August School Board meeting held no surprises
The Botetourt County School Board met on August 13 at the Central Office School Board room in Fincastle. Compared to the last several meetings, it was very quiet.
Botetourt County Public Schools are full steam ahead for opening the school year as planned. Botetourt is unlike neighboring localities that have decided to go virtual to begin school, those include Roanoke City and Rockbridge County.
Two speakers addressed the board. One a teacher, Brian Hill at Lord Botetourt spoke to the danger Covid-19 poses to students, faculty, staff and the entire Botetourt community if school opens in person. Another a grandparent addressed the need for better communication by the school division on the virtual part of the at home instruction. She has a doctorate in education and has difficulty finding the material online for her grandchildren.
In other items a laundry list of policy changes were approved. The School Board also passed two resolutions, one in support for School Resource Officers in the schools and state funding for them. The other was the School Board support of wearing masks by students on the bus and when closer than six feet in school, that faculty, Administrators and staff would also observe masking in school.
Central Academy Middle School, Buchanan and Cloverdale Elementary Schools all received awards from the VDOE. Central Academy for innovation and the two elementary schools for improvement. Three Art students were recognized on the VSBA regional Art contest 9we had previous story on them)
School is set to re-open on August 24th. Following the plan decided up in July, with two days in school instruction and three in online at home virtual learning ( or school packets)
–Cathy Benson