Education

    A consultant with M.B. Kahn Construction Co., Inc., told the Bedford County School Board Thursday that a proposal to build a new middle school in the Liberty Zone with the plan to eventually convert it to a high school later on isn’t feasible.

    “It’s not a practical idea,” stated William W. Cram, executive vice president with M.B. Kahn. “The space you need in a high school is so different (from that of a middle school).”

    After narrowly passing a $108 million budget on a 4-3 vote last Thursday, the Bedford County School Board had a chance Monday to try and sell that budget to the county supervisors during a work session attended by both boards.
    The school budget presented to the supervisors included a request for an additional $3.87 million in funding from the county, for a total local expenditure of $42.9 million.

    Employees with Bedford County Public Schools will likely have a new health insurance plan next year as the school system works to keep health insurance rates as low as possible.
    The Bedford County School Board met in the first of two work sessions to discuss the 2015 budget and much of that discussion focused on the cost of health care. If the school system decided to keep its current plans, premium costs would rise 28 percent, increasing the school system’s cost by $2.6 million.

The action Monday night by the Bedford County Board of Supervisors to delay any decision on what type of secondary school the county would provide funding for in the Liberty Zone has left the County School Board looking for answers.
    “We’re still looking for direction, what the next step should be,” stated School Board Chairman Gary Hostutler on the supervisors’ inaction. “We were hoping to have some direction by the end of March.”