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Education

  • GES class is finalist for $10,000 prize

    By SHAINA STOCKTON
    Staff
    Nearing the end of the UCT Gives Back contest, Galax Elementary School’s Cooperative Care Center for Exceptional Children (CCEC) has received an outpouring of support and votes, bringing the program closer each day to a $10,000 prize.
    The contest first came to the school’s attention when GES Assistant Principal Sonia Truitt heard about it from her parents. Her father, Bob Taylor, is an active member of the local United Commercial Travelers (UCT) council.

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  • Natural gas, biomass could cut heating costs

    HILLSVILLE — An engineering study shows that St. Paul School in Carroll County might be able to save thousands of dollars a year by heating with “biomass” instead of oil.
    The biomass in this case would be sawdust pressed into pellets.
    A report by Langseth Engineering on both St. Paul and Hillsville Elementary schools was presented to the Carroll County School Board at its Jan. 7 meeting.

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  • Fancy Gap class sends Sandy Hook students a wish for peace

    HILLSVILLE — Fancy Gap students want 1,000 paper cranes to carry a message of peace to the children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
    Fourth and fifth graders in Anita Semones’ class continue reading “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes,” a story about a girl who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima to die later of leukemia from exposure to radiation.
    Sadako knew the Japanese adage that if you make a thousand origami paper cranes, you get a wish, the teacher explained. But Sadako died after finishing only 644.

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  • Galax to add elementary resource officer

    By SHAINA STOCKTON
    Staff
    Members of the Galax City Council unanimously approved a plan for a part-time resource officer at Galax Elementary School at their meeting on Jan. 14.
    The proposal was presented by Police Chief Rick Clark, who expressed his desire to increase school security to better protect the children of the community.
    “I see an opportunity to enhance the security [at the elementary school],” said Clark.

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  • Pay raise top priority for Grayson teachers

    INDEPENDENCE – Salary increases are once again the top request from the Grayson County Education Association for the 2013-14 school year.
    GCEA President Arnold Hash presented the school board with his top priority for educators after surveying those working across the division earlier this month.
    Hash said although only 48 percent of the school system staff completed the survey, it gave him “valuable insight into what was important.”

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  • Teaching with tablets

    By SHAINA STOCKTON
    Staff
    You might think devices like the iPad would be a distraction in class, but students at Galax Middle School are using the tablets as part of the curriculum.
    Teachers have been creatively implementing technology into their lesson plans to make learning more effective and enjoyable for the students who are more accustomed to the digital world than the printed page.

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  • Carroll schools aren't cool

    HILLSVILLE — If there’s a single issue getting Carroll schools leaders hot under the collar about the phase III construction projects, it’s misfiring heating and cooling units at the intermediate school.
    Architect Randy Baker reported to the Carroll School Board last Monday that, during a visit to CCIS earlier in the day, he found one room hovering at 91 degrees.
    “It’s pretty warm, so something’s just not correct,” Baker said.

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  • Educators eager to show off school renovations

    HILLSVILLE — As construction on Carroll high and intermediate schools wraps up, educators look forward to inviting the public in to see the upgrades.
    Most of the contractor’s trucks have moved on to other projects as the workers’ to-do list has shrunk to things like pouring the terrazzo floors in the entranceway at the high school and digging a retention pond at the intermediate school, along with other various odds and ends, said Schools Superintendent Strader Blankenship.

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  • School board resolves to protect tenure

    HILLSVILLE — Temptation to balance budgets by cutting teachers may be too great without the protection of tenure, Carroll School Board members discussed at their January meeting on Monday.
    That’s one reason the school board approved a resolution of support Jan. 7 to oppose the General Assembly taking away continuing contract protections from Virginia teachers.

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  • Bill would allow Carroll buses to use 52 South

    WYTHEVILLE — The question of whether Carroll County school buses will use U.S. 52 south instead of Interstate 77 has been transported to the Virginia General Assembly’s 2013 session.
    Del. Anne B. Crockett-Stark (R-Wytheville) has submitted House Bill No. 1416 for consideration, a simply worded proposal that would exempt Carroll’s buses from the weight limits that keep commercial trucks off the south U.S. 52 corridor.

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