Students and Teachers to Get One Week off for Fall Break and Thanksgiving for the next Three School Years

June 14, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County students and teachers will have a shorter fall break but a longer Thanksgiving holiday for the next three years.

During Thursday night’s monthly meeting, the Board of Education adopted the school calendars for the 2020-21 and the 2021-22 school years. The school calendar for the upcoming year 2019-20 had already been adopted by the board months ago.

For the upcoming year 2019 and for the following two years 2020 and 2021 students will have a one week fall break in October and one week off for Thanksgiving.

This past year, 2018 the school district observed a two week fall break with only three days off for Thanksgiving.

Board members said by adopting calendars for the next two years now parents and teachers can better plan for future fall vacations.

Registration for the upcoming school year will be Thursday, August 1 followed by an administrative day for teachers only on Friday, August 2.

The first full day of school for 2019-20 will be Monday, August 5.

A system-wide in-service day will be Monday, July 29 with in-service continuing at individual schools on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 30 & 31.

June 14, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

In an effort to save money and relieve each school of the in-house burden, the DeKalb County Board of Education has decided to outsource custodial services at all school owned buildings beginning next month.

During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the Board voted to enter into a contract with Southern Management Services, LLC (SMS) effective July 1, 2019.

The DeKalb County School District will pay SMS $494,184 for the year at a rate of $41, 182 per month. The initial term of the contract runs through June 30, 2020 but the agreement will renew on an annual basis for four- one year renewal periods unless either party provides written notice at least 90 days prior to the expiration date of the term.

Under the agreement, SMS will provide complete janitorial/custodial services at DeKalb County High School, DeKalb Middle School, DeKalb West School, Northside Elementary, Smithville Elementary, and at the Ernest Ray Education Center.

SMS will provide all equipment and supplies. Much of the work will be done after school hours. The company will also provide clean-up following school athletic events.

The School District will no longer employ custodians but those who have worked for the school system may apply with SMS and if re-hired could find their pay to be better than what the school system was able to offer.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said the school system will save about $35,000- $40,000 a year by outsourcing the custodial services and it will relieve the district from having to recruit and retain employees itself. He said SMS partners with other school systems and comes highly recommended.

*About SMS (according to the SMS website):

“Southern Management Services (SMS) is a privately held facility management services provider, headquartered in Nashville Tennessee, with regional partners and locations across the Southeast. SMS was established in 2007 and was acquired and restructured in 2015. Since its inception, the SMS core business model has been the provision of facility management services to education partners, ranging from K-12 districts to higher education institutions.

The SMS management team, and its trusted partners, has over 100 years of experience in the janitorial and contract cleaning industry, and we firmly believe that cleanliness aids in the scholarship and achievements for students within all educational facilities and learning environments.

The leadership within our organization is comprised of accomplished business executives with extraordinary experience in large-scale startups, daily operations, quality control, safety, training, recruitment, and customer relations. We are experts in our field, and value customer satisfaction as our highest priority.

SMS is ISSA CIMS Green Building Certified, and currently provides facility services to over 100,000 students, teachers and administrators each day, encompassing nearly 20 million square feet”.

https://smsfacilities.com/

June 14, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps has hired a total of 230 teachers and other professional personnel for the 2019-20 school year and named two new principals.

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

Summer Cantrell will become the new principal at Smithville Elementary School. Cantrell has been working for the Putnam County school system. Anita Puckett is being transferred to DeKalb Middle School where she will become assistant principal. Puckett, a former DeKalb Middle School teacher, moved to Smithville Elementary as assistant principal in 2015 but took over as interim principal when Julie Vincent resigned as principal several months ago to take a job in another county.

Meanwhile Lacey Foutch, a DCHS teacher, has been named principal at DeKalb Middle School. Amanda Dakas is being transferred to Smithville Elementary School where she will serve as assistant principal. Dakas had been principal at DeKalb Middle School since 2017 and before that served as assistant principal there for five years. Tad Webb, assistant principal at DeKalb Middle will join the teaching staff at DCHS.

Meanwhile Aaron Young, member of the maintenance staff, has been promoted to Maintenance Supervisor to succeed Earl Jared who has retired.

Certified personnel at each school are as follows:

DeKalb County High School-
Kelly Agee, Angie Anderson, Charlotte Blaylock, Amanda Brown, Kevin Burchfield, Thomas Cagle, Britney Campbell, Amee Cantrell, Jeanine Cantrell, Todd Cantrell, Gary Caplinger, Karen Clark, Lisa Craig, Deborah DePriest, Andrew Dixon, Brittany Dixon, Donna Emmons, Danny Fish, Samantha Fletcher, Amy Fricks, Amanda Fuller, Stephanie Fuson, David Gash, Jessica Griffith, Josh Gulley, Susan Hinton, Sonja House, Randy Jennings, Adam Kefauver, Dylan Kleparek, Brad Leach, Elizabeth Lewis, Tracy Luna, Rebecca Miller, Lori Myrick, Jenny Norris, Shelly Painter, Walteen Parker, Linda Parris, John Pryor, Lindsey Pullum, Corey Rathbone, Joe Ruch, Melissa Ruch, John Sanders, Daniel Seber, Brent Simpson, Steve Trapp, Stephanie Turner, Chris Vance, Tad Webb, 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, Gates Craighead, Michael Crockett, Alisha Day, Tabitha Farmer, Lindsay Floyd, Carrie Gottlied, Amanda Griffith, Jennifer Griffith, Cynthia Hale, Jessica Hale, Patty Hale, Loree Hall, Jennifer Herndon, Amber Hipsher, Lorie Isabell, Shelly Jennings, Karen Knowles, Kristy Lasser, Lisa Mabe, Jama Martin, Amanda Mathis, Libby McCormick, Elizabeth Miller, Diana Moon, Melissa Odom, Josh Odom, Beth Pafford, Deb Poteete, Paris Rabidoux, Kathy Ramsey, Amy Raymond, Kristen Rowland, Melissa Roysdon, Carol Sampley, Sandra Saracho, Tammy Sims, Sarah Storey, Carol Tripp, Cheryl Vandagriff, Kristen Van Vranken, Ginger Wenger, and Sandy Willingham.

DeKalb West School-
Joey Agee, Jessica Antoniak, Sean Antoniak, Crystal Barnes, Whitney Brelje, Jenny Cantrell, Jeanna Caplinger, William Conger, Kim Crook, Martha Damron, Rachel Desimone, Tonya Ellis, 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, Brooke Anderson, Allison Atnip, Ashley Barnes, Lindsey Bouldin, Beth Cantrell, Claire Cloyd, Tiffany Cowart, Amanda Dakas, Edward Dillard, Mykaela Duke, Melba Farmer, Christina Ferguson, Tina Gash, Katie Haggard, Vicky Hawker, Bradley Hendrix, Holly Hendrix, Tanya Howard, Kelly Huling, Ana Jarvis, Sydney Johnson, Amanda Johnson, Niki Johnson, Leah Magness, Kristen Malone, Erin Martin, Adrienne McCormick, LeVaughnda Midgett, Kady Moffett, Leslie Moore, Macy Nokes, Joy Parker, Jane Ramsey, Amanda Rhoady, Bethany Rigsby, Heather Shehane, Melissa Sliger, Cristy Spears, Emily Summers, Allison Taylor, Janet Trapp, 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, Amy Fletcher, Lacey Foutch, Suzanne Gash, Lesa Hayes, Lori Hendrix, Callie Herman, Rachel Hernandez, Jonathan Holland, Sarah Jacobs, Angela Johnson, Teresa Jones, Bryan Jones, Michelle Jones, Natalie Kintz, Samantha Leiser, Alyssa Leslie, Kristen Lynch, Martha Melching, Justin Nokes, Courtney O’Conner, Scott Odom, Hunter Poteete, Justin Poteete, Anita Puckett, Cody Randolph, Candice Scrabo, Tonya Sullivan, Carol Tallent, Kitty Thomas, Cheryl Vance, 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.

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