With all the mass shooting making headlines across the country and the world. The DeKalb County School District is continuing its efforts to make children safe and secure. One school has completed a new security vestibule, while another school has one in the works.
During last Thursday’s regular meeting of the DeKalb School Board, Director of Schools Patrick Cripps announced that DeKalb County High School has just completed its new vestibule, while Smithville Elementary School will have one added very soon.
Visitors to the schools already have to be “buzzed” in through electronically locked doors, but now will have to go through a second barrier of locked doors before entering the main building.
Director Cripps talked about the latest security efforts during Thursday meeting. “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,” Cripps explained.
“At Smithville Elementary, we have a vestibule plan drawn up by the architect, but it has to be sent to the state fire marshal. We are hoping to get that one completed within the next couple of weeks,” said Cripps.
Cripps also commended local law enforcement and fire personnel for their cooperation toward 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,” Cripps continued. “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, 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.”
In other school news, Director Cripps provided his monthly report on personnel to the school board, naming 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.
