OXFORD – The Oxford Academy School District will be asking residents to authorize a $4,650,000 Phase I capital project in a special vote on Sept. 24. The school board adopted a resolution last week calling for the vote on the proposed project, which will tackle a number of health, safety and code issues throughout the district.

According to Superintendent Randall Squier, the district will take advantage of a portion of the EXCEL grant money designated by the New York State Education Department to cover the local share of the project’s cost. There will be “no impact on the current tax levy,” Squier stated, at the July 13 meeting of the board.

The remainder of the district’s EXCEL money, or approximately $698,000, will be “available for any future products” if the board decides to pursue a second phase project at a later date, the superintendent explained.

Since the board announced in March that they would be scaling back plans for a larger scale building project to focus instead on the district’s most pressing needs, they have been working to define the scope of the Phase I project.

On at least two occasions they met with members of the Facility Advisory Committee and representatives from the Bernier Carr Group, the architectural consulting firm retained for the project, to finalize the list of items which will be included in the project. Each potential line item was weighed to determine if it was of a “nuts and bolts” nature pressing enough for phase I, or if it fell into the “bells and whistles” category and could therefor wait for a later phase II project. At a joint meeting on June 29, they finalized that list, which is available on the district’s website, www.oxac.org.