Oak Ridge High School (Oak Ridge, Tennessee)

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Oak Ridge High School is the public high school for Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It was established in 1943 to educate the children of Manhattan Project workers. It currently has about 1500 students. Since 1995, it has educated students in grades 9 through 12. Currently, the school is undergoing major reconstruction; over the course of the next several years, most of the old buildings will be torn down and replaced as part of a multi-million dollar plan.

Oak Ridge High School

Established	1943
Type	Public secondary
Principal	Chuck Carringer
Students	1,500
Grades	9–12
Location	Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
Mascot	Wildcats
Newspaper	'The Oak Leaf'
Website	orhs.ortn.edu

Oak Ridge High School Signage

The mascot of Oak Ridge High is the wildcat.

1 School construction
2 Notable honors
3 Oak Leaf controversy
4 Notable alumni
5 References

[edit] School construction

Oak Ridge High School is currently undergoing heavy construction to update current facilities and to construct newer, better equipped learning areas. The new Oak Ridge High School is considered a "green school" because of energy conserving features of the buildings.^{[citation needed]} Instead of continuing the tradition of identifying buildings by letters of the alphabet (for example, A building, B gym, and C building), the construction buildings are being given descriptive names.

Learning Center A new addition to former "A Building", this semi-oval is three stories, and has occasionally been dubbed "The Citadel."^{[original research?]} Most math, science, social studies, and language classrooms have been relocated to this building. The media center is also located here. All rooms are renovated, and most contain modern teaching implements such as HD projectors, surround sound, new desks and seats, and new science labs.

Comprehensive Studies Formerly known as Old and New A, the renovated areas of former A building have been renamed Comprehensive Studies. English and some vocational classes are located in this building. Administrative offices are also located here.

Food Court A new building that is connected to old C Building. It is composed entirely of the new cafeteria, now labeled the "Food court".

Performing Arts A new building located next to the Food Court. Designed specifically for performing arts, the building contains three main rooms, occupied by the string orchestra, band, and chorus. All three rooms are designed with acoustics in mind, and all three rooms are furnished with top of the line music material and furniture. Series of cubbyholes were installed to allow safe storage of smaller instruments. Larger instruments have racks. Designation for the performing arts rooms is PA.

Auditorium The high school auditorium, which was the primary venue for most school and city arts performances, was recently renovated, and now features new lighting, sound absorbing walls and panels, a lobby area, and an orchestra pit. All lights are now controlled from a central touch screen panel backstage. Though not all features of the auditorium, such as the wiring to the audio-room, the third row of lights, or overhead shells have been completed, but the venue is currently in service, and several high school events have been held here.

Wellness Center Area that includes the old B Gym. It now contains the "Wildcat Arena", a large basketball court that is on the higher level of standard of high school level courts and is considered one of the best high school arenas in East Tennessee. Otherwise, it contains the old B gym along with several classrooms designated for Wellness classes.^{[original research?]}

[edit] Notable honors

The Oak Ridge Wildcats football team were mythical national champions for 1958, and have won eight state championships.

Newsweek ranked Oak Ridge High School 465th on its 2006 list of the United States' 1200 best public high schools.^[1]

In 2005, Oak Ridge sent a group of three seniors to the national finals of the Siemens Competition, where they finished fourth for their work in Natural Language Processing. During the first week of December 2006, three seniors from ORHS presented^[2] their research on alternate fuel sources and won first place nationally. Scott Molony, Scott Horton, and Steven Arcangeli split a college scholarship worth $100,000.^[3]

In April, 2006, another senior tied for first place in the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition^[4] sponsored by the College Board, and still another received a smaller scholarship.^[5] Oak Ridge is also nationally known for its consistent performance in Science Olympiad. Until recently, ORHS regularly sent a team to the nationals. Students from Oak Ridge also traditionally perform well on the American Math Competition exams^[6].

Recently, longtime ORHS math teacher Benita Albert was named to the USA Today All-USA Teaching Team, along with 19 other outstanding teachers from around the nation^[7]. This followed the aforementioned Scott Molony's naming as one of 20 student All-Stars earlier this year^[8].

The Oak Ridge high school band has won many prestigious awards at various band competitions throughout the southeastern United States.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Oak Leaf controversy

Oak Ridge High School gained notoriety in November 2005 when school principal Becky Ervin censored the school's student newspaper, the Oak Leaf. The November issue originally contained an article with information on birth control and another with photographs of students' tattoos. Though the paper had already been printed, Principal Ervin attempted to confiscate all 1800 copies. The newspaper's staff, with the help of the Student Press Law Center, brought the controversy national attention. ^[9]

On April 10, 2006, Oak Ridge High School became one of the recipients of the Jefferson Muzzle Award, issued annually by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression to focus attention on free speech and first-amendment violations in the United States.^[10]

Also in April 2006, Ervin was released from her position as principal and notified that her contract would not be continued for the following school year. No reason was given by administrators for their failure to renew Ervin's contract.^[11] She was temporarily replaced with the vice-principal, Chuck Carringer, who was appointed to the position on a permanent basis early in 2007.

[edit] Notable alumni

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