As the 2022-2023 school year comes to a close, changes in Oxford’s curriculum, schedules, and campus have been discussed and evaluated by the administration and Board of Trustees. These changes, ranging from additional sports to brand new classrooms, are set to improve Oxford Academy’s environment. Most notably, the administration has decided on a major schedule change, removing Cluster starting next school year.
This schedule change was organized in collaboration with the district, teacher union, and input from the staff and student body. Instead of students attending their Cluster periods four times a week, they will meet up with their third period all five days, reinforcing the idea of a “homeroom.”
“Oxford is very complicated because not all students have 1st, 2nd, 4th, or 8th period. Period 3 is the only period where every single Oxford student has an Oxford class,” said Principal Houston.
This change was discussed and considered across the entire staff network, including both teachers and admin. The imbalanced student load in each cluster class, with class sizes ranging from seven to 40, deemed the Cluster system unsustainable in future years.
“After tons of talking, tons of voting, tons of dialogue, and several different forums, we came to the consensus that this is probably the best thing moving forward,” Houston said. “During our RSVP summits, a lot of students said they enjoyed Connections more — the idea of being able to go and set up office hours rather than doing team building exercises in Cluster.”
Instead of being a separate event every Monday, Connections will be a part of the daily schedule through the students’ third period. “Homeroom” will essentially be a time for students to make appointments with their teachers and for making school wide announcements.
“While changing the Cluster model is unfortunate, the solution of moving to a Connections and homeroom model will allow our school to keep the logistical structure of ‘Cluster’ that is so necessary for the day-to-day operations of the school, clubs and organizations, Connections, announcements, and the like,” Principal Houston wrote in her Aeries message to all students and parents on April 14.
A P.A. announcement aired during Cluster publicizing the removal of the period garnered mixed reactions from students.
“In my opinion, this is really inconvenient for Yearbook and other organizations that use Cluster time, such as Link Crew and RSVP for summits,” Violet Sato, a staff member of OA Spiritus, said. “It’s just harder because peoples’ schedules change — with cluster, the class is set for the [student’s] whole time at Oxford, so that helps [Yearbook] with knowing where to go to find the students.”
Student concerns about ASB Senate, Yearbook, Link Crew, and other organizations that heavily rely on Cluster time have yet to be cleared up with a proper answer. Academics aside, other students mourn the tight-knit, consistent environment of a six-year Cluster class.
“For me, since my Cluster got changed this year, it doesn’t really feel like a family anymore. I do like the fact that with this new Cluster change I have more freedom, but I can see some people being really upset about this because many students have been with their Cluster for their entire time at Oxford,” said freshman Maily Tran.
The upcoming year stores new experiences for Oxford students, not just in scheduling, but also curriculum. The AUHSD has mandated taking an ethnic studies course for at least one year in high school, making it a graduation requirement starting with the class of 2026. At Oxford, this requirement will be embedded into the Spanish 3 class for students taking the Spanish language pathway, with an extensive curriculum written entirely by Mrs. Stephan, Mrs. Gallardo, and Mrs. Choi-Siems. Admin hopes to extend this requirement to the Korean pathway in the near future, but is offering a stand-alone ethnic studies elective course taught by Ms. Ho.
Oxford’s campus itself is also expected to undergo renovation before and throughout the 2023-2024 school year. New portable classrooms will be set up on the blacktop near the 400 building, alongside construction of a pickleball-style court near the Engineering building.
From the departure of Oxford’s long-beloved cluster class to modern campus renovations, the 2023-2024 school year anticipates much change and development. Student voices are always looking to be heard and amplified through RSVP and official discussion forums, so further updates and reforms can be expected.
