Highland County Schools Institute Program To Deal With Possible Concussions Suffered By Student Athletes

Monterey, Va – The Highland County Public schools now have a program in place to help administrators and coaches deal with student-athletes who may get a concussion during practice or a game. At the recent School Board meeting, Superintendent Crawford explained how this program got started.

“The [Virginia] state law did require that each Board of Education, each division come up with a concussion policy” says Dr. Crawford. ” VSBA [Virginia School Board Association] had a model policy that they submitted [and] we are using the model presented by the VSBA. It requires that Ms. Goff and a number of others become members of a concussion management team; and that numbers of things be done is a child is suspected of a concussion before that child can participate again, in practice or an athletic event.”

Coaches will receive training every 12 months on how to recognize the behaviors that typically follow a concussion. The Board approved the new concussion program. Administrators and faculty have been busy this summer with a variety of changes

“We have been pretty aggressive about looking at what we currently have” says Dr. Crawford, “and we’re going to try to get 50 or 60 good pages of a new website up, and then we can roll out the official website maybe months down the road. But we want something up different from what we have now, particularly to address some of the things you were talking about. We really want the calendar and a number of other things we would like to have on the website, so we’re working pretty diligently on that.”

Superintendent Crawford has drawn up contracts for two local auto repair shops to handle the school bus inspections and repairs during the coming school year.

“We wrote up a contract specifying which buses would be serviced by which mechanic” he says. “Moyers in McDowell will service the buses that are on that side of the hill, and then Hiner will service the buses that are over in Monterey. Hiners has a few more buses as you can see for the 30 day and the 180 day inspection, and I would request of the board to consider this for approval so that we would have a contract moving forward; it only obligates us for this year.”

School Board member Jim Blagg responds.

“I think it’s a good step forward because it’s always been an uncertainty for a number of years and this will take care of that uncertainty” says Blagg. “I think it’s useful for us and them as well.”

The Board approved the new bus maintenance contracts.

Superintendent Crawford reported to the Board that the county will construct new lights along the north side of the school parking lot next to the new Monterey sidewalk. There will be four lights on tall poles that should provide good lighting for the lot. County Administrator Roberta Lambert has confirmed that the county will pay the electric bill for those new lights. Finally, Superintendent Crawford summed up his impressions of his first 6 weeks on the job.

“It is a pleasure; it is a great group, I’m enjoying working with them” he says. “We will be meeting on a weekly basis on Tuesday’s after school gets started just to compare calendars, to make sure the building is covered. The more we can coordinate, the better off all of us are going to be. It’s been a pleasure working with the staff and you guys, and I love this community.”

The next meeting of the Highland County School Board is scheduled for Monday, September 12, at 7 PM in the high school library.