Education

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.

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.”

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.

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.