July 15, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
Beefing up school security!
The DeKalb County School District in recent years has taken steps at each school to tighten security including the addition of school resource officers, surveillance cameras, safety sphere balls (at some schools) to guard against someone crashing through the entrance with an automobile, key fobs (high school) and security vestibules.
DeKalb County High School has just completed its new vestibule and one is on the way for Smithville Elementary School. While visitors to the schools are already locked out and must press a button at the front entrance to be allowed inside and for them to sign in, there is no other security barrier or confined area to keep people from roaming the halls before being received by office staff, teacher, or principal.
Director of Schools Patrick Cripps addressed this latest security effort during Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Board of Education.
“I want to give Aaron Young (Maintenance Supervisor) and his crew kudos. We have a vestibule at DCHS which is now completed. We just have to paint it. The vestibule prevents people from just walking into the school. Now when you open the doors you will be setting in a confined area. We have been working on this project for a few years trying to get a design up for that. At Smithville Elementary we have a vestibule plan drawn up by the architect but it has to be sent to the state fire marshal, but we are hoping to get that one completed within the next couple of weeks,” said Director Cripps.
Cripps also praised local authorities for their cooperation toward better school security.
“The great thing about living in a small community is that your emergency personnel are people who are easily accessible, and we are lucky to have a good working relationship with Smithville Fire Chief Charlie Parker, Smithville Police Chief Mark Collins, Sheriff Patrick Ray, and Alexandria Police Chief Chris Russell. We have had meetings with them to talk about security measures we need to put in place and to go over what we already have in place. I know security is a hot topic right now and I want to assure our community that we are looking into everything to make sure our kids are safe. Years ago, we assigned SROs in all schools. The county commission, school board, and sheriff worked together to get that done. We are lucky because not a lot of schools do that (SROs in all schools) but we already have them in place. We have built vestibules and hopefully by the end of August every school will have a security vestibule. We do security audits every year for the state and Chief Collins, Sheriff Ray, Chief Parker, and Chief Russell go through the school buildings and help us with those audits. We are lucky to have the people we do helping protect our kids,” added Director Cripps.
Meanwhile in his monthly report on personnel, Director Cripps provided a list to the school board of those who have been hired, transferred, resigned, retired, or who have been granted a leave of absence since June.
Those employed include the following: Leslie Parsley, teacher; Olivia Neal, teacher; Terri Kilgore, secretary; Lindsey Kennedy, teacher; Kyrsten Johnson, teacher; Morgan Oyster, teacher; Meghan Ford, teacher; Kelsey Kellogg, teacher; Elizabeth Wright, teacher; Kason Wheeler, teacher; Shaunta Cantrell, teacher; Brittany Gard, educational assistant; Maddison Parsley, teacher; Brandy Alley, teacher; Patricia Ward, teacher; and Cole Parsley, teacher.
Leave of Absence: Michael Whitefield, granted leave as requested and Janet Woodward, grant leave as requested
Transferred: Galen Brown from DeKalb Middle School to DeKalb West School; Leslie Moore from Smithville Elementary to DeKalb West School; Stephanie Fuson from DCHS to Northside Elementary; Lorie Isabell from CW to DCHS; Callie Herman from Smithville Elementary to Northside Elementary; Brooke Howard from Smithville Elementary to DCHS; Stephanie Reeder from Smithville Elementary to Northside Elementary; Amber Howell from Northside Elementary to Smithville Elementary; Melanie Crews from Smithville Elementary to DeKalb Middle School; and Brooklyn Shirah from Northside Elementary to CW Gifted.
Resignations/Retirements: Joseph Green, teacher at DCHS resigned; Jessica Griffith, teacher at DCHS resigned; John Sanders, teacher at DCHS resigned; and Logan Vance, teacher at DCHS resigned.
Director Cripps also remembered former educator Sherry Bush who recently passed away as well as Gloria Putty, mother of former teacher and coach Lynus Martin.
“We lost Mrs. Bush, a dear educator who taught in our school system for many years. She was my sixth-grade teacher and was a jewel. We want to send out our condolences to her boys and other family. We want them to know that we appreciate her service to our kids. We also learned today that Coach Martin’s mother passed away. I knew Gloria all my life and we want to send out our condolences to them. We are praying for those families,” he said