Smithville Police Department Joins Santa in Spreading Christmas Cheer at Head Start

December 15, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

Members of the Smithville Police Department, Santa, and others paid a visit to the Head Start Center Friday morning to help spread a little Christmas cheer.

Through the annual “Cops4kids” program, the police department joins with Cash Express and other partners to collect and distribute toys for Christmas gift giving especially to Head Start kids.

Friday morning’s program at the Smithville Head Start Center, featured some holiday musical entertainment for the children by the Collins family and Ryan Huling of the New Life United Pentecostal Church shared the Christmas story. Police Chief Mark Collins and members of the police department made sure each child had a bag of toys. Santa dropped by to spend some time with the kids. Mayor Josh Miller and Alderman and Police Commissioner Shawn Jacobs were also part of the event.

The “Cops4Kids” program began in 2012 and has served Smithville Head Start children with gifts at Christmas time since 2015 along with others requesting and needing help through the Police Department’s Association with Cash Express and others.

“We put out the collection boxes at local businesses for toys, nonperishable food, clothing and money jars in addition to our annual Fill the Cop Car and Bake Sale event. The toys and money to buy toys are then given to the police department to be distributed to head start kids and others while the food collected goes to God’s Food Pantry. God’s Grace Ministries gets from us used toys, coats, clothes, etc,” said Athena Knauer of Cash Express. Thanks to the generosity of the community, the collection effort is so successful that it gives organizers a leg up for the following year’s event”.

“We have raised over $3,000 in monetary donations this year so we will soon go with Beth Adcock, records clerk at the police department, to purchase gifts for the head start for next year. For others needing help we also buy clothes, toys, etc. for them,” said Knauer.

Chief Collins said a special thanks goes to, among others, Cash Express, Mayor Miller, Alderman Jacobs, and the entire city council for their support.

“The department has enjoyed its partnership with Cash Express and a special lady in particular, Evelyn Woods, who donates gifts throughout the year. We are truly grateful for her support”, added Chief Collins.

December 15, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

The Board of Education on the road!

Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting of the School Board was held at the cafeteria of Smithville Elementary School. The meeting was brief with only routine business transacted.

The Board plans to meet at Northside Elementary School for the January monthly session.

The school board adopted a request from Danny Jenkins to use property behind the high school and middle school, formerly the cross-country track that is no longer being used, for Frisbee Golf.

In other business, the board adopted a SPARC 4.0 Grant Amendment for expenditures in the high school’s vocational program.

In his monthly personnel report, Director of Schools Patrick Cripps announced that educator Lori Vandergiff has been granted a leave of absence as requested.

Cripps also mentioned the heroic acts of two high school students and a bus driver who tended to another student during a medical emergency on a school bus last week.

“We had a medical emergency last week on one of our buses and I want to recognize two students, Jamison Bare and Eli Redmon and our bus driver Mike Merriman for their care and their response in helping a student in need. I just want to say we appreciate their help in that situation,” said Director Cripps.

Consent agenda items were approved including the following: Granting request for the DCHS FFA to attend the State Convention in Gatlinburg, March 24-27, 2024 (Spring Break); granting a request for the DCHS Girls Basketball team to make an overnight trip for tournament play, December 27-29, 2023 at Lynnville; approval of implementation of a Teacher-Driven Dyslexia Screening Tool; and approval of a request from the DeKalb West School Junior Pro program.

December 15, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County High School Tuesday recognized its staff member, students, and parents of the month for November.

Each received a certificate from the school and a gift card for a meal. A different restaurant offers a meal gift card to each month’s honorees.

Kathy Chapman, cafeteria manager, was selected by the administration as Staff member of the Month while Freshman Eli Redmon and Sophomore Jamison Bare tied as Co-Students of the Month, voted on by the teachers. The parents of the month are Wade and Tonya Youngblood and this honor was based on a winning essay written by their daughter, Christina Youngblood, a junior at DCHS.

Thomas Cagle, Assistant DCHS Principal said Redmon and Bare earned the Co-Student of the Month honor for their recent heroic act of coming to the aid of a fellow student who had suffered a medical episode on a school bus.

“It came to my attention last week that we had a medical emergency on a school bus. Mr. Mike Merriman, who was driving the bus came to me and explained how that these two gentlemen helped this student during that emergency until others could get there to take over. I made the recommendation for these guys to receive this month’s Student of the Month award. Normally we keep a list of nominations, and the teachers vote on it but this month I overrode that procedure and informed the teachers that these two young men deserved to be recognized for the deeds and goodness they were able to show. All the other teachers agreed so we decided to make them the co-students of the month for their efforts in helping someone in distress,” said Cagle.

Redmon and Bare explained what happened on the school bus that caused them to spring into action.

“I was sitting down on the bus, and I noticed that the girl was staring up at the ceiling and then she fell over. I didn’t know what was going on at first and then she fell out on the floor. I got up and let the bus driver know what was happening. The girl is a close friend of mine, so I had to get up and help. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her,” said Redmon.

“I had been asleep on the bus and a kid next to me woke me up because this girl had passed out from a seizure and was on the floor. The bus driver told me how to hold her, so I was tending to her until the ambulance got there,” said Bare.

Redmon is the son of Justin and Ashton Redmon, and he has three brothers and one sister. Eli is on the football team and is trying out for soccer. Bare’s parents are Joshua and Dana Bare. He has four sisters. Bare is a member of the HOSA, Spanish, Science, and Literature Club and he is in the band and the school’s winter guard.

After high school, Redmon said he wants to attend UT-Knoxville. Bare said his plans are to attend Fortis College and become a nurse practitioner.

Cagle said DCHS is also pleased to award Wade and Tonya Youngblood as Parents of the Month.

“Christina, their daughter, had written an essay for her parents. Once again, these essays are a chance for students to detail the sacrifices and support the parents offer them outside of school that we may not know about. Christina is a very wonderful young lady here at school. She has come a long way herself in becoming the student and young lady she is and we could not be prouder of her. We are happy to be giving her parents this award based on the essay she wrote this month,” said Cagle.

“I wrote this essay for my parents a long time ago,” said Christina. “I wanted to do it to show how much they actually mean to me and they mean everything to me”.

A junior, Christina describes herself as a very good student and she wants to become a nurse after she graduates.

“I love it. I didn’t know what this was. They said it was an award for her to get us up here. I’m tickled to death,” said Christina’s father Wade Youngblood. She means everything to us. It doesn’t seem like she should be 16 years old yet. It seems she should still be a baby. Time goes by too quick,” said Wade.

“That’s the way I feel about her too,” added Tonya Youngblood, Christina’s mother.

The Youngblood family resides in Dowelltown.

Kathy Chapman holds the distinction of being “Staff member of the Month” at DCHS.

“Kathy is our cafeteria manager,” said Assistant Principal Cagle. “She does a great job of keeping me and everyone else fed every day. Mr (Bruce) Curtis, Ms (Jenny) Norris, and I select these honorees each month based on what we see and Ms Kathy does a great job not only helping us with our crazy schedule sometimes to make sure we stay on track to get all the students in and out and fed but she also does a good job in building relationships with these kids. She knows the students and helps out anyone who needs it. She is just a great example for how we like our staff at DCHS to interact with the kids and each other. Kathy is a joy to be around, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have her here with us,” said Cagle.

“I was really surprised but I am glad to receive this honor. I do try to be good to the kids,” said Chapman.

Kathy, a resident of Liberty, has worked at DCHS for 19 years and been the cafeteria manager for the last two years. She began her career in the school system at DeKalb West School where she worked for six months under Georgia Young, who was cafeteria manager there at the time. Young is now deceased.