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
Tuesday, June 2, 1998; Page B01

For most of this opening year at Potomac Falls High School, no one knew how to unite a building full of students who arrived with their own loyalties to other schools in eastern Loudoun County.

Turnout was pitiful at many dances and sports events at the new school in Sterling, the fast-growing county's first new high school in 21 years. Enthusiasm at rallies and assemblies was tame.

Then came the big game.

It was just an exhibition basketball match on April 18 between the faculty and a group of boys and girls. But the crowd came alive, waving pompons, bleating on megaphones and cheering as their classmates rallied from a nine-point deficit, blocked a last-second shot by a teacher and won by one point.

"Everyone ran out on the court after we won," said junior Matt Simonetti, who played guard in the game. "The pep rallies weren't anything before that. People just sat around and watched, but everyone was into it on that one."

Teacher Bob Travers, who watched from the bleachers, said: "It was the first time the whole school was together having fun. I've noticed a different feeling since then. Earlier in the year, kids definitely had problems adjusting to being in a new school, identity problems. It was exactly what we needed, an event to show this is a good place, this is where we are now and this is where we'll graduate from."

It can be difficult to pinpoint when a new high school becomes not just a building but a home. But the students at Potomac Falls would point to that day.

Junior Danny Pettengill, as the Panther mascot of Loudoun County's new Potomac Falls High School, holds Tom Kramer, junior class vice president. By Marie Poirier Marzi/The Washington Post

With less than a month remaining in the school year, they say that Potomac Falls finally has lost its antiseptic air and that students have begun to establish a sense of school pride and identity -- and the little charms and traditions that make a school a comfortable place.

After the student-faculty basketball game, students hosted a successful Sadie Hawkins dance. Principal E. Wayne Griffith rewarded juniors with an outdoor lunch area known as the Panther Patio, which is off-limits to underclassmen. The girls soccer team drew attention by beating rival Broad Run High, 6-2, on April 13.

And although the school will have no graduation because there are no seniors, the students are finishing the year in style: The junior prom was held last Friday, and this Friday will be a field day in which students and teachers will participate in carnival-like events.

"It's been challenging to get traditions started, but it's starting to get better," said Tom Kramer, the junior class vice president, who has asked students to donate items for a time capsule to commemorate the first year. "They're starting to get more interested. Once one person starts, the other people start. They imitate the more popular people. They're starting to feel more at home here."

Feeling at home was a challenge for many of the 850 students.

"I wanted to go back real bad because I missed my friends," said junior Melanie Haskins, who came from Broad Run High. "I'm a cheerleader, and no one was spirited. They didn't come to the games. Everyone wanted to go back to their old schools, and I was like that, too. At parties, I hung out with my old friends because I missed them a lot."

Haskins stayed at Potomac Falls, but according to Griffith, about 20 juniors and sophomores transferred back to their old schools, citing various reasons.

The sports teams, often a rallying point for students, struggled. The football team won just one game -- when another team had to forfeit. The girls basketball team went 0-22; the boys team was 2-20.

With no seniors, Potomac Falls didn't struggle just on the playing fields; the school lacked leaders on all levels. "We were the highest class, so we had more responsibility, and I don't think all the juniors were ready for it," junior Regina Mann said.

Dave Bruzga, principal of Howard County's Long Reach High School, says that the apathy at Potomac Falls was natural for a school with no seniors. Long Reach opened in the same position in 1996, and Bruzga said he has seen a noticeable uplift in spirit there this year.

"The orders for class rings and jackets and all the school-related items were way up this year," Bruzga said. "The first year, the students were hesitant. They still had allegiances to their old schools."

The Potomac Falls juniors were so apathetic that the freshmen out-cheered them at pep rallies -- and avoided the usual harassment from upperclassmen.

"When I came here, I was expecting to get picked on, but there was none of that," freshman Christine Allen said.

As the spring dawned, student government leaders decided to take matters into their own hands. They met with Griffith and presented him with a list of events they thought students might enjoy, such as the Sadie Hawkins dance, the student-faculty basketball game and the field day.

Sam Soheilian, the junior class president, said she tried to drum up interest in the dance through word of mouth.

"You just tell them, 'Well, everybody's going!' even if you don't know who's going," she said. "They just show up one by one."

Junior Melissa Durham said that Soheilian was relentless and that her efforts were more effective than pep rallies and other events staged by teachers.

"Sam was like, 'You've got to come, you've got to come!' " Durham said. "It was more the students than the teachers that got everyone involved in the school. I'm not saying the teachers don't care, but we don't care if the teachers care. If other students care, we're going to get really into it."

The student marketing club also got involved, staging a contest in the week leading up to the student-faculty basketball game. The contest was to see which class -- juniors, sophomores or freshmen -- would purchase the most Spirit Bags, which contained Panther tattoos, pompons and megaphones. The junior class won.

"I think the juniors finally realized this is their school and they're going to be the first graduating class, and they started getting into it," junior Victor Flanagan said.

In perhaps the junior class's greatest show of unity, many recently participated in a Junior Skip Day, in which they did not show up for school -- a privilege normally reserved for seniors.

"At the beginning of the year, I really, really, really wanted to go back to Broad Run because that's where all my friends were," junior Natalie Niner said.

"But as the year went on, I was apart from my friends, so I just kind of separated from them and they all forgot about me," she said. "So it kind of changed, and I made new friends here. I miss Broad Run, but I wouldn't want to be there now."

This article is the last in an occasional series that looked at the creation of a new school.