The Board of Education has been forced to downsize its request for teacher pay raises.

During its regular monthly meeting Thursday night following a one hour work session, the Board voted to revise its proposed budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year after the budget committee of the county commission rejected the first proposal last month.

The Board is asking that all certified personnel including teachers be given a $600 local pay raise in addition to the $600 increase they are getting from the state for a total of $1,200. Support staff would also get a local $600 pay hike under the board’s new request.

The School Board initially wanted to give teachers and other certified personnel a $2,400 local pay raise along with the $600 state increase and $1,500 for support staff.

In addition to the reduced proposed pay raises, the board has revised its requests in other areas.

“The county commission (budget committee) requested that we go back to last year’s budget (funding levels) and we did for the most part except for the smaller pay raises and areas where we thought there may need to be an increase such as insurance, utilities, and other needs,” said Director of Schools Patrick Cripps.

Funding to implement a Dyslexia Program for children at the elementary school grade level has been eliminated. The board cut its requests for $215,000 in new money to buy science textbooks down to $65,000. One new school bus will be purchased instead of two buses, a savings of $100,000.

Money to purchase Chrome Books for the 3rd through 5th grades at a cost of $240,000 will be carried over since it was budgeted this past year and not spent. Students from the 6th grade through high school already have Chrome Books. Extra funds ($20,000) is still included to repair and replace existing Chrome Books.

The proposed budget still includes $10,000 in new spending for meeting mandates of state evaluation and testing.

Due to the increasing demands of technology, the board still plans to make a current half time computer tech position full time ($13,150 in new money) which would give the school system three techs.

Extra funds are included for employee matching benefits and $2,500 to help schools cover their phone bills.

The proposed general purpose school budget now totals $23,217,059 for the 2018-19 fiscal year, an increase in spending of $890,816 from this past year.

The revised budget for schools will be submitted to the county budget committee for review and approval next week.

Thirteen teachers have been granted tenure by the Board of Education.

The school board made it official during Thursday night’s monthly meeting upon the recommendation of Director of Schools Patrick Cripps.

The following teacher have successfully completed the probationary period of five years and received evaluations demonstrating an overall performance effectiveness level of above or significantly above expectations as required for tenure:

Mollie Bratten, Suzanne Gash, Martha Melching, Shelia Vanatta, Amee Cantrell, Josh Gulley, Josh Odom, Jenny Cantrell, Sara Halliburton, Heather Shehane, Trent Colwell, Cathleen Humphrey, and Ashlee Thomason.

Meanwhile, Director Cripps gave his monthly report on personnel to the board.

Those granted a leave of absence as requested are:
Rachel Desimone, Galen Brown, Sara Halliburton, Nadina Martel, and Leslie Parsley

Those who have resigned or retired are:
W.C. Braswell, resigned
Alexandra DiRaimo, resigned
Thelma Martin, retired
Rhonda Merriman, resigned
Denise Rutland, retired
Cynthia Wilson, retired
Tiffany Wheatley, resigned

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps has signed contracts with the Professional Personnel for the 2018-19 school year.

Cripps presented a list of the employees to the Board of Education Thursday night.

Certified personnel at each school are as follows:

DeKalb County High School-
Angie Anderson, Charlotte Blaylock, Danny Bond, Amanda Brown, Kevin Burchfield, Cody Burton, Justin Burum, Thomas Cagle, Britney Campbell, Amee Cantrell, Jeanine Cantrell, Todd Cantrell, Gary Caplinger, Mary Anne Carpenter, Karen Clark, Andrew Cook, Lisa Craig, Deborah DePriest, Andrew Dixon, Brittany Dixon, Donna Emmons, Danny Fish, Samantha Fletcher, Lacey Foutch, Amy Fricks, Amanda Fuller, Stephanie Fuson, David Gash, Josh Gulley, Sara Halliburton, Susan Hinton, Sonja House, Randy Jennings, Adam Kefauver, Dylan Kleparek, Brad Leach, Elizabeth Lewis, Tracy Luna, Rebecca Miller, Lori Myrick, Jenny Norris, Scott Odom, Nallely Ortega-Prater, Shelly Painter, Walteen Parker, Linda Parris, Leslie Parsley, John Pryor, Marilyn Roberts, Melissa Ruch, Daniel Seber, Steve Trapp, Stephanie Turner, Chris Vance, Barbara Weller, Michael Whitefield, Seth Willoughby, and Sara Young.

Northside Elementary School-
Marla Beshearse, Mollie Bratten, Linda Bush, Shanea Cantrell, Megan Carroll, Lori Chew, Allison Collier, Trent Colwell, Michael Crockett, Alisha Day, Tabitha Farmer, Lindsay Floyd, Jerry Foster, Carrie Gottlied, Amanda Griffith, Jennifer Griffith, Cynthia Hale, Jessica Hale, Patty Hale, Jennifer Herndon, Lorie Isabell, Shelly Jennings, Karen Knowles, Kristy Lasser, Lisa Mabe, Jama Martin, Lynus Martin, Amanda Mathis, Libby McCormick, Elizabeth Miller, Diana Moon, Melissa Odom, Josh Odom, Beth Pafford, Deb Poteete, Amy Raymond, Kristen Rowland, Melissa Roysdon, Carol Sampley, Tammy Sims, Jessica Styer, Carol Tripp, Cheryl Vandagriff, Kristen Van Vranken, Ginger Wenger, Jared West, and Sandy Willingham.

DeKalb West School-
Joey Agee, Jessica Antoniak, Whitney Brelje, Jenny Cantrell, Jeanna Caplinger, William Conger, Kim Crook, Martha Damron, Rachel Desimone, Tonya Ellis, Janet England, Sabrina Farler, Karen France, Julie Hale, Cathleen Humphrey, Nadina Martel, Jennifer Martin, Shelia McMillen, Amanda Mullinax, Tammy Payne, Lori Pryor, Kelly Pyburn, Jennifer Shores, Cynthia Snow, Katie Stutts, Teresa Sullivan, Ashlee Thomason, Shelia Vanatta, Natasha Vaughn, Susan West, Vicki Wilson, and Amy Young.

Smithville Elementary School-
Misty Agee, Ashley Barnes, Renee Beaty, Lindsey Bouldin, Beth Cantrell, Tiffany Cowart, Edward Dillard, Mykaela Duke, Melba Farmer, Christina Ferguson, Amy Fox, Tina Gash, Katie Haggard, Vicky Hawker, Jennifer Hawkins, Bradley Hendrix, Holly Hendrix, Tanya Howard, Kelly Huling, Ana Jarvis, Sydney Johnson, Amanda Johnson, Niki Johnson, Leah Magness, Kristen Malone, Laura Martinez, Adrienne McCormick, LeVaughnda Midgett, Leslie Moore, Sarah Noe, Macy Nokes, Allison O’Conner, Joy Parker, Anita Puckett, Jane Ramsey, Amanda Rhoady, Bethany Rigsby, Heather Shehane, Melissa Sliger, Cristy Spears, Emily Summers, Allison Taylor, Janet Trapp, Julie Vincent, Kristy Williams, Janet Woodward, Christie Young, Crystal Young, and Sherian Zamora.

DeKalb Middle School-
January Agee, Josh Agee, Suzette Barnes, Kelly Birmingham, Galen Brown, Nancy Cowan, Amanda Dakas, Tena Davidson, Jason Farley, Amy Fletcher, Suzanne Gash, Lesa Hayes, Lori Hendrix, Callie Herman, Sarah Jacobs, Angela Johnson, Teresa Jones, Bryan Jones, Michelle Jones, Natalie Kintz, Alyssa Leslie, Martha Melching, Justin Nokes, Courtney O’Conner, Emily Phillips, Justin Poteete, Cody Randolph, Candice Scrabo, Penny Smitty, Tonya Sullivan, Laurie Sweeney, Carol Tallent, Kitty Thomas, Cheryl Vance, Tad Webb, and Jennifer West.

Central Office Staff-
Dr. Kathy Bryant, Michelle Burklow, Dr. Danielle Collins, Elise Driver, Shea Hennessee, Amy Lattimore, Joey Reeder, and Lori Rogers.