Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge emergency workers, preschool checking child car seats

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Child Seat Safety Checkpoint

The Oak Ridge police and fire departments have teamed up with the Oak Ridge Schools’ Preschool and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital to have a quarterly child seat safety checkpoint. By mid-morning Thursday, they had replaced seven expired or damaged seats.

The Oak Ridge police and fire departments have teamed up with the Oak Ridge Schools’ Preschool and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital to have a quarterly child seat safety checkpoint.

By mid-morning Thursday, the team had replaced seven expired or damaged seats.

The free safety checkpoint continued until 12:30 p.m. Friday on New York Avenue across from the preschool. Car seats were checked and installed by certified technicians.

On Friday night, Oak Ridge Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Josh Waldo said the team had checked 72 car seats and removed 31 unsafe seats.

“Great to know that we have made 31 kids that much safer over the past two days,” Waldo said. [Read more…]

Students benefit from ORNL’s surplus equipment donations worth $1.7 million

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Sydney Burchell

Sydney Burchell, a sophomore at Morristown-Hamblen High School East, uses ORNL’s donated equipment to study waste management at distilleries. She and John Hale, a senior and lead researcher for the project, won first place at the INTEL-International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Ariz. (Submitted photo)

Old or unused laboratory equipment that has outlived its usefulness at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other U.S. Department of Energy sites doesn’t have to sit idle or wind up in the scrap heap. In 2012, ORNL donated $1.7 million worth of surplus property to nonprofits, including local schools, where it is now helping to inspire future scientists.

DOE works with the state of Tennessee to enable the surplus government property to go to school science labs and nonprofit agencies that can make effective use of the equipment.

Local schools have received fume hoods, water baths, centrifuges, and tilt tables, as well as ultrasonic cleaners, balances, and a variety of expensive glassware. The donated tools, outdated at any national lab, are now treasures for high school students, allowing them to conduct STEM research with high quality materials at a reasonable cost. [Read more…]

Y-12 labs: Teachers watch frozen bananas snap, use bike to power light bulbs

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Teachers at Y-12 Labs

Daryl Smith, a Y-12 National Security Complex scientist, shows East Tennessee teachers that a balloon will shrink when dipped in liquid nitrogen during a “show and tell” laboratory on Friday.

In one room, bananas became brittle and snapped in clean lines after being dipped in super-cold liquid nitrogen.

In another room, teachers pedaling on a stationary bicycle with a generator attached learned it takes much more energy to power an incandescent light than compact fluorescent or LED bulbs.

The teachers were at the Y-12 National Security Complex on Friday for “show and tell” laboratories, learning experiments from Y-12 engineers and scientists that they could take back to their classrooms. It was part of the Innovation Valley’s Educators in the Workplace Lunch and Learn summer program. [Read more…]

Baughn criticizes school officials, school supporters fire back

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Oak Ridge Schools Press Conference Crowd

Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn, third from right, and Oak Ridge High School Acting Principal David Bryant, left, and Superintendent Bruce Borchers, second from left, attend a Monday afternoon press conference at the high school where education officials rebutted Baughn’s allegations that there is a “culture of terror” in the schools, drugs are rampant, and students are at risk of being assaulted.

Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn fired the first shot, writing a letter critical of education officials and alleging that the city’s schools have a “culture of terror,” drugs are rampant, and students are at risk of being assaulted.

On Monday, school supporters and students fired back in a barrage that started with an afternoon press conference at Oak Ridge High School and ended at a City Council meeting.

During the Council meeting, Chuck Agle, who serves on the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission and is the husband of school board member Angi Agle, asked council members to express their disapproval by censuring Baughn. To imply that Oak Ridge Schools widely tolerate wrongdoing is wrong, Agle said. [Read more…]

Police chief declines to comment on use of his memo in Baughn’s letter

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James T. Akagi

James T. Akagi

A memo he wrote in May was used by an Oak Ridge City Council member who wrote a controversial letter that has sparked a heated, week-long debate about drugs and violence in the city’s schools.

But Oak Ridge Police Chief Jim Akagi declined to elaborate on the memo on Monday—or discuss how it was used in the letter published last week by Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn. Her letter, which also relied on conversations with current and former school staff members and parents of students, alleged drugs are rampant in many schools, children are at risk of being assaulted, and a “culture of terror” has saturated the system.

Asked for his views on the letter, which was sent to new superintendent Bruce Borchers, Akagi said he couldn’t comment. [Read more…]

Debate erupts over drugs, violence in Oak Ridge schools

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Oak Ridge Schools Press Conference

Keys Fillauer, Oak Ridge Board of Education chair, left, and Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan reject allegations by City Council member Trina Baughn that, among other things, there is a “culture of terror” in Oak Ridge Schools and students are at risk.

The fiery debate erupted last week, with one Oak Ridge City Council member alleging drugs are rampant in many schools, students are at risk of being assaulted, and a culture of terror has saturated the school system.

It continued this week, with two school officials and the city’s mayor holding a press conference at the Oak Ridge High School to rebut the allegations. They were joined by a throng of several dozen administrators, officials, and teachers.

Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn sparked the debate last week in a letter to new school superintendent Bruce Borchers, who started June 18. Baughn told Borchers that countless parents, school staff, and students have shared stories with her that paint a picture of an “inner-city school system run amuck.”

“I’ve heard so many stories of assaults occurring at the middle schools and high school that I am heartbroken,” Baughn said.

But a half-dozen other local officials—including City Council members, school board members, and teachers—said they haven’t heard many complaints, if any, from parents regarding drugs and assaults in Oak Ridge Schools. They called some of Baughn’s claims inaccurate, exaggerated, or untrue. [Read more…]

City, education officials to respond today to Baughn letter on schools

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Oak Ridge municipal and school officials will have a 2 p.m. press conference today to respond to a recent letter written by Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn to new superintendent Bruce Borchers.

The press conference will include Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Oak Ridge School Board Chairman Keys Fillauer. It will be held in the lobby of Oak Ridge High School at 1450 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

UT names solar nanotechnology expert, ORNL deputy as Governor’s Chair

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Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Ramamoorthy Ramesh

KNOXVILLE—Ramamoorthy Ramesh, an authority in the physics of functional materials, has been named the 12th University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair. He has also been appointed as deputy director for science and technology at ORNL.

Ramesh will serve as Governor’s Chair for Nanomaterials Engineering, based in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He began on June 1. [Read more…]

UT releases policy brief on selling TVA

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KNOXVILLE—The Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville has released a policy brief summarizing factors the federal government should consider while making its decision of whether or not to privatize the Tennessee Valley Authority.

In his proposed fiscal year 2014 budget, President Barack Obama suggested the federal government consider selling TVA. There are several factors that may affect the federal government’s final decision on the matter, including TVA’s ability to be self-sufficient and the absence of federal money in its programs since 1999. Mary English, Baker Center Fellow for Energy and Environmental Policy, summarizes these factors in the brief, titled “Should the Federal Government Sell TVA?”

[Read more…]

Willow Brook Elementary starts school year July 15

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Willow Brook Elementary

Willow Brook Elementary School

Willow Brook Elementary will begin its 2013‐14 school year on Monday, July 15. School hours on Monday, July 15, through Wednesday, July 17 will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The regular school schedule will begin on Thursday, July 18 for all students, a press release said.

Food and transportation services will begin on Monday, July 15. Bus stops and routes are set according to enrollment as of July 4, 2013. New students needing bus service must complete the Request for Transportation Service paperwork at the time of enrollment. Changes to bus routes and stops will not be made until after the start of school. [Read more…]

Roane Chamber announces 2013 Youth Leadership Academy graduates

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Roane Chamber Youth Leadership Academy Graduates

The Roane Chamber’s 2013 Youth Leadership Academy graduates and their schools:
(Back row, left to right) Kara Brindley (Rockwood High), Samantha Schaefer (home schooled), Hunter McClure (Roane County High), Peyton Jones (Oliver Springs High), Shelby Dailey (Midway High), and Jordan Zurcher (Roane County High); (Front row, left to right) Sarah Hooper (Academy Director, Roane State Community College faculty), Jonathan Cate (Oliver Springs High), Bryce Laughlin (Rockwood High), Ian Barnett (home schooled), Hayden Hester (Midway High), Matt Snow (Harriman High), and Lindsey Seymour (Harriman High).

Twelve Roane County high school students graduated this year from Roane County Chamber of Commerce’s Youth Leadership Academy held at Roane State Community College. The students, representing the county’s five high schools and home-schooled groups, formed six school teams. As a part of the academy requirements, each team will be completing a community service project in the coming months.

The students and their school teams are: Lindsey Seymour and Matt Snow for Harriman High; Shelby Dailey and Hayden Hester for Midway High; Jonathan Cate and Peyton Jones for Oliver Springs High; Hunter McClure and Jordan Zurcher for Roane County High; Kara Brindley and Bryce Laughlin for Rockwood High; and Ian Barnett and Samantha Schaefer are home-schooled. [Read more…]