The Campbell County School Board recognized outgoing member Don Roberts for 16 years of service during its meeting Monday evening.
Roberts represents the Seneca District, which will no longer exist come January. Instead, board newcomer Mark Epperson will represent the newly-formed Spring Hill District.
Chairman Barry Jones called Roberts a gentleman, a professional, and a voice for equity across the division who worked to make sure William Campbell and Altavista got whatever Brookville and Rustburg did.
Jones added during school discipline hearings, Roberts often was the one to say “what needed to be said” to parents and students.
“You put it on the line, but you were compassionate as well,” he told Roberts, who served a term as chairman in 2007.
Monday evening’s meeting followed an afternoon school board facilities tour of Altavista Combined School, Altavista Elementary School, William Campbell Combined School and Brookneal Elementary School.
This was the second leg of the board’s facilities tour —members have already visited schools in the Rustburg area.
At William Campbell Combined School, Principal James Rinella showed the board an art room that had been temporarily closed for safety reasons following the earthquake in August.
The earthquake caused cracks near the ceiling above a lofted storage area. To make the room safe, the division added a steel beam to reinforce the damaged area. Students could not use the space for a month, school officials said.
Rinella shared a page-long wish list of improvements for the school, including paving the student parking lot and adding audio speakers in classrooms, among other items.
Principals at the other three schools had few complaints and said their buildings seem to be holding up well, though Brookneal Principal Lacy Webb wished for a larger library for his school, which houses former Gladys elementary students following the merger of the two schools.
Altavista Combined School Principal Ty Gafford mentioned his building could use new carpet in a few places and the school would like to raise money to build a field house — given limited current space for team locker room facilities.
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