For the past week, Debbie Phelps has been rooting for her son, Michael Phelps, to a record eight gold medals at the Olympics in Beijing, but at Windsor Mill Middle School, it’s like she hardly left.
Phelps, the principal at the school in Southwest Baltimore County, raised Michael, 23, and his two sisters, Whitney Flickinger, 28, and Hilary Phelps, 30, after divorcing their father, Fred, in 1994. Co-workers say the single mother the world watched gasp with shock and get overcome with emotion as Michael won his seventh gold by .01 second, and when he captured his record eighth, is the same “soft-hearted” woman at school.
“The type of person you see on the news, just as supportive as she is of her son, she is of her students,” said Sharon Davis, head of the school’s math department. “What we get here is genuine.”
Phelps sent a recorded telephone message to all the school’s students, teachers and administrators the night the Olympics opened, issuing a “Read Your Way to Beijing” challenge to kids. She encouraged the students to read about the different cultures and countries that take part in the Olympics.
Monday was the first day of school for employees, and Phelps was on her way back to Washington-Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Since she couldn’t be at the school in person, she taped a video message to welcome back employees, and thank them by name for their work during summer school.
“I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she said, pausing at one point to fight back tears. “Our kids thank you; their families thank you.”
“Right now, our focus is really on getting ready for the opening of the school year,” said JoAnne Rich, an assistant principal at the school. “That’s how Debbie would want it. That’s the Debbie we know.”
During summer, one student who was having academic and behavioral problems, said, “Ms. Rich, on my wall I have this big poster of Michael Phelps, and I know I have been having a tough time, but I think I can keep it together if I can meet Ms. Phelps.”
“You know,” Rich responded, “I think I can make that happen.”
And near the end of summer school, Phelps visited the student, who normally does not attend Windsor Mill, but went there because the school served the whole area during the summer.
“You should have seen him,” Rich said. “He left here with the biggest smile on his face.”
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