A 14-year-old male student at Christiansburg Middle School was charged with threats to burn a building after a small fire at the school on Monday.
Investigators found that the student, who allegedly burned a stack of papers in an upstairs conference room, had made threats that he would burn down the school, said Lt. Brian Wright of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department.
Two school teachers extinguished the flames, and no one was injured.
Roanoke contractor Branch and Associates will build the new consolidated elementary school in Elliston.
The Montgomery County school board chose the firm after hearing it was the lowest bid at a little more than $18 million. It was one of five bids received.
Assistant Superintendent Walt Shannon said documents should be signed by Dec. 1, with working beginning soon after. The school is expected to be complete by 2010.
The contractors also built Christiansburg and Blacksburg middle school.
Montgomery County teachers, principals and staff have proposed their wishes for the 2009-2010 budget cycle.
The hopes: more money, better benefits and more sick days.
Here's a rough list.
Angie Cornett, president of the Montgomery County Education Association, which includes teachers and some staff, asked for:
1. A step increase and a 3 percent increase in pay or a step increase and a cost of living allowance
2. A 6 percent increase in salaries for teachers with a master's degree
3. An additional personal day
4. Continuation of payment of the single subscriber health benefits
5. Wellnes days for instructional aides
6. An increase in sick days for instructional aides, to at least sic
7. Give instructional aides sick days up front, rather than have them accrue
Ramona Brown, president of the association of administrative assistants, asked the board to:
1. Consider basing health insurance rates on an employee's pay
2. Increase the level at which administrative assistants are paid
3. Increase the top level of pay for central office administrative assistants
4. Increase pay for assistants with degrees or certifications
Danny Knott, president of the administrators' association, asked that the board:
1. Decrease the number of steps in administrators' salary scale
2. Increase contracts for assistant principals to 12 months, instead of 11
3. Provide an assistant principal for Auburn and Shawsville Middle schools
So, this wasn't me, although I can attest to seeing my share of bullying in school hallways through the years.
A friend, and fellow reporter, was at a school out of state last week covering what is essentially an anti-bullying program. Mix it up, was created through the Southern Poverty Law Center. It's designed to get kids to become more tolerant of others and get to know people they wouldn't normally. A potential result of which is a decrease in bullying.
Here's what happened during this lunch day: a midde schooler with a shaved head walks purposely to another table, locking his sights on a smaller, meek-looking student.
"There you are," says the bald student.
The meek student hands over his chocolate milk, "as if it were an everyday ritual," my friend writes.
One colleague suggests it sounds like something out of a comic strip, but for the kid without his milk, it's not funny.
Teachers and students, what similar events do you see in the hallway, classroom or lunch line?
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office expects to charge a juvenile in connection with the fire this morning at Christiansburg Middle school, according to Lt. Brian Wright.
Deputies responded to a small fire there this at 11:17 a.m. However, before the sheriff's office arrived on the scene, at least three fire trucks and two Christiansburg police officers were on the scene. The exact time the fire broke out is unknown, Wright said.
Wright said a bunch of papers caught fire in a conference room. Students nearby the conference room on the second floor were sent from their classes, but the school was not evacuated. The students, and their teachers, waited at the bottom of the stairs as investigators looked into the fire.
Superintendent Tiffany Anderson sent an e-mail to parents and staff shortly after the fire saying that the school had been evacuated. Teachers stopped by the school's main office asking secretaries about the e-mail.
In an e-mail to the school system's listserve after noon, Anderson said, "There was a small fire that was immediately extinguished by a staff member in a teacher conference room today. Students on the second floor in the wing closest to the conference room were evacuated from their classrooms although the fire had already been extinguished."
Wright could not confirm that the juvenile suspected was a student at the school.
He said the heavy response was typical for any incident at a school "because of the potential victims."
Some students over at Christiansburg Middle School might still be hoping they'll get out of school today after a small fire broke out on the second floor.
Little chance of that. The fire, which occurred in a teacher's lounge, has been out for a couple of hours, although investigators still are looking into it. At least three fire trucks, two Christiansburg police officers and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office responded the incident this morning.
Originally, Superintendent Tiffany Anderson sent an e-mail to parents and staff saying that the school had been evacuated. It was not.
Shortly after 11 a.m., after the firefighters said the fire had been extinguished, a few classrooms worth of students waited around the staircase closest to the school's entrance as firefighters descended from the scene. Teachers and students both had questions about what happened, and some teachers suggested this was not the first time a fire had broken out.
In an e-mail to the school system's listserve after noon, Anderson said, "There was a small fire that was immediately extinguished by a staff member in a teacher conference room today. Students on the second floor in the wing closest to the conference room were evacuated from their classrooms although the fire had already been extinguished."
Anderson's e-mail said she was still getting details about the incident. We're still waiting for those, too. As would be expected, Principal Ryan Hitchman was busy after the blaze, presumably talking with the sheriff's department and Nelson Simpkins, the school system's director of secondary education.
Simpkins arrived at the school about 10 minutes after 11 a.m. today.
Keep checking back, and we'll update with what we have learned.
The Montgomery County school board is expected to pick a contractor to start work on the new consolidated elementary school in Shawsville on Tuesday.
County school officials recieved bids on Wednesday. At a meeting tomorrow, the board will review the bids and accept one.
The school, which is supposed to hold 600 students, is scheduled to be complete in 2010.
Two public meetings are planned next week to discuss plans that could mean more students walk or bike to school.
Two schools -- Gilbert Linkous and Blacksburg New School -- are working with town leaders to examine ways to encourage children to walk or ride their bikes to school. It's part of a national program, called Safe Routes to School.
The meetings on Nov. 20. Either 3 p.m. at Blacksburg New School or 5:30 p.m. at Gilbert Linkous, will be to get feeback on a proposed "travel plan" for getting to school without buses or cars.
The plans include " education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation of the program in addition to engineering projects proposed for creating safer routes to school," organizers said.
A special session for Montgomery County school board members to discuss personnel issues tonight has been canceled. The meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m.
It has not been rescheduled.
According to research from the University of Chicago (which, as a side note, is well known for its education research), special education teachers are in the top 10 of happiest jobs.
The teachers are No. 5 on a list of jobs in the ""Job Satisfaction in the United States" study that's been smattered in the news today. As far as I can tell, the study is about a year old, though.
Either way, here's what they have to say:
Special education teachers
Job Description: Teach school subjects to educationally and physically handicapped students.
Very happy: 52.6%
Median salary (preschool, kindergarten or elementary school): $41,344
Median salary (secondary school): $43,060
This seems to fly in the face of local concerns that have special education teachers over their workloads and pay.
So, special education teachers, set the record straight.
Are you happy with your jobs? What makes it great, and what leaves something to be desired?
Welcome to Chalk Dust! This is your community aimed at exploring education in the New River Valley. I'm Anna Mallory. I went to public schools in West Virginia and now I cover PreK-12 education for the Roanoke Times.
I read way too many reports about improving schools and can speak in entire sentences using educational acronyms. I'll be letting you know about issues and events affecting your children, schools and tax dollars, but, more importantly, I want to know what you think. Let me know your opinions about issues in the boardroom, classroom and beyond.
