If you pay for your children’s school lunches, you’ll have to ante up a little more this coming school year.
The DeKalb County Board of Education Thursday night voted to increase the price of school lunches five cents, going from $1.45 to $1.50 for pre-kindergarten students to fifth graders and from $1.70 to $1.75 for sixth through twelfth graders. Breakfast prices will remain the same at $1.00 for all students. Prices for adults at schools will remain at $2.50
This is the third year in a row the school board has voted to hike school lunch prices.
Stephanie Dyer, School Nutrition Supervisor, has said in previous meetings that prices have to increase until they get to $2.51 under USDA regulations, or the school system risks losing its increase in food reimbursement rates. “Each year we have gone up ten cents. However this year with our funds we’re able to just go up five cents and still be in good shape, said Dyer during Thursday night’s meeting. “Hopefully we’ll stay like this for a couple of years. That’s what we’re hoping for. They are becoming a little bit more lenient on that,” she said.

Casey Curtis, of Smithville, received the Gary Pickett memorial scholarship from Tennessee Tech University’s College of Business.
Curtis is a senior studying business management and a graduate of DeKalb County High School. He was one of more than 100 students to receive a scholarship from the College of Business this spring. The college distributed nearly $143,000 this spring to its top students.
“We are proud of this outstanding group of students,” said James Jordan-Wagner, dean of TTU’s College of Business. “We are also extremely pleased with the support we receive from businesses and alumni in supplying the private funds for scholarships. In these trying times, they have responded by increasing the amount that we could award this year.”
“These awards recognize our students’ achievements and help us to attract quality students to TTU.”

Some one hundred youngsters ages five to twelve have been learning more about football during the first ever Tiger Pride Football Camp this week at DeKalb County High School
USA certified football coaches and other volunteers have spent the week teaching kids the basics of the game. “We’ve been wanting to put one of these together for quite a few years and with John (Kilgore’s) help this year and the organization we’ve got one going and we’ve had a hundred kids out here each and every day and it’s just a great thing to be able to instill that Tiger pride and a little football knowledge in these young guys,” said DCHS Football Coach Steve Trapp.
“We’ve got a lot of our high school guys, a lot of guys who graduated last year and in years past who have come out to help us. They are actually running the drills for us. The Junior Pro coaches are here. Its helping all levels of football here in DeKalb County,” said Coach Trapp.
“Football has got popular in the last four or five years,” said John Kilgore, who helped organize the camp. “Coach Steve (Trapp) has turned the program around at DCHS and its got more kids interested,” he said.
On Thursday, the last day of camp, a scrimmage game will be played for each age group.

Members of the Smithville Church of Christ are lending a hand to neighbors in need this week.
Through the church sponsored work camp, volunteers are going out into the community to make minor repairs and upgrades to homes and properties of several low income families. “We’ve built some handicapped ramps. We’ve cleaned up a lot of brush and done yard work and things that have just gotten out of hand for people who could not get to it or who didn’t have the time, ability or the tools and equipment to do it. We’re trying to make a difference in the community,” said Tim Woodward, Involvement Minister of the Smithville Church of Christ.
Woodward said this is the church’s first project of this kind locally. “It’s the first time we’ve ever done it. The idea was born out of some mission work we had done. We had been to Mexico for eleven years doing some construction work on church buildings and then we went to South Carolina for seven years. We went to Tuba City, Arizona to a Navajo Indian Reservation out there and did some work. We always talked on those trips about doing something here locally so we got together the first of the year and came up a plan and sent out some applications. We got some back and word spread that we were doing some projects for people in the city and county that either couldn’t afford to do the projects or couldn’t do it themselves,” he said.
Families served through the work camp are not required to pay for the services. “We had a special contribution at church a couple of months ago. Our goal was to pay for all the necessary supplies and things that we need. There have been some (families) who have said I can afford to pay but I just can’t do the work. They have graciously done that and it has allowed our resources to go a little bit further,” said Woodward.
The church volunteers hope to complete about twenty five projects this week during the work camp. Woodward said he is hopeful the program will become an annual event. “We’ve averaged about 45 people out working Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We’ve had a good turnout. We’ve got some ladies that cook our lunch and supper for us. We eat and go back at it. We’re kind of feeling our way through it but we hope it becomes an annual event. We would like to eventually invite other youth groups to be part of it. Hopefully it will only get bigger and better,” said Woodward.

Brady Evans, of Smithville, received the Avo Anderson Memorial scholarship from Tennessee Tech University’s College of Business.
Evans is a junior studying business management and a graduate of DeKalb County High School. He was one of more than 100 students to receive a scholarship from the College of Business this spring. The college distributed nearly $143,000 this spring to its top students.
“We are proud of this outstanding group of students,” said James Jordan-Wagner, dean of TTU’s College of Business. “We are also extremely pleased with the support we receive from businesses and alumni in supplying the private funds for scholarships. In these trying times, they have responded by increasing the amount that we could award this year.”
“These awards recognize our students’ achievements and help us to attract quality students to TTU.”

The budget committee wants the school board to partner with the county commission in funding four new school resource officers.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, members of the budget committee voted 4 to 1 to include funding for two new SROs in the proposed county general budget, but only if the school board will vote to fund two in its budget.
The Board of Education will meet Thursday night in regular session to discuss the proposed new school budget.
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby, who had previously said the school system might find funding for one new SRO position through the Safe Schools Grant and other sources, now says the county shouldn’t count on it, given cuts the budget committee has asked the school board to make in its proposed budget for 2013-14 “Asking us to cut $147,000, I don’t believe there will be a chance for an SRO to be funded. Whatever the school board directs me to put in the budget, I’ll put in the budget. I had said I felt pretty comfortable about one SRO. That wasn’t in the budget but I said I felt we could do that. But when we were asked to do basically $150,000 worth of cuts, I don’t think they (school board) would do an SRO officer and $150,000 in cuts,” said Willoughby.
The county’s proposed budget for 2013-14 currently includes funding for two new SRO positions. The school system’s portion to fund two new SRO’s would be $73,839 including salaries and benefits. The county would be responsible for the costs of equipping and training the new officers.
Budget committee member Jack Barton said he favored the county general funding all four new positions to ensure each school has an SRO, especially given the fact that the county will not have to meet all the requirements of the federal affordable health care act this year. Barton made a motion to fund all four new SROs but his motion died for the lack of a second. ” I believe I would be looking at it at a very different level, if we were still being held to the standard of what the affordable health care act was asking us to do,” said Barton. “But given that we’ve tried to ask them (school board) to make cuts and given that we’re not going to be held to the penalties or the have to’s of the affordable health care act, I want to put it out there. (to fund all four new SRO positions),” said Barton.
Committee member Larry Summers then made a motion that the county general fund two new SRO’s (salaries and benefits) if the school board does the same with the county to pick up all the expense of training and equipping the new officers with patrol cars, guns, etc. The vote was 4-1. Committee members Wayne Cantrell, Marshall Ferrell, and Jerry Scott joined Summers in voting for the motion. Barton voted against it, since he wants the county general budget to fund all four new SROs.
County Mayor Mike Foster then polled the twelve county commissioners present at the budget committee meeting to see how they felt about funding two SROs if the school board funds two SROs. All but three said they favored it. However when polled about the county general funding all four SROs, a majority of the commissioners said no.
The budget committee approved all budgets Tuesday night with the exception of the school budget until the Board of Education meets Thursday night to take action on its proposed spending plan. The county budget committee will meet again Friday night, July 12 at 6:00 p.m. to act on the school budget.
County Mayor Foster said he wants the county to have a consolidated budget approved by the budget committee no later than July 15.