Bill Haslam
NASHVILLE—Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam this week recommended 19 Appalachian Regional Commission grants, including $200,000 for Anderson County sewer improvements and another $200,000 for a Tech 20/20 project.
The grants are meant to help state and local agencies, governmental entities, local governing boards, or nonprofit organizations with infrastructure improvements, a press release said. [Read more…]
By Pat Fain and Leslie Agron
Today Oak Ridge has a default housing policy that begins and ends with two modest grants from Housing and Urban Development consisting of objectives decided internally by city staff. Input from the public has been minimal at best, despite HUD requirements to hold public input meetings. These were held, minimally advertised and sparsely attended. In the past, these objectives were then approved by Oak Ridge City Council without holding Council work sessions to discuss real needs or creative solutions for those needs.
This year and this month, Council will begin an open and (hopefully) far-reaching discussion for a well-thought-out response to community concerns and the need to protect the tax base of the city from further erosion resulting from the deterioration of a significant portion of the housing built before 1945. This paper is to offer ideas and alternate thinking as the City Council proceeds to contemplate the path ahead. [Read more…]
Deirdre Barrett, right, is pictured above with Alice Feldman, Linda Young, Anne Garcia Garland, and Margaret Gottshall. (Submitted photos)
The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation presented a check for $81,000 to the Oak Ridge Schools at the Foundation’s award ceremony Friday evening. The funds will be used to provide a variety of educational materials in each of the city’s seven public schools.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director and Foundation Chair Thom Mason told an audience of more than 150 attending the event that the gift was part of the Foundation’s “Making a Critical Difference†campaign that provides teachers small grants for teaching tools not available in the city’s education budget. Mason said that, since the program began in 2004, the Foundation has awarded a total of more than $408,000 to dozens of teachers in every grade. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge Associated Universities and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have partnered again to award two new grants in the ORAU/ORNL High-Performance Computing Grant Program for 2013.
ORAU provides up to $75,000 over three years to researchers and their teams. In addition to the monetary award, ORNL provides faculty and student teams with valuable access to the laboratory’s computing resources and staff.
Gov. Bill Haslam
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam this week announced his priorities for the 2013 legislative session, building on momentum from his past proposals focused on attracting and growing Tennessee jobs, pursuing meaningful education reform, managing an efficient and effective state government, and strengthening public safety.
“In working together over the past two years with the Legislature, we’ve accomplished a lot for the people of Tennessee, and I look forward to working with the 108th General Assembly in the same way,†Haslam said. “Our proposals represent our top priorities of making Tennessee the No. 1 state in the Southeast for high quality jobs, continuing to improve education, being the best managed state in the country, and keeping our citizens safe.â€
The governor’s legislation:
A board member of a local nonprofit organization that helps schools will give a Tuesday presentation on a program that uses grants to fund classroom projects in Oak Ridge.
The presentation by Cathy Toth of the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation starts at noon Tuesday in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church.
“We are well aware of the ORPSEF efforts in the renovation of Oak Ridge High School,” Toth said in a press release. “Most of us are not aware that ORPSEF has quietly been making a difference with a grants program that has funded dozens of classroom projects in every school in Oak Ridge. The grants provide resources beyond what can be provided by tax dollars to help make the critical difference between adequate and outstanding academic experiences and performance.”
Oliver Springs and Clinton have received more than $800,000 in grants for water system improvements and housing rehabilitation, Gov. Bill Haslam announced Tuesday.
Haslam also announced about $1 million total in Community Development Block Grants for sewer system improvements in Lenoir City and a water line extension in Cocke County.
Haslam also announced grants from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for two local parks. One $100,000 grant will help Oliver Springs develop Carmichael Park and expand Arrowhead Park, and a second $22,000 grant will aid the continued development of Marlow Park in Anderson County, a press release said.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation is sponsoring a statewide competition for $1 million of grant funds for special litter projects that go beyond routine maintenance.
Local governments, community organizations, and nonprofits can apply, a press release said. Winning proposals may receive a total of $25,000 to $100,000, which will be used to reimburse expenses each quarter for up to three years.
In the past seven years, the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation has awarded more than $322,000 in grants to more than 100 teachers. Because of the grants, at-risk readers are discovering the joy of reading through Kindles. Students are practicing a variety of skills using clicker response systems that provide teachers immediate feedback on what they’ve learned. Special needs students using iPads are pursuing new paths to learn reading comprehension skills.
With these grants, teachers are advancing learning with technology and equipment that wouldn’t be available otherwise in areas of science, art, music, special needs, the manufacturing academy, and foreign language, among others. The Education Foundation’s grants program does not replace public funding, but provides resources over and above what tax dollars are able to fund. It is an investment in our children and educational excellence.
