Oak Ridge Today

Golden Dragon Acrobat Show to benefit ORHS Masquers

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Color Wheels

Color Wheels (Photo courtesy Masskus Productions)

 

The Golden Dragon Acrobats will perform on Saturday, July 25, in a show that will benefit the Oak Ridge High School Masquers, the school’s drama program. It’s the group’s first visit to East Tennessee in more than a decade.

“The Golden Dragons are recognized throughout the United States and abroad as the premiere Chinese acrobatic touring company of today,” a press release said.

It said the Golden Dragon Acrobats represent the very best of a time-honored circus tradition that began more than 25 centuries ago. The group has more than two dozen highly trained acrobats and technicians.

The family entertainment event starts at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 25, at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center. All seats are reserved. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under, and they are available through www.KnoxvilleTickets.com. [Read more…]

Green named girls basketball coach, one half of husband-wife coaching duo

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Paige Green

Paige Green

Paige Green has been named the new girls basketball coach at Oak Ridge High School, making her one half of a husband-wife coaching duo. Green’s husband, Aaron Green, is the boys basketball coach.

The appointment was announced Wednesday and went into effect immediately. Green, who has an impressive résumé as a player and has coached middle school and AAU basketball, will replace David Scott, who announced his decision to resign in late May. Scott cited family reasons after a second stint as coach.

It’s not unprecedented to have a husband-wife coaching duo. Aaron Green said he knows of two other similar coaching couples, the McWilliams at Upperman High School near Cookeville and Keith and Jennifer Galloway at Hardin Valley Academy. [Read more…]

Alondra Garcia awarded 2015 Myrick Scholarship

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Teresa Myrick, Alondra Barrera Garcia, and Jessica Steed

Alondra Barrera Garcia, center, receives congratulations for winning the Myrick Scholarship from Teresa Myrick, left, and Jessica Steed. (Submitted photo)

 

Alondra Barrera Garcia’s dedication to the study of environmental science has earned her a $1,000 scholarship awarded by Teresa Myrick and established to honor a hard-working student in a field of study important to Teresa’s husband, Tim Myrick.

Alondra, a May graduate of Oak Ridge High School, plans to attend Berea College in Kentucky this fall, where she will major in environmental science and sustainability. She was a student in Deni Sobek’s Advanced Placement Environmental Science class at the high school.

“The class assured me that this is what I wanted to dedicate my life to,” Alondra said. “I would like to use my interest in the environment to aid it and solve the problems that affect it, and hopefully make the world a more sustainable planet, to ensure that it will be safe and healthy for future generations.”

In 2012, Myrick and his wife Teresa pledged $25,000 to the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation’s “Making the Critical Difference” campaign for grants and scholarships. Their pledge provides an annual scholarship to a top AP Environmental Science student, as well as grant funds to be awarded to ORHS Science Department applicants. Alondra is the seventh recipient of the Myricks’ AP Environmental Science scholarship, with previous scholarships presented through ADFAC, or Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties. [Read more…]

ORHS graduation is Thursday

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Commencement for the Oak Ridge High School Class of 2015 will be held at Blankenship Field on Thursday, May 28, at 7 p.m.

In the event of rain, the graduation ceremony will be moved to Friday, May 29, at 7 p.m.

If it is raining on Friday evening, the ceremony will be moved into the Wildcat Arena.

ORHS AP Chemistry students place third in nation in science competition

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Eddie Anderson

Eddie Anderson

Advanced Placement Chemistry students at Oak Ridge High School placed third in the nation in chemistry in the National Science League competition, the school’s Science Department said.

The students are in the AP Chemistry class taught by Eddie Anderson at ORHS.

The test was given to all AP Chemistry students, the Science Department said. [Read more…]

See Oak Ridge qualifiers, schedule for state track meet

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Oak Ridge Wildcats Track Class AAA Sectional 2015

Ten Oak Ridge High School students will compete in 10 track and field events at the state meet in Murfreesboro this month after finishing in the top four in a sectional meet at Hardin Valley on Saturday, May 9. (Photos by Luther Simmons)

 

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association has published the list of qualifiers, their performances in sectionals, and the schedule for the state track meet in Murfreesboro this week.

Here are the top qualifiers for Oak Ridge, starting with the boys, from the four sectionals, or sub-state competitions. Oak Ridge competed at a sectional at Hardin Valley Academy on Saturday, May 9. The top four competitors at sectionals moved on to the state meet.

The state track meet events have fields of 16 competitors from across Tennessee.

Boys long jump—3rd, Malik Hardy, a senior at Oak Ridge High School, with a jamp of 22-01.25. The top two seeds are Weldon Wright, a senior at Hardin Valley (22-08.25), and Bailey Overbay, a senior at Morristown-East (22-04.50).

Boys 4×800-meter relay—4th, Oak Ridge High School, with a time of 8:02.79. The top three seeds are Daniel Boone (8:00.08), Hardin Valley Academy (8:00.47), and Science Hill (8:01.71).

Boys 100-meter dash—12th, Malik Hardy, with a time of 10.99. The top three seeds are Johnathon Johnson, a senior at Melrose (10.57); Zeandre Floyd, a senior at West Creek (10.69); and Terry Wright, a senior at White Station (10.84). [Read more…]

Parents, teachers, students show support for ‘venerated’ teacher under investigation

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Eddie Anderson

Eddie Anderson

Note: This story was last updated at 12:05 p.m.

About 200 people turned out at a school board meeting on Wednesday to show support for longtime teacher and track coach Eddie Anderson, who has been suspended without pay pending a police investigation, and to challenge some of the accusations made against him. Some objected to the process used by the school system, saying the reputation of a fantastic teacher has been sullied.

Anderson, an Oak Ridge High School chemistry teacher hired in 1979, was suspended without pay on April 30 while the Oak Ridge Police Department investigates an allegation of inappropriate contact with a former student. In the letter announcing the suspension, Oak Ridge Schools Assistant Superintendent Chris Marczak said the allegation was being turned over to the ORPD as a criminal investigation.

No additional details about that allegation have been released. Anderson’s attorney, Dennis Francis, declined to comment last week, and the Oak Ridge Board of Education and Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent’s Office have been advised to not comment until the investigation is complete. City officials have also not commented on the ongoing investigation by the Police Department.

In the meantime, most of the public discussion has focused on an April 11 track meet, the Taco Bell Invitational in South Carolina. School administrators said, among other things, that Anderson knew ahead of time that a hotel the team was going to stay in was “unacceptable and dangerous,” that he did not inform parents of the specifics of the trip and did not answer the phone when they called, and did not double-check student room assignments, which led to a girl entering a boys’ room through an adjoining door and engaging in “inappropriate contact.” [Read more…]

Three ORHS seniors win Brad Sturm scholarships

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Brad Sturm Scholarship Winners

Two Rotarians and the winners of the Bradley Sturm Memorial Scholarships are, from left, Barry Stephenson, chair of the Brad Sturm scholarship selection committee, Rotary Club of Oak Ridge; Diane “Grace” Malone; Megan Pitz; Holly Gubanc; and Mel Sturm, scholarship sponsor. (Submitted photo)

 

The three Oak Ridge High School seniors who won the Bradley Sturm Memorial Scholarships for 2015 are Holly Gubanc, Diane “Grace” Malone, and Megan Pitz.

Mel Sturm, a local businessman for years, said he started the endowment for the scholarship fund in 1976 for two reasons. He wanted to give back to the community that had supported his businesses. And he was determined to combat the tendency of Oak Ridge students, many of whom have parents who work for the federal government or government contractors, to view “free enterprise” and the “profit motive” with suspicion.

The scholarship program is administered by a Rotary Club of Oak Ridge committee consisting of Barry Stephenson, chair, and Jim Sumner, Larry Beeman, Jim Charles, Hal Schmitt, and Mel Sturm. ORHS economics teachers Beverly Baumann and Teresa Seals play key roles in the program. [Read more…]

NC principal, UT grad named ORHS principal

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Martin McDonald

Martin McDonald

Martin McDonald, of High Point, North Carolina, has agreed to become the principal of Oak Ridge High School effective July 1.

McDonald was selected following the screening of applications and interviews of selected candidates by a committee including administrators, Oak Ridge High School staff members, and both a student and parent representative from ORHS, a press release said.

He will replace the current principal, David Bryant, who is retiring. Bryant had been an assistant principal and interim principal before he was named principal in January 2014. Byrant has also been an administrator at the Alternative Program, and he began his career with Oak Ridge Schools as a special education teacher in 1985. [Read more…]

ORHS ranked No. 11 most challenging high school in Tenn.

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Oak Ridge High School

The main entrance at Oak Ridge High School is pictured above. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Schools)

 

Oak Ridge High School was ranked number 11 on a list of the most challenging high schools in Tennessee, according to a ranking published by The Washington Post.

Other East Tennessee high schools on the list are West High School in Knoxville (#6), Farragut High School in Knoxville (#7), Morristown West in Morristown (#10), and Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport (#12).

The top five high schools are all in the Nashville area: Hume-Fogg Magnet in Nashville (#1), Martin Luther King Magnet in Nashville (#2), Brentwood in Brentwood (#3), Hillsboro in Nashville (#4), and Ravenwood in Brentwood (#5). [Read more…]

Council to consider traffic signals, access at ORHS, Main Street Oak Ridge

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Main Street Oak Ridge Master Plan March 26, 2015

Here is the master plan for Main Street Oak Ridge. (See a larger version of the plan in the link below.) The traffic signal and access would be on Rutgers Avenue in the bottom middle of the map above.

 

The City Council on Monday will consider resolutions that would allow new traffic signals at Oak Ridge High School and Main Street Oak Ridge.

Main Street Oak Ridge is the proposed project that would redevelop the former Oak Ridge Mall. The proposed traffic signal would be on Rutgers Avenue at a new access to Main Street Oak Ridge that the City Council could approve on Monday.

The other traffic signal would be on Oak Ridge Turnpike between Oak Ridge High School and the Civic Center. Council postponed a vote on that stoplight in March. [Read more…]

Community honors, pays tribute to Kocak in candlelight vigil at ORHS

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Joey Kocak Candelight Vigil Balloons

Sophomores release balloons as other football players watch during a community candlelight vigil at Oak Ridge High School on Sunday for student-athlete Joey Kocak, who died at home on Wednesday. (Photo by Julio Culiat)

 

Note: This story was updated at 4:32 p.m.

The Oak Ridge community honored sophomore James Joseph “Joey” Kocak during a candlelight vigil at Oak Ridge High School on Sunday.

Friends and coaches shared their memories of Kocak, who had played on the football and basketball teams this year, during the candlelight vigil at Ben Martin Track at ORHS.

They encouraged the large crowd that attended to preserve their precious memories of Kocak, a 16-year-old sophomore who passed away at his home on Wednesday, March 4.

“I really hope that this isn’t the last time we’ll honor him,” said Mollie Turner.

Friends and coaches recalled Kocak’s memorable smirk, his playful moments, and his high-pitched singing on the back of the bus, belting out tunes like “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” [Read more…]