When someone suffers from a sudden cardiac arrest, every minute counts. If the person receives CPR and shock with an automated external defibrillator (AED) within three to five minutes, the odds of survival are about 70 percent, according to Karen Dean Smith, coordinator of the Project ADAM program at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, who works to provide training and supplies to schools. With each passing minute, the survival rate drops 10 percent.

Kết quả xổ số Cà Mau“It’s a quick thing, and it has to be responded to quickly,” Smith said during a recent interview. “Our goal is to be able to get an AED delivering a shock to anywhere on campus in three to five minutes.” During a drill Wednesday at Carpenters Middle School, the cardiac response team had an AED to the “victim” in less than 50 seconds and delivered the first shock within two minutes. In this case the “victim” was a practice dummy.

While Blount County Schools have conducted staff CPR and AED training for years, the student health services coordinator, Robin Cook, told every school to conduct at least two drills this school year. “The drills give everyone a better perspective of what everybody’s roles are,” Cook said. “The drills will make a difference.”

Multiple roles

“We’re not professionals, but we want to be as prepared as possible,” said CMS Principal Jon Young. The 10 members of the CMS cardiac arrest response team (CART) are a subset of the school’s crisis team, chosen for their locations in the school and their ability to handle stressful situations. For example, Halle Timpson, a sixth-grade math and science teacher whose classroom is close to the AED location, is also an Air Force veteran. “We all know our roles,” CMS Assistant Principal Courtney Whitehead said.

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauThe school resource officer and head custodian are responsible for communicating with the 911 dispatch center and ambulance service. The front office calls Carpenters Elementary for its school nurse to come to the middle school to care for any children in the clinic and relay any health information from the files in the nurse’s office about the victim.

Teachers who aren’t on the crises team know to cover classes for those who are and to keep students out of the hallways and away from the incident scene, creating a clear pathway for an ambulance crew to respond. On her way to the scene, school nurse Angie Gillis, RN, grabs a red backpack that includes items such as a first-aid kit, airway, blood pressure cuff and more. “It’s my little ambulance in a bag, she said.

Refining practices

“We learn something every time,” Whitehead said of the CMS drills. Each time the CMS staff has refined its process. The first time, for example, they learned that they could use a button on their radios to activate a siren sound. Because three team members are designated to take the school’s AED to the site, in case someone is out of the building, they learned that when the person who retrieves it leaves the case door open others can easily see the devices is on its way.
Kết quả xổ số Cà MauWhile drills make the staff feel more prepared, they also reassure the students. “The more they see us doing this, the more comfortable they are,” Young said.

Prepared for years

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauWhile the drills in Blount County Schools may be new, training isn’t. The registered nurses who work in Blount County’s middle and high schools are trained CPR instructors, and staff members are encouraged to take the CPR training they offer, which includes AED training. “We’re constantly doing CPR training throughout the year,” Cook said. All coaches must have the training, and every field trip must include an adult trained in CPR. The first two AEDs were donated to Blount County Schools 10-15 years ago, and by 2009 every school had at least one, Cook said. Some have two AEDs and the high schools have three. BCS has a total of 33 AEDs. “All schools are working toward being designated as Heart Safe Schools,” Cook said. CMS received its accreditation a few weeks ago.

To receive that accreditation through the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation, schools must complete a number of steps to raise awareness and prevent cardiac deaths, in addition to training and drills. Maryville and Alcoa schools also have received Heart Safe Schools designation.
Kết quả xổ số Cà MauBut even Smith said it’s the training and drills that makes a difference, whether schools pursue that certification or not. Bills pending in the Tennessee General Assembly would require every school with at least one AED to have annual training and at least one annual drill.

By Amy Beth Miller-The Daily Times

From a rustic-style farm table constructed without screws or nails to a mailbox pillar made with artificial stone, the 2nd Annual Battle of the Build showed off students’ knowledge and skill. At the event sponsored by the Maryville Alcoa Home Builders Association at Foothills Mall on Saturday, judges awarded:

• First place, $1,000, to William Blount High School
• Second place, $750, to Maryville High School
• Third place, $500, to Maryville Junior High School
• Fourth place, $250, to Heritage High School

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauThe prize money will go to each school’s vocational program, and money from a silent auction for the projects also will go back to the schools.

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauTraditional Skills

The William Blount team’s rustic farm table and benches were made from reclaimed lumber from their teacher’s barn. Gene Huffstetler taught his students to construct the pieces with dowels, rather than any screws or nails. “It’s showing them how things used to be built,” he said. “It’s not as easy as it looks,” said team member Cattie Walton.
Other members of the William Blount team were Hayden Price, Brandon Little, Dakota Burchfield, Ricky Anderson and Austin Proffitt.

Heritage High School used an artificial stone on its mailbox pillar, with a sheet of solid sandstone on top, team member Rusty Hembree explained. He estimated the final product weighed more than 400 pounds, even with the lightweight yet durable artificial stone product. This was the fourth mailbox pillar the team had made, Hembree said, and earlier work allowed them to fine-tune their ability to balance the stone colors, keep lines straight and stagger the rows well. Other team members were Donavon Williams, Justice Rolen, Michael Summey, Antony Ray and Dallas Tucker.

Transformation

Technically the Maryville Junior High project is a folding, articulated table bench, but the students call it a “transformer,” a picnic table with parts that easily glide into place to form a bench. They modified designs they found online to add support so wood wouldn’t bow, add space between boards to improve drainage and more.
When a router they were using gouged deeper into the wood than they planned, instead of starting over with a new piece of wood, they turned the groove into a design feature that is both decorative and smooths an edge that people’s legs will rest against when sitting. “A mistake turned into beauty,” said Austin Price, who built the transformer with Cole Shinlever and Tyler Higgenbottom.

Combined Interests

Michael McClelland, a senior, represented Maryville High School with a mountain dulcimer he crafted as a sophomore in a woodworking class. “I learned a lot about music while making the dulcimer,” McClelland said. “I learned a lot about how wood instruments are made.” He also learned about the resonance of different materials, soft and hard wood, plastic and bone. For the nut and bridge on his dulcimer, McClelland used deer bone that his teacher provided. Asked what he’ll do after graduation, McClelland said, “Mainly I’m going to play music.” But he also may get to a two-year college to study welding. “If I’m this good at wood, why not try metal,” said McClelland, who has won previous shop awards.

Lack of tradesman

In presenting the awards Saturday, Brad McDougall said, “There are excellent jobs available in the construction area,” and he remarked about the lack of people trained for jobs in those trades. ”There’s more being taught than we realize, but there’s more that can be done” to prepare students for those jobs, McDougall, immediate past president of the Maryville Alcoa Home Builders Association, said later.

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauBy Amy Beth Miller-The Daily Times

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauA 1986 graduate of Heritage High School, Foster recalled James Goodson, who inspired her creativity, Dorothy Petree, who taught her how to write, and Terri Bradshaw who taught her the value of being practical. She remembered Alan Martin, who threw a rock against a classroom wall to demonstrate Newton’s First Law of Motion, and Jane Pesterfield, who tried —unsuccessfully — to teach Foster to adopt neatness as a habit, among other teachers who shaped her life. Benny Dalton taught her the value of community, Foster said, and she remembered the late John Davis Jr., “who taught me what it means to be a member of a school family.” 

Reflecting on the symbolic value of doors in our culture, and a threshold being a point at which change begins, she noted that when someone walks through a door they can teach someone something new, teach something old in a new way, make a friend, encourage someone, learn from someone, make a difference and change a life.
Kết quả xổ số Cà MauThen she encouraged the teachers and others who walk through Blount County classroom doors each day to fill in the blank at the end of the sentence, “When I walk through this door, I will …”

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauTop Teachers

During the banquet at Heritage High School, Blount County Schools honored dozens of teachers representing each school, as well as classified staff, administrators and alumni. Three Blount County educators honored as 2015 Teacher of the Year will go on to compete for the honor of Tennessee Teacher of the Year:
• Amber Monroe of Porter Elementary, Pre-K to grade 4;
• Greg Hathcock, Prospect Elementary, grades 5-8; and
• Miri Blair, William Blount, grades 9-12.

The schools also recognized Christen Williamson of Eagleton Middle as Reading Teacher of the Year, Jama Anderson of Mary Blount Elementary as Mathematics Teacher of the Year and Terry Roberts of Fairview Elementary as Classified Employee of the Year.

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauThe honorees for Excellence in Instructional Leadership were Stan Painter, Friendsville Elementary principal, and Jed West, Walland Elementary principal.

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauAlumni of the Year were Jennifer Higdon, Timothy O’Malley, Charles Roberts and John Davis Jr.

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauAmy Beth Miller-The Daily Times

Award-winning program

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauBlount County Schools’ cleaning program received national recognition with an honorable mention in the Green Cleaning Awards for Schools & Universities last month.

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauThe only K-12 district that scored higher, from Athens, Ga., received last year’s honorable mention in the awards sponsored by American School & University magazine, the Green Cleaning Network and the Healthy Schools Campaign. Since 2005, 10 states and the District of Columbia have adopted some type of law requiring schools to consider environmentally friendly cleaning products and practices, but Tennessee is not among them.

Schools, vendor work together

Blount County Schools works closely with its vendor, Kelsan Inc., on the cleaning program, including training twice a year for the district’s 79 custodians on best practices and new products. Teresa Farmer, Kelsan’s e-commerce and education coordinator, said she usually works with higher education institutions in East Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina, including Maryville College and the University of Tennessee. However, students in K-5 schools can greatly benefit from reducing the amount and harshness of cleaning chemicals, which can trigger asthma attacks.

Evolving effort

Blount County first tested a green cleaning initiative at Carpenters Middle School and Eagleton Elementary School in 2010. In addition to cost savings projected to be 10 percent to 15 percent annually, those schools also saw a slight increase in attendance, and the CMS principal reported fewer reactions among students and staff with allergies after cleaning at the school.  Schools across the district transitioned to the new cleaning methods gradually, over about three years, as they used up existing supplies, reducing the transition cost. As equipment reaches the end of its use, Farmer also is replacing it with more environmentally friendly options.

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauStandardized cleaning procedures call for disinfecting all “touch surfaces,” such as desktops, doorknobs, handrails and water fountains daily, with more intensive cleaning if a student is sent home ill from a classroom. Farmer thinks cleaning procedures have helped Blount County Schools remain open over the past three years when other districts have had to close because of widespread illness.

More efficient

“It surprised me that the green cleaners were as effective, if not more effective than, the volatile chemicals,” Morgan said of the initial switch. Now concentrated cleaners are dispensed through a wall-mounted chemical management system at each school that mixes the cleaners with the proper amount of water before use. Custodians wash and reuse color-coded microfiber clothes and dust mops, and they clean bathrooms with a pressurized water and vacuum system, so there is no mopping. Three of the four main cleaners the schools use are Green Seal certified for meeting health, environment and performance standards. The fourth is a hospital-grade disinfectant.
Instead of having to strip and rewax floors every year, now the schools can do that to most floors every four years. In the interim the custodial staff can top scrub and resurface the floor. 

Kết quả xổ số Cà MauPreviously the staff used a bucket and a string mop that had to be thrown away, in a process that was tiring and hard on the workers’ backs, Morgan said. This year the custodians started using a system that applies wax from a backpack system with a sprayer and a microfiber pad that can be reused. The system also applies wax in a thinner layer than the old method, so it dries more effectively and creates a harder surface, Morgan explained. He estimates the schools will use 30 percent less wax with the new system. The newest ec-H2O floor scrubbers Blount County Schools is purchasing use no detergents, just electrically charged water, in a system estimated to also use 70 percent less water. While the savings can be substantial, Farmer said he’s particularly focused on the health benefits that can result from using safer products and procedures. “I’m proud of what we have done here and also proud of where we are going,” Farmer said. “It’s a safer way to clean.”

Amy Beth Miller-The Daily Times, Article

Tom Sherlin-The Daily Times, photographer

The money will pay for a child and parent to fly to the Memphis facility for treatment. Poppelreiter didn’t need financial aid for her treatment, but she was glad to give her name to the “Dollars for Doris” campaign to help children. She noted that Blount County has lost several young people to cancer in recent years.

English teacher Nancy Kemp started the campaign, which collected $51 from her students its first day in late October. “I want my kids to learn that if they give back, good things will happen,” Kemp said. She tells her students to “create your own karma.” As the campaign spread schoolwide, William Blount students brought in loose change and entire piggy banks, and collections were taken at basketball games and in the high school office. After a story about the campaign appeared in The Daily Times in late November, community members also sent donations to the school.

Poppelreiter heard from former students, her favorite high school teacher, and colleagues and mentors from throughout her 38 years as an educator in Blount County. “That was very humbling for me,” Poppelreiter said. Principal Rob Clark allowed teachers to wear blue jeans to school for two weeks in December when they donated $10. As the campaign was wrapping up before the winter break, Von Buchanan, cafeteria manager, presented a donation from her team that Kemp said “really pushed the goal over the edge.”

Amy Beth Miller, article-The Daily Times

Tom Sherlin, photo-The Daily Times