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Winter is slowly receding. Although the 80 degree high we recorded one day last week is an oddball, the temperatures are slowly getting warmer. Of course, we still could get a serious snow storm. A lot of us remember a bad one that we got in mid-March in the ‘90’s.
However, the chances of that are receding. Early spring flowers are in full bloom. Robins are hopping around yards. Soon warm weather will be here.
As we move on, warm weather will be upon us and, in a few months, you may spot a foot-ball sized paper structure in a bush. A large one of these structures may look a bit like a piñata, but don’t whack it with baseball bat or broom stick. What comes pouring out of it will not be a treat. The residents of that hornet condo will be really angry with you if you mess with their home.
This is a fact of life that the members of the Bedford County School Board don’t seem to understand. Of course, they would never hit an actual hornets’ nest with a baseball bat, but they are contemplating doing something that will have consequences similar to whacking one of these things. Instead of being swarmed by angry hornets, they will be swarmed by angry parents. Maybe they would fare better with the hornets.
In the name of efficiency, they directed the school division’s central office to prepare a plan to close Stewartsville Elementary School and relocate the students to other schools. Back in the late 1990’s, Stewartsville Elementary was bursting at the seams. That’s why Goodview Elementary School was built.
Now, it’s enrollment has decreased dramatically. The school also is going to need a new roof and a new HVAC system next year. The school board felt closing it would save a lot of money. They had school division staff prepare four options for closing the school. One of them includes re-purposing Bedford Primary School and moving the primary school students to Bedford Elementary.
All the plans call for moving 5th graders to the Middle School as the school closing will overcrowd the elementary schools where the Stewartsville students will be moved to. But they won’t be middle school students. They will be fifth graders and be kept separate from the middle school students. They will ride middle school school buses, but the bus driver’s will be tasked with keeping them separate from the middle school students.
This efficiency plan has, so far, been about as popular as a fart in a diver’s helmet. Parents have been unanimously opposed to it. Educators have pointed out that keeping the fifth graders separate from the middle school students means isolating them. This will be unhealthy for them. Bus drivers have said they won’t be able to effectively enforce the isolation on the busses.
Dr. Marc Bergin had the courage to address Bedford Town Council, last week. The Town Councilmen were very upset and Dr. Bergin left the meeting with a few arrows sticking out of him. Particularly disturbing for them is the fact that the proposed re-purposing of Bedford Primary will be the second time, in the last 15 years, that the town has been promised a gym for Bedford Primary only to have it jerked away. It’s kind of like Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football in the old Peanuts comic strip.
The board of supervisors has yet to weigh in, although they can’t stop the school board from closing it and leaving them stuck with a vacant school building. You can bet District 1 Supervisor Mickey Johnson is livid over the idea. Stewartsville Elementary School is in his district.
