Bath County High School will have an eighth grade spelling bee next year
Plans are in the works to hold a spelling bee next year for eighth graders at Bath County High School. During April’s Bath School Board meeting, Margo Oxendine from The Recorder newspaper spoke during public comment saying the paper would like to sponsor an eighth grade spelling bee. She said The Recorder would pay for the cost of the sponsorship, so there would be no cost to the school system and Oxendine herself would volunteer to be the coordinator of the spelling bee. Oxendine covered both the Bath County spelling bee and the regional spelling bee, held in Roanoke, for The Recorder newspaper and she was impressed by Gabrielle Reed, a seventh grader at Valley Elementary School, who won the Bath spelling bee.
“And I have to say this about Gabrielle and this is one reason that I stuck my neck out,” says Oxendine. “That kid is a great speller and she has a passion for it. And that’s what you have to have is a passion for spelling. And the young girl that finished second, Katherine Dupoise from Millboro, she too has that passion. And so if we could have a bee at the eighth grade level here at the high school, we could actually have, certainly, someone to go on to the regional level for two years in a row, at least. And, who’s to say, definitely an opportunity for Bath County High School to send a child to a national competition.”
School Superintendent Sue Hirsh responded to the offer by saying that the administrative team had been discussing the spelling bee for several weeks. They had already made the decision that the eighth grade would have the opportunity, but had not worked out any details. Hirsh said they would not turn down the offer from The Recorder and asked high school Principal Sarah Rowe to work with Recorder staff on coordinating the spelling bee.
Superintendent Hirsh also reported on the number of students enrolled in Bath County Schools as of March 31st. Enrollment as of that date is used to adjust funding to enrollment numbers. The Bath school division based it’s current budget on an enrollment of 600 students and the division has lost students. The number of students enrolled at the end of March was 582. Some students have been added to the roster, but thirty six students have left, and of those thirty six, thirty three have moved from the area.
And the board appointed Terry Bradley as track coach and accepted the resignation of Lisa Rexrode, a cafeteria employee at Valley Elementary. And the board also gave School Superintendent Sue Hirsh authorization to accept resignations as they occur and to advertise for open positions.
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