County Urged to Begin Planning for Redistricting

April 16, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County and all of Tennessee will have to undertake redistricting in 2021 once official 2020 US Census numbers are known this fall. What that means is boundary lines for state house, state senate, and congressional districts will have to be redrawn as well as districts and voting precincts within the county.

District lines are redrawn every 10 years following completion of the United States census. The federal government stipulates that districts must have nearly equal populations and must not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced in February that it would deliver the detailed datasets needed for redistricting to the states by September 30, 2021, after the original April 1, 2021, deadline.

Redistricting has to be completed before the 2022 election cycle so that candidates and voters will know in which districts they reside.

On the local level, the County Commission will select a redistricting committee to recommend a plan to be adopted by the commission. Ten years ago the County Commission appointed itself as the redistricting committee but leaned on the Office of Local Government, a division of the State Comptroller’s Office, which had all the data and mapping systems to make the process more efficient. As for voting precincts, those district lines are drawn by the county election commission.

With census numbers unavailable until fall and a local primary expected in May, 2022, the election commission will be under pressure to make changes as quickly as possible once district lines are redrawn.

“Due to the late arrival of the official numbers, election offices all across the state will be under a great deal of pressure to complete necessary changes to district and precinct boundaries, “said DeKalb Administrator of Elections Dennis Stanley.

“Historically, the Democratic Party in DeKalb County holds a local primary which next year will be held May 3, 2022. If so again, and possibly Republicans as well, election law dictates that petitions can be issued beginning December 20, 2021”.

“If the county has a May primary, as it traditionally does, our office could give petitions to candidates beginning December 20, 2021 and that does not give us much time to change the voters and potential candidates who are impacted by redistricting. Candidates for County Commission obviously need to be in the correct district and to know which voters live in their district,” said Stanley

“While the official numbers will not be out until late September, it is my hope the county commission will go ahead and name a redistricting committee, make contact with the State Office of Local Government, a Division of the State Comptroller’s Office, and start setting up preliminary dates for meetings so once the numbers are here, the process of redistricting can begin without delay,” Stanley said.

On the state level redistricting is the process by which new congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn. Each of Tennessee’s nine United States Representatives and 132 state legislators are elected from political divisions called districts. United States Senators are not elected by districts, but by the states at large.

State Senator Mark Pody told WJLE Thursday that while the final census numbers are not yet known, preliminary results show growth in Tennessee and a dramatic shift in population from west and east Tennessee to middle Tennessee.

“The numbers are not all final yet and we probably won’t get those until fall possibly September but we know that all the districts in middle Tennessee on the congressional, state, and local levels will have to be reapportioned so each district has about the same number of people represented. Just on the preliminary numbers from our internal counts we know that there are now roughly 6,969,000 people in Tennessee. If you divide that up among the state’s 33 senators we can get an idea of how many people should be in each district. Middle Tennessee has grown with almost 200,000 more people than other parts of the state so that means that the Memphis and Knoxville areas will each be short about 100,000 people so that will have an impact on redistricting throughout the state,” said Senator Pody.

According to Senator Pody, it appears that he and State Representatives Terri Lynn Weaver and Clark Boyd as well as Congressman John Rose, who all represent DeKalb County, now have too many people in their districts.

“In my district, the 17th Senate District I am actually carrying (representing) about 30,000 more people than are supposed to be in this district so some of that population will be taken away from me by redrawing district lines,” said Pody. “ They will be redrawing John Rose’s congressional district lines as well because he has too many people in his district. All the state house districts will be changing as well. Representative Weaver as too many people in her district so those lines will be redrawn. Representative Boyd’s district will also change. Boyd currently represents Wilson, Cannon, and a portion of DeKalb County but Wilson County has changed so much that he will probably just be representing Wilson County alone. All the maps will be redrawn by the end of this year or early next year,” said Pody.

Following the 2010 United States Census, Tennessee was apportioned nine congressional seats.
Tennessee’s House of Representatives is made up of 99 districts; Tennessee’s State Senate is made up of 33 districts.

In Tennessee, congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn by the state legislature.

April 14, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

A Nashville man was seriously injured this morning (Wednesday) in a one car crash at the intersection of Highway 70 & 96 at Liberty.

44 year old Frederick Standbery of Nashville was airlifted from Ascension St. Thomas DeKalb Hospital to Vanderbilt Hospital.

According to Trooper Bobby Johnson of the Tennessee Highway Patrol Standbery was traveling north on Highway 96 in a 2006 Ford Focus when he failed to stop at the intersection, crossing all lanes of Highway 70 and striking an earthen embankment. The car then continued to the top of the embankment and struck a utility pole before coming to a stop.

Charges are pending

April 13, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The 2021 DeKalb County School District Teacher of the Year is Britney Gulley, a chemistry and ACT prep teacher at DeKalb County High School.

Gulley got a surprise visit to her classroom Tuesday for the “John Isabell Memorial Award” presentation by Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, DCHS Principal Randy Jennings, DCHS Assistant Principal Jenny Norris, and Supervisors of Instruction Michelle Burklow and Dr. Kathy Bryant.

As part of the honor, Gulley also received a school bell award, a floral arrangement, and a certificate granting her a day off from school.

“I have wanted to be a teacher for a long time and its an honor to know that my colleagues think that much of me to have nominated and voted for me. Its an exciting moment in my life. I love what I do every day and I love these kids. I also love the fact that I got to go to college and come back and be a part of the education system that gave so much to me when I was here,” said Gulley.

“Britney is a special person to me, said Director Cripps. She is one of my former students when I was in the administration here at the high school and its great to see her having grown up not only personally but professionally. She has been accepted into the state’s aspiring assistant principal network and we are excited that she wants to go into that program to broaden her career horizons. She would be a great administrator. Britney is very smart, personable, a hard worker, and dedicated to her students,” said Director Cripps.

“One day I would like to be an administrator and become a principal to lead not only the kids but my colleagues as well. I have also considered maybe sometime in the distant future becoming a professor of education at some point,” said Gulley.

Gulley, who is in her sixth year as a teacher, was among five local educators who were recognized this week for being chosen by peers as “Teacher of the Year” at their schools. The others were second grade teacher Janet Trapp at Smithville Elementary School; eighth grade ELA (English Language Arts) teacher Galen Brown at DeKalb Middle School; Allison Collier, a third grade ELA and ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher at Northside Elementary School; and Martha Damron, a seventh grade math and science teacher at DeKalb West School.

In addition to the visit to Gulley, Director Cripps and other school administrators paid a call on Damron and Collier at their classrooms Tuesday and stopped in to see Trapp and Brown on Monday to present their school level “Teacher of the Year awards along with floral arrangements, school bells , and certificates granting them a day off from school.

This is the 14th annual Teacher of the Year observance. An awards banquet, which has always commemorated the event, was not held this year due to COVID-19 concerns.

Damron is an eighteen year educator at DeKalb West School. “I feel like every teacher here deserves this award but its an honor for me to have been chosen Teacher of the Year on the school level at DeKalb West,” said Damron.

Collier is in her sixth year as a teacher at Northside Elementary School. “It feels amazing to be Teacher of the Year on the school level here. I am very blessed to have had these students now and in the past and even though this year has been challenging we have made the best of it. I am so happy to work here,” said Collier.

Brown, a veteran teacher of twelve years, has had two stints as an educator. For the first six years of her career Brown taught third and fifth grades in the Warren County School System before taking a job as a third grade teacher at DeKalb West School for a year. Brown then took ten years off from teaching to raise two children before returning to the profession at DeKalb Middle School, a position she has held now for five years. “ Being a teacher is incredibly rewarding but I was stunned to have been named Teacher of the Year on the school level here because I work with some amazing people. But honestly that is one of the things that helps teachers think maybe they are doing the right thing. I very much appreciate this honor,” said Brown.

Trapp has been a teacher for twenty nine years. “I first started out at DeKalb West School where I taught four years. I moved here at Smithville Elementary and taught second grade for a few years and then I was a kindergarten teacher for about 19 years before teaching pre-K for a year and now I am back as a second grade teacher here at Smithville Elementary although kindergarten is probably where my heart is. I am very honored to have been named Teacher of the Year on the school level because there are so many good teachers out there and for them to name me is a very special feeling,” said Trapp.

Dr. Kathy Bryant, Supervisor of Instruction for Grades 6-12, said the School System Teacher of the Year can choose to compete at the District and Region level with hopes of vying for the state title.

“Teachers are first nominated and voted upon within each school for Teacher of the Year by their peers at the school level. Once a teacher is identified as Teacher of the Year he or she can apply to be District and Region Teacher of the Year and can go from there to the state. That consists of basically selling themselves and talking about everything they have done throughout their whole career to be deserving of Teacher of the Year. Its actually a lot of work. Sometimes we have teachers that do not wish to compete. They are very happy with being Teacher of the Year at their school. Regardless we are proud of our Teachers of the Year and would put them up against anybody but when they are able to compete regionally and at the state level that is big,” said Dr. Bryant.