OXFORD – Oxford leaders are pushing forward with the planning process for a large-scale Phase II building project, even while they struggle with developing next year’s budget in the face of state aid cuts.
“I think we need to keep moving forward on it,” said Superintendent Squier in a phone interview last week. If the district keeps “plodding along” on the planning process, he said he’s confident that “something will emerge” that stakeholders can agree on and support.
While some have raised concerns about the timing of any project in the current fiscal climate, the district administrator is still committed to the planning process.
“With a long-term plan like this, it’s not something we need to do right now,” he explained.
In late January, he and the district’s other administrators were tasked with seeking the input of school faculty and staff members. Squier said the first of two meetings with this group of stakeholders was held last week.
The superintendent described the meeting as “cafe style,” with faculty and staff members breaking into small groups to discuss four questions.
According to District Clerk Michele Rice, the first question was focused on gauging staff members’ response to the facility committee’s proposal to reconfigure grades among the school’s current buildings. That proposal would shift UPK-2 to the current middle school building and a transformation of what is now the Primary School/High School campus to accommodate grades 3 through 12.
Staff were also asked whether, when looking at the ideas being proposed, if they felt the school needed “more, less, or something else.” They were also asked to give their opinion on what changes, if any, need to be made to the existing facilities in order “to support students so they may be successful in the 21st Century,” as well as what they feel “would/or will be the most effective and efficient direction in the long-term” for the school district to pursue.
A second, follow up meeting is scheduled for this week so that everyone can “take a look at everyone’s responses on paper,” Squier said. Then they will once again break into small groups, where they will be tasked with summarizing what they heard from their peers.
Representatives from the faculty and staff will have the opportunity to share these responses and recommendations with the school board and facility committee at a meeting currently scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22 in the Oxford Primary School’s Multipurpose Room.
Representatives from the district’s architects, the Bernier Carr Group, will also be in attendance at the meeting to hear the staff presentations, Squier said.
While the architectural engineering firm will be present, the man who facilitated the first two capital project planning meetings will not. According to Squier, former Johnson City Superintendent Larry Rowe will be unable to attend due to pre-existing travel plans.
The superintendent explained that he is keeping Rowe updated on the progress being made, but said he was unsure whether or not the facilitator would continue to be involved with the process in the long-term.
What the next step will be following the Feb. 22 meeting is still up in the air, according to Squier.
“We’ll schedule our meetings around the work that needs to be done,” he said.