By Veronica Chapin, Florida Times Union
October 8, 1998

David Pinter, the new principal at Arlington Elementary School, is hoping to fill a gap between the past and present by involving prior students and school affiliates in a new program.

Pinter, 39, is setting up a school alumni association to help with elementary level programs such as one-on-one tutoring, reading, fund-raising and mentoring.

He is asking anyone 18 and older who attended Arlington Elementary to join the alumni.

''My goal is to tap into all of them to come back to the school,'' Pinter said. ''There is just so much that these people can give back.''

Pinter said he looked back through the school's history and saw an untapped reservoir of potential that he is eager to put to use.

''We are just looking for people's strengths that could spark something inside a child,'' he said.

Pinter's idea is similar to the WHEEL Rotary Club volunteer program that has proved successful at Hogan-Spring Glen Elementary School. WHEEL, which stands for With Help Everybody Enjoys Learning, was introduced at Hogan-Spring Glen last year and unites students with business leaders who are Rotary Club members.

Frances Padgett, 76, whose four children attended Arlington Elementary, is one of the first recruits into the alumni association.

''There is a lot they [students] need,'' she said. ''We are trying to help out in any way we can.''

Padgett said having a principal so dedicated to the children will ensure the program's success.

''The kids just love him to death already, and so do the parents,'' she said.

Pinter has been a vice principal at R.L. Brown Elementary and Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary. This is his first year as a principal.

''I'm just so excited. . . . It's just the most incredible school you would want to be associated with,'' he said.

Lake Ray III, a former student and recent alumni member, said he thinks getting involved with the school will be fun and exciting. Ray said he recently went back to visit and was able to sit in his old classroom.

Ray, 42, said he is working on getting people on board to help so they can begin to establish children's needs and go from there.

Arlington Elementary, circa 1921, opened at its 1201 University Blvd. N. location as the county's first public school east of the river. Before 1922, the Arlington area had only a two-room schoolhouse at Windemere Road and University Boulevard, then known as Chaseville Road.

Construction of the little red brick schoolhouse was completed in 1922 and provided much-needed classroom space for the growing area. Construction cost was $40,000. When it opened, it had six rooms and about 300 students and went up to the eighth grade.

Now, the oak-landscaped schoolyard houses 374 children and goes up to the fifth grade.