Borchers touts tech programs, encourages masks and in-person school
Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers recently gave an online talk on the state of Oak Ridge Schools to the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge.
Borchers started the presentation by bragging about various programs at Oak Ridge Schools. One of them is the Innovative High School or iSchool Program.
"We're going to have something no other school in the region can offer and few in the country," Borchers said of iSchool.
Oak Ridge Schools received $1.241 million from the Tennessee Department of Education as part of the Innovative High School grants.
The grant is going to fund salaries and equipment for teaching an advanced manufacturing program, although both the state and the school system have described the program in much broader terms.
“Our aim is to teach better thinking — everyone, everywhere, every day,” stated an Oak Ridge Schools' flier that described the program while it was still a proposal.
Borchers spoke highly of the program's teacher, Mark Buckner, with a slide listing his credentials. He said Buckner has an record of more than 32 years as a distinguished research scientist, Power and Energy Systems Group leader at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Automotive, aviation
Students in an Oak Ridge High School aviation class are building an airplane, a project that got attention from Gov. Bill Lee during a visit last year.
Borchers said he hoped the plane would be flying within a year.
"I don't think I'll take the maiden voyage," he joked, "But someone will."
He also showed a photo of a Mercedes vehicle on which students can work. He said it had been donated by Mercedes of Knoxville for the school's automotive program, with which the school has a partnership.
This partnership was just one of many partnerships Borchers spoke about in his presentation. He showed the League group a list of many companies with which the school system has partnered for career education.
Arts
With all of the focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses in Borchers' talk, one audience member asked about the arts.
"We've not decreased anything with the addition of STEM," he said in response. "We continue to foster those programs, and they (students) don't lose out on anything."
Masks, other pandemic issues
Oak Ridge Schools can no longer require masks to help protect students and staff from COVID-19 as it previously did.
"We certainly encourage masks to be worn," Borchers said in response to a question. He said as the omicron COVID-19 variant has spread — more students have worn masks.
"People are doing what they're comfortable with," the superintendent said of wearing masks.
In response to another question, he said there are "probably more" mental health issues among students due to the pandemic than before, but that the school guidance counselors are available to help.
During the time in which the school system had students working from home, the school system had MiFis, a type of mobile wireless device to allow students to connect to the internet. However, Borchers said the school system did not give many of these devices out because Oak Ridge students in general already had access to the internet.
"We have done everything we can to keep kids in school," Borchers said. "We value face-to-face with our kids," he said, adding there are more mental health concerns about keeping children at home.
One audience member asked if the school system is facing problems recruiting substitute teachers during the pandemic.
"We absolutely are," he said. "A lot of our substitutes are retired folks."
With the increase in the omicron variant of COVID-19, Borchers said, many of the retirees have decided to not substitute at this time.
Digital Education
During both his talk and in response to questions, Borchers talked about digital education, including classes in coding and keyboarding in the middle schools.
One audience member asked about dealing with misinformation. Borchers said this too falls into the digital citizenship "bucket" and said teachers work with students on that issue.
"They have so much information at their fingertips now. Right, wrong. True, not true," Borchers said.
Complaints about books
Some questions from the audience dealt with the topic of books in school libraries and curricula.
Recently, in a decision that has made news across the country, the McMinn County Board of Education decided against allowing teachers to assign the graphic novel "Maus" by Art Spiegelman to eighth-grade students. The graphic novel follows Spiegelman's Jewish parents through their internment in Auschwitz in 1940s Poland. In the book, Nazis are portrayed as cats and Jewish people are shown as mice. The McMinn County School Board voted 10-0 to ban the book citing concerns over "rough" language and a nude drawing of a woman, according to meeting minutes posted to the district website.
One audience member in the Zoom chat asked if Borchers had received any similar criticisms. Borchers said he hadn't. He also said he did not know what Oak Ridge Schools' policy is with regard to challenging library materials is.
Disabilities
One question involved making the schools more accessible, including as polling sites during the upcoming elections. Borchers said the school system has made updates and plans to continue to make them.
Electric buses
In response to a question about switching from diesel to electric buses for health and environmental purposes, Borchers said it would be up to the bus contractor, First Student.
City Council member Ellen Smith stated in the chat for the meeting that First Student has used electrical buses in other districts.
Ben Pounds is a staff reporter for The Oak Ridger. Call him at (865) 441-2317, follow him on Twitter @Bpoundsjournal and email him at bpounds@oakridger.com. Francisco Guzman of The Tennesseean paper in Nashville contributed to this story, as did The Oak Ridger's News Editor Donna Smith.
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Borchers touts tech programs, encourages masks and in-person school
