Oak Ridge City Schools has announced that the application period for renewing or applying for tuition and cross boundary applications is April 8 thru April 26. The approved applications are good for one year.
If your child remains in good standing during that time period, you will need to complete a cross boundary application for the upcoming school year and return it to your child’s school. [Read more…]
Before the school board offered him the Oak Ridge Schools superintendent job on Monday, Bruce Borchers, right, speaks to Carol Smallridge, left, and interim Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bob Smallridge, second from right. Also pictured is Borchers’ son Jack.
The Oak Ridge school board has offered the superintendent’s job to Bruce Borchers, who is now superintendent of the Rockwood School District in Eureka, Mo.
The position, which has a salary range of about $175,000, is still subject to contract negotiations.
Board members approved the offer in a 5-0 vote during a short special meeting on Monday at Riverside Grille in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
A change in Tennessee law now requires students to turn five years old on or before Aug. 31, 2013, to enroll in kindergarten this fall, but Oak Ridge Schools is taking applications for early enrollment.
The applications will be accepted through Friday, March 29. This will be the beginning of a two-part registration process that will be completed just prior to school starting for the 2013–2014 school year, a press release said. [Read more…]
An executive search firm has narrowed down the list of superintendent candidates to seven finalists, and the Oak Ridge school board plans to interview three of them Tuesday.
The three are:
Note: This story was last updated at 3:31 p.m.
Former Oak Ridge High School football coach Joe Gaddis is returning to Oak Ridge, school officials announced Monday.
Gaddis will be a teacher and head football coach at Oak Ridge High School. He will replace Scott Blade, who resigned to accept a position in Williamson County.
Gaddis has an overall 258-112 record in his 30 years as head coach. Almost half of those wins—or 119 of them—came while he served as head coach at Oak Ridge High School, where he coached from 1988 until 1998, an Oak Ridge Schools press release said.
Information from WYSH Radio
The Oak Ridge Board of Education approved a resolution on Monday that says the board is committed to providing school resource officers at all eight of the schools that make up the system, from preschool all the way to high school.
The resolution passed last night directs Interim Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bob Smallridge to work with City Manager Mark Watson to find a way to make that happen.
Oak Ridge Schools will be closed Friday, and the Anderson County Courthouse will open two hours late due to the threat of a major winter storm with freezing rain and ice.
Anderson County officials said they would continue to monitor the weather along with local emergency officials and make changes as necessary.
Bob Smallridge
Their first attempt to hire a new school superintendent ended after four of five finalists withdrew, and Oak Ridge Board of Education members learned Monday that bumping the potential pay range up to $175,000 per year could attract new candidates and better reflect market conditions.
The board approved the recommendation to offer a higher salary in a 5-0 vote during a special meeting Monday. The board also agreed to have executive search firm Ray and Associates of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, contact previously interested candidates with the new pay information, reset the application deadline to March 1, and set a start date for the new superintendent of no later than June 15.
The potential salary range for a new superintendent had earlier been set at $140,000 to $150,000, but two finalists from a search that started in June withdrew, citing salary issues, among other things, and a third apparently would have had to take a $6,000 to $8,000 pay cut to take the Oak Ridge superintendent’s job.
Two more finalists for Oak Ridge Schools superintendent have withdrawn, and the search will have to be re-opened, an official said Wednesday.
One candidate, Roger Collins, toured Oak Ridge this past Friday. The other, Dan Lawson, was scheduled to be here Thursday, but that visit has been canceled.
On Wednesday, Oak Ridge Board of Education Chair Keys Fillauer said Collins and Lawson have decided they want to stay where they are. Collins has been superintendent of Nelson County Public Schools in Lovingston, Va., for 10 years. Lawson, superintendent of Tullahoma City Schools in Tullahoma, Tenn., has been with his district 16 years.
The school shootings in Newtown, Conn., on Friday have focused attention on school security in Tennessee, led to pledges to increase the police presence at some schools, and bolstered calls for more school resource officers across the state.
It has also revived an intense debate about gun control in the United States.
The shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown last week killed 20 children, six adults, the gunman, and his mother. On Tuesday, the National Rifle Association said it was prepared to “offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again” and would have a major news conference on Friday.
In Tennessee, a few legislators have proposed requiring school resource officers in all schools, training at least one staff member to use firearms, or allowing teachers to carry handguns into schools not patrolled by armed police officers. But it’s not yet clear how much support—or funding—those proposals will have.
In Oak Ridge, Board of Education Chair Keys Fillauer said education officials will continue to advocate for more school resource officers, or SROs. But local officials said adding SROs could depend upon funding.
In Anderson County, Mayor Terry Frank sent out information on Tuesday on the positive measures taken this week by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department after last week’s shooting, including four walk-throughs at Dutch Valley Elementary School on Monday.
The “meet and greet” that had been scheduled with a second school superintendent candidate on Thursday has been canceled, the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce said Tuesday.
The session had been scheduled for lunchtime Thursday with Dan Lawson. He is superintendent of Tullahoma City Schools in Tullahoma, Tenn.
The second of three finalists for Oak Ridge Schools superintendent will visit the city on Thursday.
Dan Lawson, superintendent of Tullahoma City Schools in Tullahoma, Tenn., will be at a “meet and greet” session at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce from 11:30-12:30 p.m. Thursday.
As part of his tour, he could also visit Willow Brook Elementary School and the Oak Ridge Preschool, Board of Education Chair Keys Fillauer said Monday.
