to Broad Run, you already know through other students what clubs there are and what a lot of people do," said Sean Dikeman, a Potomac Falls junior who attended Broad Run last year along with many other Potomac Falls students. "A lot of the clubs were filled at Broad Run because people already knew what they wanted to do. This year, people are kind of feeling out what they want to do."

One of those people is Matt Charlesworth, 14, a freshman who still hasn't found the club he wants to join. Matt attended a meeting of the marketing club but didn't like the fact that it met before school, at 8 a.m. Then he tried Future Business Leaders of America but was turned off when he learned that members had to pay dues and take a business class. Finally, he tried the Spanish club.

"We didn't really do anything because so few people came," Matt said. "There were only about five people at the first meeting."

At the club's next meeting, he said, the faculty sponsor suggested that the club build a float for a school festival, but none of the students was interested.

"Most people just didn't want to have a float," he said. "It was the teacher's idea."

Such stories have not discouraged the school's activities director, Sandie Hopkins, who is determined to see that the clubs at the 860-student school in Sterling are a success. Hopkins said it always takes time to build clubs at a new school. She also noted that Potomac Falls opened without a senior class and that activism usually begins with the older students.

To encourage participation in clubs, Principal Wayne Griffith has set up an "activities period" during the school day. Once a month, students are allowed to meet with their clubs during the first class period. (Students who are not in clubs report to their homerooms and read or do homework.) Griffith said he thought this might get students interested enough in a particular club that they eventually would attend its meetings when they were held before or after school.

But so far it hasn't worked out that way. In several cases, attendance was heavy for the first club meeting held during school hours, then fell sharply when the club met at its regular time.

Michelle Quirin, an English teacher and the yearbook club's sponsor, said that although dozens of students initially expressed interest in joining the yearbook staff, only nine showed up at the first meeting held after school.

Quirin said she wanted to have a staff large enough to allow groups of students to concentrate on different portions of the yearbook. Instead, everyone had to work on the opening pages so they could be sent to the publisher by the club's first deadline.

The newspaper staff has been slightly more successful, having published its first 16-page issue. Bob Travers, the faculty sponsor, said he was fortunate that a group of six students who had been on the newspaper staff at Broad Run helped him start the staff at Potomac Falls. But Travers said he is discouraged that only one freshman has joined.

Some students said more clubs might be thriving if teachers didn't exercise so much control over the activities.

"The teachers do it all for us," said LaTonya Ewell, 15, a freshman. "They make these clubs, then tell you to `do this, do that,' and they don't let us do our ideas."

Hopkins said administrators received three proposals from students for new clubs but had to turn down two of them. One of them was for a video game club, in which students would use school computers; administrators decided that it was not appropriate for a school environment. They also turned down a guitar club for lack of a sponsor.

The only Potomac Falls club organized through student initiative is a step dance group. Students who had been part of the step dance team at Broad Run were eager to start one at Potomac Falls. Their initial proposal -- to form a joint team with Broad Run -- was turned down by Griffith, who said students at Potomac Falls had to sever ties with other schools.

"I got upset, but then I thought, `He's right,' " said Sam Soheilian, 16, a junior. "Because if everybody did that, then the football teams would be the same and the basketball teams, too."

The students recruited Jarrod Palmer, a business teacher, to sponsor them, and they received Griffith's go-ahead.

Hopkins says she is encouraged by the success of the step dance team. And she said it points to better times ahead for Potomac Falls's student organizations.

"A lot of it has to do with insecurity," Hopkins said. "Kids are nervous about getting involved at the start. But I think they're starting to feel more comfortable now, and you'll start to see more clubs."

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.