Bedford school board discuss SOL scores, more state funding (2024)

Extra funding from the state and students’ preliminary standards of learning (SOL) test scores were key topics of discussion for the Bedford County School Board on Thursday night.

Randy Hagler, assistant superintendent of finance and operations, said compared to the budget the board passed in March, the division received an additional $1 million from the state.

The supervisors decided unanimously Monday that the $1 million will go into the Bedford County Public Schools’ reserve fund for maintenance projects only, which Hagler said was moved towards the future “reversion cliff.”

The “reversion cliff” dates back to when the city of Bedford reverted to a town in 2013, prompting in an influx in state funding. That funding influx goes away in 2028-29, causing county and school officials to prepare for it.

Hagler said last year, he expected the reversion cliff to be about $8 million and next year, he projects the total to be about $9.4 million.

“The positive news is we were able to hold on to that money with what the board of supervisors did and that mitigated that future cliff when reversion happens in 2028-29,” he said. With Hagler’s projected $9.4 million reversion cliff at the end of the decade, he explained the division currently has about $8.8 million set aside for it and the forecasted difference for the fiscal year 2028-29 budget is close to $575,000.

“I expect that [reversion] number to go up. If I were to guess, that number will probably be closer to about $10 million in 2028-29; so, we still have some more work to do so we don’t have a huge cliff,” he added, giving credit to both the board of supervisors and school board.

He said although there’s added revenue from the state, the budget amendment the board voted on Thursday is unchanged from March.

Hagler said the board of supervisors is setting aside $500,000 per year incrementally and the school board is doing $600,000.

“Having the money set aside that can be shifted over to the operating fund will prevent us from having to cut $10 million out of our operating fund at one time, which would be catastrophic,” he added.

Board Chair Marcus Hill thanked the board of supervisors for allowing the school division to keep the added funding for maintenance purposes.

Hill said when the finance committee met last month, the group planned to put about $500,000 into maintenance but also to expand middle school sports — cross country, outdoor track and field and competition cheer.

The potential cost is about $328,000 which includes trainers, assistant coaches to schools that don’t have them and are adding those three sports.

“I do think it’s important for us to come back and take a stab at possibly adding middle school sports just for the benefits of our students and how it impacts test scores, attendance, etc.,” he said.

Preliminary SOL Scores

The school board also was presented with preliminary SOL score projections.

Deputy Superintendent Karen Woodford cautioned the board, stating these numbers are preliminary.

“We don’t have all of the information yet; and usually final scores are not available and certified until some time in late August, early September,” she said, adding there’s likely some changes based on some alternative tests that haven’t been scored yet but believes the scores gives staff “a good picture.”

She presented the board with raw pass rates which are calculated pass and fail rates “with absolutely no adjustments” for retakes or student growth.

In elementary reading, grade four had the highest pass rate with 80% however, grades five and three had a slight decrease from the previous year — grade three 69% and grade five 73%.

All middle school reading scores increased.

“We are really happy that we are seeing growth in reading,” she said.

For math, Woodford said the preliminary scores show an increase in grades four and five, and an equal score from a year ago in third grade.

For middle school, there was an increase in math scores with the lowest score being seventh grade at 56% and the biggest jump being eighth grade with a 14% increase from a year ago. Algebra I had a pass rate of 86%.

For science, Woodford said the raw scores show an increase in eighth grade, earth science and biology pass rates. There was a slight decrease in fifth grade as this year students had a 68% pass rate, down 2% from a year ago.

For social studies, scores improved in Virginia Studies and World History I and remained consistent in Civics and Economics. High school does not have a social studies testing requirement.

Woodford gave credit to Liberty Middle School, stating students made “significant gains” this year and have tentatively moved from being accredited with conditions to full accreditation.

“While we had lots of schools make gains and some very significant gains, I just want to give a shoutout to that team. They’ve been in school improvement for a while and that’s a tough place to be,” she said.

Shawn Trosper, director of curriculum and instruction, said overall, all K-12 schools in the county met the state benchmark target for reading and math; in science, 12 schools met the state benchmark target and seven schools did not; and in social studies, 12 schools met the state benchmark target and four did not.

“As you can see overall, science has emerged as an area of focus for the upcoming school year,” he said, adding all the scores are consistent with the state but science “is just low right now.”

Looking ahead, Trosper said some of the staff will continue collaboration between instruction and special education teams, focus on hands-on investigations for science using the new curriculum and focus on specific science instruction in schools with lower science scores.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, but we’re very proud of where we are in many areas,” he said.

The school board next meets at 5 p.m. in the school administration office on South Bridge Street in Bedford.