Last night was the third town hall event in a series of three community meetings in which Superintendent Brian Harvey and School Board members discussed proposals to meet the growing needs of the Oxford School District. While nothing has been decided, the district is searching for ways to offset the growing number of students with limited capacity.
As Oxford has grown, the school district has been forced to keep pace. Harvey explained that current facilities don’t have the capacity to meet the school district’s anticipated growth.
Based upon a formula that includes kindergarten projections, live births in the county and a 2% annual growth rate, a new elementary school and capital improvements to existing schools are the top priority.
The growth of Oxford schools is simply outpacing capacity. Oxford Elementary has already exceeded the room for students in first and second grade resulting in first-grade classes at both Bramlett and Oxford Elementary locations to accommodate the rising number of first-grade students. The situation is projected to will get progressively worse as the student population increases.
The new elementary school would house just 1st and 2nd-grade students to eliminate overflow from the existing schools. The proposed site for the school is at the intersection of Washington Avenue and North 5th Street where the C. M. Scott Center building currently resides. The building would be demolished to make way for the new school. According to the budget laid out by the district, the costs would be just over $14 million. Blueprints for the site can be seen below.
In addition to the new elementary school, capital improvements are proposed for Bramlett Elementary, Della Davidson Elementary, Oxford Middle School, and Oxford High School to add classrooms and improve facilities to meet Oxford student needs adequately. The details of each potential project can be seen below.
Della Davidson – add eight new classrooms to the existing school.
Oxford Intermediate – add a fine arts building and to add eight new classrooms to the existing building.
Oxford Middle School – To renovate the existing gymnasium (including wood flooring and bleacher replacements) and various other interior spaces to better suit the needs of the students and the District.
Oxford High School – To construct a new fine arts building including a performing arts theater, drama classrooms, art classrooms, and culinary arts classrooms. To construct a new building with academy classes. To renovate the existing band halls into the practice gym and career academy, and to renovate the existing art and drama classrooms into classrooms.
Superintendent Harvey encouraged the community to give input to the plans and ask questions through https://www.oxfordsd.org/bondref . He assured attendees that he will personally answer each question. Harvey urged the Oxford community to “keep in mind, no decisions have been made, that’s why we are going through this process”.
The complete budget breakdown for these projects can be seen below.
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