Overall Creek Elementary's New Technology to Save Thousands

By Amber Dougherty

            MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Overall Creek Elementary school is projected to open for the 2014-2015 school year, drawing 1,000 Murfreesboro City School students to a new geothermal building that is designed to be more cost efficient.

            “Overall Creek will be Murfreesboro’s 13^th elementary school,” said MCS Director of Communications Lisa Trail.

            Groundbreaking for the school is scheduled for June 25, 2014. The new school will be located near the Blackman community off Mooreland Lane, east of Veterans Parkway and south of Franklin Road.

            The school is designed for modern features and innovation. The land for the new school will allow the building to have a geothermal heating and cooling system.

            “Geothermal means that pipes run through the ground to bring up the water temperature,” said Scales Elementary Principal Don Bartch. “The earth surrounds the pipes and raises the temperature of the water and helps keep the water a constant temperature rather than having to heat it or cool it with a machine.”  

            The building will save MCS thousands of dollars each year. John Pittard Elementary is a geothermal school that shows the cost benefits for an innovative heating and cooling system.

            “The first school that we designed with the geothermal heating and cooling was John Pittard Elementary,” said Finance/Administrative Services Director Gary Anderson. “The next school we built was Scales Elementary. The schools are the same square footage and have the same hours of operation, but Scales is not a geothermal building. The amount we spend on operational energy for Scales is $400,000 a year. We spend $189,000 a year on energy for John Pittard. The heating and cooling system paid for itself in less than two years.”

            Overall Creek also will decrease overcrowding in schools.

            “Overall Creek Elementary will help decrease the level of overcrowding in the schools, especially those schools on the west side of Murfreesboro,” said Trail. “Scales Elementary currently has over 1,000 students, and after the rezoning, Scales will have approximately 700 students.”

            Don Bartch has been selected to be the principal at Overall Creek. He will begin his role in January 2014, overseeing the opening and hiring at the school.

            “[Bartch] understands the vision of this school district and its focus on children,” said Director of Murfreesboro City Schools Dr. Linda Gilbert. “Additionally, he knows many of the students and parents that Overall Creek will serve.”

            Bartch is presently the principal at Scales Elementary, which is the largest school in the MSC system.

            “I am very excited for the opening of Overall Creek,” said Bartch. “This type of building is still new for Murfreesboro, and it is exciting for the community.”

            For updates on the progress of Overall Creek visit http://www.cityschools.net.

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Reveille Joe Coffee Shop Honors All Who Served

By Austin Fulwider

            MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Matthew O’Dell, a local veteran of the United States Marine Corps, recently opened the Reveille Joe coffee shop on Murfreesboro’s city square as a place of refuge for all who have served.

              The idea for the shop first came to O’Dell’s mind while he was deployed in the deserts of Afghanistan as a military contractor.  He had decided that he no longer wanted to stay on his current path as a military professional, but wanted to continue to provide service for the men and women of the military as a civilian.  One idea that came to mind was to provide a place of solace and peace for veterans in the form of a coffee shop.

            “I knew that I still wanted to maintain a relationship with military veterans and their families and help them in any way I could,” said O’Dell. “I had the idea of a coffee shop because they are generally comfortable spaces, a place where people can just come and enjoy a cup of coffee.”

            The shop is also a place where people who have never personally been in the military are inspired to support those who serve.  Today, when a person enters Reveille Joe, he or she is greeted by a military-themed atmosphere accented by photographs of those who have served, patriotic posters, and newspaper clippings from World War II. There is even a slideshow of

 O’Dell’s time in Afghanistan.  Even the name “Reveille Joe” holds personal meaning to those who have served.

            “’Reveille Joe’ is a multi-faceted name,” explains O’Dell. “’Reveille’ means ‘to wake up’ in French and is also the name of the bugle call that wakes up the base and lets everyone know it’s time to start the day. ‘Joe’ is a generic term for military personnel, like ‘GI Joe’, and has also been a term for coffee from the soldiers of World War II.”

            However, the name holds an even more valuable personal meaning for O’Dell, as it gave him the chance to spotlight the biggest influence in his life, his grandfather Joe Padgett.

            “He was one of those people that everyone looked up to, no matter how big or small of a blessing he gave someone,” remembered O’Dell. “He left a legacy that people could pass on through generations, and that’s what I wanted to do with Reveille Joe, let people know of the type of man he was.”

Owner Matthew O'Dell Behind the Counter

            The legacy and influence of his grandfather is evident in O’Dell’s commitment to the main mission of Reveille Joe: to give comfort to veterans and support those who are in military service.  He wants to make the shop a place of connectivity and community for veterans.  At Reveille Joe, veterans and military personnel can connect to organizations such as the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, VA Hospitals, and the Veterans Affairs Department. 

            “My whole job, aside from running a coffee shop, is to go out and find the information for the military veterans and their families so that they don’t have to go everywhere to get answers and support, and they could just come to one central location,” stressed O’Dell.

            As for the future of the shop, he hopes to connect to even more organizations, including the Bravo organization for Middle Tennessee State University veterans, and also sponsor events that will benefit local veterans.  One such event is “Operation: Adopt a Hero”, a project that helps veterans in nursing homes cope during the holidays. To participate, any individual or business can simply go to Reveille Joe and draw the name of a veteran in need.  That individual or business will then fill a stocking with $20 of simple gifts and write a letter to the veteran thanking them for their service.

            “One of the worst things that can happen to a person is get to the end of their life and feel like they have been forgotten,” said O’Dell. “One of the things that we want to help eliminate is that hopelessness and that feeling of being alone.”

            Reveille Joe offers items that appeal to the taste of everyone.  Besides coffee, the shop also offers sandwiches, Rev Pockets, varied pastries, and many varieties of dessert.  However, most people are quick to try O’Dell’s signature beverage, the “Reveccino”.  You can also learn more about Reveille Joe at its website www.reveillejoe.com.

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Blue Raider’s offense impresses at Spring Game

By Josh Fann

            MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football team kicked off its annual Blue-White game on April 20 at Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium, impressing their fans and getting them ready for the 2013 football season.

            The Blue team was on offense during the scrimmage, while the white team remained on defense. The Blue team was very impressive by scoring 52 points on the defense. Despite the defense giving up so many points, it was able to put 40 points on the scoreboard.

            Quarterback Logan Kilgore had a good game, but he threw an interception giving the defense six points. This reminded many fans of his 2011 season when he threw an interception in every single game except one.

            Kilgore went nine for 11 on completions for 118 yards. The quarterback also threw one touchdown along with one interception. His longest drive was a 65-yard touchdown drive, and Kilgore did not play in the second half of the game.

While some fans worried, Kilgore felt like the game went pretty well. After the game he spoke with the media.

          "I thought it was a good game with no injuries, which is always a plus,” said Kilgore. “I thought we executed well offensively and were able to put the ball in the end zone several times."

            The offense looked very good in the spring game, especially running back William Pratcher, who is looking to be more involved in the games this season than he was in the 2011 season. Pratcher gave many fans at the spring game a reason to remember his name by his powerful runs. He may be what the Blue Raiders offense needs to replace graduating running back Benny Cunningham.

            Pratcher had some very impressive stats in the scrimmage. He had 107 yards on 11 carries. Pratcher scored two touchdowns during the game. The running back has a lot of work to do if he plans on replacing graduating running back Benny Cunningham, who had 600 yards and 11 touchdowns last season.

            Derrick Griggs, a columnist for GoMiddle.com, was impressed with the offense, but not so much with the defense.

            “This team has a lot of talent on it,” said Griggs “The defense didn’t show their full potential at the Blue-White Game. Hopefully, they can get it all together, or the move to Conference USA will be difficult on this team.”

            Despite the defense playing a bad game, some of the young talent showed spots of brightness that they can improve on. While the defense was pushed around the field, it was able to cause the offense some trouble throughout the scrimmage. However, Blue Raider fans were not impressed with their play.

             “It was great to see the team back in action,” Blue Raiders fan DJ Hughes said. “The defense has a lot to improve on, and if they don’t, this team could have a 2-9 season like they did in 2011.”

            The defense gave fans a scare by allowing the offense to score on every single possession of the scrimmage. Although this defense is young, the players have a lot to improve on after their showing. Fans are just hoping all the improvements happen before the season starts instead of in the middle of it.

            The stats for the defense aren’t very impressive either. Defensive players only managed seven tackles for a loss in the scrimmage. They also had six sacks and only forced one turnover in the game. This defense has a lot of work to do this off season to improve on before the season starts.

            The Blue Raiders 2013 schedule isn’t a very friendly one for the team. They play some very tough teams like BYU, North Texas and UTEP. This team can end the season with a 6-6 record or be playing in the Conference USA championship game with an 8-5 record. This spring game leaves a lot of questions for the coaches and fans unanswered. They all will have to wait till the 2013 season to kick off to find the answers to their questions.

            For more information on the schedule, go to Middle Tennessee’s official athletic site at www.goblueraiders.com.

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Oakland High School Greenhouse Helps Special Ed Grow

By Jacob Liddell

            MURFREESBORO, Tenn.-- Oakland High School built a 30 foot by 84 foot greenhouse in 2009 for its Cognitive Development Classroom to provide a positive workplace for handicapped students to learn, use real skills, and show their presence on campus.

            “It started as a need to have a vehicle to be able to generate a variety of extremely simple jobs and extremely complex jobs for the handicapped students so there could be an involvement in the whole spectrum of the disability population,” Special Education teacher Tim Coffey said. “We had the need to integrate our students with the Regular-Ed students, and the greenhouse fit that bill.”

            The Special-Ed students do whatever they can based on their skill levels. Higher functioning students can do things that require judgment like watering, planting or handling the plants. Lower functioning students can help as well with supervision. Everyone has something that they can do. Students can go with teachers individually, in groups, or even in the classroom thanks to the greenhouse being so close by.

            Plants raised in the greenhouse are sold to the community nearly every day, supporting the continual growth of the greenhouse and ensuring the students can continue learning and working in the greenhouse for years to come. Plants are sold at Oakland High School in the fall and spring.

“It’s fun.” one student said. “Sometimes I work by myself, but I can work with the others.”

The class sells everything from produce plants and flowers to shrubberies and ferns. Nearly everything grown is sold during the school year, and planting is done throughout the school year. Students plant the crops in a mixture of gardening soil and manure for both their greenhouse and hanging gardens situated just outside the classroom.

            “It’s been a great awareness of their capabilities of what they can do,” Special Education Teacher Paul Alumbaugh said. “I think its something that’s given an awakening to the student body because a lot of them didn’t realize the landscaping that was done was done by special education.”

            The students involved in the greenhouse enjoy the rich and fulfilling work, and parents are proud of the work their children have done. The fruits and vegetables grown make for delicious food, and the class has already enjoyed homemade food from their homegrown plants.

            Oakland High School is at 2225 Patriot Drive in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Student-grown plants are sold on-campus during school hours by appointment with Tim Coffey. Visit http://www.ohs.rcschools.net for more information.