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Thirty-six COVID cases reported among students, school staff since Wednesday

Posted at 8:13 pm November 16, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A graph shows the number of COVID-19 cases in Oak Ridge Schools reported by school week since Wednesday, July 29, 2020, and continuing through Tuesday, Nov. 10. Students were on fall break for parts of weeks nine and 11, and for all of week 10. Note: Week 16 started Wednesday, Nov. 11, so it’s a partial week. (Graph by Oak Ridge Today)

Thirty-six cases of COVID-19 have been reported among students and staff members in Oak Ridge Schools since Wednesday.

It’s a drastic increase in the number of cases reported among students and staff and triple the previous weekly high of 12. The highest number of cases in one day, 11, was reported Friday.

Fourteen of the COVID-19 cases since Wednesday have been reported at Robertsville Middle School (13 students and one staff member). Nine cases have been reported at Oak Ridge High School (all students), and seven have been reported at Jefferson Middle School (also all students).

During a longer period, the past 12 days, 47 cases have been reported in Oak Ridge Schools. During that time period, the highest numbers of cases have been reported at the two middle schools: 16 at RMS and 12 at JMS. The third-highest number of cases, 11, was reported at ORHS.

The increase in cases among middle school students, in particular, occurred after they returned to class five days per week on Monday, November 2. The most significant surge also started after Halloween. But it’s not clear if the events are connected. Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers has said about 80 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases have been exposed to the virus outside of school, according to information provided by parents.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: COVID-19, Education, Front Page News, Health, K-12, Top Stories Tagged With: COVID-19, Jefferson Middle School, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Schools, Robertsville Middle School

Oak Ridge Schools reports 11 COVID cases in one day

Posted at 5:47 pm November 13, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A graph shows the number of COVID-19 cases in Oak Ridge Schools reported by school week since Wednesday, July 29, 2020. Students were on fall break for parts of weeks nine and 11, and for all of week 10. Note: Week 16 started Wednesday, Nov. 11, so it’s a partial week. (Graph by Oak Ridge Today)

Oak Ridge Schools reported 11 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, a record high.

That’s almost as many cases reported in one day as has been reported in each of the previous two weeks. Twelve cases were reported in each of the last two weeks.

Twenty-three new cases have been reported since Wednesday, according to an Oak Ridge Today tally.

With the new cases, the school system has reported 56 cases of COVID-19 since October 21. The surge started after fall break, although it’s not clear if the two events are connected.

The new cases reported Friday included four students at Oak Ridge High School, three students at Jefferson Middle School, three students at Robertsville Middle School, and a staff member at Woodland Elementary School.

Recently, the most cases, 11, have been reported among Jefferson Middle School students. Those 11 cases were reported in nine days, since Thursday, November 5.

In that same time, the second-highest number of cases, nine, were reported among Robertsville Middle School students.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: COVID-19, Education, Front Page News, Health, Health, K-12, Slider Tagged With: Bruce Borchers, COVID-19, COVID-19 cases, Glenwood Elementary School, Jefferson Middle School, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Schools, Robertsville Middle School, Woodland Elementary School

COVID surge continues among students

Posted at 8:15 pm November 10, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A graph shows the number of COVID-19 cases in Oak Ridge Schools reported by school week since Wednesday, July 29, 2020, and continuing through Tuesday, Nov. 10. Students were on fall break for parts of weeks nine and 11, and for all of week 10. (Graph by Oak Ridge Today)

The COVID-19 surge that started among students and staff members at Oak Ridge Schools three weeks ago continued in the school week that ended Tuesday, with the highest number of recent cases reported among Jefferson Middle School students.

There have been five COVID-19 cases reported among Jefferson Middle School students since Thursday. That’s close to half of the cases reported in Oak Ridge Schools in the past week.

There have been two student cases reported at Robertsville Middle School since Thursday and one student and one staff member case reported at Oak Ridge High School.

A total of 12 cases were reported among students and staff members in Oak Ridge Schools in the school week between last Wednesday and this Tuesday. That matched the total of 12 cases in the previous week. There were nine cases the week before. That’s a total of 33 cases in the past three weeks, or 11 per week on average.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: COVID-19, Education, Front Page News, Health, Health, K-12, Slider Tagged With: Bruce Borchers, COVID-19, COVID-19 cases, Glenwood Elementary School, Jefferson Middle School, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Schools, Robertsville Middle School

Ten COVID cases reported among students since Friday

Posted at 11:54 pm October 28, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A graph shows the number of COVID-19 cases in Oak Ridge Schools reported by school week since Wednesday, July 29, 2020. We have defined weeks as Wednesday-Tuesday. Students were on fall break for parts of weeks nine and 11, and for all of week 10. Note: Week 14 started Wednesday, Oct. 28, so it’s a partial week. (Graph by Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was last updated at 10 a.m. Oct. 29.

Ten COVID-19 cases have been reported among students in Oak Ridge Schools since Friday. That’s the highest number of cases reported in any seven-day period so far this school year.

The 10 new student cases were reported between Friday and Wednesday. Six of the cases were reported among students at Oak Ridge High School. It’s not clear yet if the surge is an anomaly or part of a trend.

There are currently 46 students and five staff members who are not allowed to attend school because they have been in close contact with someone at school who has been confirmed to have COVID-19, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said in response to questions Wednesday.

The surge in new cases has occurred as middle schools prepare to return to classes five days per week starting Monday.

Borchers has said about 80 percent of COVID-19 cases in the schools were due to activities outside of school. On Wednesday, he said 85.2 percent of the student cases in Oak Ridge Schools have been confirmed to be non-school related.

Borchers said the schools are not aware of any cases in which students or staff members have developed COVID-19 because they were in close contact with a person at school who was confirmed to be COVID-positive.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: COVID-19, Education, Education, Front Page News, Health, K-12, Slider, Top Stories Tagged With: Bruce Borchers, COVID-19, Glenwood Elementary School, Jefferson Middle School, Linden Elementary School, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Schools, preschool, Robertsville Middle School, Secret City Academy, Willow Brook Elementary School, Woodland Elementary School

Adams named principal of ORHS

Posted at 3:06 pm October 16, 2020
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Garfield Adams

Garfield Adams has been selected by a committee of teachers and administrators to serve as the new principal of Oak Ridge High School.

Adams is from Oak Ridge, and he graduated from Oak Ridge High School. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in education from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, a press release said. He then went on to receive additional degrees in educational administration and supervision, and educational leadership, at Lincoln Memorial University.

Adams was a classroom teacher for 11 years, the press release said: three years at Central High School and eight years in Oak Ridge Schools as a special education teacher and behavioral specialist.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Education, Front Page News, K-12 Tagged With: Garfield Adams, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Schools, principal, Robertsville Middle School

For members: RMS satellite scheduled to launch in September

Posted at 12:37 pm June 3, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

 

Peter Thornton, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, holds the cube satellite, or CubeSat, that will be completely built soon and was developed by Robertsville Middle School students with help from teachers and mentors. Named RamSat, the cube satellite is scheduled to launch from Virginia on a space station resupply mission on Sept. 7, 2020. Thornton is pictured above during a mentors meeting at RMS on Thursday, May 28. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The small cube satellite built by Robertsville Middle School students with help from teachers, mentors, and NASA is scheduled to launch on a resupply rocket to the International Space Station in September, and it could be deployed into orbit a few hundred miles above Earth in October.

Testing of the satellite and its components, including a battery test and vibration tests, was scheduled to start this week.

The rest of this story, which you will find only on Oak Ridge Today, is available if you are a member: an advertiser, sponsor, or subscriber to Oak Ridge Today.

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Note: Most news stories on Oak Ridge Today are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our advertisers, sponsors, and subscribers. Some are considered premium content. This story is premium content. Premium content can include in-depth, investigative, and exclusive stories. These stories generally take more than four hours to report, write, and publish.

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Filed Under: Education, Education, Federal, Front Page News, Government, K-12, Premium Content, Slider, Top Stories Tagged With: cube satellite, CubeSat, Eli Manning, Global Testing Laboratories, Holly Cross, Ian Goethert, International Space Station, Melissa Allen-Dumas, NanoRacks, NASA, NG-14, Oak Ridge Amateur Radio Club, Patrick Hull, Peter Thornton, RamSat, RMS, Robertsville Middle School, STEM, Todd Livesay, Wallops Flight Facility

Small RMS satellite to launch into space Oct. 2020

Posted at 4:21 pm August 19, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Robertsville Middle School RamSat CubeSat
The small cube satellite built by Robertsville Middle School students with help from teachers, mentors, and NASA is scheduled to launch in October 2020, and it will be deployed from the International Space Station, Oak Ridge Schools announced Monday, Aug. 29, 2019. (Photo courtesy Todd Livesay)

Note: This story was last updated at 1 p.m. Aug. 20.

The small cube satellite built by Robertsville Middle School students with help from teachers, mentors, and NASA is scheduled to launch in October 2020, and it will be deployed from the International Space Station, Oak Ridge Schools announced Monday.

The school system said it has received notification of the launch date from NASA.

“We received the official word from Scott Higginbotham at Kennedy Space Center,” Oak Ridge Schools said in a press release. “His letter stated, ‘RamSat is currently manifested to fly on the ELaNa-31 mission aboard the NG-14 Commercial Resupply Services mission to the ISS. Launch is currently scheduled for October of 2020. NanoRacks will be facilitating the deployment of your spacecraft from the International Space Station.’”

Students have determined the mission of the cube satellite, or CubeSat, will be to circle the Earth and capture images to help them study the regrowth of vegetation in Gatlinburg, as the city recovers from the forest fires of November 2016, the press release said. The satellite has been named RamSat.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Education, Education, Federal, Front Page News, Government, K-12, Slider, Top Stories Tagged With: CLSI, cube satellite, Cube Satellite Launch Initiative, CubeSat, Ed Dumas, Eli Manning, forest fires, Gatlinburg, Holly Cross, Ian Goethert, International Space Station, Jaxon Adams, Marshall Space Flight Center, Melissa Allen, NASA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Schools, Patrick Hull, Peter Thornton, RamSat, Robertsville Middle School, Scott Higginbotham, Todd Livesay, Tyler Dunham, Y-12 National Security Complex

Deadline today to vote in student manufacturing competition

Posted at 12:49 pm April 19, 2019
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

The videos are in, and it is now time to vote in Anderson County’s “Dream it. Do it.” middle school competition.

The program is in its fourth year, and it includes six schools from Anderson County and Oak Ridge school systems.

“Dream it. Do it.” is sponsored by the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce, Anderson County and Oak Ridge schools, and Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC. The competition is designed to bring student awareness of job opportunities in advanced manufacturing, a press release said.

Using GoPro cameras provided by CNS, six teams of eighth-graders were paired with area industries to create videos about the companies, the press release said. These videos are now posted online for public voting.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Education, K-12, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: advanced manufacturing, Aisin, and Robertsville Middle School Techmer PM, Anderson County, Anderson County Chamber of Commerce, Clinton Middle School, CNS, Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, Dream It. Do It., Eagle Bend, Norwood Middle School, Oak Ridge, Protomet, Robertsville Middle School, schools

Education Foundation to award grants April 24

Posted at 1:17 pm April 18, 2019
By Jessica Steed Leave a Comment

Woodland Elementary School teacher Megan Sauer is pictured above with one of her students demonstrating her 2018 grant “Communication for All.” (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation)

The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation will award more than $99,000 in grants to Oak Ridge teachers at a ceremony on Wednesday, April 24.

Oak Ridge High School’s retired math teacher and former department head Benita Albert will be the featured speaker at the event, sharing her talk titled “We’ve Come a Long Way Teachers.”

The ceremony is open to the public, and it will be held in the Pollard Auditorium at ORAU beginning at 2:30 p.m. Demonstrations and displays of some of the projects and technology funded by the Foundation will be given in the lobby after the formal ceremony. Light refreshments will be provided courtesy of Oak Ridge Utility District, a press release said.

The 2019 grant recipients are as follows: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Education, Front Page News, K-12 Tagged With: Amy Jeske, Becky Mullins, Benita Albert, Camille Millsaps, Carol Lawson, Dan Schwartz, Emily Haverkamp, Gigi Naeve, Glenwood Elementary School, grants, Jackie Cohn, James Mitchell, Janie Shanafield, Jefferson Middle School, Jessica Steed, John Beard, Katelynn Olvey, Lauren Hawkins, Linden Elementary School, Lisa Buckner, Logan Burke, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Preschool, Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation, Oak Ridge teachers, ORPSEF, Randy Doss, Robertsville Middle School, Ryan Nicholls, Spence Milligan, Theresa Davis, Willow Brook Elementary School, Woodland Elementary School

Three ORHS students qualify for state chess championship

Posted at 11:42 am February 6, 2019
By Gilbert Chan Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge High School freshman Henri Scott was one of three state championship qualifiers from the high school for the state chess championship at Tennessee Tech on Feb. 16, 2019. (Submitted photo)

Oak Ridge High School freshman Henri Scott is one of three state championship qualifiers from the high school for the state chess championship at Tennessee Tech on Feb. 16, 2019. (Submitted photo)

 

Note: This story was updated at 6:05 p.m.

Three Oak Ridge High School students have qualified for the state chess championship on February 16 at Tennessee Tech University.

The three ORHS students took home trophies and qualified for the state championship during the Region 1 scholastic at Oak Ridge High School on Saturday, January 26, a press release said. More than 109 students from across East Tennessee attended that event.

ORHS juniors Justin Blanchard and Bear Moran took third and seventh, respectively, in the high school division, the press release said. Freshman Henri Scott also qualified for the K-9 championship by taking sixth in that division. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Education, Education, Front Page News, K-12, Slider Tagged With: Bear Moran, Benjamin Bell, Brandon Bonamarte, chess, chess school, Daisy Kercher, Domenic Grove, Gabriel Hadid-McCallum, Graham Thompson, Henri Scott, Isabella Hickey, Jefferson Middle School, Jonas Tilson, Justin Blanchard, Kevin Lozada-Gonzales, Leo Ehlers, Linden Elementary School, Oak Ridge High School, ORHS, Region 1 scholastic, Renji Hua, Robertsville Middle School, Simon Weston, St. Mary’s School, state chess championship, Tennessee Chess Association, William Hetrick, William McNab, Willow Brook Elementary School, Woodland Elementary School, Yasmin Miller

Oak Ridge Schools names nine teachers of the year

Posted at 10:19 am February 6, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Teachers of the Year in 2019 at Oak Ridge Schools are pictured above. (Image by Oak Ridge Schools)

Teachers of the Year in 2019 at Oak Ridge Schools are pictured above. (Image by Oak Ridge Schools)

 

Oak Ridge Schools has named its teachers of the year at its nine schools.

The teachers of the year are:

  • Preschool—Melissa McMurry
  • Glenwood Elementary School—Amanda Fitch
  • Linden Elementary School—Steffanie Smith Greer
  • Willow Brook Elementary School—Melanie Bloomer
  • Woodland Elementary School—Inger Scudder
  • Jefferson Middle School—Michael Murphy
  • Robertsville Middle School—Michael Mott
  • Oak Ridge High School—Kayla Gass
  • Secret City Academy—Tobran Tillman

The school winners were nominated by their principals and peers for this 2018-2019 application.

The district winner will be announced today (Wednesday, February 6). [Read more…]

Filed Under: Education, Front Page News, K-12, Top Stories Tagged With: Amanda Fitch, Glenwood Elementary School, Inger Scudder, Jefferson Middle School, Kayla Gass, Linden Elementary School, Melanie Bloomer, Melissa McMurry, Michael Mott, Michael Murphy, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Schools, preschool, Robertsville Middle School, Secret City Academy, Steffanie Smith Greer, Teacher of the Year, Teachers of the Year, Tennessee Department of Education, Tennessee Teacher of the Year, Tobran Tillman, Willow Brook Elementary School, Woodland Elementary School

Oak Ridge names new Wildcats baseball coach

Posted at 4:10 am August 1, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

A new baseball coach, Travis Free, has been named for the Oak Ridge Wildcats.

Oak Ridge High School announced the new coach this week.

Besides coaching, Free will be an eighth-grade math teacher at Robertsville Middle School. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Education, Front Page News, High School, K-12, Sports, Top Stories Tagged With: baseball, baseball coach, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge Wildcats, Robertsville Middle School, Travis Free

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Classifieds

Public Notice: Comment period extended for Draft EA for Lithium Processing Facility at Y-12

EXTENSION OF THE COMMENT PERIOD FOR THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE LITHIUM PROCESSING … [Read More...]

Public Notice: Draft Environmental Assessment Available for Lithium Production Facility at Y-12

AVAILABILITY OF THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE LITHIUM PROCESSING FACILITY AT THE Y-12 … [Read More...]

Availability of the Final Environmental Assessment for the Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center (ORETTC) (DOE/EA-2144), Finding of No Significant Impact, and Wetland Statement of Findings

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the … [Read More...]

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