Bath School Board member resigns

Bath School Board member Amy Gwin has resigned.  At the June school board meeting Gwin presented a letter of resignation, saying her resignation is effective June 30th.  Gwin is the Cedar Creek District representative and said she is moving within Bath County, but out of the Cedar Creek District.  There’s a requirement that school board members live in the district they represent, so Gwin will no longer be able to serve as the Cedar Creek representative.  The school board will appoint an interim replacement until a special election is held to fill the seat.

And the school board approved it’s amended budget for next year.   About $180,000 was cut from the school budget by the Board of Supervisors and Business Manager Justin Ryder outlined cuts needed to balance the budget.   A number of adjustments were made and one of those is to the plan to adjust salaries to make them regionally comparative.  An adjustment to the second year of the three year plan was made and Rider said no one will be getting any less than a 2% raise.  Rider said every employee that was included in that plan is getting a cut to the planned raises, so the increases won’t be as much as originally scheduled for the second year of the plan. 

Technology and Administrative Services Director Paul Lancaster reported on preliminary SOL test results.  He cautioned that all the scores so far are preliminary data and they could change.  He said gains have been made in a lot of areas, but some scores are not where they want them to be.    

And School Board Student Representative Saul Pasco was recognized at the meeting for his service to the board this year.  High school salutatorian Julia Billingsley and valedictorian Ryan Woodzell were also recognized.  And it was announced that in the Commonwealth of Virginia Art Poster Contest Mikayla Miller from the high school, Jillian Brown from Valley Elementary and Persephane Woods from Millboro Elementary all received  honorable mentions.   And Millboro student Ben Arnold got third place recognition in that contest. 

Also at the June meeting, the school board appointed  Scott Youngdahl as the new high school spanish teacher, Mark Hall as the high school computer lab manager, Jessica Hornsby as school counselor and Daniel Shifflett as summer custodian at the high school. 

And the board also accepted the resignation of Valley teacher Suzanne Ostling and bus driver LaWanda Riley.