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REGION COVID-19 continues to surge through Maine but Oxford Hills has been able to keep its numbers relatively stable since the beginning of the year. The region saw about a 5% rise in cumulative cases as of Jan. 10.
Oxford/Otisfield had the largest increase, going from 130 on Jan. 3 to 145 by Jan. 18.
The Maine Center for Disease Control reported that the case ranges for Hebron, Waterford and West Paris had not changed. On Jan. 3 Hebron and Waterford had between 20-49 cases of COVID-19 each and West Paris was 50-99.
COVID-19 statistics for Oxford County as of Jan. 19, 2021.
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Harrison saw an additional five cases in the first 10 days of the year, increasing from 63-68. Norway and South Paris each reported seven more cases. As of Jan. 10, Norway currently stood at 124 and South Paris 195.
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OXFORD Two months following long-time director David Dunn’s resignation from SAD 17’s school board, Oxford’s Board of Selectmen appointed Lisa Dunham to serve as director. Dunn resigned in November when his wife, Joan Davis-Dunn, took a position at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School..
Dunham came to Oxford Hills as a seasonal, third generation resident of Otisfield, where her grandparents had a vacation home. Dunham and her family moved to Oxford permanently 16 years ago.
After working several years for the Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce, Dunham, along with her mother and aunt, bought Valley View Orchard Pies in 2018. They moved the business from Hebron to Oxford in 2019.
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OXFORD Selectmen on Thursday night appointed a school board member, accepted a grant and held an executive session on hiring a new town manager.
The meeting, which lasted 15 minutes, was attended by Sharon Jackson, Dana Dillingham and Samantha Hewey, who acted as chairwoman in the absence of Scott Hunter, who was on a fire call. Caldwell Jackson did not attend.
Lisa Dunham was appointed a School Administrative District 17 director. She succeeds David Dunn, who resigned in November after his wife, Joan Davis-Dunn, took a position at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.
Dunham, co-owner of Valley View Orchard Pies on Madison Avenue, submitted a letter to the board expressing interest in the position.
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OXFORD HILLS Despite being part of Maine Department of Education’s county-wide yellow designation, SAD 17 continues to maintain safe spaces within its schools.
As of Dec. 15, the district website lists 12 students or staff having confirmed cases of COVID-19. None of those cases have been detected as spreading within the schools themselves.
One school, Paris Elementary, is currently closed and fully remote because there are not enough available educators and staff to support in person learning.
Overall, the number of students and staff in quarantine is 80, up slightly from last week, but still significantly lower than one month ago, when Guy E. Rowe School in Norway was struggling to contain an outbreak, Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School had to close due to infections and Oxford Elementary School closed because of a teacher shortage.
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OHTS classrooms are set up for social distancing but students have mostly been able to participate in-person this school year.
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PARIS Oxford Hills schools have had go from green to yellow to green and back to yellow all fall – usually due to COVID-19 outbreaks in other parts of the county.
Still, a few have closed for periods due to outbreaks, others have had to close because there are not enough educators available to provide in-person learning and whole classes have had to quarantine after administrators learned of individual positive virus cases (both students and teachers).
Through it all, Oxford Hills Technical School has worked to make sure its students’ training and education gets as little disruption as possible.