TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Suncoast Pasco News

New Pasco Middle School Dedicated

ADVERTISEMENT

By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: October 1, 2008

SHADY HILLS - Every school year, there are students facing the extra burden of being "the new kid at school," learning their way around, getting familiar with their peers and teachers and gaining a sense that this is "their" school.

At Crews Lake Middle School, every student is a "new kid," as the school itself is new.

Last Thursday, less than a month into its maiden voyage, there was a strong sense staff and students had already come a long way in establishing school pride as they welcomed School District officials, administrators and members of the community to a dedication celebration.

"Our mascot is the Raiders," Principal Chris Christoff proclaimed as he opened the festivities. Not that it needed clarifying, as it was clear this aspect of the school's identity has already been tightly embraced. Dozens of students wore their Raiders T-shirts.

Tables were festooned with plastic doubloons, silver-and-black balloons and pirate hats. Timothy "Chef Tim" Ellerman created a pirate ship ice sculpture and his staff presented a large chocolate cake "treasure chest."

Except for its pristine condition, it would be hard to guess this wasn't a school with a long tradition from the school pride that filled the room. It has been a concerted effort to create something approaching that feeling for students, staff and the community as soon as possible, and there has been much that has helped create an aura of good feeling.

As the latest addition to Pasco County Schools' rapidly growing roll call, Crews Lake Middle School fills an important logistical need for the district, as can be seen on a map of school attendance boundaries.

"Our territory is huge," Christoff said.

Located on Shady Hills Road about a mile north of S.R. 52, Crews Lake Middle School's attendance boundary reaches north to the Hernando County Line, west to the gulf. It stretches a couple of miles east of the Suncoast Parkway and southward in a two-mile wide corridor along the parkway all the way to Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, southeast of New Port Richey.

That's a little misleading, Christoff admits, when you take in consideration that "only cows live" in much of the eastern and southern portion of the attendance territory.

The school gives Shady Hills-area residents a middle school of their own, including several who work there. Christoff came to Crews Lake Middle School from Seven Springs Middle School, in Trinity, as did his, secretary Karen Lane, and several teachers.

The school can be seen from the Suncoast Parkway, Lane said, and they watched it being built every day as they drove to work.

"They had nothing against their former schools," she said. "It's just nice to have one right in their own back yard."

Students are also grateful for having a school closer to home. Crews Lake Middle School took territory from Hudson and River Ridge middle schools. Some of the River Ridge youngsters had been riding the bus 45 minutes each way, Lane said.

The students got a chance to feel a part of their new school before they ever left their old ones, Christoff explained. Last year, they got to vote for what they wanted their new school's mascot to be, choosing the Raider logo by a landslide.

Christoff said it also helped the comfort level that the staff was given two full months to take deliveries on school furniture and equipment. The leisurely break-in period has even given the staff a chance to add some character to the school. For that they have relied heavily on the school's media tech assistant, Kevin Naples.

"I do art as a side business," Naples said as he showed a large display of the "Raiders Creed" he created to add some flair the school's three-story central atrium.

Naples doesn't know who came up with the creed, but it was his idea to make the display look like it was made from the old, broken planks of a pirate ship. He has used the motif for signage and other touches throughout the school that follow a swashbuckling Raider theme.

As the staff, students and guests celebrated, Pasco School Superintendent Heather Fiorentino provided them with a bit of perspective.

"Whatever you do this year, you're going to be the first," she said. "You've already had the very first school dance. You're going to be the first graduating class of eighth-graders. You're going to be the first sixth-grade class to go all the way through this school."

Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or klowry@suncoastnews.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT