Education

    The children at the Growing Place, a pre-school run by Bedford Baptist Church, got a recent visit by the Bedford Police Department.

    The effort part of a bicycle safety program and one of the police department’s bicycle patrol officers shows up each year. This time, they got two patrol officers — Joe Dooley and Tim Stanley — along with Lt. Todd Foreman.

    Thaxton Elementary School held a career day recently with visiting professionals and service providers who held the children’s attention.

    Some, such as the Bedford Volunteer Fire Department, drove to the school with their exhibit. One, Centra Health, flew in with its exhibit; the school grounds provided an open spot where one of Centra’s helicopter ambulances could touch down.

    After more than three hours of looking at the budget proposed by Schools Superintendent Dr. Douglas Schuch, the Bedford County School Board opted to stick with the majority of his budget as a draft plan to present to the Board of Supervisors this week.
    That included a 3 percent raise for school employees, a commitment to funding technology and increasing the staff at the county’s middle and high schools.

    The Bedford County School Board will begin tackling the 2013-2014 budget Thursday in the first of a series of work sessions which will be held at at 6 p.m. in the School Board Office Conference Room.

    Superintendent Dr. Douglas Schuch presented his proposed $104 million budget to the board last Thursday, a budget that includes a 3 percent salary increase for all school employees and focuses on improving technology in the schools.