Oxford School District history

After 1860, when the railroad first came through Oxford, the community’s population started to skyrocket and a new school became necessary.

A grand new brick structure, built at a staggering cost of $8,000, was completed in 1868.

In 1876, when the school first issued report cards, there were a total of 9 grades in the building.

In 1880, Oxford first awarded diplomas to the students who successfully completed the course of study.

Students of high-school age attended a public school for the first time in Oxford in 1886 when the city fathers erected a brick building on the site of the present elementary school (now the Federal Building) on Jackson Avenue.

Because Oxford continued to grow in the early years of the 20th century, a new school building was constructed at the corner of South Fifth and Hodgson Streets in 1905.

In 1909 the Oxford School was built.

In 1929 a separate school for the seventh through the twelfth grade was organized and began function in the old Oxford Grammar School building with Mr.

The first unit of the building, which was made public by the appropriation of $100.000 by the state legislature, was completed in the summer of 1930.

The City of Oxford furnished the students and about one-half of the support fund,the University furnishing the remaining part of the support fund and the supervision of instruction.” (1931, University High School Annual)

A large building program in 1954 saw the new district construct an elementary school and a high school on a campus adjoining the old Oxford School.

In 1955 Oxford voters passed a bond issue for $50,000 to be used in the education building program.

The new building was completed in 1956, and the School of Education and the University High School moved into their expanded facilities.

The Oxford Hills School District was formed in 1961, at the urging of the state, at a time when consolidation began to be seen as a way to strengthen and modernize education in rural Maine.

In the fall of 1963, students in grades eight through twelve of the Oxford Municipal Separate School District began their thirty-fourth annual session on the new one-million dollar campus which is now known as Oxford High School.

In 1965 the old building was demolished and a new building built.

Then, in 1998, the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School opened with both schools integrated into a newly renovated and hugely expanded building, now housing 1,100 students, and the number of students participating in technical education skyrocketing from 100 to more than 400.

Meanwhile the Middle School population grew to the point where many classes were housed in “portable” classrooms; in 2013, as even that solution grew too cramped, the entire curriculum was revamped to allow students to spread out into the North Campus in South Paris and the South Campus in Oxford.

2018 Capital Projects not being paid for with Bond or Sinking Fund Dollars