Hall Pass to History: Great Bridge High

A four-room schoolhouse, a city that didn’t yet exist, and a community that turned colors and customs into a living legacy. This is the story of Great Bridge High through the voices of those who shaped it and those carrying it forward. We kick off Hall Pass to History with a second-generation Wildcat who paints the school’s early origins and traditions, then sit down with retired principal Bob Robinson and current principal Karen Black to explore how leadership, belonging, and tradition and pride evolve across decades.

The Stories Behind Our Story

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Launching Hall Pass To History

Matt Graham 0:01

You're listening to Amplified, the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. Your front row seat to the stories behind our story.

Jay Lewter 0:17

Hi everyone and welcome back to Amplified. I'm Jay Lewter here with Matt Graham, and we are excited to launch a brand new series on Amplified today. Matt, why don't you tell our listeners about it?

Matt Graham 0:27

As part of telling the stories behind our story, we're kicking off a new Amplified bonus series called Hall Pass to History.

Jay Lewter 0:36

Bum bum bum!

Matt Graham 0:37

Oh yeah. In Hall Pass to History, we bring in a current and former principal to share the spirit, stories, and traditions that make each school and community unique. We also are going to bring in a student to kick off each episode.

Jay Lewter 0:55

Fantastic. Matt, I'm so excited about it because so many of our schools have these unique traditions and histories, and it's going to be a great opportunity for us to sit down with a current principal and also someone that's a little more historic.

Matt Graham 1:08

Seasoned.

Jay Lewter 1:09

Yes, let's call them seasoned. Today's Hall Pass takes us to Great Bridge High School. We're excited to have retired principal Mr. Bob Robinson, who was principal in the 90s, and current principal, Ms. Karen Black.

Matt Graham 1:22

And not only that, we have our featured student for this episode who's going to set that stage. And she is Great Bridge High School 11th grader, Marcy Stambaugh.

Jay Lewter 1:33

Love it. Fantastic. Everyone, we hope you enjoy this bonus episode of Amplify. Hall Pass to History.

Marcy Stambaugh 1:42

Welcome to Hall Pass to History.

Student History Of Great Bridge High

Marcy Stambaugh 1:44

I'm Marcy Stambaugh, and as a second-generation wildcat, I'm proud to help start this special series by digging into the origins of my school, Great Bridge High School, the very first high school in Chesapeake. Greatbridge High's story began in 1907 as a humble four-room schoolhouse. Our signature green and gold colors tell a piece of that history dating back to 1947 when we merged with Hickory High School. Hickory contributed the gold, and Great Bridge kept its green. While Great Bridge has called four different buildings home over the decades, the first three buildings were all built before 1963, when Norfolk County merged with South Norfolk to create the city of Chesapeake. That means Great Bridge High is older than our city's charter. This rich history has developed a legacy of tradition and pride that is deeply rooted in all we do today. As a student, I see that excellence every day, both in and out of the classroom. From my work as a junior editor of the Causeway Yearbook to my volleyball matches in the Sinclair Jones Gymnasium, and to being a proud member of the Ruth Creekmore chapter of the National Honor Society. Tradition and pride extend to my family home too. My mom graduated from Great Bridge in 1997, and my dad is a longtime teacher and coach here. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Amplified Hall Paths to History as we peel back the layers on how the first high school in Chesapeake came to be.

Meet The Principals And Marcy

Jay Lewter 3:04

Bob Robinson, Karen Black, welcome to Amplified and to Hall Paths to History. Miss Black, what a great introduction. How great is Marcy's Stanball?

Karen Black 3:13

Wow. Just this week, she was inducted as an ambassador, as one of our juniors that leads the way for our upcoming Wildcats. She's also a class officer, participates in our girls' volleyball team. She is truly what it means to be a Wildcat. She's a good person. She service leadership. We're so fortunate to have her in all the leadership roles that she has.

Bob Robinson 3:38

Awesome. And Bob, you've got a special connection with Marcy as well. Is that right? I have a special connection with Marcy as well because uh Marcy's Marcy's mother, Monica, graduated when I was principal at Greybridge High School. So she has it. And of course, her dad's been a staff member.

Matt Graham 3:52

First, thanks again for coming. And let's go ahead and get to know you a little bit. Let's start with your journey. Bob and Karen, whoever wants to go first, what first drew you into education and then eventually led you into the role as principal in school leadership?

Karen Black 4:10

Well, I can

Paths Into Leadership

Karen Black 4:11

go first. This is certainly a full circle moment for me in that Bob Robinson was the principal that graduated me from Great Bridge High School in 1992 and was also my assistant principal for my tenure at Great Bridge High School. But I started my educational journey as a teacher at Oscar Smith High School, which was very impactful as I was department chair and workplace coordinator for students to get employment in the field. And it really led me into wanting to empower and inspire students all along the way. From there, Miss Bernard selected me to be a part of Grassfield High School when it opened in 2007, as the, at that time it was the Technology Academy. So I was the coordinator that started that program and got to work under the leadership of Carolyn Bernard, who was amazing and incredibly empowering to me in my journey. And I aspired to be very much so like her as I watched her for the 10 years that I ran what is now the Governor's STEM Academy at Grassfield High School. That's right. And in 2017, again, another full circle moment was I was um selected to be an assistant principal at my alma mater, Great Ridge High School, and from there worked under Mr. Johnson, who definitely led the way for me to be principal of Great Ridge High School.

Bob Robinson 5:25

Awesome. And Bob, how about you? Well, I I left my hometown in Cambridge, Maryland to go to William and Mary, and I thought I was going to go to law school. And I began the process and thought I would go to law school after college, but teaching and coaching became something that was very important for me. And so the day after graduation, I had gone into the William and Mary football coach's office to say goodbye to the football coaches. And the head football coach, Jim Root, came out of his office and he said, Bobby, said, You want to teach and coach, don't you? And I said, Yes, sir, I do. He said, Can you teach social studies? And I said, Well, I'm a history major. He said, Is that social studies? And I said, Yes, sir, it is.

Jay Lewter 6:08

Is that social studies?

Bob Robinson 6:10

Anyway, he told me then that Harry Blevins had just called him and was looking for an assistant football coach who could teach social studies. So we called Mr. Blevins. He wanted me to come that day for an interview, and all I had were the cutoff shorts and the uh t-shirt that I had. Oh my. But but I was coming back for a wedding in a in a week. So we arranged an interview, and I came down and interviewed with with Mr. Blevins, and I got a job at Great Bridge High School in 1976 as a history teacher and coaching at the school. But during that time, just as Mrs. Bernard was a force for you, I think Harry Blevins was a force for me. Harry Blevins was a leader who mentored others to be leaders. Yes. And for some reason, he saw something in me. And it was through his encouragement and his modeling that it helped me to realize that I wanted to move away from the classroom and into administration where I thought I might be able to impact more student lives than the 150 or so that I had each each year.

Jay Lewter 7:24

You know what, Matt? If I had a bingo card for today's episode, I would already check off two boxes. Box number one would be Harry Blevins. Check. And box number two would be Carolyn Bernard. I knew that as soon as we sat down today that those two names would come up as uh as as as as names on the on the Mount Rushmore of Great Bridge High School.

Matt Graham 7:46

Yeah. Tradition and pride. It probably starts a lot with them too, right? Yes. Throughout the course of your career, there's definitely been some changes.

How Schools And Tech Transformed

Matt Graham 7:54

Bob, what are some of the biggest changes that is that you have seen throughout education from your perspective?

Bob Robinson 8:00

Well, let's let's go back to the spring of 1977. Okay. And and in the spring of 1977, my first year at Great Bridge High School, I was amazed that when students scheduled, they went to the auditorium and they pulled cards for the classes they wanted to take the next year, and then turned those cards in. And when they got the six classes that they wanted to be able to take, then the scheduling. And how obsolete overhead projectors are today with all the technology that that is in the classroom. But then I think there's something else we have to be real cognizant of. If we look, we have a new Deep Creek High School. We have a new Great Bridge High School from when I began teaching in in 1976. We have a renovated Indian River High School. We have a renovated Western Branch High School that looked nothing like the buildings did in the 70s and the 80s. You know, then we have these schools called Hickory, and we we've got a grass field and we've got an Oscar Smith High School that you know moved location to a new location. And you know, those are incredible changes. And if we think about the st the attendance zones. And if you were to talk about attendance zones, when when I started teaching at Great Bridge High School in 1976, the attendance zone was from the North Carolina line to Dominion Boulevard to Military Highway to the Virginia Beach Line over off of Kempsville Road. It's all of Southern Chesapeake, right? All of Southern Chesapeake, you know, and gradually that has eroded and eroded and eroded to where, you know, the geographic area of Great Bridge High School now is much, much smaller than it once was.

Karen Black 10:15

It certainly is. Um Hickory was developed from Great Bridge, Grassfield was developed from that community, but um we still are it's part of a similar community, but Great Bridge is a center of that.

Bob Robinson 10:25

Yeah, well, I mean, and the same thing is that there are areas that were at what one time Great Bridge that are now Indian River. There's areas that were one time Great Bridge that are now in the Oscar Smith attendance.

Jay Lewter 10:36

Yeah. And Ms. Black, Bob has sort of reflected on some of the changes that we've seen over time.

Today’s Student Challenges

Jay Lewter 10:42

What kind of challenges do you think that students face today that maybe they didn't face in the 70s, 80s, and 90s during Bob's time at school?

Karen Black 10:52

Well, I can speak to the 90s because I was there in the 90s and um a difference for what I see from when I went to school way back when the classes were shorter. We were definitely lecture-based. We did not have technology. My interest was piqued by career and technical education when I was in high school. So I was definitely on the cutting edge of that technology piece and involving myself in anything that I could. But I would definitely say that technology has certainly changed the scope of what our classrooms look like today. And our students have a big responsibility with the access that they have to information. Um, and and we're certainly working through that. There are definitely pros and cons to all of that, but we're looking to find all of the different things that will help our students be successful when they leave Great Bridge High School.

Jay Lewter 11:39

Yeah, a tremendous amount of resources, but also a lot of digital responsibility that we're teaching to our young people, isn't that right? Absolutely.

Matt Graham 11:45

Yeah. What do you think the the needs of students are from school leaders like yourself? Uh I mean, there's got to be some consistency from Bob's tenure uh and and then also from yours, Karen. But um, Bob, what do you think some of the the needs of students are today versus when you were a principal? Or are they the same?

What Students Need From Leaders

Bob Robinson 12:07

I think that the basic needs of students are still the same. And I and I think that the basic needs of all students is to find a place of acceptance within the institution. And students have to be plugged in in some way so that that they know that they are a part of the institution rather than just being at the institution. And there's a huge difference when you you think about that. And I I think they they need to know that they are accepted by people who are in leadership regardless of their background, regardless of their origins. And school leaders need to build relationships with all the students in their buildings, not just those who are the honor roll students or just not those who are the college-bound students, but all the students in the school. Absolutely. And Karen, I'm sure you've got something to add.

Karen Black 13:17

Certainly. I um started my journey as principal July 1st of this past summer, and I knew how important it was to meet the needs of the students. Um, so I started that journey, and I kind of learned this from Dr. Cotton when he came in to Chesapeake Public Schools with the listen and learn. So in July, I started meeting with our student athletes, um, students that were working at the school over the summer, um, to ask them, what do you want from your principal? So that I could hear their voice. They were very candid and shared with me just exactly what Bob Robinson was saying in that they want to be seen, they want to see me, they want me to be at events. And that goes back to that connection of being not just a student at the school, but a student athlete, a student leader. And what I shared with all of the different groups that I've met with is every one of you is a leader in your capacity, in what you do, if you're in band, if you're a student athlete, if you are leading other students through our mentorship program, you're all leaders in your own capacity. And everything that you do day in and day out is leading someone whether you know it or not. So just giving that them that ability to know that I believe in them as a leader, whether they're a freshman or a senior, has really, it's really helped to develop the relationships that I have with the students and allowing them to know that I care about their voice as well. Yeah.

Jay Lewter 14:42

The way that we describe that these days is that students want to be seen and heard. Right. Right. And I think that is such an important message. And that was true in the 80s and 90s and holds true today. And as a high schooler myself, I don't think I really knew how important it was to be plugged into something like a band or a chorus or a club or an athletics. But, you know, in reflection now,

Tradition, Pride, And The Golden Bell

Jay Lewter 15:05

I think we all want our students to have an outlet and to have a friend group and something like that. Let's let's talk about traditions. You know, Great Bridge High School and the Great Bridge community motto is tradition and pride. Matt and I are graduates from Great Bridge. We talk about tradition and pride. What are some of your favorite traditions in the Great Bridge community?

Karen Black 15:29

Well, we have so many different traditions, um, but we want to make sure that we are sustaining them throughout the time and evolving with the new students. But I would say from my time back in the 90s until now, things that happen at Colonel Hall Stadium, which is actually connected to our Great Bridge Middle School, are always filled with such tradition because it's such a monument in the center of our community and it brings together so many students, so many athletes. And recently we have found the bell, the golden bell that we used to ring as high school students. And we had our school resource officer who does masonry work on the side, come out and donate all the bricks and mount that bell back at Great Bridge High School. That's really neat. And so to hear that bell ringing from, and it was stuffed away, I think, in a portable for a bit, but it is resurfaced, it is there, it is permanently there. And to watch our students be a part of something that is a symbol of the tradition and pride at Great Bridge High School has been really, really neat and powerful for our students.

Jay Lewter 16:32

What a great connection to the past to be able to ring that same bell that other students rang all those years ago. That's beautiful.

Bob Robinson 16:38

Yeah, when when the the new Great Bridge High School opened in 1983.

Jay Lewter 16:43

Not so new anymore. Not so new anymore.

Bob Robinson 16:46

Um, but when that school opened, one of the things that Mr. Blevins wanted to do was make connection. And I don't know if it's still there. I have not been in the school for for some time, but we put a board outside of the main office with pictures of Hickory High School when Hickory School was there before, and then Great Bridge High School merged, and where Great Bridge High School was and the changes. So just to connect where Great Bridge High School has been, and it's over 100 years of service to the community, right?

Karen Black 17:21

And that is still there. That is still there.

Bob Robinson 17:23

That's wonderful. That's wonderful. You know, and I and I think about things again, things that make students feel uh a part of the school. Um Harry Blevins on Christmas would put on a little elf cap and walk around on the day before school got out and give every student in the school a candy cane. And I did not want to do the same thing Harry Blevins did. So I had our graphic arts department design a card and then I signed however many students we had and gave them a holiday card the day before school was out and and did that. And so I'm sure that there are things like that. But you know, you you think about things like senior skits, and I don't know if senior skits are still there, but they were there when you were a student. Absolutely. You know, and ways that again connect students to the school so that the school is not just a place of education, that's right, but it's a place where memories are created for them.

Karen Black 18:28

And one of my focuses this year is really collaboration

Community, Legacy, And Belonging

Karen Black 18:31

with the community because Great Bridge is such a strong community. And we did just last week a legacy walk where we had third graders from Great Bridge Intermediate come out to our senior night where we were celebrating 50 of our band members, our cheerleaders, our ROTC, our football players. And we had the third graders line up on one side of the field and our seniors line up, and they met in the middle and held hands and walked down to that bell. And each one of the groups touched that bell as a symbol of our seniors moving forward into the workforce, but that our third graders were still gonna live that wildcat tradition and pride and just know that they were gonna be a part of something bigger than themselves.

Matt Graham 19:10

Right. Yeah, I mean, that rings a bell for me. The tradition and pride, the strong sense of community. I'm a prime example of that. Where I graduated there and now we reside in in Great Bridge. And you do have families that might stay, and then you you see the the kids of these families that went through Great Bridge. How often does that happen?

Bob Robinson 19:34

You know, it it has happened for me, Matt, and I have seen that over and over. I will say this is that when I began teaching, and even as a coach and into the early years of my principalship, I think it was a much greater percentage of students who would say to you, My mom and dad graduated from Great Bridge, or my uncles' aunts went to Great Bridge. As the community developed and Grew, then that became a smaller percentage of the students. And the schools had to be very cognizant of that and make specific choices to include those incomers to the school and make them feel a part of Great Bridge High School.

Jay Lewter 20:20

And I think Great Bridge is great at that. I think that that's something that you guys uh really celebrate is bringing new families in. Uh and at the same time, I think that that Great Bridge that people have such a great experience at Great Bridge that they want their children to have a similar experience.

Karen Black 20:39

Well, I can just speak to that because um Mr. Robinson was the coach of my husband, who was also a graduate of Great Bridge High School. My husband and I both went to Great Bridge High School. Both of my children graduated from Great Bridge High School. And just recently I was searching on one of our local websites, one of the other schools. And my son, who is very, very proud of being a Great Bridge alumni, our whole family is Wildcats, was actually giving back a grant to that school through our educational foundation. And so the legacy really does live within our students. This year, our theme at Great Bridge High School is legacy lives here. And so we're trying to teach students to be that person that gives back. And so for me to go on the website and see my son on the website doing that, and I didn't know anything about it with his new company that he's employed with was just really, really powerful. And I hope that all of the families will understand that our community is special in that way. This year we have students that have not necessarily been a part of the Great Bridge community prior to entering as a freshman. And so we speak to them individually of you are now part of the legacy. You didn't have to live here your whole life to be part of that. You stepping in this building and being a wildcat, you now have the ability to strengthen the legacy that we have just by your actions every day. So we want them to not feel less than because they're new to our community, but they are now a part of something again, much bigger than themselves.

Jay Lewter 22:03

You guys do such a great job of getting students plugged in quickly, right? To find their, to find their thing, whether it's a musical ensemble or a club or an athletics, just to get them involved as quickly as possible, because that really is how you make your high school experience special as your is your involvement.

Karen Black 22:21

I have to say, one of the biggest clubs that we have at Great Bridge High School is probably not one that you would think, but it's our Yarnies.

The Principal’s Hardest Balancing Act

Karen Black 22:27

And they were developed after COVID, where students needed stress relief and social emotional learning. And we had um one of our teachers that's been there for a long time, um, our tennis coach, Miss McCesney. She um started this program and I remember Mr. Johnson saying, Oh, this, I don't know. I don't know about this. And then it ended up and still is um our largest club at Great Bridge High School where students stay after three days a week and they help and develop blankets for premies. And it's just, it's there is a niche for every single student. We just have to help them find that and encourage them to be a part of that.

Jay Lewter 23:02

Yeah. Nice. Well, let's reflect on the principalship for a minute. Oh, yeah. Let's reflect on the principalship. I I'd love to hear from both of you about what you feel is the hardest part of your job, the hardest part of being a principal, and also what's the most rewarding, or what kind of perspective do you have that keeps you going on challenging days? I'd love to hear from both of you.

Bob Robinson 23:26

I I think the the hardest part of being a principal is balancing. Um you have to be able to balance your personal life and your professional life. And you have to understand what the wants and the needs and the demands of all of your constituents are your parents, your faculty, your students, your community. And they're all different in some way. And and Karen mentioned it earlier. The athletes and the people in our music and our theater programs, they all want you to be at their events. The parents all want you to be at their events, and guess what? Sometimes those events overlap, and you cannot be everywhere. And my kids wanted me to be at my events, at their events. And it was difficult to be able to balance all of those things. Yeah.

Jay Lewter 24:35

And then what's the most rewarding for you, Bob? Oh man. So many things.

Bob Robinson 24:39

What do you want to go? Let me let me go back to a November night in 1983 at Tide Field where the Great Ridge Wildcats beat Hampton in the first round of the region playoffs. Here it is. 17, 17 to 14 in overtime. Yes. Um, and and I'll be honest with you, my wife and I were coming back from Williamsburg a couple of years ago, and I made a ride down Route 60 so we could stop at Tide Field, and I could get out and just look at the end of the field and think about what happened 40 years ago to do that. But I also think is when you say as a principal, what I was most proud of was the way we were able to manage growth, explosive growth during the 1990s. When when I became principal at Great Bridge High School, we had about 1,700 students in the fall of 1991. By the 1995-96 school year, we had 2,500 students.

Jay Lewter 25:41

Wow.

Bob Robinson 25:41

We had 40 portable classrooms. And we had to be creative to manage that type of growth and to do the things that were were taking place to include all students, to how do we do lunches? Um, you know, what do we do? And one of the things that we did

Managing Growth And Reinventing Schedules

Bob Robinson 26:03

when we were at our peak was we modified our schedule from a six-day, six-block schedule to a seven-block schedule where students went to first and second blocks on alternating days. Blocks three, four, and five, they went every day because we had lunches during those blocks. And then blocks six and seven, they went on alternating days. And that allowed us to manage time in between class a whole lot better than we had been able to do it before. It allowed us to get some students out of class with this thing called Zero Bell, where students came in at 7.45 and took a class before school started. But then they could get out earlier during the course of the day. So we did not have and we minimized how many students were in the building at one time. And and what we did that year eventually led to the creation of the four by four block schedule, which is utilized in the high schools today. Right. Yeah.

Jay Lewter 27:08

What do we say? Necessity is the mother of invention, isn't that right? Karen, we want to give you a chance to answer that same question. What's the hardest part of being a principal? And then what keeps you coming back on the tough days?

Karen Black 27:19

Well, I would say exactly what Bob said about balance. And I would kind of frame that as time management, trying to make sure that you get all of the things done during the school day and prioritizing those so you make sure that students are first in everything that you do. This summer I had the opportunity to present at a conference and it was about finding the joys and leadership on a regular basis. So on the difficult days with teachers and students, I'm always sharing with them that we have to find the joy in what we're doing. Even when you're having a difficult day, there's growth in everything, the challenges. That's where we grow. So understanding that those difficult days are there for a reason. And whether it's myself or others, kind of helping through, helping students through that, faculty members through that, and finding the joy in everything that we do each and every day.

Jay Lewter 28:08

Yeah, that's a lesson for all of our listeners, isn't it, Matt? For our for students and parents and uh teachers, school leadership. Find the joy every day. Yeah. Find the joy every day.

Bob Robinson 28:20

Yeah, and and in the school, Jay, you can find joy every day. Absolutely. When you walk into a classroom and you can look at what takes place in a classroom.

Matt Graham 28:32

What are some of your hopes for the future of education?

Karen Black 28:35

My hope is that we continue to prepare students for jobs that don't even exist. So that can be tricky, but empowering them with the skills and the tools, we have AI out there that can do things for our students, but nothing will ever take the place of humanity and what we are as humans. So to teach them to be kind, to be on time, to have good work ethic, to be have integrity in everything that you do, I think that that is certainly of utmost importance because regardless of where the world goes, if they have those soft skills, they're going

Finding Joy And Purpose In Schools

Karen Black 29:09

to be a better contributing member of society.

Bob Robinson 29:13

I think what gives me great hope is the resiliency of teachers and students to adapt to change. And the same kind of changes that that you're talking about. In 1976, a student needed 18 credits to graduate from a high school. Today they need 22 credits to get a standard diploma from high school. That's a huge change. The teachers, as they have modified their instructional practices from a 50-minute period to a 90-minute period. And what they can do instructionally is so much greater than it was in that 50-minute class period. I don't know what the changes will be for Karen's tenure. But there's going to be some more changes. Some for good and some for not so good. And we have to be able to adapt to them and continue to focus upon student learning as primary in what we do.

Jay Lewter 30:17

Matt, there's so much wisdom in the

Hopes For The Future Of Education

Jay Lewter 30:19

room today. So much wisdom from this group. Okay, guys, we are going to close out with this. One final question for you both. What makes Great Bridge High School so special?

Karen Black 30:29

Well, I have to say that what makes Great Bridge High School so special are the people. From the students to the faculty who create the magic in the classroom every day to the community sport, the parents, the alumni. They make Great Bridge special. Once a Wildcat, always a wildcat.

Bob Robinson 30:48

And I would agree with that 100%. You know, when I when I looked at and thought about that, I was gonna say it is the people who make up the school community. Everything.

Matt Graham 31:00

Thank you so much for coming in and sharing your perspectives. This has been a wonderful session. I'm stoked for this whole pass to history. And what a way to start with perfect way to start. Man, this is this is great. I'm I'm very excited to keep hearing the stories from our other schools and our other principals that come in. Learned a lot, reminisced a little bit, got that warm fuzzy feeling. So thank you so much for coming in and sharing with our community all the things that make Great Bridge so special.

Jay Lewter 31:32

And join us next time on Amplified. Go Wildcatch.

Matt Graham 31:40

We hope you enjoyed the stories behind our story on this episode of Amplified, the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. Connect with us at cpschools.com forward slash Amplified,

Why Great Bridge Is Special

Matt Graham 31:52

and be sure to subscribe or follow us wherever you get your podcasts.