As each student prepares for a new school year so too are Oxford Community School administration and staff members. This year, there are many changes.
The biggest change, according to Superintendent Dr. Bill Skilling, is All Day Every Day Kindergarten, offered throughout the district. The district will also provide these young minds with programs their older siblings may not have experienced ? Spanish and Chinese and the Suzuki Strings program.
‘Over a third of our School of Choice students are kindergartners,? Skilling said.
Parents chose Oxford schools over their home districts because opportunities their children have here, not only in kindergarten, but through graduation.
‘It is a tremendous benefit,? said Skilling.
The administration has added six new teachers to help with the new kindergarten program. ‘The standards have not changed,? he explained. ‘It is beneficial for the teachers because it gives them more opportunity and time for the kids.?
He said this helps teachers monitor students who may fall behind, allowing teachers to work more closely with these students.
The program costs $450,000 — for teachers, supplies and additional furniture for the classrooms. This is included in the budget.

Athletics
The board welcomed the new athletic director Michael Watson on July 13. Also, the athletic program will see lacrosse leave the realm of club status to become a full-fledged varsity sport.
‘In a few weeks we will find out if we will be in the Oakland Athletic Association,? Skilling noted. Being added to the OAA would make this the final season Oxford would participate in the Flint Metro League.

Curriculum
Jim Schwartz, assistant superintendent of curriculum, said students will see revisions to what they are studying this year. Students will see revisions and classes added to the existing curriculum.
On the elementary level ? science, social studies, language arts and English have been revised; Chinese will be dded to the fourth grade curriculum.
At the middle school ? science and social studies were revised; classes added were Honors Language Arts, Engineering, Theatre and At-Risk Reading. Spanish for middle school and high school aligned with each other.
High school students have more opportunity for Advanced Placement classes with new offerings in Psychology, Music Theory, World History and English Composition. More new classes include Forensic Science, Orchestra, Chinese II, Organizational Studies, Student Leadership, Stage crafting, Technical Writing, and Webmasters.
Contemporary Literature, Writing Themes, Theatre, Speech and Auto were revised as well.
Schwartz noted not a lot of changes have been made to Power School ? students can still get their schedules, assignments and grades on-line. Parents have the option on of how frequent they receive updates on how their children are doing in their classes.
He said many teachers use the website Moodle for part of the class work. Students can use it as a tool to get assignments, chat on-line with classmates and their teachers, and receive information about their projects.