Board of Education Puts Construction of New Pre-K to 2 School Back on the Table

March 13, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

After being denied funding by the county commission for a multi Pre-K to 8th grade school construction project, the Board of Education is reverting to its original plan of building a new Pre-K to 2nd grade school.

During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the board voted to rescind action from its December meeting to seek more than $48 million in funding for its Pre-K to 8th grade school plan and to ask that the County Commission fund construction of a Pre-K to 2nd grade school. But this time, the Board is not asking for any specific amount of funding.

The action by the Board came after Director Patrick Cripps received official notification by letter from the County Mayor that the previous request for $48 million had been rejected by the County Commission as too costly.

“I’ll make a motion to present to the County Commission a proposal for one Pre-K through 2 school,” said 7th district school board member Shaun Tubbs after the motion had passed to rescind the previous request for the Pre-K to 8 funding.

After a second was offered to Tubb’s motion, Board Chairman Danny Parkerson asked “Do we need to attach a dollar amount with the request”.

“Last time we had a proposal for $30 million (for a Pre-K to 2nd grade school). Should we attach that to this request so they (County Commission) will have a dollar figure of $30 million or less (needed for the project),” asked Parkerson.

“I want to leave my motion as is to just ask for a Pre-K through 2 school (without any dollar amount attached),” answered Tubbs.

The motion was adopted.

More than two years ago Upland Design Group, the Board of Education’s architect, estimated construction costs for a Pre-K to 2 school at over $17 million. Updated numbers in November, 2019 put the figure at over $30 million but by that time the project accounted for more students than the original plan.

Prior to the regular meeting Thursday night, Director Cripps said during a work session with the board that the project could be downsized to cut costs.

“I know a lot of people were concerned about the size of the school with a capacity of 900 students and we did increase it to 900 (from the original plan) thinking that Pre-K might someday be mandated by the state. But if we need to pare it down we can do that. I wouldn’t suggest paring it down to 600 students but maybe by 100 to leave it at a capacity of 800 students at least,” said Director Cripps.

After the board vote on seeking construction for a Pre-K to 2nd grade school, Chairman Parkerson appointed a committee consisting of Director Cripps and fellow board members W.J. (Dub) Evins III and Doug Stephens to formalize a proposal for the school including a recommendation on where to purchase approximately 25 acres of additional property (possibly adjacent to Northside Elementary School) to be funded (land purchase) by the school system.

March 13, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Although there are no reports or documented cases of the coronavirus in DeKalb County, the school system is being proactive with the pandemic threat and continues to monitor the situation.

At this point, schools in DeKalb County are not on shutdown due to the coronavirus, but if that is deemed necessary, the school district is prepared to take action.

During the monthly meeting Thursday night, Director of Schools Patrick Cripps advised the Board of Education that should schools be closed in the days or weeks ahead, the shutdown would also apply to all school sporting and extracurricular events. Some planned school related trips  involving students have already been cancelled.

“If we have to shut down for the coronavirus issue that means everything in the district will shut down. Sports and all. Everything. If it is serious enough for us to close schools it is serious enough for us to close those events as well. We need to make sure everyone understands that. Its not free vacation time. We are taking this very seriously. The staff at the central office and our administrators have to make a lot of tough decisions and I will back them but first and foremost is the safety and health of our students and what they face,” said Director Cripps.

Under state law, local school districts have to complete 180 days of classroom instruction per year and while he has sought guidance from the Tennessee Department of Education on a course of action, Director Cripps said it appears the state is allowing local school districts to develop their own plan.

“I was on the phone with the Commissioner of Education this afternoon (Thursday) looking for guidance. The Governor seems to be leaning toward leaving it up to each local education association so our team at the central office and with our administrators at the schools have prepared a press release on how we are going to move forward with our plans for education in the county. It also addresses what parents and students can do to keep themselves safe by practicing good hygiene and cleanliness,” said Director Cripps.

Under the plan, Cripps said homework would be assigned for students during the time schools are closed.

“If we are closed for an extended period of time we are devising a plan for our students to be able to keep up with work while they are at home. We will do this in various ways. With our high school students, they have their one to one devices (1:1). We will communicate classroom work with Goggle Classroom and things like that so students can keep up with their course work. For students in grades 6 to 8 we will have a couple of options and we are still considering those including whether we send computers home with them or whether we do homework packets. The same thing is being considered for pre-K to 5th grade students. We plan to assign lessons for 3 to 5 days,” Director Cripps continued.

Schools are already scheduled to close for spring break March 23 to March 27 and the school district still has four snow days left that could be used.

“We will keep monitoring the situation. We are going on the advice of our local health officials and following Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. We are deep cleaning the schools and cleaning in between classes. Our bus drivers are cleaning their buses. We are doing everything we possibly can,” said Director Cripps.

“As chairman of the school board I want to tell Mr. Cripps and our staff that we support you. Some tough decisions may be required but we are there behind you in making those decisions,” said Board Chairman Danny Parkerson.

The press release issued by the DeKalb County School District is as follows:

“The DeKalb County School System is closely monitoring the coronavirus situation and is making the necessary preparation in case the COVID-19 becomes more prevalent in our community, For now, there have been no indications of a coronavirus outbreak in our district but we will continue to work with local health professionals to monitor the situation and receive updated guidance.”

“We all play a role in reducing the likelihood of a coronavirus outbreak in our district community. We encourage everyone to practice good habits:

*Wash your hands regularly, especially after using the restroom and before preparing or consuming food. Wash for 20 seconds, using soap and hot water. Be sure to also wash fingertips.

*Avoid coughing or sneezing into your hand or in the air. Always try to cough or sneeze into a tissue, and then throw the tissue away. If you don’t have a tissue, cough/sneeze into your arm.

*As much as you can, avoid touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.

* If children are feeling sick, please keep them home from school. Allow them some time to feel better so that they do not risk infecting others. These absences will be excused with a note from the parent.

“The system will continue to communicate with families and the community in the days and weeks to come”.

“It is possible that we may need to cancel classes if it appears the coronavirus has affected our community in a significant way,” said Director Cripps. “As always, the safety of our students, staff, and families remains our top priority. We will act with an abundance of caution to protect everyone’s health and well-being. We have found that the most effective way to communicate this information is through our local media outlets, School Messenger phone calls, and Skyward notifications. Additional cleaning practices have been implemented for schools and school buses. An alternate academic plan is being developed and will be utilized in the event of an extended school closure,” the press release concluded.

March 13, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Thea Tippin, wife of country music star Aaron Tippin and a talented singer-songwriter in her own right will appear on WJLE’s “Jammin’ at the 428” today (Friday).

The program will air at 8:30 a.m. following the “Old Time Country Community Radio Show”.

Jim Hicks, the host of the show, will interview Thea and play a few of her songs.

“What a tremendous talent she is. I knew Thea was a singer, but I didn’t know just how really great she is until I heard her music. We were so blessed to have Thea on our show and we hope the listeners will enjoy it,” said Hicks.

(To hear this show click the link below or click the dropdown box under the “Community” section of the WJLE homepage near the top and look for “Jammin’ at the 428”).

Jammin at the 428 Gulliver chez les-Geants

Meanwhile, if you are a local artist, Hicks would like to possibly schedule you on the show.

“We are always looking for people who have recorded their own music to come and do a show with us. Please call at 615-215-9090 or stop by the studio on East Broad Street and talk with Rick Scruggs. We would love to have you on the show,” said Hicks.

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