From the Editor
Are There Empty Schools in Chesterfield's Future?
By
May 28, 2008 - 11:08:50 AM

During my senior year in high school, fifth period was always the best and easy class to skip. It wasn’t really a class, though; it was study hall. Someone looking in might have called it recess because students would push their desks together to study (play football), work on projects (gossip), or do homework (plan the weekend).

This was the time for my buddies and me to slip out of the building for some R&R. John Firth (City), Ronnie Maddock (Surf), and I would cross the front lawn of the school and meet Ray Mattill who was waiting in his red Volkswagen Beetle at the Betsy Ann Café.

The last time we pulled that prank, City, Surf, and I ran into our principal who was lying in wait behind the restaurant. We sprinted toward the waiting Beetle, but Ray floored it and left us to face Principal Ravenscraft.

Mr. Ravenscraft gave us a choice of punishment. Three swats with the paddle (corporal punishment was in vogue at the time) or a week of after-school detention. Which do you think we chose? Ravenscraft had a mean collection paddles hanging on his wall. Most were made by students in shop class and presented to our beloved principal. The paddles had been given nicknames, like the Burner, Don’t Call Mom, and the End (think about that one a minute).  It didn’t matter which one he used; they all hurt. But it was over quick and the thought of after-school detention encouraged most of us to opt for swats.

The reason it was so easy to skip fifth period, or even sixth period for that matter, is that they were after dark. You see, our school was grossly overcrowded and the school board had decided that the solution would be split shifts. Grades 7, 8, and 9 attended classes beginning at 7 a.m., while 10, 11, and 12 began their school day at 1 p.m. and completed their day at 7 p.m. It made for a long day for some school employees, and the cafeteria folks seemed to be working around the clock. Although I wasn’t really paying attention to the whole situation at the time, I’m quite sure there were some savings in the split shift system.

I loved it. As a teenager, sleeping until 10 or 11 o’clock every day was just next to heaven, and the amount of mischief that could be done under the radar, due to the confusion of who should be in school and when, was appealing to this joker.

I spent two years of high school on the split shift system and it continued after I had gone off to college, but I can’t remember just how many years it was until a new high school was built, the pressure was off and single sessions were reinstated.

Chesterfield County Schools have been dealing with overcrowding practically since the first high school (Chester) opened its doors to students in 1907. In the 1912 Chester Agricultural School yearbook, a section on the school’s brief history stated, “Not many years ago the public school of Chester was taught in a one-room building, and in this, the attendance was small and the session short. By the autumn of 1908 the building had grown to three rooms, with four teachers; these rooms were crowded and the grounds inadequate.”

School administrators continued to lament the overcrowding even after a former private seminary had been leased to hold classes. “But the enrollment had increased and the buildings and grounds were still inadequate.” A new brick building relieved the pressure when the county spent $18,000 on construction at the site of the current Chester Middle School. That school was eventually razed and part of the current CMS was built and renamed Thomas Dale High School.

In 1938, the Richmond News Leader headlined a story “Chester High Enrolls 848.” The article hinted that registrations expected before the first day of school would push the school over capacity.

Native Chesterfieldians will tell you about their elementary days when students at Harrowgate Elementary, actually an old house, were so happy to be moved to the new C.E. Curtis Elementary, only to end up attending classes in the basement of the Baptist Church a couple of years later, due to overcrowding.

The struggle continues; boundaries continue to be adjusted and bonds are issued to help build new schools. Will we ever have a school system with 15 students per class? No. Will Chesterfield ever catch up with its needed capacity? You may not be happy with the answer, but  good friend once said to me, “What do you think citizens would say if the school board built a school and there were not enough students to fill it?” Trouble with a capital T, I’m afraid.

In the meantime, kudos to the school board for their new effort to develop a plan for growth to try and get out in front of the overcrowding issue. We’ve needed a good comprehensive school growth plan that we can sink our teeth into for a while.

I doubt that split sessions will be part of the plan, though, because principals like old Mr. Ravenscraft and his wall of paddles no longer exist to enforce the peace.

mfausz@villagepublishing.com | 751-0421


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