Oak Ridge Today

City recommends budget with no tax increase, Council votes Monday

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Oak Ridge City Council

The Oak Ridge City Council is pictured above during an August 2013 meeting. (File photo)

Note: This story was updated at 7:40 p.m. June 4.

Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson on Monday recommended a budget that does not raise the property tax rate, setting up a potential conflict with school officials, who have requested a 37-cent tax increase to avoid cuts.

The Oak Ridge Board of Education already approved its budget in in two meetings last week. That budget, which was scaled back from an earlier proposal, could include an extra $3.3 million to start implementing a technology initiative known as 1:1 that would provide electronic learning devices to all students over three years, add five technology positions, and give 2 percent pay raises to staff.

But the budget is still subject to the amount appropriated to the schools by the city. Oak Ridge provides a little less than one-third of the school system’s funding.

While the schools have approved a budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, the city has not. The Oak Ridge City Council will consider the municipal budget in two separate meetings this month, one on June 9 and the second on June 16. The city budget also includes a 2 percent pay raise for employees.

It’s not clear that Oak Ridge City Council members will agree to raise taxes to accommodate the school system’s request. In his budget presentation to Council on Monday, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said Council members have endorsed keeping the tax rate unchanged for the seventh year in a row.

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Schools scale back tech initiative, could ask for 37-cent tax increase

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Doug Cofer and Oak Ridge Board of Education

Doug Cofer, left, director of the Oak Ridge Schools Technology Department, shows the Board of Education a Powerpoint presentation on Wednesday that outlines changes in the budget proposal that were made at the request of the board. (Photo by Sara Wise)

 

School officials scaled back the rollout of a digital technology initiative that would provide every student with an electronic device before approving a budget that could require a 37-cent tax increase to avoid cuts in staff or programs.

It could be one of the largest requests for a property tax rate increase in recent years. But it’s not clear if city officials, who have been working toward a no-tax-increase budget, will agree to any rate hikes.

The Oak Ridge Board of Education passed the budget for Fiscal Year 2015, which starts July 1, in a 5-1 vote on first reading on Wednesday. The vote came after amendments were made based on discussions by the school board on Tuesday night.

Board member Dan DiGregorio cast the lone vote against the proposal on Wednesday. DiGregorio said he couldn’t support a reduction in staff or more programs to make up for the tax increase, should the city not approve it. The board will ask the city for a tax increase of $0.37, down from the original proposed increase of $0.42.

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School officials not in favor of budget cuts, but some could support tax hike

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Oak Ridge Board of Education

The Oak Ridge Board of Education and school administrators are pictured above during a meeting earlier this year. (File photo)

Note: This story was updated at 12:15 p.m.

Oak Ridge school officials made it clear last week that they’re not in favor of budget cuts, and at least a few suggested they might support a property tax rate increase to prevent reductions in staff and programs.

Earlier this month, the Oak Ridge Board of Education was presented three different budget options to start the annual fiscal discussions. One is known as the “Losing Students, Families, and Staff” budget; the second is known as the “Retaining Students, Families, and Staff” budget; and the third is known as “Attracting Students, Families, and Staff.”

The presentations outline a range of potential cuts including reducing nursing jobs and teaching positions; eliminating the Family Resource Center, elementary strings program, and preschool transportation; and increasing class sizes and stretching the student walk zone to one mile. They also include a range of potential benefits, including starting a digital technology initiative known as 1:1, hiring technology personnel, adding special education and custodial staff, and giving employees a 2 percent pay raise. [Read more…]

School budget proposals include cuts, tax hikes with varying benefits

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Bruce Borchers

Bruce Borchers

Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers presented three budget proposals for fiscal year 2015 to the school board on Wednesday. The proposals suggest that deep cuts will need to be made to attract new students, families, and staff to the district, and to keep those already here. Borchers introduced the proposals by stating that the district will be “tightening our belt.”

Students, families, and staff were the main theme of the budgets proposed on Wednesday. In fact, each was presented to show a different budget scenario that would lose, retain, or attract the group. The school board will review two budgets intended to retain and attract those groups, as well as a third expected to result in a loss of students, family, and staff. All of the budgets proposed generate revenue through expenditure cuts.

All three budget proposals suggest property tax rate increases to offset the cuts, with the rate hikes ranging from 14 to 57 cents.

With about $1.2 million in cost savings, the first proposal has the lowest budget target, and it was referred to as the “losing students-families-staff” budget. It proposed the fewest system-wide cuts, but still suggested that reductions are needed. Those expenditure cuts include increasing class sizes and reducing teaching positions and transportation services. Transportation reductions would increase the student “walk zone” to one mile and end preschool transportation altogether. This proposal would not be able to fund the district’s 1:1 device integration program.

The second budget, said to “retain students-families-staff,” is targeted to bring $3.7 million in revenue through cost savings. This budget would still make cuts to staff and transportation, but would allow the planned 1:1 device integration to begin, which would be cut from the “losing” budget. This budget allows a 2 percent wage raise system-wide, but still calls for staff reductions, including reducing the assistant principal position at Oak Ridge High School as well as extra-curricular stipends and staff development reductions. [Read more…]

Anderson Schools rejects Oak Ridge Head Start application over false federal data

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Larry Foster

Larry Foster

Note: This story was last updated at 8:35 p.m.

Anderson County Schools director optimistic that resolution will be reached

By John Huotari and Sara Wise

They had concerns about the alleged falsification of federal documents that contained data on motor skills of children, so Anderson County school officials rejected Oak Ridge’s application for Head Start funding in the 2014-2015 school year.

The decision could affect roughly $700,000 in funding, or enough to cover about 118 students in the Oak Ridge Head Start program, a federal entitlement program for low-income children. Anderson County Schools supervises the local Head Start program.

But Anderson County Schools Director Larry Foster said the county school board’s unanimous April 10 decision could be rescinded based upon collaboration between the two school systems. Representatives of the two systems have already had discussions, and school board chairs are expected to discuss what can be done to resolve funding for next year.

“Hopefully, this can be resolved,” Foster said during a brief break in a Monday morning Anderson County Commission meeting in Clinton. [Read more…]

United Way raises $1.17 million, about 90 percent of ‘bold’ goal

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Greta Ownby and Edwena Crowe

UWAC Board President, Greta Ownby, left, announces Edwena Crowe, right, as Volunteer of the Year. (Submitted photos)

The campaign was complicated by the partial government shutdown in October, but the United Way of Anderson County raised close to $1.2 million this year, or about 90 percent of its goal.

The results were announced at an annual meeting and campaign announcement at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge on Thursday.

The campaign goal, which was described as “bold,” had been $1.3 million. The total amount raised was $1,172,742. The United Way said this will allow for stable funding for its agency programs.

“Unfortunately, we will not be able to increase funding to our community partners,” UWAC Executive Director Rick Morrow said. “Last year’s total resulted in a reduction of $200,000 to the funding pool, and this year’s total will only allow for continued funding at that level.” [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Schools seeks to become top STEM district in country

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Bruce Borchers Introduces Discovery Education

Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers introduces Discovery Education to members of the PTA Council on Thursday, April 10. (Photos by Sara Wise)

Superintendent: ‘It’s a big deal nationally’

Oak Ridge Schools is attempting to become the premier district in the nation for science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, education. Superintendent Bruce Borchers has a $3.4 million plan to make that happen using Microsoft Surface tablets and Discovery Education. The money will be spent over a five-year period.

Borchers calls the needed changes a “digital transformation” that will, he hopes, bring a tablet to every student in the school system. This is especially important in Oak Ridge, a district with a free and reduced lunch rate of more than 50 percent. The digital transformation would allow every student in the district to have the same educational opportunities, regardless of income.

The first of three steps toward transformation is to create a technological infrastructure capable of handling all the tablets. Those improvements have a $1 million price tag that the Oak Ridge Board of Education and the city have already approved. Borchers hopes for the upgrades to be completed before students return to school in the fall. The upgrades are projected to last until at least 2022. [Read more…]

Guest column: School safety update

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Trina Baughn

Trina Baughn

Since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Oak Ridge Schools and the Oak Ridge Police Department (ORPD) last August, a number of significant safety improvements have occurred within our schools including physical security upgrades, leadership adjustments, and increased police presence.

As you may know, this time last year, we had only one School Resource Officer (SRO) covering our entire school district. Now we have two full time SROs, two Support Services Unit (SSU) officers manning satellite offices, and the Adopt-a-Cop program, which provides officer time in all of our schools via daily check-ins. A third satellite office is in the works as ORPD Chief Jim Akagi and Superintendent Bruce Borchers are presently working on stationing an SSU officer at Robertsville Middle School.

Chief Akagi recently invited me to join our SROs on a walk-along at the high school to personally observe the impact of these changes. He also encouraged me to tag along with our S.W.A.T. team during a threat assessment exercise. I took him up on both offers and, as a result, am sharing what I learned. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Schools announces six-year digital learning, STEM partnership

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Bruce Borchers

Bruce Borchers

On Wednesday, Oak Ridge Schools announced a new collaboration with Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, to create authentic digital learning environments in classrooms district-wide. Through a six-year partnership, Discovery Education will support Oak Ridge Schools’ plan to implement a 1:1 learning initiative with engaging digital content and sustained, customized professional development.

This new partnership also supports Superintendent Bruce Borchers’ recently announced plan to transform Oak Ridge Schools into the premier preK-12 STEM school district in the nation. The district’s goal is to become a leader in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education through continuation and expansion of Oak Ridge’s already well-regarded educational opportunities for students along with additional enhancements to technology infrastructure, professional development, and access to devices, which will place dynamic digital content in the hands of each student.

As part of this new collaboration, all K-12 classrooms will have access to Discovery Education Streaming Plus. Discovery Education Streaming Plus features more than 155,000 dynamic digital learning objects that support all subject areas and learning styles, including videos, skill builders, games, audio files, images, writing prompts, and encyclopedia articles. It also includes hundreds of model lessons and instructional exemplars. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Schools selects Teacher Leaders

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The Oak Ridge School system has announced its selections for Teacher Leaders for the 2014-15 school year.

The Teacher Leader initiative was conceived and launched as a result of the Tennessee Department of Education’s push to create a differentiated pay scale for teachers in all counties. The department encouraged systems to either adopt a structure where teachers receive pay bonuses based on student test scores and eliminate increases in pay for advanced degrees or years of service, or adopt programs that ask teachers to take on greater responsibilities in schools.

“When presented with the opportunity to reward teachers for their dedicated and outstanding service, we decided not to get rid of our steps and lanes that reward teachers for their time and dedication to the classroom and earning advanced degrees, but rather recognize teachers that step up and take on greater leadership roles around STEM, analyzing data, and reinforcing professional learning communities,” said Bruce Borchers, Oak Ridge Schools superintendent. [Read more…]

School board approves Blankenship bleacher replacement

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Blankenship Field Visitors Bleachers

Deemed to be unsafe, the visitors bleachers at Blankenship Field have been de, and replacing them could cost more than $500,000.

Note: This story was updated at 9:15 a.m. March 25.

The Oak Ridge Board of Education on Monday unanimously approved a $455,000 project to replace the visitor bleachers at Blankenship Field. The bleachers had been deemed unsafe, and they have already been demolished.

School officials are hoping to replace them before the first home football game on Aug. 29. In a unanimous voice vote Monday, the school board agreed to use the school system’s fund balance to pay for the replacement bleachers.

Board members plan to ask city officials for additional help to finish part of the project, including a $69,000 handicapped ramp with switchbacks from the city-owned parking lot below the field up to the city-owned field, which is at Jack Armstrong Stadium in central Oak Ridge. The ramp could be built when the city renovates the parking lot. [Read more…]

MMC Foundation welcomes new board members, staff

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Methodist Medical Center Foundation Board Members

The Methodist Medical Center Foundation welcomed four new members to its volunteer board of directors. Pictured from left are Bob Wilkinson, Dr. Lawrence
Maccree, Leigha Edwards, and Bruce Borchers. (Photos courtesy Methodist Medical Center)

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Four leaders from the Oak Ridge community have volunteered to give their time and expertise as members of the Methodist Medical Center Foundation board of directors. Joining the board this month are Bruce Borchers, Leigha Edwards, Dr. Lawrence Maccree, and Bob Wilkinson.

Bruce Borchers came to Oak Ridge in 2013 to serve as superintendent of the Oak Ridge Schools. Borchers is a life-long educator. His teaching and administrative career has taken him to positions in Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri. Borchers earned his doctorate at the University of Minnesota and also holds master’s degrees from Wayne State College and the University of South Dakota. He also serves on the board of directors for the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Oak Ridge Rotary Club. Borchers and his wife Shannon have two teenaged sons. [Read more…]