Former Career Development student offers lessons on success

VIRGINIA BEACH

Terry Napisa thinks about his own path each time alternative high school students pass his construction trailer on the way to the basketball court.

About 27 years ago, Napisa was also “rough around the edges,” as he put it. He attended the Career Development Center – the alternative school for Beach students then. He learned the plumbing trade, graduated, tried a few other jobs and then made a career as a plumbing and heating foreman.

And today, he’s back right where it started. Working for Warwick Plumbing and Heating of Newport News, he’s the lead foreman in charge of those systems for a $66 million alternative middle and high school called the Renaissance Academy. The school will replace the crumbling old department store building that still houses most of the city’s alternative high school students.

Napisa sees that school, Central Academy, every day from the construction trailer where he oversees work on the new school.

Since 2007 Napisa has helped the eco-friendly building take shape, overseeing the installation of a snaking network of pipes, ducts and heating and cooling apparatus. Some of those pipes will collect rainwater from the roof and transport it to bathrooms, where it will be used to help flush toilets.

The 285,000-square-foot structure is set to open to students next January.

When Napisa was sent to the Career Development Center in the early 1980s, he had little interest in traditional schooling, he said. "I knew construction was where I was going."

The plumbing and welding programs at CDC caught his attention. The welding program was full, sealing his direction.

His leadership skills were evident early on. His teacher, Andrew Mitchell, made him a foreman for the class plumbing projects. On the Renaissance Academy, one of the largest projects he's worked on, he leads up to 22 employees at a time, not including subcontractors.

Al Scott, who oversees the Renaissance Academy construction for the Virginia Beach school division, said Napisa makes the project go smoothly for those around him.

"It's a tremendous lesson to the existing students," Scott said. "Here is a former student who's not just working - he has a major role in constructing this building."

Napisa said the new building won't determine the ultimate success or failure of its occupants - they will.

"I think it's what the kid wants," he said. His advice to them is to find a good wife, like he did, and work hard.

"When it's time to go to work, it's time to get to work," he said.

Lauren Roth, 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com.