Current Bath County School Board Meets For Last Time

Warm Springs, VA – The Bath County School Board held its last monthly meeting on Tuesday night, before the brand new Board takes office in January. The Board adopted a Resolution recognizing Board Chairman Eddie Ryder’s twenty years of service on the School Board. Superintendent Sue Hirsh said she believes that Ryder has had the longest tenure on the Board and he has only missed one meeting in his two decades of service.

The Bath County High School Girls Volleyball team was also recognized Tuesday night. The team won the Single A, Division 1 State Championship. Amanda Shifflett was named Player of the Year and First Team All Region. Ashley Rice and Katie Rice made First Team All District and Coach Dave McGee was named Coach of the Year and Region C Coach of the Year.

The Board and school staff discussed items on the Capital Improvement Plan in order to give the incoming Board members a summary of the items and some history. The incoming Board will finalize the CIP in January. Some items on the list to be requested over the next five years include a new bus, camera surveillance and entrance access systems, high school parking lot improvement, window shades at the high school, keyless entry systems and football field improvements.

Board members Joyce Hevener and Mary Lynn Riner were absent from the meeting
Tuesday night. During Board Comments, board members Barbara Waldeck, Dreama Burns and Eddie Ryder made closing remarks about their time on the Board and offered advice to the new Board members.

As a part of her remarks, Board member Barbara Waldeck talked about the motion she made last spring to move a teacher and a class from Millboro Elementary to Valley Elementary. She said a great eruption occurred after she made that motion, because it was seen that she had tried to close Millboro Elementary. She said she wanted everyone to know that if she had wanted to close Millboro that night, she could have done so, because she had three votes.

Waldeck went on to say that she thinks at some point an elementary school will close. She said if enrollment continues to decline, in three to five years, she believes Valley Elementary will be able to house all elementary classes and the central office. She said she thinks closing Millboro Elementary would save $400,000 a year. But she said a school system employee told her it will save closer to $600,000 a year.
Waldeck added that the entire Capital Improvement Plan could be paid for with the savings and it could also allow the system to keep the low pupil to teacher ratio, expand class offerings and develop new programs. Waldeck also said her greatest wish would be to raise all employees at Bath County schools to a number one financial pay scale across the state of Virginia, because the staff deserves it.

In other business Tuesday night, the Board made the following appointments: Steve Shaver as boys basketball head coach, Christina Oliver as boys basketball varsity assistant and JV coach and Zach Woodzell as boys volunteer JV assistant coach. And Alex Miller was appointed as a substitute Spanish teacher.