Bath School Board meets for November
At the Bath County School Board meeting on November 1st, the range of topics mostly touched on students’ progress and unity throughout the system. There was some fun mentioned too. Easton Yohe, student representative, announced the Decades Dance to be held this Saturday evening for High School Students. It begins at 7 o’clock, and is five dollars per student. All flappers, rappers, rockers and those with big hair are welcome. Ronda Grimm, Williamsville School Board member, explained there is no pressure to wear a costume even if prizes will be awarded for some, but there is also no pressure to rent formal wear or bring a date. Proceeds from the dance benefit the Junior Senior Prom. Easton mentioned another school function coming up on Thursday night.
“There’s going to be the CTE Advisory meeting at 5:30. The School Board and other small businesses are welcome to come and are invited.”
During the report on enrollment, Superintendent Sue Hirsh explained.
“Our ratios continue to be very favorable. We meet or exceed as in most cases, required pupil teacher ratios.”
Dylan Frye, athletic director at Bath County High School, reviewed the coaching handbook, to clarify expectations for athletes and coaches in every season’s sports.
“We want our students to be well-rounded. You know we want them to be involved in extra curricular activities, and we want our coaches to have organized meetings to encourage potential athletes.”
After recruiting potential athletes, the handbook describes how coaches will introduce them to their sport.
“We want our coaches to assume that really our kids, don’t know the basics. We want to start at the bottom and build them up. So, we want our coaches to focus on really the fundamentals, building them up, and then progressing into the more specific, and more complex things in the sport.”
Dylan Frye also expressed an expectation most parents and educators are glad to hear.
“We want them to be successful in the classroom well before they’re successful on any playing field or court that we have.”
After the presentation, Roy Burns, Board Chair, explained their interest in a review of the handbook came from a desire to hold students and coaches accountable to specific standards. He also said the board understands “an environment of respect” takes time to develop, and that the board hopes everyone will continue to strive for that.
When discussing the school improvement plans, Alison Hicklin, Millboro principal mentioned a new offering for students to strengthen their STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math Skills).
“The other new addition we have is the incorporation of the Maker Space which we are putting together down at this end of the building. Mr. Crawford is a big cheerleader for this. Ms. Sizemore came from a school where she was very involved in Maker Space, and what that is, I don’t know if you’re familiar with it, but it’s an area where kids can go to do STEM activities, that kind of branch off of what they’ve done in the classroom. And we’re hoping to get it started. We’ve ordered some items.” The plan for the Makerspace is to start small and expand.
For some more of this report from the November 1st Bath School Board meeting, please visit the Allegheny Mountain Radio news page.
Another comment from Allison Hicklin, Millboro principal was the following.
“And then we want classroom teachers observing other classroom teachers. And again, that’s one of those things that you love to do, but who really has the time on their planning to go into another classroom when you have a list of twenty-eight things you have to get done. But, I think that by going into the other classrooms, it’s going to open up even more dialog, ‘This is what I saw that you did really cool; this is what I learned from you.’”
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