More Ideas Are Suggested For The Future Of Bath County Schools

Warm Springs, VA – On Tuesday night, the public had another opportunity to provide ideas for the future for Bath County Schools. The meeting was the final one in a series of five that was held to collect input on the Bath School Division’s Comprehensive Plan, formerly known as the Six Year Plan. Sue Hirsh is the Superintendent of Bath County Schools.

“We greatly appreciate the people who came to any one or more of the meetings” says Hirsh. “Everyone’s participation here, I think, is a very good start in maintaining the kind of communication with parents and citizens, with the schools, that will help us to plan best for our future.”

Over the course of the meetings some themes came together.

“Some of them deal with curriculum and instruction issues, the vocational and technical programs that we offer now and might offer in the future” says Hirsh, “especially those things that help students connect with what might be able to be determined as future employment opportunities for students. Second, we’re talking about moving beyond convergent thinking to more divergent thinking, helping students to learn through inquiry and actual authentic opportunities to relate their learning to real life to become problem-solvers. We talked about connecting science, math, technology and engineering, which is design and problem solving.”

Communication was another theme that emerged from the meetings. That discussion included ways to encourage better communication between the school division and the public. Hirsh said she will be starting a Superintendent’s Blog, which will be one way to easily communicate.

And there was discussion on educational opportunities for students that can be developed with people in the community who have specific talents. Another suggestion from the meetings, was to help teaching staff gain additional endorsement areas to add flexibility for course offerings.

Although Tuesday night’s meeting had the lowest attendance of all the meetings, some additional ideas were shared. One idea was to start vocational education and career matching earlier, such as in the fourth or fifth grade. Another suggestion was to focus on students who do not participate in sports or extracurricular activities, by maybe creating volunteer programs to help those students gain skills and earn credit. And yet another suggestion was to develop an ROTC program.

“So I do appreciate everyone who has attended” says Hirsh. “We’ll want to keep this conversation going. A phone call, a visit, are always welcome. It just doesn’t always have to be because there’s a meeting set aside for people to talk. So any ideas are always appreciated.”

Hirsh said the five meetings were the initial steps to get work started on the Comprehensive Plan. Hirsh will summarize all the ideas from the meetings and then the School Board will develop a draft of the plan. There will be opportunities for the public to review the Comprehensive Plan before it is adopted.