Night School

All of Leroy C. Williams Jr.'s five daughters graduated from high school before he did. But tonight, at the age of 45, Williams will finally join his children among the ranks of the high school-educated. Williams is one of 17 adults, ranging in age from 18 to 45, who will receive diplomas from Glassboro High School as members of its Adult Night High School. The ceremony will take place at 8 p.m. at the George Beach Administration Building. "I put it off for years and years, and then I got up enough nerve to go," said Williams, a Franklinville resident.

It isn't often that a school has a surplus of funds. When the Adult School Night for Chester County program found itself with an excess of $15,000 from tuition, the nonprofit organization presented the West Chester Area School District a check at a school board meeting last month. "The gift was made to East and Henderson High Schools, where we run many of our night courses," said Mary Berry, administrator for the night school. "We requested that it be used for the benefit of the most students possible.

A bargain for adults with free time after work is the Main Line School Night, which offers nearly 400 courses at modest fees. Some of the courses are not available at colleges; but like colleges, the Night School's curriculum undergoes annual scrutiny to keep up with changing lifestyles. Courses are taught by certified instructors, and fees range from less than $5 a class for a 10-week course to $86 for a 15-week language course. Classes are held in the evenings at Radnor, Lower Merion, Harriton and Conestoga High Schools, and in the daytime at the school's headquarters, Creutzburg Center, on Gulph Creek Road in Radnor.

Classes usually fill within the first hour of adult night-school registration. Night-school teachers at Bucks County Technical School walk the long line of would-be students, announcing the names of classes that have been closed and apologizing to those who go home unregistered. Last week, the school's 45 daytime teachers declared they had been locked out by a new scheduling system; and television cameras converged to shoot picket lines and the faces of frustrated students. Meanwhile, interest in the evening classes has been abysmal.

There's an orange pamphlet circulating in Glassboro these days. It's a plea for money, but it doesn't come from any of the usual supplicants. No, this one comes from the school district, a publically funded entity now in search of private support. For 25 years, the school district has run a night school for adults who want to get their high school diplomas or who need help learning English. For those two programs, adult basic education and English as a second language, the district used to get $15,000 from the state.

Classes on orchids, massage, Web page design and even rubber-stamp art are standards in adult education programs. But Owen J. Roberts' spring session will also provide two long-sought aids for night-school students on the run: day care at night, and home-cooked meals with no dishes to wash. In respond to the community's needs and because the program ran a debt last year, evening school director Susan Thompson coordinated a strategic planning group this year to conduct an extended survey of night school students.

Unionville-Chadds Ford School District officials have decided to continue offering night-school courses to residents, but the program will no longer be run by parent volunteers. During a school board meeting Monday, board member Allen South said a task force had recommended that the school district hire a director for the evening classes, held at Unionville Middle School. The evening school had been coordinated by parent volunteers. Earlier this year, volunteers told the school board that the volume of paper work and class scheduling had grown too much for them to handle.

Earning a diploma in night school is getting an education the hard way. But, take the word of those who've done it, if you can make it through the night to reach graduation day, there is no satisfaction quite like it. As Judith Morgan, one recent graduate, put it: "I've been wearing a grin so wide it's pouring off my face. " Philadelphians by the thousands earn diplomas from night schools. Community College of Philadelphia alone has 10,000 adults enrolled in night courses - about 70 percent of this year's 1,026 graduates did all or part of their course work at night.

As Betty Ann G. Frisby's high school classmates celebrate their 40th reunion this year, her own diploma will have gathered little dust. After making a promise to herself 43 years ago, when a pregnancy forced her to drop out of high school, the 60-year-old West Chester woman fulfilled a dream Tuesday as she graduated from Henderson High. "I never lost hope," Frisby said in an interview Monday. "I've had a lot of trials and tribulations. " Born "on East Miner Street on a Thursday at 8 p.m. March 5, 1931," Frisby completed ninth grade in what she fondly remembers as "Biddle Street School," now Henderson, and was about six weeks into 10th grade when she was told to leave because of her pregnancy.

Jacob Zahn, 86, longtime administrator and teacher in Camden City's schools and a leader of the district's American Federation of Teachers chapter, died Saturday at West Jersey Hospital-Marlton. A Cherry Hill resident, Mr. Zahn was born and raised in Camden, graduating from Camden High School in 1926. In 1930, he graduated from Temple University, where he was active on the debate team. He retired in 1973 and moved from Camden to Cherry Hill's Towers of Windsor apartments. Mr. Zahn spent 43 years in Camden schools, first as a teacher of English and Latin, then as assistant principal at Hatch Junior High School.

Peanuts are the problem. Tom Voravolya can't teach his popular Thai Cooking class at Lower Merion High School because so many Thai dishes contain peanuts, and so many schoolchildren today have serious food allergies. "They're allergic even to the scent," Voravolya says. "Our food has a very, very strong smell - and it stays around. If I cook something tonight, you'll still smell it in the room tomorrow. " The 20 adults enrolled in Voravolya's class at Main Line School Night didn't seem to mind last week.

Michael J. Gullotti, 60, a Philadelphia cardiologist, died of complications from multiple sclerosis Tuesday at his home in Newtown Square. Born in South Philadelphia, he was a 1966 graduate of Bishop Neumann High School. Son of a tailor who went to night school to become an accountant, Dr. Gullotti followed his father's example by working his way through higher education. Though a scholarship paid for part of his education at Villanova University, his daughter Stephanie said, he worked in ticket sales for the Greyhound bus line during his college days and as a busboy at the Bellevue Stratford hotel during medical school.

Leonard Sarner, 88, a lawyer who for three decades operated a school that prepped people to take the Pennsylvania Bar exam, died Sunday of pneumonia at home in Center City. From the early 1950s until 1983, Levin Sarner Brown Bar Review School, at 42d and Spruce Streets, drew thousands of students from across the state. It was the only such school in Pennsylvania until 1976, when other schools started up. "Leonard was a tall, thin impressive figure with a booming voice," U.S. District Judge Charles R. Weiner said yesterday.

Sixty-five years from now, "get acquainted with your computer's screen, tool bars and keyboard" might sound a bit antiquated if you saw it in a night-school catalog. Just as this 1942 Main Line School Night class in dressmaking sounds dated: "In months to come, the 'whir-r-r' of home sewing machines will become louder and louder. It's an important sound, for it means women's return to the great task of clothing the nation. " Main Line School Night, the nonprofit organization catering to the eclectic tastes of Philadelphia's suburban set, is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year.

So it's parents' night at school and I'm there on behalf of my youngest son. I look at him sometimes and see a toddler with a gap in his grin and a penchant for gnawing his toes. But that's just a memory lie. The toddler is a teenager two inches taller than I am, a youngster on the cusp of manhood. It hasn't been a fun passage. Last year, we went through a phase where he felt compelled to challenge everything I said, down to and including, "Hello. " These days, he doesn't so much challenge me as endure me. My son has perfected the thousand-yard stare, eyes fixed on something beyond your line of sight while you're yammering on about a good work ethic, the importance of education or some other bit of useless arcana from the book of responsible adulthood.

Carolyn Hand's friends can't believe it. Hand directs the drama program at Timber Creek High School, but sometimes her job feels distinctly, well, professional, thanks to the brand-new building she has to work with. "The facilities are incredibly professional," gushed Hand, motioning to a well-lighted, spacious dressing room. "I've known people that work in theater and they say, 'Wow, this is just like what we have.' " Timber Creek, the $38 million building that is the newest in the Black Horse Pike Regional School District, opened in September to 920 freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

More than two decades have passed since Elvira B. Pierce taught elementary students in Philadelphia's Overbrook section, but her influence remains strong. Upon her retirement in 1979, Pierce started giving $500 of her own money to continue an annual scholarship fund at Overbrook High School. Yesterday, Pierce, 87, was honored with a second annual luncheon and silent auction to support the scholarship, which now provides two students $1,000 each. Pierce - who taught at Cassidy Elementary School and who was well known for her gentleness, firm discipline and high standards - was joined by more than 100 former students, family and friends at the event.

A tradition is fading on the South Jersey football scene. Specifically, Saturday afternoons are no longer centered on high school football games. Friday nights are in. Saturday afternoons are on the way out. For proof, check out the astounding rise of night football in the last two decades. In the early 1980s, only a handful of area teams played night football. This year, 39 of South Jersey's 76 teams will host night football games. And 70 of the 76 teams will play a night game.

The new director of adult education for the Camden County Technical School District plans to place a priority on reversing the decline in night-school enrollment. "We are the most affordable quality technical education program in the county, and I want to start an advertising campaign that will promote that information," said Teri Stallone, whose appointment was announced by the district's school board Wednesday night. Stallone had started working in the position this month.

While the strong job market is a plus for most, it has made things difficult for the Camden County Technical School District's night-school program. Enrollment in the postsecondary Technical Institute Program is 914 students, down 163 from the previous school year. School officials attributed a large portion of the drop to the booming economy. "The general economy is now so good that people are not looking to get the job training they want when the market is depressed," said R. Sanders Haldeman, district superintendent.