Oak Ridge Today

School board offers superintendent contract to Borchers

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Bob and Carol Smallridge and Bruce Borchers

Before the school board offered him the Oak Ridge Schools superintendent job on Monday, Bruce Borchers, right, speaks to Carol Smallridge, left, and interim Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bob Smallridge, second from right. Also pictured is Borchers’ son Jack.

The Oak Ridge school board has offered the superintendent’s job to Bruce Borchers, who is now superintendent of the Rockwood School District in Eureka, Mo.

The position, which has a salary range of about $175,000, is still subject to contract negotiations.

Board members approved the offer in a 5-0 vote during a short special meeting on Monday at Riverside Grille in Oak Ridge.  [Read more…]

School board votes on superintendent finalist tonight

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One of three finalists for Oak Ridge Schools superintendent is in town today, and the Board of Education is scheduled to vote on whether to offer him a contract during a special meeting tonight.

The school board could offer a contract to Bruce Borchers, superintendent of the Rockwood School District in Eureka, Mo., Oak Ridge Board of Education Chair Keys Fillauer said Monday. [Read more…]

Roane Chamber has career day for high school juniors

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The Roane County Chamber of Commerce is having its Fifth Annual High Schools Career Day on Friday.

Roughly 475 high school juniors and about 50 businesses are expected to participate in the career day, scheduled to be held in the Roane State Community College gymnasium. Every 11th grade student in the five Roane County high schools will attend, organizers said. [Read more…]

Two schools each win $5,000 in ORAU Extreme Classroom Makeover

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ORAU Extreme Classroom Makeover Contest

Students at two local schools spent the past month patiently awaiting a potential classroom-altering announcement, and last week their patience was rewarded.

ORAU made surprise classroom announcements and presented each a $5,000 grant as runners-up in the 2013 Extreme Classroom Makeover competition. Courtney Batchelor, an eighth-grade teacher at Lake City Middle School in Anderson County, and Kristan Headrick, a sixth-grade teacher at Coalfield School in Morgan County, will use the grants to purchase technology to outfit their classrooms. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge kindergarten early enrollment ends March 29

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A change in Tennessee law now requires students to turn five years old on or before Aug. 31, 2013, to enroll in kindergarten this fall, but Oak Ridge Schools is taking applications for early enrollment.

The applications will be accepted through Friday, March 29. This will be the beginning of a two-part registration process that will be completed just prior to school starting for the 2013–2014 school year, a press release said. [Read more…]

Robertsville Middle School technology team finishes in top three in nine state events

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Robertsville Middle School at TSA Competition

Robertsville Middle School at 35th Tennessee TSA State Conference (Submitted photo)

The Technology Student Association at Robertsville Middle School competed in a recent state conference in Chattanooga and finished in the Top 3 in nine events.

Twenty-seven students from the TSA chapter at RMS competed in 22 different group and individual events at the 35th Tennessee TSA State Conference, which included 649 middle and high school competitors from 61 Tennessee schools.

Listed below are the students who placed in the Top 3 in the state in their events: [Read more…]

AMSE announces bridge building contest winners

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Bearden Bridge Building High Point Trophy

Bearden High School in Knoxville receives the High Point Trophy at a recent bridge building contest at the American Museum of Science and Energy. Pictured above, from left, are Bearden High School student Hayes Griffin, physics teacher William Schult, and students Jack Li, J.J. Shankles, David Maulick and Bryan Fitzsimmons. (Submitted photos)

The American Museum of Science and Energy has announced the winners in the East Tennessee Model Bridge Building Contest earlier this month.

The contest was held March 9 at AMSE. Students entered 113 model bridges, and 74 of those qualified to be tested, an AMSE press release said. The entries came from students at Oak Ridge High School, Bearden High School, Brentwood High School, Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, Christ’s Legacy Academy, and two homeschool students. [Read more…]

Jefferson Middle School student technology team wins 10 awards

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Jefferson Middle School at State TSA Competition

Jefferson Middle School TSA members and faculty advisers Chris Jaeger and Bruce McMaster at TSA State Competition in Chattanooga. (Submitted photo)

The Technology Student Association at Jefferson Middle School received 10 awards in eight events during an annual competition earlier this month, a press release said.

The annual TSA State Competition was March 14-17 in Chattanooga. The JMS team did well in team and individual events, the press release said. The JMS awards included five first-place finishes, four second-place, and one third-place finish.

Members earning first place included: [Read more…]

ORAU awards $25,000 to A.L. Lotts in Extreme Classroom Makeover

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A.L. Lotts Extreme Classroom Makeover

Oak Ridge Associated Universities gave $25,000 to a classroom at A.L. Lotts Elementary School in Knox County in an Extreme Classroom Makeover contest. (Submitted photo)

A fifth-grade math and science teacher at A.L. Lotts Elementary School in Knox County has won $25,000 in an Extreme Classroom Makeover competition sponsored by Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

It was the third time teacher Karla Fultz has submitted a video for the annual contest, which is now in its fifth year.

A press release said her winning video was a parody of “Gangman Style,” the Korean pop song and video that has been watched more than one billion times online. [Read more…]

Seven superintendent finalists, three to be interviewed Tuesday

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An executive search firm has narrowed down the list of superintendent candidates to seven finalists, and the Oak Ridge school board plans to interview three of them Tuesday.

The three are:

  • Bruce Borchers, superintendent of the Rockwood School District in Eureka, Mo., which has 22,000 students;
  • Dale Lynch, superintendent of the Hamblen County Schools in Morristown, which has 10,300 students; and
  • Keith Rowland, superintendent of Shenandoah County Public Schools in Woodstock, Va., which has 6,250 students.

[Read more…]

Clinton schools announce ‘Educators Of The Year’

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Clinton school system has announced its “Educators of the Year” awards.

The Principal of the Year is South Clinton Elementary’s Lori Collins. Clinton Elementary School third-grade teacher Denise Bulecheck was named that school’s Teacher of the Year. The North Clinton Teacher of the Year is Tammy Pack, and the South Clinton Teacher of the Year is Jackie Clarke.

They will all be honored, along with winners from the county school system, during a banquet April 2 at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center.

Clinton school board back at full strength

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Information from WYSH Radio

On Monday, the Clinton City Council voted 6-0 with one Council member absent to appoint Curtis Isabell to the seat on the city’s school board representing Ward 2.

The vote had been postponed from last month while officials looked into whether a conflict of interest could arise since his father Dale is the system’s finance officer.

Isabell will serve the remainder of R.C. Hutchins’ term, which expires in December of 2014. Hutchins stepped down from the board late last year.