Truckin' on the Western Branch

on different learning styles, and students progressed at their own rate creating multi-age groups. The Humanities portion of the day gave them an opportunity to be with their own age group.

Christmas plays, fine arts festivals, field trips, outdoor drama, gym every day, annual “marathons” through the neighborhood, five-year-old productions, and band and chorus concerts gave students multiple opportunities to perform. The Demonstration School earned national championships in the Olympics of the Mind competitions.

Students learned flexibility and independence as they moved about the halls finding their way to the next class. “Stay on the right” replaced “walk in a quiet line” for changing classes.

Yarborough left Chesapeake Public Schools to become a professor and chairperson of educational curriculum and instruction at Old Dominion University while maintaining her collaboration with the school. Principals Stewart Chapman, Joe Peele, and Phyllis Fary led the thriving school. When Fary retired in 1983, Larry Short became principal to help facilitate the school’s closing in 1985. Chesapeake Public School System administrators cited school budgetary reasons for closing the school.

“We had an unusual group of teachers, “ Fary said. “We had built the school together—even carried furniture in from the school next door and helped put it together. Teachers scrubbed the floors and washed windows. Even Dr. Yarborough swept the floor to help get the new building ready.”

The Demonstration School was “the best thing going,” according to former teacher Anne Barbour Schwab. “It had each subject including music and art every day. Students wore tags around their necks with grade level and schedule.”

When student Carl Romulus heard the school was closing, he wrote a poem that expressed the sentiments of students, parents, and teachers.

I know of a school with loving and caring And sometimes sharing. I heard that this school is closing. When I go to school next year I’ll never forget that love and cheer.

Private Schools The first private school in the area, Churchland Academy of the late 1800s, left a legacy of education options that include numerous private schools in the area including:

• Christopher Academy (formerly The St. Christopher School) developed in 1970 by local educators Margaret Heely and Mariana Sumner and housed in St. Christopher Episcopal Church on Cedar Lane.

• StoneBridge School , founded in 1980, an independent Christian school on Jolliff Road.

• Sweethaven Christian Academy on West Norfolk Road.

Jolliff Day School off Jolliff Road.

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