OXFORD – Three graduates of Oxford Hills High School will be taking on new roles in the school system this fall.

Jeremy Hill, a 1991 graduate, was hired as a math teacher, and 1992 graduate Jennifer Sherbinski will be a science teacher. Both will work at their alma mater, Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. The SAD 17 Board of Directors approved the hirings at its meeting Monday.

Another member of the class of 1992 has been hired as a teaching principal at the Hebron Station Elementary School. Nathan Merrill has taught fourth grade at the Hebron school for the past two years. He will now work half-time as principal of the school, spending the balance of his time as a fourth-grade teacher.

“I love the classroom, and I never want to leave the classroom,” Merrill said. He said he has a strong interest in curriculum and seeing it put to its best use throughout the school. He said his new position gives him “a golden opportunity to combine two interests.”

Merrill has a master’s degree in education from the University of Maine at Orono and is currently studying administration at the University of Southern Maine. He will be replacing Greg Knight, who has taken a position at an elementary school in Kittery.

In other business, school board members saw a video presentation made by a team of six teachers and administrators who recently visited China. On their trip, the teachers met with their counterparts at “what appears to be developing as a sister school to us,” in Jin Hua, China, said Superintendent Mark Eastman.

Teacher Craig Blanchard explained that the relationship between the two schools began two years ago when a group of OHCHS students visited China on a home-stay program. The school in China tentatively plans to send five students and two teachers to visit Oxford Hills this fall.

Eastman said that to his knowledge, OHCHS is the first school in Maine to establish a relationship with a school in China.

The board awarded the bid for property and casualty insurance to Goodwins Inc. The umbrella coverage for the school district has been lowered from $5 million, an amount Eastman said was well above average, to $2 million. “We were over-insured,” Eastman said. Goodwins’ bid was more than $25,000 below the budgeted amount of $158,000.

The board also awarded a bid for photocopiers, which led to a discussion on reducing the number of copies made by the district. “We have done significant analysis of copier use,” Eastman said. He hopes to “become as cost-effective as possible without affecting the ability of our teachers to teach.” Business Manager Cathy Fanjoy said that teachers can send documents directly to the copiers from their computers for one-tenth the cost of printing them on a laser printer.

The district will lease and purchase five new copiers for a total of about $53,000. Three of the copiers will be used at the high school, and the remaining two will go to the Rowe School in Norway.