Beginning in August, the Oxford Learning Center will have a new home.

Oxford School District’s alternative education program will be moving from its current building and transitioning to several campuses, beginning in the 2020-21 school year.

For the past 25 years, the Oxford Learning Center (OLC) has served the school district with a program that allows students to continue their education away from a normal school setting for the purpose of behavior modification or credit recovery.

Starting this fall, the district will close the existing OLC and provide two programs on multiple campuses to meet the needs of their students. The two programs will be Day Treatment and Alternative Education Program (AEP).

“Closing the OLC is not a total loss.” said OLC principal Yolanda Logan in a statement. “We are enhancing our services and by returning the alternative education students back to their home campuses, the stigma of attending a separate school will be removed. Our students who need assistance will get the specialized attention needed to effectively transition back to the traditional education environment in the same building when the time is right.”

The AEP is for students at Oxford Middle School and Oxford High School who have fallen behind academically for various reasons or have behavior issues that require a smaller classroom setting.

The district’s day treatment, which is a collaboration with Communicare, will provide an intensive class for students with mental health and behavioral issues that lasts an initial 45 days of the school year, with a maximum of 10 students in each class. The program will be provided at Della Davidson Elementary, Oxford Intermediate School, Oxford Middle School and Oxford High School. Students will participate in group therapy twice a month and attend monthly meetings with parents.

Employees of the OLC have transitioned to other roles within the school district. The 2019 OLC Teacher of the Year, Tina Suggs, will now work at Oxford High School as a special education teacher and serve as the coach of Unified Sports.

The current OLC building, located at 399 North 5th Street behind Oxford Intermediate School, will be repurposed in the coming months to continue to serve the school district.