DWS Announce Top Students for 2nd 9 Weeks

January 28, 2025
By: Bill Conger

DeKalb West School has announced the students who made all A’s (Principal’s List) and earned A’s and B’s only (Honor Roll) for the second nine weeks of school.

Named to the Principal’s List from Mollie Bratten’s 8th grade classroom are Gabe Blair, Malachi Gaither, Halia McDaniel, and Kaden Mullinax and on the A/B Honor Roll are Jaretzy Aguilar, Dakota Ferrell, Katelyn Fry, Ezzy Moore, Kylie Pierce, Isaac Scott, and Miley Tays.

Earning all A’s in Dwayne Blair’s 8th grade room are Grant Brown, Cryslan Cecil, Joelle Cool, Mia Hall, Tori Harbaugh, Caroline Neal, and Kaylee Womack and on the A/B Honor Roll are Adam Brown, Kayla Checchi, Levi Cripps, Bella Gonzalez, Yesica Gonzalez, Makenna Lomas, Allie Pedigo, and Kate Pistole.

Making the Honor roll in 7th grade from Leslie Moore’s homeroom: Maks Austin, John Byrd, Landon Holmes, Abram Maynard, Averie Winchester. The Principal’s List recipients are Christian Cripps, Charley Prichard, Emily Roberts, Grady Thomason, and Preston Williams.

The Principal’s List in Wade Dunaway’s homeroom included Lucas Nokes, Levi Reynolds, Bentley Martin, Brylee Key, Masen Hamlet, Zane Griffith, and Alyssa Cecil and on the A/B Honor roll are Sophia Caraway, Jackson Dunaway, Curtis Fox, Joshua Grabovac, Hannah Harbaugh, Kayliegh Ramirez, and Alexandria Vincent.

Named to the Principal’s List in Kayley Curtis’s 6th grade room are Paisley Avera, Wyatt Bain, Oliver Bell, Taelyn Cork, Zara Fox, Caison Grisham, Cash Hancock, Sawyer Hendrix, Cainnan Humphrey, Karlee Pierce, Bradi Turney, and Kensley Womack and on the Honor Roll are Jameson Carter, Samson Chittwood, Jack Fakes, Chase Groshong, Luke Johnson, Bailey McDaniel, Hailey Medrano, and Isabella Scott.

Named to the Principal’s List in Melissa Sliger’s 6th grade room are Leah Chittwood, Jace Davis, Holden Leiser, Karson Mullinax, Jaxson Murphy, Conner Robinson, Turner Stanley, and Honor Roll: Hayden Caraway, Tyler Clemons, Kynlee Griffith, Nixson Hale, Sylar Hickman, Ivy Melton, Zadah Miller, Colton Saso-Varble, Kayla Sebolt, and Lexie South.

Principal’s List honorees from Jeanna Caplinger’s homeroom are Maddison Baratta, Shaniya Bates, Katy Bowen, Jaritzy Camacho, Aniston Cox, Asher Desimone, Harper Hale, Maggie Hendrix, Jonah King, Riley Martin, Carson Maynard, Mary Moore, Cammi Neal, Aler Organ, Mabry Organ, and Savannah Stanley; Honor Roll students were Keiton Adams, Colby Dailey, Xavier Oyugi, and Braylyn Rice.

Principal’s List honorees from Rachel Desimone’s homeroom are Abram Bratten, Eden Donnell, Lila Driver, Waylon Ellis, Annalyn Garrett, Noah Hall, and Molly Reynolds; Honor Roll students were Rylan Bennett, Jordyn Janecke, Kalynn Lattimore, Lileigh Smith, and Emma Thomason
.
Making the Principal’s List from Samantha Woodward’s 4th grade room are Ripley Barnes, Jacob Blair, Claire Cripps, Vaylee Ellis, Jett Nokes, Marley Pyburn, Auna Starnes, and Joey Stoner; Honor Roll recipients are Mason Checchi, Bryer Dickson,

Leyla Garza, and Jameson Gleaves.

Making the Principal’s List from Cathleen Humphrey’s homeroom are Josee Cripps, Axle Janecke, Everly Keith, Katie Jo Prichard, Andrew Savilla, and Ty Vickers; Honor Roll recipients are Deacon Arnold, Kaycie Avera, Kennedy Avera, Aliat Brown, Adella Gibbs, Kayla Hamlet, Addyson Hatfield, Madilyn Kitts, Addison Silcox, and Gavin Tyree.

January 28, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

The third district has a new county commissioner.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission appointed Brandon Donnell to succeed Susannah Cripps as a member from the third district. Donnell was sworn into office by County Mayor Matt Adcock after the meeting. He will serve out Cripps’ term which expires August 31, 2026.

Six people had sought the appointment along with Donnell including Johnny Croom, Eden Nokes, Tim Perricone, Stuart Colwell, and Len Dickens.

The appointee had to get at least seven votes from the remaining 13-member commission in order to fill the vacancy. Donnell received 10 votes from the commission.

The names of Croom, Donnell, and Colwell were placed in nomination from the commission and the vote on each was taken in that order. Commissioners were allowed to vote for more than one candidate.

Croom, nominated by Commissioner Tony Luna, received five votes including from Luna, Larry Green, Beth Pafford, Myron Rhody, and Mathias Anderson.

Commissioner Tom Chandler nominated Donnell and his 10 votes came from Chandler, Larry Green, Greg Matthews, Andy Pack, Mathias Anderson, Glynn Merriman, Daniel Cripps, Jeff Barnes, Sabrina Farler, and Tony (Cully) Culwell.

Colwell was nominated by Commissioner Andy Pack and he received votes from Pack, Tony Luna, Larry Green, Myron Rhody, Mathias Anderson, and Tony (Cully) Culwell.

Donnell, a Smithville Police Department Detective, formally introduced himself to the county commission on Thursday night, as did the other five candidates, during a committee of the whole workshop meeting.

“I am a Christian and attend the Smithville First Freewill Baptist Church. I align myself with conservative values. I am a Republican and a lifelong resident of DeKalb County. I graduated high school here in 2005. I currently work at the Smithville Police Department as a detective. I have been with the department for 14 years. Before that I worked at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department for a little over four years. I started working there when I was 19 years old. I have been serving the people of DeKalb County pretty much all of my adult life. My wife is Kaylah. We have been married over 18 years. She is an assistant manager at Wilson Bank & Trust in Smithville. She has worked there over 18 years. I have two children. My son Carson graduated high school last year. He is now a student at Tennessee Tech. My youngest son Collin is an eighth grader at DeKalb Middle School. My whole family lives here. I am going to retire here. I care deeply about this county. I want this county to thrive. I want my kids to graduate here, go off to college and get a good education, come back, start their families here, raise their kids here and be proud of DeKalb County just like I am. I don’t know everything there is to know about all the issues this county is facing but that’s the reason why I would like to serve, to learn more and do more for the betterment of this county,” said Donnell.

The 14-member county commission (two from each district) is made up of nine Republicans, Tom Chandler, Sabrina Farler, Brandon Donnell, Tony (Cully) Culwell, Greg Matthews, Larry Green, Glynn Merriman, Andy Pack, and Mathias Anderson; three Democrats, Jeff Barnes, Beth Pafford, and Myron Rhody; and two Independents, Tony Luna and Daniel Cripps.

January 28, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

The election commission will soon have a new home.

The county commission, during its regular monthly meeting Monday night, voted to relocate the election commission headquarters from the first floor of the courthouse to the unused office space at the county complex. A budget amendment in the amount of $110,000 was also adopted. The money will be appropriated from the fund balance of the capital projects fund. The commission had previously considered taking the money from the general fund balance but Commissioner Larry Green said capital projects is a better alternative.

“The general fund balance should be used for year to year expenses. This (relocating the election commission office) is not a year to year expense,” said Green.

Bids will be accepted to make proposed election commission office renovations at the new location along with the purchase of new office furniture, and setup of the IT network, etc. It could take months before the move is complete but election officials want to have the headquarters relocated in plenty of time before the start of the 2026 election cycle.

The reasons behind the move of the election commission office to the county complex are to tighten security at the courthouse while providing more office and storage space for the election commission. Even though the county complex has been in operation for 12 years, this particular location, originally intended for use by the county mayor’s office was never finished and remains unused.

This issue was on the agenda in December but it was postponed after some members of the county commission questioned whether the county might be acting too hastily without considering other factors. There was a discussion at one point about possibly relocating the election commission to the vacant arcade room and history room at the county complex. Others suggested making the history room, where the county commission holds monthly workshop meetings, an actual history room which is what the new county Historian Freddy Curtis has suggested.

Since the December meeting, the county commission has discovered that the arcade room and the history room, in particular, are frequently used by senior citizens and other groups.

Jan Thomas, speaking on behalf of the senior citizens Monday night, asked that the history room continue to be used by seniors and others.

“The history room is used every day by the DeKalb County Senior Citizens,” said Thomas.” We play volleyball three days a week and on Tuesdays we have a cardio upper body strengthening drumming class. On Thursdays we have a Tai Chi and yoga class. The age range that we are currently serving is from age 62 to 99. Today we have over 30 people come to play volleyball. In addition to the activities that I mentioned, the following uses of the history room have happened in the last 12 months: weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, birthday parties, receptions, meetings of the DeKalb Telephone Cooperative, and even the county commission has met there on Thursday nights. The DeKalb County Board of Education has held teacher in-services. Our DeKalb County Senior Citizens are very active in supporting our veterans. The history room has also been used from time to time as an auxiliary lunch area where we have fed the band and chorus on Veterans Day,” Thomas explained.

“I understand that Mr. Curtis is wanting to honor the history of DeKalb County,” Thomas continued. “When I spoke before the public works committee on January 16 I had the suggestion of the following: Cannon County many years ago formed a Cannon County Historical Society. From there they were able to purchase display cases in which they held the treasured items from families in Cannon County. It is my personal opinion that Mr. Curtis would benefit greatly if he would allow a DeKalb County Historical Society be formed to support him and that it be looked into that display cases be placed in the hallway where the current county offices are starting near Mr. Poss (County Clerk Office) and Mr. Seber (Register of Deeds Office) and down the direction toward Mr. Sean Driver (Trustee’s Office) and Mr. Shannon Cantrell’s Office (Assessor of Property). If you have ever been to the DeKalb County Fair in Alexandria you know that many families are very comfortable bringing their precious family items because they are locked in display cases,” said Thomas.

The arcade room and history room will not be used by the election commission

« First ‹ Previous 1 50 58 59 6061 62 70 160 2574 Next › Last »