PARIS — Superintendent Heather Manchester advised Oxford Hills School District directors Monday that they must request a waiver from the Maine Department of Education so classes canceled Oct. 26 and 27 will not be counted as snow days.
The district has allotted five snow days for the 2023-24 school year.
Maine School Administrative District 17 closed schools after the Oct. 25 mass shootings of 18 people in Lewiston as police searched for the gunman, Robert Card, 40, of Bowdoin. He who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head late on Oct. 27 in Lisbon, according to officials.
Also at Monday’s meeting, directors voted unanimously to eliminate an outdated policy on community computer and internet use and approved a revision on how weighted board votes are calculated.
Regarding the computer and internet use policy, Director Judy Greene of Waterford said, “This dates all the way back to 2001. It relates to long-gone technology … which is no longer in use.”
The policy on weighted votes was revised to recognize slight population shifts from the 2020 Census, but the number of representatives for each town is unchanged. Norway, Paris and Oxford have four each, Harrison, Hebron, Otisfield, Waterford and West Paris have two each.
Directors’ votes are weighted to reflect each town’s percentage of the total population of the district.
Under the revision, Hebron gained a vote and Otisfield gained three votes. Harrison, Oxford, Paris and West Paris each lost one or two votes, while Norway and Waterford votes remained the same.
Also, the policy clarifies that board members must be sworn in by an agent of MSAD 17, not municipal officials or other designees.
The board unanimously approved revising a policy on advisory committees to require at least one director to serve on each committee and clarify that all advisory committees meetings be open to the public. The changes were recommended by the Maine School Board Association.
Directors also unanimously approved revising the truancy policy to require the superintendent to make two written notices to families of students who are not complying with the truancy intervention plan.
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