Dealing with growing student populations
Oakridger
As builders construct new houses and families move into Oak Ridge, the city s elected officials continue to talk about how the city’s school system should react.
Options discussed have included redistricting, repurposing space inside school buildings, or even constructing a new school.
“We’ve worked and worked and worked in order to get new housing and the community growth,” Board of Education Member Ben Stephens said recently. However, he said, the city now has to look at how to deal with this growth long-term.
“Let’s not start passing out a box of Band-Aids,” he said regarding short-term solutions compared to long-term ones.
Local virus deaths increase by one in AC, Roane County
Oakridger
Anderson County and Roane County’s death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic increased by one each on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, Dec. 23, the Tennessee Department of Health website showed there had been 52 deaths from the virus in Anderson County, compared to 51 on Monday. Also, as of Tuesday, there are 1,046 active cases, compared to 1,135 on Monday.
In Roane County, the Tuesday death total was 45, compared to 44 on Monday. The active cases totaled 718 on Tuesday, compared to 724 on Monday.
Across the state Tuesday, the total cases increased by 4,441 for a total of 534,019. The deaths increased by 133 to 6,269.
Oakridger
A company manager told Oak Ridge city officials that an air ionization method is one way to reduce diseases such as COVID-19 at Oak Ridge Schools.
“It could really save a life,” Russ Nelson, business development manager with Energy Savings Group, told the officials at a joint meeting of the Oak Ridge City Council Budget and Finance Committee and the Oak Ridge Board of Education.
Board of Education member Angi Agle said she supported that measure.
“The air purification system is mandatory,” she said. “I’m not convinced this pandemic will be the last.”
“We buried my father yesterday. He died from COVID,” she said. Thomas E. Douglass, her father, died on Dec. 6 in Oak Ridge. The 84-year-old man was retired from Y-12 National Security Complex, where he was manager of mechanical engineering, according to his obituary.
Update on Oak Ridge students, workers with virus
Oakridger
Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers gave an update Thursday, Dec. 17, about students and staff at Oak Ridge Schools who had tested positive. He said the school system learned about the results that day.
One staff member tested positive who was last at Oak Ridge High School on Dec. 14.
One student who was last at Oak Ridge Schools Preschool Dec. 4 tested positive.
One student who was last at Robertsville Middle School on Dec. 8 tested positive.
Three students who were last at Oak Ridge High School on Dec. 7, Dec. 8 and Dec. 10 tested positive.
Another death in Anderson; active cases increasing in state
Oakridger
The death toll thanks to COVID-19 rose by one Sunday in Anderson County for a total of 40.
Active cases of the novel coronavirus continued to rise across the state and in both Anderson and Roane counties. On Sunday, 11,352 more cases were reported on the Tennessee Department of Health website. Another 10,319 were reported on Monday. The total cases for the state were listed Monday as 464,642. Total deaths rose by 79 between Sunday’s update and the one on Monday, for a total of 5,541.
In Anderson County, the new active cases rose to 751 on Sunday and 839 on Monday, according to the Health Department website.