Oak Ridge Today

Face masks required at Willow Brook Elementary starting Monday

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The COVID-19 case count dashboard by Oak Ridge School on Friday afternoon, Aug. 6, 2021.

Note: This story was updated at 10 a.m. Aug. 7.

Face masks will be required at Willow Brook Elementary School starting Monday as the number of COVID-19 cases has jumped in a few days from one case to 12. That’s more than half of the 22 current cases in Oak Ridge Schools.

The first case at Willow Brook was a staff member who had been infected, according to a report around Tuesday or Wednesday. On Friday, the outbreak at Willow Brook had grown from one COVID-19 case to 12. Eight of those were student cases, and four were staff cases.

“At this point in time, our data supports mandating masks for students and staff at Willow Brook Elementary School starting on Monday,” Oak Ridge Schools told families in an email Friday. “When active cases and transmission decrease, we will have the option to lift this mandate and return to making the wearing of masks optional.”

The overall number of current cases in Oak Ridge Schools has almost tripled from eight current cases on Tuesday or Wednesday to 22 on Friday.

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Pellissippi State to require masks indoors

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Pellissippi State Community College will require face masks be worn in all indoor spaces effective Monday, August 9.

The college said its emergency management team based the decision on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID data tracker, which shows both Knox and Blount counties to have “high” levels of community transmission, as well as numbers of active COVID-19 cases from the Knox County and Blount County health departments. In Knox County alone, the number of active COVID-19 cases jumped from 198 on July 14 to 1,240 on August 4, a press release said. Case numbers are updated each Wednesday.

Fall classes begin Monday, August 23, and the college will have some masks available on each of its five campuses for those who arrive without one. Face shields are not sufficient, the press release said.

“We know this is frustrating and stressful and that we’re all tired of it,” said Pellissippi State President L. Anthony Wise Jr. “There are exciting weeks ahead as we welcome faculty and students back for the fall semester, many for the first time in months. We are going to take the challenges as they come and do the best we can to set a good example for our peers and our students by providing a safe environment for teaching and learning.”

Pellissippi State’s main campus is in Hardin Valley.

Pellissippi State said it will re-evaluate its mask policy at the end of September, using a return to “moderate” community transmission – sustained over 10 days to two weeks – as the metric for deciding when to relax the mask requirement. By waiting until the end of September to re-evaluate, the team will be able to see if Labor Day travel impacts local numbers, the press release said.

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Sixteen cases of COVID in Oak Ridge Schools

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The COVID-19 Case Count Dashboard for Oak Ridge Schools on Thursday morning, Aug. 5, 2021.

Sixteen cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Oak Ridge Schools this school year. Fifteen of those cases are current, and one is recovered, according to the school system. The number of current cases appears to have about doubled in a few days, from eight to 15.

Almost half of the current cases, seven of them, are at Willow Brook Elementary School. Four of those cases are students, and three are staff members. That outbreak appears to have been reported in the past few days. A few days ago, there was one staff case reported at Willow Brook and no student cases.

Four cases of COVID-19 have been reported at Oak Ridge High School, all among students. Three of those are current, and one is recovered, Oak Ridge Schools said in a COVID-19 case dashboard posted on its website.

There are three current cases among students at Robertsville Middle School and two are among students at Jefferson Middle School.

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Roane State recommends face masks indoors

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Roane State Community College has updated its COVID-19 response plan to include the recommendation that all students, faculty, staff and visitors wear face masks when indoors on campus.

This change is in response to a number of factors, including a recent surge in COVID-19 cases locally, the new Delta variant, and new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Tennessee Department of Health, and the Tennessee Board of Regents, a press release said.

The updated face mask recommendation applies to anyone who enters a building on a Roane State campus, regardless of vaccination status. New signs are being posted on campuses to reflect this information, and the entire campus community has been notified of the request, the press release said.

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Poll: Do you think Oak Ridge Schools should require face masks?

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A small group of parents and two school board members on Monday said they support following federal guidance and requiring face masks in Oak Ridge Schools to help keep students, staff, and their families from getting infected with COVID-19 and spreading it. They cited the rising case numbers in Anderson County and Tennessee as the delta variant of the new coronavirus causes new case numbers to surge across the country, driving up hospitalizations and making more younger people sick.

The school system did not make a decision Monday, but school officials said they are watching the COVID-19 case numbers and could make a decision later. The school system required face masks last year but relaxed that requirement when cases declined over many months following the winter peak. Now, cases are trending back up, and it’s not clear how long that could continue.

School officials say they have also heard from parents who object to requiring masks again.

What do you think? Should Oak Ridge Schools require face masks in schools to help prevent the spread of COVID-19?

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Some ask for mask requirement in schools but no change yet

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The Oak Ridge Board of Education is pictured above on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A small group of parents and two school board members asked for face masks to be required in Oak Ridge Schools, but no decision was made during a school board meeting Monday evening.

Some students are too young to get vaccinated, the parents and school board members said. Others have only had one COVID-19 vaccination shot and aren’t fully vaccinated. Four days into the new school year, parent Gretchen Toney said her daughter has already been exposed to COVID-19 at Robertsville Middle School and sent home to quarantine, potentially exposing her four-year-old son at home and continuing to prevent a visit by her father, who has cancer.

Parent Laetitia Delmau said her children at RMS and Oak Ridge High School are getting non-stop comments because they wear masks for their own protection, and the schools should be free of harassment and bullying.

Citing reports from their children and their own personal observations, parents said few people are wearing masks in Oak Ridge Schools.

The parents asked the school system to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommended on Tuesday that everyone should wear a mask indoors in K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. The American Academy of Pediatrics has also recommended universal masking in schools this fall, and on Monday, the University of Tennessee announced it will require masks in many indoor settings this fall semester.

“I really request that we follow the CDC guidelines,” Toney said.

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UT to require masks indoors

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The University of Tennessee will require face masks indoors this fall semester.

Masks will be required in classrooms, laboratories, other places of instruction, and any indoor events that students are required to attend, UT said in a press release Monday.

The university may be the first school in the area to announce a mask requirement as the delta variant of the new coronavirus spreads in Tennessee and across the United States. Masks are not currently required in Oak Ridge Schools.

In the press release, UT System President Randy Boyd urged students, faculty, and staff members to talk with their families and healthcare providers about the benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccination.

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Roane State partners with Tennessee Tech for new dual enrollment program

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Roane State Community College Technology Building
The Technology Building at Roane State Community College’s main campus in Harriman is pictured above. (Photo by Roane State)

A new program designed to provide a smooth transition from Roane State Community College to Tennessee Tech University will launch this fall. The program, dubbed “Roane to Tech,” ensures that all Roane State graduates have guaranteed admission to Tennessee Tech, a press release said.

“The strong relationship we’ve built with our friends at Tennessee Tech has allowed us to provide yet another path for our students to receive a world-class education,” Roane State President Chris Whaley said. “The goal of this program is to remove the misconception of difficult transfers and reduce anxieties for transfer students.”

Roane to Tech students will be known as “Golden Raiders,” a combination of Roane State Raiders and Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. Through the new program, students have multiple opportunities to take advantage of dual enrollment benefits, the press release said.

Those in Agriculture, Biology, Business, Psychology, or Sociology programs will be considered students at both institutions, receiving predefined degree plans, advising services from both schools, special access to events, waived application fees, and free Roane to Tech gear, the press release said.

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COVID case, positivity rates rising as school resumes

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A daily snapshot of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, includes, among other information, the daily number of new cases and the daily positivity rate. (Graphic by Tennessee Department of Health)

Note: This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. July 28.

The COVID-19 case and positivity rates are rising in Anderson County as school resumes in Oak Ridge. More than 100 new COVID-19 cases, four hospitalizations, and three deaths have been reported since mid-July. The positivity rate, a measure of how many COVID-19 tests are positive each day, is about 10 percent, which exceeds World Health Organization guidelines.

Cases in Tennessee have surged from a low of a few hundred new cases per day about a month ago to roughly 2,100 new cases on Tuesday. Current hospitalizations across the state have climbed from a low of a few hundred to 762. Fifty-one hospitalizations were reported Tuesday.

In the past two weeks, the rate of new COVID-19 cases per day in Anderson County has steadily climbed from a low of about one new case per day in Anderson County to 7.6 new cases per day. The county reported 112 new cases of COVID-19 between Monday, July 12, and Tuesday, July 27, according to data from the Tennessee Department of Health. (See also here and here.)

There were 74 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the week between Tuesday, July 20, and Monday, July 26. That’s an average of about 10.6 new cases per day. The one-week average of 10.6 new cases per day was higher than the 14-day case average of 7.6 reported by the state.

Two new deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in Anderson County on Monday, although that doesn’t necessarily mean the deaths occurred Monday because the state reporting can lag a few days behind when the deaths occurred.

Also in the last two weeks, the positivity rate has climbed from about 2.3 percent on Monday, July 12, to 9.3 percent on Tuesday, July 27. The WHO has recommended a positivity rate below 5 percent.

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Triplets tour Roane State as they look ahead to college

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Roane State’s Jack Parker talks with the Dunsmore family during their tour of the Coffey/McNally Building, in background, and the Goff Building on the Oak Ridge Branch Campus. From left: Jack Parker with Megan, Todd, Jennifer, Jacob, and Luke Dunsmore. (Photo by Roane State Community College)

By Bob Fowler
Roane State staff writer

Roane State employee Jack Parker has been giving prospective students tours of the community college for years, but this was a first for him.

Parker recently provided a detailed overview of the Oak Ridge Branch Campus to triplets, all of whom came away with upbeat opinions of their upcoming collegiate experiences.

Following him through the corridors and into the classrooms and high-tech labs in the Coffey/McNally and Goff Buildings were triplets Jacob, Megan, and Luke Dunsmore, along with their parents, Jennifer and Todd Dunsmore.

The Dunsmores are residents of Knox County’s Fountain City area, and their children graduated in May from the First Baptist Academy in Powell. The trio attended that private school from kindergarten through their senior year.

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ORAU awards five Pollard Scholarships

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Part of the ORAU campus in central Oak Ridge is pictured above on May 29, 2017. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

ORAU has awarded five William G. Pollard Scholarships of $2,500 each toward undergraduate studies for the 2021-2022 academic year. The recipients of this year’s scholarships include Semilore (Semmy) Abiodun-Adeniyi, Olivia Campbell, Olivia Hudson, Sara Malicoat, and Trisha Prater.

Each year, ORAU awards these scholarships to employees’ children or stepchildren who display exceptional achievements in their high school or undergraduate studies. Applicants must submit official transcripts from all high schools and colleges attended, three references (at least two of which must be from teachers), and a 500-word essay describing professional and personal interests, a press release said.

The William G. Pollard Scholarship Awards are presented in honor of ORAU’s founder in recognition of his dedication to science and education. A University of Tennessee physics professor, Pollard founded the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies—which later became ORAU—to link the valuable scientific resources developed in Oak Ridge as part of the Manhattan Project with regional universities.

Here is more information about this year’s winners: [Read more…]

Y-12 donates $8,500 for Scarboro graduates, honoring Oak Ridge 85

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Dorothy Kirk Lewis and L.C. Gipson, members of the Oak Ridge 85, hold the check representing the $8,500 donation from Consolidated Nuclear Security given in their honor. (Photo courtesy CNS/Y-12)

At the conclusion of a school year during which Oak Ridge commemorated the 65th anniversary of the integration of Oak Ridge High School and Robertsville Junior High, the Scarboro Alumni Association received an $8,500 donation for their scholarship endowment.

Consolidated Nuclear Security, the managing and operating contractor of Y-12 National Security Complex made the donation at the Scarboro Community Center on May 26 in honor of the 85 Black students who integrated Oak Ridge schools in 1955, a press release said. The endowment provides scholarships to selected high school seniors who have an association with the Scarboro community and who choose to continue their education.

Little-known history

The Oak Ridge 85, as they are known, consisted of 85 students who integrated Robertsville Junior High and Oak Ridge High School on September 6, 1955. They were the first students to integrate a public school in the southeastern United States, the press release said.

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