Danville students laud summer school programs

While the words “summer school” may not sound like much fun, Danville students highly praise the programs as a way to mesh education and excitement.

Six students of the 144 enrolled in special summer programs spoke to Danville School Board members Thursday night, thanking them for their experiences in residential Governor’s School programs, the Piedmont Regional Governor’s School and Camp Invention.

Carlos Magna, of George Washington High School, talked about spending a week at Lynchburg College studying science, while Jake Gilstrap, Hao Da and Neriah Ray-Saunders, all of O.T. Bonner Middle School, discussed their experiences as they took special classes to study chemistry, math or web page design.

Jack Garrett, of Forest Hills Elementary School, and Ryan Hubbard, of Johnson Elementary School, talked about their experiences at Camp Invention, that both have now attended for three years running.

All of the students agreed their experiences combined education with new, fun ways to learn new skills.

Maintenance issues

Also at Thursday’s meeting, Leon Ramsey, director of maintenance and operations, gave a brief rundown on how his department performed during the 2009-10 school year.

Under new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, schools must follow certain guidelines when remodeling, particularly in older schools where lead paint might be a problem, Ramsey said.

Ramsey said his department is now registered for the program with the EPA and has three certified painters in his staff of 119 people.

Safety was an issue Ramsey’s department strove for, he said, logging in only three work-related injuries that caused no lost time, as well as logging no accidents or traffic violations as they drove vehicles a total of almost 120,000 miles during the school year.

Ramsey said the department has also begun recycling efforts, collecting about 440 gallons of used motor oil, 55 gallons of used antifreeze and more than 70,000 pounds of equipment that were all recycled at no cost to the school system.

“It kept it all out of the landfill,” Ramsey noted.

Of the 4,721 work orders the maintenance department received in the last school year, all but 27 were completed — and those were only carried over because they were turned in at the end of the school year, Ramsey said.

School Board member Philip Campbell asked Ramsey why the water bill at G.W. High School had a large increase last year, and Ramsey said it was because of a leak in the boiler room due to a factory-installed waterline that broke.

“There was 37 inches of water in the boiler room,” Ramsey said — more than 60,000 gallons of water that had to be removed. Ramsey said he hopes to negotiate a reduction in the water bill.