OXFORD — SAD 17 directors were told Tuesday night that the Oxford Hills Middle School’s trimester system is working well.
“Teachers are feeling, I think, it’s working for them,” Principal Troy Eastman said.
The system was instituted at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year to accommodate students moved to a building on Madison Avenue in Oxford to alleviate overcrowding at the Paris school, as well those students at Paris.
The staff worked throughout the summer to create a themed trimester system comprised of humanities, visual and performing arts and STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The new program didn’t set different academic standards; students still receive instruction each day in math and language arts instruction.
While staff and students found the new learning experience a positive one, there were questions about whether it would still be viewed favorably when the staff and students rotated to the other campus for the second trimester.
Eastman said they have surveyed students and staff about the new system after the first rotation and found that almost everyone has been positive about it.
“It validates the teachers who were asked to move,” he said.
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