The Bath School Board Is Working On It’s Budget, But There Are Lots Of Answers Still To Come

Warm Springs, VA – The Bath School Board is working on its budget, but there are lots of answers yet to come. At Tuesday night’s Bath School Board meeting, Superintendent Sue Hirsh gave an update on the budget thus far. She said there are two things that are impacting the budget in a large way.

One is a potential Virginia Retirement System requirement that may have state employees absorbing some of their share of VRS. The VRS legislation is not finalized yet, so that cost is unknown. The other impact on the school budget is county health insurance costs. More won’t be known about those costs until about mid-April.

The budget at this point also includes the reappointment of a full time principal at Millboro Elementary. A three percent raise and a step increase for employees is also included. And two items originally placed on the capital improvement plan were moved into the budget, because they did not meet the $30,000 threshold for the CIP.

Those items are window shades at the high school at a cost of $20,000 and installation of cameras on 15 school buses at a cost of $25,500. The proposed budget at this point has an 11.75% increase over this year’s budget. The School Board is planning a work session where they will approve the budget on Monday March 19 at 5:30 at the high school library.

Also on Tuesday night a number of students were recognized for their accomplishments. The Bath County High School Academic Team and Coach Olivia Haney were recognized. The team is the 2012 Pioneer District champion and took second place in the Region C Tournament.

Gabrielle Reed from Valley Elementary was recognized as the winner in the division spelling bee and Brianna Negrete from Millboro Elementary is the runner up.

Bath County High School band member Eli DeBoe has been selected for All State Band. And students were recognized for having four of the top ten projects at the Jackson River Governor’s School Science Fair. Those students are Eli DeBoe, West Redington, Savannah McLaurin and Katelyn Rice.

Millboro Elementary Teacher Kim Manion reported that Destination Imagination Teams from Valley Elementary, Millboro Elementary and the high school recently competed, with the high school team advancing to the state competition.

The Board accepted the resignation of Valley Elementary teacher Kelly Rosenberg, effective at the end of the school year. The resignation of high school nurse Cheryl Thompson was also accepted. And the Board accepted the retirement of high school cafeteria manager Joan Williams, effective at the end of the school year.