Upper Marlboro high school opens to fanfare

Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Raphael Talisman⁄The Star (From left) Mikayla Abernathy, 8, Samira Akida, 7, Tafari Allen, 9, Daysha Barnes, 7, and Alonzo Bethea, 7, students at Samuel Massie Elementary School in Forestville, learn ‘‘America,” better known as ‘‘My Country ’Tis of Thee,” by holding up the lyrics on cards while vocal music teacher Ronette Harrison helps them.

In a county where the school system’s infrastructure has been stretched thin and overcrowding the norm, the opening of the 435,000 square foot Wise was an exercise in fanfare.

Students were treated to a who’s who course in state politics 101.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. called the school ‘‘amazing and huge,” as a team of bodyguards swept him into the lobby of the Upper Marlboro school.

Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson proclaimed Monday to be ‘‘a great day for the county.”

And Howard Stone, a recognizable candidate for the county’s School Board, talked up John Deasy, the school system’s new CEO, to anyone within an earshot of his voice.

Situated on Brooke Lane, Wise, which cost nearly $100 million to build, is the largest school in the county.

The school, with a capacity of 2,600 students, is equipped with wireless Internet access, a 5,000-seat basketball arena, nearly 12 science labs, a media center with 10,000 books and a 900-seat theater.

Walter Balma, one of 60 parent volunteers who helped wide-eyed students navigate the school, said that the morning had been relatively normal. The typical problems, like mishaps with student’s schedules and registration problems, were at a minimum, said Balma, of Clinton, who has two children attending Wise.

While a majority of parents and students may have been satisfied with their introduction to Wise, Katrina Hardie and her 15-year-old daughter, Diamond, weren’t among them.

Frustrated with a registration process the Upper Marlboro resident called ‘‘broken,” Katrina Hardie, with Diamond, headed back to Frederick Douglass High School, where her daughter last attended school, to try to get the 10th-grader registered for classes at Wise.

‘‘I just think the registration process could have been smoother,” Katrina Hardie said. ‘‘How does she get a schedule in the mail from Wise but when we get here they tell us that they don’t have her records?” asked a flummoxed Katrina Hardie.

For 15-year-old Saverio Cappetta the media throng and pool of elected officials was ‘‘unneeded.”

‘‘This is just what we do everyday: go to school,” said Saverio, a 10th-grader, as he pushed through the crowd around 10 a.m. heading to class.

E-mail Lester J. Davis at ldavis@gazette.net.