The Roane State Foundation recently received a $75,000 Tennessee Community CARES grant to help Roane State students affected by COVID-19 and provide training for local small businesses, entrepreneurs, and contractors to help them build their businesses and be more responsive during the pandemic, a press release said.
Scholarships are available on a first-come, first-served basis for the following programs:
[Read more…]Note: This story was updated at 10:20 a.m. Sept. 17.
Oak Ridge High School Principal Martin McDonald announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that he is leaving his job at ORHS and starting a new job at Greeneville High School in East Tennessee.
On Wednesday, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said McDonald will continue at ORHS through the end of the first term and will transition to his new role in Greeneville during the first weeks of October.
Neither McDonald nor Oak Ridge Schools said why the principal is leaving Oak Ridge.
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Keys Fillauer is seeking to be re-elected to the Oak Ridge Board of Education in November.
Fillauer has served on the school board for 19 years, and he has served as chair for the last 11 years, a press release said. He also currently serves as vice president of the Tennessee School Board Association Board of Directors, the press release said.
Fillauer is a retired Oak Ridge teacher and coach. He taught and coached at Robertsville Junior High for 27 years and at Oak Ridge High School for four years. Fillauer has been recognized as a member of the All Tennessee School Board, as a Tennessee Teacher of the Year, and Freedom Foundation Award winner, and he received the Governor’s Outstanding Tennessean Award, the press release said.
Fillauer has also received the Service Above Self award from the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club, the press release said. He is a member of the Oak Ridge Sports Hall of Fame and the Anderson County Hall of Fame.
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Oak Ridge is celebrating the 65th anniversary of its school desegregation this weekend.
“Sixty-five years ago this September, 85 brave and dedicated young African American students entered all-white classrooms in the Oak Ridge High School and the Robertsville Junior High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in a historic school system desegregation,” organizers said in a press release.
It wasn’t the first public school desegregation in the nation, but organizers said it was the first public school desegregation in the Southeast.
“As such, it challenged the racist and sometimes dangerous Jim Crow culture,” the press release said. “This desegregation stands as an important milestone in American civil rights history.”
The anniversary events are being held with the Oak Ridge school system. Public participation in some events had to be scaled back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A second person at Glenwood Elementary School has tested positive for COVID-19, Oak Ridge Schools said Sunday. It’s the second case reported at the school on Sunday.
The person involved in the second case was last at the school on Wednesday, according to a letter to families from Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers. The school system learned of the positive test this weekend, he said.
Students and staff members who were potentially exposed have all been notified, and they will quarantine in accordance with Tennessee Department of Health guidelines, Borchers said.
[Read more…]A person at Glenwood Elementary School has tested positive for COVID-19, Oak Ridge Schools said Sunday.
The person was last at the school on Thursday, according to a letter to families from Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers. The school system learned of the positive test this weekend, he said.
Students and staff members who were potentially exposed have all been notified, and they will quarantine in accordance with Tennessee Department of Health guidelines, Borchers said.
[Read more…]COVID-19 cases have been reported at Woodland Elementary School and Jefferson Middle School, school officials said this week.
The COVID-19 case at Woodland Elementary School was reported Thursday morning, and the case at Jefferson Middle School was reported Friday morning.
They are the seventh and eighth overall COVID-19 cases in Oak Ridge Schools and the sixth and seventh since July 15.
Oak Ridge Schools learned Thursday that a person at Woodland Elementary School had tested positive for COVID-19, Superintendent Bruce Borchers said in a letter to families on Thursday. The person has not been at Woodland since Friday, July 31, because he or she quarantined after a possible non-school exposure, Borchers said.
The potential exposure to students or staff was “extremely low,” the superintendent said.
[Read more…]A staff member at Oak Ridge Schools Extended Child Care was diagnosed with COVID-19 in late May, and on Monday, August 3, the employee still tested positive, Superintendent Bruce Borchers said.
A physician has cleared the staff member to return to work, Borchers said in a letter to families on Friday.
“The physician said that a person will likely continue to test positive several months after the initial virus, and that the individual is no longer contagious,” Borchers said.
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A staff member who was at Oak Ridge High School on Friday has tested positive for COVID-19, Oak Ridge Schools said Sunday.
The school system learned of the positive diagnosis on Saturday.
“Having this report Saturday morning allowed us to implement a 24-hour closure so we could thoroughly disinfect the building on Saturday,” Superintendent Bruce Borchers said in a letter to families. A second disinfectant fogging of the full building occurred on Sunday, Borchers said.
It’s the sixth overall COVID-19 case in Oak Ridge Schools and the fifth since July 15.
The other cases since July 15 involved a staff member who had been at Jefferson Middle School and ORHS, a staff member at JMS, a student at ORHS band camp, and an instructor at ORHS band camp.
In an earlier case in April, a staff member who had been volunteering at the school system’s food distribution sites tested positive for COVID-19.
[Read more…]Four out of five students in Oak Ridge Schools are attending classes in person at least two days per week, while one out of five have registered for an online-only option as the school system and families respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are the enrollment numbers for all of the schools on Friday:
The school system was showing a total enrollment of 4,658 on Friday, but Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said it is too early to tell what the actual enrollment is.
“We should have a solid number in a couple of weeks,” he said.
It’s not clear how many families have selected a home school option during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The school system offered two options for the new school year, which started Wednesday and Thursday, depending upon the school.
[Read more…]Note: This story was updated at 5 p.m.
An Oak Ridge Schools staff member who has been at Jefferson Middle School and Oak Ridge High School has tested positive for COVID-19, the school system said Wednesday.
It’s the fifth overall COVID-19 case in Oak Ridge Schools and the fourth in the past two weeks, since July 15.
The schools learned of the positive test result for the staff member on Wednesday. The staff member, who has not been publicly identified, had been at JMS and ORHS last Friday.
[Read more…]Oak Ridge Schools on Tuesday announced a third COVID-19 case as schools prepare to resume this week.
A staff member at Jefferson Middle School has tested positive for the new disease, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said in a letter to families and staff members.
The staff member, who will not be publicly identified, took a precautionary test, immediately started a voluntary quarantine, and learned of the positive test result Tuesday morning, Borchers said.
The superintendent’s letter did not say whether the staff member has had symptoms of COVID-19.
It’s the third COVID-19 case at Oak Ridge Schools in the past two weeks. The other two cases were of an instructor and student at Oak Ridge High School band camp.
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