Connecting our Caring Community and Innovative Educators

to Build Stronger Schools

Spring 2024 Newsletter

New Mental Health Effort for Countywide BCPS Students

Information gleaned from national data, community listening events, informational interviews, student referral data and case logs has highlighted that student emotional and behavioral needs, particularly with very young children who have not yet developed self-regulation skills, is a priority need in Bedford County.

The Bedford Area Educational Foundation has learned the following from a 2023 study by Bedford County Public Schools of students' mental health needs:

During the past 12 months, did you ever feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks that you stopped some usual activities?

35% of school-aged children said 'yes'

During the past 12 months, did you ever seriously consider attempting suicide? 11.6% of school-aged children said 'yes'

Approximately 30% of children felt that no one cared about them at their schools

57.2% felt that they had been down or depressed in the last 2 weeks with 46.2% feeling nervous or anxious in the last 2 weeks.

Over 30% of respondents felt like they did NOT know how to stop and think before doing something when they were angry.

While these numbers are slightly better than national averages, something must be done to intervene so that our Bedford County children can continue to flourish.

In 2021 during Covid, the BAEF invested $15,000 into the “Connect to Learn” program that resulted in new internet service for 92 Bedford County families with school-age children. Similarly, the BAEF aims to invest in extra-curricular and co-curricular mental health programs and resources for all BCPS students.

We hope you will join us as we learn more about the unique mental health needs of our students. We are incredibly grateful to the administration of Bedford County Public Schools for engaging the BAEF to support the development of a countywide mental health program for grades K-5, 6-8 and 9-12.

It will take a village to create this program. Please let us know how you would like to be involved!

Most Gratefully,

Jay

Dr. Jay White, MSG, CDP

info@bedfordeducation.com

Congratulations Teachers!

The following individuals and schools are successful applicants from our February and April 2024 rounds.

Allison Bair

Staunton River High School

Media Arts Equipment (Feb)

$500

Dancing Through Year 1 (April)

$1000

Amanda Dean

Forest Middle School

Media Arts Equipment

$834.99

Meredith Dooley

Staunton River High School

Journalism Field Trip

$500

Allyn Short

Staunton River Middle School

Microscopes

$2300

Cindy Watson

Forest Middle School

Countywide Drone Competition

$2500

Hattie Elder

Staunton River High School

Spring Musical Expansion

$1000

Amy Kauffman

Boonsboro Elementary School

Rooting Academics with Technology

$1564.44

Valerie Staton

Staunton River Middle School

Project Knowledge

$384.30

Apply in September!

BAEF at Work in our Community:

Bedford's Best

Bedford County Public Schools in partnership with the Bedford Area Educational Foundation uses the Bedford’s Best program to recognize two staff members per month in our school division who go above and beyond to make a difference in people’s lives every day. Nominations can be made by anyone with first-hand knowledge of the work that our staff member is doing.

To nominate someone, please visit the link below.

https://forms.gle/MbicKQcfxV2xyiTV7

From Sara Braaten, BAEF Board Member

I am proud to have been a board member of Bedford Area Educational Foundation for the last several years. When Tim Black asked me to help him with representation on the Educational Foundation, I immediately said yes. I knew little about the organization at that time except that a friend, Karen Nuzzo, had applied and received a grant to help with her art classes at Big Island Elementary School. Karen was an excellent teacher and loved having her students involved in interesting and innovative learning experiences.

I was a teacher in Roanoke for nearly 30 years. Most of that time, I taught in a magnet program. This program afforded many materials for hands-on science activities, classroom libraries and specialized mathematic materials; however, when I wanted to expand the earth science curriculum to include dissecting owl pellets, I had to spend my own money. Just like every teacher, I spent a lot of my own money each year and unlike Bedford, we did not have an organization to help with special learning opportunities or innovative programs. I wanted to see how BAEF functioned.

The Foundation and its members impressed me from the beginning. Many of the members had served as part of the organization for years and were devoted to seeing that Bedford’s children got the best education possible and are protective of the foundation’s funds. It did not take me long to realize that the Foundation board members were willing to give their expertise, time and energy to make it a success. They came to meetings having studied and evaluated the grant requests. They worked to make the grant proposal an easy one, to offer help when needed and to make sure that all teachers know about the grant opportunities.

As part of Bedford Area Educational Foundation, I have been particularly proud of our support during the pandemic for families who did not have adequate computer internet service to allow the children to be successful with online classes. Honoring teachers and staff, for what has always been a difficult jobs but made even more difficult with Covid, is something that speaks to my heart. I am seeing and reading so much in the last year about children’s emotional wellbeing. I am very pleased with the newly proposed program to give all guidance teachers materials and programs to help students work through their emotional difficulties.

As a teacher and retired director of the Bower Center for the Arts I am drawn to programs that provide a different way to approach teaching a core subject such as history through the Clay Vessel Project at Jefferson Forest High School. I also loved voting to fund grants such as the one for Moneta Elementary School, Growing Dreams in a Greenhouse. My years as a part of BAEF have been fun and helped to make me feel connected to Bedford and their schools.

If you are interested in learning more about serving on our Board of Directors, please email info@bedfordeducation.com.

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