DCHS Unveils New Morning and Afternoon Traffic Flow Protocols for entering and exiting the Campus

August 13, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County High School has released a diagram showing new traffic flow protocols for motorists entering and leaving the campus mornings and afternoons.

Parents, students, and others who arrive at the high school in their vehicles are urged to follow the guidelines by entering and exiting the campus in the same direction in order to reduce traffic congestion.

Essentially, motorists are asked when entering the campus to turn right off Highway 70 or West Main Street in the lane nearest the football field side for student pickup and drop off in front of the school and when leaving to make only right hand turns onto Highway 70 (West Broad Street) or to access West Main Street toward town if needing to turn left. Buses are to enter the campus off Highway 70 in the bus lane nearest and gym and cafeteria for student pickup and drop off and to exit by the cafeteria toward the middle school. Bus lanes are to be kept clear at all times when buses are coming and going between 7:10-7:45 a.m. and from 2:30-3:10 p.m. each day.

“Coming in and out of the high school we have two entrances (off Highway 70 or West broad Street) or three if you include West Main Street and a lot of times in the mornings and afternoons traffic tends to get a little backed up or busy with as many students as we have coming in and out of our parking lot,” said Assistant DCHS Principal Thomas Cagle.

“The idea of the map is to show the bus drivers, parents, and students who are coming in and out of the school at different times of the day whether its morning or afternoon what we are expecting as far as coming in and out of the school to help with the flow of traffic to make it as efficient as we possibly can with the available space at the high school to get everyone in and out in a timely manner,” said Cagle.

“The two biggest things from the map is when students and parents are leaving the high school we are asking them to make right hand turns only on Highway 70 and no left hand turns and if they need to go left back toward town to use West Main Street as their way to turn left and go back to town to avoid holding up traffic by trying to cross those lanes to get out into the flow of traffic turning left on Highway 70. We are hoping people will work with us and make those right-hand turns coming out onto Highway 70 and if they need to make a left hand turn to take West Main,” Cagle continued.

“The other is the bus lane, making sure we only have buses coming in and out of that lane in the afternoon, so we don’t hinder bus drivers from getting in and getting those students,” he added.

August 12, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The newly elected county public officials are to take their oath of office at a swearing-in ceremony on Monday, August 29 at 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Mike Foster Multi-Purpose Center.

General Sessions/Juvenile Court Judge Bratten H. Cook, II will administer the oath of office.

The public officials to be sworn into office to begin their new 4-year terms of office effective September 1 are as follows:

County Mayor Matt Adcock

Sheriff Patrick Ray

Road Supervisor Danny Hale

General Sessions Court Judge Brandon Cox (8-year term)

County Clerk James L. (Jimmy) Poss

Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin

Trustee Sean Driver

Register of Deeds Daniel Seber

County Commissioners:

1st district- Tom Chandler and Daniel Cripps

2nd district- Sabrina Farler and Myron Rhody

3rd district-Tony Luna and Susannah Cripps Daughtry

4th district-Tony (Cully) Culwell and Greg Matthews

5th district-Larry Green and Glynn Merriman

6th district- Justin Douglas Adcock and Jeff Barnes

7th district-Beth Pafford and Timothy Reynolds

Board of Education:

1st district- Danny Parkerson

2nd district-Alan Hayes

3rd district-Jim Beshearse

4th district-Eric Ervin

7th district-Shaun Tubbs

August 12, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Goodbye Kate!

Fourth District Board of Education representative Kate Miller met with her colleagues for the last time as a member of the board during Thursday night’s regular monthly session.

Miller, who has served on the Board of Education since 2014, is stepping down when her term ends on August 31. She chose not to seek re-election this year and will be succeeded by Eric Ervin who won the seat in last Thursday’s County General Election. His four-year term begins September 1.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps praised Miller for her service. “This is the last night for one of our board members. We would like to say thank you to Ms. Miller for her service and dedication to our students, faculty, staff, and community. She has a servant heart and that is to be commended. We appreciate everything she has done for our schools and the system,” said Director Cripps.

“I want to thank you for the kind words,” said Miller. “Its been a pleasure working with Mr. Cripps and the board. Its always been such a great honor to represent the fourth district and serve DeKalb County. I learned a lot being on the board and I am proud of all our accomplishments. There are still a few goals we have that we didn’t get accomplished that I had hoped we would while I was on the board but I know you will continue to work hard and do great things for the schools and DeKalb County. I appreciate all the support of the community and I wish Mr. Ervin the best,” said Miller.

Board Chairman Shaun Tubbs also bragged on Miller and the board as a whole for accomplishments made in recent years and he congratulated Incumbent board members Danny Parkerson, Alan Hayes, and Jim Beshearse, along with newcomer Eric Ervin on their election last week.

“Its been a joy to serve on the board with you Kate,” said Tubbs. “I think it speaks volumes to this board that we are staying intact. I think it shows the confidence and trust the community has in us as a whole. I am very proud of the accomplishments that this board has made. When I first got on the board one of the things I wanted to implement was more technology in our school system. We now have Chrome books for each student. We also have a new soccer field approved for the junior high and high school soccer teams. We have added courses to our high school vocational program. We have cosmetology and megatronics this school year. We have also provided the largest pay increase for our teachers and bus drivers. When we started our wages were among the bottom third and now we are in the top third in this area. All of that was done without a tax increase. We have increased security at all of our schools. We have the anti-ram barriers (concrete balls) in front of our schools. We have SRO officers at each school and now we have included vestibules at the schools. We are adding air conditioning units to all the gymnasiums. These are the types of things the community should be proud of due to strong leadership top to bottom from our director to the school board, our principals, administration, teachers, bus drivers and all the support staff. That’s what it takes. Each year has its own set of challenges and I think so far we have gotten off to a great start and I hope we have a prosperous 2022-23 school year,” said Chairman Tubbs.

In other business, Director Cripps updated the board on student enrollment numbers which are up in the elementary grade levels but down overall from last year at this time.

“We are a little above 3,000 as students continue to flow in and flow out. It appears the elementary level is really growing and with those numbers the one thing you have to look at are the average and maximum numbers of students that can be in those classrooms so we are at the point where we are looking at having to add at least one teacher at one grade level,” said Director Cripps.

Cripps is still working to fill a few remaining open positions within the district and he says more bus drivers are needed.

“We don’t have all positions filled. If anybody wants to drive a bus we are taking applications. Thanks to our parents for being patient with that. Trust me if we had drivers we would put them to work. Be patient because we are getting new students daily. Right now drivers don’t always know where they are going and kids don’t always know where they are going. The challenge for a bus driver is when you ask a kindergarten student what his mamma’s name is and he says mama but we’ll try to get it all straightened out,” said Director Cripps.

For the most part, Cripps said the first week of school has gone well.

“We did have a good start to the first week. I appreciate our faculty, staff, bus drivers and everyone. Yesterday (Wednesday) we had a minor hiccup due to flooding at the middle school and high school but kudos to the faculty and staff, administration, custodians, and our maintenance crew who got in there and cleaned it all up because at one time I was worried if we would make it to school today (Thursday) but I went back out at 6:30 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. last night and it looked like nothing ever happened so I want to say thank you to them for the hard work they did,” added Director Cripps.

In other business, the board approved the launching of a new tennis program at DeKalb Middle School.

The monthly personnel report was presented to the Board.

Employment:
Jacob Greer, teacher at Smithville Elementary School (SES)
John Figgins, teacher at SES
Jaley Hale, Educational Assistant at SES
Crystal Moore, Educational Assistant at Northside Elementary School
Jessica Tatrow, Secretary at DeKalb Middle School
Brittany Bogle, Educational Assistant at SES
Talitha Shirah, Educational Assistant at SES
Crystal Horton, Educational Assistant at SES
Priscilla Campbell, Teacher at SES
Rita Umstead, Cafeteria
Tracy Kyle, Cafeteria
Rainey Hunt, Cafeteria
Dennis Patz, Cafeteria
Charlotte Bertsch, Cafeteria

Leave of Absence as Requested: Ally Atnip

Transferred:
Tara Driver transferred from Educational Assistant to Teacher at Northside Elementary School
Jennifer Salas, transferred from Educational Assistant to Teacher at Northside Elementary School

Resignations/Retirements
Jodi Lester, Secretary at DeKalb Middle School
Isla Ledbetter, Bus Driver and Educational Assistant at DeKalb Middle School

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