A hectic opening day

A computer system crash caused problems with
some student schedules.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Brandon Mosley thought things were all right with the world as he sat in the cafeteria of his new high school, eating an early lunch.

The 10th-grader from Plum Street was one of about 1,170 students attending the new $30 million East High School, which opened for classes Tuesday.

He had his schedule, had found all of his morning classes in the huge, 220,000-square-foot building and found the accommodations “beautiful.”

Mosley, who was at The Rayen School last year, said he had attended last week’s student orientation session, which gave him a chance to familiarize himself with the building.

“Everybody’s getting along, no arguments happening,” he said, and he believes it will stay that way.

Not everyone was having such a good morning.

A few tables away, Courtney Hugley of Neosho Road was concerned that she didn’t have the right schedule.

The high school junior who attended Chaney High School last year was reassigned to East this year. She said the schedule she was handed Tuesday was a Chaney schedule, and she had already completed about half of the courses listed on it.

“This is a mess,” she said. “They should have had this school ready before we got here.”

Outside, senior Mercedes Gregory of Ravenwood Avenue was awaiting a ride to Choffin Career and Technical Center where she is enrolled in an afternoon nursing program.

“They’re still working on my schedule,” the former Wilson High School student said, adding that she expects to have it today “for sure.”

She’ll attend morning classes at East and Choffin in the afternoon.

East enrolls most of the former Rayen and about half of the former Wilson high school students. Both of those buildings closed last spring and are being replaced by middle schools as part of a $180 million school rebuilding program in the city.

The other half of the Wilson students have been assigned to Chaney.

Although construction on East High School was completed weeks ago, the building didn’t get a city occupancy permit until Friday.

Loose ends

Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent of school business affairs, said city inspectors required a number of small items be taken care of before a full permit could be issued.

Such things as an additional fire extinguisher here and some other minor addition or modification there had to be dealt with, delaying the permit process, he said, adding that there were no major or expensive items on the city’s list.

The city had issued a conditional permit a couple of weeks ago to allow teachers to get into the building to prepare their classrooms and to allow the district to hold student orientation sessions, DeNiro said.

“Everybody seems nice,” Gregory said, noting that the school staff was taking great care to get everyone to work together.

Gregory said she was initially supposed to go to Chaney for her senior year, “but I came here instead because I wanted to graduate from a new school.”

Likewise, Mosley, both a football and basketball player, said he was anxious to attend East.

“It’s something new, bringing people together. I wanted to be a part of it,” he said.

Getting schedules distributed

M.J. Brown, a school guidance counselor, was in a corner of the cafeteria at late morning, standing over a table holding a pile of student class schedules and awaiting the arrival of students who attend morning programs at Choffin.

Every enrolled student has a schedule, and those who attended orientation sessions last week were able to pick up their copies at that time, she said.

Those who didn’t attend the sessions didn’t get theirs until they arrived at school Tuesday, she said. Some new students who didn’t come to register before the opening day of classes had no schedules, she said.

Getting new schedules prepared was delayed when the school’s computer system crashed around 10:30 a.m. and didn’t come back on line all day.

“We’re hanging in there,” Brown said, adding that, in general, the staff was “real pleased with the way things are going.”

About 500 of the students had never seen the building, said Principal Henrietta Williams, who spent much of her time directing students to where their classes were being held.

Despite the computer problems and student confusion, things went well for the first day in a brand new school, she said. “It was great. I’m really, really satisfied.”

Plans to use Parker Street as the bus access to the school grounds have been delayed as the city finalizes plans to make improvements to a portion of the street from Bennington Avenue to a fire/emergency access road that runs behind the school, DeNiro said. Parking lot access now is limited to points on Bennington and East High Avenue, but that should change within a few weeks, he said.

gwin@vindy.com