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School Sees Change, Growth

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By GLENN GEIGLER Special to the News & Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 31, 2008

FOREST HILLS - Named for the sixth U.S. president, John Quincy Adams Junior High School opened alongside Forest Hills Elementary in 1958, the schools' official dedication coming on Nov. 9, 50 years ago.

The landscape in 1958 - physically, ethnically and educationally - belonged to another era.

"It was orange groves and pastureland," recalls veteran Adams teacher Valerie Fernandez, also a student at Adams in the mid-'60s. "Dale Mabry Highway was a much smaller roadway because there was basically nothing out here."

Adams at that time dealt with a student population that offered little diversity.

"My last name then was 'Fueyo' and I didn't have a single teacher who could even pronounce it," said Fernandez, now in her 26th year as an Adams educator. "The community was very 'American,' and if there were any minority families living out here besides mine, I wasn't aware of them."

Today, Fernandez looks out over a classroom, campus and community that are ethnic-rich; 57 percent of Adams' 1,300 students are minority, largely comprised of Hispanic and African-American youths.

Entering her 29th year on the Adams faculty, Belinda Serrano is struck by how discipline has changed with the eras. When Serrano, who is the school's longest-serving teacher, joined the faculty in 1980, "Paddling was allowed, and parents many times chose paddling over suspension."

George Gaffney remembers a paddling for chewing gum when he was an Adams student in the late 1960s, but it's the products he crafted in wood shop class (and still displays at his home), and the football games he played for the Warriors that distinguish his time as a student-athlete.
Gaffney returned to Adams as a coach and teacher from 1984 to 1993, and then again in 2000, this time as principal.

"Great faculty," Gaffney says of his three years as Adams administrator in which the Warriors moved from a "C" to an "A" and became a five-star school.

Fernandez, the longtime language arts teacher, sees it similarly. "We've always had a strong, united faculty that has worked well with our administrators, and we've maintained high expectations in both academics and behavior for our students."

It was in the mid-'90s, between Gaffney's service as teacher and before he became principal, that Adams exchanged "Middle" for "Junior High." The development of the campus and the construction of several new buildings continued, as well.

The one constant amid all the growth has been the continuity of the Adams faculty. Joining Fernandez and Serrano in making 10201 N. Boulevard a career destination of 20-plus years are teachers LeAnn Garcia (who also was a student at Adams), and Debra Hall. Still another Adams student-turned-teacher, Linda Mitchell, is nearing 20 years on the staff.

Now in its sixth decade and having educated tens of thousands of Tampa teenagers, Adams today is led by Odalys Pritchard, its 12th principal. The Warriors are seeking their fourth consecutive "A" and have made the top mark in six of the last eight years.

Glenn Geigler is a reading and language arts teacher at Adams.

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