OXFORD – More than 20 parents, teachers and residents attended the Oxford school board’s reorganizational meeting Tuesday, waiting through a three-hour session so they could eventually register a salvo of complaints to the administration.

The core focus of their concerns were issues surrounding the reassignment of staff and the implementation of new programs.

Since earlier in the year, the school board and Superintendent Randall Squier have been receiving criticism for their handling of several issues such as the examination of the future use of the Oxford Middle School and the reduction of fifth and sixth grade faculty. The latter issue generated a large amount of discussion between the staff and administration at Tuesday’s meeting.

The newly-adopted Oxford school budget calls for the elimination of 1.5 teaching positions. The administration removed a full-time fifth and sixth grade teacher who had been out for injuries, and by removing her position, also removed her full-time substitute currently filling in for her. A part-time seventh and eighth grade Spanish teacher was also let go.

This cut was part of a plan to reduce the number of fifth and sixth grade teachers to a total of three for each grade level. Some parents objected to the class sizes being possibly more than 24 students.

In order to accommodate these concerns, the school board and Squier decided to shuffle teachers around from different grades and subjects in hopes of reducing class size.

The sixth grade math teacher is now going to be teaching fifth grade science. The sixth grade English teacher will now be teaching social studies and each of the six teachers will be expected to pitch in to teach an English class. The sixth grade social studies teacher will now be teaching sixth grade math. These reassignments made it possible to reduce the average class size to about 16 students, said Squier.

“We only want what’s best for the students and keeping teachers where they can do the best work, we can achieve that. All the teachers being moved would do a great job in their new positions, but we need to look at where they are already familiarized experts. It can take years to develop a dedicated program to a particular subject,” said Union President of the Oxford Teacher’s Association Jon Rogers.

“All teachers being moved are certified in their field, and we know they are fully qualified,” said Squier. Although the teachers being moved are qualified with certification from the state, many of them have not taught their new subjects in several years.