Claspell Gets 3 Years Probation for Aggravated Burglary and Aggravated Assault
by: Dwayne PageMay 21, 2025
A woman arrested last summer for allegedly breaking into a dwelling and committing an assault appeared for sentencing Monday, May 19 in DeKalb County Criminal Court.
40-year-old Andrea Claspell entered a plea to aggravated burglary and aggravated assault and received a three-year sentence in each case all suspended to supervised probation. The cases are to run concurrently. She was given 34 days jail credit.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said that on July 11, 2024 a deputy was dispatched to Green Hill Road due to an assault. Upon arrival, he spoke with homeowners who reported that Claspell, who appeared to be under the influence, had taken possession of a Toyota Tacoma and driven through their yard and into the roadway where it got stuck in a ditch. The vehicle had extensive damage. The officer found Claspell holding a bottle of wine walking down the road. While speaking with Claspell, the officer found her speech to be slurred and she was unsteady on her feet. Claspell admitted to having consumed alcohol and driving the vehicle. She refused to submit to a blood draw. Her previous DUI offense was December 10, 2020.
Sheriff Ray said the investigation revealed that prior to her arrest, Claspell had allegedly entered an occupied dwelling with intent to commit an assault, then struck a man there in the face causing him to be checked out by DeKalb EMS. Claspell further allegedly caused damage to personal property outside the home with her vehicle by running over the owner’s bicycles, kids’ toys, and a trampoline and driving toward a woman placing her in fear of serious bodily injury.
Meanwhile a man arrested in a drug bust in March by the Smithville Police Department at the Rama Inn on East Broad Street was also sentenced Monday.
25-year-old Robert Stephen Ryan Derrick of East Broad Street (The Rama Inn) entered a plea by criminal information to possession of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams with intent to sell. He received a 10-year TDOC sentence to serve and was fined $2,000. The sentence is to run consecutive to a probation violation against him. Derrick was given jail credit from March 3 to May 19, 2025.
Two other people were also charged in the case, 36-year-old Savannah Elizabeth Mae Derrick of Crestlawn Avenue, and 37-year-old Landon Craig Wyatt of Toad Road but their cases are apparently still pending in court.
Chief Mark Collins said that on Monday, March 3, 2025 the Smithville Police Department executed a search warrant at 600 East Broad Street (The Rama Inn) and during the search found one a half pounds of a crystal-like substance believed to be methamphetamine along with scales, plastic baggies, and other drug paraphernalia items. He said both Robert and Savannah Derrick were out on parole.
Robert Derrick was charged at the time with sale and delivery of a schedule II drug; Savannah Derrick was arrested for simple possession of Fentanyl; and Landon Wyatt was charged with simple possession of methamphetamine.
43-year-old Johnny E. Bain, charged with three counts of aggravated assault has applied for supervised pre-trial judicial diversion probation and the prosecution will be suspended for six months while Bain is on CPS supervised probation followed by 6 months of good behavior probation provided he follows all the conditions including performing 20 hours of community service work.
22-year-old Brandon M. Lee, charged with two counts of aggravated assault has applied for supervised pre-trial judicial diversion probation and the prosecution will be suspended for six months while Lee is on CPS supervised probation followed by 6 months of good behavior probation provided he follows all the conditions including performing 20 hours of community service work.
Proposed New School Budget Presented to County Budget Committee
by: Dwayne PageMay 21, 2025
Director of Schools Patrick Cripps met with the county budget committee Tuesday night to present the Board of Education’s proposed spending plan for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The budget committee has not yet taken action on the school budget.
Director Cripps explained that the proposed new school budget includes $2,000 teacher bonuses from the state through the voucher program to those who qualify, and $2,000 bonuses funded locally to those educators who don’t qualify for the state bonuses. Support staff would each get a $1,000 bonus funded locally with passage of this budget.
“We don’t have any pay raises in this budget but our step increases are still in there for teachers. All we have in this budget is our bonuses and those will be funded by the state for certified staff. What’s coming from the state will be a little over $500,000 for the bonuses. About 30 people would not receive the state bonus but we did put that (local bonus) in there for them ($2,000 each). We feel like they are equally deserving of that bonus as the others that the state recognized which is certified people with licenses. The noncertified staff would not have received anything (bonus) so we put $1,000 in for each of them for this school year. All of that $245,000 (locally funded bonuses) is coming out of our budget reserves. This is a one-time bonus,” said Director Cripps.
Also included is $1.3 million from the school budget’s $13 million school reserves for the purchase of land for a future new school although no location either for a high school or middle school, has been publicly identified.
During the budget committee meeting Tuesday night, County Mayor Matt Adcock echoed a suggestion offered by the county’s fiscal agent Steve Bates last week on using local purpose or local option sales tax revenue to fund the purchase of property for a future new school without the money coming out of the school budget’s reserves.
“The school board and Director Cripps did not ask for us to take this $1.3 million out of the local purpose fund (to purchase land) but Steve (Bates) made this suggestion. The school board is trying to be proactive in looking for land to build the next school on. They are trying to put some money in their budget so they can have funding in place to buy it if an opportunity for a good piece of land comes along. Steve thought it wouldn’t make much sense for the school board to take $1.3 million from their budget for it when we have this local purpose tax fund from sales tax collections that we are funding new school construction out of. Steve said it would be better to take that $1.3 million from local purpose since that is what this fund is for anyway which is the construction of schools, land and things of that nature. If you choose to do this the unassigned fund balance as of June 30 in the educational capital projects (local purpose sales tax fund) would still be $16 million even after that $1.3 million comes out of it and it would not affect the payment on the new school we will be building. It has a pretty healthy fund balance. We have collected a lot of sales tax revenue over the past several years. I think this would be a better option,” said County Mayor Adcock.
As with most budgets, Director Cripps said the school budget has seen an increase in the annual cost of doing business especially with insurance.
“The killer for us is insurance (increased costs). That is where we took a hit. Last year we budgeted a 5% increase for insurance but that wasn’t enough. You will be seeing some budget amendments coming from us next month for your (county commission) approval so we can balance our budget in those line items for insurance. This year (new budget) we bumped that up again by another 5% but I don’t know if that is going to be enough. The state has still not told us what our insurance (budget) lines will be. That is the one area of our budget (insurance) that has really increased,” explained Director Cripps.
While nothing major is planned during the year as far as capital projects, other than the installation of classroom walls at DeKalb Middle School over the summer, Director Cripps said something could crop up that needs to be addressed.
“We don’t have any major projects or big-ticket items coming up or planned this year unless something pops up out of the blue. We just got verification that we will be going forward with construction of our walls at DeKalb Middle School and that $400,000 project will be funded in this budget we are currently in (2024-25). The only other big-ticket item is the $1.3 million for land,” said Director Cripps.
No new positions are to be created this year, according to Director Cripps, and some programs deemed not necessary or ineffective will be eliminated as the school district tightens its belt.
“We don’t have any new positions in this budget. Last year we added a couple of positions that we never filled. At this part of the year, we are cutting staff. It’s a hard thing to do but at this time you have to start tightening your belt. I understand you can’t have high pay and a thousand teachers. We are a small community, and you have to manage your money to fit community needs. We are absorbing some positions that have been in place because numbers are decreasing, and we don’t need those positions anymore. We are also absorbing positions as they retire or as they move to another county to work. We are not rehiring those positions unless it is an absolute need. One of those things you never know about is special education. A kid may move in with an individual education plan (IEP) who requires a certain type of teacher so we leave a buffer in there (budget) for that,” he said.
“Since 2020 (during the pandemic) we had received Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) federal money to provide instructional platforms for our teachers and students but now that money is gone so we will have to pick that back up locally. We have culled back on some programs funded by ESSER. I went to our principals and tech coordinator and told them I needed to see which programs were and were not being used. We are getting rid of those programs that were not being used with consistency showing proof that students were making gains on their tests and schoolwork. We have pared it down to those programs we feel have been effective for our teachers in benefitting students,” explained Director Cripps.
The school district continues to be pro-active in search of new programs to meet needs and save money. Through a partnership with DeKalb County, Graduation Alliance provides versatile pathways to high school graduation for youth and adults.
“We get estimates from the state on the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) dollars (the district receives) and last year it was almost $29 million. The estimate this year came in at $33 million but those numbers are fluctuating like mad right now. The April estimate was $200,000 less than the March estimate,” said Director Cripps. “We had a graduation coach in place who worked with our seniors, but she was also doing an adult school. We were not real comfortable with how that school was running because kids were not coming in and doing the work they were supposed to do. We weren’t graduating kids from it. We knew we needed to do something different. We partnered with a company called Graduation Alliance. It is a virtual adult high school. Under that contract they help us with the kids and our budget. With us losing students to home school this is another way for us to generate money in addition to what the state is sending us. Our virtual adult high school has generated almost $4.5 million which reflects on the (TISA) money we receive. But under this contract we only get 10% of that or $450,000. The rest flows back out to that company to teach those kids. All we have to do is keep the data on those students. We don’t have to hire a teacher for it or buy any computers and books. We’re just housing the data and putting them (students) on our Skyward Family Access account. They (Graduation Alliance) do all the work,” said Director Cripps.
The next meeting of the county budget committee will be Tuesday, May 27 at 6 p.m. in the downstairs courtroom of the courthouse.
Tigerettes Shutout Unicoi County to Advance in State Softball Tournament
by: Dwayne PageMay 21, 2025
The DCHS Tigerettes have advanced in the winner’s bracket of the Class 3A state softball tournament after shutting out Unicoi County 1 to 0 Wednesday afternoon in the spring fling at Murfreesboro.
(View revised Class 3A state softball tournament bracket at link below)
DeKalb County will face either Unicoi County or McNairy Central Thursday, May 22 at 11 a.m. at McKnight Field# 1 in Murfreesboro. WJLE will have LIVE coverage of the game on AM 1480/FM 101.7 and on the LIVE audio stream at www.wjle.com.
The Tigerettes are undefeated at 2-0 in this double elimination state tournament after first beating McNairy Central 4-2 Wednesday morning on a 2-run walk off homerun by Hannah Brown in the bottom of the 8th inning.
Tigerette Pitcher Kora Kilgore pitched a one hit shutout through 7 innings against Unicoi County and had 17 strikeouts in the game.
For the Tigerettes, Zaleigh Bain had a single, a double, and scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the 4th inning. Bryna Pelham, Kora Kilgore, Tatum Young and Sophie Adcock each singled.
The Tigerettes improve to 25-5-1 on the season.
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