The Smithville Police Department is warning citizens to be aware of leaving purses unattended while shopping in stores.
” We are having a lot of reports of purses being stolen from carts while customers are shopping. The thefts are occurring as shoppers have their backs to the carts while reaching for items in the stores,” said Captain Steven Leffew.
“The purse snatchers wait for the shoppers to turn away then they simply walk by the carts and take the purses or wallets before the shoppers are aware of anything happening,” he said.
“I would encourage everyone to be mindful of leaving purses unattended while shopping and after loading items in your vehicle remember to remove purses/wallets from the carts before returning them to the store or to the cart return areas,” added Captain Leffew

The Annual First Day of School Education Celebration for DeKalb County will be held on Monday, August 3 starting at 6:00 p.m. downtown around the courthouse square.
The celebration is held on school registration day.
Michelle Burklow, Supervisor of Instruction for Pre-Kindergarten to 6th Grade, said the event is free and all parents and students are urged to attend to help kick off the new school year. “Our goal is to provide an evening of activities, education, and enjoyment for the residents of DeKalb County. We will be having information booths, passing out school supplies, refreshments, and various activities for the students to participate in while promoting education.”
“This will also provide a time for our teachers and parents to come together to build a foundation for new and positive relationships, right from day one,” said Burklow
“Our First Day of School Celebration is an opportunity for our schools to take a leadership role in re-enforcing and improving relationships among parents, teachers, students, and the community. This is the one day each year when it is both easiest and most important to enlist families as partners in our children’s education. This is a great time for us to engage our families and make them feel welcome into our schools.”
“So come out and join us. Everything is free that evening. We’ll have free school supplies, free food, snacks and lots of community people coming together to make this event possible”, said Burklow.
“There are many volunteers, churches, and organizations that come together to make this event possible for our children so they are able to start school with new supplies and a great positive attitude.”
If you would like to help with this event please call Michelle Burklow at 615- 597-4084. Volunteers are needed.
This celebration is totally free of charge to those who attend so make plans now to join the fun downtown Smithville on Monday, August 3 from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.

Members of the Board of Education recently came under criticism for a decision to cut $4,100 in funding from the budget by dropping the rental of a billboard sign on Highway 70 near the high school showing a picture of several DCHS graduates with the theme “Education Counts in DeKalb County”.
Board Chairman W.J. (Dub) Evins, III, speaking at Thursday night’s meeting, said while the board is dropping the billboard, students will be promoted by other means.
“When we passed the budget we took out $4,100 because of the cost of the billboard. I want the public to know that we did cut that money from this category but we are looking at a number of other options for promoting students. We’ve sold three (out of service) buses for $20,000 so we’re planning to take some money from transportation. We want to show our appreciation to students for their accomplishments but we want to be in a position to spread that out among all the schools and not just for a few students at the high school,” said Chairman Evins.
According to Evins, the billboard may not have been the most productive means of promoting students. ” It is hard to identify (students pictured on the billboard). Anyone in marketing can tell you if you get too much on a billboard you are not going to be able to see anything. We just felt it (billboard) was non productive. We still want to promote those students and we intend to do that very soon,” he said.
Changeable signs on school buses may be one option for promoting students. “A lot of school systems are putting advertisements on their buses. We don’t want to advertise. We want to promote. By our next workshop or meeting, I’ll bring some photos of those. They are not distracting. We can go to a local sign company (to have them made). If you have your student council you want to promote (for example) they can be placed on the side of a bus. There would be a lot of traffic (visibility) with it. Or you could have a first grade student who may be the principal of the day or something like that and have a sign put on there (promoting it). There are a lot of different ways to promote (our students). So we’re not cutting it out. We’re expanding it. We hope the public understands we’re trying to promote more and not just on one billboard,” said Chairman Evins.

The next Director of Schools will be offered a two year contract with a starting base salary of $85,000 per year.
Following a ninety minute work session Thursday evening, the DeKalb County Board of Education met in regular monthly session and set the terms of the contract.
“I’d like to make a motion to set the salary at $85,000 a year with a two year contract and the possibility of advancement in pay and extension of contract if expectations are met in the evaluation process of the director,” said Sixth District Board member Doug Stephens. Third district member Jim Beshearse offered a second to the motion and all members voted in favor including First district member Danny Parkerson, Second District member Jerry Wayne Johnson, Fourth district member Kate Miller, and Seventh district member Shaun Tubbs along with Board Chairman W.J. (Dub) Evins, III and members Stephens and Beshearse.
“That evaluation according to law I think will have to be next March so it (contract) will be somewhat less than a year (before yearly evaluation). This first year contract is not going to be a full year anyway (until the evaluation). We’ll have an opportunity during the evaluation to possibility grant a pay increase at that time if a majority of goals have been met to the board’s satisfaction and extend that contract for an additional year which at that point would still just be a two year contract,” said Board Chairman Evins
It appears that either DCHS Principal Patrick Cripps or Supervisor of Special Education Gina Arnold will be the next Director of Schools.
The third finalist Michael James Steele of Spring Hill, Executive Principal for Stratford STEM High School has withdrawn his name from consideration.
The school board will have a workshop on Monday, July 13 at 7 p.m. apparently for the purpose of developing a set of questions to ask Cripps and Arnold during interviews with them on Tuesday, July 14 at 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
The School Board will then meet in a special session on Thursday, July 16 at 7:00 p.m. to name a new director.

The DeKalb County Fire Department has been contacted by Senator Lamar Alexander’s office notifying Chief Donny Green that the department’s grant application in the amount of $153,510 has been awarded. The Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The funding award will be used to purchase emergency communications equipment that will be assigned to each of the DeKalb County Fire Department’s 11 fires stations across the county. The grant equipment includes portable two-way radios, fire pagers, and mobile computing devices (including software and mounting hardware). The Federal share of this award is $146,200 and the local matching share, to be provided by the DeKalb County Government, is $7,310.
Chief Green says that the communications equipment to be purchased with these grant funds will have a huge impact on the department’s daily operations and will be instrumental in allowing the department to maintain and/or improve the county’s Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating; a rating that directly influences the amount of insurance premiums charged to property owners in DeKalb County. “We are really fortunate to be able to purchase some new, cutting edge emergency communications equipment for our county. This new communications technology will interface with our 911 Dispatch Center to provide features that include mapping, water supply locations, vehicle tracking with GPS reporting, and many other features that will enhance and improve emergency responses and services. Our grant application aligned perfectly with AFG’s purpose of the grant—‘to protect the health and safety of the public and firefighting personnel against fire and fire-related hazards’—and our county will soon be getting the benefit of $153,510 for cost to our local government of only $7,310,” said Chief Green. Using a competitive process, grants are awarded to applicants whose requests best address the priorities of the AFG Program.
County Mayor Tim Stribling says he and the DeKalb County Commissioners are thankful for this federal funding that allows the fire department to purchase this emergency communications equipment at a cost of only 5% to our county.
The DeKalb County Fire Department wishes to express its sincere thanks to County Mayor Tim Stribling, the DeKalb County Commission, and Senator Lamar Alexander for their loyal support of the department’s application for this grant.

After forty years as an educator, Dr. Gayle Redmon has decided to retire.
She will not be returning as Principal at Northside Elementary School this fall. Assistant Principal Beth Pafford praised Dr. Redmon during Thursday night’s school board meeting.
“Dr. Redmon retired as of June 30. She has served DeKalb County Schools for forty years. It has been a big passion of hers to make sure students in this county receive an excellent education. She established a tradition of excellence at Northside. For three years she has been my mentor, my partner, and my friend. She will be greatly missed. I want to let her know that we greatly appreciate her,” said Pafford.
A successor to Dr. Redmon at Northside will soon be named by the next Director of Schools.
Meanwhile, Interim Director of Schools Dr. Danielle Collins presented her monthly report on personnel moves to the Board of Education Thursday night.
Resignations/Retirements:
Pauline Braswell, Custodian at DeKalb Middle School
Carrie Lee, Pre-K Teacher at Smithville Elementary School
Amy Lee, Teacher at DeKalb Middle School
Gayle Redmon, Principal at Northside Elementary School
Shea Wiegle, Special Education Teacher at DCHS