Education

INDEPENDENCE – Falling enrollment in Grayson County could cause a more than $1 million school budget shortfall if things don’t improve before the end of the year.

School Division Superintendent Kevin Chalfant told the Grayson School Board last week that, although things looked “pretty dire” at the beginning of the school year, enrollment has since come up a little.

The division started the year with only 1,693 students enrolled, but as of the latest numbers that had risen to 1,719.

INDEPENDENCE – All seven of Grayson County’s schools were accredited for the 2013-14 school year – though four received warning in at least one subject.

Grayson’s Director of Instruction and Assessment Stephen Cornett provided the school board with an update on the accreditation status during the board’s regular meeting last week.

“All schools are accredited,” Cornett told the board. “Although some are with warning.”

INDEPENDENCE – Students in Grayson County may soon be excluded from extra-curricular activities and offered an alternative lunch if school cafeteria debts are paid up after administrators discussed a growing debt with school board members this month.

Grayson County Public Schools’ Director of Personnel Judy Greear approached the board during its regular meeting this month to discuss what she called a “spiraling problem” over the last few years – debt in the cafeterias.

Galax City Schools are fully accredited this year (2013-2014), according to the Virginia State Department of Education.

In order to achieve accreditation, each school must achieve a passing rate of at least 75 percent in English Standards of Learning (SOL) tests and 70 percent in math, science, history and social science SOLs.

High schools, additionally, must hit an 85 percent mark on the Graduation and Completion Index, meaning that 85 percent of the students must graduate, get a GED or achieve a certification of completion.