OXFORD – More than 20 parents, teachers and residents attended the Oxford school board’s reorganizational meeting Tuesday, waiting through a three-hour session so they could eventually register a salvo of complaints to the administration.
The core focus of their concerns were issues surrounding the reassignment of staff and the implementation of new programs.
Since earlier in the year, the school board and Superintendent Randall Squier have been receiving criticism for their handling of several issues such as the examination of the future use of the Oxford Middle School and the reduction of fifth and sixth grade faculty. The latter issue generated a large amount of discussion between the staff and administration at Tuesday’s meeting.
The newly-adopted Oxford school budget calls for the elimination of 1.5 teaching positions. The administration removed a full-time fifth and sixth grade teacher who had been out for injuries, and by removing her position, also removed her full-time substitute currently filling in for her. A part-time seventh and eighth grade Spanish teacher was also let go.
This cut was part of a plan to reduce the number of fifth and sixth grade teachers to a total of three for each grade level. Some parents objected to the class sizes being possibly more than 24 students.
In order to accommodate these concerns, the school board and Squier decided to shuffle teachers around from different grades and subjects in hopes of reducing class size.
The sixth grade math teacher is now going to be teaching fifth grade science. The sixth grade English teacher will now be teaching social studies and each of the six teachers will be expected to pitch in to teach an English class. The sixth grade social studies teacher will now be teaching sixth grade math. These reassignments made it possible to reduce the average class size to about 16 students, said Squier.
“We only want what’s best for the students and keeping teachers where they can do the best work, we can achieve that. All the teachers being moved would do a great job in their new positions, but we need to look at where they are already familiarized experts. It can take years to develop a dedicated program to a particular subject,” said Union President of the Oxford Teacher’s Association Jon Rogers.
“All teachers being moved are certified in their field, and we know they are fully qualified,” said Squier. Although the teachers being moved are qualified with certification from the state, many of them have not taught their new subjects in several years.
Two of the teachers who spoke out against the board’s decision in a prior meeting, Pat Moore and Matt Voce, were among the few who the board decided to “shuffle.” Some residents implied these two events were related at the meeting. Oxford currently employs just over 100 teachers.
“You are going after teachers who tell you are wrong and people are afraid,” said former substitute teacher Joanne Lawton.
The seventh grade English teacher took another job and will be leaving. With all the faculty shake ups, the only repeat English teacher in the middle school will be the eighth grade English teacher.
In the last two board meetings, Oxford has approved the retirement or resignation of 11 of its staff, including teachers, aides and support staff.
Another issue that roused both faculty and parents into lodging serious complaints was the decision to begin offering the traditionally 10th grade science Regents to advanced eighth graders. Eighth grade science teacher Jerry Locke cautioned the board against the plan.
“In our last department meeting, although not everyone was there, everyone who was – not one of them was in favor of offering the (10th grade) Regents (for 8th graders),” said Locke. He said the differences between seventh and eighth grade students and those of high school age vary dramatically.
“The notorious drop off in numbers between the two levels can be seen everywhere. This plan might be a good thing, but it might not, we have to ask ourselves what’s best for the students. A score of a 75 on a Regents biology test for an eighth grader, I would regard as good, but when you apply that score of 75 to the average 10th grade student taking the same test, it’s a different story. Is that really an advantage to that kid? And this is an upper level student we’re talking about, who will mostly likely be applying to competitive colleges, and when they take a look at these scores, it’s going to hurt them,” said Locke.
Locke, who was accompanied by other science teachers, also stated he had no lesson plan for next year as of yet because no final decision had been made.

e-mail: tmurphy@evesun.com