Bath Supervisors Looking For A Way To Restore Assistance Principal Position At County High School

Warm Springs, VA – The Bath Board of Supervisors is looking for a way to restore the assistant principal position at the high school. At Tuesday night’s Bath Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Carol Hardbarger suggested a way the board might help the school board find money to restore the position. That position was recently cut from the new budget by the school board. High School Principal Pete Pitard resigned as a result, saying he can’t do both jobs.

Supervisor Hardbarger said she had gotten calls asking the if the Board of Supervisors could do something to restore the position. She suggested that if the school system has enough money to turn back in at the end of the fiscal year, then maybe the Board of Supervisors would allow the school system to use that money to keep the assistant principal position. School Superintendent Sue Hirsh said there will be some money returned, but she didn’t know the amount yet. She added that the amount to fund that position, including benefits, will be $82,000.

Supervisor Jon Trees said he would not support returned money being used for that position. He said he would support putting any returned money into a line item to be used for capital projects. Supervisor Hardbarger said she resented the school board putting the Board of Supervisors in this position. She said the trust between the two boards had been eroded.

Supervisor Richard Byrd said he was dismayed at the action taken by the school board recently. He was referring to the decision to eliminate the assistant principal job and the decision to move Millboro kindergarten to Valley Elementary. The kindergarten decision was reversed at last week’s school board meeting. Supervisor Byrd asked High School Principal Pete Pitard to hold on for a few weeks until they can see how much money will be turned back in from the schools.

Supervisor Byrd also said he may ask his fellow board members to re-look at the school budget and see if they can change it from bottom line funding back to funding by categories. He said they will have to find out if they can legally change the funding formula. On Wednesday morning Pitard rescinded his resignation. After Tuesday night’s Board of Supervisors meeting, he said he felt funding would be made available to restore the assistant principal position.

Also on Tuesday night the board heard a presentation on the Forest Plan revision for the George Washington National Forest. The revision slightly increases the amount of land for timber harvest, expands the Rich Hole wilderness by about 5,000 acres, identifies ridgelines as unsuitable for wind energy, but allows for consideration of wind energy development on other ridgelines. Reviews and comments on the forest plan revision are being accepted until September 1. A public workshop on the plan will be held at Valley Elementary School on July 27.

And the board voted to develop an agreement for the creation of an economic development plan for the county. The Virginia Tech Office of Economic Development would create the plan. The economic development plan would be created in a manner similar to that of the tourism plan that Virginia Tech also created for Bath.