|
School board discusses laundry list of issues
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
WARM SPRINGS - The Bath County School Board took little action Tuesday night at a five-hour called meeting to discuss concerns.
The board discussed a variety of topics, including the budget calendar for next year, the absentee policy, parking changes at Bath County High School, the number of teachers with advanced degrees and setting a specific time during board meetings to hear staff concerns.
The only two actions taken were to appoint Douglas MacArthur Bird as a classified substitute and to leave the student parking fee at $25 but to distribute any money left after paying for permits evenly between the junior and senior classes.
Discussion of a lengthy list of questions relating to issues at the high school was moved to closed session at the request of BCHS principal Pete Pitard. Pitard responded to some questions in a four-page letter delivered to board members at the beginning of the meeting.
With that letter, he requested issues related to a specific administrative position be discussed in closed session since the identity of the person holding the job would be obvious given the size of the school.
"Although this discussion could be done without naming specific personnel, the structure of our district does not allow for anonymity when discussing such items by the person's position title," Pitard said in his letter. Since a specific teacher or staff member would not be discussed in open session, Pitard asked that specific administrators be discussed only in closed session.
The meeting began with a motion by member Eddie Ryder to set an ending time. After some discussion, the board agreed to a target of 10 p.m. The final action taken after the closed meeting occurred at 10:32 p.m., according to school superintendent Dr. David Smith. The closed meeting began shortly after 7 p.m.
While little action took place, Smith characterized the meeting as productive - "more like a work session ... Any board has issues that need to be talked about outside an action agenda," he said Wednesday.
Since Williamsville board member Kay Hicklin is not running for re-election, at least one new member will join the board in January. After some discussion of the budget process and problems that occurred four years ago when the current board took office, the board decided to retain the early start on budget presentations in December and invite any new member or members to attend.
The trip to the Virginia School Board Association convention will also be made available to new board members.
The regular November meeting of the board has been moved back to Oct. 25. The board will follow the traditional plan of meeting at Millboro Elementary School in October, Valley Elementary in November, and BCHS in December.
Board members questioned the three school principals on the absentee and tardiness policy and whether it was being implemented. The policy calls for a student to be referred to juvenile court when the number of absences becomes "excessive."
Millboro principal Martha Reish said she took a student to court two years ago. She said in some cases, going to court would be "the worst thing I can do" to try to get a student to school on time and regularly. Building a relationship with the family, which may require overcoming negative feelings the parents have about the school, is the best way to solve attendance problems, she said.
Hicklin, who put the attendance item on the discussion list, said, "Satisfied or not, it appears this (the current policy) is all that can be done."
The parking situation at BCHS drew questions ranging from the direction of traffic on the entrance road to the amount and distribution of fees charged students to park during the school day. The renovation of the high school building will create problems for the coming year, everyone agreed.
Trailers for classrooms, administrative offices and construction companies occupy a large portion of the parking lot and will for the coming school year. Pitard said the lot will need to be evaluated and lines painted to optimize the number of vehicles that can be accommodated.
Smith told the board, "One thing we don't know is the
direction of traffic behind the school." Traffic flow has been one-way clockwise around the school until this past summer. "The last thing we heard from the supervisors was they intended to change the road to two-way traffic" after the retirement home opened, he said.
Pitard said the idea of two-way traffic "is frightening, a disaster waiting to happen."
Chair Kaye May said the road is state maintained and the traffic decision would be made by VDOT.
Smith suggested he and Pitard call VDOT and find out what the agency plans.
Discussion of student parking and enforcement of the parking permit requirement led to a brief heated exchange between board member Eddie Ryder and Pitard.
"It is not a school in chaos," Pitard said in response to Ryder's claim, "You have no control over" student parking.
Pitard said students "still say it is a prison." Ryder lightened the tone a bit when he quipped, "We took the barbed wire down."
"Do we have enough supervision?" asked Pitard and answered, "No." But he insisted the administration does the best it can with the resources it has and the parking problem isn't a major issue.
Board member Barbara Waldeck turned the discussion from enforcement to the fees charged students for parking permits. She suggested the students decide how to spend that money.
Pitard said currently the money is only used to pay for the cost of the permits and to make repairs to the parking lot. Smith said the idea of the fee and using it for parking lot repairs was originally a student idea.
After more discussion, the board voted 4-1, with Ryder dissenting, to keep the fee at $25, but after paying the cost of the permits to split the remainder of the money between the junior and senior classes.
Director of instruction and personnel Sue Hirsh distributed a list of faculty and administrators with advanced degrees. Hicklin asked if the incentives put in place by the board were working to encourage faculty to pursue an advanced degree.
"Maybe," Hirsh said.
The last two items on the list were lumped into one since they were essentially the same. Hicklin said, "One of these is mine. I would like in some manner to let the staff know they have a time on the agenda or in closed meeting" to address the board.
Ryder said he was concerned doing so would bypass the existing system and create problems for teachers, principals and administrators. "We might create a system that is going to circumvent what we have in place," he said.
"If the board is going to decide to deal with an issue directly, we are taking authority from principals," Ryder said.
Waldeck pointed out the board has seen several people in the short time she has served who have gone through the process and appealed to the board after being heard by the superintendent.
Pitard said, "It's there. We have a system in place. It's a disaster when people circumvent the system."
Ryder pointed out communicating the process to parents can be a problem at times and give a parent the impression he has no recourse. But he said the process had to be followed.
The next meeting of the school board will be the regular monthly meeting for August on Tuesday, Aug. 7 at the administration building in Warm Springs. The closed meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the regular meeting at 7 p.m.
| 
