PARIS — A public forum is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, June 14, at the high school on Route 26 on a state-mandated student instruction system for the Oxford Hills School District 

Superintendent Rick Colpitts and other district administrators presented the SAD 17 board of directors Monday with an overview of the new system.

Colpitts said the proficiency-based learning system, known as PBL, will allow students to gauge “where they are now, where they want to be and how to get there.”

Under the system established by state law in 2012, high school students must demonstrate that they have mastered skills in eight subjects to receive diplomas. The subjects are English language arts, math, science and technology, social studies, health and physical education, visual and performing arts, career and education development, and world languages.

SAD 17 is in the process of implementing the system.

Some school board directors, and Katrina Wilson, student representative on the board, questioned what they called “holes” in the way the new system works. Others said it will hold all students accountable for learning.

Director Bob Jewell said parents, and colleges that will be reviewing a student’s application under a new grading system, must be able to understand it.

Teacher Joe Cummings said he supports the system because it allows all students to be successful.

In other action, the board:

• Unanimously appointed Paris Elementary School Assistant Principal Lorrence Pacholski as principal of the school, succeeding Mary Lou Peterson who is retiring;

• Authorized the superintendent to contract with Bahre Paris Realty in Oxford to lease the former Family Dollar store at 243 Main St. in Paris for Streaked Mountain School, an alternative education program housed on lower Main Street in Norway; and

• Voted to allow about 12 Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School varsity softball players to participate in the Disney High School Fastpitch Spring Training at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, next spring.

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net

SAD 17 directors listen Monday night in Paris to administrators detail what proficiency-based learning, a state-mandated instructional system, will look like for the Oxford Hills Schools District. (Leslie H. Dixon/Advertiser Democrat)

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