Music Teacher Erica Birmingham Shares Passion for Music

December 22, 2021
By: Bill Conger

In her first year at DeKalb Middle School music teacher Erica Birmingham wanted to do something special with her classes. So, she polled her students about what genres of music they liked. Taking the results, she used her creativity to weave together an 8th grade Christmas musical.

“I stitched them together through dialogue to create the story about what the Christmas time or holidays really meant to these people. It was about sharing love with everyone around you, getting together with your friends and family, and holding onto that childlike wonder no matter how old everyone was,” said Birmingham in a WJLE interview

The students’ recent performance in front of a packed house at the community complex was met with lots of laugher and even a few tears. That was just part of the whirlwind first semester Birmingham enjoyed since stepping into her new role. The 2017 D.C.H.S. graduate was helping out this summer with the high school band’s percussion section when she was asked to interview for the music teacher position.

“It came as a shock to me,” Birmingham said of the job offer. She had just graduated from Belmont University in April with a degree in Commercial Music.

“I was kind of scared but in a very exciting way,” she added. “It’s the unknown. I’m stepping into something that I’ve never stepped into before. It was just an exhilaration. Now, I get to do what I love doing and sharing my passion with other kids and creating a space for other kids to be passionate about their own interests and hobbies.”

Her passion was clearly evident whether Birmingham, who is also the Assistant Band Director, was on the ground repairing drums, kicking off the tempo to the next song, or dancing along with students in the football stands to the groove of the pep songs.

She first started developing her love of music as a child who would tag along with her mother, former Assistant Band Director Kelly Jo Birmingham.

“I grew up around music,” Birmingham said. “I was always on the marching field with high schoolers as they were playing music almost every day after school.”

“Erica was practically raised in the music world,” Kelly Jo Birmingham said. “After school, she was usually found on the marching band field with me, or in my music classroom, helping me lay out the instruments I was going to use in class the next day. Of course, as most children are, she was always curious about how to play those instruments and how each of them made music.”

Mother Birmingham joined band as a percussionist in 6th grade and went on to wear many musical hats in DeKalb, including assistant band director, percussion instructor, countywide general music teacher and high school chorus director.

“Erica always had an appreciation for all types of performing arts. However, it was her 5th grade year at Northside Elementary School when she really latched on to music. Until then, she was a very quiet, shy, and reserved child. She never wanted to stand out in the crowd or have attention drawn to her in any way. But in 5th grade, she sang two solos in the NES 5th grade musical that I was directing at the time. She joined beginning band the next year as a 6th grader at DMS.”

“As I grew older, it became a part of me,” Erica said. “It’s always been a way for me to express my thoughts and my feelings and my passions. By the time I got old enough to get into the high school marching band in 7th grade—I joined it because it was more time to spend with my mother— it actually became not something that my mother was a part of. It was all of me. It holds a special place in my heart, and she is absolutely a wonderful supporter of the arts and of her children. I wouldn’t be where I’m at without her supporting me along the way.”

Like her mother, Birmingham started off as a percussionist and then graduated to other instruments including the trumpet and French horn for the last two years in band. She became proficient in most instruments.

“I can pick up an instrument, practice, and learn with everyone else. I’ve grown fond of learning new instruments like piano, guitar, ukulele. I just like to bring in more knowledge and expertise so that I knew what I had to do over here and over here in these different areas.”

She added singing to her repertoire, and the talented alto refined her skills even more during college.

“My unique voice is my unique voice,” she said. “We were having to grow and cultivate that so that I wouldn’t go out and sound like Adele or another artist whose already out there.”

Birmingham had originally planned to take her talents upon graduation and audition for musical theater in Nashville. Later she had set her sights on opening a performing arts studio with her brother, Nicholas, a dancer. While she is currently an educator for the school system, Birmingham still holds to that dream to teach classical or commercial music or any type of dance to students after school. But for now she’ll continue to pursuing her passion next semester teaching music at DeKalb West School where she plans another performance for students there in the spring.

December 21, 2021
By:

After winning the Central Region 4-H Grill Master Challenge contest, the DeKalb County 4-H grilling team went on to compete in the State Competition and finished third. The team was comprised of Avalynn Smullen, Paul Oliver, Riley Fuson, and Lilly Waggoner. They competed against eight other teams from across the state that had placed in the top three of their respective regions. Along with the team placing third for the entire state, Lilly Waggoner was the second highest scoring individual in the poultry category.

The contest is comprised of four different species: beef, pork, lamb, and poultry. Each contestant cooks a cut from one of the species and submits it for judging along with a copy of their recipe. A special thanks goes out to C&S Farms, the Smithville Food Lion store and the DeKalb County Cattlemen’s Association for helping to sponsor the team.

Since Lilly Waggoner finished second in the poultry category, she was invited to go on the National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference held in Louisville, Kentucky and compete in the Turkey BBQ contest where she competed against 4-H members from across the nation. In that competition, along with grilling, she also completed an oral presentation on the turkey industry and placed seventh overall. Congratulations to these young people for their hard work throughout the Fall.

December 21, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Full time DeKalb EMS personnel are getting a pay raise to start the new year

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission approved a recommendation from the health, education, and public welfare committee to increase the pay of full-time ambulance service personnel by $3.00 per hour and to adopt a budget amendment of $72,975 from the general fund balance to pay for it through the rest of the fiscal year, January 1-June 30.

The ambulance service is budgeted for 20 full time positions but there are currently only 13 on staff. Director Hoyte Hale said it has been difficult to retain and attract full time employees because the DeKalb EMS is not pay competitive with surrounding counties. Hale said this increase in pay will help.

The pay raise will be applied to the EMS wage scale which tops out with 20 years of service.

DeKalb EMS staffs 2–24-hour trucks and a day truck Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. EMS staff operate on a 24/72 schedule meaning they work 24 hours on duty and 72 hours off duty.

Second District Commissioner Myron Rhody made a motion to approve the $3.00 per hour pay raise and adopt the budget amendment and First District Commissioner Julie Young offered a second to the motion.

Fifth District Commissioner Jerry Adcock said while he does not oppose a pay raise, he doesn’t think how it is being applied is fair to EMS staff with more seniority and he tried to table the motion.

“I would like to make a motion that we table this. It’s not fair for somebody who has been working for EMS 10 to 15 years with advanced studies to get the same $3.00 per hour raise as the person who has been there a year or two. Why not give those up higher (more seniority) more than $3.00 per hour and give those below (less seniority) less than $3.00 more per hour. We should sit down as a commission or committee and work on this and not do it as a knee jerk reaction thing and make any raise we give retroactive to the first of the year,” said Adcock.

“We already have a step increase (EMS wage scale) so the more years and education you have the better your pay is but it’s probably not enough. The upper group probably needs a little more pay but there are pay raise step increases for them,” said Commissioner Rhody.

Seventh District Commissioner Bruce Malone asked if an additional $3.00 per hour would be enough to keep current ambulance service employees from leaving for better paying EMS jobs.

“Is it enough? Will ambulance service employees be willing to stay for $3.00 per hour more? Is this a band aid? Will we be back here again in two months (to revisit this)? I think our ambulance employees are underpaid based on what was presented to me (by EMS Director Hoyte Hale) Thursday night (during a committee of the whole county commission meeting),” said Commissioner Malone.

“This is the first step to make sure we can hire new EMTs and hold onto the EMTs we have now,” added Fifth District Commissioner Anita Puckett. “The issue of disparity in pay for the more skilled EMS staff can be brought before the budget committee next spring but this ($3.00 per hour raise) will get the lowest paid EMT employee within range of what those are getting paid in surrounding counties,” she said.

The pay raise and budget amendment were approved on a 10-1-1 vote. Fifth District Commissioner Jerry Adcock voted against it based on his claim of unfairness and Sixth District Commissioner Matt Adcock abstained because he is employed by the ambulance service and has a conflict of interest. Two members were absent.