This week at OCS

This week we have some important meetings:

Wednesday night (3/24) there is an orientation meeting for parents who are enrolling their child in Kindergarten for the next school year. The meeting will begin at 7:00 pm.

Thursday Night is out next school board meeting.. always good to see people in the audience! The BOE meeting starts at 6:00 pm.

This Friday Night is another installment of the PTA sponsored Family Fun Night. This week will be open gym time from 7:00 -- 8:30 pm. There will be volleyball, basketball and other games for the kids to play. As always, please do not drop off the kids and leave them unattended.. all students must be accompanied with an adult.

Till next time...

Budget... Again.. and other things

We are in the process of setting up a separate email here at OCS that everyone could use to send in questions about the proposed 2010-2011 budget. The email address and link to the OCS home page should go up soon.

The Annual Pasta Dinner is coming up one week from tomorrow, March 30th! Please stop over to eat or pickup some pasta to take home... If you do your kids will nominate you for Parent of the Year! How's that for an unexpected dividend.

I should know what the calendar is going to look like for the end of this school year pretty soon. Just have to make sure the snow is a distant memory. Speaking of calendars.. we might have to look to make an adjustment to the 2010-2011 calendar because of some changes that have recently been mandated by the NJ Department of Education.

Till next time...

budget news and education...

I have been in education here in NJ for 25 years and I can not remember a time when I was more discouraged than I was last night concerning the state of educational funding. The fiscal news the nation faces, and certainly New Jersey as well, is not good. I know we will do our best to make this work without hurting or impacting the students. As we look over the numbers and plug away at calculators we will always keep in mind, as our number one concern, that students are not impacted! They should know that the adults who are entrusted to do what is right for them and what is best for them will never lose sight of the fact that they do come first.

I am not going to kid you. This situation places us in dire straits. But over the next few days, as we once again dissect the financial situation of our school district, we will figure it out! We will do so with the students of Oxford township in mind, always.

Till next time....

Budget Questions?

Who doesn't have them, right? I mean we are looking to spend millions of dollars again next year to effectively educate the students of Oxford, Pre-K through 12th grade and efficiently operate the school and that should generate questions.

We will be presenting the new proposed budget on Thursday April 1, 2010, however now is the time to ask questions...

If you have any questions, please give me a call. 908-453-4101, x2101. Of course you can email me here at the school as well, bmagnuson@oxfordcentral.org.


Come on, send me a question!!!
Till next time...

OYA Basketball...

has enjoyed a great season! The boys and girls teams were very successful with our younger teams learning the game and the rules and managing to win a game or two along the way! Our older boys had a successful season, building some positive life skills and team work! Our older girls--7th and 8th grade-- played each other for the league championship. The 7th graders fought hard the entire game but they fell a little short in their attempts to knock off the powerful 8th grade team.
Tonight the 5th/ 6th Grade girls are playing against Franklin for their championship! Go Oxford!

Till next time...

The School Calendar...

for the 2010-2011 school year has been approved for NEXT year. It will be up on the website soon. Next year, if we are in school for a built-in snow day, that day will be a half day for students and a full professional development day for staff.....


The snow days certainly have piled up and we will be addressing the calendar issues as soon as I am sure we are out of the snow cycle. As soon as we can figure that out we will let everyone know. We will have school on Monday March 15th and Thursday April 1st!!

Till next time...

AH! February!

Man, if I wasn't born in this month, I would hate it!! Snow one day, then 40 degrees the next right before the next snow storm... What a month. It has been quite a month here at OCS. Fortunately we put the new roof on and that is not leaking, although we do have some minor issues where the addition roof meets the new roof, but we are taking care of that. Now it could just stop raining and snowing... I would be fine with that! I guess I am done ranting...

Till next time...