By Steven Hoffman
Staff Writer

The Oxford School Board held its annual reorganization meeting on Dec. 3, and the board members selected Mark Patterson to serve as board president for 2025. Patterson is currently the longest-serving member of the Oxford School Board.

Jenifer Warren was selected to serve as the board vice president for 2025. She served as the president of the board during 2024.

The reorganization meeting began with the names of the nine members being read into the official record. In addition to Patterson and Warren, board members for 2025 are Debbie Vendrick, Kristen Dean, Michael Blessington, Jennifer Kehs, William Kloss, Andrew Atkinson, and Tenille Dewees.

It was a quick but somewhat complicated process for the school board to select its leaders, with three separate nominations for each position. Patterson emerged as president with a slim margin of 5-4 in favor of his nomination. Warren received 7 votes out of 9 for the position of vice president.

Once the president and vice president were in place, the board voted on its meeting schedule for the next year. The board opted to continue to hold its work sessions on the second Tuesday of the month and to hold the regular board meetings on the third Tuesday of the month. The meetings will begin at 7 p.m. and will be held at the district’s Administration Building.

Dewees was voted to serve as the Oxford School Board’s representative on the Chester County School Board Legislative Council.

The school board then decided to appoint four of its members—Warren, Kehs, Blessington, and Dewees—to the district’s Policy Review Committee. Patterson selected Blessington to serve as the chair of this committee.

The Oxford School Board’s first work session meeting of 2025 will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 14 and the first regular meeting will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Patterson also announced that the district’s Facilities and Safety Committee will meet at the Hopewell School at  7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 6, as the committee attempts to prioritize spending on facilities needs ranging from a new roof for a school building, a new HVAC system, or much-needed turf for the school district’s main sports field.