Bath School Board Member resigns at meeting on Tuesday night

Bath School Board Member resigns at meeting on Tuesday night.  Williamsville district representative, Rhonda Grimm, resigned from the board effective immediately.  Her statement was read at the end of the meeting.  Grimm said she has enjoyed being on the board, and serving the students of the community. She cited personal reasons for needing to resign.

February is School Board appreciation month, and all of the Bath members were recognized with certificates and gifts.

The last week in January was School Principals Appreciation week, so Superintendent Sue Hirsh and Board Chair Ellen Miller both recognized Alison Hicklin of Millboro Elementary, Crystal Coffman of Valley Elementary, and Sarah Rowe of Bath County High School.

Ed Ozuls, engineering and technology teacher at the high school showed a brief video of the robotics club competing in the First Tech Challenge at Orange County High School.  He noted it had been a good experience for the students, and that he and electronics teacher, Larry Grubbs have a different group of students travelling to Virginia Tech later in the year to test windmills they have designed and built in the Kid Wind Project.

Tanner Bradley, student representative, reported that the Academic Bowl team, coached by Amber Yohe was attending a regional competition at the time of the meeting; he also noted that spring sports will begin February 23^rd.

Paul Lancaster, director of technology and administrative services, reported that zero students had dropped out of Bath County High School during the school year 2013-2014.

This was followed by updates on the school improvement plan from the principal of each school.   Both elementary schools and the high school are using Interactive Achievement to strengthen students’ progress in all goals, and improve test-taking ability.

During the budget update the question was raised if there is adequate internet access throughout the schools. A couple of weeks ago the Distance Learning broadcast which comes from Dabney Lancaster Community College was interrupted temporarily. Paul Lancaster responded there is now a system in place to distinguish how much internet use is for the students’ benefit from other use on mobile devices not related to student needs.   He assured those concerned that band width will continue to increase, but that usage will likely increase too. The schools will continue to monitor and manage the band width usage.

The board voted in favor of two disciplinary actions.  Student A will receive long term suspension (93 days) or the remainder of this school year, and have their out of county status revoked.  Student B is suspended for the remainder of the school year, and will not participate in graduation.

Dodie Bayne was appointed as teacher at Millboro Elementary School,

And Billy Grimm was appointed bus driver.

The following were appointed to coaching positions for spring sports:

Baseball:  Varsity  Kris Phillips, Assistant Varsity   Joey Altizer, Junior Varsity Danny Sifford

Tennis  Coach  Mike Bollinger, Volunteer Kirby Smith

Soccer (Boys’) Coach, Roderick Ottey, Volunteer, Steve Gardener,

Soccer (Girls’) Coach   Mark Hall