Pellissippi State Community College’s Blount County Campus remains on schedule for offering the first classes in fall 2010, and the Pellissippi State Foundation has raised more than $1.85 million toward its completion.

Community members visit the site in November to see the campus' progress.

The two-story, 70,000-square-foot building has space for the college’s new Nursing program, as well as for science and computer labs and classrooms, including one for distance education. Faculty and administrative offices and a manufacturing training center, physical education facility, 100-seat auditorium, library, and student lounge are all part of the design.

The new campus has 600 parking spaces and can accommodate 1,500 students. More than 1,800 students from Blount County are enrolled at Pellissippi State. Plans for a walking trail, amphitheater and courtyard with a fountain also are on the board.

Funding for the $22 million state-of-the-art campus comes from the state, sale of the old Blount County Center property in Alcoa and private donations generated through Connecting Communities, Changing Lives Major Gifts Campaign. The fundraising effort, conducted by the Foundation, has earmarked the Blount County Campus as one of the college’s top priorities.

The campaign goal is a minimum of $2 million. Gifts and pledges to date are $1,855,240. 

The college broke ground in May 2008 on the 39.5-acre site, located at 2731 W. Lamar Alexander Parkway (U.S. Highway 321) in Friendsville. The college marked progress on construction with a “Raise the Roof” celebration on Nov. 6. More than 130 people signed a final truss for the building and then watched as a crane lifted it into place.

“This is just a great day,” Allen Edwards, Pellissippi State president, told the attendees. “This facility would not be a reality without the tremendous support of our state and local officials. They have been battling for us to get the money for this project, and I thank all of you. I thank each and everyone who has supported this. Your donations have made this possible.”

Pellissippi State President Allen Edwards talks to visitors in November about what the new campus will have to offer students.

Pellissippi State students performed for the crowd.

Tennessee’s prospects to overcome its low national educational rankings surfaced as one of the hot topics at the Blount Education Initiative’s (BEI) gubernatorial forum on education Oct. 26, at William Blount High School in Maryville, Tenn.

Candidates participating in the forum included Nashville businessman Ward Cammack (Democrat); Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam (Republican); former Tennessee House of Representatives Majority Leader Kim McMillan (Democrat); and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp (Republican).

Among a host of issues posed to the candidates, the economic impact of Tennessee’s long-time public education standing arose as a key point of concern.  Several candidates cited the competitive difficulty of recruiting desirable business and industry to Tennessee, given the state’s national reputation for having a lower-educated workforce.

The candidates also spoke to the recent release of the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) report on raising Tennessee’s educational standing to first place among Southeastern states.  Various candidates voiced either optimism or guardedness about the state’s realistic ability to achieve such an aggressive improvement within five years, as called upon by SCORE.

The purpose of the BEI forum was to explore the topic of “Making Education Tennessee’s Top Priority: The Roles of State Government, Local Governments and all Tennessee Citizens” among gubernatorial candidates.

BEI’s leadership cited the success of the event in bringing educational issues to the forefront of the community – not just in Blount County but also throughout East Tennessee and hopefully statewide.

“With more than 250 people attending the event and many more viewing it via Knoxville’s WBIR-10News2 live broadcast, the forum successfully brought educational issues to the forefront throughout our regional community,” said BEI Executive Director Bonny Millard.

BEI’s recent Gubernatorial Community Forum generated a lot of interest in the community and resulted in some broad-ranging questions for the candidates who participated. The candidates included Ward Cammack, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, Kim McMillan and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp. For more information on the forum, click here. While candidates were answering questions in front of an audience of about 250 people in William Blount High School’s auditorium plus those watching it live on WBIR’s 10News2 and their Web site, WBHS senior and Student Council representative Candice Lawtonwas taking pictures of  the event for BEI. Here is a selection of the photos that she took.

Candidates Bill Haslam and Ward Cammack

Candidates Bill Haslam, Ward Cammack and Kim McMillan and moderator John Becker

Candidate Kim McMillan

Candidate Zach Wamp

Candidate Bill Haslam

Candiate Ward Cammack

Candidates Kim McMillan and Zach Wamp

Moderator John Becker and candidates Kim McMillan and Zach Wamp

Students listening to the candidates.

All the candidates

volunteers with the League of Women Voters of Blount County assist with the questions.

Audience members waiting their chance to ask a question.

The decorations WBHS students put up for the event.

BEI Executive Director Bonny Millard

The Big Read activities abound in Blount and Knox counties, and the initiative will continue in the community through Oct. 15. Please scroll through the photographs.

If you didn’t get down to Last Friday Art Walk this past weekend (Sept. 25), you missed a wonderful reading by the Alcoa High School students of English teacher Kelly Wallace. Not only did the students read selections from the book, but they also offered some interpretation of different aspects of the book based on their classroom discussions.

Alcoa High School English teacher Kelly Wallace explains some of the book’s themes and how the students are grouped. Wallace said out of 42 students, 40 students loved the book, and that she plans to use it for future classes.

While AHS students were reading, Spanish III students from Maryville High School Spanish teacher Deb Lamine’s class worked with younger children to create Hispanic crafts including worry dolls made from clothes pins. The children had a great time as evidenced by rounds of giggling.

Alcoa High School senior Taylor Crosby, a member of the school’s tech team, videotaped the entire event to be shown on Alcoa School System’s Channel 3, Charter Communictions. Thanks Taylor!

Check back soon for additional photos of The Big Read activities.

Students at Carpenters Middle School have had a unique opportunity to view wildlife on their school grounds this year thanks to the donation of two trail cameras.

In the summer of 2008, Carpenters Middle School initiated a wildlife management project using the forest on the grounds of both CMS and Carpenters Elementary School.

The area behind CES has been previously used for science classes to conduct wildlife studies such as habitat exploration and population counts. To expand these studies, Moultrie Products, a leader in wild game outdoors products such as feeders and trail cameras, donated two trail cameras to monitor the area for wildlife.

Since last fall, pictures have been regularly collected from the cameras and posted on a school website. Wild animals such as deer, turkey, foxes, squirrels, skunk, and raccoon have been photographed. The website has catalogued many of the pictures.

In addition, students have been responsible for maintaining the cameras, photos, and adding content to the website, such as an instrumental music selection compiled by eighth grader Taylor Breeden. The area and cameras have also allowed students to study wildlife habits, such as feeding times, travel routes, and communication signs.

CMS and CES plan on adding a walking trail and foot bridges to the area to aid in watching wildlife.

Mike Crabtree, Assistant Principal, Carpenters Middle School

Recently, Dr. Penny Ferguson, a long-time educator at Maryville High School, traveled to Kansas to be inducted into the 2008 National Teachers Hall of Fame. She was one of three teachers from Tennessee to ever be afforded this national spotlight. We want to once again congratulate Dr. Ferguson on this career milestone and share a video with you about her approach to education. The video of Dr. Ferguson was created by one of her former students, Carson Hunt.

William Blount High School culinary arts students serve food they prepared for the event.

Culinary arts students at William Blount High School get a taste of what working in the real world will be like, and it’s not just about preparing food and good sanitation techniques.

Teacher Marty Durand emphasizes the value of a strong work ethic, and students doing their own work. As the coursework proceeds, students work in groups, and Durand serves as the “Chef” or “Owner” overseeing their activities.

“It really is very much like a working atmosphere in terms of being on time, being dressed properly and using proper techniques in the kitchen,” Durand said of his classes.

Durand teaches three levels of the culinary arts classes: I, II and III. He wants students to understand the situations they will encounter when working out in the world, and the classes lay the groundwork for students who want to pursue careers in the culinary arts or hotel/restaurant management.

“I operate a lot like a chef or manager, even with the culinary arts I class,” he said. “With the culinary arts II and III classes, I really do. Sometimes I even find myself getting out of the mode of being a teacher, per se.”

But it is real life lessons he wants the students to take with them – “to do our best, be on time, be honest, learn to conform to standards that we might not necessarily agree with but are the standards of that particular company – in this case the classroom. “Realistically, in the working world sometimes we are told to do things (just) because … If we want to get that paycheck, we have to be willing to do it just because.”

Students have the opportunity to eat and prepare food they’ve never eaten before. The more advanced students make lunch twice a week in the fall and invite friends, teachers and parents to join them. The budding chefs explore different culinary cultures such as Korean, Polish, Italian and Tex-Mex foods.

“They have three days to do that. They’re pretty busy,” he said. “The menus are never the same. ”In addition, students have to determine how much to charge for the meal so that their expenses for the menus are covered.

All this effort involves more than learning to scald milk. Even more important are the subtle lessons in teamwork, problem solving, critical decision making, planning, time scheduling and organizing events, he said.

Several William Blount High School culinary arts students undertook a special event in December. Durand and his students agreed to provide the food for the Blount Education Initiative’s first reception. Those students included Jordan Montgomery, Cory Boring, Chase Wyrick, Cassandra Williams, Haley Philips, Madeline Edwards, Kelsea Coelho and Emily Tipton.

Durand said the students met over one weekend and came back with this “grandiose” plan of different hors d’oeuvre to make. The teacher recalled that he told his students he wasn’t sure if they could do it or not, which aggravated them, and perhaps motivated them.

As part of the project, they had to develop production schedules and come up with costs based on the recipes. The reception came off without a hitch and offered many splendid choices including finger foods, sweets and punches. The students behaved in a professional manner keeping food out and cleaning up discarded plates and cups. Dressed in chef uniforms, they resembled a catering company that had been hired for an event. Compliments flowed from guests as they discovered who was responsible for the feast.

“In a way, I think they felt like they got one up on me, and it was a good one up,” Durand said. “Sometimes, it’s good to challenge the kids especially when they mold together as a team.”