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A magnet, all right

A woman is drawn to lead the Ybor City school responsible for her very existence.

By ELISABETH DYER
Published September 2, 2005

YBOR HEIGHTS - In the end, Debra Arias is back where it all began: Orange Grove School in Ybor City.

"If it weren't for Orange Grove, I wouldn't be here," says Arias, 46, who became principal at the middle magnet school of the arts in spring 2004.

Her story begins nearly five decades earlier, in 1957, when her mother, then Nora Midulla, graduated from the University of Tampa.

Nora took her first job teaching 40 first-graders in Room 7 at Orange Grove School.

Directly overhead, Jack Lamb taught sixth-graders in Room 14.

Every day, he had to walk by her classroom to get to his. From his classroom in the mornings, he would hear her through the open windows telling students to sing out: "I can't hear you," she told them.

Later, he would joke: "We could hear you just fine."

Teachers at Orange Grove were close. They picnicked at Lowry Park, made food for the annual Cuscaden Park Carnival on Halloween and went to the movies together.

That spring, they saw Around the World in 80 Days. Fellow teachers, knowing Jack had a thing for Nora, made sure they sat next to each other.

Soon, he was visiting her at her home in Seminole Heights.

"It was the first time the faculty had any romance as such," Nora said.

The next spring, they married.

"The kids gave us a shower; the faculty bought us our dinette set. It was quite an event," Nora said.

A month later, she was pregnant with Debra.

Because married teachers weren't allowed to work at the same school, Nora moved to Egypt Lake Elementary, where she stayed 30 years. During summers, Debra helped her set up her classroom.

"I always knew I was going to be a classroom teacher," she said.

Like her father, now a Hillsborough School Board member with 50 years in education, Debra Arias became a leader.

When Sulphur Springs Elementary landed on the state's list of low scoring schools, district officials called Arias, who was principal at Gibsonton Elementary, to restructure the school.

That year, Sulphur Springs came off the list.

Her next call was to move up from elementary to middle school. Arias went to Orange Grove, where her daughter Kalyn was an eighth-grader.

Arias likes Orange Grove's Mediterranean-style architecture, its history - which dates to 1926 - and its emphasis on the arts. A former band member at Hillsborough High, she plans to play clarinet with the school band.

Orange Grove has 650 students, significantly fewer than most middle schools, which top 1,000.

"If there was one thing I could do in the school system, it would be keep schools small," she said.

Orange Grove offers an opportunity to learn guitar, harp and drums. It has a gospel choir, a radio station and an aerospace class. The school tends to appeal more to girls, who make up 70 percent of the enrollment.

When Arias goes out to recruit, she focuses on boys. "So I tell them, this is the place to come. We've got the girls."

She came to Orange Grove after 24 years in Hillsborough elementary schools. She most recently was principal at Broward Elementary in South Seminole Heights.

She misses young children but has adjusted, she says.

This is Orange Grove, after all, where her parents' passion for education began.

"I'm loving it," she said.

Elisabeth Dyer can be reached at 226-3321 or edyer@sptimes.com

AGE: 46

JOB: Principal, Orange Grove Performing Arts Magnet Middle School

HOME: Lake Magdalene

FAMILY: Husband Carlos, daughters Ashley, 18, and Kalyn, 15

EDUCATION: Graduated in 1976 from Hillsborough High School, where she played in the Big Red Band; bachelor's degree from University of Tampa; master's degree from Nova Southeastern University.

PLAYS: Clarinet and plans to perform with students this year

SIDE GIG: Has designed costumes for the Krewe of the Knights of Sant'yago

TEACHING ROOTS: Her grandmother, Ruth Lamb, taught at Cleveland Elementary; her father, Jack Lamb, serves as a School Board member and president of the Florida School Boards Association; her mother, Nora Lamb, taught for 38 years, mostly at Egypt Lake Elementary; daughter Kalyn plans to be a music teacher

ACCORDING TO MOM: "She's the kind of principal who never asks her teachers to do anything she wouldn't."

ACCORDING TO DAD: "She's had a number of her staff follow her to Orange Grove. That says something."

ACCORDING TO BOTH: Debra was always like a little mother hen.

[Last modified September 1, 2005, 08:26:09]