Bath School Board holds October meeting

On Tuesday evening October 3rd the Bath School Board held their regular monthly meeting, and it opened with praise for the High School Band. In a regional competition weekend before last

“They competed against school divisions that were much larger in size. They took first place in color guard, marching, music, general effect, visual effect, and the class. So congratulations to the band.”

School Superintendent, Sue Hirsh also congratulated Ed Ozuls, Technology Supervisor, for an article he had published in the Virginia School Board Association newsletter about beginning the Kid Wind project at BCHS, and its’ progress and successes over the years.

In preparation for the season ahead, Mrs. Hirsh, and Mr. Ronnie Liptrap Jr. Transportation Director presented the standing inclement weather policy to the board, and described the challenges in making early morning decisions for a county that can have different weather ten or fifteen miles apart, or on one side of a mountain or the other. They want the policy to be clear, and encouraged families to begin developing alternate plans for childcare, or transportation on inclement weather days, which also can include extreme cold.

“We know it has snowed; it’s easy to determine certain roads are not going to be travelled on, and so we announce, inclement weather routes- two-hour delay. “

The beginning-of-the-season policy reminders go out soon.

“We announce it first in a letter that goes home to parents, and then a second letter that goes home to parents, and we put it on our website. We have found that unless we are very clear, we get more confusion.”

They emphasized student safety is the highest priority, and when conditions are extreme, parents may need to make their own decisions. A county-wide decision is usually made by six o’clock, and announced on WDBJ and Allegheny Mountain Radio.

Also discussed during this presentation part of the meeting were meals for students travelling away from school in the afternoons or evening dues to sports or other activities. Members of the board recognize these are long days for students, and that coaches or friends often end up paying for a meal. The School Health advisory committee will discuss this once more, but the understanding is that IF the board wanted to propose offering some or all of students’ away meals, they would need to begin planning for this as a budget item as soon as possible.

Some final items discussed at Tuesday the 3rd’s meeting included noting National School lunch week, October 9th-13th, and recognizing Bullying Prevention month with a resolution from Governor, Terry McAuliffe. Several parts of the resolution provide background for this initiative: “ an estimated 160,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade miss school every day due to a fear of being bullied; bullying can assume many forms, including verbal, physical, and most recently in cyberspace; it can happen on an off school grounds, and finally Virginia School Boards Association Month encourages parents, students, teachers and administrators to be aware of when bullying occurs and to take timely and appropriate actions to end bullying in their classes and schools.” And lastly, Board members volunteered to serve on the following School Advisory committees:  Special Education – Roy Burns,

Career & Technical Education – Eddie Ryder,

Technology – Brian Secoy,

School Health/Concussion – Cathy Lowry,

Calendar – Rhonda Grimm,

Jackson River Governor’s School – Cathy Lowry

 

Story By

Bonnie Ralston

Bonnie Ralston is the Assistant Station Coordinator at WVLS and a Highland County news reporter. She began volunteering at Allegheny Mountain Radio in the fall of 2005. In 2006 she became an AMR employee and worked in Bath County for eight years as the WCHG Station Coordinator and then as the news reporter there. She began working in radio while in college and has stayed connected to radio, in one way or another, for more than thirty years. She grew up in Staunton, Virginia, while spending a lot of time on her family’s farm in Deerfield, Virginia. She enjoys spending time outside, watching old TV shows and movies and tending to her chickens.

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