PARIS – The focus will be on academics, not counseling, under a major restructuring of the guidance program at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

The SAD 17 Board of Directors on Monday agreed to change the position of guidance director to coordinator of Guidance Services and Academic Planning.

John Parkman, former guidance director, has left the district. The person hired to take his place will work with the existing staff of four guidance counselors to provide academic counseling to students and encourage post-secondary education.

To address other counseling needs of students, the board agreed to contract for more hours with Community Concepts Inc. to provide the equivalent of another full-time social worker.

“We’re so convinced that in the 21st century, post-secondary education is going to be a critical component in everyone’s life,” Superintendent Mark Eastman said Tuesday. The restructuring of guidance services is one strategy in the district’s goal of increasing the number of OHCHS graduates who go on to college or advanced technical school.

With manufacturing all but dead in the region, Eastman said Oxford Hills students need higher education “if they want to reach their own personal goals.”

The restructuring will use existing budget money and not require additional spending, Eastman said. The new coordinator of Guidance Services and Academic Planning will be transferred to the middle management group from the teachers’ group, due to the job’s supervisory nature.

The coordinator will supervise all standardized testing and coordinate the Advanced Placement program. He or she will also work to involve parents in student aspirations and serve as a liaison between the high school and its various college partners.

“Personal counseling takes up a lot of the guidance counselor’s time,” said Eastman. “The educational attainment level has got to be raised.”