February 11, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County Board of Education met briefly in regular monthly session Thursday night at the cafeteria of DeKalb County High School.
(View WJLE video below)
Except for 11th graders, all other students at DeKalb County High School will be on remote learning on March 2 to allow juniors to take the ACT exam in person at school.
The Board of Education took this action during Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting.
“We need to do this because it takes so many staff to give the tests and kids have to be at least six feet apart. They can’t be beside each other,” said Director of Schools Patrick Cripps during a work session with the board members prior to the meeting.
In other business, the board voted to seek bids for the purchase and installation of lights at the DCHS soccer field at the request of booster president Billy Miller, who addressed the board during the work session.
Meanwhile DeKalb County has only two snow days left for this school year. The school calendar includes thirteen days that can be used for inclement weather or sickness without any makeup days.
“I want people to understand that when I decide to close schools I don’t take it lightly. It’s a scary thing to know you are responsible for three thousand kids getting to school especially when you have buses running in the morning before daylight and there is the potential for black ice. You may get calls from some who say “there’s nothing out there” but three of us ride the roads all over the county in the morning time and we talk with the sheriff’s department as well so it’s not just me looking out the window and making a decision. I get out there as early as 3 o’clock in the morning riding roads. A lot school directors don’t go out and look but I have to see it for myself although I do have people across the county that I call to see how the roads are where they live. I also don’t like going two hours late. I know it’s a stress on parents but if we can get to school even for a few hours each day it helps because we have already missed so much because of COVID,” said Director Cripps during the work session.