Oak Ridge Today

Not sure what the Charter Commission is? Hear from candidates on Tuesday

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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…]

Mansfield focuses on reading, math, support for all students in school board race

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Myra Mansfield is pictured above with her granddaughters Kyrstin and Kennedy. (Submitted photo)

Myra Mansfield has focused on reading and math proficiency and support for all students in her campaign for Oak Ridge Board of Education.

“Every child in our schools should achieve proficiency in reading and math,” Mansfield said in a press release announcing her campaign.

Mansfield is one of three candidates to qualify to run for one of two school board seats in the November 8 election. The other two candidates are the two incumbents, Angi Agle and Keys Fillauer.

In the press release, Mansfield said she is running because she believes that all children, regardless of their background, are capable of achieving greatness.

“I was compelled by what I read in the local newspapers,” Mansfield said. “Students are underachieving from all backgrounds across the city and that demands our attention.”

Mansfield said she is the daughter of K-25 retiree Stanley Finch and Oak Ridge National Laboratory retiree Shirley Garrison (Finch) Frykman. She said she is a lifelong Oak Ridger and proud product of Woodland Elementary, Jefferson Middle, and Oak Ridge High schools. She has degrees in accounting, business management, and a master’s degree focused in counseling, the press release said. Her daughters Esther and Elizabeth are graduates of MTSU and son Jonathan is a student at Roane State Community College. [Read more…]

Eight candidates for City Council, three for School Board, 20 for Charter Commission

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Note: This story was last updated at 1:40 p.m.

There are eight candidates who qualified to run for three seats on Oak Ridge City Council in the November 8 election, and three candidates qualified for two seats on Oak Ridge Board of Education. There are also 20 candidates for eight seats on a new Anderson County Charter Commission.

Here are the Oak Ridge City Council candidates (elect three):

  • Jim Dodson
  • Wende Doolittle
  • Anne Garcia Garland
  • L.C. “Charlie” Hensley
  • Charles “Chuck” Hope Jr.
  • Joseph Lee
  • Mark LeNoir
  • Hans Vogel

Current City Council member Trina Baughn will not be on the ballot. Hensley and Hope are incumbents. Garcia Garland is a former Council member.

The City Council has seven members who serve staggered terms, meaning the other four seats are up for election in November 2018.

Here are the Board of Education candidates (elect two): [Read more…]

Council approves budget with no tax increase, more money for schools

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Note: This story was updated at 1:15 p.m. June 16.

The Oak Ridge City Council approved a budget on Monday that does not include a property tax rate increase, but it does include more money for schools. The budget anticipates increases in the trash fee and water and sewer rates.

It was the second and final vote on the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The first vote, or reading, was Monday, June 6.

The property tax rate will stay at $2.52 per $100 of assessed value. It’s the ninth year in a row without a property tax rate increase by the city, although the tax rate had to be adjusted last year after five-year reappraisals.

The budget, which has about $22.8 million in the general fund, includes a 3 percent pay adjustment that will move municipal employees along their pay scales, helping to separate those who have worked for the city for a while from those who have just started. [Read more…]

School board has special meeting Monday to consider one-time spending approved by city

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Oak Ridge Schools School Administration Building

The Oak Ridge Board of Education will have a special meeting on Monday to consider approving $538,048 worth of one-time spending that was approved by the Oak Ridge City Council this past Monday (May 6).

If the Tennessee Department of Education agrees, the extra money, which had been requested by Oak Ridge Schools and the BOE, would not be part of the city’s annual “maintenance of effort” for the schools, a level of funding that can’t be reduced.

Most of the $538,048, or $425,000, would be used in the next fiscal year for principal and interest payments for a four-year technology lease that began in fiscal year 2016, the current fiscal year. That lease funded the purchase of convertible laptops for grade levels 5-8, supporting what is known as a 1:1 initiative and part of Access Oak Ridge.

The other $113,048 would be used for building improvements: [Read more…]

Oak Ridge school board passes budget on second, final reading

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The Oak Ridge Board of Education passed the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 on second and final reading on Monday.

The budget includes 3 percent salary increases and a request for an additional $538,048 from the city, a 3.6 percent increase in municipal funding.

The schools budget was approved unanimously in the first of two readings on Wednesday. It passed unanimously again on Monday. The school board made no significant changes to the budget proposed by the school system.

The budget will now be considered as part of the annual budget deliberations by the Oak Ridge City Council. The city typically provides a little less than 30 percent of the school system’s funding. The schools also receive state and federal funding. [Read more…]

School board approves budget that includes pay raises, seeks additional funding

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The Oak Ridge Board of Education approved a budget on Wednesday that includes 3 percent salary increases and a request for an additional $538,048 from the city. That’s a 3.6 percent increase in city funding.

The budget was approved unanimously in the first of two readings this month. The second and final reading is at 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 23.

As approved in the first reading during a 15-minute meeting Wednesday, the budget includes the reduction of the full-time equivalent of four teachers and an increase in five technology positions. It includes experience-based pay increases known as step increases for staff. And it includes money to fund a 6.2 percent increase in health insurance rates and another 10 percent for dental insurance. [Read more…]

Reminder: Public hearing, first reading of school budget this evening

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Oak Ridge Schools School Administration Building

Reminder: The Oak Ridge Board of Education will consider the Oak Ridge Schools budget in the first of two readings at 5:30 p.m. today (Wednesday, May 18). The meeting will include a public hearing.

 

Reminder: The Oak Ridge Board of Education will consider the Oak Ridge Schools budget in the first of two readings at 5:30 p.m. today (Wednesday, May 18). The meeting will include a public hearing.

The second and final reading is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 23.

The school board meets in the Robert J. Smallridge School Administration Building at 304 New York Avenue.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Proposed schools budget would include raises, ask city for more money

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The budget proposed for Oak Ridge Schools for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes 3 percent salary increases and a request for an additional $538,048 from the city. As proposed, the budget also includes the reduction of the full-time equivalent of four teachers and an increase in five technology positions.

The budget was presented to the Oak Ridge Board of Education on Tuesday. The board has a work session to discuss the Fiscal Year 2017 budget at 5:30 p.m. today (Thursday, May 12) and a work session to review the budget line by line at 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 16.

If implemented as proposed, the budget would ask the city for a 3.6 percent increase in funding. It would also include experience-based pay increases known as step increases for staff.

It would include money to fund a 6.2 percent increase in health insurance rates and another 10 percent for dental insurance. [Read more…]

Schools budget presented to BOE this evening

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Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers

 

The budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 will be presented to the Oak Ridge Board of Education at 5:30 p.m. today (Tuesday, May 10).

The school board will have a work session to discuss the Fiscal Year 2017 budget at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 12, and a work session to review the budget line by line at 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 16.

Then, the BOE will consider the budget in the first of two readings at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 18. That meeting will include a public hearing. [Read more…]

Opinion: Making positive strides in elementary literacy

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Keys Fillauer

By Oak Ridge Board of Education

We have been reading a lot lately about the dire straits of reading instruction and students’ abilities in reading, especially at the early grades. Although there are challenges, there is also momentum to make positive impacts on students’ reading proficiencies in all grades.

What is happening with elementary literacy?

Two school years ago, the state changed (for the better) the English Language Arts and math standards to make them more rigorous in order to ensure that Tennessee high school graduates will be better prepared in the future for college and careers. Most public schools welcomed the change because the former standards just weren’t serving Tennessee students well. However, changing standards also meant changing state assessments.

In Oak Ridge, we saw a drop in our elementary reading results on state exams after these changes. The drops in reading results were especially evident with our economically disadvantaged students.

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Bob Eby

For us, this was and is unacceptable. We believe that all students can succeed, and we have expanded our literacy initiative as a result. This literacy initiative includes providing additional time and support starting in kindergarten all the way through high school to students who struggle in reading. We have trained reading specialists who provide intensive instruction to struggling students. We have a summer bookmobile program that is expanding to multiple elementary schools in order to help reduce summer reading setback. We have professional development for teachers on improving reading and writing instruction in the classroom, and we have purchased research-based materials to support them. In addition, we have recently been provided an opportunity to work with the Carnegie Foundation and the Tennessee Department of Education to systematically analyze our early literacy efforts in order to improve student outcomes. This work will begin in April 2016 and will last through September 2018.

But what about testing? [Read more…]

Teachers, principals ask for 3 percent pay raise

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Pictured above during a Oak Ridge Board of Education meeting on Monday, March 28, are Phil Cox, left, Jefferson Middle School principal, and Garfield Adams, Robertsville Middle School principal. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 4:55 p.m.

Teachers and principals in Oak Ridge Schools have asked for 3 percent pay increases in the budget year that starts July 1.

The request was made at last week’s Oak Ridge Board of Education meeting. It’s too early to say whether the request will be included in the budget proposal that will be presented to the BOE, possibly later this month or sometime next month, or approved by the school board, possibly in May.

In a presentation by Robertsville Middle School Principal Garfield Adams and Jefferson Middle School Principal Phil Cox, officials said Oak Ridge Schools administrators’ pay has been on a downward trend, falling from eighth in the state in 2008-2009 to 13th in 2014-2015. They said that trend reflects what is happening for teachers. [Read more…]