Menchville High School - Crown Yearbook (Newport News, VA)

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The Home Economics Department, headed by Mrs. Lettie J. Booker, changed its project this year to Consumer Homemaking Education. Mrs. Booker, who has a B.S. from Virginia State and has been teaching for 7 years, stated that special emphasis would be put on consumer home manage- ment and better buymanship. This year there was a one semester course for boys which consisted of 1 2 weeks of cook- ing and 6 weeks of grooming. It was decided that boys, when they ' re interested, they are much easier to teach than girls.” Is the Home Economics Department all cooking and sewing? Almost, but it ' s making great advances in developing well-rounded Monarchs. Mr. Kenneth Bowen, who attended Lynchburg College where he received a B.A., not only headed the Art Department at Menchville but also sponsored the Radio Club. An innovation in the Department during the year was in the specialization of the rooms. Mr. Bowen explained it this way, We have three different rooms set up for three different purposes: one, for pain- ting and drawing; one for sculp- ting; and another for crafts. How does the Art Department rate with those of other schools? Mr. Bowen said, ' ' We ' re one of the best on the peninsula.” The head of Menchville ' s Media Center, Mrs. Sandra U. Cobb, is a busy lady. She works hard trying to expand the center as students forget to return hundreds of books and other library materials. Mrs. Cobb came to Menchville after teaching 7 years at other schools. She attended Madison College (B.A.) and UNC at Chapel Hill (M.S. and L.S.). Menchville has probably the most comprehensive business program in the city”, stated Mrs. Laurie K. Collier, Business Department Head. We have ter- minal training in shorthand, in clerical accounting and in typing. We have personal typing, recordkeeping and notehand, for personal use. We teach ap- proximately 51% of the student body. We have the largest elec- tive program. Mrs. Collier received a B.A. degree in Business Education from Meredith College and the M S. degree from Old Dominion University. Social Studies presented the students with the ideas of our democratic society and gave them a wide range of knowledge that can be used in later life. Mr. Gilbert W. Crippen was head of the Social Studies Depart- ment. He graduated from East Carolina with a B.S. and from William and Mary with a M.A. He has been teaching for seven years and was sponsor of the ac- tive Geography Club. In the Social Studies Department, care is the key word; the teachers care about their students. eighteen department chairmen

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Assistant Principal for Stu- dent Affairs was Mr. Stanley Lovett, Jr., a graduate of Hampton Institute with a B.S. and a M.A. He had worked in the public school system for four- teen years. He was a Science teacher at Carver and Activities Director at Warwick before com- ing to Menchville. Mr. Lovett ' s major activity this year was the evaluation of the activities program here at Menchville. He did a research paper on high school activities and made several recommen- dations to the school. One, he said, would be that the entire student activity program should be financially supported by the school board. The student ac- tivities program is part of developing the whole child and just as important as bookwork. So, if the school board is respon- sible for educating the child, then why give money only to the in- structional phase. Mr. Lovett ' s job included everything concerning student activities, except instruction and building maintenance. He was in charge of all special services and calendar events. Mr. Clarence C. Johnson was Assistant Principal in charge of building maintenance. Prior to coming to Menchville, he was a science teacher, athletic director for nineteen years, and Assistant Principal for nine years. He has taught thirty-nine years. Mr. Johnson praised Menchville highly. Menchville, he stated, is by far the best school I have worked in. I am do- ing exactly the kind of work I like best. Menchville has ultimate possibilities. I would like to see us develop a broader program in Industrial Arts so that more children will be prepared to go directly into the world of work. Mr. Edward W. Carr, Assis- tant Principal in charge of Instruction, began his first year at Menchville in 1972. He graduated from the College of William and Mary with an A.B. degree and a M.Ed. He had five years teaching experience. Mr. Carr ' s job included such things as student schedules, teacher evaluation, discipline, in- structional problems, getting substitutes, and teacher and pupil accounting. Mr. Carr ex- plained the evaluation process to Annual Staff interviewers. He said that this procedure has been followed for a long time within the state of Virginia. It ' s not a new process. The impor- tant thing to remember is that we are rated in relation to other high schools. The other high schools are asked the same questions and are viewed from the same standpoint. He stated that the evaluation was fairly ac- curate and that the results will help with determining the curriculum for coming years. Anytime you sit down and look at yourselves and other teachers and evaluate your program, I think there are some real things to be gained from it. So I think it ' s been a good experience for the whole school.” administration seventeen

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Horace Fauntleroy, head of the MHS Custodial staff, found this year that things were look- ing up at Menchville. He praised both his staff and the students. The staff, he said, was efficient and alert. He said that students were on the ball and courteous to him. Things,” he stated con- cerning beat up chairs and desks, are getting better year by year. Kids look like they ' d rather learn than play. As head of the Guidance Department, Mrs. Clara Hines ' duties this year were to organize the department, and to ad- ministrate, coordinate and supervise its activities. Mrs. Hines said that the biggest problem in counselling students is trying to help them to realize that they should not get out of a course that they need, just because they don ' t like the teacher. When asked if her responsibilities were challeng- ing, Mrs. Hines replied, yes, I find them very challenging, but I enjoy working with students. After attending North Carolina University and Hampton Institute, receiving the B.A. and M.A. respectively, she began teaching and has taught for eleven years. She expressed a desire to have a closer relationship with the students, saying, I think it would improve our working relationship with the students and I think this is our purpose for being counselors and as for being here:to do what we can to help the students. Mrs. Thelma Kiser, a graduate of Elizabeth Buxton School of Nursing and co-Sponsor of the Senior Class, has been working in the public schools for eight years. She came to Menchville from NNHS in 1970. Mrs. Kiser enjoys MHS very much and was greatly pleased with the student body; however, she resented the fact that many students tried to take advantage of her position. The students that misuse the clinic, Mrs. Kiser stated, are not only exploiting their own rights, but also the rights of those students around them. Outside of school, she is very ac- tive in her church as Superinten- dent and Youth Coordinator of the Sunday School. Mrs. Kiser also has four young men living at her house to whom she devotes the remainder of her time. Mr. David Lawrence, Chair- man, Foreign Language Depart- ment. Math courses were more popular this year at MHS. A great number of students were even taking the more advanced Math offerings. For the first time, Probability, Matrix and Elemen- tary Functions were offered, each as a one semester course. The highlight of the year was the Math contest with MHS proving itself to be a very mathematical- minded school. The man behind the department was Mr. Al Lebold, who had seven years of teaching experience. After receiving his B.S. degree from W M, Mr. Lebold continued on to get a M.Ed. from the same school. In his evaluation of Menchville, he stated, I think Menchville has a very good stu- dent body and I know that it has some very, very good math students. department chairmen nineteen