Students mark end of topsy-turvy year

Ten-year-old Hannah's tumultuous fourth grade year ended with a smile.

The girl's father left the family last fall. Then her beloved teacher, John Pendry, left the class in April to become an assistant principal at another school.

But a downcast Hannah buried herself in schoolwork and on July 15 -- the last day of school -- she earned an award as one of the top students at Jydstrup Elementary School. She and her mother embraced during a ceremony in the lunchroom.

"She had really looked to (Pendry) after her dad left," Hannah's mother said. "Some of the teachers have said that she has been sad. But she kept her grades up."

In the ongoing story of one fourth grade class, this month marked the end of the academic year at the year-round school. The new year starts Aug. 23.

"This is it guys, when you come back you will be one grade ahead, won't you?" Jydstrup principal Nadine Nielsen told a group of wide-eyed pupils at the year-end assembly.

Much has happened to the fourth graders since the Sun introduced them to readers in May.

A full-time substitute teacher took over. Class troublemaker Amal moved away. Three new students enrolled in class. Nick, once painfully whiny, matured.

Studying the Jydstrup classroom provided a close-up look at problems common to many of the county's 147 elementary schools that are sprinkled liberally all over the fast-growing metropolitan school district:

* Crowding. Twenty-eight students filed into class on the first day. The first six days of school brought six more students. Classroom crowding became a constant battle, manifesting itself in countless little ways: Books ran short, desks were tightly packed, students swarmed their teacher for help with assignments.

* Transiency. During the year, 11 students left the class. Another 11 joined the class. Principal Nielsen called the school a "revolving door."

* Parents. Parenting skills vary widely from student to student. Some regularly spent time with their children each night; others worked those hours.

The year started on Aug. 24, 1998, a scorching hot day. John Pendry paced the classroom at the crack of dawn, long before any other teachers had arrived. The seven-year teaching veteran wasn't nervous but was anxious about making a good first impression.

"Everyone has a teacher they remember from school. Maybe it's my ego, but I want to be that teacher," Pendry said.

For many of his students, sharp-witted Pendry became that teacher. He used humor like a six-gun, firing jokes and teases at his pupils. He played with them at recess and hung nicknames on them, like Donut. "Are you married?" he would ask his 9-year-old pupils, drawing giggles.

"I wish Mr. Pendry was still here," Erin said on the last day of school. "He was so funny."

Pendry left the class April 19, with three months of the academic year left. A full-time substitute, Jane Patterson, stepped into his place.

The students were shocked but unfazed. They are used to upheaval. Some have unstable home lives complicated by divorce, poverty or inattentive parents.

"It was like with my dad who left," said Dean, who maintained a sunny disposition that matched his straw-yellow hair. His father is in prison in Carson City.

Three new students appeared to finish up their school year as the new kids in class.

"When you come to school, it feels bad when you don't know anybody," said Kristin, who nevertheless soon shared laughs with her new classmates and earned A's and B's on her schoolwork.

The other two newcomers struggled. Derick, who lives with his grandparents, is a lanky boy with a mop of brown hair. He's still socially immature for his age but is a "sweet kid," Patterson said.

"He is kind of young in his ways. I don't know if he is quite ready for fifth grade," she said.

New student Marco never settled into doing his schoolwork.

During the last week of school, students stepped to the front of the class to deliver oral reports on a significant historical figure. Marco chose Andrew Jackson but never did any research. He asked to use an encyclopedia during his report, then thumbed through it, searching for something to say. He told the class Jackson had been a slave.

Patterson corrected him, then mercifully let him sit down.

"It is always in your best interest so that you are not embarrassed or shy when you have to make a presentation, to be prepared," Patterson told the class.

Patterson knew that she was filling the shoes of a popular teacher.

Despite that, she invested herself emotionally in the students and embraced the class as her own. Most of the students responded.

The students were known as the "newspaper crew" in district circles, but they were more than that to her, she said.

"It's easy to get attached," Patterson said, admitting that she will miss "her" students. "They're very loving."

Patterson said the transition from one teacher to the next went smoothly and quickly.

"We had a big talk about what they wanted in a classroom," Patterson said. "They wanted rules. They didn't want a zoo."

Patterson, more of a task-master and less a performer than Pendry, quickly clamped down on the class's "troublemaker triumvirate" -- Ray, Nick and Amal.

"I've tried to sit on any of their misbehavior," Patterson said. "Another teacher said, 'Oh, you're trying to break the colts at the end of the year?' It seems as though Ray has straightened up in a lot of ways."

Ray became more focused during the last two months. Patterson, who knew Ray's father through a church connection, worked out a system with Ray and his dad.

"We talk a lot about being a gentleman," Patterson said. "Dad is trying to make him a man, not a thug."

Another troublemaker, Nick, seemed to mature a little toward the end of the year, Patterson said. She said she convinced his mother that she needed her help to keep the boy's behavior in check.

Nick stumbled through his biography presentation on Martin Luther King on the second to last day of school. Like many of the pupils, he was glad to have his first-ever oral report under his belt.

"I was really scared up there," he admitted to his classmates.

Patterson did not have to deal with the class's worst troublemaker, Amal, for long. On May 20, the boy withdrew from school.

"He was told he was coming back (by his mother)," Patterson said. "So the story he was telling his classmates was, 'My sister is having a baby. I'll be back.' But he transferred out. They went back to Iowa, and his mother said, 'I'm dropping him off here with family, or with his dad, and he's not coming back.' "

Amal's mother did not re-enroll him at an Iowa school, probably because the school year was coming to an end there in early June. That means Amal missed his last two months of fourth grade.

"He's a smart kid," Pendry said. "His problem was that he got behind because he played around a lot. He never gave himself a chance to catch up."

Pendry, 30, has quickly made the adjustment from teacher to administrator. He enjoys his new post as assistant principal at Marion Earl Elementary School and hopes to become a principal in the next few years.

He got even more on-the-job training than he expected: Instead of taking July off for vacation, he spent the month at year-round Will Beckley Elementary, filling in for an assistant principal who was recently named principal.

He heads back to Earl in August, the same month Pendry, his wife and two young sons, move into a newly built home.

Pendry was glad to hear that his students performed well on the end-of-the-year CBAP test, a standardized district exam that covers math, reading and writing.

Of the 28 students in the class, just two failed the writing portion of the test, six failed the reading and five failed the math. Among the poor performers were two of the three newcomers to the class.

"I told you they would do all right," Pendry said, taking a break from his duties at Beckley. "I knew they would. I wasn't worried about them academically."

Pendry had been worried about how they would respond emotionally when he left.

"I'm happy for them," Pendry said. "I'm really happy for them."

The next year will bring more changes. Some are switching schools. Among them is Teresa Lee, the usually complacent but sometimes volatile special education student, who is transferring to Earl, where Pendry works.

Orwell, the class's other special education student, also is switching schools. The boy who spent half his days this year in a special education "resource room" made notable improvements and is approaching a fourth grade level. The boy improved two years in math and one in reading, said his special education teacher Patti Norris.

Molly, the class academic star, is going to private school next year. Her parents debated the switch this year as they wondered whether a public school could challenge their daughter.

Roberto L. -- one of two Robertos in the class -- also made notable progress in the last two months, Patterson said. The mischievous boy had spent much of the year dutifully tagging after the class's charismatic troublemakers. But he returned to school after a long bout with chicken pox and began to bloom as a conscientious student.

"I was shocked," Patterson said. "I have been looking at him thinking, 'Where have you been?' Now he's asking to be moved (away from disruptive students) so that he can get his work done."

Ramon, the class's biggest clown and sharpest mind, says he will return to Jydstrup next year. The complex boy plans a few nights of camping this summer, but little else.

"Ramon is a performer," Patterson said. "You have to know where to direct Ramon. If left to his own devices, he'll take the class wherever he wants it to go."

On the final day of school Patterson passed out a fun worksheet with questions like "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?" Ramon whipped through the assignment, finishing first, as he had done all year.

"He's got a great competitive spirit," Patterson said. "He wants to be the first one done and get straight A's. He wants to be known for being the best and the brightest."

After the dismissal bell, Patterson pulled Ramon close for a few final words of advice. She told him to focus and curb his wild behavior.

"I know he had it in him to do even more," she said.

The students said they had a good year. They look forward to a few weeks of vacation. They plan to savor fifth grade.

"We'll be the oldest ones in the whole school, we can do whatever we want," Erin said.

The final bell isn't really final at year-round Jydstrup Elementary School.

"It won't be long until we begin the 1999-2000 school year," principal Nielsen told the students on their final day of fourth grade. "So I hope you have a great break and when you come back you're ready to go again."

Reporter Benjamin Grove closely followed one fourth grade class at year-round Jydstrup Elementary School this year. The Sun chronicled the lives of the students in a seven-day series that ran in May. The class's school year ended July 15. This is an update. The names of the students and their teachers have been changed to protect their identity.

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