Education

You can hand it to the parents of students from Bedford Primary School: They’re doing their homework.

    They’ve come to meetings to challenge a proposal to close the school armed with studies, alternate proposals and even, possibly, a legal loophole.
    They’ve used the tried and true — good old footwork to get hundreds of names on petitions opposing the closure—and new technology to research and spread their message through the social media.

“Didn’t you retire?” Dr. Douglas Schuch, Bedford County’s superintendent of schools, said with a laugh as he shook Viola Henry’s hand at Thaxton Elementary School, Thursday.

    Yes, Henry did retire at the end of the last school year, after 34-and-a-half years at Thaxton. Henry, however, continues to oversee the school’s N.E.E.D. team in a volunteer capacity.

• Closing Bedford Primary School, moving those students to Bedford Elementary and the sixth graders from that school to Bedford Middle School. Potential savings: $530,000.

 
    • Maintaining the current staffing standards, eliminating 23 positions. Potential savings: $1.17 million.

    • Eliminate B-Team sports at the middle schools. Potential savings: $56,000.

Bedford County students will have new start times for their school day next year.

    The Bedford County School Board, on a 5-3 vote at its regular meeting Thursday night, adopted a measure that will reduce school bus costs by $360,000 next year. The plan calls for school starting times to be staggered with elementary schools starting at 7:55 a.m. and the high schools and middle schools starting an hour later. This will allow the school division to use fewer buses to transport students to and from school.