By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
OXFORD TWP. – During the Jan. 23 school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Vickie Markavitch gave an update on the district’s ongoing recovering efforts to the board of education. The full document, with color-coded additions, can be found at oxfordschools.org.
“We have been very careful in our budget reductions to impact none of the things you see in this report,” she said. “We’ve been careful to not impact mental health, we’ve been careful to not impact any ground-level, building-level security intervention, equipment, process, procedure or personnel.”
Some of the updated action steps and strategies in safety and security include the completion of weapons detection dog training with dogs used as appropriate across the district; clear backpacks have been purchased for secondary level students and they are expected to use them; threat assessment/suicide risk assessment training has been provided and completed for staff in transportation, child nutrition, OELC, central office and is ongoing for other departments, as well as many programs that are ongoing.
As far as social emotional learning and mental health, all staff has gotten an overview of the “You Matter” campaign, therapy dog Penny has started working at Daniel Axford Elementary, anti-bullying efforts have been implemented and are ongoing, students have signed up to participate in a Youth Action board during the school year and have regularly scheduled meetings to increase student participation in scheduled activities, and Trust-Based Rational Intervention has been purchased and implemented as a tier one resource at Lakeville and Leonard elementaries, as well as many other ongoing programs.
There were also steps and strategies taken in the area of staff wellness and community and government outreach.
The recovery plan is ongoing and ever-changing, but the plan for the district is to schedule actions and steps in three-year increments, with regular updates along the way.
“And we believe that we’re making good progress,” said Markavitch. “You’ll get another update at the end of the year, and in the fall you’ll get a new, three-year series of an ongoing education plan.”