Bath County School Board Moves Entire Pre-School Program To Valley Elementary Starting Fall of 2011

Warm Springs, VA – Preschool will not be offered at Millboro Elementary this fall. At Monday night’s Bath School Board meeting, the board voted to move the entire preschool program to Valley Elementary. The Millboro preschool teacher will also move to Valley which will create a second class at Valley.

School Superintendent Sue Hirsh said this year there were six students who were unable to attend preschool at Valley Elementary because they didn’t have a space for them with only one class. Currently there are 20 preschool students at Valley and 9 at Millboro. For next school year, 11 have enrolled at Valley and 4 at Millboro.

Superintendent Hirsh said it was a tough decision, but the right one for program quality. She also said federal grants can’t be applied for to assist with the preschool program, because there are not enough students. The vote was four to one with board member Dreama Burns opposed.

The board also voted to move the special education classroom at Millboro to Valley for the next school year. In order to meet requirements, the program needs to be located where the needs are. Students expected to be in the special education program next year include 5 at Valley and none at Millboro.

Also on Monday night, school board members Mary Lynn Riner and Dreama Burns announced they will not be running for re-election next year. School Board member Joyce Hevener announced that she will run again. School Board Chairman Eddie Ryder and board member Barbara Waldeck both previously announced that they will not seek re-election.

There were also some corrections made to the school calendar on Monday night. There will be no early release on June 2 this year and the board approved making Friday June 10 the last student day of the school year, instead of Monday June 13.

The board also approved school meal price increases. All grades except for grades 6 and 7 will see a five cent increase. Grades 6 and 7 will see an increase of thirty cents to have the same pricing as the high school. That increase is higher because of requirements that portion size be the same as what’s offered at the high school.

Finally, the board set two budget work sessions to continue work on balancing the budget. The school budget was approved by the Board of Supervisors with about $386,000 less than what was requested. Work sessions were set for Thursday May 19 and Monday May 23. Both will be held at 5:30 at the School Administration Building. And the board will hold another budget work session on Monday May 30, if needed.