Updated at 9:31 p.m. Tuesday
The Oxford Board of Education voted 4-4 on a motion to rescind a previous decision to seek acceptance into the Naugatuck Valley League. The tie vote means the motion failed and therefore, Oxford will continue to seek acceptance into the NVL.
The board held a contentious debate Tuesday about whether a committee that looked into the move from the South-West Conference to the NVL followed proper Freedom of Information Act laws. Board member Stephen Brown believes the committee did not properly notify the public of its meetings - both the times of them and the outcome via minutes. Therefore, Brown argued the board vote should have been rescinded.
However, Superintendent Tim Connellan said that Connecticut FOIA public education officer Tom Hennick told him the board did not violate FOIA laws because it did not take action at its meetings.
Ultimately, the board voted 4-4. Those for rescinding the vote taken last month to seek a move to the NVL were: Lisa Hellauer, Gerard Carbonaro, Michael Macchio and Diane Soracco. Those who voted to rescind the vote were Brown, Amy Cote, William Neary and Ted Oszkowski.
We are working on bringing you more on this story.
Original article published earlier Tuesday
Oxford sports moving to the Naugatuck Valley League? Not so fast, says at least one board member.
The Oxford Board of Education's agenda for tonight's meeting calls for a discussion and possible motion to rescind a vote taken last month to seek acceptance for Oxford High School into the NVL. Oxford currently plays in the South-West Conference, and last month's vote was met with both praise and criticism by people in the community.
School board Chairwoman Paula Guillet said a board member, whom she would not identify, asked to have the item added to tonight's agenda. Per board bylaws, she said, that request was accepted.
Still, Guillet does not expect anything to change after tonight's meeting, especially after the board voted 6-0 last month to move to the NVL. Board members Ted Oczkowski, Michael Macchio and William Neary were not at that meeting.
"My opinion is some board members didn’t do their homework and are trying to save face now," Guillet said. "But it's going to play out however it plays out."
Still, she said, the "controversy is not good for Oxford or the kids who are going to be playing sports."
"We went through this years ago when Oxford was breaking off from Seymour and it did a lot of damage to our town," she said. "It's sad that people are acting the way they are when we have so many more educational issues. Yet, people are getting hung up on a few disgruntled people who are in the minority over a sports move. ...Hopefully the media will put a positive spin on this."
Tonight's meeting will be held at 7 in the Oxford High School library/media center.
Background
Click here to read the article about the vote to seek this move.
Click here to read a breakdown of the distance between Oxford and the schools in the NVL and the SWC, plus the populations of all schools.
Oxford Patch will be covering tonight's meeting. Follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter for the latest updates.
