Superintendent Dr. Terry E. Arbogast, II of the Giles County School System has been awarded the title of Virginia Association of School Superintendents Region VII, School Superintendent of the Year.

Arbogast, who was elected by his peers in Region VII will now be a candidate for Virginia State Superintendent of the Year. Arbogast was nominated and elected due to his "outstanding leadership, commitment to student success, implementation of building projects and overall commitment to the education profession."

Upon receiving recognition from the school board at its January 28, 2010 meeting, Arbogast stated that he was honored to have been selected from amongst 18 other school systems but that he didn’t feel that he did anything differently on a day to day basis than any of the others. He added that he couldn’t have done this without all the great people here in Giles County.

Region VII is comprised of the counties of Bland, Grayson, Smyth, Lee, Tazewell, Buchanan, Norton, Washington, Carroll, Pulaski, Wise, Dickenson, Wythe, Russell, Giles, Scott and the cities of Bristol, Radford and Galax.

Last Thursday’s organizational meeting of the Giles County School Board opened with the re-election of J.B. Buckland as chairman and Ronald B. Whitehead as vice-chairman. Amanda Price was re-appointed as board clerk. Barbara Perkins and Superintendent Arbogast were appointed as deputy-clerks.

Giles County students have received multiple awards in the fourth annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. poster and essay contest sponsored by Virginia Tech. The purpose of the contest is to encourage students to think critically about Dr. King’s legacy and his vision for the celebration of diversity in our communities. Amongst hundreds of submissions, Giles students achieved a high number of placements.

Giles winners were, by category:

K-1st Grade Poster Category – 1st Place-Georgia Vatcoskay of Macy McClaugherty School (MMS), 2nd Place-Brandon Smith of Narrows Elementary Middle School (NEMS), 3rd Place-Abigail Melton of NEMS, Finalist In The Top Ten-Hailey Whorley of MMS, Micah Mitchell of Eastern Elementary Middle School (EEMS) and Keiran McClaugherty of NEMS. Finalist-Paiton Bradley of MMS, Makenzie Woolwine of EEMS and Afton Thompson of EEMS

4th –5th Grade Poster Category Finalist-Noah Clark of MMS

2nd- 3rd Grade Essay Category- 2nd Place Callie Henderson of EEMS, 3rd Place Ashton Rice of EEMS and Honorable Mention Kayleigh Gordon of EEMS

The school board then issued a proclamation recognizing radio station K92 for their delivery of the high school survivor concert recently at Narrows High School where the group "Boys Like Girls" performed.

The educational feature for this month was introduced by Macy principal Jared Rader. The first grade students of math teacher Amy Gervich demonstrated the "Mathercise" program. Gervich and physical education teacher Tammy Brown developed the program, which integrates math into a physical exercise program, thereby enhancing the learning process. Brown led the demonstration.

The Professional Advisory Council (PAC) recognized the following individuals for their outstanding contribution to education in Giles County: Lea Beth Bowers-EEMS; Betty McCroskey-NEMS; Katrina Orey-NEMS and Trisha Young-School Board Office.

On the topic of personnel, Mindy Caldwell, Giles Technology Center (GTC) was confirmed for employment. For athletic coaching contracts, Mandy Havens-Giles High School (GHS) head girls varsity tennis, Caryn Painter-GHS assistant girls varsity track and Dan Taylor-Narrows High School (NHS) junior varsity football. The board accepted the resignation of Anna Swenty-NHS science teacher and the retirement of Patsy Radford-central district bus driver.

Scholarships were accepted from the Pearisburg Alumni Association in the amount of up to $1,000 and from the Susan Kirkpatrick Memorial Scholarship in an amount of $500.

In comments from the board members, Drema McMahon mentioned how she had had several people come up to her recently with highly complimentary comments about teachers and the administration. Chairman Buckland echoed as to how proud of Giles he was and how the school systems continues to receive recognition throughout the state for its performance, examples being the recent Virginia Teacher of the Year Cathy Webb and now Region VII Superintendent of the Year Arbogast. Joseph Gollehon added, "Congratulations Mr. superintendent, I’m proud of you." Ronald Whitehead reported that from February 27th through March 6th, a group of Governors School students would be in Alaska measuring the rate of melting of the glaciers.

The board then gave some discussion time to the upcoming budget cuts coming from the state. Buckland, reflecting on how bad things were across the country, commented that Virginia wasn’t even counted in the top ten for worst case scenarios. It was believed that the final figures would not be available until at least March at the earliest. Superintendent Arbogast added that the administrators were being advised that they should expect more than the Governors proposal, in fact, plan for twice as much. Things will not be known until the house and senate develop their proposals and get them back to the governor. Chairman Buckland added that he had been hearing that it may be three to four years before things even get back to 2006 levels.

Superintendent Arbogast reported that Nursing classes had moved into their new area at the tech center and that Jeff Young had moved into his new network office. Arbogast added that teachers and students had commented how they did not realize how bright is was in the new section until they walked from the old areas into the new.

It was reported that a second round of H1N1 vaccinations had been completed at EEMS and MMS for those students under ten years of age, per health department recommendations. Arbogast thanked all who had facilitated the process.