Here is the sample ballot for the August 2 general election in Anderson County. There are also write-in candidates who have been campaigning for some of these offices, although they don’t appear on the ballot.
The county general election includes selections for mayor, sheriff, county commission, trustee, circuit court clerk, county clerk, register of deeds, road superintendent, and school board, among other positions. Some of the candidates have no opposition. [Read more…]
A new baseball coach, Travis Free, has been named for the Oak Ridge Wildcats.
Oak Ridge High School announced the new coach this week.
Besides coaching, Free will be an eighth-grade math teacher at Robertsville Middle School. [Read more…]
An Oak Ridge Police Department school zone patrol is pictured above. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)
A new school year will start next week, and the Oak Ridge Police Department will help to make sure students and families stay safe with Operation Safe Start beginning Monday, July 30, the first day of school, a press release said.
“The effort steps up police patrols to increase awareness of school zones and ensure drivers are following the law,” the press release said. “Residents will likely notice additional police vehicles and officers in school zones across the city.”
The press release said officers will be on the lookout for drivers who exceed posted speed limits, ignore school bus stop signs, and fail to yield for pedestrians. ORPD will also be enforcing seat belt, child passenger restraint, and distracted driving laws, including the new state law requiring the use of hands free devices in active school zones, the press release said. [Read more…]
Thomas Zacharia
Thomas Zacharia, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will give a community lecture on Thursday. It’s the 21st season of the Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series.
Besides being ORNL director, Zacharia is also president and chief executive officer of UT-Battelle LLC, which operates ORNL for the U. S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
On Thursday, Zacharia will talk about the scientific agenda at ORNL in a presentation titled “Science and the State of the Lab,” a press release said. The event is co-sponsored by Friends of ORNL (FORNL) and the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation (ORPSEF). It is free of charge, and it will be held at the Pollard Technology Conference Center at 210 Badger Avenue in Oak Ridge. A reception will be held in the auditorium lobby starting at 5:30 p.m. (snacks will be served), and the lecture starts at 6 p.m. in the auditorium, the press release said.
“The talk will be of interest to students and the general public,” the press release said. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge High School freshman orientation is Thursday, July 26. It’s scheduled from 8-11:45 a.m.
Students will pick up their schedules and badges in the food court and then make their way to the Auditorium, a press release said.
There will be a welcome session in the auditorium that will last about 30 minutes. Then students will be following their entire schedule (except lunch). They will stay in each class for 10 minutes, and they will be able to meet their teachers, learn their way around, and see who is in their classes, the press release said.
After orientation is over, students will follow instructions to pick up their laptops and have their school pictures taken, the release said. Parents are welcome to attend. While the students are going through their classes, parents will be attending informational sessions.
This press release was submitted by Holly Cross.
Roane State Community College has been awarded a $250,000 grant that will fund scholarships for high school students to complete Roane State mechatronics courses.
The scholarships will pay for tuition, all fees, all books, all supplies, a specialized mechatronics toolkit, and transportation costs, a press release said. Approximately 30 students will be selected for the scholarships, which will be awarded beginning with the fall 2018 semester for the 2018-19 academic year. The grant was awarded by the Community College System of Tennessee.
Roane State offers a one-year certificate and two-year associate degree in mechatronics, and courses are offered at the college’s Higher Education and Workforce Training Facility in Clinton. Mechatronics students learn how to troubleshoot and repair modern automated production equipment, and elective classes include robotics, the press release said. [Read more…]
Clinton Public Library
The Clinton Public Library will host Bookaroo, a unique music festival finale with fun for all ages, for its summer reading finale, a press release said.
Bookaroo will be 5-7 p.m. Friday, July 20.
“Join us as we celebrate with a music festival-themed summer reading finale!” the press release said. “We will be doing rockstar makeovers complete with a photo opportunity to show off your new style. There will also be games, water activities, face painting, cotton candy, and more! We have fun for the whole family as we finish our summer reading with a rocking evening.”
Prizes will be given out from the finale through August 3, the press release said. Stop by the library with your completed reading log to claim your prize. [Read more…]
All students new to Oak Ridge Schools need to register at their respective schools from Monday, July 9, to Wednesday, July 20, from 9 a.m. to noon. Parents who pre-registered kindergartners in May also need to complete the registration process on those dates, a press release said.
Registration for new students in grades 9-12 will be made by appointment only, the press release said. For more information regarding high school registration, contact the registrar at (865) 425-9524. Information necessary for new student registration includes the following:
A Family Drug Treatment Court, the first of its kind in Anderson County, launched this week, and there will be a ribbon-cutting next week, a press release said.
The Anderson County Family Drug Treatment Court will be called R2: The Recovery and Resilience Program, the press release said.
R2 is a program for juvenile offenders who have substance misuse issues and have not been successful in maintaining drug abstinence. The program is a minimum of nine months and will incorporate treatment, family therapy, and group therapy paired with accountability and goal setting, the press release said.
“By addressing barriers in the home, we will enable adolescents in Anderson County to break free from the grip of generational drug abuse, setting them up to be successful contributors to our society,” said Anderson County Juvenile Court Judge Brian Hunt.
The press release said the program has been a priority for a large number of stakeholders in the community for many years. [Read more…]
Photo of Henry Shen courtesy of Oak Ridge High School teacher Sharon Thomas.
Henry Shen of Oak Ridge High School is one of 20 high school students selected for the 16th Annual USA Biology Olympiad National Finals.
The top 20 students were announced by the Center for Excellence in Education in May.
Nearly 10,000 talented students from across the country registered for the USA Biology Olympiad, or USABO. Nearly 700 were selected as semi-finalists, a press release said.
The 20 finalists were selected following completion of a three-part, two-hour exam in April.
The 20 finalists will meet from June 23 to July 5 at the University of California San Diego for 10 days of biology instruction that includes laboratory training and conceptual understanding, followed by two days of testing, the press release said. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge City Council is pictured above in December 2016. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider a budget with a proposed two-cent increase in the property tax rate and what would generally be a 2 percent pay increase for employees.
If approved by Council, the tax rate change would be the first increase in years. Oak Ridge Today reported that the budget approved last year was the 10th one in a row without a tax rate increase.
The two-cent increase in the property tax rate, which would raise it to $2.54 per $100 of assessed value, would help fund the bond repayments for the new Oak Ridge Senior Center, Scarboro Park renovation, and Oak Ridge Preschool, and also provide the city some “breathing room,” Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said. The Senior Center, Scarboro Park, and Preschool projects are expected to cost about $13 million total.
Municipal officials said there has been a $750,000 shortfall in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, in revenues from Roane County. That shortfall is attributed to some sales tax exemptions, and it is believed to mostly be from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the major taxpayer in the Roane County portion of the city. The shortfall affected Oak Ridge this year and has been resolved this year, but the city had to use reserves, which affected money that could be used for capital projects in the next fiscal year, fiscal year 2019, which starts July 1, Watson said. [Read more…]
Mark Watson
City and school officials will present their fiscal year 2019 budgets to Oak Ridge City Council in a special meeting on Tuesday.
The Oak Ridge Board of Education budget, which has already been approved by the school board, will be presented by Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers and Board of Education Chair Keys Fillauer. The city has typically provided a little less than 30 percent of the school system’s funding.
The proposed municipal budget will be presented by Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson. [Read more…]
