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Oxford teens next Monday resume a school year disrupted five weeks ago by gunfire and bloodshed.
The northern Oakland County high school's athletic stadium. (Photo: Oxford Community Schools)
"With OHS [Oxford High School] not ready to be fully opened yet, we have created a two-week alternate hybrid schedule," district Superintendent Tim Throne announces Wednesday. For two weeks, younger students will "share the OMS [Oxford Middle School] building with our high school students and staff."
Contractors still are working at the high school, site of a Nov. 30 shooting that killed four students. Sports teams start practicing there Monday. "We will begin to host athletic competitions again beginning Jan. 24, Throne says.
Renovations ... are scheduled to be completed during the week of Jan. 17. Our tentative plan is to host three open house opportunities for our OHS students and families to visit the high school together before we transition back to the building the week of Jan. 24. ...
We hope this slow transition together at OMS will help in the healing process and ease our high school students back in a familiar academic setting.
Oxford High has nearly 1,800 students from five townships and two villages. The district's middle school, preschool, five elementary schools, a small alternative high school and a virtual academy reopened Monday with 88-percent attendance, Throne says.
The superintendent, school board president Tom Donnelly, principal Steven Wolf and other administrators will listen to reactions during two "telephone town halls" today from 6-7 p.m. and Thursday from 11 a.m.-noon. "We look forward to sharing more information with you and hearing your ideas, concerns and feedback," Throne says.
