September 13, 2018
By: Dwayne Page (YOU MAY NOW SELECT LANGUAGES FOR READING ON THIS WEBSITE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF EACH PAGE BELOW THE SEARCH WINDOW)
Fifth district member W.J. (Dub) Evins, III has been re-elected Chairman of the Board of Education.
Evins was named by his fellow board members to serve another year as chairman during Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting.
“Thank you. I will do the best I can. We will have a year with quite a few things going on but we can make it a good year of opportunity with a building program and a number of other projects. I wish us all best of luck and blessings,” said Chairman Evins.
First district member Danny Parkerson was elected Vice-Chairman and Seventh District member Shaun Tubbs was re-elected Assistant Secretary.
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The board re-organizes each September electing officers to serve for the year.
Chairman Evins welcomed the Board’s newest member, Alan Hayes who now serves the second district. Thursday night was Hayes’ first meeting as a member of the board.
The school board granted permission for the DCHS Tigerette Softball program to build a 40’ x 60’ covered batting cage beside the softball field on the home side. The batting cage will be covered by a roof but there will be no sides other than netting. It will be paid for by funds generated in the softball program.
Chairman Evins announced that 2018 employee health insurance premiums are rising by 2.5% but that the school system has available funds in the budget to absorb the increased cost without having to pass it on to the employees. The board voted to make it official.
The DeKalb County Youth Soccer Program was granted permission to use the grounds this year at Northside Elementary School for league play. The approval is conditional provided that the school system does not need the grounds for new school construction. The Soccer program can’t get insurance for the fall league until it receives a letter of approval from the board of education to use the Northside school grounds.
Director Patrick Cripps provided his monthly update on personnel moves.
Those employed are as follows:
Crystal Barnes, teacher to succeed Janet England
Toby Nokes, educational assistant at DCHS
Miranda Waggoner, educational assistant at DCHS
Tiffany Willmore, educational assistant at Smithville Elementary School
Leave of Absence as requested:
Suzanne Gash, Jennifer Herndon, Rachel Hernandez, and Heather Shehane
Transfers:
Tena Edwards to DCHS as educational assistant, Distance Learning Lab
Robbie Frazier to DeKalb West School replacing Holly Bain
Isabella Johnson from substitute to educational assistant replacing Stephanie Stewart
Resignations/Retirements
Holly Bain has resigned as pre-k educational assistant at DeKalb West School
Todd Davis has resigned as custodian at DeKalb West School
Janet England has retired as teacher at DeKalb West School
Danyelle Hawkins has resigned as DCHS teacher
Stephanie Stewart has resigned as educational assistant at DCHS
Norman Underhill has resigned as educational assistant at DCHS.
DCHS Principal Randy Jennings, DeKalb Middle School Principal Amanda Dakas, DeKalb West School Principal Sabrina Farler, and Assistant Principal of Northside Elementary School Beth Pafford updated the school board on activities at their schools.
Principal Jennings acknowledged the 2018-19 Mr. and Miss DCHS Tanner Poss and Madi Cantrell. He also recognized Madi Cantrell for being named a semi-finalist for the National Merit Scholarship Program. Jennings further mentioned that Anna Chew and Isaac Walker have both advanced to the Region Golf Tournament set for next week. DCHS Homecoming is the week of September 24-28.
Principal Dakas said the Chrome Book rollout at DeKalb Middle School has been successful. “I personally want to take this opportunity to thank the board and Mr. Cripps for ensuring that all of our students have this opportunity to have this electronic device in their hands. We’re able to do a lot more with it. We thank you for that. Also the grant that has given us Mr. Doug Eaton who is helping us provide technology support as we roll out this piece of technology. It is very much appreciated. He is extremely helpful to our teachers and to our students. We are grateful to him as well. Our PTO chili supper is tentatively set for November 10. We would like to invite everyone in the community out for that. We will also be updating our school web site as well with more information. We would also like to remind parents that attendance is crucial to student success and we thank the parents at DeKalb Middle School for working with us to ensure that their students are there,” said Dakas.
Principal Farler said DeKalb West, which implemented a student of the month recognition about a year ago, is now recognizing a teacher of the month. Ms Vicki Wilson is our teacher of the month for September. We are very excited to recognize her for dedication and hard work. We will make pictures at DeKalb West School next Tuesday, September 18 and our PTO Run for the Dogs event is scheduled for Thursday, September 27 from about 8:30 a.m. until lunch time. I also want to remind parents to sit down and read with their child at least 20 minutes a day,” said Farler.
Assistant Principal Pafford said Northside Elementary School will host the annual Fun Run Friday, September 14. “That is our big PTO fundraiser each year. This year they are adding an obstacle course for the kids to make it a little bit different. All families are invited to come out and share in that. Our fourth graders will run at 11 a.m. and the second and third grades will run at noon and the fifth grade will run at 1 p.m,” said Pafford.