Bath School Board Says No To Reinstating Assistant Principal Position At High School

Warm Springs, VA – The Bath County School Board takes no action towards reinstating the Assistant Principal position at the high school. At a called school board meeting on Monday night, the Board did not discuss the position and it voted to authorize Superintendent Sue Hirsh to accept specific resignations. It is expected that High School Principal Pete Pitard will submit his resignation as a result of the board not taking action to reinstate the position.

Pitard has said that he can’t do both the Principal and Assistant Principal jobs. He has also said the elimination of the Assistant Principal position will undo ten years worth of work building a discipline system at the high school. Pitard resigned at the June 7th school board meeting, when the board would not consider putting the position back into the budget. Pitard later rescinded his resignation.

The 2010-2011 high school Assistant Principal was not returning for the upcoming school year and the school board eliminated the position, citing a tight budget. At the end of June the school system returned excess school funding back to the county. The excess money was enough to cover the Assistant Principal salary.

School Board member Joyce Hevener said Monday night that she spoke with many who wanted to the board to reconsider reinstating the assistant principal position. She made a motion to ask the Board of Supervisors to give back the excess school funding to the school board to be used to reinstate the position. Her motion died for lack of a second.

Also on Monday night, there was discussion about first grade enrollment at Valley Elementary School. Combining two first grade classes into one is being considered. Superintendent Hirsh reported that as of Monday anticipated first grade enrollment is 18 to 20 students. Four parents spoke during public comment asking the board to keep two first grade classes at Valley in order to keep the class size down. The parents said having 18 to 20 first graders in one class is too much for one teacher.

In other business Monday night, Superintendent Hirsh reported that there are 11 students who have committed to attending Governor’s School. There had been a shortfall of about $5000 to cover the cost, but Hirsh said that amount was found from different areas of the budget.

The board accepted with regret the resignation of Patricia Plecker, an aide at Valley Elementary. And the board made the following appointments: Jane Hall as Director of Pupil Personnel Services and Special Education Director. Christina Harmon as an aide at Valley Elementary and Nora Gibson and Lisa Rexrode as a half time cafeteria employees at Valley.

Story By

Heather Niday

Heather is our Program Director and Traffic Manager. She started with Allegheny Mountain Radio as a volunteer deejay. She then joined the AMR staff in February of 2007. Heather grew up in the Richmond, Virginia, area and now lives in Arbovale, West Virginia with her husband Chuck. Heather is a wonderful flute player, and choir director for Arbovale UMC. You can hear Heather along with Chuck on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8pm as they host two hours of jazz on Something Different.

Current Weather

MARLINTON WEATHER
WARM SPRINGS WEATHER
MONTEREY WEATHER