Biggest Local Pay Raises Ever Budgeted for Teachers, Support Staff, and Bus Drivers (View video here)

July 9, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County teachers, support staff, and bus drivers  may soon be getting the largest local pay raise ever in a single year and they have the Board of Education and Director of Schools to thank for it.

During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the School Board adopted the new 2021-22 budget which includes a raise of $5,000 per teacher and other certified personnel (230 employees) and a $3,000 increase in pay for support staff (166 employees). Bus drivers will not share in the support staff raises but will be getting a pay hike just for them.

Starting pay for bus drivers would jump from $74 to $100 per day. Pay for bus drivers with five or more years of service would go to $115 per day and drivers of special education bus routes would earn $120 per day.

Meanwhile all middle and high school head coaches and assistant coaches would each get an increase of $715 in supplement pay. Money is also included in the budget to fund an assistant coaching position in nine sports programs at the middle school and high school where the head coach currently has no assistant coach.

Although the Board of Education has given its approval, the budget still has to be adopted by the county commission’s budget committee and then the full county commission.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said he will present the proposed school budget to the county budget committee for approval Tuesday night, July 13 at the courthouse.

For years, the DeKalb County School District has had difficulty competing with many surrounding counties in attracting and retaining staff especially teachers because of pay.

“When you look at where we are located, we have a Triple-A school in Warren County, White County, Putnam County, Rutherford, and Wilson County. They are all around us and they all pay better than we do,” Director Cripps told WJLE.

Now with industries and businesses like Walmart also paying higher wages, Director Cripps said its even more important for the school system to keep up.

“It was already tough to find people to come work for us before COVID but now its even more so. Everybody is looking for employees and for us to be able to retain employees we have to increase our pay or risk losing them to industries. Hopefully this pay raise will keep people here in our county teaching,” said Director Cripps.

Being able to attract bus drivers as well as substitute drivers has also been a problem for the school district due to the low pay and another concern is that several of the current drivers are approaching retirement age. “We don’t have any substitute bus drivers so when we have a driver call in sick or have to be out we can’t run that route so we have to bring in more drivers,” said Director Cripps.

A few potential new drivers have already expressed an interest after hearing about the higher pay and , Director Cripps, said he is hopeful they and others will come on board.

“All of our employees deserve these pay raises. When the country shut down last year due to COVID-19 we still had education going on and it was probably the most trying time ever for educators as a whole. Teachers were doing in-house teaching, remote teaching, and things they normally didn’t do. I think others also realized more what teachers went through and the sacrifices they made. We have tee shirts with a slogan that says “A strong school equals a strong community “ and I truly believe that because what we produce from our schools is what will lead our county. To be the best you have to get the best and we want to get the best educators and the best people we can. Like teachers, if we didn’t have our support staff our schools wouldn’t go. We do appreciate the work they do and these pay raises are our way of letting them know that,”  he said.

Director Cripps said the school district is financially sound and will be able to fund its budget including the pay raises without asking for any additional property tax revenue from the county commission

“We are getting about $400,000 more in BEP (Basic Education Program) funds from the state this year and we have a strong fund balance (reserves). On paper it appears we will go into (spend) fund balance but we actually haven’t had to do that since I’ve been here as Director. We currently have over $10 million dollars in our fund balance reserves and its grown each year,” said Cripps.

Efforts will be made to hold the numbers of staff to current levels, but Director Cripps said numbers of students and state required pupil teacher ratios will dictate that.

Although it is not part of this budget, the DeKalb County Schools District will be receiving at least $6.6 million dollars in federal money from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) FUND over the next couple of years under the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress earlier this year.

Federal law requires spending a fifth of the money for programs and resources designed to catch up students from possible pandemic-related learning lags. The rest is to address other pandemic-related needs, but district leaders will have broad discretion on what to prioritize. The spending list could include technology, student mental health services, and school building improvements to reduce risk of virus transmission, among other things.

One project the school district has identified is installing new HVAC units for gymnasiums using some of the ESSER money.

In other business, the Board granted tenure as recommended by Director Cripps to  three teachers, Galen Brown, Rachel Desimone, and Melissa Sliger. Those teachers have successfully completed the probationary period of five years and received evaluations demonstrating an overall performance effectiveness level or above or significantly  above expectations as required for tenure.

Meanwhile in his monthly report on personnel, Director Cripps announced the following have been employed since last month:

Brian Cadle, teacher at DCHS

Emma Choate, teacher at Northside Elementary and Smithville Elementary

Bruce Curtis, Principal at DCHS

Kayley Curtis, teacher at DeKalb West School

Shawnnie Davis, secretary at Smithville Elementary School

Luke Green, teacher at DCHS

Vicki Wilson, teacher at DeKalb West School.

Those granted a leave of absence as requested are Jessica Hale and Elizabeth Lewis

Transfers include Thomas Cagle to Assistant Principal at DCHS replacing David Gash; and Natasha Vaughn to SPED Supervisor, replacing Shea Hennessee

Resignations include Shea Hennessee, SPED Supervisor and Tracy Luna, Band Director.

The Board also adopted the School Calendars for the 2022-23 and the 2023-24 years. The calendars are similar to past years with one week off for fall break, one week off for Thanksgiving, two weeks off for winter break (the Christmas/New Year holidays) and one week off for spring break.

July 8, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Fair is accepting entries through Saturday, July 10 for eleven pageants to be held next week, July 12-17 at the Lions Club Pavilion on the fairgrounds in Alexandria.

Applications are available to pick up at the Smithville Review office, print from the fair’s Facebook page or in person Saturday 9-11 a.m. Late applications will not be accepted for any reason.

The entry fee is $25 per contestant. Participants must be residents of DeKalb County. Each pageant will award King/Queen and a first and second runner-up along with a Most Photogenic award. To participate in this category attach a photo with your entry. The Fairest of the Fair winner must attend a State pageant to represent DeKalb County.

The pageants and scheduled start times are as follows:

Junior Fair Princess (13-16 years old): Monday, July 12 at 6 p.m.

Fairest of the Fair (17-20 years old) Monday, July 12 following the Junior Fair Princess Pageant

Miss Fair Queen (21-54 years old) Monday, July 12 following the Fairest of the Fair Pageant.

Little Mister (4-6 years old) Tuesday, July 13 at 6 p.m.

Little Miss ( 4-6 years old) Tuesday, July 13 following the Little Mister Pageant

Mrs. Fair Queen (up to 54 years old) Tuesday, July 13 following the Little Miss Pageant

Senior Fair Queen (55 years and older) Tuesday, July 13 following the Mrs. Fair Queen

Miss Princess (7-9 years old) Wednesday, July 14 at 6 p.m.

Miss Sweetheart (10-12 years old) Wednesday, July 14 following the Miss Princess Pageant.

Baby Show (1 day to 12 months), Thursday, July 15 at 6 p.m.

Toddler Show (13-47 months), Friday, July 16 at 6 p.m.

View entry form information in the photos shown here

For more information call Angie Meadows at 615-464-5056.

July 8, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

A community effort led by several local churches is underway to help ten families who lost their homes and belongings in the Towne’s Edge Village Apartment Fire Sunday.

Chad Ramsey, Pastor of the Smithville First Baptist Church said an account has been opened at First Bank for anyone who would like to make a cash donation to these families.

“Several of the churches have gotten together and contacted the apartment complex that caught on fire July 4 and we have set up an account at First Bank so if you would like to give to the families go to First Bank and give a donation and it will be split evenly to all the families who were caught up in that horrible fire over the weekend” said Ramsey.

Along with the Smithville FBC, at least four other churches, Outreach Baptist, New Life United Pentecostal, Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian, and the Smithville Church of Christ are pitching in to help.

“These churches are reaching out to the families to make sure they get assistance. If you would like to give to a family individually call any of these churches. Each has a list of which churches are helping out with which families,” Ramsey said.

Although temporary housing has been arranged for most of the fire victims, efforts are underway to find more long term solutions.

“If you know of an available apartment or rental space let these churches know so we can get the word out because finding rental property in Smithville and DeKalb County can be difficult at times,” Ramsey continued.

Donations of furniture are also needed, more so than clothing.

“They (fire victims) have as much clothes as they need thanks to sources like the New Life Center and others but furniture will be needed down the line as they find more permanent places to live. You may go to the HOPE Center on West Broad Street near Walmart to donate furniture and they can hold it until the families get settled,” added Ramsey.

“Its been great to see all the churches come together for this and we look forward to helping these families working together as a community.”

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