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Back to school
Morning came all too early Tuesday for tens of thousands of school children around the county. Commuters got stuck behind buses, students forgot their lunch money and, in general, the first day of school went off as usual.
“It's going great,” Irene Cromer, spokesperson for the Prince William school system, said midway through the first day back.
Cromer said Prince William officials expected about 73,000 students on the first day of school but that final numbers wouldn't come in until later in the week.
Hundreds of those students entered Gravely Elementary School for the first time on Tuesday morning. One of the county's two new schools this year, the 850-student building is intended to relieve overcrowding at nearby Alvey Elementary.
Principal Michele Salzano said earlier in the summer that she expected about 660 children to enter Gravely on the first day, 80 less than the original projection made by school officials.
Busing
One of the odder aspects of the new school is that many of its students are bused past Alvey Elementary on the way to Gravely as they travel just under three miles across Dominion Valley Drive and Waverly Farm Road.
The transportation hitch is because the northern end of Waverly Farm Road is not yet connected directly to U.S. 15 and may not be for a few more years. Waverly Farm Road is a proffer road that will be built by developer Toll Brothers.
However, the road construction schedule is tied to the number of homes sold at Dominion Valley and since the housing market has slowed, hundreds of units must still be built and sold before Toll Brothers has to start work on the road.
In the meantime, Gravely students start school 30 minutes after Alvey students, so the buses don't compete for road space. Once the road is built, Gravely's buses will cut a few miles off their trip.
Namesake
Gravely and Fannie Fitzgerald Elementary School in Woodbridge are the school division's only two new schools this year.
Gravely Elementary was named for one of Haymarket's most celebrated citizens.
Vice Admiral Samuel Gravely, who died in 2004 at the age of 82, was a groundbreaking figure in the U.S. Navy and the county's new elementary school isn't the only thing that's named for him.
Navy officials announced in 2007 that they planned to name the next destroyer the U.S.S. Gravely.
Gravely paved the way for African-Americans in the Navy. He was the first African-American commissioned as an officer from the Navy Reserve Officer Training Course. He was the first African-American to command a warship, the first to command a warship during combat and the first to achieve flag rank.
He was also the first African-American vice admiral in the Navy, and he eventually became the first to command a numbered fleet.
Those accomplishments made Gravely a top choice for honor not just in the Navy, but also in Prince William County.
After the Navy's announcement in 2007, Gainesville Supervisor John Stirrup (R) suggested that county officials name the next Gainesville school after Gravely.
The next school to be named in Gainesville was the middle school at Wentworth Green, which opened last year. That school was later named Gainesville Middle School and school officials decided instead to name the next western elementary school after Gravely.
In tribute to the admiral, school officials have chosen not only the school's name, but also its mascot for Gravely; when more than 600 students officially entered the building on Tuesday morning, they became the Gravely Elementary School Seadogs. The mascot is a smiling seal wearing a Navy hat and the school's slogan — Success = Education + Motivation + Perseverance — was Gravely's motto.
Samuel L. Gravely Elementary School is located at 4680 Waverly Farm Drive in Haymarket. The school can be reached at (571) 248-4930.
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