The Shadow
MILLBORO — The 2020-21 school year will begin for Bath County students on Wednesday, Aug. 12, and conclude on June 4, 2021.
The Bath County School Board unanimously adopted the calendar for the upcoming school year during its meeting Tuesday night at Millboro Elementary School.
The 185-day calendar includes five make-up days. For the past 13 years and the current year, only one year had fewer than five school closings. For the past five years, there has been an average of 11.2 school closings.
The adopted school calendar removes the Friday before Labor Day as a holiday and replaces it with Jan. 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as a holiday for all students and staff.
The 2020-21 calendar also moves the October pupil holiday/parent-teacher conference to Monday, Oct. 26.
The calendar committee met on Thursday, Jan. 23, to consider next year’s school calendar.
After missing four days last week due to widespread illnesses among students and staff, Bath County students resumed classes on Monday, and Superintendent Sue Hirsh reported that absentees decreased Monday.
Hirsh said 75 students were absent Monday, and that number decreased to 70 Tuesday.
On Monday, Jan. 27, 187 students were absent in Bath County schools, prompting officials to close schools for the remainder of the week.
During that time, custodial staffs worked to clean and disinfect all school buildings and buses.
Vice Chair Karen Hise thanked the custodians and staff for these efforts while schools were closed.
“I?think you did a great job,” she said.
In other business Tuesday night, the school board:
— entertained a demonstration from instructor Kim Manion and MES?fourth graders on combining the use of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creative thinking skills and the applications of civic responsibility in the understanding and applications to science;— entertained a presentation from school counselors Katie Mihlay, Mary Cox and Rhonda Ervin, representing all three Bath County schools;
— approved the Bath County High School program of studies for 2020-21;
— approved an easement request with MGW to extend a fiber connection to the Bath County Parks and Recreation Department facility adjacent to Valley Elementary School;
— approved the appointment of Amanda Ray Long as a substitute teacher;
— approved a maternity leave request for Kelsey Robertson;
— approved the appointment of Ella Stark as a substitute cafeteria worker;
— approved the following spring coaching appointments:
• Volunteer tennis assistants: Kirby Smith and Mike Bollinger;
• Soccer girls: Adam Frye; Soccer boys: Rusty Bragg; Volunteer: Mark Hall;
• Softball: Varsity – Lisa Hamilton; Varsity Assistant: Dee Dee Broce; Jayvee: Carrie Pierce;
• Baseball: Assistant Varsity and Jayvee: Chase Davidson and Corey Plecker.
