Education

In a surprising turn of events, the Bedford County School Board voted Thursday to keep Bedford Primary School open. The school will house pre-school, kindergarten and first grade next year with only the second grade moving to Bedford Elementary School.

    Controversy has surrounded the school budget ever since the School Board proposed closing the school early this year. The School Board and Superintendent Dr. Douglas Schuch have been at odds with the County Board of Supervisors, parents of students at BPS and even, at times, with each other.

Bedford County's school board is sticking with a plan to move the K-2 students from Bedford Primary School to Bedford Elementary School.

A Tuesday night called work session of the school board began with a lengthy closed door session. When they emerged, School Board Chairman Debbie Hoback announced that the consensus of the school board was to keep Bedford Primary school open. However, it's not going to be kept open as a primary school. It will only be used for an existing pre-school program there.

    Facing a $1.1 million cut from its approved budget, School Board Chairman Debbie Hoback said, in a phone interview Tuesday, that the board will use the same procedure it has used in the past when it did not get as much funding as anticipated.

    This involves looking at items that the board has already considered and deciding what it can do to get the numbers down. The board will have to cut its budget to match the funding from the county.
    “I think we will be able to get it done,” she said.

Staunton River High School’s marching band, flag waving children from Bedford Elementary School and a JROTC color guard turned out to welcome Brigadier General John Douglass (USAF Retired) when he spoke at the National D-day Memorial last week.