above – The temporary home of Fuquay-Varina High School
Does a school’s name refer to its building? It used to be nearly always so. Then we started to experience on-line schools and nameless home schools. But what about 2,000+ students who go to the same building every day? Is their school’s name the same as that building’s name? Sitting down with Wake County’s Principal of the Year recently, I learned that the answer is “No.” He and the high school teachers who helped Richard Enns earn that important distinction will move their students to the future Willow Springs High School this fall. But for two years, they will be custodians of that new building, while still being named “Fuquay-Varina High School.” The old school will be renovated and when it is ready, the student population will be split between the old and renovated buildings depending on their addresses. So, if that name doesn’t stand for the building, what does it represent?
I got clues to the meaning of Fuquay-Varina High School by arriving early for my 8:00 AM appointment with Mr. Enns. There was a less than usual number of people coming in and out of the office, so the room had plenty of chairs for those waiting. A rack of materials from Wake County Public Schools contained lifelong learning brochures. I am a former college professor and recent teacher for NCSU’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. So, I eagerly perused the offerings—not as academic as those I was used to, but more practical and sometimes even fun. Visitors who were lost were soon shown the way. One newcomer got and gave big hugs to old friends. A well-known individual stopped behind the desk to pick up some materials. It was makeup-test day and a meeting was being held down the hall, so maybe it was less hectic than on typical days. Mr. Enns came across the waiting room with a smile. Though I had looked at several pictures, it took me a few seconds to recognize him today in jeans and a casual shirt. But even while walking down to his office, I felt the warmth of his home-like greeting.
I had prepared my note-taking page with three columns: Principal’s Work, Student Learning, and Teachers’ Work. On top of the Principal’s Work column I had copied the school’s mission statement: “All FVHS students will grow to reach their full potential as productive citizens and lifelong learners through a safe and challenging learning environment.”
My conversation with Mr. Enns started with the mission and soon turned to an experience he had on his first days at the school. A group of students had prepared a survey. He asked them what their favorite question was. Their quick answer was “What’s the first thing you think of when you think of F-V high school?” It would be a rare Principal indeed, who wouldn’t want to know the most common answer to that question. And when they told him, it was short: “Family!” Wow! Thirty teachers per grade level teaching five hundred learners and they feel like family!
Besides being a key user consultant for the renovations architect, next on Mr. Enns’ list of Principal’s Work was supporting the school’s connection with the community, especially for students. The Fuquay-Varina Business Alliance and Fuquay-Varina Education Council were established to increase awareness of career choices among students and to advocate for educational needs here in our community. To date, there are eight businesses serving on the Business Alliance Board. The school also connects with Wake Technical Community College, the Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Commerce, twelve other community groups, and ten civic organizations.
The community groups enable two-way communication for supporting students and informing school design choices. Businesses across the country have encouraged a major change toward “soft skills” in high schools and those in Fuquay-Varina concur. Collaboration in small groups and presentations to large ones are needed in the modern workplace, but old-fashioned school buildings fostered listening and working alone.
Collaboration does not take off until each student learns what others know and can do that he or she does not or cannot. Presenting to a small group of familiar peers prepares students for presenting to larger groups of strangers. In both the new and renovated buildings, the classrooms will be grouped in clusters around shared spaces. Students from a group of classrooms use the shared space for collaborative projects, while each classroom contains windows so that teachers can monitor and support their students’ small group efforts.
The soft-skills work prepares learners to undertake community internships, where they get high school credit for experiences that inform their career choices. Mr. Enns emphasized that teachers prepare students for these opportunities by coaching them to be ambassadors. The actions of every student not only enrich life and learning for themselves but also create or sustain opportunities for other students who seek such experiences at later times. Internships are the 3.0 version of the old field trip idea, blurring the lines between the school and the colleges or trades that will follow. Even though the new building and new renovations to the old building will have all the attraction of “shiny new toys,” he emphasized, “The last thing Fuquay-Varina High School needs to do is pull back from the great excuse to get outside the building that the old structure provided.”
The family feeling means a safe place for learning. Collaboration and presentation are important new learning challenges. These parts of the mission are well supported by the building changes, the teachers, and the administration. Lifelong learning, on the other hand, is more like the parental task of instilling values in their children. Both lifelong learning and instilling values seem like “instruct-and-pray” activities. How do we get the people in our communities—those who work in businesses, our government, and in nonprofit institutions—to keep asking themselves “How can we support values that help sustain us all?” and “How do we support the learning of each other?” The best any of us can do is to continue to ask those questions ourselves.
For the teachers, the physical move will add a layer of work. The entire staff will receive direction from the district office, which has both a plan and experience with similar moves. But for Mr. Enns, it will be important to protect teachers as much as possible reaching up to the move. They need to keep focus on student learning. Still, the entire school staff will need conversations about packing up the boxes and labeling, while all the time keeping the move very structured.
Preserving the Fuquay-Varina High School name is more than symbolic. I asked Mr. Enns what he most wanted to say to the community. “Let the community know,” he replied, “that we are committed to still serving the community and their children. The cliché is that ‘it takes a village.’ But it is more than that for us. We have partenered with the community in so many ways that we won’t lose. We have strong support from our parents and that won’t change.”
Fuquay-Varina High School is a “school on the move.” It will have a new place with a new layout. Its old building will also become a new place with a new layout. For all of us, Fuquay-Varina High School is transforming, not away from our community, but with it. We are a community on the move.
