County Commission and School Board Renew Discussion About New School Construction in Joint Meeting

November 29, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

A meeting of the minds

For the first time in more than a year, members of the county commission and board of education met together Tuesday night in an informal workshop setting to work toward some funding arrangement for the eventual construction of a new 800 student Pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school to replace the existing Smithville Elementary School complex.

While both County Mayor Matt Adcock and Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said the joint meeting was cordial and productive, no agreement came out of the session. None could at this meeting since it was only a workshop.

“It was a productive conversation. I think we (county commission) answered a lot of questions, and we received a lot of answers to questions we had. We still haven’t worked things out. After talking with the school board, we have learned they apparently have more needs than we thought they had,” said County Mayor Adcock.

The existing Smithville Elementary School, originally built in 1958, now is 70,557 square feet in size, and had an enrollment in August of 550 students. As far back as 2017, a facilities study by Upland Design Group, concluded that the school, which had mold and other concerns, should be replaced and repurposed for other uses. In October 2022 the architects estimated the project cost to build a new Smithville Elementary School was $46,199,875 at that time.

School Plans

If such a project is funded with a long-term bond commitment, the county might not be able to undertake another school building project for years to come. At the meeting Tuesday night, school officials pointed out that while the core building of Smithville Elementary is now 65 years old, the other four schools are aging as well. The high school is 60 years old and both the middle and west school are close to 50 years old. Northside Elementary has been in existence for almost 25 years.

As for this project, what the group learned from County Mayor Adcock and the county’s fiscal agent Steve Bates is that although a $40 million school project could be funded without a property tax increase or even a wheel tax using available local option sales tax funds and interest income on bond proceeds, the school board would need to be willing to contribute $2 million from its $10 million fund balance (reserves) to make the plan work. The county would also need a commitment from the cities and school board to extend the existing sales tax agreements between the parties which expire July 16, 2037. Under those agreements, the cities turn over to the county for schools a greater percentage of their local option sales tax collections than they would otherwise be required to do. That money goes into what is called the Local Purpose Tax Fund for Schools to help fund school operation and debt.

“The best-case scenario would be to extend the sales tax agreements between the county, cities, and school board (beyond 2037) in order to do 30-year bonds but do an emission of bonds to build the school and amortize it over a 15-year period with a $ 2 million contribution from the Board of Education from their fund balance together with a contribution from local purpose (local option sales tax fund). Under this plan, we (county) would take $5.6 million (from local purpose/sales tax fund) together with the school’s $2 million contribution and together with bond proceeds issue an amount of bonds to build the school. By amortizing it quickly over 15 years then it opens up future borrowing capacity for another school to be built once that issue is paid off,” said Bates.

The Board of Education is reluctant to make a $2 million commitment from the school district’s fund balance because of other needs including some that are state mandated which either are being or may have to be financially supported locally from the fund balance (reserves).

“We all understand a new school needs to be built but the tricky part is how are we going to fund it? We actually need three or four new schools, but we can’t get to the second school until we get the first one built,” said Director Cripps.

“We have concerns about them (county) asking us to contribute $2 million from our fund balance (reserves). Right now, we (school district) have close to $9.9 million in our reserves (fund balance) and that is healthy but when you run a budget of up to $29 million then $9 million is not a whole lot of money and to think that we could possibly be pulling $2 million out of that and suddenly be down to $7.9 million left in reserves is a cause of worry for me. We (school district and school board) have been good stewards of the money and because of that we have been able to give pay raises to our employees without having to ask the county commission for more local funding to do that and I would not want to harm that ability. I would like for us (school district) to be able to take care of our business with our money and not have to ask for more from the county,” said Director Cripps.

“There are also mandates we have to meet which are not funded by the state,” Cripps continued. “Right now, we are able to cover those (costs) with some of the grants we have been able to write because of COVID but those end this year so we will have to come up with additional money to fund those mandates and that comes at a cost to our local budget. So again, it concerns me having to go into our (school) reserves for anything and if we have to go deeper into our reserves to help pay for a new school that scares me even more. And really, although we certainly need new schools, if we don’t have quality teachers and quality support staff in our building working because we are not able to take care of them with their pay it really doesn’t matter what kind of building you have,” said Director Cripps.

November 29, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

The DCHS Tigers won their first game of the young basketball season with a 54 to 52 finish over the visiting Cannon County Lions Tuesday night in Smithville. The Lady Tigers suffered a 53 to 46 loss to Cannon County.

https://www.wjle.com/tiger-talk/

The Tigers (1-4) and Lady Tigers (2-3) will travel to Watertown Friday night, December 1. WJLE will have LIVE coverage starting at 6 p.m. with the girls game followed by the boys game.

The Tigers and Lions battled to a 10-10 tie by the end of the 1st period. DeKalb County opened up a 25 to 18 advantage by halftime and led 37 to 35 after the 3rd period before going onto claim a 54 to 52 victory.

Conner Close and Dallas Kirby shared high scoring honors with 14 points each. Jordan Parker and Alex Antoniak each scored 10 and Jon Hendrix had 6 points.

In the girls game, The Lady Tigers trailed Cannon County 17 to 13 after the 1st period. DC grabbed a 28 to 27 halftime lead but fell behind 40 to 39 after the 3rd period and went on to lose the game 53 to 46.

Tess Barton led DeKalb County in scoring with 16 points followed by Chloe VanVranken with 15, Ella VanVranken 8, Avery Agee 6, and Cam Branin with 1.

2023-24 DCHS Tigers and Lady Tigers Basketball Schedule

*District – 7AAA Games
Date -Time -Opponent- Home/Away

DECEMBER
Fri, 12/1-6:00pm-Watertown- Away • Non-District
Tue, 12/5- 6:00pm- Smith County- Away • Non-District
Fri, 12/8- 6:00pm-Warren County- Home • Non-District
Tue, 12/12 -6:00pm- Smith County- Home • Non-District
Fri, 12/15- 6:00pm- Cannon County- Away • Non-District
Mon, 12/18-6:00 pm- Watertown-Home • Non-District
Wed, 12/20-Fri. 12/22- (BOYS) Adidas Shootout- Riverdale • Non-District-TBA
Wed. 12/27-Fri, 12/29 (BOYS) Watertown Classic- Away • Non-District-TBA

JANUARY
Fri. 1/5-6:00pm-White County*-Home • District
Tues. 1/9-6:00pm-Cumberland County*- Home • District
Fri. 1/12-6:00pm-Upperman*- Away • District
Tue, 1/16-6:00pm-Livingston Academy*-Away • District
Fri, 1/19-6:00pm-Stone Memorial*-Home • District
Mon. 1/22-6:00 pm- Warren County-Away• Non-District
Tues. 1/23-(OPEN DATE-District Make Up Day)
Fri. 1/26-6:00pm-White County*-Away • District
Tues, 1/30-6:00pm-Cumberland County*-Away • District

FEBRUARY
Fri. 2/2-6:00pm-Upperman*-Home • District
Mon, 2/5-6:00pm-Livingston Academy*-Home • District
Thurs. 2/8- 6:00 pm-Stone Memorial*-Away • District
Mon. 2/12- 2/17- District Tournament-TBA

*District 7AAA Games. Game time listed is the start of the girls contest. Boys contest to follow

November 28, 2023
By:

A joint investigation by special agents with the Drug Investigation Division of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department has resulted in the indictment of a Smithville man, in connection to the drug-related death of a DeKalb County man earlier this year.

On February 9th, agents joined deputies in investigating the death of  42 year old William Wayne Graham. He was found deceased at a residence on Bright Hill Road. The investigation revealed that he died from acute combined drug toxicity, that included ethanol, alprazolam, cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl. During the course of the investigation, investigators identified Scott Ferrell of South Tittsworth Road as the individual who provided the cocaine to the victim.

On November 27th, the DeKalb County Grand Jury returned indictments charging 59 year old Scott Alan Ferrell with one count of Second-Degree Murder, one count of Sale of Schedule II Narcotic (Cocaine), and one count of Delivery of Schedule II Narcotic (Cocaine). Today, Ferrell was arrested and booked into the DeKalb County Jail on a $500,000 bond. He will be arraigned in DeKalb County Criminal Court December 13