Voters and residents of the Oxford area have faced an election date, September 19th, 2023, to determine upcoming bond-funded expansions. The bond referendum for a $37 million expansion to the Oxford School District’s facilities covers a broad spectrum of projects- recreation, athletics, and new classrooms. The vote has unofficially passed with 81% in favor of raising taxes for the renovations and expansions.
First, looking at the impact on the voters and taxpayers of Oxford, the plan laid out an estimate for the increase in city property taxes. Property taxes are based upon the total home value within the explanation, not the market value. The district estimates this plan to have a minor impact and increase property taxes. For a home with a total value of $100,000 and an assessed value of 10% (10,000), there would be an estimated increase of $18.85 annually. This increase is based on the assessed value of one’s total home value, not the market value. For every $100,000 in the home’s total value, there is an annual increase in property taxes by $18.85.
Several new additions to the Oxford High School campus will come within the next few years. Firstly, the erection of a new wing on campus to house our career technical classes. This career technical building will be north of the recently built fine arts building. The plans for the career technical building show it will be a two-story detached building. Classes to be housed in the building’s seven planned classrooms are Business, Finance, and Marketing, Informational Technology, Law and Public Safety, Software Development, and Health Science. This will also be the location of OHS’s ROTC program. In the official renderings, a proposed turf field will be located north of the career tech building. Another addition includes a guard building and entry gates for the front of the school. The proposal is also to build more parking in the current ROTC obstacle course near the school’s front.
Another change in the district is with the Oxford Early Childhood Center (OECC). The center is proposed to build a new playground area for the students, with a resurfaced ground and new play equipment. Otherwise, OECC will have interior and exterior remodeling for quality-of-life changes. On the exterior, pipes, cracked sidewalks, an outer canopy, and a fence will be added to separate CTE students from the high school. There will be refurbishing for the gym and admin offices and updating kitchens and restrooms within the interior.
Primarily, changes will come to the Oxford Middle School campus for athletic improvements. The grass practice field, east of campus, on OMS, will be replaced with an artificial turf surface. This field will also see the addition of painted lines to allow for a whole soccer practice field and two football practice fields, being only 60 yards long. Otherwise, the addition of bleachers and a scoreboard will come with the proposal. On the other side of the OMS campus, significant changes will come to the athletic facility currently on site. New parking and a field-accessible path for vehicles to reach the baseball field will be added. There will also be the creation of an entirely new athletics building west of the current facility. This new building will host a large workout room, team meeting space, and restroom facilities. To the existing facility, there will be renovations and the separation of the current meeting space to make smaller rooms. Along with these athletic renovations, a new basketball court will be added next to the existing playground at Central Elementary School.
The proposed timeline for this scheme has scattered finishing dates for several projects. Proposed finish dates for turfing the OMS practice field and building the CES basketball court are to be done before August 2024. The additional wing and renovations at OHS are planned before August 2025. Athletic building addition is to be done before August 2025, but renovations to the current facility are to be done later and before August 2026. OECC changes and Della Davidson will be done before August 2025.
