Oxford High School will be closed Monday as workers continue removing snow from the roof and a structural engineer continues analyzing why cracks formed on the walls Thursday night after heavy snow and ice, school officials announced Sunday.
Quaker Farms Schools, Oxford Center School and Great Oak Middle School will be in session for a normal day because the snow removal is expected to be complete by the end of today, said Superintendent of Schools Edward M. Malvey.
If there are changing weather conditions, there will be an announcement.
“We can assure you we will continue to monitor the other schools,” Malvey said in a statement.
Malvey’s letter is printed below. Article continues after the document.
The school closing will also affect the sessions that were planned for the community to meet Malvey, who is new on the job in Oxford.
They are now scheduled for the Great Oak Middle School cafeteria.
The times are 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for staff, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. for parents and the community, and 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. for elected officials and town agencies.
Why did we wait until cracks appeared before it occurred to BOE to shovel the roof? There had been many warnings and actual roof failures statewide, previous to the cracks appearing, and everywhere you looked, you could see snow being removed from roofs. This seems to be a repeat of the type of negligence that lead to the leak in the oil tank at Quaker Farms School.
I was waiting for someone to blame the BOE for the cracks in the walls at the High School. Do you think the Chairwoman snuck in the building after dark with a hammer and chisel and made those cracks herself? Could she possibly be responsible for this weather pattern that has occurred this winter? Wouldn’t it be just like her to cause all of these storms that would prevent our children from attending school? It would be just another example of her trying to take control of the school schedule. Take cover all…you never know what the big, bad, BOE is going to be responsible for next…
The Board of Ed may not have caused the cracks, but they are negligent in the fact that other communities BOE’s were having their school roofs cleaned in a timely manner, whereas this Board of Ed sat on their hands and did nothing.
When state officials were telling residents and communities to clean roofs and the state saw some building collapses, did the Board of Ed hold any emergency Special Meetings to address the facility needs? NO
I find this to be a total failure on the Board of Ed’s part for not addressing this issue until it was too late.
Interesting how timetogo jumps to the defense of the Chairwoman of BOE, when my comment never mentioned the chairwoman. It had never even occurred to me that it was the Chairwoman’s responsibility since we not have a facilities manager in the BOE who’s responsibility it is to monitor and direct maintenance of the facilities. This snow load did not occur overnight, so there was plenty of time to do preventive maintenance, particularly once it became apparent that other flat roofed buildings in the state were failing. Instead, someone, not necessarily the Chairwoman, delayed clearing of the snow until cracks appeared. It would have been a lot less expensive to remove the snow before this happened, and the kids school year would not have had the continuing disruption.
Once again the Pernicious Pack distorts the truth in an effort to find fault with the BOE, BOF, or any other group that refuses to be part of an angry crowd of citizens, who like their fearless Mad leader, is outraged about everything. Milford, Vernon, and many other towns noticed cracks, and then began snow removal…no different than Oxford, except that they are probably pulling together, rather than apart.
Rachel and everyone else,
Can this town for once not play the blame game? As a parent of a child who attends OHS, my only concern is the safety of the kids. Stop the fighting and name calling and lets protect our kids. I am hoping for more details and open and honest discussion of the issues at OHS. None of this blaming the boe or anyone else is going to move this town forward. We have had enough. Our kids deserve to be safe and parents deserve answers as to the safety of our kids. Lets set some examples for our children.
The immediate problem with OHS needs to be resolved first. Next, we need to find out why this was allowed to happen. Don’t play the blame game? And why not? Because of someone’s negligence, the taxpayers have been burdened with additional expenses in an amount yet to be determined, and the kids are unable to attend school. So this happened in Milford too? Well shame on the persons responsible. What about all the buildings in the state where roofs were shoveled and there was no damage? Obviously their managers were more attentive and competent than ours. Also, I see no hesitancy by the BOE to point the finger of blame at the former superintendent and business manager, and if they are actually guilty of fiscal incompetence, they deserve the blame.