A forum tonight will feature the Oak Ridge candidates for Anderson County Charter Commission.
The forum will start at 7 p.m., Thursday, October 6, in the City Room (A-111) at Roane State Community College at 701 Briarcliff Avenue in Oak Ridge.
Here are the Oak Ridge candidates: [Read more…]
Bob Smallridge
Bob Smallridge is running for Anderson County Charter Commission in District 8, which includes the Emory Valley, Hendrix Creek, and Woodland voting precincts.
The eight-member Charter Commission will be elected in November with the purpose of considering and voting on possible changes to Anderson County government, a press release said.
Once elected and certified, the Commission will have nine months to come up with a recommended document for voter approval or rejection through a countywide referendum.
As pointed out in a recent newspaper editorial, a home rule charter provides, “numerous options for improving county government, but also ample opportunity to make government worse,†the press release said. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce has a forum for candidates for the Anderson County Charter Commission on Tuesday morning.
It’s the first candidate forum for the November 8 election.
The Charter Commission candidate forum will start at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, September 20, in the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Joyce Conference Room. It’s free and open to the public.
There are 20 candidates for eight seats on the new Charter Commission. The Tuesday morning forum at the Oak Ridge Chamber will feature candidates from the county’s District 6, District 7, and District 8, which all include parts of Oak Ridge.
There are seven candidates for those three seats: [Read more…]
A city board has recommended that the Oak Ridge Senior Center be located at the Civic Center on Oak Ridge Turnpike, and the board will ask the City Council to consider $50,000 for conceptual studies, possibly in April. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
An Oak Ridge board has recommended that the city’s senior center be located at the Civic Center and Alvin K. Bissell Park, and the board will ask the City Council, possibly in April, to consider $50,000 for conceptual studies.
The Oak Ridge Senior Center is currently located in a county-owned building on Emory Valley Road. It’s been there since 1999.
Some senior center users have been advocating for a new home for years, arguing that they didn’t voluntarily leave the former Wildcat Den (the Midtown Community Center) and that their current home has a number of deficiencies. But despite those efforts, the senior center remains on Emory Valley Road.
The current effort to find a new home has been under way since last year and picked up in January, said Linda McGhee, senior programs recreation manager in the Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department. [Read more…]
Bruce Borchers
The Oak Ridge Board of Education will consider extending Superintendent Bruce Borchers’ contract through 2020 during a Monday evening meeting.
If approved, the contract extension would take effect June 18, 2016, and continue through June 17, 2020.
Borchers was hired in April 2013, and he started two months later, on June 18. He was previously superintendent of the Rockwood School District in Eureka, Missouri. [Read more…]
To the Editor:
Bob Eby has served as both a member and chairman of the Oak Ridge Board of Education. During most of his time on the Board, I was employed as superintendent of the Oak Ridge Schools, which gave me the opportunity to work closely with Bob on many school-related issues.
Bob was a tremendous help in responding to problems and decisions facing the Oak Ridge Schools at the time. His leadership and guidance were invaluable to the Board and certainly to me as superintendent of schools.
Bob has strong private-sector experience including excellent organizational skills which were, and continue to be, very helpful in analyzing and deciding issues facing the schools. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
The Anderson County Hall of Fame will continue its tradition of honoring the area’s finest community members at the dinner and induction ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 21, at the First Baptist Church of Clinton.
Stephen Bargatze, internationally acclaimed comedian and motivational speaker, will serve as the keynote speaker of the 7th annual celebration. Each year, individuals with ties to Anderson County are inducted into the Hall of Fame in ten categories, and the Class of 2013 is as follows: [Read more…]
New Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce, right, will be welcomed during an Aug. 5 reception along with new Assistant Superintendent Chris Marczak. Above, Borchers speaks to Carol Smallridge, left, and former Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent and Interim Superintendent Bob Smallridge, second from right. Also pictured is Borchers’ son Jack.
Oak Ridge Schools will have an Aug. 5 reception for new Superintendent Bruce Borchers and new Assistant Superintendent Chris Marczak.
The reception will be from 5-6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5, in the School Administration Building Board Room. It will precede the 7 p.m. Oak Ridge Board of Education meeting.
Borchers was hired in April, and he started in Oak Ridge on June 18. He replaced Interim Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bob Smallridge, who is also a former superintendent. Smallridge filled in after former Superintendent Tom Bailey retired at the end of 2012. [Read more…]
Bob Smallridge
The following is in response to a recent letter from Ms. Trina Baughn, which was published in The Oak Ridger on July 3 and subsequently reported in part by other area media.
I recently completed a six-month stint as interim superintendent of the Oak Ridge Schools, covering the period Jan. 1 through June 30. I will not attempt to speak to what might or might not have occurred prior to this time, but will comment only on events where I had some direct involvement during my period of service.
In assuming my role as interim superintendent, one of the things I felt was most important was for me to get out to the schools as frequently as possible. I was in the schools, on  average, twice a week, especially the secondary schools, because they are larger and it takes more time to visit all parts of the buildings. For the most part, my visits came at random times and were unannounced. I visited many classrooms and talked with both teachers and students individually. I saw students moving through the hallways and congregating in the larger assembly spaces in a causal, but controlled manner, enjoying a few minutes to converse with each other. Overall, I observed a very orderly environment based on caring and mutual respect between teachers, administrators, and students.
This is not to say that there are never problems that occur among students. Anytime you bring 700 students together as in the case of the middle schools or almost 1,400 at the high school you can expect instances of inappropriate behavior by a few students. Although most discipline situations are handled at the building level, there were times when it was necessary for me to get involved in reviewing a specific incident. For the most part, I was very comfortable that these situations were handled appropriately and consistently by school staff. [Read more…]
No students were reported to be injured after a Monday afternoon collision between a school bus and a car in Woodland.
The 17-year-old driver who hit a school bus in Woodland on Monday afternoon said he did not see a stop sign at the intersection of Northwestern and West Gettysburg avenues due to tree limbs, and he failed to stop before colliding with the bus, authorities said.
The Clinton teenager estimated he was traveling at about 30 mph in a 1997 Volvo 960 sedan as he drove west on West Gettysburg Avenue just before the 2:16 p.m. crash, according to an Oak Ridge Police Department accident report.
The bus driver, Yvonnda Smith McNair, 60, of Oliver Springs, told ORPD Officer Leslie Miller that she was driving south on Northwestern Avenue when the Volvo failed to stop and hit the bus, owned by contractor First Student Inc. [Read more…]
Christopher J. Marczak
A Nashville school official has been named assistant superintendent in Oak Ridge.
Christopher J. Marczak will become assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Oak Ridge Schools on July 1. He is currently employed as a network lead principal in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School system.
Marczak was selected from a field of 52 applicants following interviews with a system-wide committee, Oak Ridge Schools said in a Tuesday morning press release. [Read more…]
No students were reported to be injured after a Monday afternoon collision between a school bus and a car in Woodland.
No children appeared to be injured after a Monday afternoon collision between a school bus and car at the intersection of Northwestern and West Gettysburg avenues in the Woodland neighborhood, authorities said.
However, a bus assistant may have hurt her shoulder, and she went to the hospital to be checked out, Oak Ridge Interim Superintendent Bob Smallridge said.
The yellow school bus, Bus #596, which is operated by contractor First Student, was carrying about 18 children from Oak Ridge Preschool at about 2:16 p.m. Monday when it collided with a red Volvo four-door sedan. The students were headed home after school. None were taken away from the crash by ambulance, Oak Ridge Assistant Fire Chief Josh Waldo said. [Read more…]
