OXFORD – School officials say their decision to lock-in a fuel oil price last summer was a wise decision despite the recent dramatic drop in prices.

“We would have put ourself at great risk,” Superintendent Mark Eastman said if it had not been done.

SAD 17 officials agreed to $3.88 a gallon when predictions were that the cost would rise to more than $5 a gallon by winter.

While that decision may not have worked to their advantage by October when prices began to fall, the failure of companies to allow SAD 17 to lock into diesel fuel price actually helped the district financially.

“We couldn’t lock into diesel. No one would allow it. Now we’re paying below what we budgeted,” Eastman said of the corresponding decrease in diesel fuel costs that has already saved $10,000 under what the original budget called for.

Although SAD 17 officials are still looking to lock in fuel prices for next year, Eastman said they have not been successful. School official ask for the current price of heating and diesel fuel each Monday, but they have not been allowed to lock-in a price.

In June, school officials locked into a heating fuel price that they hoped would carry them through January. With the price per barrel changing hourly at the time, officials had only a matter of hours to buy 110,000 gallons of No. 2 heating oil at $3.88 per gallon when the price spiked from $120 to $130 a barrel.

Officials felt fortunate at that time saying they hoped to reduce the impact to the contingency fund.

Now, they said, they think they will recover money budgeted through the decreasing prices.