Oak Ridge Today

Regional symposium for community college leaders, educators

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The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship, the nation’s leading organization focused on promoting entrepreneurship through community colleges, and the Appalachian Regional Commission will co-sponsor a regional symposium for community college leaders and educators in Appalachia who are interested in enhancing economic growth in their areas.

The summit, “Leveraging Assets in Your Local Community to Promote Economic Development,” will be held March 30-31 at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville.

The keynote speaker for the event is Randy Boyd, former Tennessee Commissioner of Economic and Community Development.

Chris Whaley, president of Roane State Community College, and Anthony Wise, president of Pellissippi State Community College, are among those scheduled to present at the symposium. [Read more…]

Community meeting next Thursday to discuss site selection for new preschool

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The new preschool could be located at Elm Grove Park in east Oak Ridge or Scarboro Park in central Oak Ridge, pictured above on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017, and the city's school board expects to recommend one of the two sites on Monday, Feb. 27, a school official said Friday. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Oak Ridge officials will have a community meeting in Scarboro on Thursday, March 23, 2017, to discuss building the Oak Ridge Preschool at Scarboro Park. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Oak Ridge City Council chose to delay the vote on a new preschool location at its regular meeting on Monday in order to allow time for more community discussion and input.

Now, a public meeting to discuss the preschool site has been set for 6 p.m. Thursday, March 23, at the Scarboro Community Center.

“The City of Oak Ridge and Oak Ridge Schools have been working to choose a site for the new preschool for approximately two years,” a press release said. “The preschool would relocate from the School Administration Building on New York Avenue. Members of a committee formed to recommend possible sites looked at city-owned properties and a multitude of factors that would impact future students, their families, and the community as a whole. Two locations were ultimately identified as possibilities: Scarboro Park and Elm Grove Park.”

Scarboro Park is across Carver Avenue from the Scarboro Community Center, which was also considered as an option at one time. The Scarboro Community Center was removed from further consideration due to the challenges of converting the center for active school uses, the press release said. Residents living near Elm Grove Park, a site on East Tennessee Avenue that once housed a school, came out in support of preserving the park. Much of the feedback received about the Scarboro Park site has been very positive and welcoming of the new preschool, the press release said. [Read more…]

Council postpones vote on preschool site until after Scarboro meeting

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The new preschool could be located at Elm Grove Park in east Oak Ridge or Scarboro Park in central Oak Ridge, pictured above on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017, and the city's school board expects to recommend one of the two sites on Monday, Feb. 27, a school official said Friday. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The new preschool could be located at Scarboro Park in central Oak Ridge, pictured above on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Oak Ridge City Council has postponed a vote on selecting a site for the new Oak Ridge Preschool until after a meeting in Scarboro next week.

The Oak Ridge Board of Education unanimously selected Scarboro Park, off Carver Avenue in central Oak Ridge, as the site for the new preschool in February.

The Council was expected to vote on that site on Monday.

But after hearing from a few people who had questions about the proposed site, Council agreed in a 4-3 vote to defer its site selection until after a March 23 meeting in Scarboro. Council could now vote during a special meeting on March 27.

Besides Scarboro Park, officials had previously looked at two other options. One, Elm Grove Park in east Oak Ridge, had been identified as the preferred site after a preschool report was published in October 2015. But there has been opposition, including a petition drive, to building the new preschool there. [Read more…]

Officials break ground on multi-sport facility at Clinton High

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Officials break ground Monday, March 13, 2017, on the $1.6 million multi-sport facility at Clinton High School. (Photo via WYSH Radio in Clinton, an Oak Ridge Today news partner)

Officials break ground Monday, March 13, 2017, on the $1.6 million multi-sport facility at Clinton High School. (Photo via WYSH Radio in Clinton, an Oak Ridge Today news partner)

 

Officials broke ground Monday on the $1.6 million multi-sport facility at Clinton High School.

WYSH Radio in Clinton has posted pictures from the ceremony, which you can see here.

Clinton Dragons Football has also posted pictures, as well as a video. You can see them here.

WYSH Radio, an Oak Ridge Today news partner, has previously reported that the multi-sport facility design calls for a complete replacement of the aging Field House with a two-story structure that has a weight training area and an artificial surface practice field that can be used by the football team, the band, cheerleaders, and the dance team. An additional open area will host the wrestling and volleyball teams. [Read more…]

ORHS Orchestra wins top national orchestra award for second straight year

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Oak Ridge High School Orchestra pictured at Universal Studios on Day 3 of Festival Disney on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo courtesy ORHS Orchestra)

The Oak Ridge High School Orchestra is pictured at Universal Studios on Day 3 of Festival Disney on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo courtesy ORHS Orchestra)

 

Oak Ridge High School Orchestra has won a top national orchestra award for the second year in a row, officials said.

The ORHS won Best 10-12th Grade Orchestra, Gold Orchestra Award, Outstanding Soloist, Best 9th Grade Orchestra, with Superior and Excellent Awards at the Festival Disney competition in Orlando, Florida, this past weekend, Director Doug Phillips said.

The ORHS Orchestra also won Best High School Orchestra one year ago, in a competition in New York City last March. The orchestra earned 11 total awards during that trip.

“It’s official: ORHS 10-12 orchestra back-to-back national champs!” ORHS Orchestra posted on Twitter after this year’s awards were announced in Orlando on Saturday, March 11.

Festival Disney is endorsed by the National Association for Music Education and also the Grammys, Phillips said. [Read more…]

Wilson Huang wins first place at state Junior Science, Humanities Symposium

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Oak Ridge High School participants with Tammy Carneim. (Submitted photo by Tammy Carneim)

Oak Ridge High School participants with Tammy Carneim. (Submitted photo by Tammy Carneim)

 

By Holly Cross of Oak Ridge Schools

Several Oak Ridge High School students participated in the Tennessee Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at the Holiday Inn World’s Fair Park in Knoxville on February 23-24. The symposium is sponsored by the United States departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and it is administered by the Academy of Applied Science in cooperation with the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory also sponsors this event for the region.

Wilson Huang presented at the 11:10 a.m. time slot in Session I on Friday, February 24, with the topic, “Designing Acoustically-Driven Microrobots to Stimulate Active Matter.” Logan Rumbaugh presented at the 1:50 p.m. time slot in Session II on Friday, February 24, with the topic, “Modeling Collective Motion with Periodic Obstacles.”

Poster sessions from students at Oak Ridge High School included Ryan Armstrong presenting “Quantifying the Evolution of Gas from Li-ion Battery Materials” and Dylan Payne presenting “Correcting image distortion from an SEM.” Tammy Carneim is the school’s official teacher sponsor. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge schools advance to state chess team finals

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Several Oak Ridge teams advanced to the state chess team championship this month after a regional tournament in Lenoir City on March 4.

Two teams from Oak Ridge High School qualified, and so did teams from Jefferson Middle School, Woodland Elementary School, and Linden Elementary School, a press release said.

The Tennessee Chess Association regionals held at Lenoir City High School on Saturday, March 4, included 151 students on 32 teams from 18 schools across East Tennessee, the press release said. In each of the four grade divisions, the top four teams qualified to play in the state team championship at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville on March 25.

The K-9 division was won by the ORHS freshman team of Logan Ogle (captain), Justin Blanchard, Edward (“Bear”) Moran, and Minwoo Kim, the press release said. They were tied for first with top-rated Episcopal School of Knoxville at the end of the last round, necessitating a blitz (10 minute) match to determine the winner. This match was tied 2-2 so a second match followed, which ORHS won. This matched the result of the 2016 ORHS freshman team, which also won the team regionals in a playoff. [Read more…]

Photos: Secret City Wildbots at Palmetto Regional

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The Secret City Wildbots, an Oak Ridge team, competed in the FIRST Robotics Palmetto Regional in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Saturday, March 4, 2017. (Photo by Angi Agle)

The Secret City Wildbots, an Oak Ridge team, competed in the FIRST Robotics Palmetto Regional in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Saturday, March 4, 2017. (Photo by Angi Agle)

 

The Secret City Wildbots, an Oak Ridge team, competed in the FIRST Robotics Palmetto Regional in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, last week.

The Wildbots, Team 4265, lost in the semifinals, but will likely face many of the same teams at Smoky Mountain Regionals from March 22-25, said Angi Agle, an Oak Ridge Board of Education member who was at the Palmetto Regional.

“The Wildbots made some significant improvements and adjustments in the later rounds, resulting in a robot that is capable of competing consistently at a high level,” Agle said.

The three-day competition was from March 2-4. There were practice matches on Thursday, and qualification rounds on Friday and Saturday. Elimination rounds were Saturday afternoon.  [Read more…]

Roane State NASA scholars named for spring 2017

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Four Roane State Community College students have received NASA scholarships worth $2,850 to support their pursuit of degrees in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) fields.

NASA provided funding for the scholarships through a $499,689 grant it awarded to the Tennessee Community College Space Grant Consortium. Roane State, Cleveland State Community College, Columbia State Community College, Northeast State Community College, and Pellissippi State Community College are part of the consortium.

The recipients are Jose Coronilla of Philadelphia (pre-engineering), Gregory Eaton of Kingston (pre-engineering), Ronnie Lewis of LaFollette (mechatronics), and Horace Parrott of Jellico (mechatronics).

To learn more about STEM majors at Roane State, visit roanestate.edu/stem.

Woodland student Caleb Johnson wins first-place award at Dogwood Arts

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Student art work by Caleb Johnson (Photo submitted by Mary Katherine Chin)

Student art work by Caleb Johnson (Photo submitted by Mary Katherine Chin)

 

Woodland Elementary School art student Caleb Johnson recently won first place in his grade level at the Dogwood Arts Festival.

“This is huge,” said Woodland Elementary School teacher Mary Katherine Chin. Hundreds of works of art are sent in, Chin said.

“But only a select few are chosen,” she said. “Even fewer get awards.”

The Dogwood Arts SYNERGY art exhibition features the work of gifted students from local schools (grades K-12). The exhibit is alongside an exhibit by East Tennessee’s finest K-12 art teachers and current art interns/student-teachers from public and private schools and academies, a press release said. Awards and scholarships are presented to encourage further development of these art students’ artistic aptitude.

Jefferson Middle School art teacher Jim Dodson is a committee chair. (You can see him featured in a video on the site, as well as student work from prior years, at this link.) [Read more…]

ORHS Youth Ambassadors travel to Capitol for substance abuse prevention day

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ASAP-on-the-HILL-2-1

Submitted photo

 

Eleven Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP) Youth Ambassadors from Anderson County, Clinton, and Oak Ridge high schools traveled to the State Capitol to take part in Prevention Alliance of Tennessee’s Day on the Hill. On this day, coalitions from all across the state come together to advocate for substance abuse prevention in Tennessee. By joining forces with The Prevention Alliance of Tennessee (PAT), the ASAP Youth Ambassadors are able to further the mission to prevent and reduce substance abuse in Anderson County, a press release said.

During the visit, these students had the opportunity to have private meetings with Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, Representative John Ragan, and Representative Dennis Powers to educate them about the issues that are important to them. Currently, these issues include the desire to have tobacco-free parks in Anderson County, the risks involved with legalizing medical or other uses of marijuana, and support for opioid abuse reduction. [Read more…]

Roane State to host ACT workshops March 18, April 1 at main campus in Harriman

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For college-bound high school students, it’s the biggest test to date of their academic careers: the ACT exam. The test evaluates students’ readiness for college, and scores can determine whether they are admitted to the college of their choice.

Roane State and the private education institution, SailAway Learning, are offering workshops on preparing for the ACT on two Saturdays, March 18 and April 1.

The workshops, titled “Hidden Rules of the ACT Prep,” will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days on Roane State’s main campus in Harriman. Check-in will be from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. [Read more…]