Skip to main content
How Many NEW School Resource Officers Should the County Fund?:

DTC Wireless

Wes Suddarth DDS

banner2010.gif

A Degree Above

DCHS Building Trades Home For Sale

May 18, 2013
DCHS Building Trades Home For Sale

Students in the DeKalb County High School Construction Technology (building trades) program have completed construction on the latest home and its now for sale.

The board of education Tuesday night voted to accept sealed bids on the purchase of the house. The minimum bid is $17,100. Bids will be opened at the school board meeting in July.

The home, built on campus at DCHS, is described as a 26' x 56' or 1456 square foot (dried-in) house with three bedrooms, two full bathrooms with shower units, living room, kitchen, utility room, three walk-in closets, and a 25 year three tab shingled roof. The house has no plumbing or electric. The purchaser must move the home off the school property within thirty days or be subject to a $100 a day penalty.

The house expenditures totaled $14,829.

Meanwhile, in his monthly report on personnel, Director of Schools Mark Willoughby announced the following retirees or resignations:

Elizabeth White, cafeteria worker, resigned
Brittany Lockard, educational assistant at Smithville Elementary School, resigned
Sue Driver, teacher at Smithville Elementary School retiring at the end of the 2012-13 year
Pam Miller, teacher at Northside Elementary School retiring at the end of the 2012-13 year
Clay Farler, Attendance Supervisor retiring at the end of the 2012-13 year
Mary Pugh, teacher at Smithville Elementary School retiring at the end of the 2012-13 year

In other business, the board approved the following teachers for a professional license, as recommended by Director Willoughby: Jennifer Barnes, Jason Farley, Tanya Howard, Angela Johnson, Adrienne McCormick, Shea Wiegele, Jenny Cantrell, Melissa Hale, Cathleen Humphrey, Jennifer Judkins, John Pryor, Andrew Dixon, Lisa Hull, Ana Jarvis, Kristen Malone, and Allison Rigsby.

Meanwhile, DCHS Principal Patrick Cripps announced a new Interactive Multimedia Presentations Course for the 2013-14 school year at DCHS. "We are doing away with keyboarding at the high school level. Kids are getting it in the second and fifth grade now. They are already coming to us able to type. We are really wanting to boost up our FBLA program. We are kind of behind the times in our program right now. We're basically doing keyboarding, document designs, doing excel spreadsheets and things like that. Kids already know that. With this class (Multimedia Presentations Course), they will be able to make movies, cartoons. We're hoping to broadcast in this class as well. When I took this job (DCHS Principal) I told Mr. Willoughby that one of the things I wanted us to improve in is our FBLA program to get more student interest and be able to better compete at the state level," said Cripps

The school board approved the implementation of this course.

Cripps also mentioned events scheduled during the last week of school. "On May 22 we will have our underclassmen awards at 8:30 a.m. We will be giving our finals during the second and fourth block on May 20 and during the first and third block on May 21. Our graduation day will be May 24 at 7:00 p.m.

Read the rest of this article

DeKalb Voters Must Put Away Their Cell Phones While in the Polling Place

May 18, 2013
Dennis Stanley

To further protect the integrity of the ballot, all local voters will be asked to turn off or put away their cell phones when entering the polling place in all future elections.

The DeKalb County Election Commission, meeting in regular session Monday, adopted policies relating to activities that are prohibited inside the polling place during early voting and on election day.

“Security and privacy of the voter and the security and privacy of their votes are the overriding concerns of the Election Commission,” said Chairman Walteen Parker. “We felt it was time to update our policies, particularly in light of today’s technology.”

One policy adopted by the commission states that “upon entering the polling place, all voters are to turn off their mobile phones and/or place them securely in a belt clip, pocket or purse. Voters are strictly prohibited from talking or texting on their mobile phone while inside the voting location.”

“Not only is it a distraction, but talking or texting on a phone inside the voting location could be considered voter assistance,” said Dennis Stanley, Administrator of Elections. “There are laws relating to voter assistance and forms to be completed and signed by all parties involved. Someone on the other end of a telephone conversation obviously would not be here to sign the form.”

In addition, Stanley said using a cell phone could be in violation of the state’s “Campaign Free Zone” law.

“Voters using cell phones inside the polling place only raises unnecessary questions,” Stanley continued. “Who is the voter talking to? Are they talking to their spouse about what to pick up at the store on the way home or to a candidate about who to vote for? The later would be a violation of the Campaign Free Zone. ”

Another policy adopted by the Commission relates to actions inside the actual voting booth. The policy states it is “strictly prohibited to photograph, video or by any other method, record a voter’s actual ballot whether on a voting machine or a paper ballot.”

“These two measures go hand-in-hand and are designed to eliminate the possibility of a voter voting, taking a picture of their marked ballot, casting the ballot, then publishing the picture of their marked ballot to the public,” Stanley said.

“The Election Commission has a compelling interest in protecting voters from confusion and undue influence,” Parker added. “We feel like these measures address those issues and we think the public will agree.”

Read the rest of this article
Drupal SEO