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Water in two lines at Floyd County High School was contaminated today after a pressure valve in the boiler system malfunctioned and school officials still are working on fixing the problem.

The school's principal said he is positive only kitchen and one restroom water was affected.

As a result, students were told not to wash their hands or drink water. In the cafeteria, all food prepared using the water was discarded. The school provided bottled water.

In a letter to parents, principal Barry Hollandsworth said the school would continue providing bottled water and hand sanitizer to students.

The complete letter can be found here.

Amid the news of a national salmonella outbreak in peanut butter, at least one New River Valley school system is temporarily removing its peanut butter products from cafeterias.

Radford City Schools Superintendent Chuck Bishop said the schools in his district are not using peanut butter as a precautionary measure. Bishop said the peanut-butter sandwiches regularly given to students as a substitute for a hot lunch have been replaced with cheese sandwiches.

Although schools are taking the steps, none of the peanut butter used in the school system has been affected by the outbreak. A complete list of the recalls can be found here.

Other school systems, including Montgomery and Floyd, said they have been notified that all their peanut butter is safe and they are not pullling any from school lunches.

Next week, the U.S. Senate will take up the $819 billion  "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."  that passed last night through the house.

The House Bill outlines a investment to education over two years, designed to boost programs such as early childhood education, construction, technology and charter schools.

The New River Valley looks to bring in about $11.9 million, according to a preliminary breakdown from the House Appropriations Committee. Two-year totals for each of the valley's divisions are:

• Montgomery County - $ 5,074,700
• Radford City -$ 600,800
• Giles County - $ 1,525,200
• Pulaski County - $ 3,512,400
• Floyd County - $ 1,206,200

You can see a complete list of Virginia's share here.

What is your take on the stimulus? Where do you think the money should go?

Radford City Schools needs to find at least another $326,000 to make up for the $656,546 funding gap in its nearly $14 million operating budget.  That's if Gov. Tim Kaine's proposed budget cuts stand.

As it is, the district expects to have a $13.5 million operating budget for 2009-2010, but has Superintendent Chuck Bishop has yet to take any budget recommendations to the board.

He spent part of last week with legislators, but said he didn't get much positive news from his visit to Richmond. Instead, he told the school board tonight about $330,182 in immediate cuts to the 2008-2009 operating budget and suggested some areas where more cuts could be made.  Changes not affecting positions include:

• Elimination of lunch-room supervisors
• Eliminiation of local share of textbooks (no new texts)
• Eliminating Stanford 9/10 testing in elementary and secondary schools
• Travel reductions for secondary schools
• Eliminating ticket sales reimbursement for the high school
• Cutting instruction and curriculum development, library books Read more »

Wondering what your legislators are doing outside of the budget? Here's a list of some of the pending bills concerning education and public schools.

Thomas Brewster, assistant superintendent in Pulaski Public Schools and state school board member, has been tapped to lead a group studying the drop our crisis.

Here's a news release from the National Association of State Boards of Education:

Alexandria, VA – The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) is pleased to announce that Dr. Thomas Brewster, a member of the Virginia Board of Education, has been chosen to chair a year-long NASBE study group, convened in partnership with Communities in Schools (the nation’s largest dropout prevention organization), to identify unique policy and community-state partnership solutions to the devastating dropout rates facing some of the nation’s most impacted communities.

“With a long track-record of state-based work on high school reform, the NASBE membership has recommitted itself to identifying ways to serve all students, including those most at risk of dropping out of school,” said Brenda Welburn, NASBE Executive Director. “NASBE, the board of directors, and the membership stand to benefit from Tom’s energy, knowledge, and commitment to making our public schools the best they can be. In his role as study group chair, he will help identify and implement state education policies that transform the conditions that contribute to dropping out of school and increase rates of student success, including effective school, family, and community partnerships.”

As chair of the 17-member national study group, Dr. Brewster will meet with other state policymakers, student dropout prevention experts, and education reform leaders over the course of the year to examine high school dropout issues with direct policy implications for State Boards of Education and other national, state, and local education policymakers.

Specifically, the NASBE study group will explore in-depth the various reasons students drop out of school, the unique and complementary roles of schools, families, communities, and businesses in supporting students to stay in school; and innovative state policies, initiatives, and strategies to effectively address the issue.

The study group will issue a comprehensive report in October 2009 at the NASBE Annual Conference in Cincinnati, OH. Policy recommendations also will be distributed to all governors, state superintendents, other state and local education policymakers, national education groups, Congress, and federal officials.

Radford City Schools' superintendent Chuck Bishop said he's in the process of looking into what proposed budget cuts are going to mean from the school.

The Virginia Association of Counties posits that they might lose 16 employees, but Bishop said the number isn't set yet.

Instead, tomorrow, he'll ask the school board to take a look at policies that could mean a reduction in force for all employee groups.

The school board is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. at 1612 Wadsworth St, Radford.

From Montgomery County:

Dear Staff and Families,

Temperatures have continued to fluctuate and have now dropped to a dangerously low level.  Given the majority of schools were originally scheduled for an early release, we will not be able to accommodate a delayed scheduled.  Therefore,  Montgomery County Public Schools will be closed Friday, January 16, 2009.

This e-mail was sent to parents from Superintendent Tiffany Anderson this afternoon:
"As we are currently watching the forecast, we recognize that the
temperatures have continued to drop and we are preparing accordingly.
We have asked all bus drivers to arrive one hour early to warm up buses
tomorrow to ensure they don’t have any difficulties picking up
students on schedule.  Given the elementary schools in Montgomery County
are scheduled for an early release and high school students are
scheduled to take exams on Friday, we do hope to remain on a normal
schedule.  If we are unable to remain on a normal schedule due to low
temperatures, we will likely close rather than delay schools since the
majority of our schools are on an early release schedule for Friday
already.

We have explored the option of having only secondary students attending
school on a delayed schedule and closing elementary; however, that
creates too many hardships for families who are dependent on siblings at
the secondary for other needs.  Additionally, if we believe temperatures
are too cold for children, we want to be consistent with the most
appropriate decision for all children and in that event we would cancel
school.

Please watch the weather stations in the morning in preparation for a
possible closure due to low temperatures.  While we hope to be on
schedule, student safety is our priority.  Therefore, if temperatures
are too low to be in attendance, we will close schools tomorrow."

Montgomery County school administration has identified a little more than $4 million in cuts -- either through reduction of programs or staff members leaving or being reassigned -- that could trim its 2009-2010 budget.

In all, they identified $4,082,272 in cuts. It's about $126,000 more than the target set by Gov. Tim Kaine's proposed budget cuts.

The early budget adjustments call for losing 16 secondary teachers and 12 elementary teachers, but the board said it doesn't plan for layoffs.  Instead, they expect to leave positions vacant once people leave the system or retire.

At a work session on Tuesday, board members heard about further early plans that, if approved, would:

Read more »