PHOTO: The DeKalb County Board of Education discusses the Crossville High School bleachers with Superintendent Jason Barnett before approving the motion. (Tyler Pruett | Southern Torch)
By Tyler Pruett, Managing Editor
RAINSVILLE, Ala. — The DeKalb County Board of Education held a special call meeting on Wednesday to approve a construction project, announce non-renewals, resignations, retirements, and announced a new job posting.
To start off the meeting Superintendent Jason Barnett recommended the board approve a contract with Cheaha Construction LLC to build new grandstands at Crossville High School. The price tag for the new bleachers will $555,555.00.
“Basically, the high school home side grandstand, risk management came out and evaluated them, and said ‘we’re not going to insure them moving forward,’” explained Barnett.
“At that point I called Mr. Butts and we had an engineer come out and review the structure. He found flaws in the structure, and it not safe for occupancy,” stated the superintendent.
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Barnett explained that the visitor’s side may also need replacing: “We also looked at possibly doing the visitor’s side. We did get an added on bid for that as well. We looked at it and there is some time crunches we’re in. We’ve got 30 days if we want to add that, but we’ve got to get this going.”
“The homeside has been torn down as of right now. There is no home bleachers,” added Board Member Randy Peppers.
“They are supposed to be ready by football, maybe?” asked Board Chairman Jeff Williams.
“The good Lord willing,” Barnett replied.
“We’re going to do it as expedited as we can. I’ve talked to Mr. Butts and he’s going to stay on top of it. I’ll do my part as well. It put us in a bad bind when risk management concluded their review,” explained Barnett.
The motion was approved after comments. Williams then explained that, “Basically our meeting today we determined that we had to deal with this particular item because of the time issue, but that being the case, since we called the meeting, there are several other items that fell into place and we needed to take care of today."
The board then announced and approved non-renewals, resignations, and retirements:
Non-Renewals (All effective May 26):
- Loran Schrader - Secondary Science Teacher, Valley Head, Non-Renewal
- Jennifer Mays - Elementary Teacher, Henagar, Non-Renewal
- Amanda Hayes - Elementary Teacher, Ider, Non-Renewal
- Casey Gaddis - Elementary Teacher, Ider, Non-Renewal
- Joanna Howell - Elementary Teacher, Ider, Non-Renewal
- James Tucker Davis - Secondary Math Teacher, Crossville High, Non-Renewal
- Silvana Berry - Intervention Teacher, Crossville High, Non-Renewal
- Felicia Heard - Itinerant SPED Elementary Teacher, Ider, Non-Renewal
- Meg Beasley (Was Featured on WHNT 19 this morning) - Elementary Teacher, Plainview, Non-Renewal
- Taylor Seiberhener - Secondary Social Sciences Teacher - Geraldine - Non-Renewal
Resignations:
- Laura Richey - Band Director, Fyffe
- April Weldon - Secondary Science Teacher, Ider
- Anthony Dabbs - Secondary Social Sciences Teacher, Geraldine
- Fred Ledford - Itinerant SPED Bus Aide, Fyffe Special Service Center, Fyffe
- Sherri Fiquett - Nurse, Plainview, Resignation
- Cale Black - Head Basketball Coaching Duties Only, Geraldine, Resignation
- Victoria Griffith - Secondary English Teacher, Ider, Resignation
- Jessica Hairston - Secondary Math Teacher, Collinsville, Resignation
Retirements:
- Leslie Osborn - Elementary Teacher, Collinsville
- Sandra Gilbreath - Itinerant SPED Paraprofessional, Ider
- Kirk Jonus - P.E. Teacher, Crossville High
To finish up the meeting, Superintendent Barnett asked for permission to look over the offers from different municipalities to house the county’s buses for the planned bus garage. The board voted to allow the superintendent to look over the offers and develop a packet for the board to look at and make a decision.
Barnett also announced a new job description for the board’s review: “There’s a major need for fine arts in the district, that’s something that I feel we are lacking, so I wanted to go ahead and put this job description on the table. So when we start hiring people we can look for people with certifications to help support these fine art students.”
The board approved the new position. The next regular board meeting will be held on May 25, at 5 pm, with the work session beginning at 4 pm.
