Notes for Oxford BOE meeting 12/12/23

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The meeting opened up with Student recognition from all arts, athletics, and academics in schools.

Scheduled public comment:

Clay Shilling , Justin's sibling asked for an apology and shared what it is like for them to be forced to interact with Pam Fine, and then Principal Wolf. It was vulnerable, heartfelt and gutwrenching. Clay, I want you to understand that the community stands with you. As someone who also lost a sibling during adolescence, my heart resonates with the emptiness that remains. It never truly fades, but we learn to navigate life around the sorrow and grow amidst the grief.

Kallie Roesner spoke about Oxford students' access to resources available. She pointed out that many of the links on the district site did not work. At the time of writing this blog, the district has fixed the links.

Kallie also went over the original terms of the guidepost contract which are shocking. She asked how we went from that to what we have without any record of about to modify the contract in any open meeting. Kallie stated that the Guidepost report is the soft version and is missing many key pieces of information, such as the mandatory EOP update not being completed when it was due at the time of the shooting & stated that we expect that the Guidepost report be used to hold individuals in the district accountable for their failures and remove them from our district.

Kallie asked for it to make sense.

Marisa Prince said she expects the Oxford School Board to apologize in their guidepost response later this session, and read a full apology; at one point she turns to look at Clay and say, Clay, we are sorry for how we treated you. In the end, the apology states that the school takes full responsibility for failing to implement proper threat assessment procedures in the schools before this shooting and acknowledges that the deaths of Hana, Madisyn, Justin, and Tate were preventable.

Consent agenda

a few votes took place, every one had an "all in favor" outcome. Nothing too instrumental .

Superintendent's Report

Middle School Principal Brad Bigelow, broke down the cause, the timeline, response, and next steps to the false Alice alarm that occurred on Dec 1, 2023 ( Note that is the day after the shooting anniversary).

cause: The network switch was replugged in, which created a power surge. Replacements have been ordered.

Timeline: 831 am, the alarm went off. 832 Mr Bigelow attempted to silence the alarm, but it was retripped. He was able to communicate it was a False Alarm. Students in the gym were unable to hear this due to the old PA system. - That is scheduled to be redesigned.

Response: That day and on Dec 4th, Mental Health staff - including ones from other schools came in, along with therapy dogs. Kids were asked to fill out an assessment scoring themselves 1-3, with 3 needing assistance immediately, 1 being ok, and 2 they would like to talk to someone. 26 students submitted a 3, and 122 students submitted a 2.

Next steps: He mentioned it went as well as it could have been and students and staff performed well. Things that need to be reviewed are nightlocks for students, subs, and parent volunteers, the PA system in the gym, open areas such as the commons, etc, and window accessibility

Guide post response: Interm SI Markavitch read bits and pieces from a 56-page document located here.

My main takeaway is the the Interm SI stated that the report responded to all the concerns received from the listening sessions. This is inaccurate as many questions were not addressed, such as who and how the board decided not to force everyone to cooperate with the guidepost investigation, why some staff doesn't feel they've received adequate threat assessment training, and so many more.

Safety & School Operations

Allison has received train the trainer training and facilitates the training for staff, admin, etc. As soon as she fills out and completes the paperwork, Oxford has met all the qualifications for an Alice-certified Organization. They are looking at implementing silent alarms in the classroom in preparation for Alyssa's law passing. Find out more information here:

They have increased the number of AEDs ( Automative external Defib) stop-the-bleed kits around the schools, and include one that is portable. They are looking into Driftnet which is a 24/7 weapons detection system. Once this is fully operational and tested, it seemed like evolve may go away, but was unclear. I think this is the system they are talking about here.

The school surveyed the kids ( how and the details are unclear) and it was decided to keep the clear backpacks. On January 15, 2024, the rest of the staff will be trained on Prepare for Crisis team members. ( I will have a link to what this is, once I find it.). Overall this left me with more questions, though I see some improvements were/are being made.

Unscheduled comments

Many people spoke. A student named Max, shared how security accosted them after going through the evolve system, and not carrying any bags, etc. The board stared on as they asked for an update on the report that was filed. Once again the overall message is for Mary, Heather, Wolf, Pam & Colleen to resign, and this would help Oxford heal.

To watch the meeting, here's a link. It's a long one.