A number of school divisions in central Virginia will open late today after this week’s heavy rains and flooding. The following county school districts reported two-hour delays: Amelia, Dinwiddie, King and Queen, New Kent and Prince George. Also, Sussex County schools are closed today. For an updated list of delays and closings, visit TimesDispatch.com.

Several school divisions in central Virginia are reporting delays tomorrow after this week’s heavy rains and flooding. The following county school districts are reporting two-hour delays for Friday: Amelia, Dinwiddie, King and Queen, New Kent and Prince George. Also, Sussex County schools are closed Friday.

Authorities closed Central High School in King and Queen County early yesterday after they discovered the building had been broken into and vandalized, the county superintendent of schools said. A dairy delivery driver noticed the school had been broken into just before 5 a.m., said Superintendent Richard W. Layman. Amid concern that a suspect could possibly still be inside the building, officials closed the school and the sheriff’s department and state police began a room-by-room search, Layman said.

KING AND QUEEN—Authorities closed Central High School early today after they discovered the building had been broken into and vandalized, the county superintendent of schools said. A dairy delivery driver noticed the school had been broken just before 5 a.m., said Superintendent Richard W. Layman. Amid concern that a suspect could possibly still be inside the building, officials closed the school and the sheriff’s department and State Police began a room-by-room search, Layman said.

120 had no critical violations during inspections conducted during the 2008-09 school year; and
93 had two or fewer total
critical violations for the year
Here are some examples of critical violations inspectors found at area schools. These
violations were corrected:
Oct. 30, 2008: Employees were observed handling ready-to-eat food with bare hands at

At West Point High School, where he retired as associate principal in 1993, easygoing Charles Herbert “Herb” Brown Jr., also a band-choral director and teacher, was in charge of discipline. “He found good in everybody. He loved everyone. It didn’t matter who you were or where you lived,“ said his wife, Margaret Hill Brown. Since his death at age 72 from multiple myeloma on Tuesday, “many kids have come by and said that Mr. Brown would suspend them and they’d walk out of his office smiling,“ she said.

An early-morning thunderstorm dumped up to 6 inches of rain in some parts of the Richmond region but caused little damage, authorities said. The heaviest rain the Richmond area has seen this summer left more than 6,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers without electricity in the region at one point, but power to most residents had been restored by afternoon.

The number of Virginia schools that made Adequate Yearly Progress goals in reading and math dropped slightly during the 2008-09 school year after the passing rates got a little tougher. But there were some bright spots. A few local school divisions improved despite the higher benchmarks—including Petersburg, which has a long history of low performance on standardized testing.

Newport News’ King William reservoir project is coming to a halt after the Army Corps of Engineers suspended its permit. City Manager Randy Hildebrandt said the decision was prompted by a recent federal court ruling that said the Corps “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” when it issued a construction permit for the 13-billion-gallon reservoir in 2005.

It’s important for assessors and commissioners to do a reassessment right. Their job is to determine the fair-market value of real estate—and that matters to property owners, because it is one of the two factors that determine their real estate tax bill. Assessments are supposed to be an impartial estimate. It’s the other piece—the rate at which property is taxed—that’s a political decision.

A look at localities that reassessed residential and commercial properties this year: Chesterfield County: In all, the county’s tax base grew 1 percent. The Board of Supervisors will advertise a tax rate of 95 cents per $100 of assessed value, the same as it now charges, even though the so-called rollback-rate calculation shows it could set a 97-cent rate for all real estate. The rollback rate, which localities are required to disclose when reassessments average a more than 1 percent increase, is what the real estate tax rate would have to be to keep tax bills unchanged.

“You don’t realize it when you’re driving 75 miles a day how it counts up in a year’s time.“ -Florence Cooke, who traveled more than 1 million miles on her mail route without a wreck Florence Cooke knows many people in King William and King and Queen counties, though they may not know her. When you deliver mail to the same homes for 31 years, you get to know the people through their letters, bills and packages.

When Fran Freimarck became director of the Pamunkey Regional Library in 1977, there was one main library and two storefront locations in Hanover County, and one location each in Goochland and King William counties. Today, there are 10 branches in all—including six in Hanover. The library’s service area also now extends into King and Queen County.

This daily column features short news items from the 20 localities that make up the greater Richmond area. On Mondays, we run at least one item from each of the localities. If you have a news item, call 649-6990 or e-mail us at Amelia Work has begun on the visitors center at Amelia County’s Sailor’s Creek Battlefield State Park. The $1.1 million center is expected to be completed next summer.

This daily column features short news items from the 20 localities that make up the greater Richmond area. On Mondays, we run at least one item from each of the localities.