Oak Ridge Today

Glenwood Elementary School staff member tests positive for COVID-19

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Glenwood Elementary School in Oak Ridge is pictured above.

Note: This story was last updated at 2:55 p.m.

A staff member at Glenwood Elementary School in Oak Ridge has tested positive for COVID-19. The case was reported to have been mild, and the employee has recovered, according to a letter sent to school staff members on Wednesday.

Staff members at the school were notified of the diagnosis on Wednesday morning.

“The individual reported having felt ill at the beginning of spring break, more than 14 days ago, and now reports to have completely recovered after a mild case of the virus,” the letter to staff said. “We have been told that the positive test results were actually reported to our colleague after recovery. We are unaware of anyone else who had contact with this staff member prior to diagnosis who has also shown symptoms by the time of this writing.”

The letter to staff was sent by Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers. He said the building maintenance staff has thoroughly cleaned the Glenwood Elementary School building as well as every other school and facility in the Oak Ridge system.

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OR Schools will be closed through at least April 15

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Note: This story was updated at 12 p.m.

Oak Ridge Schools will be closed through at least April 15, Superintendent Bruce Borchers said Tuesday.

Students were scheduled to retun to school next week after a two-week spring break that ends Friday. But Tennessee Governor Bill Lee had asked all school districts to close through at least Tuesday, March 31. It’s not clear if that statewide closure will be extended.

In the meantime, Borchers said Oak Ridge Schools intends to use 10 days that it has stockpiled for snow and emergencies to extend its closure through at least Tuesday, April 14. That means the earliest that students will return is Wednesday, April 15.

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OR Schools, Aramark offering free meals to students

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Oak Ridge Schools and Aramark are offering free meals to students this week.

The meals are for Oak Ridge children under 18, a press release said. They will be “to go.”

Meals will be distributed at Glenwood Elementary School, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Preschool, and Robertsville Middle School. All pickup locations are at drop-off circles. Breakfast is from 8 to 9:30 a.m., and lunch is from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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Oak Ridge Schools closing

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Oak Ridge Schools are closing at the end of the day today (Monday, March 16) after Tennessee Governor Bill Lee asked all school districts in the state to close as soon as possible.

Oak Ridge school buildings will be closed, and there will be no extracurricular activities or practices.

The governor expects all schools to stay closed through at least Tuesday, March 31. Oak Ridge Schools are currently on spring break, and they could extend the break using 10 snow/emergency days. That means students might not return to school until Wednesday, April 15, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said in a recorded phone call to parents early Monday afternoon.

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Governor asks all school districts to close

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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has asked all school districts in the state to close as soon as possible.

He expects all schools to close by Friday, March 20, at the latest.

It’s part of the state’s response to COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

“Schools should remain closed through March 31 to further mitigate the spread of this infectious disease, and we will issue further guidance prior to March 31,” Lee said in an announcement on Monday morning.

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AC Schools, Clinton Community Center closing

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Anderson County Schools will be closed through the end of Spring Break on March 27, and extracurricular activities are being suspended. The Clinton Community Center will be closed through at least March 30.

The school system closure is to be cautious and to be in accordance with the latest recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about social distancing, Anderson County Schools said.

The school system is closing its buildings to all outside organizations.

Teachers and staff members were expected to report to work on Monday, March 16 to begin preparing an alternative education plan for students.

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Anderson County asks residents to watch meetings rather than attend

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Anderson County officials on Friday asked residents to watch government meetings on television or stream them online, rather than attend in person.

The request comes as people across the country grapple with the uncertainty over COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. The request came after Anderson County Commission Chair Tracy Wandell and Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank discussed the state of emergency declared by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Thursday and the county’s response to it in terms of government meetings.

“We will continue to conduct meetings to fulfill the jobs we are required to perform and to keep services available to citizens,” a press release said. “However, we encourage citizens to take advantage of Anderson County’s technological capabilities for our meetings. You may watch our meetings on Comcast cable Channel 95 or by streaming online at https://www.andersoncounty.tv.”

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Roane State extends spring break, will move classes online

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Roane State Community College is extending spring break for students through March 22 and will move classes online starting March 23.

The changes are in response to public health concerns about COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

Faculty and staff will use the extended spring break time to prepare for a transition to online classes and working from home, Roane State said in a press release on Friday. On March 23, classes will resume in an online format through at least March 29, the college said.

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COVID-19: Oak Ridge Schools cancel Safety Patrol trip

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Note: This story was updated at 5:35 p.m. March 15.

Oak Ridge Schools has cancelaed an elementary school Safety Patrol trip to Washington, D.C., but the Oak Ridge High School winter guard and percussion trip to Suwanee, Georgia, is still scheduled to occur.

Update: The WGI has canceled all future events, and the ORHS Indoor Percussion will not be traveling to Georgia. But they did perform at the Oak Ridge Civic Center on Friday. It’s not clear if the status of the band and orchestra trip mentioned below has changed.

Regarding another trip, the Oak Ridge Board of Education did not vote in a meeting on Wednesday to cancel the ORHS band and orchestra trip to New York City at this time. But school officials plan to keep monitoring conditions in New York City.

The school board was considering the status of the trips because of concerns about COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

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UT classes moving online due to coronavirus

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Classes at the University of Tennessee are being temporarily suspended and moved online in response to COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

UT Chattanooga will suspend in-person classes until March 30, while UT Knoxville and UT Martin will suspend in-person classes until April 3. Beginning March 23, UT Health Science Center will offer all face-to-face lecture classes remotely until further notice. Clinical rotations in hospitals will continue as usual, a press release said.

University of Tennessee Interim President Randy Boyd—in consultation with chancellors at UT Knoxville, UT Chattanooga, UT Martin, and the UT Health Science Center—announced the temporary suspension of all in-person classes in a press release on Wednesday. It’s being called a proactive measure.

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ORHS Masquers presents ‘Little Mermaid’ this weekend

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The ‘Good Guys’ in ‘The Little Mermaid’ presented by Oak Ridge High School Masquers this weekend (March 6-8, 2020) are Emily Salko as ‘Flounder,’ Marian Vacaliuc as ‘Ariel,’ Mazzie Zawisza as ‘Sebastian,’ and Jack Lloyd as ‘Scuttle.’ (Submitted photo)

Oak Ridge High School Masquers, the school’s drama program, will present Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” the musical based on the classic animated film, in four performances this weekend.

The performances are Friday, March 6, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, March 7, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday, March 8, at 2 p.m. in the Oak Ridge Performing Arts Center. Advanced tickets are $8, and they are available at the ORHS office and The Ferrell Shop. At the door, tickets will be $9 for students and $10 for adults.

Under the direction of Dana Wham—who has directed, choreographed, or acted in numerous adult and children productions throughout the region— this year’s “The Little Mermaid” continues the ORHS Masquers tradition of bringing excellent performances, impressive sets, amazing orchestration, and technical panache to the stage, a press release said.

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ORNL supercomputer used to identify drug compounds that could help fight coronavirus

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A compound, shown in gray, was calculated to bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, shown in cyan, to prevent it from docking to the Human Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2, or ACE2, receptor, shown in purple. (Image credit: Micholas Smith/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

Note: This story was last updated at 10:55 a.m.

The Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been used to identify drug compounds, including medications and natural compounds, that could help fight coronavirus, although more study is needed.

“The researchers used Summit, the world’s most powerful and smartest supercomputer, to identify 77 small-molecule drug compounds that might warrant further study in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which is responsible for the COVID-19 disease outbreak,” ORNL said in a response to questions Wednesday.

The researchers performed simulations on Summit of more than 8,000 compounds to screen for those that are most likely to bind to the main “spike” protein of the coronavirus, rendering it unable to infect host cells. They ranked compounds of interest that could have value in experimental studies of the virus. They published their results on “ChemRxiv.”

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