Schools to open Aug. 6
By LAURA THORNBURG
Staff
Present board members agreed with Superintendent Jeff Cox to begin school Aug. 6 with positions as they are at the present time. The announcement was made during the July 14 meeting of the Alleghany County Board of Education.
Members Faron Atwood and Steven Williams were unable to attend.
Cox explained the budget update item was on the agenda with hopes of having an update on the state budget through which kindergarten through 12th grade schools are “held as harmless as possible in the budget,” Cox said. “Where we’ll end up, I’m not sure. …we’re still in wait-and-see mode from the state.”
Cox continued, “On the local level, we’re going to have to go ahead and plan on beginning school with positions as we have them now. If we get budgeted more than what we had originally planned, we can come back and adjust.”
Another possibility the board faces is taking the vacated positions and leaving them off “in anticipation of next year’s budget which, by all accounts is suppose to be worse, and maybe we just don’t have to eliminate those positions next year,” Cox commented.
The matter is scheduled to be discussed further during the board’s Aug. 11 meeting.
QZAB Update
Dan Pardue, Qualified Zone Academy Bonds project manager, provided the board with a brief update on QZAB projects.
At Glade Creek School, the windows project is complete, while several remaining projects at the school have been put on hold. Projects on hold at Glade include the renovation between the gym and main building, a roof replacement, the renovation of the façade of the main building and renovation of the office area.
At Sparta School, paving of the new entrance was scheduled to begin July 20. The reconfiguring of the entrance, as well as the athletic field fencing project are scheduled to be completed before school starts.
Projects in the works at Piney Creek School include the renovation of the fire alarm system and exterior building renovations to a storage building.
Projects in the works at Alleghany High School include an oven/steamer in the kitchen, repair of the roof of the agriculture building, replacement of windows on the second floor, renovation of awning over a walkway, renovation of the fire alarm system and renovations to science labs.
In other action, the board:
learned that $4,300 was raised during a July 11 surplus auction. The funds will be split with the high school’s FFA, which helped get the items that date back to 1968, ready for sale;
learned conversations have been held regarding the possibility of creating one consolidated middle school athletic program instead of continuing to field separate teams at all three elementary schools. The new consolidated middle school athletics program would have one team for all but one sport.
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