A new leader, a fresh start for Virginia Beach school

VIRGINIA BEACH

Teacher Gabriel Wetmore pointed out the bathroom mirrors to a group of boys touring the new Renaissance Academy alternative school.

"If they break, they won't be replaced," he said. "You ask to be treated like adults, so we're trying to treat you like adults."

Back in their current building, dented sheets of metal serve as mirrors. They don't reflect much, but they're shatterproof.

School leaders expect more of the city's alternative school students as they prepare to move into a new $66.2 million building in January.

Their new principal is trying to turn the school around quickly, by changing the image of the academy - making it more welcoming and more secure. Down the hall from the metal detectors, a ping pong table sits outside the cafeteria for students with good behavior.

However, Renaissance Academy's poor reputation isn't without reason. Students attend because they have been kicked out of their home schools or have fallen behind academically. A few weeks into the school year, a fight resulted in about a dozen arrests only hours after the principal resigned.

This year was supposed to be a fresh start in many ways. Three alternative schools and several programs that operated separately were brought under the umbrella of the Renaissance Academy. Many of the teachers and administrators are new, hired from other schools or divisions.

Kay Thomas, the former principal of Bayside High School, became director in mid-October, two weeks after Byron Williams resigned.

Thomas said the students aren't the problem - t he challenge has been making the school run properly. When she arrived, she implemented a level system that allows students to earn less- restrictive uniforms, though not the opportunity to wear their own clothes as in past years.

"Although the students feel it's restrictive, I think they know we're trying to work toward more opportunities for them," Thomas said.

Just last week, she changed student schedules again to more efficiently pair study blocks with lunch. And she has said she's open to offering after- school activities or restarting last year's popular in-school enrichment programs.

Head of security Carlos Parker, who donated his own fitness equipment to the school's sparse gym, said order has returned. Teachers and security staff stand outside and in the hallways before first bell, and he's finally gotten the additional staff he'd been requesting all year.

"If these things were in place, we would have avoided the fight," he said.

Now nearly three months into the school year, students say the leery new teachers are warming up, and many eagerly await classes in the new building. But they openly debate whether their classmates will treat it with respect, leave graffiti or worse.

Last week, 16-year-old Jonathan Kaopio gazed at the plastic-wrapped furniture and floor-to-ceiling windows in the library. The junior's first reaction mirrored common sentiments about the city's alternative schools.

"I want to know why they gave this school to the bad kids," he said.

But he's glad the school division cares. "It proves to me that everybody gets a second chance," he said. "I'm just not used to it."

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com