OXFORD – The school board expelled two students – one an 8th-grader, the other a high schooler – at its regular meeting Tuesday night.
Dr. Mark Eastman, superintendent of SAD 17, said that expulsions of middle school students are somewhat rare, happening once or twice every couple of years.
High schoolers are expelled more frequently for behaviors that include disobedience, violence, bringing dangerous weapons to campus, or possessing or selling illegal drugs on school grounds.
Eastman said both students up for review have been suspended four times since the school year began, both for being repeatedly disobedient or disorderly.
The board has a policy that after a student has received four out-of-school suspensions, it will consider expelling the student.
Eastman said that according to Maine law, students can be readmitted if they prove that their behaviors that drove them from school have been ameliorated.
“The law says they can be readmitted upon satisfactory evidence that the behavior that caused expulsion does not reoccur,” Eastman said. If an expelled student engages in counseling, community service or outside academic work while out of school, this can help his or her chances of being readmitted.
The majority of students prepare a readmission plan with their principals, Eastman said, and after this plan is complete, they can approach the board to ask to return to school.
“Between 80 and 90 percent are readmitted,” Eastman said.
Moreover, Community Concepts, through a federal grant, offers counseling and tutorial service to students struggling with problems that inhibit their ability to attend school, Eastman said.
Eastman said that enrollment is dropping in the school district, following statewide demographic trends. In 1992, enrollment for kindergarten through grade 12 was 3,853. In 2005, the number of students in the district was 3,644. The state has projected a slow growth in spending to correlate to the dropping numbers of students, capping growth at 3 percent, Eastman said.
After oil prices skyrocketed a few months ago, the schools adopted policies to conserve energy. Eastman said that most of the schools have cut back consumption, with a few exceptions. For instance, Eastman showed that Oxford Middle School uses an average of 68.2 gallons per day, compared to a 10-year average of 96.4 gallons. Part of this might be explained by the mild winter, he added.
Retired teacher Fran Taylor donated to Harrison Elementary 167 books valued at more than $3,000, plus some professional books valued at $750. Kenneth and Polly Bartow of Otisfield also gave $1,000 to the Otisfield Community School.
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