OXFORD – Eighty percent of the graduating class of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School has continued in secondary education for the past three years.

The number skyrocketed from the 55 percent in the class of 2004, according to figures released by coordinator of guidance and academics Paul Bickford, who spoke to the SAD 17 directors on Monday night about the changing face of the guidance department.

Bickford said the higher numbers are due in part to the restructuring efforts in the guidance department but also to other initiatives, including working with the Oxford Hills Community Exchange and other programs designed to promote post secondary education. “It’s a combination of a lot of different initiatives,” Bickford said. “It’s pretty significant we’ve been able to sustain that percent over the last few years.”

Secondary education is broadly defined as anything from entering the military to going to a two-year or four-year college.

“We want to prepare them for anything they want to pursue. We don’t want to pigeonhole them,” Principal Ted Moccia said.

To ensure that students are getting proper guidance in their move toward life after graduation, the guidance department this year held its annual college fair in which students in grades 8 through 12 participated and more than 50 colleges attended. In October, all grade 10, 11 students took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test and staff presented a senior college workshop where students were broken into groups based on their post secondary plans.

Parents nights were held for students and parents and a financial aid information and assistance program was prepared for two nights where 120 parents attended.

Other events this year include two computer lab nights and a College Goal Sunday, college visits by sophomores and juniors and workshops for seniors, sophomore and juniors.

Moccia said that 40 percent of the students have requested their transcripts, indicating that many students plan to move on to post secondary education.

To accomplish this, Bickford and Moccia said the guidance department staff has been restructured using what Bickford calls the “Bangor plan.” The plan, which was developed and used at Bangor High School, where 90 percent of the students go on to post secondary education, allows pairs of counselors to work together by grade level. Counselors work with the same students all four years of high school.

Bickford said plan benefits include allowing counselors to work on more grade-specific programming in teams. The only drawback has been the need to share grade 12 counselors workloads for college advising, he said.

Moccia said he and Bickford have already met with seniors in danger of not graduating to prepare what they call “academic plans for success.”

“They’re part of the process,” he said of efforts to ensure a successful post high school future for all OHCHS students.